Stage 23, At lest With Sorrow
"Leave no one alive."
- Euphemia
Lelouch makes the announcement, sends out the Order of the Black Knights. Kallen, Toudou, Ohgi and the rest angrily and aggressively attack Britannian soldiers, and protect the Japanese.
Meanwhile, Suzaku desperately tries to find Euphemia.
Kallen and the Guren tackle a Knightmare shooting at Japanese citizens. The person piloting the Knightmare tells Kallen that she's Euphemia Li Britannia. Kallen smiles at this, ready to kill her, but Lelouch interferes. He destroys her Knightmare with knife-like things that fall from Gawain's fingers. Euphemia gets out of the Knightmare, and picks up a gun on the floor and shoots at Gawain, thinking the person inside is Japanese.
Zero walks out, and Euphemia stops shooting as she knows he is not Japanese. Suzaku arrives at the scene and sees Euphemia, glad to see her safe. In the next instant, he watches Zero shoot her.
As Euphemia falls, she wonders why Lelouch would shoot her. And at the same time, Lelouch recalls that he loved her, that she might have even been his 'first love'.
Suzaku charges towards them, with fierce anger in his eyes. C.C and Kallen try and stop him, but he knocks past them, lifting Euphemia and rushing her towards Avalon. Lloyd and Cecil run towards his entrance elevator (whatever it is) and are shocked, to see a blood-drenched Euphemia in the arms of a panicked and scared Suzaku.
Cornelia is going towards the Specially Administrated Area, she gets the report that there have been no reports from Darlton, only that he's been injured, and the Order of the Black Knights have taken over the Specially Administrated Area. Regretfully, he also tells her of Euphemia's condition.
Inside Avalon, Euphemia is still clinging to life, in critical condition and on a ventilator.
The remaining Japanese have taken over the area, and have remaining Britannians at gunpoint.
Inside the Order's base, Diethard is still using all the media inside the stadium, getting ready to broadcast it around the world.
Meanwhile, Zero meets with the six major families of Kyoto from Kyoto. Kaguya greets him enthusiastically, Lelouch recognising her as one of Suzaku's relatives. Zero tells them that he would like them to come under his command.
"You no longer have any other path to take if you want to live"
- Zero
In Avalon, the doctors are discussing things. They'll contact Cornelia and Schneizel, but Euphemia won't survive to see them again.
Inside the operating room are Lloyd, Cecil, Suzaku, and Euphemia still on the respirator. Suzaku sadly holds his Knight's pendent. Euphemia wakes up, and calls Suzaku's name. Cecil takes off the respirator, and leads herself and Lloyd outside.
Suzaku asks why she gave the order, but Euphemia doesn't know what he's talking about. She just remembers that Suzaku is Japanese, and her eyes go into the Geass state. But she fights the Geass, and instead asks Suzaku how the Specially Administrated Area is going. Suzaku is surprised that she can't remember about her order.
"Ceremony. Japan. What happened to it?"
- Euphemia
In the stadium that the ceremony was originally held in, Zero walks on stage, as the battered and weak Japanese cheer for him.
He gives a speech, which is being broadcasted worldwide, thanks to Diethard and his hackers. He tells them, that he has been correcting Britannia's errors from the shadows and hoping they would someday change. "However, out hopes were betrayed. By this act of brutality called a "massacre"!
Euphemia asks Suzaku if the Japanese are happy, while outside, the Japanese are calling Euphemia a despicable liar, and that she can't be forgiven.
"Euphemia truly is the representation of the kindness of Britannia"
- Zero
Euphemia asks Suzaku if she did well, while the crowd of Japanese cheer for her to go to hell, wishing for her to die. With tears in his eyes, Suzaku smiles and tells her the Specially Administrated Area was a huge success, and that everyone is happy.
Zero continues on to the crowd, that they will regain independence from Britannia, but it will not be the previous Japan's revival.
"What we are going to create is a new Japan!"
- Zero
The new Japan will accept anyone regardless of race, past and ideals, and where the strong do not oppress the weak, a country with dignity.
"Her name is... the United States of Japan!"
- Zero
And the crowd goes wild.
Meanwhile, Euphemia can't see Suzaku's face anymore. Her eyes are dilated, and she reaches out her hand to find Suzaku. She tells him he needs to go to school, since she dropped out. He smiles in his tears, and tells her that they should go to Ashford together. With a weak smile, she tells him that he should enjoy her share of school-life. As people cheer for Zero in the stadium, Euphemia closes her eyes, and tears run out. She opens her mouth and says
"Suzaku... meeting you was..."
- Euphemia
She doesn't finish her sentence, and her heart status dies.
Afterwards, C.C asks if Lelouch is preparing to attack the Tokyo Settlement, Lelouch looks at her and tells her that it is the best chance to do so. He remembers his Geass defect, and looks away. She tells him to remember that Geass is ineffective against herself. Since he can't control his Geass anymore, he should say goodbye to all his friends. He gets a phone call from Nunnally. She tells him that Milly is holding another School Festival, and asks if the three of them can go to the school festival together. She apologises, since Lelouch had already said that they wouldn't be meeting with her again, but says that any type of interaction would be fine. Lelouch asks if she's heard the news, but she tells him the radio broadcast was cut off, and asks if anything had happened. But Lelouch tells her it's fine, and that he'll be back tomorrow morning.
He hangs up, and C.C asks him more questions about any more changed with his Geass, besides the fact that he can't control it. He said not really, except that Euphie wanted to go against the order he 'issued' with the Geass. At first he thought it was because his Geass power was weakening, but it was more likely, that the order he gave was something Euphemia really could not accept. Lelouch starts shaking, and is on the verge of tears. C.C walks over and embraces his head, and tells him
"I'll be the only one... left beside you."
- C.C
In the next scene, Britannian soldiers, Generals and Lords are evaluating the situation.
The Order of the Black Knights, the largest militant organization, advances towards the Tokyo Settlement while growing in number. Enemy ranks include Honorary Britannian applicants, and their numbers are in the tens of thousands. They begin to ask Guilford, but he replies that they can't act without an order from her highness Cornelia. The soldier protests, they don't know what happened to General Darlton, and Cornelia has locked herself in Euphemia's room.
Cornelia remembers the past on Euphemia's room, while Nina completely loses it, her eyes start popping out and her tongue twists as she cries.
The Order of the Black Knights continues to grow, to the point where they barely have enough vehicles to sustain their numbers. While the 'senior' members (the good old terrorist group) are having a rest and admiring their growing numbers, Kallen is hoping that the student council managed to escape.
Meanwhile, C.C stands alone in the hallway, looking up and telling Marianne that she had forgotten what kindness was.
Viletta, who Ohgi now calls Chigusa are talking on the phone, asking if one another are ok. As soon as she hangs up, the Japanese break down the door and call her a Britannian bitch, accusing her of being a spy.
Rivalz, Nunnally and Shirley are watching a news broadcast, informing them that order in the ghettos is deteriorating, and telling people to stay inside their homes.
Down in the school basement, Milly is trying to get Nina
to the school building floor, since rebel troops are approaching Tokyo. Nina tells her she knows that, and she knows Zero will come, and continues to work on Ganymede.
"Please wait, Princess Euphemia. I'll definitely avenge you."
- Nina
Suzaku, still in Avalon with the corpse of Princess Euphemia, is asking her why she would so such a thing.
"Do you want me to tell you?", says a boy with floor-length blonde hair appears, introducing himself as V.V.
Meanwhile, the Order of the Black Knights continues to breach Britannian defences. It's too late for reinforcements from the mainland, and they suggest abandoning the area. As soon as he says this, Cornelia tells them as long as the eliminate Zero and the Order of the Black Knights, the rebellion will be suppressed. At the same time, Zero announces that it will be their victory once Cornelia is brought down. He leaves the rest Diethard and is about to leave the room when Sumeragi Kaguya confronts him. She greets him in a cute manner, telling him that she was a big fan of him since his 'debut'. Diethard asks her if she was going to stay at Fuji with the other six major families, and she happily replies that she chased after them, in order to see how her husband fights. She tells Zero that he needs a wife after he wins this battle. Zero asks if she thinks they can win, and she replies
"Yes, because I'm the goddess of victory.""
- Kaguya
Zero (probably sarcastically) replies that its dependable, but that he's already bound a contract with the devil, and that he can't be friends with a God.
Bartley is trying to get the experimental specimen to the mainland, but the specimen explodes from internal pressure, and Jeremiah with metal attachments comes out, saying "Good Morning" to them.
Zero and his army are on standby. He gives the Britannian army 3 minutes to surrender and submit to his army.
C.C tells Lelouch that he can still head back, and that id he continues, his life and the entire world will be engulfed by battles. He gets a phone call, and it says "From Euphemia" which shocks him. He picks up the phone and hears Suzaku's voice. Suzaku tells him that he wanted to tell everyone something; he wants to tell everyone not to look at the sky. He asks Lelouch if there was someone he hated so much he wanted to kill, and Lelouch replies that there is. Suzaku then says that hatred consumes him right now, and he's going into battle to kill someone. Lelouch tells him its ok to feel hate, for Euphie's sake. And that he's made up his own mind as well, and he doesn't intend to head back, for Nunnally's sake. Lelouch tells him its time to hand up, and Suzaku thanks him, Lelouch replies that there's no need to.
"We are friends, right?"
- Zero
"We've always been, ever since seven years ago."
- Suzaku
When Britannia's 3 minutes are up, the city begins to fall apart as the internal structure is destroyed.
He talks to himself, and to Suzaku saying that his hands have long been stained, and that it's fine to challenge him. He'll entertain Suzaku, since they're friends. He laughs maniacally at the destruction before him.
"Destruction is needed before reconstruction"
- Zero
Rating: 5/5
Comment: I know I've been begging for Sunrise to kill Euphemia, but her death was really touching and sad. That part when Zero thought "You were probably my first love" I was like "WTF o.O". Either 3 different fansubbing groups stuffed up their translations or Sunrise just shoved some random incest in the series. The Nina thing really scared me, she's definitely going to do something big. Kaguya is such a cutie, I seriously feel like hugging the screen when I see her. But so far she hasn't done anything, I want to see "The Goddess of Victory" do something cool. When C.C hugged Lelouch, all the LuluxC.C fans were like ZOMG, but I think it was kind of manipulative, like oyuki said, "she swoops in when Lelouch is at his most vulnerable and confused and establishes herself as the only connection that he'll have." The end part with Suzaku and Lelouch's call; Lelouch has become so evil now, and Suzaku might become like that too. - emily
