Story: Code Geass New Demoness: Stained

Had a thought for where this could progress. I should warn it gets a little dark.


Her parents weren’t home that night. A bit of a blessing all things considered. She staggered into her room and flopped onto the bed. It was so dark in here. A little cold as well. Funny just how encroaching the shadows were. Funny how the silence felt like a thousand tiny cuts. No. Funny wasn’t the word. Funny wasn’t even remotely the word.

That same girl was very acutely aware that she should probably turn on the light. It wasn’t good for her eyes to sit around in the dark, especially if she was going to be watching a spot of television. Which she had to do now. Obviously. She couldn’t very well not, knowing what she knew. But off the light was going to stay, because if she switched it on then she’d be able to see her hands. Which she didn’t want to do right now because of all the blood.

So much blood.

Now that may lead to a misunderstanding. It wasn’t that she was afraid to switch on the light and see all the blood covering her hand. There wasn’t a drop there. Intellectually she was very acutely aware of this particular fact. It was stored somewhere close to the front of her mind where it pounded pounded pounded away like some irritating and persistent siege weapon. If the lights were switched on she would see nothing but trembling hands. That’s all. Just a pair of ordinary trembling hands without a hint of red on them. Not a single drop.

Which is what she really didn’t want to see right now.

Oh yes, it’s a bit of a cliche isn’t it? “Out, damned spot” and all that! The blood on the hands that would never ever never ever ever wash off ever! A permanent stain upon your body. Upon your soul, if you were so inclined to believe in such a thing. Happened all the time in stories, a wonderful metaphor for the maddening guilt gripping the character’s heart and mind. The stories were wrong, though. You didn’t see the blood.

You felt it.

That’s where the madness came from. The urge to clean. The visual awareness that there’s no stain, but the persistent feeling of dirt and filth that would not go away. No matter how much water. No matter how much soap or scrubbing or layers of skin you rubbed away through your incessant attempt to make it go away make it stop make it stop right now! Regardless. There was something she had to do. Something too important to ignore. She fished out one of the DVDs, slipped it into the drive and turned on her television.

At which point her hands were bathed in the soft light of the television and she stared at them. Just like she knew they would be. Spotless. Yet caked in thick red lifeblood.

“I… I… I killed him! I… What did I do?!”

Tears began to fall from her eyes into her upturned trembling palm, and she didn’t even pay the slightest bit of attention to the television as a certain opening theme began to play.

<i>To change the world, and myself, I need to believe in what I can achieve.
And that belief is always and forever in me.
This world is getting worse to my dismay
And I just simply turn the other way.
No longer!</i>
<hr>
The soldiers fell like raindrops staining the ground. Shirley blinked in confusion. What? But she hadn’t issued a command yet, had she? Unless they interpreted “fall before the power of kings” to mean “fall asleep”. At the very least it demonstrated that she wasn’t going entirely mad, hadn’t imagined the whole thing.

Not important right now. She had to find Lelouch. Think! What did he do? What order did things happen in?!

“Sorry, but what was your name?” Shirley asked the green-haired girl that gave her the power. At least that’s what she tried to do, but only realised too late that the girl had disappeared into thin air. Perfect. Just perfect.

So now what should she do? Stuck alone in Shinjuku Ghetto with a strange power she didn’t even understand. Why was she here? For confirmation of the impossible? To try and save Lelouch from himself? Why was she here, knowing what she knew about him now?

<hr>
<i>The same mouth that ordered your father's death stole a kiss from your tender lips.

He's a very bad man, and you like it. Punishment must be measured out. To him. And to you.</i>

Her father. Her father would die. Her father would die and it would be his fault. Lelouch’s fault. Maybe she could avoid it, help him survive somehow? Maybe? Maybe.

<i>I know everything. All that happened that night…</i>

Who was this silver-haired person with the strange eyewear? He seemed sort of sinister. Wanted something. Still weird watching an animated version of people she knew, but in some ways it helped. Shirley supposed that it may have something to do with how a story has to be presented within a set medium. It was more obvious to the viewer at home than the characters, little cues to tell people “This is a baddie. Boo him. This is a goodie. Cheer!”

Sympathy vibes were screaming out of the television. Sympathy for an animated version of herself. Revulsion over this stranger that approached her from seemingly nowhere. Someone that hadn’t appeared before yet knew exactly who Lelouch was. Who she was. That her father had been killed.

<i>A girl who kills and then goes fishing for attention? Only evil witches do that.</i>

Attention? That was the last thing she wanted right now. No attention. No attention!

<i>Now you have to pay the price, Shirley. Do you want to carry these feelings around for the rest of your life? All by yourself?</i>

Who was this man? Was he still speaking to the television version of her or to her personally in the real world? It was becoming harder to tell anymore. The lines between fantasy and reality were beyond just blurry.

Though she did not realise it yet, she would come to hate that silver-haired man. The man called Mao. The man with the Geass that could read minds and used that talent to drive others to insanity. The man that would manipulate her into trying to kill Lelouch. The man who would cause Lelouch to save her the only way he could. By making her forget she felt anything for him at all.
<hr>
Of all the times for her phone to ring, why now?! The soldiers, were they always this blood crazed and mad? Killing without remorse! Murdering innocent people for no reason at all! At first she was surprised by the media not covering this, but it made perfect sense after a moment’s thought. The stain this would leave on Britannia’s reputation would be tremendous!

“Hello?” she answered, a bit more firmly than intended. A soldier rounded the corner, and moments later fell to the ground when he made eye contact with Shirley. Strange how it was different from the way Lelouch’s power worked, but she’d take what she could!

“My goodness, Shirley! Whatever has come over you?” Madame President asked. Shirley winced. This was not what she needed right now. “Rivalz tells me the most interesting story about your absence. Could your heart no longer stand the distance between itself and Lelouch, and you elected to engage in an off-campus tryst rather than linger a moment longer?”

“Not even remotely,” Shirley said, gently nudging a young boy she’d accidentally sent to sleep in an attempt to rouse him from this artificial slumber. Come on, wake up! Wake up, already! The other soldiers are all unconscious, you can run for it while they’re out! “I’m investigating the inappropriate gambling activities he’s been taking part in lately, that’s all.”

“Oh my!” Milly laughed. “Sneaking away from the academy with a lame excuse for no other reason than to follow your desires? Why, Shirley, that bad boy has been a terrible influence on you! You’ve become like Lelouch.”
<hr>
<i>I've become like Mao! I can't control my Geass power!</i>

By this point Shirley was trembling, and could barely look upon the screen. No! No! Not like this! To such a careless mistake! Euphemia! The kind-hearted, pure soul to contrast with Cornelia’s harsh, brutal and forceful personality! Reduced to a genocidal maniac by ill timing and poorly chosen words! Tears trailed down her cheek as she saw Lelouch agonise over it. How he knew that nothing could save her now. That no matter what he did she would feel forever compelled to commit an atrocity that went against her very own nature! Until her dying breath!

She wept. She wept and she did not stop weeping. She couldn’t stop. She simply couldn’t stop herself! They flowed freely as it hit her, wave after wave! This pure soul would go down in history as a monster because of an accident, robbing so many people of their lives in the process! The agony and confusion in Suzaku, Cornelia’s own manner of grief - The war that grew and grew and built and built. Tossing in so many lives into a rising storm of chaos death and misery!

In the middle of it all was a single man. Known to the public as Zero. A man carrying the burdens of the world and the shameful memory that would stain his soul for the rest of his life.

Shirley cried until the end of the last episode on the DVD. And then, she wept until there were no more tears in her to weep.
<hr>
The resistance appeared to be winning the day, or at least that’s what Shirley’s own experience was telling her. There were less soldiers on the streets killing innocent civilians in cold blood. Less blood staining the streets all around. At least now she could understand Lelouch’s proclamation that he would destroy the place of his birth a little better. They were little more than… than animals! Vicious animals driven by hatred and bloodlust! This wasn’t power. This wasn’t competition! It was a foot on their throats, filled with lies that someday they would have the opportunity to stand on someone else’s neck!

After seeing what she’d seen today, Shirley didn’t doubt she’d throw in her lot with Lelouch, whatever plans he may have. This had to be stopped, no matter what!

And then she saw it stream down the street like a ghost. It slid into combat next to a Knightmare frame and in a manner of seconds had rendered the frame worthless for combat, though even Shirley with almost no combat experience (did today count?) could tell it was done in such a way that it would never hurt the pilot within. Because that wasn’t their goal. Their goal was to stop the bloodshed by any means, so long as it didn’t hurt anyone else.

… It was naive. Shirley had seen the glee in the soldier’s eyes. She knew they had been ordered to exterminate all Elevens in the area. If that white Knightmare frame piloted by Lelouch’s friend - The irony of it! He thought he was saving Lelouch! - succeeded in its mission, then there really would be nothing left but for the soldiers to wander in through each building, systematically reducing every human being they found to a stain on the floor.

“Well, well! What do we have here? Aren’t you a little too cute to be hanging around an Eleven ghetto unescorted?”

Shirley turned towards the soldier pointing a gun at her head, and felt a dark scowl creep over her face. She should have been paying more attention to her surroundings than that. Not that it particularly mattered when all she had to do was -
<hr>
<i>Shirley! Shirley, who did this to you?</i>

Memento mori. Remember, you will someday die. It is a thing that we are all aware of on a conscious level and yet? And yet our capacity to ignore this logical, clinical, unavoidable truth keeps us just on the right side of sanity. Most of the time.

Typically a near-death experience is considered one of the most traumatic events one can experience. But there is one thing that could probably come close.

<i>Lelou. I’m glad we can talk at the very end.</i>

“No no no no no!”

<i>No matter how many times I’m reborn, I'll keep falling in love with you, Lelou. I suppose that it’s simply fate.</i>

“This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening!”

<i>No, don’t die! I order you not to die!</i>

If she wasn’t careful her knees would leave marks on the flesh around her collarbone, or maybe she would bruise her ankles with the way she was wrapping her arms so tightly around them, or maybe if she adjusted her position a little bit she might just suffocate herself or maybe or maybe or maybe

<i>So is that okay then, Lelou? And as I am reborn, I’ll fall in love with you over and over… I’ll keep falling in love with…</i>

The very fact of her own death. To die at such a young age! To know that if this is how it turned out that she had lived most of her life already. How could anyone handle that kind of foreknowledge? How could anyone even begin to deal with that?

<i>Shirley… Shirley…</i>

Everyone knows that feeling that forewarns an imminent violent expulsion, the kind that says “get your head over a toilet bowl right now or by all the gods in all the heavens you will sorely regret it.” Shirley had her pretty little ass kicked by that particular warning, so it moved her quickly and automatically towards the bathroom where she spent the next five minutes violently retching.

On the plus side? It did provide her parents with further validation of her excuse that she was unwell. So there was that.
<hr>

“I, Clovis, third prince of Britannia and royal viceroy of Area Eleven, hereby command you, all forces are ordered to cease fire at once.

“You shall also cease destruction of any buildings or property. All casualties, whether Britannian or Eleven, shall be treated equally and without prejudice. In the name of Clovis la Britannia, you are hereby ordered, cease fire at once. I shall allow no further fighting.”

The Prince chuckled a little after switching off the tannoy system he had so helpfully utilised to put an end to the conflict, and appeared a great deal more relaxed than he probably should be in this situation. Such cold eyes. Was this truly the same charismatic, likable person that repeatedly proclaimed his sympathy for the Eleven plight? Yes. Yes and no, rather. That Clovis was a show for the public. A mask he wore and nothing more.

“And what shall we do now? Sing a few lively ballads, or perhaps a nice game of chess?”

“Chess isn’t really my game,” Shirley replied, trying to keep the gun steady, but she could tell. Her hands were trembling. She’d never held one before. What should she do now? Lelouch had shot Clovis in cold blood after asking him about his mother, getting no real answer beyond “Ask Cornelia or Schneizel.” Now that she had seen the monster behind the mask, she could hardly rely upon his kindness… At a moment’s notice he could so easily decide to flatten Shinjuku, reverse his orders or impose some form of revenge upon everyone present! At least she need not concern herself with being pointed to as being involved in this situation. The helmet covered her head, though it did also appear to impede her Geass…

“You’ve never held a gun before, have you?” Clovis sounded amused. “Come, my dear, drop the gun and I shall allow you to retire with nary a word said against you. You will depart unmolested. This I swear. You have shown great courage in coming here today, and that is something I can certainly respect.”

She could leave. She could just walk away. Shirley took a single step backwards, and allowed her gun to drop towards the ground -

Which is when Clovis reached inside his cloak and pulled out his own gun with a satisfied smirk playing upon his monstrous yet handsome features. Shirley saw it in slow motion, and on the purest survival instinct lifted her firearm and pulled the trigger tight again and again and again.

<hr>
She was wrong. She did have more tears to cry. But rather than the wracking sobs she’d suffered through the Massacre Princess, now she had to watch something that was in certain ways similar but in other ways very much not. For one thing? This was quite deliberate. Intentional. Brutal. And the moment she’d figured it out, figured it all out, had been the last moment she’d made any conscious movement until the end of the episode.

After her death it had been strangely sad watching Lelouch become consumed by the monster he created. Zero. Such a fitting name. It could have whatever meaning one wished to ascribe to it. Sort of like an optical illusion. Is he a hero? Is he a villain? Why the mask? Who is he behind it? What does he really want?

<i>Suzaku, you have to kill me. You must promise.</i>

What he wanted was a requiem. What he craved was justice. What he needed was…

<i>You can't leave me! You can't! Please open your eyes, big brother, please! Big brother!</i>

Shirley sat in her room, silent and still. No sound but the closing moments of the episode. The final episode. “RE:” What a fitting title. She sat unmoving, save for blinking and very slow shallow breathing. In and out. In and out. Her clothes were stained with tears. So were her thoughts.

Then she stood up an hour after it had finished. How many days had she been off school now? Two days? Let’s see. Fifty episodes. She’d sat through all of them in just about two days. Had she even slept? She didn’t remember sleeping. Shirley blinked and wiped at her face, then ejected the DVD from the player and returned it to its box. After which she slowly, methodically replaced every DVD container into the larger box, picked it up and carried it outside.

After which she wandered back indoors and returned with a sledgehammer.

“I reject this future.”

It swung down with more force than she was expecting, but then maybe a little bit of emotion behind the swing gave it slightly more of an edge. It wasn’t a rational thing to do, but at the moment Shirley was in anything but a rational place. She swung and she swung and she swung, as if destroying them would prevent it from happening at all!

Ten minutes went by like that. Her arms were rather exhausted by the end of it. Come to it, so was the rest of her. She couldn’t put it off anymore. She had to return to school tomorrow. There was no way around it. She staggered inside and collapsed onto her bed, and her head tilted to the side. The impact of her fall made a single picture, innocent and almost random, flutter down into her line of sight as her eyes closed.

“I will do anything for your sake,” she whispered. “Absolutely anything.”

It was in that very terrible moment that a new demoness was born, and from that birth the world would never be the same again.

1. Switch to Lelouch’s perspective. What does he make of all of this?
2. The next day, Shirley goes to school in time to see Lelouch talk to Kallen for the first time.
3. Shirley heads over to speak to Lelouch personally about what has happened.
4. Shirley encounters C.C. and the two dance around answering one another’s questions.
5. Something else