Four Weeks Later

The Headquarters of The Order of the Black Knights

Kallen sat down on the edge of her bed, pulling a black boot over her right foot. Her eyes were unfocussed as she dressed, staring blankly in front of her as if searching for something beyond the wall.

Her room was sparse; a single bed lined one wall, while an old wooden cabinet leant against another. The remnants of the Order of the Black Knights had not been living in luxury for the past four weeks. They had so much momentum coming into the final battle, so much spirit, so much hope. Everything seemed to be going well, despite their disadvantage in number and technology, yet Schneizel managed to crush their hopes completely in one fell swoop.

Zero had been captured.

Even when almost the entire organisation had been held captive by the Second Prince, they had always maintained high spirits. Zero would come for them; he would find a way to rescue them despite the overwhelming odds. Even those who knew that Lelouch had been the original Zero believed this. Zero was their symbol for hope, the proof that they could still create a new world without Britannia's oppression. When Schneizel had captured Zero, he had captured what little hope the Black Knights had left.

After the FLEIJA had detonated, Schneizel's forces immediately boarded the Avalon, destroying every Caerleon within seconds. The Black Knights had been disarmed quickly, only a few managing to take down one or two of Schneizel's men before being shot down.

Kallen dropped her left boot and lay back on the bed, closing her eyes for a moment.

The Avalon

The Black Knights had been shackled together in groups of ten within the main hangar and watched over by pairs of guards carrying submachine guns. They were ruthless, letting out a spray of bullets every time someone even looked like they were making some sort of attempt to escape. Sometimes these bullets hit other prisoners than those who had moved, and sometimes they didn't, yet the guards would always, without fail, kill their target.

That was their method of putting down resistance; anyone who wanted to play hero would not only sacrifice their own life, but the lives of others who hadn't fought back. It was a brutal method, but it was extremely effective none the less.

One group at a time, they were taken into another room adjacent to the hangar with fear in their eyes. One or two resisted again, but they were instantly put to death. The rest of the prisoners were forced to continue walking towards the room dragging the body, still shackled to their chain at the wrist. Everyone outside could hear the gunshots and screams begin once the door shut, and instantly realised the horrible truth.

They were being exterminated.

More people panicked and tried to break free, but the result never changed. Every one of them was still bound to the rest of their group, so they rarely made it further than a few feet by pulling their allies before themselves and a number of the group were gunned down.

Kallen herself had been part of the regular attack forces during the battle; her skill as a pilot had once been formidable, but since Lelouch's execution she had been nothing but a shadow of her former self.

Her group was being held in a small alcove behind her once beloved Guren frame. She smiled sadly to herself; if only she had one more chance to pilot it, maybe everything would come back to her; maybe she could regain some of the feeling she had lost so long ago. It never made any difference how many chances they gave her, though; every time it would be one more, one more, but she would never show any improvement.

"Get up."

Kallen ground her teeth together as the guard spat orders in her face. These weren't Schneizel's pilots, these were just grunts. They had arrived on transport ships similar to the Caerleons after the knightmares had secured the Avalon, rather than flying over in their own knightmares. These were the ones Schneizel used to do his dirty work – the filthy rats of European society who had been seduced with false promises of nobility in return for aiding Schneizel in his take-over.

Kallen obeyed immediately, as did the rest of the group; there wasn't really much choice when faced with an armed guard who had been proven to have no reservations about shooting anyone at will. Her mind was blank as she stood and moved to follow the guard, her eyes empty of all emotion. There was a small chance they weren't going to be killed, or that the guard would release them, but there was no point worrying about that; she had no power to affect it either way.

They were herded through the door and into another large room, yet nowhere near as big as the main hangar. Kallen recognised it as the same room she had entered from when she had seen Tamaki off. She bit back a sob.

'Damn you Tamaki, in the end it was all for nothing. You died for nothing, Tamaki. Just like Lelouch did. Both of you had such high hopes for the world after your deaths, but they never changed a thing!'

A few gasps and screams came from the rest of her group as the guard stepped aside. The walls of the room were coated in blood, and on the far side was a crude stack of bodies, each bearing the bloodstained and torn uniforms of the Order of the Black Knights. Four men stood on the opposite side of the room holding machine guns with empty casings littered around them.

It was truly an execution chamber in every sense.

One of the men clipped the gun onto his belt and walked towards a desk in the centre of the room, picking up a clipboard which had been the lone object sitting on it. He started from the side opposite Kallen and began to walk down the line, his eyes flicking between each face and the clipboard. Kallen assumed he had a list of valuable hostages on the page; it wouldn't be good for him if someone like Cornelia or Tōdō had been put to death without permission.

Heavy footsteps signalled his appearance in front of her. She made no effort to look up at him, letting in a sharp breath when she felt his rough hands grip her chin and force it up so it was level with his. Their lips were barely an inch apart, and Kallen could smell the putrid scent of alcohol on his breath.

"Ohh? Kōzuki Kallen, is it?"

She tore her head out of the man's grasp and returned her gaze to the floor. There was no way she would ever let someone like him use her body for his own entertainment. She slowly moved her tongue to the front of her mouth, placing it between her teeth and preparing to bite down if it came to that.

"His Highness has decided you are more valuable to him alive."

Kallen relaxed slightly as her shackles were undone, wincing slightly as one swung into her shin as it fell. She wouldn't allow herself to drop her guard yet, however; Schneizel thinking her more valuable alive could mean almost anything. She could become his personal servant, be sold or given to a noble as a sex slave, released again, killed by him personally or any number of other distasteful scenarios.

It was possible he would release her, having done so before, although now that he had Zero in his custody, he would almost certainly be preparing mass public executions for the command-level Black Knights. Why she would be included in that, she had no idea; it had been months since she had been a part of the leadership group.

The guard walked her roughly back out into the main hangar just as the gunshots and screams began inside. Kallen shivered slightly as she heard them, and again when she noticed that the guard escorting her made no visible reaction to the slaughter, save for a slight smirk touching his lips.

She clenched her fist in fury. 'That bastard! He's enjoying this! He's enjoying hearing them die!'

Other Black Knights who had yet to be taken into the room looked at her as she passed with varied expressions on their faces. Some held confusion as to why she was released, others showed envy, knowing they were next. Some looks were compassionate, praying for her that she was not being walked towards a far worse fate, while many of her allies simply stared blankly, as if not noticing her at all.

She was led through corridor after corridor until eventually they stopped outside the Command Centre. The guard knocked, waiting a few moments for a reply before opening the door and pulling her inside. Tōdō, Cornelia, Ōgi, Villetta, Chiba and the others were individually chained to separate sections of the wall which enclosed the circular room.

A few of them let out a thankful sigh or called her name when she came into view, but she barely noticed them, instead focusing on the chains which were being used to shackle her to what appeared to be a section of wall specifically reserved for her. As soon as she was in place, the guard vacated the room and a voice spoke.

"It seems you've lost."

Nobody made any move to reply, instead avoiding the Second Prince's eyes as his gaze drifted over them. Kallen was surprised he had boarded the Avalon himself, only an hour and a half after capturing it. It seemed to be a very dangerous move for him to make; there could still be rebels aboard the ship who had not been captured and were planning his assassination.

Not only was there danger involved, but the primary function of Schneizel's forces on the ship was the organised execution of the Black Knights; it was something a Britannian Prince would greatly prefer to stay well away from in person. The fact that he had boarded it meant that he had some ulterior motive, other than overseeing the operation.

"Zero is alive."

Every head snapped up immediately at this statement and their hope rose slightly; they had been sure that Zero had died in the blast. Nobody smiled though; Schneizel seemed to have something more to say. It was likely that he would be using them to flush Zero out of hiding.

"He is now under my care."

Instantly, their hopes were brutally crushed. If Zero had been caught as well, there was no hope for the resistance. There was no resistance any longer. They had no worth to Schneizel anymore; now that he had Zero, there was little chance they would receive anything other than a public execution.

Cornelia cringed. Almost everyone had been on the Avalon for the battle; they fully expected it to be a do or die scenario. Only their members' families had not been part of the assault, as well as Nunnally, who was unsuited for taking part in any level of combat, and Sayoko, who had remained as Nunnally's personal bodyguard.

If all of them were executed, including Zero, then unless another competent Zero came out of nowhere, Nunnally would be the only one left who had any chance of successfully leading a resistance. Cornelia didn't want that future for her; Nunnally would never be able to cope with the harsh realities of a leader's decisions.

Kallen growled under her breath at his words. Of course Schneizel wouldn't say he had captured Zero, he would put it far more elegantly than that. Moments later, something registered in her head, and she looked up to see Schneizel already looking at her. Putting aside the feeling of unrest created from knowing he had pre-empted her response, she spoke.

"So you know his face, do you?"

"Yes, I do. The question is, do you?"

The Black Knights were silent at his response; in truth, none of them had seen it. Kallen bit down on her tongue softly to keep herself from saying anything she might regret later. She knew that Schneizel wanted them to guess, to toy with them a bit before doing whatever he planned on doing with them.

Regardless, part of her wanted to shout her suspicion of it being Suzaku despite being unable to think of a reason why she would want that. Another deeper, much more hidden, part of her urged her not to. It was true that to a degree she had been in denial about Lelouch's death; the voice-masker she knew to be attached to every Zero mask allowing her to, on occasion, pretend it was Lelouch behind it. She feared hearing an absolute statement asserting that it wasn't.

Ōgi spoke up first, ignoring Schneizel's question. "What will happen to us?"

The rest of them understood Ōgi's desperation for survival and accepted it. If both he and Villetta died, their child would be left to grow up an orphan. It was unfair that they both had to participate so heavily in the resistance, but the Black Knights needed them. Both would still give their lives for the Order, although now it would be with regret and a heavy heart, unlike Ōgi's previous complete acceptance of death.

"You will go free."

All eleven sets of eyes around the room focussed on him immediately. He was going to let them go? Again? Ōgi and Villetta simultaneously gasped in relief, while everyone else maintained far more guarded expressions.

"Why?" Cornelia challenged immediately. "You've got Zero; you don't need us to lure him out anymore."

"True, I do have Zero," he began calmly. "And he will receive a public execution. Zero is an icon for resistance; killing him now will destroy that hope, but in years to come it may come back. When that hope returns, there will be another Zero to take the place of the current one, and that Zero will go directly to the Order of the Black Knights."

Cornelia ground her teeth together in rage; she knew where this was going.

"Another Zero will give me another chance to prove that their hope is not immortal. Zero can die, and will die. The world will see that no Zero can ever hope to stand against Britannia." He spoke in his typical manner, showing none of the arrogance that one would normally associate with such a declaration.

"And so you will all be set free once again. You will reform your resistance from nothing, and with a new Zero, you will fight Britannia," he continued. "The deaths of every member who has ever joined the Order of the Black Knights will be on your hands, and over time the people will reject you, turning instead to Britannia for peace."

"That is how I will create an ideal world."

The Headquarters of The Order of the Black Knights

At that moment, it was obvious to all of them that Schneizel had won. If they dropped the resistance, Schneizel won; if they continued it, Schneizel won. It was an easy choice to make; they would continue to fight against Britannia, but that choice had never been taken away from them. The longer it took them to succeed, the more people would turn against them. They would create a peaceful world, but they would do so by unwillingly forcing the world under Britannia's will. After that it didn't matter if they had the power to defeat Britannia; the world wouldn't want them to.

"Kallen? The cars will be here soon, you'd better wait downstairs with the others," Villetta's voice drifted in from the doorway.

Kallen sighed and pulled herself into a sitting position on her bed. "Coming."

Once she finished getting dressed, she slowly descended the stairs and walked into the living room. The mood was sombre, and everyone save for Villetta was seated on the four couches set around the room. Kaguya looked up and patted the couch next to her, giving Kallen a sad smile as she made her way over.

Ōgi, Minami and Kento were seated opposite Kallen. They seemed to be coping the worst out of everyone in the room; Ōgi in particular had never quite recovered from Tamaki's death. The remaining thirteen members of the Order of the Black Knights had been divided into two groups for living arrangements, and each group had managed to acquire two conjoining floors of apartment buildings across the road from each other. Ōgi, Villetta, Minami, Kento, Kaguya and Kallen lived in one, while Tōdō, Chiba, Cornelia, Guilford, Darlton, Nunnally and Sayoko lived in the other.

In the four weeks since Schneizel had once again crushed their hopes, they hadn't had any sort of success at all. Only a handful of frames had been left battle-ready by his forces, and even the Lancelot and Guren had been stripped of a few of their more powerful weapons. Only fourty-three membership requests had been received, and from them only thirty-eight officially joined – the others backing out at the last minute.

They had very little time to work with thanks to Schneizel. Tōdō estimated that if they were to ever successfully defeat him, then they would need to do it within eighteen months or they would become the people's enemy. Furthermore, if they could not make significant progress within six months, it was all over.

The future seemed bleak for them. To make 'significant progress' would mean to restore their battle capacity to slightly over half of what it was when they entered the last battle. Without the financing, manpower or initial resources they'd had access to previously, it looked impossible even to the perpetually optimistic Kaguya.

Now, more than ever, they needed Lelouch.

They had lost the Tristan and Mordred frames too, not to mention the pilots. The funerals for Gino and Anya were conducted by Odysseus personally in Britannia, as was the custom for the Knights of Round. Regardless of the circumstances of them leaving service, they would always receive the traditional royal funeral, second in extravagance only to those of the Imperial Family themselves.

The final insult had come when Schneizel personally penned all thirteen of them letters inviting the remaining Black Knights to their funerals. He hadn't stopped there, however, going as far as to arrange all their transportation, accommodation and an itinerary fit for a tourist at his own expense.

The letters had been received during one of their many meetings, and chaos had broken out. They would never refuse to attend the funerals of two of their counterparts, but not a single person wanted to accept Schneizel's financing of their endeavour to pay respects to their fallen comrades.

Eventually, Tōdō had been the first one to argue the contrary, followed closely by Cornelia. Regardless of how despicable the offer was, drying up their own funds was not an acceptable course of action, nor was it something Gino and Anya would have wanted. He mentioned that if Gino had been around to advise them, he would likely have been impressed at the opportunity to leech away Schneizel's funds.

It had been a disgusting feeling to have to reschedule Tamaki's funeral, which had been on the day between Gino's and Anya's, but they were unsure if it had anything to do with Schneizel. Tamaki's funeral wasn't a publicised event, but it was still possible that the timing had been deliberate. Still, the royal funerals were not something they could possibly reschedule themselves, and they wouldn't miss any of the three.

Tamaki's funeral started in two and a half hours.

A few footsteps were heard on the stairs and Villetta came into view moments later. She flipped her mobile phone shut and placed it inside her purse. "The cars are here."

They stood silently as a group and followed the silver-haired woman towards the stairwell. Sayoko had been babysitting Villetta's and Ōgi's child that morning while she made some last minute preparations, so the baby would be returned to its parents when both groups met up at the funeral.

The drive passed in total silence. They had procured two large transports similar in size to their old mobile bases for use, so everyone was able to travel together without hiring something similar to a limousine; they all felt that such a vehicle would be distasteful due to its regular use in celebratory events.

The temple which had been selected for Tamaki was situated two hours drive away from the Tokyo Settlement; Britannia had not attempted to destroy those in Tokyo, but had given them a five year period with which to cease operations and move outside the settlements when they originally invaded.

When the vehicle finally pulled up in a dense section of forest, the group disembarked and made their way down the path which continued through the trees towards the temple. They were met by the other group at the entrance, and once the Ōgis' child had been returned, entered together.

Kallen and Ōgi immediately made their way over to the casket, which was surrounded by a variety of decorations the group had decided on previously. Next to the arrangement was a small table, having been set up by the temple. Because of the difficulty in getting to the temple two days in a row, they would generally accept condolence money and other offerings right up to the funeral itself, which would be placed on the table to be sent to the grieving party after the ceremony.

A large number of envelopes lay stacked together from the many Japanese who knew of Tamaki and admired him, but didn't attend both the wake and funeral due to not knowing him personally. More than a few cards stood on their ends around the tables from Britannians who had similar sentiments about the man, but weren't aware of the regular customs of the Japanese people.

A particularly extravagant card caught her attention at the front of the table, decorated with metallic gold lining. Kallen smiled at the generosity and picked the card up, her smile turning instantly to fury as she read it.

"…Schneizel!"

Ōgi's neck snapped towards her instantly. "What?"

"That bastard left a card! How dare he!" she hissed as she clenched her fists at her sides. Her voice was quiet but full of hate, trying to express her anger without disrespecting Tamaki by losing her composure at his funeral.

Ōgi was shocked. "He didn't, did he…"

He trailed off as he looked towards the table at where Kallen had removed the card from. In the space which had been between the front and back of the card stood a White King. Kallen was about to respond but forgot what she was going to say as she traced his gaze. She began to shake as her own came to rest upon the arrogant gesture.

"That bastard…that bastard…I'll kill him myself! I'll–"

Ōgi put a hand to her mouth and used his other to restrain her; she was quickly losing her composure. When she finally calmed down enough for him to safely release her without an outburst he let go, his hand immediately snaking out to grasp her wrist as she attempted to knock the King to the ground with a wild swing.

He turned to look into her eyes and shook his head, telling her not to attempt that again. She seemed equal parts confused and angry, before he reached over with his other hand and gently tipped the King onto its side with his index finger.

All of Kallen's anger fell away at that simple gesture; Schneizel had only given them one more reason to make sure they would defeat him.

Leaving the White King lying at the front of the table as if they had placed it there on its side by themselves, the pair made their way back towards the rest of the funeral party. The funeral was an open one; Tamaki would have wanted his to be a big occasion with as many people remembering him as possible, rather than a private affair. There were at least fifty people in attendance.

Nobody seemed to really stand out. A few Kallen knew to be relatives of those in the Order of the Black Knights and either had some form of contact with Tamaki or simply admired him. She winced slightly when she realised that every family member of a Black Knight in the room had just lost a loved one forever. A few wouldn't look at them as they moved towards the front of the ceremony, but none seemed to be angry with them; if they did blame them, it was a reflex, rather than a conscious decision.

For some reason, her gaze was repeatedly drawn to two figures in the back of the crowd. One wore a black suit with a white tie, clearly giving him away as a male. His face was completely hidden by a black baseball cap, but dark hair could be seen sticking out at the sides and further obscuring his face.

The person next to him was obviously a woman from her frame, although she too hid her identity. A long black dress covered her body down to the ankles, allowing a pair of black high heels to be seen on her feet. On her head she wore a more extravagant headpiece than her partner, although its primary function of guarding her identity was comfortably fulfilled.

Kallen wasn't sure why she was paying extra attention to these two. Wearing some sort of headpiece to avoid showing your face was generally considered extremely rude at a funeral, but in the case of a resistance member's, it was accepted as a necessity for those who wished to protect themselves from reprisal due to association with the Black Knights. She shook her head of the thoughts and returned her attention to the ceremony.

A few hours later the funeral and cremation had both been completed, as well as the burial in the temple's personal cemetery.

"Are you coming to the execution?"

Kallen jumped, slightly startled by Cornelia who had walked up behind her. She turned to face her and tried to respond, but couldn't form words. Biting her lip, she looked towards the ground and finally managed to speak.

"No…I don't…I don't think I can…"

Cornelia smiled sadly, pulling Kallen into an embrace as the girl let out a few tears. The public execution of Zero was scheduled to be held that evening and Kallen still seemed undecided about whether or not she would attend. The rest of the Black Knights were going to honour their leader, but to go would also mean to acknowledge that Schneizel has the power to kill Zero – to kill their hope.

The older woman released Kallen slowly as her tears came to a stop, keeping a supportive hand on her shoulder. "The vehicles are ready."

Kallen nodded and they turned to leave. She stopped for a moment on the way out, turning back for one last look at Tamaki's ceremony. Her gaze was immediately drawn to the man wearing the baseball cap, who had made his way over to the table next to the arrangement.

He reached into his pocket silently and withdrew something she wasn't able to recognise from a distance. Murmuring a few words, he spent a moment positioning the object on the table and left, hesitating slightly as he brushed past her in the doorway.

Kallen slowly walked towards the table, curiosity overcoming her. She looked down when she reached it and a genuine smile passed across her features.

The White King lay in pieces, a Black King standing proudly over it.