A thwack resounds as a rifle slams into the back of the head of a security guard, knocking him out instantly. The assailant watches the body for a few seconds, looking for any movements. When it is clear that the guard is out cold, the man drags him to the pile of other unconscious guards to be tied up.
"This is the last one," the man reports to the leader.
"Plant the charges then."
The group of men get to work. Around the pillars of the base of the tallest tower of Eylstadt, miniature bombs, no bigger than a palm, comprised of two chemicals separated by a slit are attached. They give off no light and only a soft beep when primed. Meanwhile, the leader goes to the control room with his phone in hand.
Finé, Izetta and their four guards are in the back corner of the elevator. They are going back up to the dance hall. There is a couple, a man and a woman, in the corner opposite to them. The two groups are silent as the number on the display rises.
With no warning, the elevator screeches to a halt and its display screen blanks out. Everybody is stunned by the sudden stop. When else happens, they start to look around and the couple starts pressing buttons.
Then a deafening blast rocks the whole lift violently. Izetta and the Royal Guards quickly spread their feet, lowering their stance to stabilise themselves. Izetta's arms shoot to hold Finé who clutches her ears while stumbling around. A beat later, the guards also support Finé.
The rocking stops. Finé slowly opens her eyes to see the five of them propping her up.
"Princess!" Izetta cries as Finé gradually lowers her hands from her ears. "Are you okay?!"
"Y-Yeah…" Finé stammers, "T-Thanks to all of you." She looks to the corner where the couple are floored but sluggishly pushing themselves up. "I'm okay, please go and help them," she points.
The four guards steadily let go of Finé, making sure that she does not drop without their support. "Got it," two guards acknowledge before going to help the couple stand up. The other two guards start talking into their communicators in their ears, informing Bianca of their situation.
Finé turns to see Izetta's face wracked with concern. "Izetta, I'm okay, really," she tries to calm her down. With shaky legs, Finé pushes herself to stand upright.
"O-Okay," Izetta reluctantly accepts as she slowly removes her hands, looking out for any signs from Finé that she needs help. "But if you're in pain, please tell me immediately. I can carry you until it's safe."
"No no, I'm fine," Finé gives a crooked smile. "How are all of you though? That was so loud and you were holding me instead of your ears."
"I'm alright. I had basic firearms training so my ears are used to loud noises," Izetta answers as the guards nod. Although their training started with them using earplugs to dampen the sound at first, they had to build tolerance to firing a gun without them. In a real scenario, they could be engaged in a gunfight and have no time to put them on.
The other two guards return from helping the couple who look over in appreciation. One of the two that were talking with Bianca reports the news, "That explosion was from the bottom of the tower. Terrorists have infiltrated the tower and are using everybody in the tower as hostages."
The couple gasp. Colour drains from Finé's face. Izetta narrows her eyes.
"They've destroyed the main power supply, leaving only the monitors for them to announce the situation to the people up there. They're going to demand a hefty ransom from the king or they set off the second wave which will demolish the supporting pillars, causing the tower to collapse and kill us all."
"W-What do we do?!" the couple exclaim.
"Stay calm please," the guard instructs. "Our head guard has already started to give commands to the squads stationed outside. For now, we have to try to get all of you to a solid floor at least. There's no telling if this lift will hold and even if it does, we would have limited oxygen."
On que, two guards take out their knifes and jam them into the elevator's closed doors. Using their leverage, they force the doors to open ever so slightly as they grunt in exertion. Then the other two guards put their fingers into the gap on opposite sides and heave, widening the opening. The first two quickly keep their knifes to assist with their hands as well. Unfortunately, the doors slide open to reveal a solid wall.
The guards take out their knifes again to attempt to cut through the wall. Yet no matter how hard they try, the wall just receives more scratches and shows no signs of letting them through. As the fruitless hacking continues, the couple sweats nervously.
Izetta's eyes shift between the couple and Finé who looks grim. With a bead of cold sweat rolling down her face, she slowly reaches for the back of her neck. As she is about to touch it, Finé grabs her arm.
"What are you doing?" Finé whispers just loud enough for only Izetta to hear, "They'll know if you do it here!"
"You're in danger!" Izetta hisses back softly. "Protecting you is my top priority! I don't care what happens to me if I can keep you safe!"
"But I care! If it goes public, your life will be turned upside down!"
Izetta is about to refute when a guard comes over and pulls down her hand gently. "Lady Izetta, please do not be rash," she says in a low voice. "I know that the situation looks bad, but help is on the way. We may not be able to get out ourselves, but please believe in the entire Royal Guard. If the lift suddenly crashes or we are low on oxygen, we will knock those two out and then you can do it to save the Princess. In the worst case, we are prepared to plunge with them to safeguard your secret."
"W-What…?" Izetta's eyes waver. "No! You can't do that! That's suicide and you'd be killing innocents!"
"That is the resolve we have to protect you and the Princess. So please trust us that we will do our utmost best to get the two of you out of here safely. If we have to do that absolute last resort, it means that we have failed the Princess for the second time. Once was bad enough already."
Izetta looks to Finé who has worry etched on her face. Yet Finé's gaze is on Izetta instead of anywhere else. The couple are still engrossed in looking at the guards cut at the wall to no avail. They have not heard anything or even seen what Izetta is doing. Letting out a breath, Izetta relaxes her arm and lowers it. "I understand, but I won't let it come to that. The moment the situation goes south, I'm doing it."
The guard flashes the glimpse of a smile before turning back to the other guards. "Stop, we aren't making any headway. We'll just be wasting our energy at this rate. Everybody relax while our comrades prepare the rescue."
The dance hall is filled with pandemonium as the trapped people panic. Many are at the broken elevator doors, fruitlessly trying to get them to open. Some are on their phones, either crying for help or making peace with their loved ones. Then there's Bianca and her group, huddled in the corner while calmly talking into their communicators.
"All squads, report," Bianca orders. The squads were hidden long before the party, surrounding the tower from a distance. The moment the terrorists started streaming their demands and backed up their threat with the explosion, the squads suited up and advanced slowly towards the tower. They just had to wait for Bianca to process the situation and decide on the course of action.
Each squad reported their readiness and visuals in their designated order, carrying out the systematic procedures that they had drilled into their heads over and over again. Each of them had a layout of the tower as well, personally drawn by the group of Royal Guards that went to inspect the tower when construction was finished.
Bianca watches the monitor where it shows the terrorist negotiating with the king. Despite their aggressive threats, the king remains calm and stalls for time. "Infiltrators," Bianca commands, "You are clear to engage. Wipe them out without getting into a head-on fight. Bomb disposers, follow closely behind and defuse their bombs once the area is cleared. Snipers, support them from your positions. Close quarters and demolitions, stay on standby but get ready to storm the tower if needed. The king can probably buy us no more than an hour so let's show them that they picked the wrong country to mess with."
After a few seconds, the terrorists on watch outside the tower all get their heads blown off at the same time. The snipers had their sights trained on them the moment they realised those people were not running although an explosion had just gone off. With their perfect coordination, a single shot from each sniper that fired was all that was needed to take out the terrorists outside. The infiltrators and disposers sneaked forward, watching out for even the smallest signs of more terrorists popping out.
Although the Royal Guards had their own divisions, every member was trained well in all areas. Should the need arise, any member would be able to fill for a role with a minimal drop in efficiency. The initial squads were just formed according to the guards' interest. So the disposers crept alongside the infiltrators, slowly but surely clearing the entire floor without any terrorists noticing.
When the infiltrators at the front notice terrorists, they give hand signals to the group. Then the guards shift their positions according to the signal, preparing to take out the threat effectively. Meanwhile, the infiltrators at the back kept a vigilant eye out for any terrorists that would appear.
Any terrorists seen were shot with a powerful tranquiliser, robbing their consciousness in seconds. They could shoot them in the head for instant death with silencers, but the blood spilled would be hard to clean up which could alert another patrolling group. Then a small number of guards would break off, carrying the body silently. If that small group was unfortunate enough to encounter another terrorist on their way out, they would knock him out as well before dragging the bodies to a corner where they would keep watch. Then by repeatedly tapping on their communicators, they would send out a message in morse code to ask for assistance from one of the other groups.
The knocked-out terrorists would be brought outside to where the snipers could watch and make sure no terrorist would see the pile of bodies. If any terrorists did come out and see it, they would be swiftly added to the pile with a bullet hole through their heads and close quarters would move their limp bodies. With the remaining Royal Guards surrounding the tower from the shadows, no terrorist that stepped outside would go unnoticed.
Eventually, a group of guards reach the control room. They can hear the leader screaming and huffing at the king. One guard approaches the doorknob, studying it for any signs of being rigged. She then gives the hand signs, informing them of the formation they will use. Gingerly squatting and placing her hand on the knob as another guard squats in front of her, she uses her other hand to count down. 'Three… Two… One…'
Slamming the door open with their bodies, the first guard rolls to aim at the left side where the door opened inwards. The other does the same, clearing the right side of the room. In that instant, the other guards see the leader in front and waste no time putting a bullet into each of his limbs. The leader had barely processed that the door when pain erupts and he falls to the ground.
"Clear!" both the guards that checked the sides of the room yell.
The other guards rush in to restrain the leader. He desperately reaches for the remote he dropped when they shot him, but a guard kicks it away to the side. "No no no no! How could I fail?!" he howls.
The guard that kicked the remote away goes to pick it up. She hands it to the first guard that commanded them who goes to the phone where the leader was negotiating with the king. "Mission accomplished," she reports as she shows the king the remote.
The king lets out a visible sigh of relief. "Good job, all of you. Tonight would have been disastrous if it weren't for each and every one of you. I will make sure your deeds get the recognition they deserve."
"Just doing our duty," she smiles. "If there's nothing else, Your Majesty, I'll cut this line and we'll get to work on evacuating everybody up there."
"Yes yes, we can't relax yet. But again, good work, all of you." The screen turns black as both sides shut off the connection.
"They lied to me!" the man roars. "They said Eylstadt would be easy! They said that the Royal Guards were pushovers when they did the kidnapping! What utter bullshit!"
The Royal Guard with the remote raises her eyebrow at the man's outburst. "You can save that for when we interrogate you later. But for now, you just need to know that having Princess Finé kidnapped was a rude wake up call for all of us. We weren't just twiddling our thumbs over the years. We've become so much stronger, so that we never fail the crown ever again. So once we're done with you, tell your bosses to leave Eylstadt alone."
"Everybody please stand back," Bianca instructs as military personnel rappel from helicopters down to the glass windows. The soldiers cut open a smooth hole in the glass, big enough for even the largest men to go through without issue. They push the cut glass towards Bianca and her squad mates, so that they can place it down safely on the floor. Once the opening is secure, the personnel step through the hole and stand in the dance hall.
As the last man pushes his cut glass in, Bianca turns around to the restless crowd. "Okay, now go slowly towards the holes one at a time. Please do not rush or push, there are more than enough helicopters for all of you to board. Let the men safely secure you in here before they guide you out and into the helicopter. If you fall from this height, you are guaranteed to die. Again, please do not panic and let them handle everything."
The mass of people mutter to themselves, a few making a quick step towards the holes. Then they freeze as the view of the ground all the way at the bottom emerges. Seeing what would await them if they rushed, Bianca's instructions sink in and they walk slowly, forming a haphazard queue.
The owner of the tower has his head in his hands. "I should have built some stairs… I thought it would just be a waste since the tower is so tall that nobody would want to walk…"
Bianca and her group, after making sure that nobody is panicking, go to a huge group of Royal Guards that came from the helicopters, many with bags of equipment. They had got to work as soon as they arrived, but the crowd was too occupied by the helicopters outside to pay them any attention.
Seeing the steel stakes welded into the floor by the guards, Bianca taps her communicator to notify the guards with Finé and Izetta about the incoming rescue. After the stakes were securely welded into the floor, ropes were tied around each of them. Meanwhile, other guards are forced open the elevator doors with crowbars, geared up to abseil down the shafts and formed support chains. With the rows of Royal Guards ready, one row for each elevator door, the first guard of each group begins to descend down the shaft.
When the first guard reaches the floor above where Finé and Izetta are stuck, she pries open that door with the crowbar she brought down. Once she enters the floor, she detaches herself from the rope and communicates to her group to send down the next guard. In the meantime, she gets to welding a steel stake into the floor she is on, preparing for when the next guard will bring the ropes for them to tie it to. By creating this secondary point, they would only have to haul the trapped people up one floor as opposed to all the way up to the dance hall.
The last guard reaches the group, now in two rows with the main row much longer. As she swaps her attached rope from the one up top to the ones they just tied, she goes back down to the elevator. As she is about to land on it, she flips upside down so her hands just barely touch it. Calling out to the people in there, everybody stands away from the elevator doors. Quickly welding another steel stake into the roof of the elevator, she detaches her secondary rope and ties it to the stake.
Then she begins cutting into the roof with a powered saw. As she is about to complete sawing the hole near the elevator doors, she informs the group up there to get ready for it to drop. The rope becomes taut and she finishes cutting the hole. The piece of the roof that was just cut is slowly lowered to the bottom of the elevator and the guard goes in herself afterwards, dropping the tools on the floor.
The couple lets out a huge breath of relief. They start towards the guard, but then remember who they are in the presence of. "P-Princess… you should go up first…" the man offers reluctantly.
"Thank you, but you two can go first. I'm not worried."
"W-Well, if you insist," the woman cheers as she lunges forward with the man right after her.
The guard tightly secures the woman to herself and informs the group to pull them up. As they are going up, the other shafts are undergoing similar rescue procedures. Some are more fortunate that they were near a floor so the guards only had to pry the doors open, while some elevators had no people in them so those guards are on the way back up to help the other groups.
Eventually the guard comes for Finé after bringing the couple up. As Finé goes to let the guard tie the rope to her, she turns her head to Izetta. "Izetta, promise me that you'll come up after me."
Izetta's eyes dart towards the hole where the couple left and then back to Finé. "But Princess," she whispers, "Your guards should go up before me. The couple's gone already. I can save myself and nobody will see it."
"I'm not concerned about somebody getting left behind," Finé explains softly, "I'm worried that you'll get antsy and start running around the tower either to find the terrorists or to save people. The situation is under control, so please, just go up after me."
Izetta opens her mouth, only to realise that she would have those thoughts once Finé is safe.
A guard places a hand on Izetta's shoulder, making Izetta's eyes turn to the guard. "The Princess is right," the guard mutters. "Besides, if he suddenly appears here while you're gone, some people may start to make the connection."
Izetta looks back at Finé and breathes out. "Okay Princess, I promise."
Finé gives her a smile before turning back to the guard, nodding to tell her to continue. As they ascend, Izetta steps towards the hole, keeping an eye on Finé. Soon the guard comes back and Izetta lets her tie the rope around her.
The guard secures Izetta and notifies the group to pull them up. "Thank you. Aren't you tired though? You've done four people and there are still four more."
"I'm good," the guard grins. "There are enough of us for me to rest while somebody takes over if needed. You don't need to worry, we won't put anybody at risk."
"Oh…" Izetta mumbles as she looks down.
The two of them reach the floor above, taking a few steps in. The guard deftly unties the rope around Izetta and goes right back down.
"Izetta…" Finé breathes as she hugs Izetta, pulling the two of them to the side. "I'm so glad you're safe…"
"Princess…" Izetta reciprocates with her own firm embrace. "I should be the one saying that to you…"
The two of them stay huddled together, closing their eyes to feel more of each other. It is moments later that Izetta's ears work normally again and she can hear the guards discussing the situation. With a bright blush, Izetta opens her eyes to look at Bianca who is scrolling through a tablet.
"Uh," Izetta clears her throat. "Bianca, what do we do now?"
"A helicopter will be at the windows soon. A Royal Guard will help everybody on this floor get aboard it where it will then take you to cars that will drive you home."
"O-Oh… everything's over already?"
"Yes, we've captured all the terrorists, removed all the bombs and accounted for everybody. I was going to report this to the Princess, but…" With a smirk, Bianca teases, "You two can just keep hugging each other."
Izetta fake coughs as she pats Finé's back. Finé, with a deep blush of her own, slowly lets go of Izetta. Finé clears her throat as well but the two cannot look at Bianca in the eye.
"Y-Yes, uh, t-thank you, Bianca. The, ah, Royal Guard has really, uh, outdone itself today. I will m-make sure that the people know how, ah, exceptional you all are."
Bianca chuckles as she waves her hand. "Save it for tomorrow, Princess. Just go back and rest now. I'm sure your father was worried sick as well."
Finé rubs her face with her hands, patting her cheeks to flush away the embarrassment. "No, really, thank you all. The Royal Guard was absolutely incredible tonight. You all lived up to your name and more."
Bianca smiles as she bows respectfully. "That means a lot to us, Princess."
As the helicopter approaches the window, a Royal Guard calls out to them. The couple, Finé and Izetta walk towards the window as the glass gets cut. Looking out from where she is, Izetta can see the aftermath of the incident. There are two piles of bodies, one with corpses given the amount of blood oozing out from the pile and splattered around the area. The other pile was being loaded onto prison buses.
Then there is a stack of gadgets, too far away to see clearly from there, is placed far away from everything. Izetta figures that those are the bombs. As Izetta gets pulled up, she sees the multitude of other helicopters at different floors rescuing the other civilians and bringing them away from the tower. Izetta goes to take her seat beside Finé, but Finé notices her silence.
Finé opens the door to see Izetta sitting on the bed, the both of them already changed into their sleepwear. Izetta's body is pointed towards the window but her head turns to face Finé. "Sorry, my father is such a worrywart. I told him we were safe the whole time but he still went on and on." Finé walks in as she holds her head, closing the door behind her. "Though I can't really blame him… Did you wait long?"
"No…" Izetta shakes her head.
"Just let me brush my teeth and then we can go to sleep."
"Mhm, okay." As Finé closes the bathroom door, Izetta tucks herself in.
Finé soon comes out and goes to turn off the lights. She climbs into bed, leaving the two of them face to face in the dark. Finé moves closer to put her arms around Izetta, who slowly does the same.
"Goodnight, Izetta," Finé smiles.
"Goodnight, Princess," Izetta replies with a small smile of her own.
The two of them close their eyes, and Finé quickly drifts off to sleep. Yet Izetta opens hers after a while, taking in Finé's peaceful face.
'I… didn't do anything for her…' Izetta's mind wanders, 'I was right there… But I did nothing… Even if I wanted to keep my identity secret, why didn't I act the moment the couple were gone…? I'm sure I could have thought of something or the Secret Service could have come up with a cover story if somebody really realised that I disappeared when the White Agent appears…
'Have I gone soft? After enjoying myself so much, do I not want to get back into it? There's no use if my body feels better than ever but I don't use it. The Princess was in danger right in front of me. Yet I let her talk me into doing nothing although I didn't even listen to the Secret Service. I just told the Princess that I would do anything for her yesterday, and then this happened.'
Izetta holds Finé close to her. 'I have all of this power, but what am I actually doing for her…?'