Hey everybody. Had a bunch of school projects to do, so I got a little sidetracked. However, I am still going strong and plan to continue in that way. Here's the latest. The next chapter will be a Jeremiah chapter.

JDCT

For some reason, she hadn't told anyone yet. Maybe it had to do with the shock of hearing the name 'C.C.' again. With Lelouch dead, some unreasonable part of her had figured that C.C. would be equally as gone. Sometimes the odd girl had seemed like part of him, like just another aspect of the Zero costume. A couple of times, yeah, it had crossed her mind that C.C. might show up, but certainly not in this way: certainly not through a couple of jerks who wanted to kidnap Nunnally of all things.

It was so colossally stupid that she could not pay attention in Japanese History class, and ended up with her fists balled on her desk, staring angrily out the side window. She'd come so close to running straight to Ohgi and letting him know he had private soldiers running loose in the country. But something about this all was too dumb, was too out of character. There was, as far as she could tell, no reason whatsoever for C.C. to want to kidnap Nunnally. The very idea of it was ridiculous.

Therefore Kallen sat inwardly fulminating in class, running it all over in her mind, trying to remember if those guys had left any clues, any at all in their little chat with her. But no matter how hard she thought, the fact still remained that they were as clueless as she was. Figures that C.C. wouldn't bother to tell her mercs what was going on. Kallen hadn't told anyone about anything yet, maybe because a part of her was still hoping C.C. would find her in person and explain the whole mess.

Of course, if that were to happen she wasn't sure whether to hear her out or to arrest her. C.C. hadn't exactly been an ally, at the end. Nevertheless, if C.C. did show up, Kallen knew that she would wring some answers out of the girl. But if she didn't show up, then maybe Nunnally would be in danger. Kallen had resolved to give C.C. a week, and then tell Ohgi.

It was only the second day of that week, and already it was all she could think about. Not only C.C.'s strange resurgence in her life, but the crude purveyors of her message. One thing was for certain: if she ever met Zealous and Thieving Shadow again, she would cause them tremendous pain.

She stared out the window with her thumb caressing the hidden knife-point in her purse. That bastard. It was embarrassing to think of. She'd looked away for only that tiniest amount of time, and Thieving had gone from complacent and grinning to silent speed and steel fingers. She hadn't been manhandled that badly by one guy since Suzaku had thrown her down and disarmed her on Kamine Island. Well, at least this time she hadn't been naked.

All she remembered clearly of it was the press of his arm around her neck, and beyond, Zealous staring in at her through a darkening fog, his expression indifferent and wooden, almost with a kind of boredom. Like he was watching someone being choked on TV, some person he cared nothing about.

Was everyone in the world fake?

She was going to kill them.

With a protracted sigh, Kallen slouched back in her chair. The teacher, an ancient Japanese man who'd spent most of his life in the ghettos of Chiba, was saying something about the Sengoku era. Part of her felt guilty so be so uninterested by all this: after all, she'd fought and killed and lost so much for this kind of thing, to be able to learn Japanese history. Unfortunately, this class was just as boring as any other history class she'd ever taken.

Lately, a sort of depression had taken her. Kind of a bored apathy. It was almost, (dare she say it?) a dissatisfaction with the way things had turned out. They had victory, yeah, finally, and within her own lifetime! But what of it? Kallen had never actually given her future any thought. She'd just sort of figured that, one day, she would die fighting for freedom from Britannia. No-not even that, she'd never really counted on dying in battle. She'd just never really looked ahead to a time when the fighting would be over.

Well, now they had won their freedom. Now she was free to plan a productive life and meet a nice guy and finish her education and… get a good career. She gritted her teeth and rapped her knuckles against the desk. Was this what she'd fought so hard for? To be bored all of the goddamn time? She didn't even really like the people she knew anymore. Didn't have many friends at school. Rivalz was one, of course, but he was just kind of annoying sometimes. Even all the Japanese people who'd started going to school at Ashford, they just pissed her off. They revelled in the Britannian style uniforms and academic culture. Well, to be sure, they were grateful to her, they mentioned that a lot. How they were so glad the Black Knights had fought and liberated them. But really, she still felt like they all just wanted to be Britannians.

Which was all doubtless part of the reason why she kept thinking about C.C., and why her knuckles were itching to administer a beat-down to Thieving Shad. That was really what she was best at. With a rueful sigh, she stared down at the desk. That was it, wasn't it? A part of her wanted them to try again, come back so she could pound them good.

She'd fought for a future. That was what they'd always said. They were all fighting for a better future. But if the future was so much better, why was it that all she could think about was the past? It was true. Sometimes when she was supposed to be doing homework she would just sit in her room staring through the old photos of Lelouch and the others. It felt so wrong, to be reminiscing about those times when people had been dying every day.

"Kallen."

But really, maybe it was because they'd all been her friends. It couldn't be peace that was getting her down. She just had to meet more people around school. Maybe join the new student council.

"Kouzuki Kallen," said the aged voice. Mr. Ide had a habit of calling everyone with their family name first, in old Japanese style. She glanced up, startled. A tittering made its way around the class, but she really didn't have it in her to embarrassed any more.

"Yes, Mister Ide?" she said.

He gesticulated frailly with his textbook closed over his thumb. "In my day, you know, we called the teacher 'sensei'. Anyway, Kallen-chan, I would like you to tell me the names of the five Tairo, the council of five elders, who Hideyoshi chose to rule Japan until his son came of age."

She had read the chapter out of sheer boredom the previous night. Sometimes she wondered what the point of coming to school was. She'd gotten used to learning on her own, during her periods of feigned sickness. Why bother coming in to class if she could learn faster by herself? She slid her chair backwards and lethargically rose to attention. "Ukita Hideie," she said blandly. "Maeda Toshiie, Uesugi Kagekatsu, Mori Terumoto; and, um," she frowned slightly. "Tokugawa Ieyasu."

For some reason she was reminded of Ohgi's speech the other day. That startled her, and for a moment after Ide had smiled and commended her attentiveness, she forgot to take her seat. More giggling from her classmates. Now why had she suddenly thought if that speech? A strange feeling had come over her as she recited the names. Almost nostalgia… maybe that was it. She was remembering how he'd read the names of the dead out loud.

None of those old Japanese lords had any friends left to remember them. They were just dusty old names, now. And that was how only the luckiest of people ended up: it was names in a textbook or nothing, nothing at all left of them. She didn't know anything about Tokugawa Ieyasu or the others. Nobody cared about them.

In a few years Lelouch would be in textbooks like that. They would have sayings about him, he would be reviled. Children would remember him as an evil person but they would never, never understand why. And they would never know him. He would cease to be a person any more and become, just that, a name in a textbook. And in a hundred years the name of Kallen Kouzuki would mean nothing to anyone.

For the rest of the class she sat back glumly in her chair, running her thumb over the point of the hidden knife. So maybe that was why the future didn't seem all it was cracked up to be. She hadn't won a future for herself. Just for some other people who she didn't know. All she really knew was fighting. All she'd really counted on was the present moment. The future she and Lelouch and everyone had fought for… it wasn't a future that they themselves would live in. It was for other people, who hadn't fought, who hadn't died. She already felt like those Japanese lords; left behind in an era that no one else could possibly understand.

The day ended uneventfully. She tried to keep her mind off of philosophy, and on her studies. She took the crowded train out of the Tokyo settlement, to the experimental new town they'd just finished building in the north on the ruins of Saitama. This was where she lived in a house with her mother-he real mother. The houses here had all been constructed according to the old Japanese style, had sliding doors, tatami mats, low tables and all that. It had taken a bit to get used to, but now the new house felt reassuring, reminding her that things actually had changed.

Kallen unlocked the door, slid it open, and entered while masking a yawn. She left her school bag in the entrance way, took off her shoes, and went into the living room. Her mother was cross-legged on the floor, watching the news on TV. Kallen went through the brief "Hi, how was your day/Fine/Did anything fun happen/no" routine and then crashed back into the couch and yawned again.

She wasn't really watching the news. No, she was thinking about the past yet again. This was beginning to piss her off. Every time she turned around she was thinking about some dead person and some long gone moment. Right now it was Suzaku, for some reason, and she was thinking way back to the time when they disabled his Lancelot with Gefjun disturbers, and he'd taken Zero-Lelouch-hostage.

Kallen could not help but smile grimly. She had leapt from the Guren mk. II and ran towards them, hoping desperately to sway Suzaku because they went to school together. And Lelouch… she tried to imagine his own thoughts, with his old friend holding him at gunpoint. He'd been fighting alone for so long.

"Dear?" Kallen started, and realized her mother was looking at her in concern. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," she said automatically.

"You're not sick? Or sad?"

Kallen opened her mouth with some annoyance, in order to insist that nothing was wrong, when suddenly something occurred to her. It was a little bit troubling. She sat up.

"Mom," she said gently. "Actually I have a question."

"Anything," her mother smiled.

"Um," Kallen looked down in embarrassment. "When you used to take refrain…"

Her mother blinked carefully. The lines in her face seemed to become more pronounced. "Yes, dear."

"You did it because it made you feel like you were in the past, right?"

Her mother nodded. "It was a strange feeling. Like swimming through your own memories, but everything felt… good. You didn't remember anything bad, only the good things." Then she said sternly. "But it was fake."

Kallen looked up in surprise.

Her mother continued. "It wasn't real. It made us forget real life and even the bad things that had happened in the past." She cocked her head and frowned slightly. "Kallen, why are you asking me this?"

"Well," Kallen looked sharply down at her knees. She sighed ruefully and scratched in her hair. "Lately I've been thinking about the, um, old times. I just feel… um… Mom, I don't know how to describe it… I'm sorry, this is stupid."

The cushions of the sofa depressed as her mother sat beside her and put an arm over her shoulders, tugging her closer. Kallen felt a warm kiss on top of her head. She blinked slowly, still staring down at her lap.

"I mean…" she said plaintively. "It's what we fought for, right Mom? And… and I know this is going to sound bad, but part of me wishes it was still back then."

Her mother stroked her hair soothingly. She said firmly, "You lost friends." Kallen nodded mutely. Her mother continued; "Everyone feels nostalgia. Thinking about the 'old times' is good. We have to remember where we came from. But we have to make new times, too."

She could hear the gentle smile on her mother's face. "That's what you did for me."

Kallen looked up in amazement. "What?"

"We had no hope anymore," her mother said, "you know. We were just hoping that some miracle or drug could give us our old lives back. But that's not possible. What you did was far better than a dream of our old lives." Her mother whispered, "Now we have new lives," and pulled her close, tightening her arms in a hug. "I'm very proud of you, Kallen," her mother's voice murmured in her ear, warming her and sending a shiver down her back.

Kallen left her mother downstairs and took a long, hot shower. She stood for a long time under the rush of water with her hands against the wall. There she vowed to remember the old times, and to make new ones as well. She finished feeling much better, and dried herself off and went into her room to change. As she went in she purposefully looked at the pictures on the wall and smiled in their direction. But she could still feel the sort of ache inside, despite her mother's words. She could still feel a hard pit of loss. Scoffing, she collapsed naked onto her bed. Soon she had drifted off to a blank place.

A sudden knock woke her. She jerked in surprise and groped for the towel, pulling it over her body. "Yes?"

"Kallen, there's a young man here to see you," her mother's muffled voice said.

"Uh. I'll be down in a minute," she called, and surged upwards. As she got dressed, she wondered… someone from school? Or was it one of the Shads, back again? She snatched up her purse from the bed and went to the stairs, descending rapidly and with a frown affixed on her face. Probably it was nothing, just some guy from school. Or, of course, it was probably Rivalz; he'd actually come over once or twice. But her mother knew Rivalz, and wouldn't have called him a 'young man'.

She rounded a corner and found her mother having tea with the visitor. They were sitting cross legged across from each other at the living room table. The guy looked up at her; an unfamiliar face, some guy about her age she'd never met before. He was slight of build, wearing casual clothing. His features were narrow and there was something about them that seemed odd. His hair was nearly black, lengthy, and straight, gathered back into a ponytail that lay down between his shoulder blades. His eyes met hers and widened ever so slightly, as though in surprise. They were a dim grey, somehow blank.

She scowled at him and crossed her arms. "Who are you?"

He cleared his throat sheepishly. "Um. It's understandable that you don't remember me, I suppose. We never, um, met like this."

Kallen looked briefly at her mother, eyes narrowing suspiciously. But her mother wore her usual content look as she sipped at her tea. "Well," said Kallen. "What do you want?"

"Actually," the narrow face bent into a weak smile. "I need your help with something."

There actually was something familiar about him, though she could not immediately place what it was. Did she know the face? Couldn't remember ever having seen it. Probably he was a student from her class, some pervert who needed her help with some 'homework'.

"Sorry," she said, sounding totally unapologetic. "I don't remember you-Mom, why'd you let this guy in?"

Her mother appeared unconcerned. "He said he was your friend." She smiled gently. "I knew you were missing your friends…"

Kallen grimaced and scratched behind her ear furiously. Leave it to Mom to tell some pervert from school that she was losing her nerve. Or maybe the guy was some associate of C.C.'s, some other merc with a preposterous name. Maybe better to get it out of him and send him packing in haste. It was too suspicious, considering what was up, to just let him go.

Kallen said tersely, "C'mon, then," and gestured flippantly for him to rise. He smiled and downed the last of his tea, then put a hand on the tatami and stood. Kallen stuck a hand in her pocket and briefly squeezed her purse to ensure its orientation, in case she should have to slit him open. The guy nodded and indicated for her to lead the way. She didn't like that glimmer of his eyes, the slate-like blandness.

She made him go first up the stairs, told him where to turn to get into her room, then watched him enter. She slid the door shut behind them and took the purse from her pocket, tapping it thoughtfully against her chin. The stranger was gazing around her room with clear interest. A long time ago she would have been feverishly wondering if she'd left underwear or anything else embarrassing around, but now she couldn't care less, and only stared at him, gauging.

"Nice room," he said solemnly, as was the generally approved comment for such situations. His stare lingered for a long time, particularly, on the photos she'd pinned up on a bulletin board near the door. He blinked sombrely. "Your old friends?"

"Sure," she said absently. The feeling of familiarity was increasing. Something about him… something about him was familiar to her. With crossed arms she observed him as he looked blankly at her pictures.

He said, gravely, "They look like good friends."

It was his voice. The voice was what she had recognized. But from where?

"Whatever," she snapped. "Tell me who you are and what you want."

The eyes swung placidly over her. "I'm…" He smiled, looked away. "Well… let's start with what I want. What I need."

"All right, then. Start talking," she pursed her lips stared unblinking.

"Kallen, I need you to help me rescue Nunnally," he said.

It was said casually. He hadn't even looked at her as he said it, still gazing at the photos. Immediately Kallen felt a chill pass through her, as goose bumps rose on her arms. If she'd taken the time to notice, she would've seen that her hand was gripping the purse so tightly it trembled.

She said, tremulously, "What?"

Now he looked at her, the empty eyes. "I think you heard me."

The voice.

"No. No way," she said. "This isn't possible."

"Certainly, it is," his expression was very slightly amused.

"I…" she muttered. "I… saw you…"

"Yes."

"…die." There were tears in her eyes, somehow, blurring the strange face before her.

He gave a small shrug. "And now you see me live."

She closed her eyes and breathed heavily. "What… what is going on?"

"We're going to rescue Nunnally," he said with maddening calm. "And we need your help."

"But how do you even know she needs to be rescued? They said she's just-"

He waved a hand dismissively. "That's unimportant."

Kallen stared. She stared forcing a calm upon herself. "I don't believe you. What about C.C.?"

"She told me not to come. She said that you would turn me in," he said with an evaluating look directed at her.

"Maybe I will," Kallen said nervously. Then on a sudden reflex she hurriedly averted her eyes from his. "Don't look at me. I swear to God I'll kill you if you try it-"

He raised his eyebrows as if in confusion. Then he chuckled, annoyingly. "Oh. That. Don't worry. It's gone forever."

"I don't believe you. I don't believe that you're… you. It can't be."

But there was a strange feeling in her. The stony sense of loss she had felt earlier was evaporating. Her heart was hammering in her chest and fire seemed to be roaring through all of her veins. It was like fear and elation and sorrow all felt as one. She felt like laughing hysterically, or crying, or screaming.

"Just…" Kallen said quietly. "Just show me your real face."

He smiled. Slowly his hand rose and the slender fingers bent, momentarily obscuring his face as they reached. His thumb and middle finger covered the dull eyes. He made a flourish, as though he were performing a magic trick, and the hand swept aside. And now his eyes simmered with a deep, dark violet.

Actually, something important just occured to me, which may be an issue after this chapter. Can you all please try not to post spoilers in your reviews if you choose to review? that would be a great help. Thanks.

JDCT