Author's Note: The plotbunny for this story came to me last night in bed. Keep in mind that this story is AU, and canon will be altered around to suit my whims. Several things that are changed from canon are that Leloucia/Lelouch and Nunnally were not sent to Japan as hostages, Karine is sent to Japan as a hostage instead and becomes Zero, Charles doesn't intend on creating Instrumentality, and Leloucia/Lelouch becomes Viceroy of Area 11 instead of Euphemia. Now on with the story.
The Weeping Princess
2009
"Empress Marianne assassinated by terrorists!" – The Britannian Daily News, July 12, 2009
Leloucia thought it was rather insensitive of the media to treat her mother's death in such a gaudy and careless manner, considering her younger sister had been crippled and blinded in the same incident that had taken the life of their mother. Nunnally spent most of her time being wheeled around by her elder sister or one of their few cousins, mostly Euphemia and Cornelia, who was fiercely protective of her younger sisters. The mood in court until the funeral was mostly somber, though a few nobles seemed somewhat happy that her mother was dead, as far as Leloucia could tell. The funeral was an invitation only affair, which meant that only a few select people were allowed to attend.
For several days after the funeral, she stayed in her rooms for several days, after a careless comment by Karine about how her mother was nothing but a commoner who got lucky. She slapped the younger girl in a fit of fury and stormed off to her rooms, ignoring Euphemia's pleas to "Please forgive her, she didn't know what she was saying" and "Come back, Luluko, please". After this, several incidents happened, each centered around Leloucia and increasing in severity, until the last one nearly ended in Leloucia's death. Euphemia came to see her a few days later after she'd recovered from the last incident and told her that Karine had been disciplined for her role in the incidents by being sent to Japan as a hostage. Leloucia cracked a faint smile and wrapped her arms around her younger sister and cried for the first time since her mother died.
2012
"Prince Clovis la Britannia to take control of Area 11" – The Britannian Daily News, June 24, 2012
In all honesty, Leloucia couldn't say she was surprised by the news. She had always known that Clovis was a fairly efficient administrator, since he was the one their father had placed in charge of the civil infrastructure but wondered whether the stresses of the job would get to him and make him snap. The rest of her brothers and sisters had varied reactions to the news, from Schneizel's perpetual look of apathy to Euphy's excited squeal of joy. They received gifts from Area 11 every now and then which made of them happy and they knew that Clovis would spare no expense to make his siblings in Pendragon happy. He also paid them visits whenever his schedule had a free spot open, which made Euphie and Nunnally happy, and thus made Cornelia and Leloucia happy as well, seeing that their sisters were happy.
2017
Prince Clovis assassinated! Area 11 in turmoil!" – The Britannian Daily News, June 13, 2017
Leloucia's hands went numb and she dropped the glass of wine she was holding from her suddenly nerveless hands, causing it to shatter on the floor and prompting a maid to run in and sweep up the mess, all the while apologizing to an unhearing Leloucia for bothering her. The princess regained her ability to move after a few moments and swept off to find her younger sisters, particularly Euphie, who she knew who would have been hit the hardest. She found Euphie sitting alone on one of the benches in the main colonnade, looking at the floor. When Leloucia sat down next to her and placed her hand over her younger sister's, Euphie looked up with blotchy, tear-stained eyes and started sobbing into her elder sister's shoulder while Leloucia patted her younger sister gently. Clovis' funeral was a gaudy, open affair which brought together various Britannian nobles from different areas under Britannian rule. Leloucia was somewhat nonplussed by the whole affair and would have spent the funeral in her rooms but had been dragged to the funeral by Cornelia.
"New Viceroy for Area 11 announced today to be Princess Luluko vi Britannia" – The Britannian Daily News, June 18, 2017
The day after the funeral, she was called into her father's presence and was told that she was taking over her elder brother's place as Viceroy of Area 11. To say she was shocked was an understatement, but she kept her inner turmoil under wraps and calmly accepted the position. She paid a visit shortly after the meeting to Euphie and told her what their father had planned for her. Euphie was half excited that her sister had gained the position that their brother had held and half upset that her sister was moving away. Nunnally had reacted in much the same manner except she had made Luluko promise that she was going to come home unharmed. A few hours later, Leloucia was a on a royal flight to Area 11 to begin her new duties as the Viceroy of Area 11. The next few days were a whirlwind of activity as she got used to her new role as the Viceroy. The Elevens took to her slowly because she often took walks through the city and helped any Eleven that was being mistreated by a Britannian. However, there were still some Elevens who resented her for being there and did whatever they could to reverse whatever small gains she had made. Then Zero burst onto the scene and declared himself Clovis' murderer and everything went straight to hell.
"Zero destroys Britannian forces at Narita" – Shinjuku Times, June 25, 2017
"Zero brings former Japanese Cabinet member Atsushi Sawasaki to justice" – Tokyo Daily News, July 6, 2017
"Zero routed Britannian forces at Shikine Island" – Kyoto Journal, July 20, 2017
Leloucia threw the latest paper detailing Zero's exploits away from her with a shriek of frustration. She'd been hearing a lot about Zero lately and it was driving her mad since all her efforts to bring Japan together were being foiled by the masked revolutionary. What made it worse was that the majority of the population supported his actions and would gladly die for him. She had made several efforts to try and draw him out with the aid of her elder sister Cornelia, who had recently returned from the Middle East, but he had always slipped through their nets with ease. She had suspected the Kyoto Group to be behind Zero's miraculous escapes but she had no concrete evidence to tie them to him. Finishing the last of her morning coffee, she threw on a coat and stalked out the door, telling her driver to take her to Ashford Academy, as she had decided to pay a visit to an old friend. When she arrived at Ashford Academy and entered the gates, an eerie silence had fallen over the Academy, as everyone had stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at the princess that entered the grounds. Leloucia, for her part, had noticed everyone staring at her and quickened her pace, but stopped when she noticed a semi-familiar person standing at the back of the crowd, also staring at her, but when she looked away and turned back, she caught a glimpse of the person moving away through the crowd.
She followed the person until he/she entered a deserted classroom and gasped in slight shock when the unknown person turned to face her and revealed the face of her long presumed dead sister, Karine le Britannia. She walked toward her younger sister and opened her mouth to speak when she was met with a resounding slap. Leloucia reeled away, hurt and Karine took the opportunity to storm past her elder sister and out into the hall. Leloucia followed her younger sister into the hall and tried to talk to her again but was met with a punch that knocked her over. She stayed in that position for several minutes, staring after her younger sister, until her driver gently picked her up and led her back to the limousine. She never did pay Milly the visit she had promised.
"Viceroy of Area 11 extends invitation to Zero to meet her for negotiations." – Tokyo Daily Times, August 2, 2017
Leloucia waited for Zero to appear in the hall that had been set up for the negotiations toward The Special Administrative Zone after asking him to join her in negotiations. Her knight, Dorothea Ernst, was hiding in a small alcove at the right side of the hall to intercede if something went wrong. Several days after she had landed in Area 11, she had been handed a dossier that listed all the potential knights she could choose from to have one to serve her as her personal knight. Several of the Knights of the Round were included in the dossier, and her eyes had immediately fallen across the Knight of Four's description. She immediately let the various officers know who she had chosen as her knight, and they bowed to her decision. Around an hour after she had publically announced the summons, Zero entered the hall to begin negotiations with her. After he entered the hall, she asked Zero to take off his mask so that they could commence negotiations face to face. Zero initially declined the offer, but after looking at Leloucia's clasped hands decided to humor her and took off the mask, revealing the face of her younger sister Karine.
Leloucia walked toward her sister with the intent of hugging her, but was stopped when a gun was brought up to bear on her. Karine handed her the gun and asked Leloucia to shoot her so that the Special Administrative Zone would cease to exist and so she could continue her plans for Japan. Leloucia refused to shoot her younger sister since Karine was family and she couldn't shoot family. Her pacifist stance on the matter and the fact that Leloucia refused to shoot her sister when asked multiple times enraged her younger sister who then shot her in the chest. Leloucia felt a sharp pain in her chest, and emitted a small gasp of pain as the pain brought her to her knees. She reached a hand towards Karine as if in entreaty, then collapsed face-first onto the floor. As Leloucia hit the floor, face contorted in shock, her knight rushed out from the right side of the hall, scooped up the princess, who was laying in a pool of her blood and rushed out the door. Karine fired several shots at her sister's knight but missed each time. Dorothea ran down the incline clutching the princess, all the while screaming for a doctor to help. A new Knightmare that Dorothea had vaguely recalled as a creation of Lloyd's research team swooped down, gathered her and the unconscious princess in one of its hands and flew back up to the airship that was hovering outside the stadium. When the Knightmare landed in the hangar bay, Dorothea took off running full tilt toward the medical bay, the unconscious princess still dripping blood.
When she arrived at the medical bay, the doctors on call took the princess off her hands and told her to wait outside while they checked her condition,. She refused, stating that she was the princess' knight and sat by the bed, clutching the princess' hand for several long minutes while the doctors checked the princess' condition. After several minutes and the diagnosis that the princess wouldn't make it because the bullet had punched a hole through several major organs, she felt a sudden pressure on her hand and looked up with a tear-stained face to find the princess smiling weakly at her. Leloucia asked her knight what was the state of the Special Administrative Zone. Dorothea didn't know how to tell the dying princess that the plans for the Zone had fallen through after the whole stadium had gotten a glimpse of the bloodied, unconscious princess, but didn't have the heart to tell her this, so she settled for telling the princess that the Zone was a great success. The princess smiled weakly at the news then lay back against her pillows and closed her eyes. She then turned her face toward Dorothea and told her that she was a good knight and should serve her little sister to the best of her ability, before the medical monitor flatlined and her hand loosened its grip and slipped out of the older woman's. Dorothea had never cried so much in her life, not even when her mother died.
"Princess Leloucia vi Britannia assassinated by Zero!" – The Britannian Daily News, Aug 3, 2017
The news that a second member of the royal family had been assassinated by the masked revolutionary known as Zero sent shockwaves throughout the world. When the news reached the Imperial Family of Leloucia's death, her siblings each had different reactions to her death. Schneizel seemed apathetic on the outside, but his apathy masked his inner sorrow and he drowned himself in politics and diplomacy. Cornelia, who had returned to the Middle East, made no show of hiding her emotions and went on a rampage, destroying several platoons of Middle Eastern Knightmares, getting her Knightmare destroyed in the process and trekking back to base on foot. Euphie shut herself in her rooms for several days, only coming out to attend the funeral. Nunnally, who was with Euphemia at the time, read the atmosphere and knew that something bad had happened to her sister. Leloucia's body arrived in Pendragon 2 days later and the period of mourning for the deceased princess began.
The funeral took place on a cloudy, overcast day, as if the heavens were also sorrowful. The minister that had been hired to officiate over the funeral started speaking about Leloucia and a hush fell over the entire family, save Euphie, who was sobbing. When the coffin was brought out and placed in the ground next to Clovis' grave, Euphie tried to throw herself on the coffin and started screaming and crying for her sister to come back and had to be dragged back to the rest of the family by Schneizel, still crying for her deceased sister. It started raining heavily halfway through the funeral, forcing several Knightmares to keep the royal family dry. When the time came to shovel dirt over the coffin, Euphie, still sobbing, shoveled the first spadeful of dirt onto the coffin, and the rest of the family each tossed a spadeful of dirt on the coffin, after which the Imperial Family exited the cemetery. Several days later, a gravestone was placed on top of the plot of earth where her coffin lay. The inscription on the gravestone read:
May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest
Leloucia vi Britannia
1999 - 2017