"Prince Turandot…"

Summary: Can the courageous Princess Amy unfreeze the icy heart of the cruel Prince Sheldon Turandot? Well, she's giving it her all…In song as well as deed.

Disclaimer: What's Chuck's is Chuck's…No infringement intended…

Part LXXIX…

The plaza in front of the Grand Pavilion of the Procession…

Currently flooded with armed guards, many with crossbows primed…Focusing on the three believed dangerous, one by Decree of the late George I…Praise him, bless him…An outright traitor, dangerously near their more or less beloved Prince…On the Pavilion, the anxious and somewhat miffed…Gods, Mom-In-Law back? Twenty or so years of freedom…Down the Imperial drains...Dowager waving more onto said plaza.

Newsreader Tycho and his team feverishly jockeying for position…Story of a lifetime here, if we're ever allowed to mention it. The majority of the crowd, while unable to suppress natural curiosity and seeking as close a look at the events…Byzantine assassins, mysterious agents, a famed relic of the past back from the dead, and natch, royals in abundance…Wisely choosing to keep back of the armed guards and crossbowpeople.

"Meemaw? HOLD!" Turandot thundered at the guards moving to seize the three daring to violate the Imperial personage, particularly, naturally, the declared traitor to be killed on sight. Pang, startled, but joining in the cry.

"Hold it, folks!"

"Leave them be!" Sheldon insisted. "Meemaw? They tole me you were dead." Slight frown… "And while I've never believed that, there was Dad's declaration of your treason."

"Mothers and sons, boy. We don't always get on, all the time." The Empress Meemaw smiled, rising from her bow. "Do you think I'm a traitor?"

"Highness…" A nervous guard hissed. "We have standing orders…"

"Belay them." Sheldon commanded. "All of you, hear me! By my command, no action is to be taken on the Empress or her companions."

"Highness…" Vlad moved forward. "I declare myself an agent of your Senior Minister, Gablehauser…And accuse these two of highest…" he backed off at Sheldon's grim stare.

"Don't, sir." Turandot, grimly. "Your life hangs by the slenderest thread and it's only as a courtesy to the Minister I let you keep it for now."

"Best to heed the Prince, friend." Meemaw eyed the stricken-dumb Vlad.

Ah, there's old Vlad with them…Gablehauser noted from where he stood by Agent Lilly.

Not that I ever expected him and his People's Revolution to be more than a nice little distraction/provocation, whatever Beverly's hopes, but I am glad to see him vouching for my diligence about the Empress. Turandot and Mary, especially, being quite willing to forgive overzealousness in performance of protecting the Crown.

And honestly nice to see Sheldon and his grandmother reunited after all these years…Much as I may have preferred the wise old bitch in a shallow grave, courtesy ole George.

"Minister?" Lilly, politely.

"Oh, sorry, Agent…Just a little concerned and pleased there." Gablehauser noted. "The Empress and all…"

"Yes…" she frowned at the sight. "It seems there's to be a constitutional crisis, if I judge correctly. I mean as much as we have one."

"Unwritten and pretty much based on the old Emperor's will and decrees…But the Prince and his Mother could get round it by fiat." Gablehauser, sounding rather interested as Lilly eyed him.

"As a legal scholar and former member of the Collegia, I can't help but be fascinated by this one. A real conundrum." He smiled.

"That could lead to revolution and war." Lilly noted. "The Empire rests on the old Emperor's laws, after all."

"Yes, quite possibly." Nod. "Did you have any more questions for me?"

"I think the Dowager will be wanting to know how the Empress survived, for one thing…"

"Honestly wasn't me." Gablehauser grinned, sincerely. "Much as I can't help being impressed by the ole girl's durability and survival skills."

…

Pong, walking in the Hall with Honoria right at his side, still handcuffed to him…His guards encircling them…She unable to resist occasionally smiling at him, despite his cool return looks…

"Minister!" an attendant coming to the group, Pong looking back.

Oh, please don't tell me he's dead…Both he and Honoria thought, anxiously.

Though if he were…Honoria blinked.

If I didn't have to…

No…She eyed Pong's face sadly as he turned to meet the rushing attendant.

Suzi's dead and will stay so…I can't bring her back.

Though, by all the Gods, I would if I could.

…

"This is a real knotty problem, Meemaw…" Sheldon sighed as he, she, a now guarded Vlad, the blacksmith in his garb, and a very nervous, glancing to Lilly, Pang, made their way back to the main Pavillion, surrounded by guards as nervous as their superior, Pang.

"Don't shoot, don't do anything…" Pang hastily insisting to each new guard coming to the group. "Just watch for any Byzantines, ok?"

"But the law, Minister?" one officer of the guard hissed.

"The Prince and the Dowager will rule shortly…Just be cool." Pang replied.

"I'm sorry to be such a bother, Moonpie." Meemaw smiled wanly. "I always was a bit of a thorn in your father's side but he needed that. I didn't intend to be such for you. It's partly why I didn't try to come to you. And the fact I would've been killed till you were old enough to give orders to stand down."

"I've been old enough for years, Meemaw." Sheldon frowned. "But…" he sighed at her careful stare… "I know, I should have tried to do something sooner about the Law. I never thought you dead, you know. I just figured you'd left the Empire and would get in touch with me one day." Eyeing her stare…

"Ok…I hoped you were alive and would get in touch. But why didn't you?"

"I wanted to stay near…If I'd contacted you…" she shrugged. "I had too much respect for Gablehauser, Siebert, and Hofstadter to risk it, especially given my lack of trustworthy aides and the price on my head."

No offense, dear Penny, she thought. But you're hardly one to get past Imperial Security…Nor withstand Imperial Security torture.

"I did ask Mom to take that off the table or at least reduce it…" he sighed. "I know, I should have done more."

"You thought I was gone or dead or both…It's alright, Shelly."

"Best to watch that one, guard…" The young blacksmith noted to the guard tending Vlad who grimaced…

The idea of a peasant like this…Much as I believe in the People as a Whole and am their Soul…Lording it over me, the People's Soul…As if we were the equals I claim we all will be…One day…After the Revolution…

…In the very distant future.

"…He's wily." Smile.

Wily? Like the coyote in those magic lantern drawings with the zany bird fellow? Vlad fumed. "I am the People's Soul…Not a cartoon character!" he raged.

"I thought you more a stooge of Gablehauser's actually." The blacksmith noted.

"He is merely a Tool for the Revolution. Which will come, in time!" Vlad insisted. "Listen to me, you fools! We can achieve glorious freedom this very day…"

"Isn't this high treason?" the guard asked, politely.

"I'd say so." The blacksmith nodded.

"I have the protection of Ministers Gablehauser and Hofstadter. I'm acting for the government…" Vlad, hastily.

"You really need to decide which side you're on, friend." The young blacksmith shook head.

"A reforming Revolution…Supported by reformist members of the government. It could work." Vlad noted. "And given the usual weakness of provisional reformist governments, it would open the door to…"

"Best to can all that for now, sir." The guard suggested, waving a hand. "It's being taken down and will be used in evidence against you, should the Prince grant you a fair trial and not just execute you either on your own or as an accomplice of the Empress should the Law against her hold." He indicated a scribe nearby, writing furiously.

"Hofstadter too…?" he eyed the blacksmith as Vlad went nervously silent, looking over to Gablehauser. "Well, they say he's ambitious…And she is kinda crazy."

…

"Why would she do this?" Ping sighed to Penny as they entered the all-too-well-remembered First Hall…

The bats have been cleared, haven't they? Penny hissing to an attendant…

"Honoria?" Penny turned to Ping. "Revenge…Pretty simple, sweetie."

"Yeah, but why not just poison him or…Well…" he paused at her terrified look.

Honey? You do realize every attendant here is a potential Imperial spy?

"…Of course I mean attempt to poison or otherwise try to harm our most glorious Prince." Ping, a bit lamely.

Good catch, sweetie…Penny beamed.

"Why would she want to rejoin the Procession?"

"Kill Amy?" Penny shrugged. Ping eyeing her…

Hey, she be no engaged bride of California and Turandot yet, honey.

"I guess…" he nodded.

"Or watch her die when she…" Penny blinked.

"What?" Ping stared.

"Ping. Honoria doesn't mean to watch or to die trying to…Do harm. She means to win."

"Win?" Ping blinked. "Win as in…?"

"Win." Penny nodded. "Watching Amy beheaded is just a fringe benefit."

"Marry Sheldon? The man she hates…Ironic punishment, fer sure…But…" he paused. "Oh…Right…The save my country thing."

"California would be the only one that could. And that was always her mission." Penny nodded.

"But, how could she? No disrespect to Amy or true love but we've both been expecting Turandot would have to intervene to save his true love. Or at least that we'll be bearing witness to the tragedy of true love trumped by the needs of the many." Sigh. "How could Honoria…?" he blinked.

Oh

"Yeah…" Penny nodded. "Byzantines. Their specialty…Diplomacy, treachery, espionage, and solving insoluble problems…By employing all of the above. She's managed it somehow. I don't know how, honey…But the fix is in."

…