"I'm really feeling it."

- Shulk

Timeline A: Nightmare of Nunnally

Schneizel was dead. Damocles had been destroyed. All that remained were a handful of the tyrant's most devoted loyalists. The night air was filled with the sounds of Knightmare Frame wreckage burning, swords clashing, and a young girl's psychotic laughter.

"Give it to me! Give it to me, Lord Schneizel! I did everything you asked! I want more Refrain! Ahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahahahahaha!"

The battle had lasted the entire day, and hours had passed since Kallen had received a concentrated dose of Refrain. Cut off from her only source and with long-term withdrawal torturing her body, she had broken into complete hysteria. Wild-eyed and covered in a feverish sweat, she lunged closer and closer toward her opponent.

"Kallen, try to calm down!" Suzaku shouted as he crossed his saber with hers. "You're better than this!"

The wreckage of the Guren and the Lancelot smoldered in the background. The two KMFs had destroyed one another during the final stages of the assault on Damocles; the Lancelot serving under Nunnally's rebel forces and the Guren defending Schneizel's fascist empire. Once the pilots had escaped their mangled cockpits, the battle resumed on foot.

With one arm, Kallen wildly flailed her sword toward Suzaku. Her other arm shivered violently at her side as addiction pangs racked her body. Even in her emotional chaos, there was a certain amount of coordination in her attacks. Schneizel's re-education program had forced her to develop vicious and animalistic survival instincts. Instincts that were so deeply grafted with medications and mental conditioning that they would still influence her piloting and fighting skills if she completely lost her sanity.

"Stick it inside me, Lord Schneizel!" Kallen screamed in delight. "It feels so good when you stick it all inside me! Gimme Refrain!"

Suzaku stepped backward as he blocked another one of Kallen's attacks. He had been fighting Kallen defensively the whole time, pleading with her to overcome Schneizel's cruelty and regain her senses. When he glanced behind his back toward Nunnally, the girl sadly shook her head in silence. Kallen had been given too much of the toxin. Her mind was beyond all hope.

Suzaku took the offense. Kallen dodged his attack and jumped in the air like a rabid cat. Suzaku raised his sword above his head to block her downward slash, but Kallen swung with such ferocity that his weapon shattered in half when the two swords clashed. Kallen's blade continued screaming downward, grazed over Suzaku's shoulder, cut halfway into his neck, and ended up stuck in his vertebrae.

In his final agonizing breaths, Suzaku turned the splintered end of his saber outward and drove it through Kallen's stomach. The front of her Britannian pilot gown turned a darker shade of red.

"Aheheheh. That's… more… like it…" Kallen giggled weakly as her eyes closed. The two pilots stood there impaling each other like the noble King Arthur and his twisted son Mordred, and then both crumpled into a heap.

Nunnally had ended Schneizel's reign of horror, but victory came at a heavy price.

Timeline B: A Dream of Spring

"…-len! Kallen!"

Something shook Kallen back to consciousness. Her vision focused, and she saw Suzaku looking down at her with worried eyes. He was holding her in his arms. The Lancelot and the Guren were kneeling just behind them.

Kallen's memory slowly returned to her. She had pushed the Guren to its limits chasing Schneizel's fortress. She flew higher and higher into the stratosphere until she was hovering above the deck of the Damocles. She managed to get one last shot with her palm cannon just as she blacked out. Suzaku must have caught her during the free fall and steered both of their KMFs to the ground.

"Is it over?" Kallen asked tiredly.

"We won." Suzaku nodded. "You took out Schneizel."

Kallen sat up so they could share a hug. They only separated when Kallen winced and pressed her fingers to her forehead. Suzaku instantly knew what was troubling her and pulled a small item out of his flight suit. It was a pink flask no bigger than his thumb.

Kallen was completely dependent on Refrain when Nunnally had her relieved from Schneizel's authority. It had required some clever Britannian diplomacy, essentially a rescue effort disguised as a slave trade, but Nunnally pulled it off without raising too much suspicion. She had created a less potent version of the drug that was allowing Kallen to slowly cure her addiction, but her body still needed smaller and smaller doses as it adjusted.

Suzaku unzipped the collar of Kallen's leather jumpsuit and was just about to put the flask to her neck when Kallen took hold of his wrist.

"I'm okay, Suzaku. It's just a little headache," she said with a thankful smile. "I'll live without that stuff."

Suzaku sighed in relief and placed the vial back into his pocket.

Overhead, the descending ruins of Damocles exploded into smaller fragments and disintegrated before reaching the ground. It looked like a vibrant meteor shower falling from the night sky.

"Euphie. Lelouch. Now Schneizel. Where do we go from here?" Kallen asked as they both gazed upward.

"We start over," Suzaku said quietly.

They were going to create a new world. A world where the Areas were free and Nunnally was the leader of Britannia.