Chapter One: The Princess and her Knight
Tokyo Settlement, Area 11 2016 a.t.b
Leloucia vi Britannia was discontent with her life, the realization struck her randomly as she sat in the side car of her friend Rivalz's motorcycle, returning to Ashford Academy after yet another win in the illegal gambling rings of the Area's nobles. Of course she told herself that it was to get money for eventually rebelling against her father, Charles zi Britannia, and the Holy Empire of Britannia that ruled a third of the world with an iron fist, but the more she finally stopped fantasizing and thought about her plans objectively, the more unlikely they seemed. Hell even the gambling is just for fun now days, it was useful at first to get the business acquisitions and investments going, but now what I make off of this isn't even a drop in the bucket compared to what I get playing the market.
It was true at only sixteen and a half years old she was already a multi-millionaire and damn close to being a billionaire, she'd played the markets under the alias L.L, the initials of her assumed identity of Leloucia Lamperouge, and now controlled a megacorporation and several smaller, but still very large companies across the globe. She had the funds to rebel, and could probably even hire enough mercenaries to stand a chance of winning, but she knew her main problem was that she lacked a power base. And the way things are going I'll never get one, never get revenge for Mother and Nunnally… Damn it, I need allies, and more importantly political clout!
As her existential crisis continued Rivalz spoke up, "Hey Leloucia, what do you want to do when you get older?" That gave her pause, as she tried to think of an answer that wouldn't indicate her plans, but then she realized she actually didn't have any plans, only increasingly vague goals with no clear path to get to them. What do I want? Revenge? Justice? Power? Or have I just been using Nunnally and my Mother as an excuse for all these years? Telling myself that I'm not evil when in fact, I want nothing more than to see the world burn. As she began to ponder her morality she answered her friend's question in the most honest way she could, "I honestly have no idea, Rivalz, I thought I knew, but now I'm not so sure anymore."
"Well don't sweat it, someone like you can do anything you set your mind to." The look on the bluenet's face was one of someone stating an immutable fact of life, "Me, I'm probably gonna just end up in some white collar job in the business sector."
He really believes in me doesn't he? If only he knew, but he's right, I can do it; I will burn Britannia for myself, and remake it for Nunnally's memory. But the way I've been going about it is entirely wrong! Now then, Clovis has another ball planned for next month and will probably send an invitation to L.L. to try and get the 'reclusive eccentric' to make a public appearance and boost his image. That gives me just enough time to get a power base going here. That Code R thing that bought all of that medical and computer equipment through all those proxies sounds promising enough.
"If that's the case then I'll just hire you myself Rivalz." She smiled up at her friend, "And don't sell yourself short like that, you're a rare kind of person."
He beamed as he looked onto the road, and seeing her friend's smiling face she came to a realization, she didn't give a damn about anything other than those she cared about, the rest of the world could burn for all Leloucia cared, so long as those she cared about were safe and content.
"Hey Rivalz, wanna see something cool?" She asked with a smirk, "Head over to the Red Star Industries building, trust me you'll love this."
"…Okay?" Rivalz's response was part affirmation, part question, and part exclamation.
It took a surprisingly short amount of time to get half way across the settlement even with traffic being relatively light and Rivalz managing to get on the freeway that took them almost directly to their destination. As they neared the building, and Rivalz slowed down to match the lower speed limit for the area, they coasted towards a large office tower, matte grey and steel only broken by the company logo, a red star with ten uneven points and the letters RS in black at the center.
"So what now? I mean, it's not like we can just waltz into the headquarters of a megacorp." He expressed his bemusement at the situation.
"Yes we can." She stated, "What, did you think I'd just been sitting on all that money I've won?"
"What do you…?" He started to ask.
"Just find a good place to park and all will be revealed shortly." Leloucia interrupted him.
Shrugging, he pulled his motorcycle into an empty spot in front of the entrance fumbling around in his pockets to get change for the meter, only for Leloucia to take out a credit card, swipe it through a nearly hidden card slot and deposit enough money for several hours. "I don't think either of us are going to be getting back to school today, don't worry, I'll take care of Milly."
Rivalz nodded, not really sure of what else to do in his current situation, or even what exactly his current situation even exactly was. After a few seconds of thinking he decided to follow his friend as she sauntered over to the revolving doors to the building.
Entering the lobby, the two were greeted figuratively by a smooth color scheme of mid-grey with cool red serving to accent it, and in a more literal sense by a black haired male secretary in a rather nice suit sitting on the other side of a reception desk. "Oh, hello L.L, pretty rare to see you at this time of day or during the week in general. But, given that uniform I'm pretty sure I can guess why that is." The man teased.
"Oh hush up Gregory, like anyone would believe you if you said the great L.L was still attending school." Leloucia smoothly fired back.
"Pfft, like I'd tell anyone, you happen to be able to fire the people who are allowed to fire me with impunity, and this job is the only thing that keeps my daughter in the school she's going to."
"Wait, you mean you're…?" Rivalz managed to sputter out after about a minute of doing a fine impression of a fish.
"L.L, the eccentric businesswoman who never makes public appearances, constantly turns down the Viceroy's invitations, and who very rapidly climbed from obscurity to be one of the richest people in Area 11, yep." She explained, enjoying her friend's shock, "This isn't even the best part, just wait until you see what's in my office." Leloucia walked over towards the elevator on the far end of the lobby, Rivalz dumbly following behind her, "Oh, and Gregory, do you mind calling up Rebecca please? I have a deal I want to make."
"Of course Ms. L.L, just try not to break the boy." The Secretary answered.
"I think we're already past the point of no return on that one Gregory." She called back as the doors closed, hitting the button for the fourty-ninth floor she turned to her still shell shocked friend.
"You know, this is mostly thanks you." She said "I think it was the third or fourth time we'd cut school to go gamble, you asked me what I was doing with the money, and I realized that I wasn't doing anything with it, just sitting on several hundred thousand pounds, doing absolutely nothing at all. So I started investing, playing the market and slowly chipping away at this company's stock, until six months ago I was just the majority owner, but now, I am the only owner."
"Wait, wait, wait, so you own, the entirety of Red Star Industries, an international megacorporation, because you managed to buy out all of the stock?"
"Well that and I'm majority shareholder of three other corporations, instigated a hostile takeover of another, bought out a fifth, and I'm a major investor in various projects in the EU, Chinese Federation, Britannia and even Australia."
"Why though? And how? You're sixteen for god's sake!" Rivalz was becoming more and more shocked by the minute.
"The why of it is something that I'm currently reevaluating, and as for the how of it, well House Lamperouge might be a minor noble family with only one surviving member and no holdings but I still get the benefits of the title, among those is the ability to do a lot of things years earlier than would normally be legal." Leloucia explained
"Then, why even bother gambling? Hell why even bother with school at all, you probably have more money than most people will ever see in their whole lives." Rivalz had somewhat calmed down from his earlier shock.
"Because it's fun hanging out with all of you, even if I was a bit wary about Nina at first. That's sort of why I'm showing you this, I've kept a lot of secrets from you guys, but I'm starting to see there's no point to them. Or rather, I had thought keeping them would help me, only to now realize that hiding like I have been is only hindering me." She paused as she looked at the steadily increasing floor count, "I don't really know what to do with that, being perfectly honest I brought you here on little more than impulse, I just need some time to think about everything." Of course she had been thinking of 'everything' the whole conversation, going over a long since discarded plan with a new eye, and finding it much more realistic than the previous ones she'd worked towards, the more the exiled princess thought about and tweaked it, the more she realized that she'd only discarded it in the first place out of stubborn pride.
Then the elevator dinged and opened, breaking her out of her thoughts as she exited and led her friend through the various important offices that occupied the same floor as her own, it was significantly higher class than most office spaces, each door was solid oak, and the walls were painted a somewhat heavy red, blending in nicely with the doors, with the color continued to the carpets to contrast with the wooden ceiling and bring the area together.
The only differences in the outward appearance of her own office and the rest were the small lobby outside of it, complete with expensive black leather chairs, and the secretary's large desk to the left of the door. Sitting there typing away at some form or email, was Rebecca Wright, a thin, blonde woman with light green eyes. She wore a dark grey blazer, with a matching skirt over a white button up blouse with a blood red tie, and a black rimmed pair of glasses. As the two approached the office she looked up from her work to acknowledge them, "Ms. Lamperouge, there are several things that you need to sign off on, as well as the report from the expansion in Europe that you requested waiting in your office." She paused for breath before continuing, "Viceroy Clovis has also sent an invitation to his St. Darwin's day ball, I was just drafting a polite refusal, as per your normal response."
"Actually I think I'll attend this one, please thank him for the invitation and express my excitement to finally be able to attend one of his functions. Oh, and if you could contact Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald, I would like to speak to him about mutual interests in the homeland as well as here in Area 11." Lelouica instructed her secretary, though now that she thought of it, she would make an excellent personal assistant once her plans got going.
The older woman's face only showed her surprise for a split second before she schooled her features into a neutral expression once more, "Very well is there anything else you need?"
"Not at the moment no, unfortunately this next couple of months is rapidly shaping up to be a very busy time for us, I'm sure it will go down in the history books, but the hours we'll have to pull will be murder none the less." Leloucia stated.
"I'm sure that just you appearing at a ball will go down in the history books ma'am, but don't worry, I'll make sure you don't accidentally schedule two meetings at once." The secretary spoke with a tone that betrayed both levity and iron willed determination.
"Remind me to give you a raise Ms. Wright, you certainly deserve it." Leloucia gave a warm smile to her secretary as she opened the office door for Rivalz, who gave the woman a polite nod before entering the room.
The office completely broke from the color scheme of the rest of the building, its theme being dark colors with metallic highlights. The walls and ceiling were a dark grey, that, while not too close to black, it was far from white. The carpet was a dark purple color that seemed to drain the light from the room, where the back wall would be there was instead a massive window overlooking the settlement all the way out to the harbor. All of furniture was black with either silver or gold wherever appropriate, the bookshelves, wooden file cabinet in the corner, even the chairs followed this convention. Despite the rather gothic color scheme, everything seemed to fit into what one would expect to find in a normal office CEO or not, everything that is save the desk, it was shaped like an overly large L with metal strips of some function in places that impeded the use of most of the surface facing the door, with what little that could be used there taken up by a large phone in the style of the old windups, though with actual buttons, and a picture Rivalz couldn't see from his position.
He watched as Lelouica walked around to sit on the chair, she then tapped a button he'd failed to notice in his examination of the desk. He quickly realized the purpose of the metal strips across the desk, they were holographic projectors, a keyboard appeared above the desk, larger than any he'd seen before and with so many buttons he was half convinced that at least a quarter of them served no purpose beyond looks. Then a password screen appeared in front of her briefly, as her fingers flew across the keyboard to input it and it was swiftly replaced with six screens of varying sizes, the main screen in the middle was by far the largest, half again as large as the next biggest screen, and was clearly the primary workspace. The other five hovered around it at varying angles and seemed to so constantly updating graphics and numbers that all meant nothing to Rivalz.
"Wow, wait, isn't this that computer that Nina's been obsessing over for the last few weeks?" He asked
"Yes it is, this is bleeding edge technology, cost me several million pounds to get this, but it was worth every cent I assure you." She gave a small smile, "Think that getting Nina one would be good present for her?"
"Dude, she'd probably worship the ground you walk on just for the chance to see one, let alone own one!" He exclaimed
"Good, now then, on to why I actually brought you here," she pulled open a drawer and took out a remote, pressing a button, Rivalz heard a feint hissing to his left, only to see part of the wall sliding away to reveal a wine cooler. "Well go on," she smirked at him.
Rivalz took out one of the bottles briefly reading the label before his face was overcome by a look a reverence, "this, this is a Bellerose 1926." A little known fact about Rivalz was that he and his mother were both collectors of rare and vintage alcohols; in fact Rivalz used that knowledge to leverage himself a part time job as a bartender at one of the more pompous establishments in town.
"There are only twenty bottles of this in existence!" He held the bottle of red wine like it was one of the most precious things in existence, which given the rarity of it wasn't too much of an exaggeration.
"The storm that destroyed the rest ruined the Bellerose family finically and they ended up going to Euro-Britannia to try to turn their fortunes, they're doing moderately well now days but they've never operated a vineyard again." Lelcouica said, "It's yours now, Rivalz, hurry up and take it home, and don't worry I'll convince Ruben, err, Dean Ashford to excuse you for the rest of the day."
He carefully put the bottle down before latching on to her in a bear hug, "Thank you, thank you, thank you! My mom is gonna flip when she sees this! You are the best friend a guy could ask for!"
Leloucia for her part chuckled and held her friend close, "Pfft, yeah right, besides, what better way to celebrate five hundred games together?"
Rivalz broke the embrace, and profusely thanked her several more times as he held the gift close to his chest and walked out the door. Leloucia smiled, allowing herself a few minutes to bask in the glow. Yes, my friends, my new family, for you I will burn the world; burn away anything that could hurt you. I will let nothing, not even my own pride get in the way! She looked at the picture on her desk, depicting Nunnally, Suzaku and herself all smiling and happy, taken only a few short days before everything went to hell. Now my sister is dead and I have no idea what happened to Suzaku… I'm sorry, I know you'd both hate what I plan to do, but I won't let that stop me!
A knock on her door broke Leloucia from her dark thoughts, "Enter," no sooner than she'd said it did Rebecca walk through the door "Ms. Lamperouge, Margrave Gottwald indicated that he would be here around four." The secretary spoke, reliable as ever.
"Thank you Rebecca, you're a wonderful help." The younger girl spoke
"Ms. Lamperouge if I may?" At her employer's nod she continued, "That uniform, you go to Ashford Academy correct?" It was less of a question and more a statement but Lelouica gave an affirmative "yes" anyways. "Then, no disrespect meant, but shouldn't you be at school rather than here? I'm told Ashford has a rather strict attendance policy."
Leloucia's heart warmed slightly from her ever loyal secretary's concern, if Sayoko was an overprotective mother bear, then Rebecca Wright was like a concerned older sibling. "I'm actually a ward of the Ashfords, so Ruben cuts me some slack…" Leloucia drifted off for a minute, before chuckling, "unfortunately if everything goes as planned I likely won't be able to attend anymore after the ball."
"I see…" She didn't really see but decided not to question her boss's plans, for now, "Would you like me to have some food brought up? It is a good time for lunch." She instead chose to vent her worrying nature in another fashion.
"No thank you, I ate while I was out with Rivalz." Leloucia responded
"Very well, Ms. Lamperouge, let me know if you need anything else." Rebecca left the room and returned to her work.
Sighing Leloucia quickly decided to change out of her Ashford uniform, using the remote to close the wine cooler in the wall and open a much larger panel, revealing a full walk in closet, though that was somewhat of an exaggeration as there only barely enough room to get changed. But it sufficed for her purposes, really only containing three spare suites for times like this when she couldn't actually come dressed in one. Discarding her uniform with a mental note to remember to take it home with her, she grabbed a suit, black, dress shoes, pants and tailcoat, with silver buttons, and a purple color on the inside one could see via the tails, a white button up and purple tie that brought it together.
Checking herself in the mirror she was somewhat shocked to see she looked strikingly similar to her mother, her own raven hair was much shorter, going a little past her shoulder blades and much straighter, and her breasts, only B cups were smaller than her mothers, her hips were less developed and she was much thinner, her semi-athletic life style, while leaving her more fit than the average person, not that that helped her abysmal stamina, was not were near as form shaping as Marianne's.
Still despite all these differences Lelouica couldn't help but wonder if the image in the mirror was what her mother had seen at sixteen. Strange how I've never actually taken the time to really look, always trying to hide, to blend in, and yet now, I can see it. I wonder if Nunnally would have looked similar.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts she finished changing into her suit, and went back to her desk, checking the time as she closed the hidden closet, only one forty-five, that left her more than enough time to get some things done before Gottwald arrived. Turning to her phone she dialed the number for Ruben's office, pulling up a report from an R&D project as she waited.
"Ruben Ashford here." The older man's terse greeting sent her into a fit of giggles before she managed to speak
"Hello Ruben, it's Lelouica…" She hesitated, not quite sure how to put her message into words, "Listen, could you get Milly and Sayoko in there and put it on speaker? I've made a decision that they're not going to like."
"Might I ask what exactly you're planning? You didn't get caught gambling did you?" Concern filled the voice of her guardian.
"No, but speaking of that, do you mind excusing Rivalz Cardemonde for everything he's missed today? I gave him a gift that isn't exactly something he can take onto campus with him."
She heard a sigh through the phone, "Very well, I'll call you back when they're in here, but I expect an explanation young lady." The line went dead and Leloucia busied herself going over the report she'd pulled up, spending the next ten minutes reading through it and approving the project head's request for a slight budget increase.
She had just been about to pull up another report when her phone rang, quickly picking up she went to answer only to hear Milly's voice, "Okay Lelouica, what did you do."
"Lady Ashford please calm down, I'm sure that Lady Leloucia hasn't done anything dangerous," Sayoko tried to appease the Ashford heiress.
"It's less about what I've done and more about what I'm going to do, Clovis has invited me, or rather L.L, to his St. Darwin's Day ball next month and I will be attending. I will be returning to the fold of the Royal Family." Lelouica said with finality.
"Lelouica," Ruben's voice broke through the shocked shout of "What!?" Milly greeted the revelation with, "I know some of the family has been trying to pressure you, but you don't have to do this, there are other ways for the Ashford family to regain our titles."
"Mistress," Sayoko was trying her hand, "It is too dangerous, please, don't do this, it's not too late to just refuse like you do every other invitation."
Milly's response was the bluntest, in her typical fashion, "Leloucia vi Britannia, have you gone completely and utterly insane!? Six years you've been hiding from the Imperial family and you intend to just waltz back to Pendragon like it's nothing? You'll be lucky if you aren't executed let alone actually accepted by the Emperor!"
"I know what I'm doing Milly, and I'm not doing this just to get the your family's titles back, though I will try my hardest to do that, I'm doing this because it's the only option that has a chance of me completing my goals. My father, the nobles of Pendragon, they are the ones who killed my sister, they took my world from me, and if they could they would take away everything else too. I will see them burn before I let that happen." She responded to Milly's outburst.
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line before Ruben finally spoke "You intend to make a bid for the throne…" then he laughed, the kind of laugh produced by those who didn't really know what to feel, pride, anger, sadness, joy, and a million other things Leloucia couldn't identify colored the sound. "You are just like Marianne you know that? You're so much like her it's uncanny. Whatever you need of me Leloucia, just ask and I'll do everything in my power to give it to you."
"Thank you Ruben," She smiled, "and Milly, Sayoko? I'm sorry, but there isn't any other way. I've even found a good candidate for a Knight, if you want to come over and meet him, then be at the Red Star Building at five."
"Fine, but we are going to have words about this later Lelouica vi Britannia, we are going to have words." Said exiled princess flinched, it wasn't often Milly got truly angry, but like any of her moods, it was a terrifying sight to behold.
"I will serve and protect you no matter what Leloucia." Sayoko said, though everyone could tell she wasn't comfortable with the idea of someone else protecting her charge.
"Thank you Sayoko, well, I have some reports to go over before the meeting I told you about so I'll let you go. Oh, and before I forget ,Ruben do you mind getting some numbers on what it would cost and how long it would take to get the Ashford Foundation's Military R&D and Manufacturing facilities going again?"
"Hmm, I could get you some tentative estimates by the end of the week, and more precise numbers by the end of the month. But Lelouica, the Ashfords might be a big player in the civilian business but military Knightmare frames are another thing entirely. Still though, demand for civilian frames is going down, so I may be able to have a few of the existing factories converted." Ruben answered, "But, Milly has to get back to her final period and I have to give Mr. Cardemonde the day off, goodbye, and please be careful Leloucia."
"I will Ruben, I promise." She said before hanging up the phone, turning her attention to the work of running a megacorporation in the meantime.
Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald was many things, but at the moment, happy was not one of them, frustrated though, that definitely was. Six years, Six years I've been searching and not a single trace has been found of the princesses! That was the crux of his problem; originally his efforts to find the wayward royals had enjoyed the full support of Prince Clovis. Now though after six years of finding nothing Prince Clovis had given up the search, the only one besides himself who even still believed the two were alive was Princess Euphemia, and as much as he appreciated her continued support, she was stuck in the homeland and couldn't really help in a meaningful way. Now he gets a call from the reclusive L.L about "mutual interests", part of him hoped against hope that it would be the break he so desperately needed, another part realized that Leloucia was a genius, and if she hadn't been found yet, then she was either dead or didn't want to be found, and while the latter was unthinkable, the former he recognized was a distinct possibility.
No, I will not give up, not until I see them or their bodies. I will protect them with my very life. His hands gripped the steering wheel of his car tighter, weaving through the pre-rush hour traffic. He still wasn't entirely sure why he of all people had been called by L.L, the only thing related to him of any economic note was the high quality oranges grown in his lands. But L.L was an industrialist, someone who liked to be on the cutting edge of technology, besides his only interest in Area 11 was finding Empress Marianne's children.
Pulling up to the building he took an empty spot by the front, and was even more pleasantly surprised to find it was paid out for another two hours. Shrugging he walked into the building and was greeted by the receptionist at the desk. "How can I help you sir?" the man respectfully inclined his head at Jeremiah's rank rather than standing up and bowing.
While technically acceptable given the situation the action made Jeremiah raise an eyebrow, as most chose to do the full bow, "I am Margrave Gottwald, I have an appointment with L.L." He said evenly, somewhat hoping the man would be difficult just for the excuse to vent his ever mounting frustrations.
"Ah, yes of course sir, just a moment please." He then reached for the phone at his desk and dialed a number, "Ms. Wright, yes the Margrave is here, of course, thank you ma'am." The receptionist put the phone down and turned back to Jeremiah, "L.L's secretary will be down shortly to take you to her."
"And how long is shortly?" Jeremiah asked, knowing all too well that 'shortly' sometimes meant an hour and a half.
"Five to ten minutes, depending on where the elevator at the moment, L.L likes things to be expedient though, so it won't be a long wait sir, I assure you."
Jeremiah nodded in approval, taking a seat on one of the various chairs in the lobby, his thoughts drifting to more recent events, namely Kewell's continued attempts to usurp control of the Purists from him, Bah, once I find the princesses the bastard can have it, I may not like Numbers but we can't take on the world with just what we have in the homeland. Now that I think about it half of those bastards families are from the post-Napoleonic flights after the E.U abolished Europe's aristocracy. At least Villetta was loyal, really only trying to get a title to get a better life for her family. I'd give her a barony in a heartbeat. I've even got one more or less lined up, but Old Pierre is a stubborn one, still though he doesn't have an heir and he's eighty-seven now so he won't live forever. He'd told her as much and she was quite ecstatic and even the old man was okay with the idea, if only to deny his neighbors the territory, the only problem was he was a freak of nature that refused to succumb to old age.
His musing was interrupted by the distinctive ding of an elevator, looking over he saw a young woman carrying a tablet walking to him, heels making a noticeable click as she moved. He stood up just as she reached him and bowed respectfully, "Margrave Gottwald, thank you for coming on such short notice, if you would please follow me I'll take you to see Ms. Lamperouge."
The end of her sentence gave him pause, No, it can't be, Lamperouge was Lady Marianne's maiden name, but she was the last member of her family save for… He quickly schooled his face into a neutral expression, L.L, Leloucia Lamperouge, why didn't I think of it before? It's so obvious!
"Of course, thank you Ms…? He realized as he spoke he didn't know her name
"Wright sir, Rebecca Wright." She introduced herself.
"Thank you Ms. Wright." He finished his earlier statement.
"You're quite welcome sir." Ms. Wright said as she led him to the elevator she'd just exited Jeremiah followed her on autopilot mentally berating himself for never thinking that the Princess might have been operating under an assumed name. Perhaps this was a way of reaching out to him? Enough conjecture, there's no way of knowing until I see her, Jeremiah schooled his thoughts. "At least the elevators move at a decent speed." He mused out loud as he looked at the steadily increasing floor number.
To his surprise Ms. Wright responded, "That's Ms. Lamperouge's work, when she first took over she called the elevators 'a massive waste of time and money' and had them improved one by one, now we boast some of the fastest elevators in town."
He gave a noncommittal grunt in response as the elevator came to a stop, and Ms. Wright led him down a hall of offices, they arrived at one that seemed to have its own small lobby, with what he assumed to be Ms. Wright's work space by the door. Said secretary walked up to the door and knocked before opening it and announcing him, moving out of the way she gestured for him to enter. Jeremiah for his part felt his heart hammering against his chest and heard it in his ears as he walked through the door, all of his attention was focused on the chair currently facing window. The door closed and after what seemed to his straining senses to be an eternity the chair turned revealing to him the very image of the women he failed to protect. "You look so much like her…" it was all he could say, all he could bring himself to think through the conflicting sadness and relief, as he took her in trying to assure himself that this wasn't a dream, that she was here now.
"It's only been seven years since that day my mother was murdered, but it feels like it's been an eternity, doesn't it Jerry?" She smiled at him, a rueful smile filled with longing.
"Your highness, I… I've been searching for you for so long, please tell me Princess Nunnally… your sister, where is she, is, is she alright?" Surely if Leloucia survived then Nunnally could have too, it was a desperate thought, one that quickly died at the pure anguish that overcame the Princess's face.
"She… she died Jerry, she was killed by Britannia," She spat the word out with such hatred Jeremiah almost recoiled, before he could even pose the question of what she meant she continued, "An OSI special operations team found us, tried to kill us. After all, father couldn't well use our deaths as a means to rally people to war if we were still alive. I got shot in the leg, and Nunnally, was grazed by another bullet. I…I used up most of our medical supplies on myself, I kept thinking that her wound wasn't life threatening, that just stopping the bleeding would be enough and she'd be fine, but it somehow got infected." She took a shaky breath, "I tried to help her Jerry, I tried so hard, but no one had any antibiotics, even basic things were hard to come by, oh god she was in so much pain…" She stopped, shaking like a leaf in a windstorm as she tried to hold back her tears.
Jeremiah wasn't sure when he started crying, but at some point the dam had silently broken as rage, sorrow, and self-loathing all vied for dominance in his heart. I failed again, I was too late, that one thought prevailed over all else, echoing over and over again in his mind.
"Princess, I ask of you, let me help you," Jeremiah was surprised by how stable his voice sounded, "Let me be your sword, and strike down those responsible for the murders of Lady Marianne and Princess Nunnally."
That caused a shift in her eyes, a mad fire overtaking the sorrow and anguish, though she still trembled violently. "Jeremiah Gottwald, I ask you to be my sword and shield, I ask you to be my Knight, to protect me and smite down those who would oppose me as I gain the power I need to see those who have wronged my family burn."
The Margrave and former Guard of Marianne vi Britannia didn't care that his princess was asking him to help her overthrow the current monarch, the very idea of which was treason in and of itself, all he cared about was keeping her alive, and bringing retribution onto those who had taken away two of the brightest lights in his life. "I will protect you with my life, Leloucia vi Britannia, and I swear I will do everything in my power to see justice done."
"I don't want justice, Jerry, I want vengeance." She said and he realized she was giving him the chance to back out, to avoid any situation that might stain his honor.
"All the better then, Your Majesty." His honor demanded justice and nothing more, but a darker part of his heart cried out for those responsible to suffer, even if the Emperor himself was among their number. Besides, by swearing allegiance to her his honor would demand he obey her will, and if her will just happened to be vengeance, then he had no right to complain.
"Thank you, Jerry." Leloucia breathed out, as the shaking began to abate somewhat. "I will be attending Clovis' ball for St. Darwin's Day, that's how we'll announce my survival to the world."
He stood up and walked around the desk/holographic display… thing, he really didn't know what to call it. He knelt by her, taking her hand in his own pointedly ignoring the tremors that racked it, "I, Jeremiah Gottwald, do swear fealty to you, Leloucia vi Britannia, above all others, I swear upon my honor that I will serve you until my dying breath, by the Grace of God and in defiance of the Emperor." He didn't know what overcame him to swear that oath, but as he finished he didn't regret it at all.
"Jerry..." she dropped off, unable to find the words to express herself and he idly noted that was the first time he'd ever seen her stunned to silence, "Thank you my Knight, though we'll unfortunately have to wait until after my debut to make it official." She gave him a genuinely happy smile, and he could see the relief in her eyes, "I hate to say this, but the two of us plus whatever Ruben can scrounge up aren't exactly a force that can move mountains, is there anyone you trust implicitly, someone we can rely upon to help us?"
He noted the 'Ruben' deciding it was most likely Ruben Ashford she was referring to, before pondering her question, if he were in charge of any battalion save the Purebloods he'd offer them up in an instant, but he knew his control was tenuous at best, the only person he trusted at all was Villetta. "Unfortunately I can only think of one such person, Villetta Nu, she's a commoner but she has a solid head, is loyal to a fault and has stayed by my side despite the Purists, less than civil reception of her. I'm going to offer her one the baronies in my lands once its current lord dies."
"I will trust your judgment." She assured him it felt good he thought to have her place her trust in him so. No matter what, even if it costs me my life, I will not fail her. Never again.
She turned the chair slightly and picked up the picture off her desk, looking at it briefly before handing it to him. As he looked at the picture depicting his Princesses and an Eleven boy with brown hair and dark green eyes she spoke once again, "That was taken only a few days before the war, Nunnally, she was happy here, they didn't look at her like she was weak or a burden, to them she was just someone who needed a little help. Suzaku and I didn't get along at first, we were basically polar opposites, but she eventually convinced us to at least be civil with each other…" And so Jeremiah sat and listened to his princess tell him about Japan before the war, about the boy who was more a brother to her than any of Britannia's princes, and about how it was all ripped away from them one horrible day. Suzaku Kururigi I will find you, if only to give Leloucia closure. She began to describe the horrors of the war, and the shaking started again, that's when it suddenly hit him that she was ten when this happened. He'd known it intellectually for years, but he had always naively thought she could handle it or that being found would somehow magically fix everything, now though he understood that no matter how mature she had acted, she'd been nowhere near able to emotionally process the things she'd seen. With this sudden dark epiphany the conflict in his heart was resolved, rage overcame all other contenders, he latched onto that rage, and the clarity it brought, and he saw her, he saw that the little girl who'd come to him when he was on duty in the gardens to play chess, talk about her favorite books, or just sit in the shade and nap, was utterly and irreparably broken. Then she told him about after the war, about how the Ashford family had taken her in and sheltered her, about how they went through other channels to try and regain their titles, never once trying to force her back into the Royal Family, she told him about Sayoko the maid who was so much more and had protected her these long six years. She told him about her friends at school and how despite not knowing the full truth of her life how they were among the truest friends she'd had.
Finally she told him of exactly why she was giving it all up, "They would take it all away if they could, the nobles at Pendragon, they'd do it without a second thought. I won't let them Jerry, I'll burn everything that could harm those I care about to ash. I can't pretend I'm doing this for Nunnally, she'd hate this more than anything, nor can I use my Mother as an excuse, because she would just want me to live. Jerry, I'm doing this because I can't stand the thought it might all be ripped away from me, that they'd take my world away for a third time and laugh about it later. So if protecting them means that I have to go back to the vipers' nest that is the Royal Court then so be it, I'll burn the whole world and build a place Nunnally could have been happy from the ashes."
Any response that Jeremiah could have given, as he was currently conflicted between approval and pride at his Princess's resolve and worry for both her physical and psychological health, was interrupted by the phone at her desk ringing. "Five already huh?" She muttered, turning around and answering it, "Yes Gregory it's fine… tell Milly I said to calm down… yes Sayoko knows the way… No, I just lost track of time… Thank you Gregory," She hung up the phone and turned back to him. "Well Jerry, you may want to brace yourself for a slightly upset Millicent Ashford… and Sayoko, though to be honest I'm not sure which is more likely to kill us."
Let it never be said that Jeremiah Gottwald was a coward, but still on that day, he found himself praying to every god he could think of that one Millicent Ashford wasn't as much of a terror as she'd been as a child. He got his wish in a way, she was nowhere near the level he'd last seen her, she was so much worse.
AN:
So here we are with another story, even though the third chapter of my first one is only about 3/4s of the way done, but 7,300+ words later and we're starting this thing. So you may ask, what inspired this, you know, other than Code Geass itself? Well the primary inspiration was Dauntless, but that got me thinking, what if Nunnally died and our glorious Geassing hero discarded his pride for a more pragmatic route? After all, a Prince has a much better chance of overthrowing an Empire than some random jackass in a mask. Then I read Nil Desperandum and said fuck it, fem!Lelouch it is. After that I read The Ongoing Adventures of a Princess, a Pervert and a Psychopath, and that gave me some very fun ideas, on top of just being plain hilarious. Last but not least we have The Prepared Rebellion V2, may version one rest in peace, and rereading that beautiful thing caused everything to just come together in a flash of inspiration. As you may or may not have guessed by now, this will be going in a totally different direction than the anime, sort of like most of the spin off materials only taken to Eleven… and with less les yay, probably with less les yay… I haven't really taken the time to think about romantic parings. Don't worry though, Milly is here so there will be some les yay, writing Milly and not including les yay is a sin, or something along those lines.
Now you may have noticed, but I didn't give a lot of exposition that isn't directly related to the here and now in this. That's something of an experiment I'm doing right now as I noticed the first two chapters of Shattered Fate have been really exposition heavy, and the third one's looking to follow the same theme.
This was actually originally going to be a time travel fic, one that had some focus on Marybell mel Britannia, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that a Lelouch with knowledge of the future can't not win, seriously he could in just the first couple of days after Shinjuku eliminate any possibility of some of his worst obstacles in the series even ever occurring. As for the excuse of "well he'd handicap himself trying to protect his friends." You're talking about a man who held the world hostage with nuclear weapons, and was implied to basically commit so many atrocities that he made Stalin, Hitler and Mao (the one Code Geass' may or may not have been named after, look the word means cat okay, the guy might have been named cat) look pleasant by comparison, if it comes down to it he wouldn't let that stop him. That little Mini Rant aside I highly recommend you read both Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R-eset, and, as mentioned above, Nil Deperandum, both have a rather unique take on time travel conundrum I just mentioned via what essentially amounts to a combination of multiverse and chaos theory.
As for the name, well… all Luluko, the other common fem!Lelouch name, is just Shirley's nickname of "Lulu" with a Japanese suffix (not accurate at all but that's the best way I can describe it… Don't judge me, I'm not a linguist) that denotes femininity tacked on to it. Now of the all the other variants it's the one you could argue is most "canon" thanks to the picture dramas. But fuck it, I don't like it, so meh.
On to other things, for those of you who actually care about my Persona fic Shattered Fate, that'll be updated sometime next week at the latest. I've had finals and shit until last week and have started off the summer in the best way possible, by getting fucking sick. Ginger ale is a beautiful thing by the way and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. That statement is totally unrelated to the cough that's been more or less raping my throat by the way, nope, not related at all.
Please leave a review and if you have any questions I'll be sure to answer them.
Until next time.