Aftermath
Summary: Queen takes King. Spoilers: AU after Code Geass R2 Episode 23
Author's Note: First fanfic, R&R would be greatly appreciated, especially constructive criticism.
This chapter has been edited from its original form. Thanks go to vividintwilight, for
awesome pre-reading. (Or post-reading, in this case.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its characters.

Chapter 1: Capture:

"Out of my way!" Kōzuki Kallen roared, her Guren's radiation arm effortlessly cutting through two opposing knightmare frames, bathing the sky in bright flames.

Kallen never told anyone, but battle was where she felt the most alive. It was a deadly dance, where you twirled on the edge of a razor, a single slip meaning death or victory: it was exhilarating, a drug far more dangerous than Refrain. On the battlefield, action replaced thought, and things became so simple. Destroy your enemies. Protect your allies. Kill. Survive. There was no time to think about anything complicated, the Black Knights, Schneizel, or Zer... Lelouch, they all faded into the background. On the battlefield there was no uncertainly: only the orders and how to fulfill them. On the battlefield she could just do what she did best: fight. It was where she was most fully in her element, like a tiger unleashed into the jungle. She had never told anyone, and most likely never will, that a part of her delighted in the carnage.

A lull in the battle emerged as both side retreated to lick their wounds. Kallen slipped out of her battle mentality, and took a moment to assess her surroundings. Behind her, the Damocles hung like a dark sword against an otherwise deceptively peaceful sky. Ahead of her... Lelouch. Her king, commander, friend, and maybe more. A strange but familiar conviction rose in her mind. That she had to be the one to defeat him. Kallen didn't know why, only that it was important, and that she had to be the one to do it.

"Kallen." She was snapped out of her brief reverie by her comm system switching on. Ogi's face materialized into focus on her view panel. A large bruise, courtesy of Mt.Fuji's Sakuradite explosion, decorated his forehead.

"What is it?" Kallen asked curtly.

"We need you to hit the enemy's left wing. With Kururugi attacking the front, we'll need to pull back Team three to reinforce the defense of the Damocles." Ogi replied.

Kallen was silent for a moment. The Lancelot Albion was no longer defending the Avalon. A strange, almost crazy, plan began to formulate in the back of her mind. She knew that if she went through with it and didn't accomplish her goal, the Black Knights could very well lose the battle: the entire world would pay for it. Yet, the idea wouldn't let her go. A voice in the core of her being screamed at her to go through with it.

It was the same voice that first told her something was wrong with her perfect world, with her Japan. It was the voice that first told her to try piloting a knightmare frame. It was the voice that first told her... to follow Zero. She made up her mind.

"Kallen?" Ogi asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Ogi," Kallen whispered. "I'm sorry."

Ogi's eyes widened as Kallen switched off her comm system. Taking a deep breath, she rested her hands lovingly on the controls of her Guren, the machine she knew as well as any part of her body. Ahead of her was the Lelouch. Ahead of her was Victory. She moved.

Anyone watching would have saw a red blur cutting across the sky towards the Avalon, the knightmares unlucky enough to be in its path becoming nothing more than balls of flame and charred metal. And then it stopped, hovering above the flagship with red energy wings fully extended and its eyes glowing bright green, like a vengeful god of war, fearsome and unstoppable. The green shields that materialized above the Avalon were easily ripped away by the frame's radiation arm, followed by it peeling back the bridge hull like the skin of an orange. The surrounding knightmares didn't move or fire: none dared risk hitting the bridge.

Kallen saw him, sitting serenely on his throne, seemingly completely at ease with the giant killer robot hovering over him. Strangely, the rest of the room was empty. She didn't let that phase her, and her Guren's radiation arm slammed around him, create a crude cage, the claws digging into the sides of his throne. He didn't flinch. She loaded a radiation charge, ready to turn him into ash. But not yet. There were things that had to be answered still.

"Hello, Kallen." Lelouch greeted her, his tone betraying neither fear nor anger.

As always, his impeccable elegance and indifferent manner were both admirable and infuriating.

"Lelouch." Her voice was surprisingly calm, considering how her mind was a boiling pot of emotions at the moment. Now that she was here, she had no idea what to say. She blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I've come to defeat you."

"Defeat me?" He sounded both amused and mocking, in a way only Lelouch could manage. "And why would you do that? You, who swore to protect Zero. Will you abandon me once again, like you did at Kaminajima?

Kallen couldn't help but flinch. Lelouch always knew how to get what he wanted with words. Words could encourage, inspire. They could also hurt, even kill. And as always, Lelouch knew how to strike and what words were appropriate for the situation: it was part of what made him a great commander. Even without geass he was still the most dangerous person she knew. But Kallen didn't let it get to her: she had the upper hand here.

"You are not Zero. I told you before, that I followed Zero and not Lelouch." Kallen stated. "Lelouch vi Britannia, for the crimes of kidnapping UFN representatives, and for disturbing the peace of the world and seeking its conquest, in my capacity as Captain of the Order of Black Knights, I'm taking you into UFN custody." Kallen felt the theatrics were necessary. She was, afterall, facing Lelouch.

Then he laughed. Not the light laugh of Lelouch Lamperouge, the Ashford Academy student, and not even the triumphant laugh of Zero, the leader of the Order of Black Knights, but one... darker. It was a laugh she'd heard before, the day the Black Knights discovered his identity, and he had told her, told them all, that they had been pawns in his game. It had chilled and horrified her then, just as it did now. There was a certain insanity in that laugh.

"You agreed to come with me down this path of carnage, Q1!" Lelouch proclaimed. "If this world will not become mine, it will become his, Schneizel's! Even more than mine, his world will be drenched in fear and the blood of innocents. Is that the future you want, Kouzuki Kallen?"

"What you're doing is wrong!" She exclaimed. "How are you any better than him?"

His expression changed then, from a mad smile to something unreadable. He whispered something she had to strain to hear.

"Didn't you ask me to lie to the very end, Kallen?"

That's when she knew she couldn't kill him.

"You're coming with me, Lelouch." Kallen stated, loading her gun and tranquilizer. She opened her cockpit, taking care to aim straight at Lelouch. Lowered herself slowly on the pilot line, she kept her pistol trained on him.

"Did you forget?" He seemed amused. Pressing a button on his chair, one of the bridge's viewscreen's lit up to show the room of UFN hostages. "If you capture or kill me, their lives are forfeit. Are you willing to sacrifice their lives for mine?"

"The UFN nations have already elected proxies." Kallen put forth coldly. "Sacrifices are necessary." Though if she were right, she thought to herself, there would be no sacrifices.

He looked shocked for a second at her lack of concern for their lives. Then his eyes narrowed. "Kallen... for the sake of the world, and the Zero Requiem, I can't allow myself to be defeated here." Lelouch stated, snapping his fingers.

Almost immediately, the doors burst open, and masked Britannian soldiers began to pour in. The Emperor's geassed guard dogs. Moving quickly, she rushed forward, capturing Lelouch in a tight hold and pressing her gun against his head.

"Don't move!" Kallen commanded. The guards froze in place, unwilling to risk the life of their master. Slowly, she walked backward towards her Guren, easily restraining the struggling Lelouch.

"You'll doom us!" Lelouch exclaimed, his unnatural calm now completely gone, his eyes wild. There was a hint of desperation in his voice.

Kallen didn't answer, instead stepping on the pilot line and riding up with her captive. Once in the cockpit, she pressed the tranquilizer against his neck and pressed the trigger. Lelouch collapsed instantly against her.

"Until you tell me what I mean to you, Lelouch, I won't kill you. Until I rip away all your masks, and see your true face, I'll keep you alive. Until I find out why you told me to live on... I'll protect you." Kallen whispered to the unconscious Emperor, as she powered on her Guren.

As the view screen switched on, it showed the dozens of Britannian soldiers still on the bridge. She suppressed a brief flash of pity for her mindless enemies, and placed her thumb on the button that would send them all careening into hell. The UFN representatives... she was throwing the dice on their survival.

"See you." Said Kallen, as she pressed the trigger and a radiation beam cut through the entire ship. The Avalon erupted into a ball of blinding purple flame, its Sakuradite reserves detonating instantly. Only the Guren's remarkable speed saved it from being consumed by the explosion.

"This is Kallen." She reported, opening a voice-only communications channel to the downed Ikaruga.

"Kallen? I can't believe you did that!" Ogi's hysterical voice filtered through the Guren's speakers. "Where's Lelouch?"

'I can't let him die. Until I know... who he really is.' Kallen thought. Looking at the man next to her, she would never believe he could be responsible for so much. He looked so... peaceful. 'For now... just for now.'

"Dead. He was on the Avalon. It's over."

Lelouch wasn't, after all, the only one with a mask.