The first thing that entered Lelouch's mind when he had heard his name was that it was not possible. There was no way that Kallen would know who he was at this point, they had never really met in any circumstance outside a few passes in the hallways of the Academy. So why? Why did she know? He had to wonder.

His heart lurched, as in the moment that Kallen had frozen, Jeremiah had caught up with her, the two Knightmares proceeding to pepper her Knightmare with bullets - only the fact that she reacted in time prevented her from being killed as she was able to turn her Glasgow in time, the ejection cockpit activating and launching her away from the deadly fire. But it seemed that Jeremiah would not accept that as he immediately continued off in pursuit of her cockpit in the interest of finishing his prey.

Things had already changed a detached part of his mind realized, even as he fought the urge to go into action and engage Jeremiah. He knew he could beat him, having surpassed him in skill in the second decade of his life. But that would cause too much of change as is, he had to localize the ripple effects in spite of Kallen's sudden knowledge of him. He didn't know whether it was because of the fact that there was a different history between the two of them, or the fact that his sudden presence had changed the timeline. All he knew was that he was making a large impact upon the timeline with the few actions he had already taken and he was not interested in too many more changes in order to prevent their snowballing into even more unpredictable circumstances.

It was ironic in a sort of way, he had prided himself in his ability to be unpredictable to his enemies and now he was working to try and contain himself into a predictable pattern, at least if he had the time to dwell upon it. Instead, he knew he had to save Kallen, damn the consequences, he would not be witness to her death again!

Luckily, Villetta was in Jeremiah's unit as his subordinate, which meant she had private comm lines available in which she could have talked to him without anyone eavesdropping. Probably the only damn thing that she would ever prove herself useful for now.

He had to admit that whoever was piloting the red Glasgow had been a rather decent opponent given how they moved, at least for a terrorist. Unfortunately, they had run out of time, the sudden freezing of the Glasgow had provided the perfect opportunity for it to be finished. Still, it seemed the pilot had enough skill to eject out of it. And now they were en route to finishing the pilot.

It was odd to not hear from Viletta, who was supposed to have reported in several minutes ago after meeting with a supposed noble that had been discovered in the ghetto. But he wrote it off that she would get back to him as soon as she had the time.

And here she was now, he thought to himself as his commline blinked, showing that Villetta was contacting him on a private line.

"Report Villetta," he said, as they grew closer.

However, it wasn't Villetta that showed up on the vidlink, and he felt his breath robbed from his very lungs as he took in the visage of someone he thought long dead. Older now, but the undeniable amethyst eyes and the lean, angular face that was so much like his mothers.

"Hello Jeremiah," he greeted, "it has been awhile."

"Y-Your Highness, I thought you were-"

"There's no time for that, Lord Jeremiah, all will be explained at a later time. What I want you to do is to cease your pursuit of the pilot of the red Glasgow."

"But the pilot is-"

"Under my protection. Or are you going to violate the oath you gave to my family? An oath you have already found yourself failing once with my mother's assassination."

There was the gauntlet as Jeremiah grappled with the demand placed before him. He was loyal to Britannia, but he was more loyal to the vi Britannia line. When Lady Marianne had died he had nearly killed himself in shame, and when both of her children had been reported dead, he had sworn vengeance in order to find the people responsible for their death and mete out the punishment for them, the Purist Faction was the organization he had created in order to punish the Elevens even as he found out what had happened to Lady Marianne's offspring.

But after seven years he had found nothing, no evidence of who was involved in their deaths, let alone evidence of who may be involved with it and so he had cracked down even harder.

Now, here, he had a chance, a chance to restore his honor, and all he had to do was…

"As you wish, Your Highness, however, the soldier with me is not under my direct command and will likely not obey my orders."

A slight flash of irritation appeared in the boys eyes before nodding.

"I will be in touch, Jeremiah, stay safe."

The link then cut, leaving Jeremiah feeling suddenly lighter than he had ever been before.

Groggy unconsciousness was slow to fade away for Kallen as she slowly returned to the land of consciousness, but the moment it faded away far enough, her eyes snapped open as her mind caught up with what had happened and why she was upside down.

It had been incredibly stupid of her to simply freeze when she had heard Lelouch's voice, at least, that was what the combat-honed portion of her mind that had bested Knights of the Round screamed at her, but the other part of her mind, the more emotional and logical, had written it as a likely outcome considering just who it was.

Lelouch, she thought to herself realizing she could not end here, not if she was going to save him. How he knew her name was irrelevant, it was just the fact that she could do something to change what had happened to him.

She quickly unstrapped herself, bracing herself so the inevitable fall from the chair didn't knock her back into unconsciousness or worse. That achieved, she now was faced with another dilemma as the normal egress point of the cockpit was laying flat against the ground. That didn't mean she was left without any options, it just made it more difficult as the secondary exit was behind the chair. In any other circumstances, she would have simply waited here for rescue, but she didn't have that option, the auxiliary battery that provided power to the cockpit had given her enough time to see her instruments to know that she still had pursuit.

Getting behind the cockpit chair, she then accessed the secondary exit point, little more than a series of latch systems that would allow her to kick it out after disconnecting the cockpit canopy system from it. That finally completed, she braced her back against the chair and pushed with her legs. After a few moments of resistance, it finally gave away, the metal skittering across the ground as she then got herself out of it, the sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance a needless reminder of the situation.

But it was very familiar screech of landspinners on pavement that caused her to turn just in time to see a Sutherland come barreling around a building, the unit coming to a stop before her even as she froze, realizing that it was one of her pursuers.

No, she wanted to scream, knowing exactly what was coming next, it can't end like this. Not when I have a chance to change everything.

But the Knightmare was clueless to her thoughts, the weapon raising up and coming to a rest leveled at her.

"Lelouch," she cried, turning her head away and arms wrapping her head, heedless of the fact that it would make no difference.

But the expected gunfire never came, instead a loud crash and the sound of metal slamming against concrete was the only thing that her hearing was rewarded with.

The fact that she was not dead quickly caught up with her adrenaline-addled mind and she turned to back to see exactly why she wasn't dead. Her answer quickly came to her at the Sutherland that loomed over the other one, its tonfa retracting back into its slot from where it had been impaled into the cockpit bloc of her attacker.

Her next breath froze in her lungs as the Sutherland began to turn, the cockpit block opening, revealing the pilot that was within it.

It was him, the very cause for so many nights of loss and mourning, the reason she had claimed her life because it was not worth living anymore. Midnight black hair that seemed to absorb all of the light that struck it and violet eyes like chipped amethysts that could be so emotive at one time and so guarded the next.

"Lelouch," she finally breathed, the breath of a love reuniting with a loved one for so long. Illogical, of course, because of where she was and the fact that they shouldn't have really met yet, but she usually not so much logical as she was emotional, and it was on full display here as she did nothing to hide her infatuation with the man who had changed the world in a previous life.

Only the guarded expression on his face was the response, obviously trying to figure out how she knew him when they really had never encountered each other in the past, but on top of that, knowing that it was him altogether. She had to supress a small laugh at the calculation that was going on in his eyes, but after a moment, he seemed to have shelved it, and instead held his hand out towards her.

"Come on, we need to get you another Knightmare, the rest of your friends are waiting."

It was as she took his hand that she had to stop her own thought as the cockpit shut behind her, closing her behind the chair. Just how did he know it was her? And why was he taking it in stride? The Lelouch she knew would have never have made any display like that, in fact it would have been more likely at this point for him to kill her to keep his secret but he hadn't. It was just another question she had to ask, but couldn't find it in herself to do so considering all the implications that may arise from this. Instead, there was an uncomfortable silence between the two that was never broken as Lelouch began dispensing orders once again before they came to where the train was in the previous time when they met.

It was as she was about to open her mouth to speak that he spoke, "We will talk about this later, Kallen. For now, just follow my orders and we'll succeed."

She stood there dumbfounded, a part of her wanting to argue with him, but she recognized the commanding tone in his voice, the one that would not take any debate upon his plans. As a result, she dumbly nodded before getting out of the Sutherland, Ohgi running up to her as she schooled her features the bitter taste in her mouth taking her mind off of Lelouch for the moment and upon her mission.

"Kallen, who was that," he demanded.

"Don't worry about that," she forced out through ground teeth, trying to keep her distaste from being too evident. She wanted nothing more than to kill Ohgi where he stood, but that would cause too much trouble at the moment, "we need to get ready for the counteroffensive."

"Counteroffensive," Ohgi asked, turning to look at her as she walked away, "what counteroffensive?"

He let loose a breath he didn't even realize he had been holding, as he watched Kallen towards the train and step into the car to retrieve a Sutherland.

Things are already becoming rapidly different, he thought to himself as he took mental note of what had happened so far. While the waves from these decisions had yet to manifest it would not be long until they became apparent. One of the more likely ones was Kallen now in a Sutherland instead of her Glasgow, that meant a significant jump in her overall prowess.

The question then became how much did he want to deviate from the likely path that his brother was to take. There was no doubt in his mind that this was a critical juncture in his planning, previously he would have used his Geass, but he did not have that option now, which meant he could not get into the G1 and get the ceasefire.

Too many strategies were apparent in this scenario, none of them the most optimal. He knew what he had and to say it was not much would be an understatement.

Maybe I was spoiled to have armies at my whim, he thought quietly, before dismissing that as he reminded himself that those armies would never have Kallen by his side, which was what he had available now.

Small steps first. To eliminate Clovis or not is the question, he mused. Sure, he could likely beat Clovis considering he knew exactly what Clovis had at his disposal, but the larger question became did he want to eliminate Clovis and bring in Cornelia at this point. On one hand, it would open up options that would not be there if he kept Clovis, but at the same time it would bring in a contingent of capable officers and soldiers who would make it difficult for the Black Knights like it did. On the other, if he kept Clovis alive, he could take advantage of his incompetence and build up at a more careful and considered speed and change the dynamics of power within Japan. It would likely give him a window of only a few months before his father started paying more attention, and he would be flying blind, but it would present the most optimal of options.

That then left Suzaku, just exactly how was he going to handle that primed hand grenade. The boy who would grow into his closest confidante and trusted enforcer was still the naive and misguided mess that he was now, without Euphemia involved it would likely change how Suzaku would develop, something he would rather not have.

I'll have to defeat Clovis here, but I need to set it up to where Cornelia will come here with Euphie, but not her army. Not too difficult, he thought crassly as he began dispensing orders.

Clovis watched with feigned interest as his generals continued dispensing orders to fulfill his command. To be honest, he didn't care about what the military was doing, they were a necessary evil for his ambitions. No, he was more concerned about his personal guard and the fact that they had not reported in since they had reported contact with the project. It made him nervous at the idea that Code R was slipping out of his grasp, which was why he was going to burn Shinjuku to the ground until he could find her and prevent the mainland from finding out about his prized gem - and if not, he'd make sure no one would be able to find it.

However, his thoughts to this agenda soon came to a crashing halt as the panicked voices of his generals ripped him out of it and made him aware to a new, horrifying constant.

Everything is going as before, Lelouch thought to himself even as he continued to dispense orders so much like he did the first time. He could actually tweak them here or there, but why change something that already had worked splendidly in the past?

No, it was better not to deviate too much at the moment, especially in a battle he could fight in his sleep because he knew how his estranged brother would react.

It was as the ground collapsed, claiming numerous of Clovis' Sutherlands, that he was left with a problem. Unlike previously, he did not have Geass to infiltrate his brother's command cruiser, so there came a significant difficulty in ending the fight here. Of course, there was also Suzaku to deal with as well, he couldn't allow his friend to interfere too much in his goals. There would not be any repeats of the travesty of the past.

That meant, in order to get Clovis to retreat, he would have to take down Suzaku. But that created a whole different slew of problems in and of itself, because if Suzaku lost, then it was likely he would pay for it. And then there was the fact that he wasn't sure he could defeat Suzaku. Sure, he wasn't the incapable ponce that was woefully outmatched in his youth, but there was something to be said at the raw talent that Suzaku possessed that always made it difficult to beat him even at the Knight of Round level prowess he developed.

It was as yells started that he knew he had no choice in the matter, he had to take the most difficult of ones for him.

As his mouth opened to give the orders to retreat, his eyes caught that one of his units were on a direct beeline for where Suzaku was at.

Kallen, he cursed, having forgotten the oddity of behavior that the woman he loved possessed.

"Q-1, fall back, that is an order."

"No, I can handle this. Get Ohgi and the rest to retreat."

"Q-1!"

But she didn't respond, having cut off her communications, causing him to actually curse aloud in a rare loss of his calm, quickly passing the orders to retreat even as he took off in pursuit of her. He couldn't allow her to be killed just because of her pride.

With this, I can end the violence, Suzaku thought to himself even as he dealt with another Sutherland that had been unfortunate to cross his path. The pilot was able to eject, but he did not care about that, all he needed to do in his mind was eliminate the terrorists and with that the fighting would stop. Then he could find Lelouch and that girl and rescue them.

It was hard to believe even now that he would meet Lelouch again, he had figured that his friend had gone deep to ground and would never be seen again. In fact, he had convinced himself of that very truth when there was never any news about their discovery.

But it seemed that trouble once again had caught up with Lelouch, and he would not allow anything to befall probably his last friend in the world. He just now needed to make sure that he was safe and he could go back into hiding to protect Nunnally.

He was so focused on that thought he didn't see the large structure beam swinging towards him until it was too late, causing the Lancelot to careen out of control even as his cockpit was flooded with several warnings from where the steel beam had struck the Lancelot, caving in the chestplate and destroying the two factsphere sensors housed there with ease.

Shaking off his disorientation, he quickly recovered with the Lancelot, even as Lloyd was screaming something he could not make out as he was more focused on the horribly bent steel beam slamming to the ground in front of him. He followed to where a Sutherland had brought up its two stun tonfas and was charging at him, ready to disembowel his unit. Bringing up his left arm, he fired off the slash harken even as he began reversing, the wheels on the landspinners squealing as they fought for traction to get their master to safety. But, to his shock, he watched as the Sutherland nimbly ducked under the slash harken even as it came barreling towards him. It was only with the desperation that he launched the other one, then to his shock found it deflected by the actual tonfa itself effortlessly.

It was only a last moment reaction that he brought up his right arm and the brilliant green barrier that was his Blaze Luminous System allowed a momentary respite from the assault, only to find the Lancelot staggering as the Sutherland simply swerved around and viciously backhanded him with the other left arm of the Sutherland. Instinctively, he responded both launching one of his thigh mounted slash harkens at the attacker, but also using his other slash harken to right himself and put some distance between him and his attacker.

"Suzaku, what the hell is going on, what are you doing to my Lancelot," Lloyd's voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard yet at the same time showing menace that had Cecile positively shivering.

"Busy right now," Suzaku ground out as the Sutherland's slash harkens lashed out after him, causing him to take evasive, sensing an opening as he took to the air , spinning the Lancelot around, his own slash harkens spinning around him as he used it for leverage and increasing his spin, only to his shock finding that the Sutherland not only did not fall, but in fact found him crashing into the ground, the mangled remains of the Lancelot's leg the only indication of what he had intended. The Sutherland now stood over him as he fought to try and get the Lancelot back up, firing off a slash harken, watching as the Sutherland simply avoided the attempt, seemingly knowing exactly what he was going to do before it happened.

"In any other circumstance, Kururugi," the pilot spoke, causing his eyes to widen at the fact that the terrorist was a woman, "I would spare your life. But you stole him from me and I'm not going to let that happen again."

What the hell is she talking about, Suzaku thought desperately, even as he urged the Lancelot to react to him, but finding that without one of its legs the Lancelot was completely useless to use for anything other than turning the body. He could only watch as the tonfa came down towards the cockpit, only for it to be stopped by another Sutherland, that interposed and grabbed the arm.

"Let me go," the woman snarled, "I need to end him. If you let him-"

Whatever the other Sutherland was saying seemed to get through to the pilot as suddenly the woman let out another snarl, before taking a look at him as if wanting to say something, but then said nothing as the tonfas returned to its arms and it took off.

The other Sutherland took a look at him one more moment, as if trying to decide what to do something to him, allowing him to easily recognize the unit as a Purist Faction knightmare, before it also took off.

It was as it was disappear that he heard Clovis call out for a retreat, and Lloyd was again screaming at him. But he didn't care, all that he did care for was why he was spared at all when it was obvious they both could have killed him.

Even several hours later, Kallen could barely contain the anger and frustration that threatened to explode outward even as she stormed into her home. She didn't even pay attention her mother as she passed by her without any recognition of her being there before going to her room and slamming it behind her.

Just how could Lelouch stop her from doing what she had to do?! He didn't know exactly what Suzaku would cause in the future that would have been better prevented if she had just killed him right then and there. With Suzaku out of the way, they could have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and retake Japan and prevent the Black Knights from possibly turning on him.

Throwing herself down on the bed, even that didn't take away from her frustration as she let out a groan, her mind whirling at the opportunity lost. There might not be a better chance than what she had been presented in Shinjuku.

Still, she had to wonder exactly how Lelouch had been able to get Clovis to retreat, that hadn't happened last time. In fact, if she remembered right, he had infiltrated Clovis' command cruiser and assassinated the viceroy with the help of his Geass.

So many things were already changing, both because of what had happened at Shinjuku, but also what she had done. Her actions had changed so much, just how were things going to change,and the fact was Suzaku was still alive, creating the largest problem to his safety.

"Dammit Lelouch," she muttered frustratedly as she rolled over and buried her face in the pillow, "why the hell did you spare Suzaku?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

She hadn't been expecting an answer to the rhetorical question, so when it did happen, her mind took a few moments to grasp that there had been an answer, and second, that she was not alone in the room. So it was with a gasp as she flopped over, crawling up her bed and pressing her back into the headboard of it, that she caught sight of the intruder as the last person she would ever expect.

Because it was the man that she loved and would do anything for.

"Hello Kallen," Lelouch said, leaning against the wall in her bedroom, his expression guarded and nearly unreadable, "I think we need to talk."

Holy shit, is this a second chapter?

It is! It is a second chapter!

That said, I didn't write any of it. This is entirely Al's work, because I'm a useless lazy piece of shit who's basically been hiding from everything for the past few months. Well. Longer than that, actually.

Anyway. All kudos for this go entirely deserved to him - my only part in it was posting this almost two months after I received it, because, again, I'm a useless lazy piece of shit.

It's a pretty epic chapter, am I right? Al did an awesome job with it - better than anything I could have put out regardless.

Again, all credit to him - I'm the glorified messenger boy right now.