Clash

The dark forces controlling the magical Britain were in disarray. They sustained a series of hits and only sightings of order members during the one on the Ministry gave them any indication who was behind them. Also, the Dark Lord went into isolation for some reason, there were whispers that his immortality was failing. All in all, it was a perfect time to overthrow the regime. However, that wasn't about to happen since the people willing to do that were too busy plotting against each other.

It was a few days after the initial contact between the group led by Kingsley (and Harry) and Rattazzi's expedition. The time for the face-to-face meeting was approaching and the closer it drew the more was Marco Rua agitated. The meeting was supposed to happen that evening and he had not been invited to any kind of a briefing yet.

The atmosphere in the hideout of the resistance was similar. Matteo Cafasso went with the wizards over all the possible scenarios.

"This is just an initial meeting, it's unlikely they will try anything." he told the others.

"And what if they do?" asked Kingsley.

"Then we'll apparate out of there as quickly as possible. We shall go in a small group - only me, Harry and possibly you, Kingsley. Now, there is no precedence for this, but I believe that if they tried to trap you, I would be able to get us through like I did when we apparated out of the Ministry."

"Fight divine with divine? Is that even possible?" asked Harry.

"Well, nobody is really sure how our abilities work but in the end, it could be viewed as asking the God to disregard their request."

"Well, let's hope that it will go smoothly." remarked Harry.

Kingsley nodded and said, "Indeed. Now, let's talk about the placement of our backup..."


It was late afternoon when Marco entered Marino's office. There was another officer present.

"It's a high time." he (Marco) said.

"Excuse me?" asked lieutenant Marino.

"The meeting..."

Marino raised his hand and interrupted him, "There's an emergency. You are to accompany sergeant here and his men and deal with it. The details will be explained to you in the chopper."

To say that Marco was somewhat upset would be an understatement - not that he hadn't considered a possibility of such a stunt.

"What a hell?" he exclaimed.

Marino stood up and replied in a raised voice, "You are already under scrutiny, Rua. I advise you to control yourself."

Marco wanted to answer, "What makes you think I take orders form you, soldier?" but said instead, "I'm afraid that I'll be shortly required elsewhere."

"I already cleared this with Rattazzi, he gave you a go. In fact, I don't think he ever planned for you to participate on the meeting."

Marco started to think about his situation. It was obvious that they wanted him to get out of the way - Marino hadn't even attempted to cover that. The questions that remained were why and what would happen if he decided to disregard the order. For all he knew there were MPs waiting nearby for any sign of disobedience. Hence, he decided to dance to their tune for the time being.

"What's the nature of the emergency." he asked.

"I shall brief you on the way, follow me." said the sergeant and headed towards the door.

Lieutenant Marino made a dismissing gesture with his hand. Marco growled silently and rushed after the sergeant.

Three more soldiers were waiting at the heliport. One of them carried some extra gear and another an extra gun.

"Let's get on the way, you can gear up once we take off." commanded the sergeant. Then he stiffened. "Where's the damn pilot?" he growled.

Marco approached the soldiers with the equipment for him. Both of them unsurely looked at the sergeant and then the one carrying a vest and other gear stepped forward. Marco took the bundle from him. He felt that something was off about the situation.

They all heard that somebody hit the canopy twice to gain their attention. The sergeant looked away from Marco and saw that the pilot was on his place, fiddling with the instruments.

"You took your sweet time!" he shouted.

The pilot just made a generic surrendering gesture with his right hand and then went back to activating the systems. The sergeant decided that it wasn't a good time to deal with him.

"Get your asses in the chopper!" he bellowed and showed Marco, who was in the process of putting the vest on.

They rose in the air and headed away from the base.

"So what's our mission?" asked Marco, as he was finishing fastening the belts.

"Well, what else could it be then wizards?" replied the sergeant.

Marco gazed back at him and replied, "Thanks, but I've sort of figured that out already."

"Cut the sarcasm, will you?" snapped the sergeant indignantly.

Marco looked at the soldier carrying the rifle for him. The boy seemed a bit nervous. Marco reached out and the soldier mechanically extended both his arms to hand the rifle over. Marco grabbed it. He didn't even bother to ask for extra clips.

As he weighted the weapon in his hands, he noticed that it was too light. Slowly, Marco came to realize what was about to happen. They intended to silently take him away from the base, give him an empty gun and then dispose of him away from any witnesses. He was shocked at first that Rattazzi and Marino would do something so drastic. Then he realized that it was completely in character for them - after all, they were planning a genocide. However, that meant that they had something similar in store for Matteo and Harry.

Marco realized that the soldiers were staring at him, probably attempting to estimate whether he suspected anything. Marco forced himself to relax, determined not to make them move on him sooner then they originally planned. Speaking of which, he had no idea when was that supposed to be. Were they at least planning to land before killing him? It seemed probable, there was no risk of damaging the helicopter that way. Hence, he still had time to think about some kind of diversion. Was it possible to use his powers to create some kind of a blinding flash?

Everybody's attention was focused on Marco so nobody noticed the pilot's behaviour with the exception of Marco himself. The pilot reached into his jacket for something and turned the autopilot on. Marco realized that they had already slowed down. Then the pilot turned around in his seat and though his face was partially cowered by his big pilot shades, Marco found him quite familiar. The soldier sitting next to the paladin narrowed his eyes but he didn't suspect anything until there was a bang and one of the soldiers sitting with their backs toward the pilot fell over. The pilot was clutching a small-calibre six-shooter in his hand.

Chaos erupted inside the small cabin. Marco wasted no time and whacked the soldier next to him with the butt of his rifle. That left him and the pilot with the sergeant and a private. The private had a short period of indecision, not knowing which enemy to face. The pilot nailed him with the second shot. At the same time, Marco leaped at the sergeant who was already turning his rifle at him. That was giving the sergeant a certain disadvantage in such a close quarters but it was still faster then drawing his side arm. Still, he managed to squeeze the trigger before Marco crushed into him. The slug went through his hip and then through the door, thankfully not damaging anything important.

Marco pushed the pain into background and put more pressure on the sergeants throat. He paid no attention as the pilot, who was actually brother Gastini, finished the soldier he had whacked earlier. Never breaking the eye contact, he deprived the sergeant of his handgun and then took his own knife, raising it to his chest.

"You can't do this. The rules..." choked the sergeant out, sounding genuinely surprised.

"What rules?" asked Marco and pushed the knife into the man's heart. Blood spilled out, staining his hands, soaking the sergeant's uniform and dripping on the floor.

"Do you need any help back there, brother Rua?" shouted Gastini, who was at the moment busy steadying the aircraft.

"No, I've got it." replied Marco and started to heal himself. As his flesh reknit itself, he found solace in the simple truth deduced from it: God was on his side and that meant that Rattazzi and Marino were screwed.

"We need to warn father Matteo!" he shouted but Gastini was already tossing him a cellphone.

Marco punched the number in but was met with an automated message from the operator telling him that the callee was unavailable.

"Dammit!" he cursed.

"What's wrong?" asked the other paladin.

"They left already and since magic isn't healthy for electronics, he left his cell in the hideout, turned off."

"Well, then we've got two options - we can return to the base and tell the others about what's happening..."

"...or we can proceed straight to the meeting place." finished Marco for him.

Gastini nodded and asked for his cell back, he needed to at least call their friends at the base. Marco stripped the bodies of anything useful and dumped them out of the door. Then he crawled onto the copilot seat.


Matteo, Kingsley and Harry arrived at the agreed destination. They saw outlines of a helicopter and several vehicles against the darkening sky.

"Easy boys." said the priest and strode towards the waiting soldiers.

As they drew closer, Matteo recognized Rattazzi and Marino.

"Where's Marco?" whispered Kingsley.

"Obviously not here. That's hardly surprising but keep your eyes peeled." replied Matteo discreetly.

Rattazzi and Marino watched as the trio approached. Rattazzi looked at them with disdain, especially at Matteo whom he considered a traitor. Marino, on the other hand, looked at them with the eye of a soldier who wants to analyse a threat. The three approaching men were able to sense their tension when they got closer.

Finally, they stood before Rattazzi, Marino and their subordinates. Cafasso was in the front while his companions covered his flanks. Nobody said anything for a while, they just stood there and measured each other. Kingsley looked around the camp. He noticed that all the soldiers had their weapons at the ready. Again, that wasn't very surprising. Matteo looked around as well and searched for his brothers with his eyes. There were only two of them and neither of them was on friendly basis with him. He wondered why Rattazzi didn't bring more to protect his posterior.

In the meantime, Harry studied Rattazzi himself. The things he heard from Matteo and Marco about the priest were enough to make Harry dislike him. When he finally met him in person, his dislike for the man doubled. He couldn't pinpoint of whom he reminded him of at first. There was a bit of Fudge since both of them were narrow-minded fools and corrupted officials. However, where Fudge had chosen inaction, Rattazzi had chosen complete extermination. Then there was also a bit of Thicknesse and Lucius Malfoy, of course. Finally, he put his finger on it: Rattazzi reminded him of his late uncle Vernon.

Harry didn't even realize that he started to glare at the prelate. Rattazzi watched the boy with a slight amusement and took out a brass cigarette box. He took out one and tapped it a few times against the box. Then he decided to break the silence but the other side beat him to it.

"Well, here we are." said Matteo (in English).

"Let me ask you something, Cafasso. What exactly do you think you are doing?" responded Rattazzi in Italian.

Cafasso decided not to honour the question with an answer. He folded his arms and stared in the eyes of his superior.

"Well? Can't you answer the question?" continued Rattazzi and put the cigarette in his mouth.

"You should speak English. It would be disrespectful to our guests if you didn't." rebuffed him Matteo.

Rattazzi almost snapped the cigarette he was lighting at the moment. Marino just gritted his teeth. Rattazzi made a puff to make sure that the cigarette was burning and then stepped closer to Matteo.

He snarled at him, "I would mind your attitude if I were you, Cafasso. Do you even realize the gravity of your situation?" Then he puffed a little cloud of smoke in his direction.

Matteo was careful not cough, he didn't want to give Rattazzi the satisfaction. Instead, he just lazily waved his hand in front of his face to express his disgust with the smell. Then he snarled right back, "I have done nothing that I should be ashamed of."

Marino finally spoke at that moment, "Is that so? Then I should refresh your memory. We were sent here with a clear mission and then you have suddenly decided that you knew better and went against the goals of that mission!"

Rattazzi kept blowing smoke towards Matteo during Marino's tirade. Matteo didn't mind it and retorted, "Then we have received different orders because I was tasked with investigating the situation!"
Then he looked at the priests and soldiers standing behind the officer and continued in Italian, "What are you playing at anyway? Do you think that God cares about our orders? If he feels that we are misusing his power, he will take it from us. And you know what's going to happen afterwards - the wizards will send you packing. And then you would be responsible for loosing a war that me, my brothers and my magical friends have fought so hard to win."

Marino hissed in low voice, "So you say." but it was drowned in Rattazzi's roar, "DO NOT BLASPHEME! How dare you to question the church! You gave an oath of obedience!" Then he puffed some more smoke.

Kingsley grew tired of the brewing shouting match and decided to reveal his ability to speak Italian, "Excuse, could you leave it for later? I thought we were here to negotiate peace."

Of course, his formulation was somewhat sloppy but his words made Matteo smile nevertheless.

"Of course, forgive me. Shall we talk then?" said Matteo.

"We already do." growled Rattazzi, made another step towards Matteo and breathed out cigarette smoke in his face.

Matteo lost patience at that moment and snapped, "Would you stop that? You are behaving like a teenager!"

It was only then when a ring rang in Kingsley's head. "Matteo! Step back and stop breathing that shit!" he barked.

"What?" asked Matteo and turned his head to him.

Kingsley gasped. Matteo was confused by his horrified expression. Then he reached to his nose to wipe off the wetness he felt. When he looked at his fingers afterwards, they were red. At the same time, they heard a sound of a helicopter approaching.

"Father Matteo!" cried Harry when he too saw that the priest was bleeding.

Marino snidely remarked, "You know, I never really believed in that crap about God's power. In my book, you are just as freaky as any other so called "wizards". Magic, phew! Mutants, that's what you are. Genetic aberrations! Luckily we managed to convince some of you to hunt the others."

Matteo started to bleed from his eyes as well and staggered. Harry gave in to his temper and drew his wand. Unfortunately for him, the soldiers were already prepared. There was a bang and Harry felt a sharp pain as a slug from a rifle went through his right lung. Luckily, the majority of the fire was focussed on Kingsley since the soldiers considered him more dangerous. And rightfully so - he had his wand hidden in a sleeve and silently conjured a shield with it when he realized that something was wrong.

As the bullets splattered against the forcefield, he had just a second to decide what to do. He dived for Harry in the end. Matteo had barely enough strength to tell them to go. Rattazzi retreated and Marino shouted orders at the two priests. When Kingsley grabbed Harry and disapparated with him away, he started to shout even more. Nobody bothered to finish Matteo.

The backup forces were already prepared when Kingsley apparated to them. A healer began to tend to Harry immediately.

"What should we do? Can we take on those two priests?" asked a wizard.

"I don't know. I was able to disapparate but maybe they were too slow."

"Look!" shouted another wizard.

A helicopter flew over the enemies and somebody started to pepper the soldiers from it.

"I guess that answers the question. Team one, disillusion and follow me!" bellowed Kingsley.

Marino's soldiers didn't panic right away - they were too experienced for that. However, their actions became disorganized after a while. True, each of them had killed his fair share of wizards but this situation was different.

First of all, they had spent so much time fighting wizards that they had forgotten what is it like to be shot at. So, even though it was just a small transport helicopter above them and even though it was just one man shooting at them with a "simple" assault rifle, they didn't know right away how to react.

Second, strange things started to happen to them. If they could put their arrogance away for a moment they would realize that they were under magical attack. As it was, they had been taking the holy protection for granted for too long and so the subtle jinxes that Kingsley's men were using to test for any holy defences successfully threw their ranks into chaos. The irony was that the Vatican intentionally hadn't trained their anti-wizard troops to fight without the backing of the priests. Why? Mainly because they didn't want those troops to sell their knowledge of such tactics to other nations and destroy the monopoly of the church in the area of the anti-magical defence.

Of course, the priests knew well enough what was happening. Both of them were trying to neutralize the magic around them but to no avail. One of them turned to Rattazzi and caught his eye - and that one look was all it took for Rattazzi to understand that they were powerless. Rattazzi then wanted to discuss the situation with Marino but he was too busy at the moment. The Lieutenant managed to scramble a group of soldiers and ordered them to concentrate their fire on the helicopter. During the next fly-over, Gastini heard a few metallic impacts.

"What was that?" he yelled over his shoulder when he was turning the aircraft around.

"What was what?" shouted Marco back and pulled the trigger again. Then he reloaded and added, "Head back, I think I saw Marino."

Gastiny nodded and steered the helicopter. He noticed the ground-fire this time.

"I think they are shooting at us." he informed Marco.

"Don't you say."

They flew over them but Marco didn't manage to hit anybody. The soldiers on the ground were obviously luckier and both paladins heard the tingling impacts this time. Then there was some beeping.

"There is a red symbol blinking over here. No, two red symbols!" cried Gastiny.

"Bugger."

They flew over Kingsley's head and he saw thick smoke coming from the tail of the helicopter. The first thing that he thought about was to apparate inside the cabin and save the crew. Then he realized that he didn't know whether it was Marco inside (or someone else with friendly intentions). So he apparated in front of the helicopter and shot sparks from his wand.

"That wizard is trying to get our attention." told Gastiny to Marco.

"What?" said Marco and looked from the front window just in time to see a second flare. "That's Kingsley, I think. Follow me!" he exclaimed and jumped out of the unstable helicopter.

That wasn't exactly what Kingsley expected but he was prepared nevertheless and cast the same spell that Dumbledore used to save Harry in his fourth year. Marco's fall broke but then Gastiny jumped out as well and Kingsley had to drop Marco. The paladin fell a few meters away from him and crumpled to the ground - it looked like he had something broken or twisted. The helicopter started to rotate and crashed about two hundred meters further. Kingsley was in a time pressure so once Gastiny made it safely to the ground, he grabbed Marco and apparated with him to the same place where he had taken Harry earlier.

The main force was already mounting the final attack when Kingsley rejoined them. Majority of the soldiers was confused, disabled, fighting conjured sentinels or at least panicking and most of their vehicles were burning. The wizards formed a line and a half of them erected shields which stopped any bullets coming their way while the other half started to cast curses. Some of the soldiers attempted to overload the shields by grenade launchers but the wizards easily stopped the grenades in mid-air and returned them back to their senders.

Rattazzi and Marino rallied some of the last soldiers around them and retreated to the helicopter (which seemed to be in a working order) while the soldiers took cover between the burning vehicles. When the men heard the sound of a starting engine and realized that their cowardly leaders were abandoning them, they were quite dismayed but they were in no position to do anything else but hold the line since they were under heavy attack.

Then the soldiers heard a crack from somewhere inside their perimeter. Some of them turned around and saw Marco and Harry. Harry quickly conjured a shield with a wand in his right hand while he kept holding onto Marco's shoulder with his left hand. Marco raised his assault rifle and started to cut down the enemies. The soldiers returned the fire but once again, their bullets uselessly splattered on Harry's shield.

It took only several seconds before Marco and Harry subdued any immediate resistance and reached the helicopter. The rest of the soldiers were overrun by that time as well and surrendered (a scary thing to do for someone who fears magic but they saw that many of their comrades were just stunned anyway). Marino was franticly trying to get the helicopter in the air but his efforts were stopped when Marco stepped in front of the cabin and emptied his magazine into him. Rattazzi reached for a side arm with his shaking hands but Harry just flicked his wand and the corrupted priest flew out of his seat and landed in front of Marco's feet.

Rattazzi raised his head and met Marco's murderous stare. Harry expected to hear some empty threats, as high bureaucrats tend to do in similar situations, but Rattazzi had none for once and looked genuinely afraid. Marco wasted no time and rolled him over with a kick. Then he straddled his stomach and started to beat him in the face with both hands.

He stopped only when he heard Harry yell his name. He looked up from the bloody face of his former superior and saw the boy kneeling next to Matteo's still form. Marco wiped his forehead with a sleeve of his uniform and then shoved Rattazzi towards one of the wizards nearby.

"Get everything he knows from him. Dispose of him afterwards." he barked at the wizard and then run to Harry.

"What happened?" Marco asked when he saw his mentor covered in his own blood.

"Poison, magical. Rattazzi must have acquired it from a wizard." answered Kingsley.

"Well, fix him!" exclaimed Marco.

"Even if we had an antidote, it would have to be applied pre-emptively for full effect. At this stage, you are his only chance."

"Me? This is beyond my abilities!" cried Marco but took out his cross and started to work on his friend right away. Kingsley sent one of the wizards around to find out whether anything was found on Rattazzi. A healer arrived a short while later and joined Marco's efforts. At last, Gastiny jogged in, completely out of breath. Some of the wizards pointed their wands at him but Kingsley hissed at them to stand down. Gastiny came to a stop next to Harry and took in Matteo's condition. Harry whispered to him a brief explanation about what happened.

Marco was still trying to treat his friend when the healer announced that the priest was dead. The paladin ceased his efforts and sagged. Harry wiped away some moisture around his eyes and then conjured some cloth and water and started to clean away the blood. Gastiny stepped to Marco and briefly grasped his shoulder and muttered his condolence. Marco just nodded and kept staring at Matteo's face as it was slowly uncovered by Harry's ministration.

Most of the people around kept their distance from the scene not to disturb those who knew the priest. Gastiny took his cellphone from his pocket and contacted his colleagues after determining that it was in working order. The reception was bad (due to low coverage or damages from Kingsley's spell) but he managed to relay the news of Rattazzi's betrayal and Matteo's passing.

The he gestured to Kingsley to come to him and told him, "This is not over. Other soldiers back at the base might be on this and my friends there might be in danger. We need to convene with them as soon as possible and decide the next course of action."

"And we'll need to talk to the prime minister right after that. He probably won't be happy to see me but I hope that he'll let me explain myself." added Kingsley.

They hurriedly discussed the matter with other people. When they were preparing to leave already, they were suddenly joined by Marco.

"Wait for me, I'm coming." he told them in a strong voice.

"Marco?" asked Gastiny.

"We've got a lot of work to do. There will be time for grieving later. Harry will take care of the body before he'll come to see the minister with us." stated Marco.