Stage 1: A Shadow is born
It was a warm summer morning on the country-side; a black haired young man opened his dark sapphire eyes to the sound of a single bird singing in the morning. This young man's name was Rai Archivaleus Creswell. Young Creswell always believed that an early morning brings change to one's life; little did he know that this morning would bring a change that will forever change who he was and how he saw the world.
Rai was a fourteen-year-old farm raised orphan. Raised by his grandfather, Archival Creswell, a veteran of the Britannia military and now a farmer. Rai was a spunky, cunning, smart kid with a dream of becoming a hero; trading his farm life for a of adventure and danger like the heroes from the stories his grandfather told him.
Although Rai had a particular reason to wake up early this day, he had to go to the city to run errands for his grandfather before the city got cluttered by the big parade. It was part of the Imperial victory tour, in the celebration for conquering a new territory.
"Time to get up and get going" said Rai as he sprung up from his bed and began getting ready. He quickly got dressed and readied himself to leave. Since he had to run errands, he woke up earlier than anybody else in the house. Rai jauntily made his way out of the use and on to a nearby bus station.
It was almost an hour-long bus ride from the countryside to the city. By the time Rai got off the bus, there were people already linning up in the streets to catch a glimpse of the first prince of the empire, Odysseus eu Britannia, himself. In addition, to the second princess Cornelia li Britannia.
It was common for Odysseus to lead such parades, he enjoyed being among the people. Cornelia's presence was more a congratulatory manner for the role she played in the victory, after all she was Britannia's Goddess of Victory.
"Wow, these people got here really early. I better hurry, I don't want to get caught up in the sea of humanity" thought Rai as he made his way to his first stop. Several hours passed while Rai did his several errands. By now, he had finished with the last item on his list, shopping.
Rai had a content look on his face, as he carried a bag of groceries in one hand and leftover money in the other. He now made his way through the streets; that were now cluttered with people, because the parade has started. "Shopping took way longer than expected, but at least I saved a lot of money. Now the hard part is going to be getting a bus back home." Thought Rai as he looked at the parade passing by.
Meanwhile, in the second story of a nearby building, a mysterious figure cozied up to the scope of a sniper rifle. He had a, somewhat obstructed view of the vehicles passing by in the parade; since the first story of the building he was in was lower than street level.
Rai made his through the crowd, it was a little difficult to traverse the sea of people with a bag of groceries. As he moved forward he saw a little girl on top of her father's shoulder. The little girl had a balloon tied to a string. Out of nowhere a strong wind blew the little girl's balloon on to a tree. The little girl began crying for her balloon, but her father couldn't just put the girl on the ground to go climb up a tree.
Rai saw the father trying to appease his crying daughter, so Rai rushed over and said: "Don't worry, I'll help you guys out." The father looked at Rai and politely shook his head saying: "Oh I couldn't possibly ask you to climb a tree for a balloon, young man."
Rai looked happily determined and replied: "There's no problem at all, I'm happy to help." The father and his little girl both smiled, then the little girl said: "Thank you, mister." The little girl's gratitude only help to strengthened Rai's resolve.
Rai briskly moved over to the tree, he placed his bag of groceries on the floor and began climbing. It was easy for him to climb the tree, although he drew some stares from people in the crowd from people who thought he was some crazy lunatic.
At the same time, the transport that carried Cornelia and Odysseus approached. In his hidden perched, the sniper licked his lips as he readied his shot and wrapped his finger on the trigger and fired two shots. Rai closed on the balloon, just as he grasped it, he fell from the tree. The sound of large caliber gunshots threw the crowd into a panic.
Rai's body made a light thump on the floor. The fall wasn't too bad, Rai had worse falls, but something didn't feel right. His body felt cold, he couldn't move, his vision was fading. The last thing Rai saw was the balloon on the tree begin to fly away.
Thoughts of the Witch
In their heart, everyone has faith that their life has purpose. However, in the face of time and destiny, the act of faith is fruitless and fleeting. Now Rai's destiny is beginning to unfold in front of him, will he be able to find his purpose or will he just crumble and fade away.
The city was in disarray after the shooting. The streets had gone into lockdown and martial law was set in motion, so the police could get things back in order. This allowed for the imperial guard to take Rai's body and bring it to a hospital while maintaining complete secrecy over him being shot. Rai was being kept alive by the might of Britannian medical science, although the damage from the gunshots was severe and there was no promise that he would survive.
His body laid on a gurney, intubated, with several machines connected to him. On his chest, two cotton gauzes soaked in blood covered the entry wounds. The imperial guard placed him in a private room, under constant guard. Outside the room stood Cornelia; flanked by Nonette Enneagram, the Knight of Nine.
"What complete debacle this turned into, wouldn't you agree, your highness?" said Nonette as she pondered on the day's events. Cornelia was angered, livid, but retained her composure and retorted: "This is completely unacceptable. An attempt on the imperial family and nobody had any idea of who is behind it. Complete incompetence. If it weren't for that boy…"
"You and your brother would be dead, your highness." Cornelia was interrupted by a man wearing a three-piece suit. The man looked elegant and professional, he had salt and pepper hair and wore small frame glasses. Cornelia quickly turned to see the man, accompanied by a young brown-haired woman, probably in her late teens. She was carrying a metal briefcase and the imposing Lord Bismarck, Knight of One.
"Doctor Lazzard, what brings you here?" asked Cornelia as she didn't understand why the emperor's personal physician would be there. Lazzard made a formal bow, followed by the woman next to him and said: "After hearing of today's incident, his Imperial Majesty, desired for the boy to survive his injuries at all cost. Therefore, he entrusted me with this responsibility. I must excuse myself, your highness; time is of the essence. Ursula, go tell them to prepare a room for surgery. I will make check on the condition of our patient."
Ursula handed the briefcase to Lazzard and proceeded to carry out his directions. Meanwhile, Lazzard entered the room where Rai laid unconscious. He was alone in the room with Rai. Lazzard pulled a chair by Rai's side; he opened the briefcase revealing two glass containers with a bright orange fluid. In addition, a small rectangular machine with a screen on it, connected to a small hose with a needle at the end.
Lazzard took the small machine and inserted the needle into Rai's arm, then he began drawing blood. "Let's see if you are worth all this trouble" said Lazzard as the blood reached the machine. The machine began displaying information on Rai's blood, after a few seconds the screen displayed a message: "SK-001:matched". A small devilish grin overtook Lazzard as he casually said: "Would you look at that."
A few minutes later, Rai was moved to an operation room, he laid flat on the table. While Lazzard and Ursula, now dressed in scrubs moved around him. "Alright, let's start with the easy part. Ursula, hand me the plyers, we need to remove the bullets" said Lazzard as he began removing the gauzes from Rai's chest.
Ursula gave a quick nod and handed Lazzard a pair of fine nose plyers. Lazzard then carefully inserted them into one of the bullet wounds, he pulled out a medium size round from the wound then he promptly did the same with the other wound.
"Okay, show time. Ursula, let's begin with the implantation of G-Cells. So far we got three successful cases, let's see if we can make it a quartet." Said Lazzard as he casually put away the plyers. Yet again Ursula nodded and she responded: "Yes, Doctor."
Ursula and Lazzard took the glass containers from the briefcase and using syringes injected the contents through Rai's IV. The fluid quickly spread through Rai's bloodstream. Ursula began timing the spread of the fluid and when the timer hit sixty seconds she said: "Sixty seconds, Doctor. No reaction."
Suddenly, Rai's body began convulsing slowly; then his heart stopped. Lazzard, without taking his eyes from Rai, asked: "Time?" Ursula quickly responded: "One hundred seconds." Lazard calmly moved closer towards Rai to get a closer look at his injuries and after a quick analysis said: "No results so far… there we go!"
Rai's injuries started healing at an extremely accelerated rate. The two bullet wounds healed, only leaving two noticeable scars. Then Rai's heart started beating again. "One hundred and twenty seconds, Doctor." Lazzard began removing his mask and gloves, then he confidently said: "Right on schedule. We can add another one to the victory column, my dear. I will have Lord Bismarck contact his majesty and give him the good news."
Several hours later, Cornelia, Nonette and Odysseus stood in disbelief of the information they were just told about. "How is this even possible?" asked Cornelia with extreme disbelief. Bismarck plainly responded: "It is as I said, your highness. The boy is a member of the Imperial Family. He was believed dead after the terrorist attack on the Julius Villa fourteen years ago."
Julius Villa, Pendragon (Fourteen years ago)
The night was quiet and peace, like most nights are on the Julius Villa. A small baby boy, not more than a few months old, slept with a stuffed toy of a dragon, in an adorned cradle as the moon light lit the room around him.
In the gardens outside the villa, a man dressed in Britannian military attire patrolled the grounds. He had short black hair and carried and assault rifle. He took a moment to look around then grabbed the radio on his shoulder: "This is Captain Ravencroft to gate. Come in gate. I repeat, Captain Ravencroft to gate. Oh for the love of god, Lesner if you are asleep I'm going to shoot you."
He gave an annoyed sigh and began walking pass the garden labyrinth towards the gate. When he got the gate, he didn't see anyone in through the guardhouse window. Ravencroft pulled up his assault rifle and carefully approached the small guardhouse. When he poked through the door, he saw the guard sleeping in his chair. Ravencroft just shook his head in disappointment and proceeded to kick the chair from underneath the sleeping Lesner.
The soldier fell flat on the floor and woke up startled, only to find Ravencroft looming over him shaking his head. Lesner quickly stood up and said: "So-sorry, sir." Ravencroft just turned around and began walking away, while he walked he said: "If I catch you sleeping again, I will shoot you."
Ravencroft then walked back to the villa. As he passed through one of the garden labyrinth entrances, he caught a glimpse of something moving within the maze. He knew there was nobody supposed to be there, so Ravencroft raised his gun and said: "Whoever you are, come out with your hands in the air. Now."
There was a small giggling and rustling coming from the maze, then the voice of a woman said: "I told you he would find us." Then another voice responded: "Well maybe if you were a bit more nimble, he wouldn't have noticed us."
Ravencroft was confused for a moment because he knew who the voices belonged to: "Lady C.C., Mari?" Both ladies stepped out from behind the one of the maze's walls. It was C.C. and a young Marianne.
Marianne came out with her hands up, smiling and said: "Guilty as charged. Now put down your gun, Ange', we both know you can't shoot me." Ravencroft just shook his head in disbelief while he lowered his rifle and asked: "Mari, what the hell are you doing here?"
"She wanted to see the baby" plainly answered C.C. Marianne simply stared daggers at her and said: "Well thanks for selling me out so quickly. Remind me never to rob a bank with you. The thing is, Ange', I wanted to spend the night with the little bundle of joy. Are you really that surprised?"
Ravencroft casually approached the two and said: "I'm not that surprised, breaking into a heavily guarded villa is right up your alley; Knight of Six. What really surprised me is that you were able to drag Lady C.C. into one of your crazy schemes."
Marianne wrapped her arm around C.C. and jokingly said: "Oh she might seem a little cold but she likes having fun with me. Don't you, C.C.?" C.C. simply tilted her head and answered: "Plus you wouldn't stop pestering me to come with you."
Marianne just laughed at C.C. while she kept holding her, then she turned back to Ravencroft and said: "That's why I like bringing her with me, she's just a bundle of fun. Not to mention she really knows the grounds, which really came in handy when we saw that patrol you had by the lake's shore."
Ravencroft was confused and said: "What patrol by the shore? There are no patrols for that area." Marianne motioned with her thumb in the direction of the lake and asked: "Then why were they six armed soldiers standing by the shore?"
Ravencroft mind began racing with the possibilities, he then exclaimed: "We need to get to the villa, now!" The trio ran in the direction of the villa. As they ran, Ravencroft radioed in: "Captain Ravencroft to Villa. Come in Villa. Anybody? Respond." But there was no reply, only static.
"Ange', what's going on?" asked Marianne as worried gripped her voice. Ravencroft just kept running as he grabbed his radio again: "I think someone got into the Julius Villa, we need to get there soon. I'm going to call for back up." Then Ravencroft contacted the Imperial guard for support.
When they got to Julius Villa, they were greeted by the corpses of two of the soldiers who were assigned to keep guard on the villa. Ravencroft stopped to look over the corpses and inspect them. He saw both had been shot in the head from a distance. "Damn it! It's what I feared, they made it in." said Ravencroft as he turned towards Marianne and C.C.
Marianne was overcome by anger and worry: "I'm not letting those bastards take him!" She bent down and grabbed one of the dead soldier's rifle. Ravencroft knew there was no way to persuade Marianne to wait a few minutes for the rest of the Imperial Guard to arrive and he already planned to go in by himself anyway.
He bent down, grabbed a pistol from one of the soldier's, turned to C.C. and said: "I understand this isn't your style, Lady C.C. but you should have it just in case anyone that isn't one of us comes out" C.C. grabbed the pistol and looked it over and she gave a simple nod.
Then the duo entered the Julius Villa quietly through a side door. They sneaked their way to the main room which had access to the second floor by means of two ornate stairways. When they got to the main room, they were appalled to see it covered in blood spatter and corpses from the maids and soldiers working inside the villa.
Marianne walked to the stairs but she was tackled to the floor by Ravencroft. Luckily for her, he did this to save here from a hail of gun fire coming from behind the columns at the other end of the room. Ravencroft and Marianne crawled to a nearby flipped table.
"I am going to enjoy killing all of you!" yelled Marianne now enraged and in full combat mode. She fired back from her covered position, this gave Ravencroft the opportunity to assess the threat. He saw four men armed to the teeth, they were firing covered by the columns.
"Mari, I count four of them. They're behind the columns" said Ravencroft as he readied himself to fire back. Marianne gave a bloodthirsty grin and said: "Good, that only leaves just two more of these bastards after we kill those four!"
Then Marianne then pulled out a grenade, which surprised Ravencroft and he asked: "Where did you get that?" Marianne just laughed, she enjoyed the thrill of battle to no end, then she retorted: "I took it from you when you weren't paying attention."
Ravencroft looked at his belt, only to find that he was missing one of his grenades. He just gave an annoyed sigh and asked: "Really? You couldn't just ask? For the love of god, Mari. Do you have plan to go along with that grenade?"
"Of course I do! Watch" Then she made a swing and threw the grenade pass the soldiers. They noticed the grenade just before it went off. They manage to avoid the bulk of the blast, but were knocked to the ground by the shockwave. Instantly, Marianne jumped from cover and swiftly disposed of the four men on the ground.
"That's four!" celebrated Marianne, without noticing that a fifth man was ready to shoot her from a top of the stairs. Suddenly, a gunshot went off; it was Ravencroft who killed the fifth man. The he confidently bragged: "That makes five and you still need to learn to watch your back."
Marianne nonchalantly shrugged and said: "That's why I got you, Ange'. Let's go get the last bastard and if he touched a single hair on my baby's head I'm going to end him slowly and painfully."
Ravencroft gave a small chuckle and said: "I think it's the first time I've heard you call him 'my baby'" Marianne gave an acknowledging nod and said: "I told you, I grew attached to the little bugger."
Then they cautiously moved up the stairs, but before they reached the top they were greeted by another armed soldier standing the door at top of the stairs. This time it was a woman; she had a large scar across her face and she held, what looked to be, a baby wrapped completely in a blanket.
She gave a malevolent grin and said: "You shouldn't be so loud, you are gonna wake the baby." Marianne was livid, she pointed her gun straight at the woman's head and threated: "Better give him back if you know what's good for you, bitch."
"Oh my, that doesn't seem like the way a proper lady should speak. I hope you burn down with Britannia!" yelled the woman as she pulled a detonator from her pocket. When Ravencroft saw the detonator, he automatically started scanning the room to see where the bomb was, realizing it was the woman's vest.
Ravencroft quickly pushed Marianne down the stairs as the woman pressed the button on her detonator. The explosion sent them flying to the floor below and it obliterated the woman alongside most of the room she was standing in including the top of the stairs.
Ravencroft shielded Marianne from the heat of the blast, but at the cost of getting his back burned. As they laid unconscious on the floor, C.C. rushed in to find the aftermath of the encounter; she quickly checked to see if Marianne and Ravencroft were alive.
Several minutes later, the Imperial Guard had already arrived. A medic was overlooking Ravencroft's injuries. Meanwhile, C.C. and Marianne had gone to the room where the woman detonated the bomb; the baby's room. They were looking at the burned walls and the destroyed cradle.
Marianne saw something that caught her eye, it was the singed plush she had given the baby. She grabbed the plush and after a quick gaze, she fell to her knees and started sobbing. C.C. saw this and could feel nothing but sorrow for her friend, she kneeled behand her and wrapper her arms around her neck in a caring embrace.
Present day
"Yes, so many people died that night. How come nobody reported that a member of the Imperial family had died?" asked Cornelia as she remember the reports of that day. Bismarck gave a plain answer: "His majesty saw no purpose for it. There were no leads to who the attackers were and nobody knew about the newly born prince."
"So basically the investigation would go nowhere and the Empire would look weak for losing a prince and not being able to retort" said Nonette with a serious tone. Bismarck simply nodded in acknowledgement.
"Excuse me, your highness. The patient is awake." Said Lazzard as he interrupted the conversation. Group quickly moved towards Rai's room. Inside the room, Ursula was helping remove Rai's breathing tube. After the tube was out, Ursula handed Rai a glass of water.
Once he drank the entire glass, he turned to Ursula and said: "Thank you, miss. Can you tell me what I'm doing here?" Before Ursula could answer, Lazzard opened the door and held it for the Imperial family. Rai was utterly stunned, the closest he had ever been to the Imperial family was seeing them on tv.
Rai tried bowing his head, but his body was still sore. He made a small groan and gave the effort. Odysseus saw him struggling to bow and said: "Oh please don't hurt yourself, there's no need." Rai straighten himself and said: "Thank you, your highness."
Lord Bismarck stepped forward and started addressing Rai: "Excuse me, young man, do you know why you are here?" Rai shook his head and said: "No, Lord Bismarck. Last thing I remember was falling from a tree, after I tried to pull down a balloon. Why, did something happen?"
Bismarck then proceeded to explain what happened to Rai. He was dumbfounded, Rai couldn't believe he saved two members of the Imperial family by complete accident. "I guess it was really lucky that I fell when I did." Said Rai as he nervously laughed.
"Yeah, you don't usually hear about someone falling on two bullets. Okay, so who's breaking the news to him?" said Nonette finding humor in the situation. A solemn silence filled the room, this made Rai uncomfortable and he asked: "What news?"
"Well, when we were doing your blood work in preparation to your operation; we also uncovered that you are, and I know this sounds utterly preposterous, a member of the Imperial family. It just so happens, that your blood is an exact match to the blood of Aedan Ziq Britannia. He was thought dead fourteen years ago; which, as records show, is around the same time Archival Creswell filed papers to obtain custody of an unnamed baby dropped at his farm. You, Rai Creswell" recited Lazzard from memory after reading the files a few hours ago.
"Wait, what!? Is this some kind of joke? No, it isn't; the Imperial family is not known for joking. I must've hit my head really hard on the ground when I fell from the tree and this is just all one big dream." Rai began to panic, because he didn't believe what was happening.
Rai clearly had gone deep in thought, beads of sweat started coming down his face. "Your highness? Your highness? Rai?" asked Nonette trying to get Rai to snap out of it.
Rai quickly reacted to hearing his name: "Yea-Yes?" Nonette followed up: "Are you alright? We understand this must be quite a lot to take in." Rai just gave a fidgety nod in respond to that.
Cornelia turned to Bismarck and said: "If he is a member of the Imperial family, he must be brought back to Pendragon immediately." Bismarck nodded and responded: "Although I agree with you, your highness, this is for the emperor to decide and he doesn't agree. His majesty believes that the boy should be sent to the Imperial Military Academy first, to determine the boy's abilities." At this point, Rai interrupted: "The boy is right here and he has a name. Apparently, he also has no say in the matter"
"Excuse me, your highness, but his majesty has deemed it so. Now if you excuse me there are arrangements to be made. Your future awaits." said Bismarck as he acknowledged Rai's statement. Rai was disheartened, he knew he didn't have any choice on the matter.