The morning after the Black Knights' debut, Kallen awakens to the sound of her manor's clumsy Japanese maid making a mess. For some reason, the maid causes Kallen a great deal of stress...
Viceroy Cornelia wishes to make Area 11 a satellite nation in the Britannian Empire, but two large obstacles stand in her way: the first is terrorist organizations, particularly the Black Knights; and the other is "Refrain", a drug that has become popular among Elevens and is causing a drop in productivity. She leaves Sub-Viceroy Euphemia, her sister, in charge of Area 11.
Euphemia recalls that Zero had killed Clovis because he was a member of the royal family. He threatened her, as well, but spared her. She wonders what to make of this...
Meanwhile, back at school, Kallen meets with the student council as they set up a party welcoming their new pet, a cat named Arthur. The lighthearted antics among the student council make Suzaku happy that he could be with his friends again after the hotel hijacking incident, as well as Kallen.
Ever since their debut, the Black Knights became popular among the Japanese: they not only opposed Britannia, but criminals who took advantage of them. Sadly, support for them carried great risk, due to the fact that their leader, Zero, murdered Clovis. Many among the Black Knights wondered about Zero's true identity, including Kallen, but she fears that if they push too hard, he'll leave, and without him, the Black Knights would be lost...
Milly comes to Kallen's house after school to deliver her transcripts, and witnesses how rocky her home life is: the clumsy maid, Mrs. Kozuki, is actually Kallen's biological mother. She had fallen for the Stadtfeld family's patriarch and had her and her late brother, Naoto.
Little does Kallen know, her mother has a dark secret...
Kallen learns from Ohgi that Refrain causes hallucinatory flashbacks, making it very popular among Japanese who yearn for the days before the Britannian occupation. They would make their move on suppliers once their Burai Knightmare Frames were delivered. Afterwards, Kallen witnesses Britannians bullying an Eleven food vendor. She goes to intervene, but Lelouch stops her, warning her that intervening could hurt his business. He does, however, stealthily use his Geass to make the Britannians stop.
Lelouch argues that Area 11 has improved since Britannia's victory. He states that, like the food vendor, one can live well as long as they are subservient to Britannia. This strikes a chord with Kallen, who recalls how her mother made herself a servant of Britannians, and she slaps Lelouch and storms off.
At a bar, Jeremiah discusses the incident where he allowed Suzaku to escape with Villetta. She reveals that, similar to the gap in his memory from that night, she also had a gap in her memory from Shinjuku. Before the gap, she recalled seeing a Britannian high school student...
That night, the Black Knights, with Kallen at the helm of a Knightmare, raid a warehouse where Refrain is being shipped. While chasing some of the drug peddlers, Kallen comes across a drug den where several Elevens were in the throes of a Refrain high. To her horror, her mother is among the addicts. She begins to break down at the sight of her mother, a slave of Britannians, now also a slave to drugs.
While fighting off a police Knightmare, she hears her mother, still high on Refrain, say "I'm here for you, Kallen, as I always have been". Kallen realizes that everything her mother did, including becoming a maid of the Stadtfelds, was so she could watch over her.
After the raid, Kallen visits her mother in a hospital. Her mother is suffering from the aftereffects of Refrain, leaving her catatonic. She was sentenced to twenty years in prison, but Kallen promises that she would make the world a better place, so they could live a normal life as mother and daughter together. Her mother cheers her on through her catatonia, lifting Kallen's spirits.
