The Queen's green eyes were watching the event in front of her.
The dining hall had been emptied of furniture and was now serving as a throne room but it was also serving as a place for people in the castle to spar with fist and spell.
Around the perimeter of the throne room was an audience of twenty people, some of them whispering amongst themselves as they observed the engagement in the centre: two seekers, both women, fighting it out for the Queen's observation.
One female had dyed emerald green hair which was tied up in a but; the other blonde, her hair in a pleite.
The blonde had a cut lip and the green haired one had a bloody nose.
They both locked eyes with each other, as they thought how best to put in their new move of attack.
After more engagement, the blonde got the emerald haired woman onto the ground and her foot on her throat.
"Tap out," the blonde said to her rival as she struggled. "Tap out."
The emerald haired one refused, still struggling.
"Enough!" commanded the queen. "She's not going to tap out you stupid girl! You're going to kill her!"
The blonde took her foot off of her opponent's neck and stepped back away from her.
"Step forward. The both of you," commanded the Queen.
They both walked forward and the queen sighed. "You." She pointed to the blonde. "What's your name?"
"Elaine."
"Elaine. You've got a viciousness and determination about you. You're a soldier. I need soldiers. To be a soldier though, you need discipline. Remember that when you report to Menzies tomorrow. You're dismissed. Get out of my throne room."
Elaine rushed out of the room, just as he queen commanded, and the emerald haired woman looked up at the Queen. "Marina. I remember you from yesterday's event. You are relentless in your own way. You'd rather die in battle that live a loser. I can understand that. You can report to Arthur tomorrow. Dismissed."
The emerald haired woman left and then a man from the audience approached the Queen. He was tall and broad shouldered, with a Van Dyke style moustache. The guards by her throne, moved forward but she raised a hand to pacify them. The man who approached her, took a hat off of his head and then smiled before bowing.
"When did you get here Lewis?" the Queen asked, tilting her head at him. Her eyes looked him up and down.
"Just before the fight started but I do love watching human women fighting each other. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure."
The queen responded with silence and a deliberate blank look, which after a while made Lewis cough and clear his throat. The last person who'd looked at him like that had hit him, very hard. Oddly enough, that person had the same colour of hair as the queen: flaming red.
"Queen Selina. I believe I have got some news for you."
"It had be better be good."
"An agent from The Haven was sent to investigate a set of remains that's being examined here in Paris."
"Will he now?" the Queen asked.
"He won't be. He's dead now. It's the remains. It's why he was sent."
"How do we know it's the remains."
"Because of what was with it,." replied Lewis. "The key is there."
She leaned forward. "Did you bring me it?"
"I wanted to see how you wanted to handle it first ma'am. I mean, your majesty. I understand you're a complex woman with complex ideas and plans. I'm just in this whole thing for the money."
The Queen nodded before turning to the guard on her left. "You, go and get Codsworth." She turned to the one on the right. "And you, go and get James."
They nodded and then they both left. "Everyone out!" she yelled before pointing to Lewis. "You stay."
When the throne room was empty, except for the two of them, the Queen began to speak again. "You dealt with the situation correctly didn't you? I'm not going to have trouble from The Haven am I?"
"You won't get any trouble your majesty. It's best you don't know all the details but ain't nobody finding that fool any time soon."
Selena's eyes glazed over with contempt. "What was that you said?"
"Ain't nobody finding that fool any time soon?"
She stood up and began to walk towards Lewis, who was backing away. "Before that?" she asked.
"It's best you don't know all the details?"
"Is it really best that I don't know all the details?" she asked.
"I don't know," answered Lewis.
"If you don't know then why did you say it? I'm quite curious?" she replied. "I could hurt you as punishment but you'd heal too quickly wouldn't you? Why don't you write me a hand written report on how you handled the situation with the agent. Leave no detail spared."
At that moment a man walked into the room. He had longish black hair, a scar on his face and gray eyes. The queen turned to him, stepping away from Lewis a little.
"Your majesty, you wished to speak with me?" he asked.
The queen gave a nod. "Codsworth. Why don't you and I assess a situation?"
"At once your majesty," Codsworth replied and bowed.
Three days later…
The Museum of Culture and Ancient Artifacts - Paris, France
Estelle Ruais was an anthropologist who happened to have the misfortune of being in charge of examining the set of remains that Queen Selan was interested in. Actually, the remains in questions weren't entirely what the Queen was interested in. It was the necklace that the remains was wearing.
Estelle carefully removed the necklace, a blue jeweled shaped like a spiked ball, from the remains' neck and brought it up close to her eyes to examine it. It was glowing.
Estelle frowned her eyes and then sat the necklace down on a tray near the examine table that was hosting the remains. She took off her gloves and rubbed her eyes before getting ready to go and get some coffee.
It was when she returned from her coffee break that she found someone standing near the remains, hold the green jewel. That person turned around to reveal his face. The scar was the first thing that Estelle noticed and then she noticed the robes that he was wearing - scarlet red, with a suit underneath them.
"You're not supposed to be here," he commented matter of factly. From the way he spoke, Estelle got chills. It was one of those voices that was so without tone, or expression that it couldn't even be described as calm.
"Working late. You have dedication. But she's not that important in the grand scheme of things," the man said and took another glance at the remains.
"How did you get in here? We have security,." Estelle demanded. She wasn't about to let anyone tamper with the remains or what came with it.
"I walked in here,." he replied before turning back to her. "It wasn't like I could get a car in here. Well perhaps I could but there was no need for that level of mess. A bit uncalculated and reckless for my tastes though sometimes a few issues crop up, like yourself."
He smiled at her and Estelle swallowed. There was just something unnerving about it.
Estelle pointed to the necklace in the man's hand. "I must ask you to put that down and leave. The museum is closed," Estelle demanded. Her eyes then averted to the phone on her desk as she thought of dashing to it and calling security.
"I think you'll find security is asleep," he said, recognising her intentions. "I had planned for them. Not for you. Now you're a loose end that needs tyingied up,." he replied before holding out his hand. "Strangdem."
Estelle felt herself unable to breathe. It also felt like something had a grip on her neck, choking her. After a while the room began to become lost from her sights. No, not like this, she thought. Then she collapsed on the floor, no longer trying to fight the choking sensation placed upon her. Before she became lost to the world, she heard one thing...the sound of a crash.
Estelle's attacker had heard the sound of the crash too as the door burst open and a display case was knocked over. At the same time, the invisible choking hold on Estelle stopped and she collapsed on the floor.
He turned around as the woman walked in and shook her head. Her sapphire blue eyes examined the situation before her and then as she realised what was going on, she squinted her eyes at thief and attacker while her nostrils flared.
Immediately the man reacted by using a seeker spell. "Raypulse!" he bellowed, holding out his hand. The energy of the spell lit up his hand before the energy projectile shot out, traversing from his hand to the woman who had just walked in. It hit her square in the chest but it didn't phase her like he thought it would. He'd seen that spell hurl people across rooms.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"It doesn't matter who I am," she answered, shaking her head, as she walked towards him. "You are going to leave right now. I warn you to never return. If I see you harm another person…" she began.
He outstretched his hand towards Estelle. "I'll hurt her more if you come one more step towards me," he threatened.
"I'll hurt you if you hurt her," warned the woman.
"It seems we're at an impasse for now," he replied before casting another spell. "Hasterun!"
Suddenly he was gone. The spell had made him able to run at super speed.
She was about to chase after him, or where she'd guessed his direction of travel was, when she noticed Estelle still unconscious on the floor. She stopped her agenda to pursue the criminal, before kneeling down to examine the poor anthropologist. She then got up, picking up Estelle in her arms and carrying her out of the room.
A/N - I had a previous version of this up before but I wanted to go in more depth and I also alluded to certain scenes but never actually did them so I decided to put them in. I want to thank TwiceBorn for the support in helping me edit this up. Sorry to completely restart this story but I wanted to have a coherent storyline and I felt I wasn't doing that so I've restarted to try help with that 3 Lots of love to you all.