Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own Code Geass. Code Geass is owned by Sunrise, CLAMP, and probably some other people no one really cares about. I am not one of those people, nor am I affiliated with Sunrise or CLAMP. Used without permission, not for profit, etc.
Epiphany
by misaoshiru
She remembers – just months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds before her scheduled execution – wanting him to die. Die for his sins, redeeming himself through his own blood. She wanted to kill him herself, by her own hand. Because that was the only way she could justify having loved a tyrant, a madman – by stopping him from corrupting what had been, more than he already had. And she remembers feeling annoyance...revulsion at him for his cowardice when she came so close and he bolted.
But as she stands out there, cold wind biting at her face, with Kallen doing her best to maintain a dignified posture despite her many shackles – as Zero appears, cape flowing in the wind, to shocked gasps from the onlookers – she realizes two things:
1. Perhaps...it wasn't cowardice that caused him to run, but a determination to see things through. To die, but not like this; to die on his own terms.
2. She didn't...doesn't...really want him to die after all.
And it's too late for either realization to do any good.
To her own surprise, she's crying. How dare she cry for a man like the demon emperor? How dare he make her cry?
Author's note:
I...probably only have myself to blame for this one. (Why do I keep rewatching the end of Turn 25 if it always makes me bawl, anyway? Some things the world may never know.) I was rewatching Lelouch's death last night before bed, and when I got up this morning...er, this afternoon, this happened.
...I didn't expect my first (posted) LelouchxKallen fic to be so sad. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed.