A/N: TO PEOPLE WHO FIND THIS STORY, IF YOU HAVE NOT, READ THE FIRST VOLUME HERE: s/8742890/1/The-Feminine-Rebellion . THANK YOU!

Taxes. Invoices. Mail. Junk mail. Reports. Kallen tossed the whole stack of papers off the table. She wasn't meant to be here, cooped up in an office. She was made for fighting. For action. She had that life a year ago. Now it was over. Her time as a rebel swept up into the wind and lost. Kallen never had a chance to ask her about motives. She had just stood there, gun in hand, unable to make words come out of her mouth. The horror she saw in those amethyst eyes remained with her a year later. By the time she could move the cave had started to collapse. She had so many questions, and now they may never be answered. She put it out of her mind. It didn't matter now. Now they had to rebuild.

Kallen was in charge of most of the work. It was the price of staying in Japan over going back with her father to Pendragon. Stay here and help with humanitarian work. And so Kallen found herself stuck in an office several hours a day, sorting files, directing volunteers, managing funds. She picked up the thermos of green tea that had been knocked over in the crash and took a long sip. She needed a break.

"Ken!" She called out. Moments later a wire-thin young man came in through the door.

"Y-yes, Miss Stadtfeld?" he replied meekly.

Kallen opened her mouth to correct him, only to remember that she was still under her father's name to the people who worked for her. Considering that near all of the workers were commoners or Numbers, and that she was the daughter of a noble, it was to be expected that they would be scared of her. She pinched the bridge of her nose before continuing. "Get some people to finish these papers up. I'm going out."

Kallen unbuttoned the first button on her suit to free her neck the moment she walked out the doors of her office. It didn't take long before the stale office air forced her outside. She made a beeline for the north part of the SAZ, going through the densely packed apartment buildings in the area. Fifteen million people in such a small area was difficult to plan, but they did it. In the space of a few months Kallen and her volunteers revitalized the area, refurbished the vast majority of the dilapidated buildings and built many more from the ground up, not to mention modernizing the infrastructure and building monuments and parks. Mostly Japanese of course. The SAZ was mostly populated by Japanese, and with the autonomy they had won their culture had come back. Open air markets, food stalls, temples, shrines, and festivals made a comeback, often organized by the people.

However, things weren't perfect. There was no specific police force in the area, security was staffed mostly by volunteers and old military personnel, and were severely understaffed, under-equipped and untrained. Kallen bit her lip as she ran over the international news. A sudden streak of Britannian victories in the EU had fractured it, riots in the streets and countries splitting off, either to join Britannia, or the fledgling UFN. The time when the UFN would go to war was soon, and Kallen wasn't sure whether she wanted to fight or not.

The narrow side street was tucked away in the sprawl of apartments, but Kallen could smell the kitchen and hear the patrons long before she reached the street. She checked her watch for the time. Just about lunch. Made sense that it would be this busy.

The exterior wasn't much to look at. The storefront had several tables and umbrellas, but there were no signs or canopies advertising it to those on the main street. Kallen moved past the tight grouping of diners for lunch and made her way into the restaurant proper. The kitchens work working at full blast, stoves and fryers frantically pumping out food at a rate which was barely kept up to by the waiting staff. She eyed a few familiar faces from her days as a Black Knight, and she came upon one very familiar one.

"Tamaki!" Kallen called above the din of the diners. The red haired proprietor looked around for a moment before his eyes found Kallen. He made his way over, shuffling through the tight space and eventually coming face to face.

"Found time out of that stuffy office of yours, your nobility?" He smirked and mockingly tilted his head.

"Shut up." Kallen punched him in the arm, "I'm starving."

Tamaki shuffled across the room again and cleared the cups and plates off a table in the corner. Kallen also made her way over, carefully maneuvering around families and workers on their break, she plopped herself into the oddly comfortable plush seat.

"Order then?" Tamaki clicked his pen. Kallen took a moment to remember what it was exactly she wanted. "One order of cold soba in soup, extra soy sauce and leeks."

Tamaki stammered before remembering, "A-are you sure? I mean, the stuff probably isn't here yet, what with the difference and all-" He was cut off by the mean look she gave him, "I'll see what I can do." he turned on his heel and hurried as fast as he could through the crowd back into the kitchen.

Kallen took a sip out of the teacup one of the waitresses brought her afterwards, and leaned back.. She suddenly remembered the other letter that was put on her desk that morning. She hadn't prepared at all. She mused about who would be proper. Ken would probably faint and/or swoon at the thought. Rivalz was back in Pendragon since most of Ashford Academy, including the majority of the dorms, had been blown up in the battle. Rebuilding the school was very far down on the list of priorities. She couldn't bring any of her Japanese friends, and Milly would probably pull something from the dark depths of her wardrobe. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Tamaki, who had brought the huge bowl of soba noodles.

"We got in touch, should be ready in twenty minutes." He mumbled next to her ear.

Kallen dug into the huge bowl, devouring the noodles and soup in short order, partly due to expediency, partly due to her late awakening that morning and having to skip breakfast. It wasn't long before the bowl was completely empty. She rested for a while to let her stomach settle before making her way through to the kitchen. She went through the small double doors as two waiters came out with more food. The flight of stairs hidden in the far end led down to the underground basement.

The small light was already on in the cold room. Tamaki was down there as well. He looked at her with a serious face that was so unlike him, it scared her. The laptop, placed upon several crates of tomatoes, glowed with only two words on the screen: SOUND ONLY. She pulled another small crate from the small corner and sat down in front of the laptop, putting both of the earbuds to her ear.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Alright I've got her." She heard Diethard from across the encrypted channel, rapidly typing.

"Hello, Kallen?" She heard Chiba and Xingke speak in unison.

"Yeah, it's me." She smiled in relief, even though she knew that they wouldn't be able to see.

"It's good to hear you. I'm hoping those months in an office haven't affecting your piloting skills."

"I'm afraid so. Been to the gym three times a week and I'm still putting on flab." Kallen laughed along with Xingke, until he began coughing again.

"Don't push yourself." She heard Xianglin speak, probably from a good distance away.

"I'm fine." Xingke called back.

Kallen tried to change the topic, "How's the empress doing?"

Kallen practically heard Xingke perk up again, "She's going great. We go out and see things everyday whenever she doesn't have a meeting. She looks at everything outside like it's the first time she'd ever seen it. Well, actually it probably was. She's like the little sister I never had." He laughed again.

"What else is going on? What's the situation with Euro Britannia and the rest?"

"Not much, quite honestly." Xingke's voice grew solemn again. "There's not a lot we can do against Euro Britannia yet, not after the armistice after Tokyo, and the EU is splitting up too. We're trying to bring some of them to us, but it's a little hard at the moment. We're looking to advance the Gun-Rus and other Knightmares we have on hand."

Kallen frowned again. "Hmm, I'll see what happens over here. I'd better get back to work, there's a meeting in a bit.."

They said their goodbyes and disconnected the channel. By the time Kallen got back out onto the street Ken had messaged her the details. She sighed. Back to work she went.

The migraines had become worse, he could barely stay awake before the pain forced him back under the protection of the covers. Suzaku looked at the check-up report he had gotten that day. There was no sign of trauma or damage to his head, and nothing else could cause such pain.

He looked at the pills on the nightstand, each about the thickness of his pinky finger. Sleep aids and painkillers they were supposed to be. He took the assortment of pills, chasing it down with a good amount of water. He didn't even have a chance to start counting sheep before he went out like a light. Unfortunately, the dream world wasn't much better.

"I-I can't do it. I just can't."

"What do you mean, you can't? That isn't her, at least, not the one you remember. Geass corrupted her. It's just using her to get what it wants."

"I-I know, but I-I just can't! Not like this, th-there's just too many memories, a-and I feel like I'm ruining something-"

"It's using you. Those memories, those moments, they weren't real. You want the real one back don't you? The one that you loved? The one that was really in love with you? To make real memories with?"

"Yes. Yes I do. I'll do anything. Anything to bring her back. To remove whatever made her like this."

"Then I'll give you the power to do that. I'll give you the power to bring her back. I'll give you the power to carry this out. You said you'd do anything. Did you really mean that? If not then there are many others that can carry this out, you know."

"I did. And I will. Please. I'll be the one to do this. I-I promised to protect her, and I will. Please. Whatever contract that I need to make, even if it's with the devil himself, I'll do it. I accept whatever I have to."

Suzaku shot up out of bed at the sound of the alarm. 5:00 AM. He had been asleep for most of the day. The pain in his head had ceased to a dull roar, and there was no sign that his migraines were coming back any time soon. He guzzled the rest of his water, calming his parched throat. He barely remembered what had happened in his dreams, which wasn't anything special or new, so then why did he feel like he was missing something important?

"We can't keep on with this, Sir. The vitals, they're-"

"Keep going." The subject wasn't restrained, but tubes linked to cylinders full of fluid punctured the skin, and a device was strapped to the head, hiding the eyes and nose. On cue, the lights on the head device began to glow, sending the subject into painful spasms. V.V muted the screams. Many inside the control room looked visibly ill, but they returned their eyes to their screens and kept reporting readouts.

"Heart rate at 192 and increasing, blood pressure 162/100."

"No reorganization of proteins in the brain yet, brain activity erratic but stable."

"Now."

The containers, filled with blue grey liquid, began pumping out through the tubes. The subject's spasms reached at new intensity, flipping over and involuntarily crawling across the white floor. Blood came out through the mouth and nose, flying at the windows, staining them crimson.

V.V closed his eyes. "Stop it. It's done." He would have nothing to report back, except one dead subject. He never saw the purpose of having another person. They were fine with the amount they had. The heart monitor had yet to flatline, but he was sure they would in a moment. He looked back to the subject. Pale limbs twitched and moved on the ground. He was about to call for the cleanup crew when a bloodstained hand reached up and hit the glass screen. He pressed the mute button once more, and internally smiled at the words that came through the speakers. Well, the more the merrier.

"Not….. enough….. yet…..."

A/N: Now if you'll excuse me, I have a camping trip to go to and a fever to get over. See you later!