A/N: A short heads up; I'm currently writing the story of how Roderich and Elizaveta met, but it will probably take a while until I'm finished. But I'm on it and it will be done eventually. Until then, have fun with this chapter my darlings ;)

Eventually Yao was escorted out of the great hall by his Personal Guard, the palace guards making sure that no one else left the room until the Emperor was safe back in his rooms. Lord Soo stayed behind and made an attempt on calming the agitated atmosphere, but the explanation he provided for what happened was threadbare at best.

Yao could have, of course, have him present a much more believable story, but he tried to take as much of the blame from Ludwig as possible. I only feared it didn't work as well as he intended. But that was a problem I would have to face later.

I couldn't leave the room until the guards had cleared the entrance, but so couldn't the others. But even I was aware that it would be stupid to assume that there wouldn't be one or more likely, a few, assassins waiting outside. And since I didn't know if Berwald and/or Vash were outside, I had to make sure to be there myself.

Which meant I had to sneak past the guards. Without anyone noticing, preferably. Thank goodness, I had a plan.

It had been a long shot, at best, but thankfully Mathias magical batteries had recharged enough from his self-healing to provide a bit of distraction. And while the entire room was focused on the piece of tapestry that had randomly caught fire, I dashed past the guards that stood in front of the door, closely followed by Mathias.

It was not nearly as smooth as I would have preferred, and I was sure that our escape hadn't gone entirely unnoticed, but I couldn't bother with that, right now.

We ran down the corridors, where, hopefully, the Emperor had passed through only moments ago. He had been accompanied by his personal guard who were loyal as far as I knew, but I had seen Lord Kiku leaving with him. And that couldn't be good. At least Yao knew that Lord Kiku was a traitor so he wouldn't be completely unprepared.

I just dashed around a corner when I heard someone call my name. I skidded to an abrupt halt, hands dragging over the walls to slow my movement. Mathias almost ran into me, but he managed to stop just close before impact.

"What happened?" Vash had emerged from one of the side corridors, Berwald close behind and I was never more glad to see them than I was now.

"No time to explain. You need to get to the great hall and keep an eye on Arthur. We got Yao covered." I yelled and waved frantically, Mathias took my cue and continued his way, not waiting for me to catch up.

"Go." I yelled again, before I pushed myself from the wall and followed after Mathias, not waiting to make sure that the other two did as I had told them. Retreating footsteps seemed to hint as much though.

Mathias waited for me at the corner in front of the entrance to Yao's private chambers, a worried look on his face. "The place is guarded." He whispered once I was close enough. "And not by the good kind of guards." I dared to peek around the corner, and realized that he was right. There were four guards, instead of the usual two guards, posted in front of the doors. That in itself wouldn't be unusual, considering the situation, but I recognized at least one of them as a guard that had been with Arthur on the day they came for us.

I cursed low under my breath. A decoy like the one before wouldn't work here, we couldn't really set part of the palace on fire. Not to mention that Mathias was rather low on juice right now. "I don't suppose you brought a weapon?" I asked, perfectly aware that there was not much chance of there to be a positive answer.

"Unfortunately not." Mathias said, back pressed against the wall while keeping an eye on the guards. "But we have to get in there anyway."

"Do you have a plan?"

Mathias suddenly turned around and grabbed my face, pulling me into a deep, breathless kiss that seemed to last forever. "Nope." He whispered against the corner of my mouth and before I could really register what was going on he had already released me and stepped around the corner.

"Hello Boys." He greeted the guards almost cheerfully as he rounded the corner. I was stunned for a second, both by the kiss and Mathias' brashness, but the sounds of fighting that followed Mathias' little stunt quickly shook me out of it. There was a sharp exclamation of pain and then the sound of a dropping body, and I wished, for maybe the hundredth time, that I had a weapon.

I finally gathered enough courage to hazard a look around the corner, it was not that I was afraid for Mathias, I knew him well enough that he could handle himself especially with the surprise moment on his side, otherwise he would never take on such a dangerous risk, but I felt a certain trepidation as to what would face me when I finally looked.

Lots of blood and gore apparently.

I tended to forget just what a beast Mathias could be, even in human form, and since I had removed the last of the curses he had nothing, literally nothing, that inhibited him. Aside from good old common sense, which he had developed at some point of our relationship, but tended to toss out of the window on occasions like this. I would be intimidated, had I not know for absolute sure that he would never hurt me. At another time I might have mused just how far we both had come from our initial relationship to what we were now, but seeing that we were running out of time, I had better things to do.

Mathias was splattered with blood, and as much as I liked to say that none of it was his own, after a quick assessment I noted that at least some of it originated from the two deep cuts on his torso and what seemed to be a stab wound in his right arm. At least we had weapons now, the question was how far I would come with my mostly training for show fencing.

I should have felt bad about the slaughter, but the prominent part of me that demanded revenge for Tino and Elizaveta, the dark part at the moment, felt satisfaction at the sight. But I couldn't dwell on that, wouldn't dwell on that, so I simply stepped over the puddle of blood on the floor and positioned myself behind Mathias as he made ready to open the door.

I had taken one of the sabers the guards had carried and gripped the hilt tight as Mathias forced open the door. Whatever I had expected, resistance, a fight, a massacre, none of it greeted us in the empty room that awaited us only with silence. It didn't have to mean anything, they could be in one of the back, more private, rooms, but somehow I knew that this wasn't the case.

Mathias must have had the same thought, because he didn't lose a second in charging in, bursting through the next door, and the next, but I didn't need to follow to know that all rooms were empty. They were not here. The guards had only been a decoy, a distraction that had worked only too well.

And I had no idea where they could have gone.

"They're not here." Mathias came back, eyes wide and panting, and that more than anything, showed me how screwed we really were.

"Where could they have gone?" I paced in a tight circle, trying to get my mind into gear to figure this out. They had to be in the palace somewhere, but wherever they went, they either had to trick Yao into going there, or forced him there, overpowering his guards in the process.

Another thought hit me, and I stopped my pacing mid step. What if they were in on it? What if the guards were on Arthur's side and willingly led their Emperor into a trap. "If you wanted to kill the Emperor without hindrance, undisturbed without leaving any trace, where would you do it?"

I watched closely as the realization dawned on Mathias. It was pretty obvious once I had phrased it like this. There was really only one place they could have gone.

"The North Tower."

The moment the words were out we were moving again, out of the room and down the corridor. I couldn't say that I felt thrilled about going to where Tino had died but right now that was of lesser importance.

The tower could only be accessed from the outside, over a part of the outer palace wall. It was the perfect place, it could be defended by a small group of people, well that was if the attack would come through the door. But the tower being outside had one big advantage that we wouldn't pass on.

When we reached the door that led to the outer wall I stayed before while Mathias ran outside until he was in the middle of it. There were no guards outside, another sign that something was terribly wrong. I only hoped that we wouldn't be too late. Maybe subtlety would have been a wiser choice but it would have been impossible to sneak into the tower, not now, while they would make extra sure to keep their eyes open.

Mathias stepped out of his pants but didn't bother with his shirt. It was the fastest transformation I had ever seen him do, it was not as fast as the one Ivan had demonstrated but it came close. The ground vibrated under my feet as the giant dragon dug his claws into the century old stone and roared his challenge out into the night air.

The palace was old, built in a time when wars were fought entirely on the back of dragons, the stone was reinforced, and even though the magic had long since bled out, a bit of residue was still left, making the tower extra resilient. But time had worn on the magic and the structure, enough for Mathias to break through the entrance.

I retreated further back into the relative safety of the palace as Ember hooked his claws into the stone that held the door, wings stretched out far to balance him as he tried to find the leverage he needed. It wouldn't be long now until we got company, both the good and the bad, we needed to hurry.

Ember's tail whipped through the air and finally wrapped around one of the stone battlements, his hind legs ground into the stone as he pulled away from the tower. The ground shook again and stone dust trickled down, even as far away as stood. And then, just as the stone seemed to give way, an answer to Mathias' earlier challenge was issued.

A shadow uncurled from the back of the tower and then the form of a lean white dragon, specked with red and blue shot up into the air. Ember roared again, spitting a thin lance of flame after his opponent but missed him by more than a few yards as the other spiraled upwards to get into attack position.

The other dragon was smaller and in every other case I would have bet blindly on Ember, but he was drained, using magic in human form was always difficult and he was still occupied with breaking the door open. And the other had already secured an advance in position by flying up above Ember.

Ember stretched his wings, flapping them with renewed vigor in another attempt to open the door before the other could thwart his efforts. The strange dragon roared, his shadow passing over the doorway where I was hiding and then the sight in front of me was suddenly obscured by bright orange flames. I quickly ducked back behind the relative safety of the doorframe, but the heat that surged in was enough to singe not only my eyebrows.

Only when the heat subsided did I dare to look out again, only to see Ember still clawing at the tower wall, mostly unfazed by the attack but the fury with which he pulled had at least doubled. The other dragon had realized that his flames were not strong enough to harm a dragon of Ember's caliber, forcing him to change his tactic.

He circled up into the air again, dodging Ember's swiping tail and roaring in unbridled fury as his opponent refused to pay him any more attention than he did. But Ember was close, another furious whip of wings, causing small pebbles and more stone dust to rain down on me, and then with a groan that seemed to echo through the very bowels of the old building the door broke out of its stone bedding.

Ember roared his triumph into the sky, using the momentum he had just created to turn around, door still trapped between his claws to finally face his opponent. The unfamiliar dragon had gained attack height in the mean time, for a moment he stood in the air like a hawk searching for prey, but the moment Ember turned he dropped, wings pulled back to accelerate his dive.

I instinctively pressed my eyes shut as the two dragons collided, but the sound of screeching metal caused me to snap back my attention. Ember had blocked the attack with the door, the other's claws had ripped into the metal but he was stuck now, wings flapping desperately to get back up but Ember held on to the now deformed metal frame, tail curled around a battlement again and hind legs buried into the ground.

I was frozen for a moment, in utter and complete shock, but then I felt a mental nudge, urging me to go, now that there was a temporary reprieve in the battle.

It was madness. The part of the wall in front of me was blocked by two giant dragons, snapping at each other with their knife long teeth, drawing blood, even through the thick layer of scales, but I had no choice, I needed to get in there. I was vaguely aware of people filling the corridor behind me, but so far they were too intimidated to come any closer, it would be only a matter of time though before the winged guard would be in the air.

Yao was about the only one who could diffuse this situation, but to reach him I had to get past the fighting dragons. I gulped, bracing myself, but really, there was nothing I could have done to make this any less dangerous and insane. I could only hope for the best.

Ember had pushed his opponent halfway from the wall but the other clung stubbornly to the side, he had managed to free one of his legs but the other was still stuck. I dodged a flailing tail and stumbled over a lose stone on the floor, scraping the palms of my hands as I caught my fall in the last second. And then there was fire in the air again, I couldn't tell from whom but it didn't really matter. I scrambled back up, keeping as close to the ground as possible as I tried to stay out of fire' s way but at least part of my clothing didn't make it.

Something cracked and the whole structure shook violently, just as I passed through the broken gate, but I didn't bother to look back to check what happened. There was no time for that. The antechamber of the tower was empty, but there was no other way out, and the emerging dragon had been proof enough that they were, indeed, here.

I wouldn't have to worry about anyone escaping through the front door, not with the chaos out there still raging on, but then again there was not much chance of me chasing out anyone anyway. I didn't have a choice however.

There was a spiral staircase leading upwards, disappearing into the next level. I pulled the saber from my belt where I had stuffed it earlier. It felt strange to hold a weapon in my hand after all this time, but the weight felt familiar, it was a comfort almost, while everything around me was slowly crumbling apart.

The building shook again, followed by another roar from outside. I didn't need any more incentive, time was running out. The first floor was empty too, but there was a door at the far wall with a small window that had bars in front of it. I refused to think that this was where Tino might have been kept, and instead continued my way up. The next two floors were the same but when I reached the fourth floor, I could hear voices wafting down from the room above. I paused, a few steps down under the passage, trying my best to listen in on the conversation that was going on.

"This changes nothing, they will have them put down soon enough." I couldn't place the voice at first but then I recognized it as Lord Kiku's. His voice had the usual calm, almost bored tone, but underlying there was a hint of anger.

"Yes they will, Al along with them, but you don't care about that." Matthew's voice stood in stark contrast to Kiku's, there was no attempt whatsoever to hide the anger in this one. And with that the question where Matthew and Alfred had ended up was finally answered, albeit I had to say I hadn't expected them to be dragons. Or maybe only Al was, or else Matthew would be out there with him.

"How did it even end in this mess? Arthur had everything worked out just fine, and now what?" Matthew was yelling now, but it seemed to be more panic than real anger.

"There's no need to worry", Kiku insisted, "the guard will settle the dispute outside and we will continue with our plan."

"Dispute?" Is that what you're calling it?" There was a sharp sound, like skin on stone, followed by a pained grunt. Matthew must have hit the wall in his frustration.

"Dammit Kiku! Why d'you have to change plans last minute? This is all your fault."

"It needed to be done, there were complications." Now there was agitation clearly audible in Kiku's voice.

"Oh fuck that, fuck your complications, Al's dying out there, to buy us time to find your stupit escape tunnel, and now you're telling me it's not here? Are you fucking kidding me? Wasn't Ivan's death enough for you? Stick to the damn plan, that was all we needed from you and you screwed up."

"I didn't screw up. I couldn't know that the tunnel had been closed off."

"You could have checked it beforehand you know? Secure all escape routes. Or maybe you could have just done what you were told, then we wouldn't even be in this situation? Do you fucking see that, the whole damn tower is about to collapse because of this damn monster."

"Don't talk to me like that." Kiku hissed, all polite pretense dropped as he rounded on Matthew. "I'd like to remind you of your status, boy. This was never your plan, and stop throwing your precious Arthur in my face. You were just pawns, you always have been and this has always been the place we were supposed to end up, isn't that right master?."

There was a stunned silence after that. One could have heard a hair drop on the floor as Matthew tried to make sense of the bomb that had just been dropped on him. And then another voice spoke up, and the blood froze in my veins as I realized the mistake I had made all along.

"That's enough now, I believe we have a visitor."

It was Yao.

...