</b>by the Black Rose</p><p><b>AN</b>: This arc includes 3 side stories, an epilogue, and a light-hearted sequel. This is the main story, entitled "The Power of the Queen", and it is a complete story in and of itself that will be posted to FFN. I have a rough draft completed of the entire arc, minus the sequel which is still in progress (romantic comedy). Will update as quickly as I can in between updating other fics for Gundam Wing and Gundam Seed. Thank you to those that will read it. Love, Rose</p><p>PS - Please forgive the Arthurian symbolism (Mom, Geass started it!)
</p><p><b>Warnings:</b> Spoilers up through episode 23. Angst. Deals with incestuous feelings between half-siblings. Please do not read if it will make you uncomfortable.</p><p><b>Pairings:</b> Lelouch x Euphemia. Euphemia x Suzaku. Euphemia x Lelouch.</p><hr size=1 width=100% noshade></p><p><b>The Power of the Queen</b>(begins at the end of episode 23 and continues)</p><p><b>Prologue</b></p><p><i>I cannot imagine a greater torture for a mother to endure than to watch her child suffer. From the time I first realized there was a tiny being inside me, I wanted to protect you from all the evils and the pain of that world. A mother's love? </i></p><p><i>But I have watched you suffer, my son, all these empty years.</i></p><p><i>-</i></p><p>I was born Marianne Lamperouge, a common woman in a little faming town nestled between the Alps and the Auvergne mountains. Growing up within the Britannian territory known as the Rhone Valley, my mother taught me the duties I would assume as a farmer or rancher's wife one day ? hoeing, planting, cooking. By the time I was ten, I could ride a horse, drive a tractor, cook a meal for twenty?The list went on.</p><p>As a Britannian citizen, I also attended school and received a solid education. This led me to discover a passion for classical literature. Then, it sent me far from home and even farther from the life my parents thought I should have lived. To college.</p><p>My education ended, or perhaps it truly began, with my marriage to Charles zi Britannia. I desired more than a common woman's life. And I believed someone intended for me to have more?.</p><p>I was granted, around the time I turned fourteen years old, a very uncommon gift. One that eventually led me to become a queen. An empress. This gift, this power isn't mine. It doesn't belong to me or to anyone. But, it's a power you know by now, Lelouch.</p><p>I wish. Things change.</p><p>You command. People obey.</p><p>This power called Geass has a will all its own, my son. And as you've just witnessed with your own, horrified eyes on this day - this day that held so much hope, not just for Japan and its people, who I admit mean little to me. But for Nunally, for your friend, Suzaku. And most of all, for the hope <i>she</i> still held for you?</p><p>The power of Geass has no soul. No heart.</p><p>And as I watch you - with what's left of your kindness and your gentle nature writhing in agony - I wish for the thousandth time, your mother could be of some comfort to you.</p><p>But I cannot.</p><p>I can only wait, here, in this place they call Caerleon, as I have for the last seven years. Sharing in your torment. Waiting for your judgment.</p><p>And in the end, I don't know which would hurt you more. To believe that it is your power, your sin that killed the woman you love.</p><p>Or to know that?It was mine.</p>
