Shirley made her way to the student council in a daze, a feeling of emptiness inside of her. She ended up being the first to arrive (aside from Milly and Nunnally), and swiftly pulled up a charge and sat down, face devoid of emotion.

Soon, they were joined by Rivalz and Nina. Shirley had trouble looking him in the eye, and he trouble doing the same - he was the reason that she was so very, very out of it.

It had happened two months ago. Lelouch and Rivalz had, unsurprisingly, been gambling. Why Lulu wasted his talents on something like that Shirley would never know. Unsurprisingly, he'd won - Lulu never lost a game of Chess. Their opponent had been a lady noble, who'd been utterly dumbfounded by this turn of events. Reluctantly, she'd paid them in full, before demanding they leave, which Rivalz had obliged.

On the way back, though, there'd been an accident, which had forced the duo to take a detour. She wasn't sure what had happened next, but it had ended with Rivalz and Lelouch caught in the crossfire between the military and a group of terrorists, which had ended with Rivalz' bike crashing and Lelouch's phone broken. Trying to seek help, Lelouch had taken shelter in a nearby building and tried to use the phones to call for an ambulance.

Then part of the building exploded. The part Lulu was inside.

The military had checked the rubble after the terrorirsts had retreated, but they didn't find any bodies in there. As far as they knew, Lelouch had somehow been vaporized.

No one in the student council had taken things well. Rivalz had blamed himself for this, saying he should have found a different way to get them back to school. Milly had been more muted in her sorrow, but she had clearly taken the news badly - her family had taken Lelouch and Nunnally in after their parents died during the Pacific War, making them as close as siblings, though Shirley suspected Milly's feelings weren't entirely platonic. Nina wasn't all that close to Lelouch, but Shirley could tell that the bespectacled girl missed the Student Council Vice President.

And then there was Sayoko and Nunnally.

Anyone who knew Shirley knew that she was in love with Lelouch - she practically had her feelings written on her forehead. The teasing she got from the swim team tended to center on that. But Sayoko and Nunnally were in a class of their own - the former had practically raised Lelouch, and the latter was his sister. The two had known him for most of his life, and shared a bond that Shirley wasn't certain even she wouldn't be able to form with the dark haired boy, even before this had happened.

Sayoko had understandably taken the news extremely poorly, outright stating that she had failed Lelouch. It'd been so bad that Nina, who Shirley knew hated Elevens, had offered the woman her sympathies and insisted that there was nothing she could have done to help.

As for Nunnally?

The wheelchair-bound girl just seemed to have shut down. She'd barely talked to anyone aside from Sayoko, only showing up as needed for classes, and otherwise spent her time in her room, where Shirley was sure that she cried quite heavily - that was what Shirley had been doing. Only the student council had noticed, but Lelouch had been a crutch of sorts for his sister, a light that motivated her to keep striving forward in spite of her disabilities. Without him, she just deflated. She was alive, yes, but living meant more than surviving.

Any further musing was cut off by Milly clearing her throat. "Alright, I know everyone still feels terrible about what happened a month ago, but we need to discuss some things. One thing for certain."

"Is this about the budget?" asked Rivalz.

"No," answered Nunnally, much to everyone's shock. "This is about me and my brother."

Rivalz, Nina, and Shirley all froze up. "Eh, right now?"

"Yes," confirmed the brown-haired girl. "I need to get this off my chest."

"A-alright," agreed Shirley. "What is it?"

"A couple of things, but first, I want you to know this - Lamperouge isn't our family name."

"Huh?" wondered Rivalz.

"It was our mother's maiden name - the one she had before she joined the army."

"But you said that she was a fashion design-"

"That was a lie for our safety. Our mother joined the army when she was younger, and she ended up bieng an amazing knightmare pilot - enough to climb very high in the ranks."

"How high?" asked Shirley, sorrow forgotten for the moment. "Was she a Knight of Honor?"

"...Actually, she was the Knight of Two."

You could almost hear the sound of Rivalz, Nina, and Shirley's world shattering. "W-what?"

Nunnally took in a deep breath. "When my mother was married, her name was Marianne vi Britannia."

Nobody spoke up for a long time after that.

XxXxX

At the same time as that revelation, in a hidden grove on the Narita mountains, a bronze form fell to the ground, twitching for a moment, then going still. Nearby were other such bodies, in varying states of dismemberment. Wordlessly, a figure clade in in strange white armor walked up to corpse, taking a moment to look it over before turning their attention toward the horizon and the city that lay on it.

A tiny drone floated up by him, examining the city with curiosity. "I've never seen a city like this before - not even in pictures from the Golden Age."

"Me neither," acknowledged the figure. "But it feels, familiar."

"Really, Guardian?"

"Yes," acknowledged the Guardian, taking off his helmet so that his purple eyes could stare down at the urban settlement before him. "I don't know why, but I recognize it."

"I see. So, what do we do next."

Putting his helmet, the Guardian glanced at his Ghost. "Tell the vanguard what we found while examining the Glassway. Then, investigate this further."

"I see. Understood, Lelouch."

"Thanks, Absalom."

XxXxX

AN: So, yeah - I decided to reboot Code Guardian after just two chapters. My muse kinda died for the original. So, a fresh start it is.

Bet you weren't expecting for Lelouch to (apparently) die before the story started and Nunnally to reveal the truth to the Student Council.

I did consider having Lelouch and Nunnally both vanish and become Guardians, but I thought having Lelouch vanish and Nunnally spill some secrets to Nina, Rivalz, and Shirley was more interesting.

As for Lelouch's loadout:

Kinetic: Hailing Confusion

Energy: Duality

Heavy: Commemoration

Armor: Channeling Suite

Ghost Shell: Wish Maker Shell

Jumpship: Vaultstrider

Sparrow: Crota's Exile (hid it somewhere before the Red War)

Oh, and before you ask, Lelouch is the Young Eolf. As for how he remembers his name, Absalom restored his Ashford Student ID when he resurrected him, alongside a few school assignments.

So, read and review at your leisure! This is Flameal15k, signing off!