**I DO NOT OWN CODE GEASS OR ANY OF THE RIGHTS TO IT'S CHARACTERS!**

**This scene starts Two Months after the official end of the anime and this is mostly to canon but not entirely. . . I hope you enjoy the story**
**There are a few OCs but only one who is major character and that OC is just for plot purpose, just a heads up**

*Pre-story AN: To my British readers I am sorry if I butcher your version of English and to my American readers it won't be proper american english either. I have an odd writing style that mixes southern and british english. Please, if you are going to Review, Review on the story and it's plot not it's english. Thanks guys and I just wanted to give you a heads up. Enjoy!*

CHAPTER ONE: Over the Hills and Far Away

A red and white key sat silent on its resting place, waiting for its master to claim it once more. It cherished the way her crimson locks would angle and flare out when she threw the key around her neck. Only this key witnessed how his death had weighed on her soul. Kallen still spoke to him when she had a tough day; a coping mechanism that assisted with her return to society. Every morning she would get out of bed, take her key and pause in front of his picture. Hey, Lelouch. . . would always slip through her mind; her feelings for him had grown since he left her life, for it was only in that absence that she realized how much he truly meant to her.

The key had known all along; after all, it had helped her grow closer to him. He had given it to her so that she could do his will, but she now kept it only to serve as a reminder of his presence, considering she never seemed to return to her Guren. Kallen rarely had a thought about the past without having him interrupt and it often both cheered her up and pulled her back down. He always did that in her mind and even in death, it seemed he could never stop being the Lelouch she remembered.

Today Kallen would have to run to school, without her normal pep talk with him. She had dreamed about him again last night, about that kiss, the one before he broke her heart once more. Ignoring the alarm is easy when one re-lives their fondest memory. She ran down the streets, the key swaying from side to side on her neck. It enjoyed the breeze and the feel of her heart pounding, as it so rarely did nowadays. Now that he was dead. Her new position at school forced her into being responsible for an upcoming event, and the key hated it. She would have to pilot an obsolete model, but its jealousy remained unnoticed.

Kallen didn't think about the event as much more than a stunt that her previous Student Council President forced her and her friends into. The only reason she'd acquiesced was because of how much he would have enjoyed it, and of course, she now had his position in the Student Council. She really wished he could see this year's. . . Little did she or the key know. . .

Many miles away from the streets of Tokyo, her surprise toiled away.

"Why the hell do they keep coming back? Bloody vultures."

The man who'd spoken held a plain rake in one hand as the other shaded his eyes. Hay bales littered the field he stood in, and only his accomplice assisted him in pulling together the last of the freshly cut grass. His sight was fixed on a news-van that loomed on the side of the country road. "I swear, one man thinks he sees the demon, and all the rest come in flocks." spat the taller of the two.

"Vultures are prone to seeking the dead." stated the second farmer. He was the reason they came; it isn't every day you find someone who looked so similar to the one man nobody could ever forget. He had semi-long black hair fluttering mid-way down his neck, blue eyes with the outside rimmed in violet and two scars peeking over the edge of his white shirt that was left unbuttoned most of the way down.

He couldn't really remember much about the war from which he gained the scars, but he remembered little bits and pieces which still made him uncomfortable. His friend, the one he grew up with, or so he was told, was there by his side when he woke from his coma. They said it was shrapnel from an exploding Knightmare frame that made him almost bleed out. He remembered a large black and gold Knightmare frame falling towards him, and the sounds of explosions around him, but that is all he could remember about how he got hurt. He really wasn't cut out for working in the fields, at least not this soon after coming out of a coma he thought sourly.

"Luke, you sure you're alright? I think you should rest, ne?" called his 'overseer'. He was tall with short brown hair, green eyes, a lightly stubbled cheek; a white undershirt was the only thing he wore that differed from what Luke was wearing. Luke glanced at the half field he has helped clear this afternoon. He could only do half. Damn that man, I could do so much more if I wasn't still in pain, pinged through his brain, but remained unsaid. Why did Lucire have to be so good at farming?

"I'm alright Lucire, but I'm gonna go inside soon." he breathed as he put his head between his knees, no longer caring if he worried his childhood friend. "Just need to sit and rest for a bit." As he closed his eyes, his thoughts went to what he first said when he awoke. He dreamed about it every time he closed his eyes; it was the memory he cared about most. The girl with the red hair… "Where is she?" passed his lips in an unconscious murmur. It was the first thing he had said, as if Lucire would know right away who he was talking about. Perhaps he did, but Lucire had just worn a huge smile on his face when he saw his friend no longer in need of IV's to exist. But who is she? And what do I mean to her? Thoughts flitted though his mind as he slowly traversed the field back to 'his' farm house.

In truth, the house belonged to Lucire's family. Before the war with Britannia, they had lived in a small community called Tomioka, in Hokkaido, just southwest of Mt. Nukkibetsu. They had grown up there, lived there and had left there to join the Black Knights, just before the first attempt to liberate Tokyo. Luke had a skill for strategy and Lucire was pretty good with a gun; together, as they'd always joked (or so Lucire said), they were unstoppable.
They'd barely made it out with their skins intact, but when they returned home, their families had disappeared; only Lucire's father remained, with a knife buried in his belly and a written note hung on the front door's frame. Luke didn't wanna think about it. It hurt too much, and they took to farming, pretending they didn't fail to save their homeland. Once Zero re-emerged, they returned to the Black Knights, accompanying their escape into the Chinese Federation.
His parents? He couldn't remember them, or where they lived. . . or their faces. All he knew was he was angry at his parents for betraying him. That was how he felt, and no other way made sense to him but they had.

Luke stopped short of the stairs of the porch as two dogs came racing to meet him, a golden retriever named Hiro and a Black lab they named Zero, in honor of the hero of Japan. Both were no older than three or four years old. He still felt it was odd to call 'his' dog Zero, now that he knew the truth about the 'Demon' Lelouch. He had read his journal, after all. . .

It seemed that after Lelouch was stabbed by Zero, Lucire and several other Black Knights hungry for vengeance had wrecked the Emperor's bedroom, looking for something, anything precious to him… so they could destroy it.. Lucire himself had admitted that's why he was there. But it was in this search for something he could destroy to satisfy his rage over Luke's comatose state that he'd found the journal. He'd torched several pairs of royal robes, and slashed some fancy furnishings before he found the book – nobody else had noticed it. Lucire said he felt compelled to see what twisted thoughts the 'bastard' held in his head, but was stricken with self loathing upon finding out what the emperor had planned for the world with his 'Zero Requiem', and scoured its pages for the truth. Once Luke had regained consciousness, every night Luke and Lucire would read a bit more of the diary that recounted almost every day of the war with the "Holy" Britannian Empire. He closed his eyes in a long, focus-gathering blink as he lowered his head to greet the canines with a smile and pat upon their heads.

Taking off his shoes and tossing them into a wooden open crate Luke stretched, feeling for new aches and pains that he was sure would accompany the dull, throbbing wounds on his chest. His eyes lingered on the book that now lay on the chair in which Lucire's fathers body had rested on when they returned from Tokyo. It resided there as if it could absorb the horrid truth of what the war had done to their families. It IS black, Luke thought as he strolled to that defiled seat neither he or Lucire could throw out, it's almost as if it could absorb all the darkness from this place with the truth. The thought was cut off by the sound of the dogs whining to be let into the house. Luke didn't care too much for pets, but he knew Lucire would let them in after he finished tying off the last of the grass they had cut just a few hours ago – it was just that he was more interested in his love.

Were they in love? Would she remember him. . . ?

He was sitting now in the chair, with the book weighing heavily in his lap. Was she- He didn't realize the dogs were inside until Hiro's long cold wet tongue stretched over his fingers, shocking him out of his trance. How long had he zoned out? His gaze focused on the clock as it read 3:31. He had been looking at nothing for over twenty minutes.

"Hey Luke, I got you a water. Are you alright?" Lucire inquired, giving Luke a troubled look. "I talked to the reporters, if that's what's bugging you. They still think you're not really. . . you. It doesn't matter how many times our neighbors tell them otherwise, and say that you've been here all along… They think you're Lelouch, back from the dead." He paused and looked at Luke, still recovering from his stupor. Lucire finished with a smirk. "Or are thinking about your angel?" Lucire mused as he passed Luke with a bottle of water in one hand and a new shirt in the other.

Luke didn't care what the media believed, but they avoided watching television anyway because of their new obsession. Even a member of the Black Knights showed up at their door to check out the reporter's claims that the demon emperor walked the world again. He was a fast talking idiot with auburn-brownish hair, kept up with a red sweat band of sorts. Luke didn't remember him but obviously Lucire did. His name was Tamaki and they had met before, or so Lucire said. He had recruited them over a fancy dinner of sorts before they joined the main group gathering north of Tokyo. It wasn't long after Tamaki arrived that he called his superior, a man he called Ohgi-san, saying he wasn't sure if it was his 'best bud' or not. Apparently the Black knights appealed the UFN with the permission of the newest Empress of the Britannian Empire to exhume the corpse; his body was dug up and its identity verified. Ever since then he's been followed as 'the demon's look-alike'. Luke's thoughts crashed back into him as his friend poked at his true reason for being detached from reality.

Luke glared at Lucire while he placed his hand out, waiting for his roommate to slap the water into his hand. "What do you mean by that exactly?" he hissed. He hated when Lucire did that – he always made random comments while Luke processed his thoughts. He'd done that the whole time they played chess yesterday; it was the first time he had lost to Lucire, ever. Asshole, he cursed internally. It was the first time ever, or so Lucire said, and he'd celebrated his achievement as if it was the Liberation of Japan all over again. They'd actually played seventeen times since he'd left his coma, and losing that one time had landed him in the fields. Little bets made their games a little more interesting; however, he never figured he'd actually lose, so the probability he'd have to go out didn't even occur to him. Had he won, Lucire would have told him anything he asked about their past; he'd wanted, and still did want to know more about the girl his mind always wandered to. Thinking about her the whole game must have thrown off his focus. . . it must have.

"You came out of a long coma and the first thing you said 'Where is she?'. You must have been having wonderful dreams if that angel woke you." Lucire jested as he unscrewed the top of the water and placed it lightly in Luke's outstretched hand. "I am sure she is thinking of you too, but when you look like that," he started while emulating Luke's empty gaze, "when you have that face you make when you think about her, you look like a damn fool." Lucire burst into laughter at Luke's murderous look.

"Do you know who she was?" Luke asked staring vaguely at the drink in his hand, "Who she is?" he amended quickly, and fixed his gaze to the book now on his lap. Would this have any answers? he considered skimming it for a mention of her but figured Zero—or Lelouch—knowing this girl would be highly unlikely.

"Well, what does she look like again? You haven't really told me much about her." Lucire shouted as he threw the new shirt over his face and torso. When did he change? Luke thought after glancing over his shoulder "You know it could be someone who was on the Ikagura with you and the other strategy nerds." he commented after fixing his new vestments correctly. Stupid Knightmare pilot, Luke prodded mentally as he smiled at his friend.

"Perhaps you're right," Luke answered as he sighed happily. "She was something else." Lucire raised his eyebrow in question as Luke closed his eyes envisioning her once more. "She had beautiful crimson-hair and steel blue eyes that stared into my soul every time I saw her face. She's fit, beautiful body really and. . ." Luke opened his eyes with a look of dismay on his face. "She could be anyone." he finished with a grimace.

When he turned to see his friend again, he witnessed an abrupt change in Lucire's expression; his face had gone white, and he'd stopped in the middle of lifting his own bottle of water to his mouth. His friend breathed out a single sentence.

"You don't mean Kozuki Kallen, do you?"

Kallen sat up in her chair in the Student Council Room of Ashford Academy with an incredible urge to sneeze, but she returned to checking off the supplies she needed for the school's next event, ignoring the sensation. . . but the key knew better.

Author Notes: First chapter of my first story I have put up on , not the first I posted but first I put on the website, and I feel that went really well! Hello everyone my name is Eis and I'm happy to see you found your way to my story! Just so you guys know I have written several chapters ahead of my first post and I plan on releasing them a chapter a day or so until we are caught up to my latest chapter. Yep, LOTS OF DETAIL! I know but I'm testing the waters and I decided to try it out, not sure if it is going well but I hope you like it. Since I have already finished through chapter Eleven at this point and I plan on polishing off a chapter every few night or at least the nights I don't have class the next morning and I am gonna see how long that takes.

I wanna personally thank TopearsXXVII for helping me a better opening! I wonder if anyone got what I took the idea from to start from the Key's prospective. I mixed Harold's watch from Stranger than Fiction and The Ring from LotR. Yay for references, there's gonna be a lot of them from time to time! xD

If you wanna get a hold of me to ask me any questions about my story/stories feel free to PM me. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter!

Keep on reading readers and stay classy!