I'll be honest, I never thought of you two as similar in any sense of the word.
But then again, that's how these kinds of things happen I guess. You were just kind of there. Not really making an impact, part of the background, unimportant. You were asleep in class if you were there in the first place. Though you always got the right answer when asked. I hated you. You were so… so arrogant. So sure of your brains that you ignored everything else.
Me? I was out there. I fought, I bled, I saw friends die. I was putting myself through every layer of hell imaginable and whenever I saw you my blood boiled. We were so different. The pretty boy is what you were. You had no care, no issue, no worries. I had to wonder if I was going to live the next day or not. I was fighting something that we could not win against, an unstoppable force. You just sat there. You had no interest in your friends, school nothing. I lied, I killed, and you did nothing.
But him? When he arrived he upturned everything. He made a statement, he brought them to their knees in a single motion. I was there for his first moment of triumph. It was… magnificent. He held the attention of everyone with a single bluff and he pulled his heist off without a hitch.
And that was just the first display of what he could do.
He got us things we thought were impossible to get. He gave us weapons, tactics, people, allies, and support. But one thing he gave us trumps all that.
He gave us a chance to win.
By giving us that chance he risked everything, he dared to stand up and say something.
You sat there. Doing nothing.
When it came to him, I followed no other. I became his most loyal follower. I was his right hand, his ace, his weapon, his trump card. He pointed and I annihilated. He trusted me and I trusted him. Maybe I trusted him too much. Because trust turned into something... something much, much more.
Suffice it to say it was hard to say to this man that I had fallen in love with him. So hard that I never said anything. But I felt it. Every time he talked to us, I felt something in my chest. My heart beat faster and harder when he talked, when he moved. Everything he did almost made me giddy. He was perfect. So very perfect. You, on the other hand. You weren't.
But as we went on fighting, you acted weird, out of place. Things you did made little sense. But you never said anything. You still didn't care. You were scum.
But then… that night.
That night when we threw ourselves at the enemy, that night we gave it our all…
That night he left.
He left us to fight without a leader. I followed him, my reason for being by his side to protect him as his sword and shield. When I found him, however, I was met with a horrid revelation.
You were him. And He was you.
One in the same.
Two halves of a whole.
The mask had been removed and I finally saw the both of you for who you were.
You stood there, a smile on your face as you talked with the enemy. It reeked of cruelty. Cruelty for lying to us, to me. It hurt. It hurt so much to see your face behind that mask. You weren't just lazy. He wasn't just a charismatic leader. You were cruel. I left you. I left you to the other one and I ran. I went into hiding with the rest.
But you were still there.
Not physically. But you were there. Lingering over us, your stagnant leadership, omnipresence was still there. We had to get you back if we wanted to win. We made a plan.
I had to debase myself but when I saw you it was… nice. You were somewhat changed. You helped me even though you had no idea who I was. You'd been changed. But you helped me as if you were him again. I felt that spark. Just one pulse. But it was there.
When our plan began, we lost you. But when we found you, we kneeled. For you had returned. Our leader.
You sprang into action, you saved our allies, you re-established us, you made us a symbol again, you were a revitalisation to everything. It all kicked into high gear. We fought harder against our foes and we won. The more I fought, the more time I spent with you alone, the more I found that maybe you being him wasn't so bad. That maybe this was the real you. Someone that was noble in a sense.
That's when the spark caught. I just couldn't help myself. He was just a mask, a pseudonym. You… you were the real one. The one I'd fallen in love with. Not some name or a faceless mask. But you. Just. You. I was your ace again, your trump card, one of your closest people. There were times I could feel you feeling as I had. It resonated with me. It was bliss.
Even when I was taken from you, you reassured me. You said you'd find me, you'd come back for me, you told me to stay strong.
I did. I waited for you throughout every ordeal. I waited and waited until you finally arrived. When I was back with you I was so happy. You pointed to the enemy and told me to eliminate them. And so I did. I wiped them out without a second thought. I was at my rightful place again: as your sword.
When I came to you for something, you followed. I was tempted to say something then. But I wanted to wait until after. But I couldn't.
They pointed guns at you, threatened you, they wanted to kill you. I stepped before you, ready to die if it meant you'd live. I felt that honestly. If you could survive, I'd be okay with that.
But then you laughed. You played it all off and said I was just… just a pawn. My heart was crushed. I felt like I had lead in me. I stepped away from you, my foot falls heavy. But then I heard three words. Three words that would haunt me ever since I heard them uttered aloud. Just loud enough for me to hear. Those words brought something back. I turned only to see you being whisked away, to somewhere safe.
After that you disappeared and we all assumed you were dead. I was the only one who felt sad at that. But I never said anything.
But then you appeared. At the head of our enemy, you smiled that cruel smile as you took leadership. But then you wanted peace. So we agreed and talked. I was your escort. We got a chance to talk and I finally said what I wanted through one action. I kissed you. You kissed back, I felt it.
But no words passed your lips. I took that as my answer and I left you to your own devices. But then you betrayed us and fought back.
We were at each other again and this time we had the advantage. But you still figured it out. You found a way to win. You were at the top and you brought the whole world to its knees.
Months later, you were having us all eliminated. We were marched down the street in shackles. We had no hope for you, this tyrant you'd become.
But then…
He appeared.
Over the horizon he came, he aimed for you. When you two met he pulled his blade and ended it. I couldn't look. For despite all you did I still had that feeling, that love for you inside me. When I turned again I saw the saddest sight I'd seen in a long time.
You were limp. Your blood stained what it touched. You were lifeless.
Dead.
Everyone cheered, they rejoiced.
I cried. I'll shamelessly admit that. I cried. I felt sorrow for your passing.
Time passed, though. People repaired, forgave, and forgot. I still kept a picture though. And whenever I look at it, those three words come back to me.
"Kallen, live on."
The paper was dotted with wet marks from the streams that ran down her face. Kallen had long since let the pen go and stared at what she wrote. It was a simple assignment: write a letter to someone. Kallen did hers but she decided to write one more. To get it all out. She started crying halfway through and it didn't stop.
It hurt. It hurt when she saw Lelouch's lifeless body lying there, his sister crying over it, begging for him to wake up. It hurt when he lied to her, when she learned the truth of it all. But most of all, it hurt that he was gone.
Kallen laid her head down and cried hard for the first time in a good while over the loss of the man she'd fallen for.