Vendetta
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Graying Blood
Chapter 6: Vendetta
***
Rhombus and her comrades arrived at the gates of the Grayquill estate outsider of Viridian City. A set of large black iron bars with a gray brick wall extending several hectares in both directions and out of sight into the night. A beedrill anthro was back in a chair in a small guard house to the left. The group watched as he climbed out of his chair and stepped out beside gates, flagging their vehicle down with one of his spiked hands as it slowed to a stop. He approached the driver's side window window of the sedan and Rhombus rolled her window down, pulling her badge out and flipping it open for the bee to inspect.
"State you reason for showing up without appointment, Agent Rhombus," he said in a somewhat clicky manner from her mandibles.
"Gideon Bloodquill is targeting us. We are requesting shelter in your premises," she said in a more humble voice than she normally had, softer and less playful.
The beedrill's red compound eyes did not betray any emotion in the dim light. His wings frittered for a few seconds as she peered past Rhombus and then into the back seat, noting the armed absol and sandslash. "For Agent Alexei, being an Executive's family member, I will grant this; but I will require you to turn in any weapons before entering the estate."
The arcanine patted the absol on the shoulder with one of her large paws, giving him a smile. "Good job, kid."
He only returned a sideways glance as he handed her his handgun. "I didn't do anything."
After the arcanine handed the beedrill the weapons, the bee moved back to his guard post. The gate began to slowly open up and the trio drove into the Grayquill estate, a large mansion lit up at the end of a long driveway flanked by granite statues of various nidoian; typically it was a nidoqueen on the right with a nidoking on the left, but with several king and king or queen and queen pairings. At the end was one empty stand with a statue of Thaddeus Grayquill on the left side.
"They are not really any more humble than House Bloodquill," Rhombus muttered, eying all of those statues. "They just know to keep their leaders in check."
"I'd tell you to shut up. But I know it wouldn't matter in the end," the absol said back without even turning to look at the arcanine as they take a spot next to several cars identical to theirs, more standardized Rocket fleet vehicles.
She did not look to him with anger, rather a small, wry little smirk. It was a stark contrast to her attitude throughout the whole ride. "I'm going to have to make you regret saying all the things you've said sometime, you know?"
The absol did give her a sideways glance at that, climbing out from his door and shutting it behind him. "Huh...I see that life threatening danger and insubordination don't kill your mood at all."
Slate stood up behind him as he also climbed out. The sand mouse's back spines bristled a little bit as they were no longer pressed down by the seat. "You know our boss better than that, Alex."
The large arcanine woman gave the two males another little smirk before becoming for them to follow her. "But I'd rather just rest tonight after all this, boys."
***
The three were given a large guest room in the east section of the bottom floor. It had one large bed it in, easily capable of holding three or even four bigger pokemon anthros. The three had no qualms with sharing it, though Alexei was finding his mind filled with the most vivid dreams yet.
Vivian's. It small bar in the less savory section of Saffron. Alexei had been crashing there for a few weeks now, keeping out of the ever watchful eye of the Enforcers in districts of the city they actually gave half a damn about. He was hiding right in the heart of one of the Team's strongholds in a dark, dirty corner they couldn't be bothered to sweep. The ordered academy was replaced with blocks of dilapidated buildings, the occasional gunshot or crack of a hyperbeam breaking what little silence could grab the air. That night it was raining. Hard.
He finished a shot of gin at the bar, the normal burn numbed out by a few drinks earlier. It was well after closing hours, the teenaged absol was tasked with making sure no one broke into the hole. It found it to be a good deal. Vivian needed the security and he needed the shelter and invisibility.
Good deal, until she got a better one.
Alexei was tense in the sheets, his fur matting down in cold sweat. The absol's heart was starting to palpitate as his limbs would twitch and shake with irregular tremor.
His horn gave a soft knell, almost drown out against the drumming of raindrops against the patched up metal roof. He instinctively leaped up and over the bar, crouching behind it. The front door was busted down and their was shouting and the clatter of feet and heavy boots. The absol could see red lasers trace across the shelves of booze above.
Enforcers. His heart sank for a second before peaking in his chest, a burst of primal energy hitting his brain. He sprinted across on all fours through a door frame behind the wall, several more warning shouts behind as he was chased down a small hallway of water-damaged drywall in dull yellow light and out the back door. He hacked through doubled deadbolts with a rake of his claws and a night slash.
Alexei seized up, his back arching up as every muscle tensed and loosened madly.
He broke into a sprint on two legs again, freezing rain biting as he splashed down a dark alleyway. The absol stumbled over a few pieces of raised, cracked pavement and refuse as he fled. It became an endless passage, the back walls of buildings starting to melt and warp; geometric shapes of infinite faces twisting and coming out at him. They hurt to stare at, straining the eyes and brain with sharp needles.
The rain drops becoming a haze of chilling mist. Still, the pursuers were behind him in the irrational passage, their voices distorting and flowing, pitches dropping and raising. Sometimes in front, sometimes behind. He turned his head back to see his pursuers; blotted oily ripples chased him, one of them a reddish and cream mixture. It sharpened and became clear. Rhombus the arcanine. His superior. His teacher, and now the arm of Rocket Law, was in pursuit.
She chased him relentlessly through space and time. Planes of razor crystal and oceans of cracking white plasma did not stop the arcanine or her target. They sprinted through the steel-plated halls of Kanto North and the ruins of Alph. Down the cell blocks of Correctional Facility Five.
Stages in life. Stages he played his part on. A force of justice behind and something ahead now. A figure. It was like him in some ways, but alien and ornate. Golden spears and rings emerging from it's side with a million glowing white arms extending from its back like a pair of ghostly wings.
He could see them stretch out into the chaos, warping and reshaping it into a pleasant grassy field on a summer day. Alexei paused his his dash as the static in his mind began to clear. Behind there were no longer familiar faces turned hated hunters. There was nothing but a nice day.
At that, he woke up. Dilated pupils met a rippling and bubbling ceiling, fractal patterns tracing across it as he sat up. On either side in the large bed were Rhombus and Slate, the patterns and shapes flowing over their forms. The absol slipped out of the sheets and off of the bed. The floor shifted and tilted under his feet, swarms of fluttering little shapes and birds flowing around in waves.
To the door he stumbled, pushing it open and falling face-first on the carpet in a hallway of the Grayquill mansion. Alexei's heart slammed against his chest wall as he pushed himself up against a wall.
It felt like it stopped for a moment, the surface of his body electrified as the scent of tobacco hit his nostrils.
There was a soft quaking sound down the dark hall, followed by the sounds of footsteps. Datan emerged from the shadows, dressed in full officer's regalia with a cigarette in bill and swirling a leek.
"Hello, murderer."
"Oh shut the fuck up!" the absol screamed, eyes clenching shut as the farfetch'd stepped closer. When they opened again, the duck was gone. Alexei curled up the corner by the door, the dimly lit hall breathing and twisting around his pathetic form.
For hours he lie there undisturbed by anything in the physical universe, but phantoms and fantastic insects crawled over his fur and under his skin. Flashes of red light filled his vision as Rocket agents and geometric humanoids paced the hallway, emerging from closed doors and evaporating into thin air on their own whims.
The delirious absol eventually climbed back to his feet, propped up against a wall as he shuffled down the hall against it. He slumped down a few times, passing out for a few minutes each time before his state of semi-consciousness returned.
Now a nidoking glowing in a white aura stood at the far end, clad in glistening gold pate armor, carved in unowian runes with a shimmering sword soaked in crimson. He was standing over the still body of another one, slowly oozing blood onto the carpet.
Alexei swore both of them looked familiar, but the one standing victorious sent a wave of heated anger rippling through his form.
That bastard stood against reality. And he was the Defender of it. Wait. Defender? Defender of what? He knew he was defending someone. Or something. Or maybe nothing. His very name.
Things were clear and obscured at the same time. The absol stood opposed and gave a snarl before charging at the shining golden god. The nidoking raised blade and fended, but evaporated as the absol leaped right through him, the dying one on the floor also shattering into fragments of pink crystal that melted into the carpet.
Alexei landed face first on the floor in his maddened state.
It was there he spent the rest of the night, bruised and twitching on the floor in a drooling stupor before sleep took him again. A far cry from just curling up like a dog in the moonlight as he had only a month earlier.
When the sun rose and the nightmare ended, the absol was awoken by a shove against his shoulder. With a groan, he cracked his eyes to see Slate knelt over him. "Sleep walking?" the sandslash asked him with a smile.
The absol gave the ground-type a blank stare followed by a few dumb blinks, remembering only fragments of his experience. "Uhm...yeah." He rubbed a paw over his nose, giving a small whine of pain from the carpet burn running up it. He stood up and made his way back to the guest room as the sandmouse followed the confused dark-type.
The absol threw on a shirt and trousers from a suitcase he packed at the last minute, running his paws down to remove wrinkles.
"Rhombus is already in meeting with the head of the mansion," Slate said as he beckoned with a claw. "Follow me."
"Why didn't she wake me up?" Alexei asked.
Slate laughed at the question as he stepped back out into the hallway. "She didn't want to disturb your dreams."
The absol brushed some his his long head fur from his face and followed the sandslash down the hallway. Even with the morning light coming through windows, things seemed to still ripple and breathe softly.
***
The pair entered a room near the front of the mansion, a cozy-looking study with a circle of plush sofas with a small, round wood table in the center on a red carpet. A platter with a silver tea pot and cups sit on it. Rhombus was seated across from a middle-age nidoqueen about a foot larger than she in a deep teal dress.
The nido gave the absol and sandslash a nod as they sat down on either side of their superior. "Theodore is still alive," Rhombus said.
"Obviously. We don't have a body, Investigator Rhombus. That alone will not enough to move us in these times. Theodore made the challenge and he is facing consequences of his decision." The nidoqueen had a cutting and precise voice. "We don't have the resources for escalating our vendetta with House Bloodquill and risking civil war."
"Cold," Rhombus said with no real concern. "But how does it make you feel that House Bloodquill is invading your line? Surely you keep up with recent events and the movements of your rivals."
The nidoqueen poured herself a cup of tea, dropping a cube of sugar in it from a dish before she responded. "That's a concern. But I can assure you that child would meet its end before it takes our title. Please, have some tea now," she motioned with a claw tip to the tray as she took a small draw off hers. "Breakfast should be ready within the hour."
"Thank you," the fire-dog responded, pouring cups for her subordinates and herself. "We are grateful for you providing shelter from Gideon. Please don't misunderstand us."
The older nidoqueen raised a dismissive paw. "Don't worry about that. I've found most enemies of the Bloodquill's ar--" She looked away and down a hall as the beedrill guard dashed in.
The bug-type stood at attention and threw a quick salute. "Lady Maria. Your presence is required outside. It's your sister."
The nidoqueen immediately stood up and followed the beedrill out, motioning with a paw for them to follow. Down a hallway and through the foyer and to the front doors. Maria dashed outside to see another pair of guards, a female rhydon and a male sandslash.
They approached with a large figure between them, wrapped up in the war flag of Team Rocket, a black field with a bold crimson R flanked by wreathes of gold. The rhydon had a sealed letter in her paw, which she promptly handed to the nidoqueen before the pair carefully lowered the covered body to the ground.
The nidoqueen took the letter and cracked the red wax seal with a claw and opened it.
Dear Maria of House Grayquill,
There was nothing I could do to avoid this tragedy. Your sister attacked me without a clear mind and I had to defend myself. I am hoping your family will be able to put all this senseless bloodshed behind us with the union of your heir, Lady Sophia Grayquill and I.
Sincerely,
Gideon, Patriarch of House Bloodquill and Head Commander of Team Rocket Military and Domestic Affairs
She neatly folded the letter up and looked back to the arcanine and her underlings. "It is looking like you might be in luck, Investigator Rhombus." She had a look of grace about it all. Distance.
"This makes me the head in Sophia's absence. You'll have the family's decision on what we are going to do by nightfall."
Rhombus gave an understanding, but somber nod. "I understand. Saying I'm sorry wouldn't make this any better, would it?"
"Sorry for what, friend?" Maria responded sharply. "This is Gideon's crime. He will pay with the blood of his own. This was not an arranged duel; it is murder...even if provoked."
***
Abigail sat across from Executive Gideon again in his office. She couldn't read him, his ears were up, but his spines lay flat. Those blood-colored eyes were locked with hers, his breath slow. She felt as helpless as when Theodore first visited her, but she would not pretend to lose her cool this time. His calm was met with hers.
"So they were not home, so your report claims?"
"Yes, sir."
He gave an uncaring shrug. "Well. Not much you could have done about that." He paused and bared his fangs. "Besides not being a bold faced liar, that is." The zangoose did not flinch at the accusation. "Enforcers taking a peek inside said there were obvious signs of a struggle. I'm guessing they did not *really* overpower you."
Abigail didn't so much as even look aside, staring her superior directly in his eyes.
"You let them go."
"I did, Sir. What are you going to do about it?"
He smiled at the zangoose in a pervish manner, his eyes lighting up. "Nothing this time, Abigail. But you are going to do your job next time they pop their heads up. There's been enough bloodshed recently. You are dismissed."
That look he was giving her almost made the zangoose blink. "Excuse me, sir?"
"You heard me. Get out." He watched the zangoose gladly make her way from his office. As the doors shut, he spun in his chair to face the paintings of his family's previous heads.
"I will make you proud," he whispered. "I will unite the country and our split bloodline. Still, I've found myself walking a path to my destruction in it. But you understand why I need to do the things I do. Right?"
The paintings did not answer, but he still felt their eyes on him. Judging his every action.
Graying Blood
Chapter 6: Vendetta
***
Rhombus and her comrades arrived at the gates of the Grayquill estate outsider of Viridian City. A set of large black iron bars with a gray brick wall extending several hectares in both directions and out of sight into the night. A beedrill anthro was back in a chair in a small guard house to the left. The group watched as he climbed out of his chair and stepped out beside gates, flagging their vehicle down with one of his spiked hands as it slowed to a stop. He approached the driver's side window window of the sedan and Rhombus rolled her window down, pulling her badge out and flipping it open for the bee to inspect.
"State you reason for showing up without appointment, Agent Rhombus," he said in a somewhat clicky manner from her mandibles.
"Gideon Bloodquill is targeting us. We are requesting shelter in your premises," she said in a more humble voice than she normally had, softer and less playful.
The beedrill's red compound eyes did not betray any emotion in the dim light. His wings frittered for a few seconds as she peered past Rhombus and then into the back seat, noting the armed absol and sandslash. "For Agent Alexei, being an Executive's family member, I will grant this; but I will require you to turn in any weapons before entering the estate."
The arcanine patted the absol on the shoulder with one of her large paws, giving him a smile. "Good job, kid."
He only returned a sideways glance as he handed her his handgun. "I didn't do anything."
After the arcanine handed the beedrill the weapons, the bee moved back to his guard post. The gate began to slowly open up and the trio drove into the Grayquill estate, a large mansion lit up at the end of a long driveway flanked by granite statues of various nidoian; typically it was a nidoqueen on the right with a nidoking on the left, but with several king and king or queen and queen pairings. At the end was one empty stand with a statue of Thaddeus Grayquill on the left side.
"They are not really any more humble than House Bloodquill," Rhombus muttered, eying all of those statues. "They just know to keep their leaders in check."
"I'd tell you to shut up. But I know it wouldn't matter in the end," the absol said back without even turning to look at the arcanine as they take a spot next to several cars identical to theirs, more standardized Rocket fleet vehicles.
She did not look to him with anger, rather a small, wry little smirk. It was a stark contrast to her attitude throughout the whole ride. "I'm going to have to make you regret saying all the things you've said sometime, you know?"
The absol did give her a sideways glance at that, climbing out from his door and shutting it behind him. "Huh...I see that life threatening danger and insubordination don't kill your mood at all."
Slate stood up behind him as he also climbed out. The sand mouse's back spines bristled a little bit as they were no longer pressed down by the seat. "You know our boss better than that, Alex."
The large arcanine woman gave the two males another little smirk before becoming for them to follow her. "But I'd rather just rest tonight after all this, boys."
***
The three were given a large guest room in the east section of the bottom floor. It had one large bed it in, easily capable of holding three or even four bigger pokemon anthros. The three had no qualms with sharing it, though Alexei was finding his mind filled with the most vivid dreams yet.
Vivian's. It small bar in the less savory section of Saffron. Alexei had been crashing there for a few weeks now, keeping out of the ever watchful eye of the Enforcers in districts of the city they actually gave half a damn about. He was hiding right in the heart of one of the Team's strongholds in a dark, dirty corner they couldn't be bothered to sweep. The ordered academy was replaced with blocks of dilapidated buildings, the occasional gunshot or crack of a hyperbeam breaking what little silence could grab the air. That night it was raining. Hard.
He finished a shot of gin at the bar, the normal burn numbed out by a few drinks earlier. It was well after closing hours, the teenaged absol was tasked with making sure no one broke into the hole. It found it to be a good deal. Vivian needed the security and he needed the shelter and invisibility.
Good deal, until she got a better one.
Alexei was tense in the sheets, his fur matting down in cold sweat. The absol's heart was starting to palpitate as his limbs would twitch and shake with irregular tremor.
His horn gave a soft knell, almost drown out against the drumming of raindrops against the patched up metal roof. He instinctively leaped up and over the bar, crouching behind it. The front door was busted down and their was shouting and the clatter of feet and heavy boots. The absol could see red lasers trace across the shelves of booze above.
Enforcers. His heart sank for a second before peaking in his chest, a burst of primal energy hitting his brain. He sprinted across on all fours through a door frame behind the wall, several more warning shouts behind as he was chased down a small hallway of water-damaged drywall in dull yellow light and out the back door. He hacked through doubled deadbolts with a rake of his claws and a night slash.
Alexei seized up, his back arching up as every muscle tensed and loosened madly.
He broke into a sprint on two legs again, freezing rain biting as he splashed down a dark alleyway. The absol stumbled over a few pieces of raised, cracked pavement and refuse as he fled. It became an endless passage, the back walls of buildings starting to melt and warp; geometric shapes of infinite faces twisting and coming out at him. They hurt to stare at, straining the eyes and brain with sharp needles.
The rain drops becoming a haze of chilling mist. Still, the pursuers were behind him in the irrational passage, their voices distorting and flowing, pitches dropping and raising. Sometimes in front, sometimes behind. He turned his head back to see his pursuers; blotted oily ripples chased him, one of them a reddish and cream mixture. It sharpened and became clear. Rhombus the arcanine. His superior. His teacher, and now the arm of Rocket Law, was in pursuit.
She chased him relentlessly through space and time. Planes of razor crystal and oceans of cracking white plasma did not stop the arcanine or her target. They sprinted through the steel-plated halls of Kanto North and the ruins of Alph. Down the cell blocks of Correctional Facility Five.
Stages in life. Stages he played his part on. A force of justice behind and something ahead now. A figure. It was like him in some ways, but alien and ornate. Golden spears and rings emerging from it's side with a million glowing white arms extending from its back like a pair of ghostly wings.
He could see them stretch out into the chaos, warping and reshaping it into a pleasant grassy field on a summer day. Alexei paused his his dash as the static in his mind began to clear. Behind there were no longer familiar faces turned hated hunters. There was nothing but a nice day.
At that, he woke up. Dilated pupils met a rippling and bubbling ceiling, fractal patterns tracing across it as he sat up. On either side in the large bed were Rhombus and Slate, the patterns and shapes flowing over their forms. The absol slipped out of the sheets and off of the bed. The floor shifted and tilted under his feet, swarms of fluttering little shapes and birds flowing around in waves.
To the door he stumbled, pushing it open and falling face-first on the carpet in a hallway of the Grayquill mansion. Alexei's heart slammed against his chest wall as he pushed himself up against a wall.
It felt like it stopped for a moment, the surface of his body electrified as the scent of tobacco hit his nostrils.
There was a soft quaking sound down the dark hall, followed by the sounds of footsteps. Datan emerged from the shadows, dressed in full officer's regalia with a cigarette in bill and swirling a leek.
"Hello, murderer."
"Oh shut the fuck up!" the absol screamed, eyes clenching shut as the farfetch'd stepped closer. When they opened again, the duck was gone. Alexei curled up the corner by the door, the dimly lit hall breathing and twisting around his pathetic form.
For hours he lie there undisturbed by anything in the physical universe, but phantoms and fantastic insects crawled over his fur and under his skin. Flashes of red light filled his vision as Rocket agents and geometric humanoids paced the hallway, emerging from closed doors and evaporating into thin air on their own whims.
The delirious absol eventually climbed back to his feet, propped up against a wall as he shuffled down the hall against it. He slumped down a few times, passing out for a few minutes each time before his state of semi-consciousness returned.
Now a nidoking glowing in a white aura stood at the far end, clad in glistening gold pate armor, carved in unowian runes with a shimmering sword soaked in crimson. He was standing over the still body of another one, slowly oozing blood onto the carpet.
Alexei swore both of them looked familiar, but the one standing victorious sent a wave of heated anger rippling through his form.
That bastard stood against reality. And he was the Defender of it. Wait. Defender? Defender of what? He knew he was defending someone. Or something. Or maybe nothing. His very name.
Things were clear and obscured at the same time. The absol stood opposed and gave a snarl before charging at the shining golden god. The nidoking raised blade and fended, but evaporated as the absol leaped right through him, the dying one on the floor also shattering into fragments of pink crystal that melted into the carpet.
Alexei landed face first on the floor in his maddened state.
It was there he spent the rest of the night, bruised and twitching on the floor in a drooling stupor before sleep took him again. A far cry from just curling up like a dog in the moonlight as he had only a month earlier.
When the sun rose and the nightmare ended, the absol was awoken by a shove against his shoulder. With a groan, he cracked his eyes to see Slate knelt over him. "Sleep walking?" the sandslash asked him with a smile.
The absol gave the ground-type a blank stare followed by a few dumb blinks, remembering only fragments of his experience. "Uhm...yeah." He rubbed a paw over his nose, giving a small whine of pain from the carpet burn running up it. He stood up and made his way back to the guest room as the sandmouse followed the confused dark-type.
The absol threw on a shirt and trousers from a suitcase he packed at the last minute, running his paws down to remove wrinkles.
"Rhombus is already in meeting with the head of the mansion," Slate said as he beckoned with a claw. "Follow me."
"Why didn't she wake me up?" Alexei asked.
Slate laughed at the question as he stepped back out into the hallway. "She didn't want to disturb your dreams."
The absol brushed some his his long head fur from his face and followed the sandslash down the hallway. Even with the morning light coming through windows, things seemed to still ripple and breathe softly.
***
The pair entered a room near the front of the mansion, a cozy-looking study with a circle of plush sofas with a small, round wood table in the center on a red carpet. A platter with a silver tea pot and cups sit on it. Rhombus was seated across from a middle-age nidoqueen about a foot larger than she in a deep teal dress.
The nido gave the absol and sandslash a nod as they sat down on either side of their superior. "Theodore is still alive," Rhombus said.
"Obviously. We don't have a body, Investigator Rhombus. That alone will not enough to move us in these times. Theodore made the challenge and he is facing consequences of his decision." The nidoqueen had a cutting and precise voice. "We don't have the resources for escalating our vendetta with House Bloodquill and risking civil war."
"Cold," Rhombus said with no real concern. "But how does it make you feel that House Bloodquill is invading your line? Surely you keep up with recent events and the movements of your rivals."
The nidoqueen poured herself a cup of tea, dropping a cube of sugar in it from a dish before she responded. "That's a concern. But I can assure you that child would meet its end before it takes our title. Please, have some tea now," she motioned with a claw tip to the tray as she took a small draw off hers. "Breakfast should be ready within the hour."
"Thank you," the fire-dog responded, pouring cups for her subordinates and herself. "We are grateful for you providing shelter from Gideon. Please don't misunderstand us."
The older nidoqueen raised a dismissive paw. "Don't worry about that. I've found most enemies of the Bloodquill's ar--" She looked away and down a hall as the beedrill guard dashed in.
The bug-type stood at attention and threw a quick salute. "Lady Maria. Your presence is required outside. It's your sister."
The nidoqueen immediately stood up and followed the beedrill out, motioning with a paw for them to follow. Down a hallway and through the foyer and to the front doors. Maria dashed outside to see another pair of guards, a female rhydon and a male sandslash.
They approached with a large figure between them, wrapped up in the war flag of Team Rocket, a black field with a bold crimson R flanked by wreathes of gold. The rhydon had a sealed letter in her paw, which she promptly handed to the nidoqueen before the pair carefully lowered the covered body to the ground.
The nidoqueen took the letter and cracked the red wax seal with a claw and opened it.
Dear Maria of House Grayquill,
There was nothing I could do to avoid this tragedy. Your sister attacked me without a clear mind and I had to defend myself. I am hoping your family will be able to put all this senseless bloodshed behind us with the union of your heir, Lady Sophia Grayquill and I.
Sincerely,
Gideon, Patriarch of House Bloodquill and Head Commander of Team Rocket Military and Domestic Affairs
She neatly folded the letter up and looked back to the arcanine and her underlings. "It is looking like you might be in luck, Investigator Rhombus." She had a look of grace about it all. Distance.
"This makes me the head in Sophia's absence. You'll have the family's decision on what we are going to do by nightfall."
Rhombus gave an understanding, but somber nod. "I understand. Saying I'm sorry wouldn't make this any better, would it?"
"Sorry for what, friend?" Maria responded sharply. "This is Gideon's crime. He will pay with the blood of his own. This was not an arranged duel; it is murder...even if provoked."
***
Abigail sat across from Executive Gideon again in his office. She couldn't read him, his ears were up, but his spines lay flat. Those blood-colored eyes were locked with hers, his breath slow. She felt as helpless as when Theodore first visited her, but she would not pretend to lose her cool this time. His calm was met with hers.
"So they were not home, so your report claims?"
"Yes, sir."
He gave an uncaring shrug. "Well. Not much you could have done about that." He paused and bared his fangs. "Besides not being a bold faced liar, that is." The zangoose did not flinch at the accusation. "Enforcers taking a peek inside said there were obvious signs of a struggle. I'm guessing they did not *really* overpower you."
Abigail didn't so much as even look aside, staring her superior directly in his eyes.
"You let them go."
"I did, Sir. What are you going to do about it?"
He smiled at the zangoose in a pervish manner, his eyes lighting up. "Nothing this time, Abigail. But you are going to do your job next time they pop their heads up. There's been enough bloodshed recently. You are dismissed."
That look he was giving her almost made the zangoose blink. "Excuse me, sir?"
"You heard me. Get out." He watched the zangoose gladly make her way from his office. As the doors shut, he spun in his chair to face the paintings of his family's previous heads.
"I will make you proud," he whispered. "I will unite the country and our split bloodline. Still, I've found myself walking a path to my destruction in it. But you understand why I need to do the things I do. Right?"
The paintings did not answer, but he still felt their eyes on him. Judging his every action.