Lelouch ran. He felt the blood seeping from the wound in his side. How could he be so careless? How could he be so stupid as to trust terrorists with his identity? Cursing in irritation at the wound, the reminder of his stupidity, he ran.

In hindsight, it had been rather obvious that he was still dealing with terrorists, even if they called themselves a resistance. He should have known that revealing as much as he did would only end badly. He had managed to escape Shinjuku Ghetto's residential area, earning a mix of surprised, worried, and terrified looks from the locals as he heard Tamaki's shouting behind him.

A flash of pink. No. There was no way he was that lucky. Euphemia was standing at the memorial, even dressed in casual clothes, there was no disguising that lock of shocking pink hair. Beside her, his only hope.

"Suzaku," Lelouch called, seeing him react as both princess and childhood friend turned in the direction of his voice. The pink-haired princess looked like she'd seen a ghost, then turned an interesting shade of green upon seeing Lelouch clutching his side, blood still dripping from his other injuries. It was Suzaku that acted without hesitation, drawing his sidearm as two more men, likely plainclothes police or off-duty soldiers drew their weapons and fired on the terrorists.

When the first of their number fell, a fresh recruit that Lelouch didn't know, the others scattered. Stumbling forward another step, Lelouch's vision darkened as he heard someone call out his name and he knew nothing more.

Euphemia sat in the hospital's waiting room, though most people gave her a wide berth when she was surrounded by a dozen men in suits, wringing her hands nervously as she awaited the return of the doctor that had taken her half-brother into surgery. "It will be alright, princess, Dr. Hawthorne is our finest surgeon."

Nodding her thanks to the nurse's assurance, Euphemia leaned against the wall as her personal cellphone rang. The caller ID informed her that it was her brother Schneizel that was calling. She recalled seeing him together with Lelouch in their youth, the older with the younger on his lap as he read countless books that Euphemia found to be nonsense until years later. "Hello, Schneizel, how have you been?" Euphemia asked.

"Euphie, I'm doing well. I heard from the reports, is it true? Did they really find Lelouch after all these years?" the second prince asked, an edge of skepticism leaking into his voice. And why wouldn't he be suspicious, almost a decade without a word and one of their lost siblings suddenly returned was cause for both celebration and confusion.

Nodding to herself, and confirming with a sound of agreement. "I couldn't believe it at first, but it was him, I'm certain of it. If . . . if Lelouch is alive, do you think that maybe, Nunnally is too?" Euphemia hazarded that it was plausible, though how a blind and crippled girl would survive in a war zone was beyond even Euphemia's wildest fantasies.

"It . . . don't get your hopes up, Euphie. It's miracle enough that Lelouch escaped the destruction of Japan, two miracles is far too much of a stretch for anyone." Schneizel cautioned, unwilling to get perhaps the most innocent of his siblings' hopes too high in case it was all for nothing.

Euphemia paused as someone began talking to Schneizel on his end of the line. " . . . certain? Ashford . . . I understand, yes. I'll send someone over right away." It wasn't possible, the odds of them surviving that long, remaining undetected that long were too impossible to comprehend. "Euphemia, I just received word from the OSI. They found a girl matching Nunnally's description at Ashford Academy in the settlement. I want you to go and ascertain whether or not she is in fact our Nunnally."

Milly Ashford could say, without a shadow of a doubt, that everything had gone wrong. Nearly a decade ago, Lelouch had sought shelter with her family. Her grandfather at least, her birth parents being less than useless in her upbringing. His promise to her had stuck with them through thick and thin, even if she was certain that he had forgotten.

Now he was in the hospital, surrounded by imperial soldiers. It was very likely that Euphemia, god bless the pretty prink princess for her kind heart but damn her to hell for throwing a wrench into her brother-in-all-but-blood's plans for a quiet life, had recognized him.

Now was the time to tell Nunnally, to get her to safety. Lelouch would never forgive her if anything happened to his little sister. Abandoning all pretenses of her usual calm façade, she ran to the student council room, dialing Sayoko on her cellphone. "Sayoko, hurry, find Nunnally and get her someplace safe."

"Of course, mistress."

Not a moment later, the school was in an uproar as a limousine with the heraldry of the Li Britannia line was admitted through the main gate as Milly rushed out to meet the arriving party. It was too early, there wasn't enough time. Two men exited the vehicle, one easily recognizable as Jeremiah Gottwald, the leader of Area Eleven's Purist faction, the other, a tall, slight man in glasses in a knight-of-honor's attire.

Following them was Euphemia li Britannia herself, clad in a rather ornate white and pink dress, followed by five men in combat gear from the accompanying military transport. Milly admitted to herself that the princess cut a rather imposing figure surrounded by such deadly men, a far cry from the slightly ditzy girl she recalled from her visits to Pendragon as a child.

Milly slipped back into the mask of the daughter of a notable family in Area Eleven and met her with a shallow curtsey. "Princess Euphemia, welcome to Ashford Academy. I am Camellia Ashford, president of the high school division of the student council and granddaughter of the school's founder and superintendent, Reuben Ashford."

Euphemia returned the curtsey with one of her own, the knights giving their own slight bows in return. "Of course, miss Ashford. I'm on an errand and I hoped you could assist me," Euphemia said, the two knights taking up position at her sides as the soldiers dispersed with a command from the tall, thin knight. "Where are my manners, may I introduce you to Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald and Sir Gilbert Guilford."

"A pleasure, my lords. Now, what did you need from Ashford Academy?" Milly asked, silently hoping that the princess was simply here to attend the school, though that brought problems of its own in covering Nunnally's tracks to ensure the two never met.

The princess raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You know why I'm here, I'm here to return Nunnally to Lelouch. They're to report to the homeland as soon as Lelouch is able to travel. It's so nice to learn that they're both still alive." Euphemia said, giving Milly a questioning look.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, your highness. Nunnally Lamperouge may be similar to the princess Nunnally, but Lelouch told me that Nunnally didn't survive the invasion, and he was alone when he came to grandfather . . ." Milly responded smoothly, not letting a hint of fear enter her tone or posture.

Euphemia's mood visibly darkened. "I had hoped . . . when we found out that Lelouch was alive, and the report that there was a girl matching Nunnally's description was attending the same school as him. Well, we'd hoped that she'd survived."

"I apologize, princess. Was there anything else you needed?" Milly asked.

Looking up, Euphemia sighed. "Take me to Lelouch's room, I might as well have his things retrieved while I'm here, and please, call me Euphie."

"Of course, your . . . Euphie." Milly said, correcting herself, though she didn't fail to notice the expressions on the knights' faces at her casual change of tone. "This way."

Sayoko should have enough time to move Nunnally to the underground shelter, Milly thought as she led Euphemia through several winding hallways, delaying for time, at least until they bumped into Suzaku.

Blinking, the Japanese boy smiled when he saw Euphemia. "Princess Euphemia, I heard you were arriving. Were you about to see Princess Nunnally?"

Author's Note:

Hello and welcome to my first attempt at writing fanfiction. I've been browsing anonymously for some time now and I've worked up the courage to write my own take on Code Geass. I'm in love with the universe and I felt that it's my turn to give back to the Code Geass community with a work of my own.

Let me know what you all think, advice and criticism is appreciated.

AddieBiscuit