A/N: Hello, and welcome to my first fanfiction in a while, this time for a new fandom and one of my favorite pairings in animé: Suzaku/Euphy. This started as a one-shot. It... did not stay like that.

"Euphy, the special zone is… a great success!" Suzaku said, trying to ignore the tears stinging his eyes. "The Japanese people were given back their home. And, you did it," he added. He tried to ignore the gunshots petering out that he could still vaguely hear outside.

"Oh, thank God," Euphy said. She was looking at him, but her eyes were blank, their radiance gone. Her eyes started closing and then her head drooped onto its side, her hand curling around Suzaku's for one last time.

And yet… it didn't lose its strength. "Is she asleep now?"

Suzaku glanced up to see the head doctor who'd been working on her, a black man from the homeland's South called Max Eberhardt. "Asleep?" Suzaku said, barely able to process the statement as hope began flooding him.

"Asleep," Eberhardt said. "I bet if I hadn't been here, she'd be dead, but as it is she'll be fine. Just some temporary blindness from her injury." He smiled and said, "and when she wakes up she'll be able to answer for her actions."

The hope extinguished. "What… does that mean?" Suzaku said.

"Well, murdering so many imperial subjects will look quite bad," Eberhardt replied. He shrugged and said, "it's not up to me. She's still my patient. Once that's done, though, Prince Schneizel will have her arrested. A guard's to be posted." He walked to the base of Euphy's bed and made a note on a clipboard. "Good thing I delayed my vacation a week," he said, more so to himself than anyone else.

He left, and Suzaku was left to sit there and consider what had happened. He'd watched Zero shoot her. He'd brought her up here to be saved, and she had been. But how would she react when she found out all the awful things she'd done? How could she have? It wasn't natural…

The door opened again, and Suzaku turned to see not Dr. Eberhardt but a young-looking boy. The boy's eyes fell on Euphy and then turned to Suzaku. "Do you want to know what happened?" the boy said.

As the new Knight of Seven, Suzaku could get a few requests through. One of them, and the one that, in a way, hurt him the most, was arranging to have Euphy transferred into prison immediately, even though she was still comatose. Dr. Eberhardt and his assistant Dr. Westinghouse, a woman from Florida, were assigned to her medical care. They had strict orders to inform Schneizel of when she woke up… and an informal arrangement to let Suzaku know too.

He got his first call a month into his new position. Schneizel figured out very quickly why Suzaku wanted to return to the homeland and told him that what was more important was winning the fight in the EU right now. Begrudgingly, Suzaku returned to the fray, and tried to perform his duties assisting Julius (the brainwashed would-be murderer of Euphy). It was very difficult for him to focus, especially after he received a second call that told him that she'd slipped back into her coma.

Eventually, Julius had to be brought back for more… treatment and was shipped back to Japan. Suzaku, meanwhile, got to visit Euphy's prison. He had to go at night, as officially Euphy was dead, shot by the army and posthumously removed from the line of succession. Her prison was a villa, a nice one officially owned by Schneizel, with a few guards informed on the situation, a habitation area for the medical staff and guards, and a section of the villa walled off for Euphy. It was a nice prison, but the fact was that she couldn't go outside, besides an inner well; she had a limited library; and she would be allowed no access to news at all.

He got to visit with her. She was still out, dressed in a hospital gown. She had lost a lot of weight, because her muscles were wasting away. Her skin was pallid, and her hair had lost its luster. If it weren't for the machines beeping away or the very slight rise and fall of her chest, Suzaku would think she had just died here in Pendragon instead of over Japan.

He sat down next to her in a simple wooden chair and took her hand. It was cold. And he sat there, for an hour, contemplating everything that had happened since he last saw her on the Avalon. "You're like a mourning husband," Dr. Eberhardt noted when he came in at the end of that hour.

"I was supposed to protect her," Suzaku replied, "and she almost died."

Eberhardt nodded and walked over to her closet. "Are you still her knight?" he said, opening the door and then pulling a bulky-looking machine down.

"No. Not only is she officially dead, but… a criminal royal can't have a personal knight," Suzaku said, adding the second half quietly. He thought back to what VV had told him and his own, passionate hatred towards Zero – and disbelief towards Lelouch. "That's… how it should be."

"I see," Eberhardt said. He moved the machine to her other side and set her arm up in it. "We need to exercise her muscles and begin routine cleaning soon," Eberhardt said, and added, "Dr. Westinghouse will handle the latter, of course." He pressed a button and her arm started being exercised. "We've done what we can to try and maintain her muscle mass, but the fact is she's still eating through a tube."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Suzaku said.

"Get a medical degree, spend the rest of your life tending to her?" Eberhardt said, making an adjustment to her arm.

"I'd do it," Suzaku said.

Eberhardt looked up. He looked surprised. "That was just a joke, Sir Kururugi," Eberhardt said.

"Well, it's not a joke to me," Suzaku said flatly.

"…you're very dedicated," Eberhardt said. "I would say young love, but… I don't know if that's entirely it."

"I already told you I failed to protect her," Suzaku said coldly.

Eberhardt leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "The youngest age for legally joining the army is 17. A lot of people fake it," Eberhardt replied. "Propaganda works too well out here, I guess. And we use mixed sex units quite often." He sighed and said, "I've seen countless young couples where one of them fell in combat. I've heard those words more times than I care to count."

"Are you saying I'm special for saying I'd spend the rest of my life taking care of Euphy?" Suzaku said testily. He didn't want any sympathy from Eberhardt.

But Eberhardt shook his head. "If you actually did it, then you'd be special." He looked Suzaku in the eyes and said, "it's hard to take care of a vegetable or a cripple. You're lucky. As far as I know, once she wakes up for good, she'll never recover her strength. Her whole life she'll likely be physically weaker."

Suzaku got up, not wanting to think about what Eberhardt was saying. He could hear the implication: you'll leave her like the others. He clenched his fist. "I'm responsible for her condition. I'll stay by her as long as she wants me there," Suzaku snapped.

"I wish you the best, then," Eberhardt replied. "And I hope you don't turn out like the others." Suzaku began walking out of the room as Eberhardt added, sadly, "and not just for her sake."

It was a couple weeks later when he received another call, this time from Dr. Westinghouse. "Um, Sir Kururugi, the princess woke up," she said. She sounded… nervous. "She… wants to see you."

"Tell her I'll be right over," Suzaku said.

He thanked God that he was still near Pendragon. Schneizel merely nodded when Suzaku rushed out. Hopefully, he would understand how important this was to him. To them. He broke into a run towards the villa as he neared it, not caring if anyone saw him. His check-over by the guards went by in a flash; soon, he was bounding through the building towards Euphy's room. "Euphy!" he yelled, "my lady! Please, stay awake!"

"You don't need to worry about that," Eberhardt said. He was standing next to her door and nodded to the room. "She's definitely awake."

"I'm so glad that she is," Suzaku said. "She…"

"Yeah, I know, she means everything to you," Eberhardt said. He smiled and said, "I've dealt with a lot of royals and their knights."

The door opened, and Dr. Westinghouse appeared. "Ah, Sir Kururugi," she said, "you need-"

But Suzaku quickly brushed by her so he could kneel at Euphy's bedside. "My lady, I heard you called for me," he said, taking her hand.

"Yes," Euphy said. Her voice was weak. "You're Japanese, right?"

"Um, yes," Suzaku said.

"Ok," Euphy said. "I'm glad."

"Um, yes, my lady," Suzaku said, his heart sinking. Either he told her what she did in Japan… or keep lying to her. "I… am very grateful for what you did for the Japanese."

"I am too," Euphy said. "I think they're all happier now."

"Yes, we are," Suzaku said. Although he was still kneeling, he could feel himself starting to tremble. When he had lied to her on the Avalon, he'd thought she was dying. But he couldn't bring himself to tell her what had happened.

"I'm glad," Euphy said. Suzaku finally stood up and, still holding her hand, took his seat next to her. She was staring at the ceiling. "I can't see," Euphy said. "Is that normal?"

"No, my lady," Suzaku said, "but Dr. Eberhardt told me you'll be able to see normally again."

"Oh," Euphy said.

Suzaku looked over at the doctors – specifically, at Dr. Westinghouse, who looked very wary. Suzaku looked back at Euphy and thought about why that might be. "My lady," Suzaku said, "I… you'll be staying here for now."

"Why?"

"Well, there was… Zero tried to ruin your zone, after you… fell asleep," Suzaku said. "Some terrible things happened, and you… got blamed."

"But… it was me," Euphy said, with a hint of cheerfulness in her voice.

Suzaku felt a chill go up his spine. "Do you… remember, my lady?" Suzaku said.

"Yes, I remember everything," Euphy said. "Suzaku… you're my knight, right? You'll do anything I say?"

"Yes, of course."

"Anything?"

"Yes."

"Ok." Euphy turned her head, so she could look in his direction – though her eyes didn't focus on them. Suzaku saw with horror that her eyes had that same red tinge to them that had dissipated shortly before she had fallen into her coma. "Then please," Euphy said, a growing smile on her face, "I can't do anything here. But I need to kill the Japanese. So please, will you kill yourself?"

Suzaku felt the tears on his face very quickly. "Euphy…" he whispered, "please, don't go back to that. You're not that…"

"I must," Euphy said, "I must kill them all."

"No," Suzaku said. He squeezed her hand and said, "Euphy, that's not you. You fell in love with me. With someone Japanese! Do you-"

"I-" Euphy started saying, and then the red fringe dissipated and tears began forming. "I… I fell in love… with a Japanese man… and… the Japanese people," she said in short, stunted words. "Please, Suzaku, don't blame Zero," she added pleadingly, her pathetic-sounding voice stabbing Suzaku's heart, "he didn't want this…"

Suzaku thought back to Lelouch and his desperate babbling on the island. "Don't worry about Zero," Suzaku said. "He's still… alive."

"I hope you can forgive him," Euphy said. She slowly looked up again. "That they can forgive me."

She stared at the ceiling for a few more minutes, while Suzaku clung to her hand tightly. "I'll keep coming until you get better, Euphy," Suzaku said. "If you have to spend your whole life in this prison, then I'll spend it here with you."

"…thank you," Euphy said. Her eyes closed. Suzaku stayed by her side until it was clear she'd fallen asleep.

"She was very restrained," Dr. Westinghouse said once they were both out of the room.

"When she woke up, she asked us to kill any Japanese servants here," Eberhardt said. "Then she started calling for you. Because…"

"I'm Japanese," Suzaku said bitterly.

"But whatever was going on, she seemed to fight it off," Westinghouse said. "That's a good sign!"

"But she'll probably go back to wanting to kill me when she wakes up," Suzaku said.

"This… isn't the last time we'll see you, is it?" Westinghouse said.

Suzaku shook his head. "I don't care if she tries to kill me every time," he said. "Keep me informed."

"Yes, my lord," the doctors said.

Euphemia was thinking about Zero the day she got her sight back.

It was an odd sensation, seeing again. She had been in and out of bed a few times, but not much. One of the doctors – what was her name, Westinghouse? – would help her with everything now.

Maybe it was humiliating, to Euphemia, that everything she had once been able to do was now done at the whim of the doctors. But the real humiliation was the Japanese.

She had a burning need to kill the Japanese. It was like a constant drum in her head, an excruciating pain. Every night, she dreamt of when she still had eyesight, of when she shot that first man, and everything leading up to Zero shooting her.

And the first day after waking up from this nightmare – the day after that Japanese guy first visited – she threw up. She couldn't help it. She needed to kill the Japanese. They all had to die. There was no way around that. But she didn't like it.

So she would make herself like it.

Anyways, the first thing she saw was Westinghouse. She cried when she was able to see for the first time. "Congratulations!" Westinghouse had told her, "we should do something to celebrate this."

"Maybe we can visit Japan," Euphemia said.

I can apologize, a stray thought said.

Kill, came a different one.

"I don't think that would be wise," Westinghouse replied. In the near darkness, Euphemia couldn't see Westinghouse's expression. Maybe she disproved.

"OK," Euphemia said. "What now?"

"Now, we keep working on getting your physical strength back," Westinghouse replied. Euphemia felt a warm hand on her own. "Don't worry, princess, we'll work things through. We're here for you."

"…thank you."

Suzaku visited Euphy many more times over the coming few months. She was now in physical therapy with the two doctors. Gone were her formal dresses and well-done hair. Now she wore loose-fitting clothes. Her hair was almost always left undone. Dr. Westinghouse told him it was a triumph for her if she could shower by herself. Whenever Suzaku saw her skin, he could see that she had lost enough muscle mass that he could see outlines of some of her bones. One time he saw her with just her bra on and he could see her rib cage outlined under her skin.

Even besides all that, Euphy's skin was very pale, and her eyes and hair had lost their luster. Dr. Eberhardt told him that her eyes normally had the reddish fringe that he couldn't explain but had been told by Schneizel to ignore; at the very least, her red-fringed eyes kept Suzaku alert to her numerous attempts to hurt him.

And unfortunately, that was every time he visited. He'd decided after his visit with her that it was better, for now, to keep her in her genocidal mode, because 'that' Euphy didn't feel any crushing guilt from her actions. The real one… he was afraid she would kill herself over what she was made to do. The only problem was that the genocidal Euphy was not the one he'd fallen in love with.

He knew her physical beauty would eventually return (or, ok, maybe that was just the hope of his more animalistic side). But her kindness was gone. Any sweet-talking she did to him was always with those same red-tinged eyes, and always as a lead-up to her asking him to kill himself, or to fly her to Japan and so she can start killing people herself. Apparently her geass'd mind was starting to realize that killing Suzaku was pointless. The longer time passed, the less she went after him, but the more she begged him to do something about the Japanese back home.

The moments when the real Euphy broke through were few and far between. It was almost always as she was about to go to sleep, for just a few seconds. This Euphy was what made everything worth it, and it was the one who Suzaku waited out all his visits to see. She was the only ray of light left in his world, and she was locked up in her own body. Suzaku didn't see her with full control very often.

One such day during her physical therapy, he got to spend the whole day with Euphy. The only nice thing about her genocidal self was that, by now, that one acted mostly like normal Euphy around him. He knew it was all an act, but there was still some part of him that enjoyed acting as a knight of his lady – helping her get out of bed in the morning, escorting her to Dr. Westinghouse for physical therapy or for hygiene, making her meals, all things that ordinarily knights would perform in isolated circumstances.

When he made that observation to Dr. Eberhardt, Eberhardt just arched an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware your usual princess needed physical therapy or being treated like a patient," he said dryly.

"This is special," Suzaku replied.

Brainwashed Euphy liked the simple dinner Suzaku made for her. She also asked if he would help her escape, but Suzaku shook his head. As soon as she was gone, she would turn on him and go back to Japan. He didn't want to unleash an unwilling serial killer.

Once dinner was done, he let the doctors go for the night. "I can get her in bed," he told them. They left, and he turned to Euphy. "Hey, Euphy," Suzaku said, "want to watch a movie?"

Euphy looked up at him and smiled. "Of course, um, Suzaku," she said. Her eyes were tinged red. "I'd love to!"

Suzaku helped her walk to her library, the last of her little prison (the other parts being the kitchen, the bathroom, her bedroom, a hallway, and the interior court). There, a projector had been set up. No news was allowed, so that meant no television access. At least they had some romcoms and documentaries and even a few tragedies. Not that Suzaku wanted to watch that last category. He chose something inoffensive-looking and put it on, and then took a seat next to Euphy. She leaned over on him and draped an arm around his neck. "You know, Euphy," Suzaku said, "if something happens to me, I don't know what they'll do to you. It's only at my request you get to be here."

She withdrew her arm.

They didn't say anything as they watched the movie. Suzaku had gotten her a blanket, but she still shivered, so he drew her in close to him. Part of him felt dirty to do that, but that was dissipated by a very weary-sounding, "thank you, Suzaku."

He looked down and saw, in the reflected light from the movie, just her normal purple eyes focused forward, an immensely sad look on her face. "Anything for you, my lady," Suzaku whispered.

They kept watching in silence, but now Suzaku let himself enjoy her warmth and closeness. Even though part of him hated that the real Euphy had emerged, since now she had to focus on her past, the rest of him was grateful that his light had peeked out from behind its clouds.

They watched to the end of the movie, with the main couple getting together and sharing a train compartment back east. The movie finished and just a blue screen was projected, and before long it shut down. Still Suzaku and Euphy sat in silence. "I want that to be us," Euphy eventually said. She sounded more tired than he had ever heard her. "I just… want to run away. But even if I could get back to normal, we never could."

Suzaku's heart sank. "And why's that, my lady?" Suzaku said.

"I… killed your people," Euphy said. "I murdered them. Every one of those deaths is blood on my hands. I've made it so that if we… if we were ever together, you could never live in Japan."

"We'll just let people know it wasn't your fault," Suzaku said. "We'll let them know how gentle you are, how you could never-"

"I killed them, Suzaku. I killed them," Euphy said. She started trembling as she repeated over and over, "I killed them. I killed them. I killed them. I killed them…"

Eventually she stopped, but she was still trembling. She was crying now, too. "Euphy, I forgive you," Suzaku said. Not that he'd ever blamed her anyways. "And if I had to give up Japan to be with you, then that's ok. But I promise that I will become the Knight of One, and make sure that Japan is how you wanted it to be."

"And then?" Euphy said. "I'll probably still be in prison then."

"I'll have you shipped to Japan, then. We'll keep you safe there. And we'll make sure the Japanese are safe from you," Suzaku replied.

"Why?"

"Because I'm your knight first."

"But then what?" Euphy said. "What if… what if we get married? If we start a family? She will kill them…"

The amount of loathing packed into that word, she, stunned Suzaku. But so did Euphy's other comments. A family… He tightened his hug. "I promise that we'll find a way to fix you," Suzaku said, "to make her go away." Euphy nodded. "And then… if things do work out… then we can talk about a future together."

It didn't take Euphy long to fall asleep, but still the thought of a family was burnt in Suzaku's mind. He knew they were both young – far too young to consider such things. But he also knew that almost all his emotions were now concentrated on the woman in his arms. The only remaining ones went to Nunnally, who he knew was innocent of her brother's actions, but who still sadly waited on Lelouch to come. And, of course, he never would. He was back in Japan. Safely not Zero anymore. Safely not a prince anymore.

And to everyone else he was cold. He had no need for them. He smiled sadly as he considered that honestly speaking, Euphy was his only real option. The only one he would accept, that is. And the other Euphy, the one Lelouch had made… she would kill their children. If not in the womb, then as soon as they were born. All because he was Japanese.

He shook his head. He was barely 18. Children? No, that had to wait. Not just for Euphy to be herself always again. But to make sure the old Euphy, the evil one, wouldn't reemerge too. Eventually, he decided to get Euphy to bed. He picked her up, bridal-style, and carried her to her bed. Fortunately, the clothes that she had on now were what she wore to sleep as well. He tucked her blankets around her bed and prepared to turn on her monitor.

"Suzaku?"

Suzaku turned around from being about to turn it on to see Euphy looking at him, her eyes still their normal purple, and a sad look still on her face. "Yes, my lady?" Suzaku said.

"I want to sleep well tonight," she said. "When I fall asleep like this, I get nightmares."

"Is there something I can do?"

"Yes," Euphy said. "Before you turn on the monitor. Please… come closer…"

And that was the night that Suzaku had his first kiss. He stayed with her until she fell asleep, a smile on her lips, and then he switched the monitor on and left for the night.