"That's my wife you're threatening," Siegrain warned the woman, menacingly stepping towards her. "Not to mention our friends."

"Sieg -" Caitlin started, whipping around. Very unusually, her voice was shaking.

"You two are just a nuisance," The woman fired a shot that nearly hit Hisui, before she turned back on the Fernadeses. "You see they...they are my real targets."

"Well, that's too damn bad," Laxus scowled at the woman, activating his magic and clenching his firsts. "Because no one has ever gotten away with threatening my wife."

Siegrain took a step back, giving Laxus space while lightning sparked around him. Caitlin was the only one who didn't back down, her magic whipping fiercely around her. She and Laxus briefly shared a cold look and then both of them turned on the woman.

"Your energy is...strong," The woman stared down Caitlin with a smirk. "Rage?"

She attempted to knock the mage to the ground but Caitlin smashed her and pushed her back with much more force than the woman had expected. She wheezed, reaching for her gun which she had dropped nearby her ffet. With it back in hand, she fired a second shot. Laxus only barely pulled Caitlin out of the way, much to the assassain's chagrin.

"You," She glowered at the king, her hand tightening around her gun. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Caitlin send her friend a dark look, but, little did she know, Laxus knew the mage well enough to catch the gratitude in her otherwise angry eyes. "You are all a damn -" She began, cutting herself off to roll out of the way of a few flurried attacks.

"You're the one stupid enough to try and push me back," Caitlin snapped, rolling her eyes as another small storm formed around her. "You do realise that anyone who tries that gets pushed back harder by me, don't you?"

Her breathing heavy, the woman pursed her lips and briefly took in the scene to calculate her best chances in her assassination requests.

"Hmmph," The woman snorted. "Odd to hear such optimism from people so arrogant they no longer know how weak they really are."

The assassain said this whilst atttempting to take a step towards Hisui. Siegrain pulled the queen back, hoping to avoid her having to fight if that were possible. Hisui was skilled, he knew, in hand to hand combat and magic, but this was a particularly dire situation. Even he, a Wizard Saint, was concerned.

"Don't you dare lay a finger on Hisui," Laxus frowned as the woman raised her gun with intent. "I won't repeat that order again."

In that split second, Siegrain recognised who they were dealing with. The energy signature was faint, but he knew without a doubt in his mind that this woman had been involved in orchestrating Ivan's work nearly twenty years prior. He could only wonder how. His wife, too, seemed deeply affected by the prescece but he knew better than to draw attention to it, in part because they had only ever seen a few of those connected to that particualar event in action. The mysterious time traveler. Ivan. Irene. She, they all imagined, was the true force behind any number of things. Siegrain bristled at the memory of what had happened to his wife the day they had managed to seal the eclipse. He doubted this assassain had been there then but, that aside, the familiarity of their dark prescece was unsettling.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" The woman spluttered, her eyes turning red as blood. All of them could feel the sudden spike in the force of her magic energy.

"Don't ask questions you don't want answers to," Caitlin warned her, whipping a storm at the woman. Briefly, the assasain lost her footing but, when the mage ran to punch her, the assassain blocked her and smacked her just under her right eye. Caitlin let out a small scream and her glasses went flying. She rolled out of the way of another punch, grabbing her glasses and slamming them back on her face the second she could.

"Bitch..." Caitlin muttered, still on the ground but weakly summoning another storm in the palm of her hand.

Her storm missed the assasain, and the mage began to refocus her energy into protecting herself until she was strong enough to retaliate again. In this time, the assassain fired another shot at Hisui, this time almost hitting her. It was then Laxus snapped. He ran at the woman too quickly to even think. The only thing he cared about in that moment was Hisui. His lightning sparking all around him, he threw a nasty punch at the assassain's jaw that struck true. The assassain screeched in pain and fumbled with her weapon. She was writhing under his overwhelming magic power but then, in a stroke of luck, she shot him twice in the shoulder. Hisui shrieked in horror, trying to run towards her husband to fight too but Siegrain stopped her. Laxus swore heavily, the pain awful but not nearly enough to stop him. The lightning dragon slayer ducked out of her next shots and eventually knocked her gun out of her hands. It fell near Caitlin who, feeling weak and angry at herself for it, grabbed the weapon and forced herself shakily onto her feet. Laxus managed to evade the flurry of punches, kicks, and burns the assassin tried to hit him with and then, struggling with his right much weakened, pinned her down.

"Alright," Siegrain said darkly. "What the hell are you doing here? Apart from the obvious, that is."

The Wizard Saint used his own magic to heavily restrain hte assassin and to let Laxus relax a little, as he was still bleeding profusely. Hisui rushed to embrace him. He held her tightly on his uninjured left, weakly stroking her hair. All four of them were scowling at the assassain, and Caitlin was aiming the gun at them, albeit her hands shaking something awful.

"As if you have the right to question me," The assassain spat. "You -"

"I'll remind you that you're already under arrest," Caitlin said icily. "And that you tried to kill the king and queen of Fiore as well as two members of the Ishgar Magic Council."

"That's what I was paid to do," The assassin snorted, her eyes narrow. "You understand the concept, don't you? Besides," She cast her gaze towards Laxus and Hisui. "After losing the brat, I'm being paid double."

Hisui paled. "Fallon..." She whispered in abject horror.

"Shhh...she's okay now," Laxus murmured, though the anger for what had happened to their daughter was bubbling in his chest. "They're okay now, 'Sui, and we are too."

"For now," The assassain hissed with a laugh. "Just you wait..."


"Good Lord!"

Toma stared in horror at his daughter, son in law, and the Fernadeses. He sat down shaking, still in disbelief at what they had told him. An assassination attempt downtown, and one that had resulted in a nasty fight no less. Hisui weakly held onto Laxus, still badly trembling. He held her securely in his arms, though leaning heavily on his uninjured side, with that hand reaching up to delicately stroke her hair. Caitlin Fernades kept swearing under her breath, her right eye still swelling. Siegrain stood behind where she was sitting, his arms crossed. Also in the room were Mirajane and Freed, both of whom were as shocked as his father. Just beyond the doors, standing guard, was Arcadios, who had already more than once reminded Fallon, Sylvain, and Annetta that they would have to wait until their parents were ready to tell them what had happened that afternoon. The three royal siblings had eventually relented (to some surprise, quite quicky after Arcadios had finished lecturing them) but they were anything but content. They wanted to be in the room. Little did they know that their grandfather parents, aunt, uncle, and godparents would have given almost anything to not have to be there, or to have dealt with what had happened to begin with.

"Laxus," Toma mumbled after a long time, rubbing his temples. "I'm relieved to see you're alright but you really ought to sit down. I'm sure you've suffered enough blood loss for it to have takne a serious toll on you."

For once not in the mood to argue, Laxus did so. He kept his uninjured arm around Hisui, letting her rest her head on his left (read: not pained) shoulder. Briefly, she glanced over to Caitlin - to whom they were beside - and the mage awkwardly patted her hand, hoping to make her feel even the teensiest bit better.

"It's a miracle none of you were critically hurt," Freed ran a hand through his hair and pursed his lips in thought. "Laxus, not to say I think you're incapable, I have to agree with my father. Please actually take care of yourself. You and Hisui both are going to need any strength you can right now."

Laxus resisted the urge to scowl at him, knowing, whether or not he was happy about it, that Freed was right.

"That bitch should be glad I didn't shoot her in retaliation once Sieg, Laxus, and I restrained her," Caitlin bitterly muttered. "She's only still alive because we're not monsters."

"Enough, please," Toma shook his head. "I'm sorry. This is just rather stressful."

"It is," Mira softly spoke. "I'm so glad you all are okay, I really am."

Hisui swallowed hard. "So are we," She whispered.

Albeit a bit awkwardly on account of his injured right, Laxus leaned over to press a gentle kiss to Hisui's lips. He felt her quivering when she kissed him back. Between what had happened to their daughter and the events of the afternoon, he couldn't blame her in the slightest. He knew she was afraid. They both were.

"I hate to be the one to ask, but what are we going to do now that this assassain has been apprehended?" Siegrain sighed when on one else, not even his outspoken wife, dared speak. "She's obviously much more dangerous and much more well connected that we know."

"She's locked away and under pereptual watch," Toma reminded all of them looking particularly drained. "This assassain...she'll be interrogated and I'm sure will reveal something of substance sooner or later. Still...yes, I confess that this being simply able to occur is deeply troubling."

Freed shook his head. "I fear you're understating that, father."

"Freed -" Mira gently said, sensing the anxiety in his voice as she reached up to cup his cheek.

"Not the time, Mira," He said shortly, resting his hand ever so briefly over hers. "We have what will likely amount to a crisis on our hands. I don't want to hear anything about how lucky we got because the chances are it will not be that way the next time."

Mira eyed him critically for a long moment but relented. No one else seemed eager to speak. The truth be told, the reality of Freed's words was almost unbearably present in their predicament.

"Laxus, Hisui, please," Toma finally began, sounding terribly resigned. "If the last few months have proven anything it's that no one in the family is safe. Please don't leave the palace without the guard again. As for..." He turned to the Fernadeses. "I want the two of you to be just as careful. Freed is right. This was almost a disaster."

Caitlin frowned. "Laxus was shot," She grimly noted. "This bitch almost succeeded."

Hisui shivered at the thought and reached for her husband's uninjured arm, holding onto him and loking horribly upset.

"We'll all take whatever precautions and actions are necessary," Siegrain said, glancing to Laxus and Hisui and then back to his wife. He sighed and squeezed her shoulder, sensing her tension. "For all of our sakes."