CHAPTER 14 – The Purge

"Take anything you need." Midoriya said after opening the trunk of his BMW to present the gears stashed there for Trubel and Gomez.

Presently, they're outside of a compound that belonged to Black Claw. According to Midoriya, in it is one of their communication center. Destroying it will cripple Black Claw in this area. Not to mention the intel they can gather from it.

"Wow," Gomez gasped upon the unveiling of the gears. There are customized axes, katanas, maces, bullet proof vests, and several new model firearms with 100% kill rate. "You have better equipment than we do," he said next, comparing the Inugamis' equipment to the HW allocation. "You have more people than we do." Then, he finally picked up an axe than can generate electricity in its blade. "I'm taking this."

Trubel on the other hand, picked a mace that ignites a small explosion when struck. After that, both she and Gomez wore a bullet proof vest. "What's the infiltration plan?"

Midoriya replied, "Our team will make a commotion out here while the Shinobis will infiltrate from the other side."

"Shinobis? As in Ninjas?"

"Indeed Rubel-san," he confirmed. "Now, let's get moving."

...

RATATATATATATAT!

Five minutes later, all hell broke loose.

Bullet barely missed them while smoke bombs and grenades were thrown everywhere.

BOOM!

They are not advancing due to the sheer number of their adversaries and due to also to their terrain advantage but that does not matter because that's not the goal.

Eventually, the Ninjas succeeded into infiltrating the building and destroying their fortress from within. From then, it was only a matter of defeating the ones deployed on the ground.

There were wounded but the Black Claw communication center fell without casualties.

"We head to the next target." Midoriya declared after extracting the data from the computers.

"Immediately? Right now?" Gomez complained.

"Black Claw is retaliating as we speak, we can't lag behind." Midoriya reasoned.

"Fine, fine," Gomez groaned.

Trubel tapped his shoulder and reasoned. "Just see it this way, Gom, it's gonna end today. It's worth the stress."

Thankfully, Gomez saw the merit on that. "I guess."


Back to the Varia venue.

After the coronation, a buffet was prepared for socializing. A couple or so decided to leave but the rest stayed especially the Royal Houses. After all, with the new order Varia had just established, they needed to assess where they must stand in order to coexist.

Due to this, Adalind was without rest as she entertains each and every royalty and leader than approaches her. However, she nearly lost her poise when it was finally Frederick Renard. Seeing this fucking old man's face made her remember all the shits she was thrown to because of his House from the old timeline.

If it's any consolation, at least Kenneth and Viktor are already dead due to their arrogance and she never had to see them ever again.

If only she can say the same thing with Sean.

Adalind could only groan especially when after hours of waiting, Sean and her mother, Catherine, finally had the chance to approach her.

"Oh hey," she sneered. "Enjoying the event so far?"

"Adalind, what is going on here?" Catherine impatiently asked. "How are the Queen of House Varia?"

"Duh," Adalind scoffed. "For the obvious reason, I'm married to the King."

"But isn't your husband…?"

Catherine was about to say but Adalind stopped her. "Ah-ah, I won't do that if I were you," she said and gave a quick gesture to the people around them.

Looking to what she's pointing at, her mother noticed that everyone's attentions are pointed at them with great interest.

"You know something that these people are dying to know right now." Adalind pointed out. "If I'm in your position I won't give it free of charge."

"It makes sense now," Sean spoke. "This is what he's offering. No wonder you're with him."

He's attempting to get into her nerves but she'd already lived two lifetimes to know how to play through it. "Yes Sean. I realized that I was more ambitious than I give myself credit. I want the sure thing and not the 'what ifs'."

The side of Sean's face ticked as she heavily implies the two words 'what ifs'. He's an aspirant and nothing more as of the present and Adalind rubbed that fact to his face.

"Just so you wait," Sean snarled.

"That too," she retorted. "Aside that it's a bunch of 'what ifs', the waiting is just too tedious," Then she shifted her gaze back to her mother, "Good thing that my Mom here is very patient with you."

Adalind saw how Catherine's expression instantly turned dark when what she said dawned to her. She's already in this position while they are still preparing for war. Regardless how they are in an advantage, if they really are in an advantage, there's no such thing as absolute certainty. They are still about to engage and losing is a glaring possibility. This worries Catherine especially after looking at Adalind's stable standing.

"Well, the keys will be a great help," she said to her mother. "Consider it as a gift from your son-in-law."

...

"Adalind!"

When she parted from Sean and her mom and distance herself from the crowd, a familiar voice instantly chased after her.

Turning around, she greeted him, "Oh hey Bud."

As a Wesen and the Mayor of Portland, Bud is of course present for the coronation. "Everything is ready," he said in a soft voice. "Just say the word and they will move right away."

While the Inugamis are dispatched all over the world to deal with Black Claw, the matters in Portland was left to her by Nick.

"Good," Adalind nodded. "And Black Claw?"

"They received the intel we leaked and as you predicted, they will make a move the moment we head home."

The purging of House of Varia does not only apply to Black Claw and other Wesen terrorist organizations. It also includes the Kehrseite-Schlich-Kennen that will or might disrupt the balance House of Varia is aiming to establish, starting with the other Royal Houses and Adalind's approach into dealing with them is striking them with a borrowed knife.

Of course, there are also exemptions. "And the people to secure?"

And unfortunately, because of the bond called DNA, that still includes her mother and because Sean will be with her, that includes him too.

Even in this lifetime, he's still a stain she can't remove.

"Taken cared of."

Adalind nodded again then pat Bud's arm, "Good job."

...

The attacks against the Royals and Portland leaders truly happened as Adalind predicted.

Well, it's not entirely her prediction as she is simply repeating what Nick did during the old timeline when he did the same purging after his coronation. It's not Black Claw back then as they were gone by that time but there are still other Wesen terrorists and other Wesen groups with the same superiority complex as those Royals and political leaders that are needed to be taken cared of that Nick was able to take advantage of.

Some survives but most of the targeted Royalties and leaders were eliminated including Frederick Renard. To be honest, Adalind put more effort into attacking House of Kronenberg than the others nearly to the point that Black Claw could have found it fishy.

Though she indirectly assisted Sean upon accomplishing this, if it will be any consolation, he might leave Portland for Vienna and she and Nick can do something to make it permanent. Hopefully, her mother will also go with him as she doesn't want her anywhere near her children especially now that they are already in the learning years. She doesn't want her children to receive any influence from Catherine Schade.

At that moment, Adalind's phone rang. It was Nick.

-Hey babe, how are things doing there?

"Doing well, how about you?"

-We're about to be done here. Hopefully, there won't be any mishap.

"Is everything going to be fine there?" Adalind asked with great concern. Regardless how invincible her husband is, worrying is something she can never get rid of. She once had nothing and then Nick, Diana, and Kelly came along and she knows that she will go insane if she lost any of them.

-Everything is going to be fine. Don't worry.

"Just be careful, okay?"

-I will. Anyway, I have to go now.

"Alright, bye. I love you."

-I love you too.


BOOM!

The force of Bonaparte's power fired to his direction but before it could reach him, his own power from the staff erected an invisible wall that repelled it.

Bonaparte was then barely able to evade when Nick lunged at him with sword at hand.

"So it is you," Bonaparte said after evading and retreating a considerable distance from him. Nick assumed that he's implying about them being the second force that's been interfering with them aside from HW. "This is unexpected."

Presently, they are in the main HQ, a former government black site in Texas, of Black Claw, and while his men are fighting the grunts outside, Nick and Bonaparte are confronting each other inside the meeting room.

"I didn't expect that the feared Portland Grimm has this kind of power."

"I wish I could say the same thing to you but, I'll be honest, there's nothing about you that I don't already know. In fact, you've been acting according to what I want all these times."

This evidently infuriated the Black Claw leader. "How dare you!"

"I could have killed you years ago," Nick disclosed. "But you still have roles to play to my plans. Unfortunately now, you've outlived your use."

"AHHHH!" Bonaparte completely lost it and with the shriek, he woged and fiercely waved his hands forward to fire sharp debris around them towards Nick.

Unfortunately for him, Nick had let go of his sword and summoned his staff and with a wave, the debris stopped midair and changed direction, heading to Bonaparte now.

Bonaparte flinched but able to quickly react, he exploded most of the debris. However, a decent amount had still made it through and cleanly struck him. The hit on the head was the worst one as it temporarily took his vision out that he failed to notice Nick had already closed into a striking distance.

Nick then gripped his staff like a baseball bat and directly hit Bonaparte's stomach.

BANG!

The impact flung him back like a broken kite and when he crashed against the wall, Nick shifted into a throwing stance and sent the staff to impale Bonaparte's heart.

When the old Zauberbeist realized what had hit him, he coughed out a mouthful of blood. He vainly attempted to pull out the staff but he's completely nailed against the wall as life slowly leaves his body.

Eventually, the light in his eyes dimmed and the staff disintegrated him into a pile of ashes before flying back to Nick's hand.

At that same time, Nick's men charged inside the room and relief washed over their expressions when they saw him unharmed. "Nicholas-sama, are you alright?"

Nick nodded then said, "We're done here. Take everything we might need and bury this place."

"As you command!" They heed at the same time.

...

To say that things went easy after defeating Bonaparte would be a lie. It's smooth. Without the head, the snake is now blind and could only waggle around until it dies. Still, even without a head, the body of the snake is still moving and as long as it does, it can bring harm.

The unpleasant events from the destroyed timeline had taught Nick well to never dismiss danger no matter how unlikely it might seem. He'd paid great price back then for such naivety and he does not intend to repeat it again.

Still, despite the life-threatening day that had just got through, he's grateful that it's over and he can finally go home to his wife and children. Unfortunately, he can't do that just yet.

Unlike the Kelly and Diana from the destroyed timeline, both kids possess the ability to sense life, death, and bloodlust that they could instantly identify if one is filled with malice or had just killed someone and unfortunately for Nick, that is the case for him. He'd taken so many lives over the last 24 hours that the scent of bloods still lingers on him.

Hence, for this sort of instances, it had been procedural that he'll either get home so late that the twins are already asleep or he'll stay someplace until the miasmas had completely left him.

In this case, it's the latter. It's nearly the break of dawn and the twins are about to wake up. He can't go home yet like this not unless he wants to make his children uncomfortable.

CLANK!

The elevator stopped and Nick pulled up the grate to enter the loft.

When the need calls, the loft serves as his getaway place. The same as what it is during the destroyed timeline, it is his and Adalind's sanctuary where they can forget everything from the outside world and pretend that everything exist solely within these four walls. It is also here where they fell in love and started their family. This is a place they can never give up regardless of which reality they are.

But when he entered the loft, Nick was surprised to realize that he was not alone.

In the bed, there's Adalind soundly sleeping. And the way she'd fallen asleep while clasping her phone implied that she'd fallen asleep waiting for him, knowing that he will head here.

Tenderness instantly filled Nick's chest as he stared at the sleeping figure of his wife. As silently as he could, he removed his booths and jacket and joined her in the bed. Slowly taking her phone off her hand, he embraced her as he lay next to her.

"Hmmm," she mumbled in her sleep. Sensing the sudden shift of weight and the heat of his body embracing her, her eyes slowly opened and her half-hooded gaze stared directly to his face. "Nick, you're…"

She was about to start but Nick hushed her right away, "Shush," and pulled her closer to him. "That can wait," he smiled weakly, eyes closed, before kissing her forehead.

Adalind smiled back and rest her forehead against Nick's neck.

Yes, everything outside of their loft can wait. For now, in this little haven of theirs, there's only him and her.