Chapter 11:
Riven was woken up by Irelia shaking her. They had fallen asleep on the bed, on top of the covers where they had been cuddling and talking hours earlier, she had been so exhausted from lack of sleep from their journey and the sense of self hate that had worsened since returning to Noxus that finally Irelia getting her to share how she felt had made her finally get some rest. Katarina stood over them, eyebrow raised with her arms crossed over her chest.
"You awake now?" Riven forced herself up from the bed, Irelia doing the same, instead of answering the assassin's question. "LeBlanc is here. It's time." Riven nodded and headed towards her rune sword that sat resting against the wall, grabbing it by its hilt and strapping it to her back. Irelia put on her armour and summoned her blades from the box she had been storing them in. The pair followed Katarina throughout the halls of the house, heading down to the front entranceway where LeBlanc was waiting patiently alongside Cassiopeia and Talon.
"Swain has left for a summit in Zaun, they're planning a reinvasion of Ionia as we speak. It's the perfect time to strike, cause High Command to crumble while he is out of Noxus and prevent him from returning. We will certainly lose our alliance with Zaun over this but no matter, we can find some better allies from this if all goes well. Is everyone ready to move?" LeBlanc looked through the group, waiting only a few moments for someone to speak up before heading out the double front doors of the Du Couteau manor. They were all armed with their best weapons and armour as they walked through the underground passages of Noxus, bringing them to the front gates of High Command.
LeBlanc gave a short, sly smile to the men at the front gates who froze at the sight of Riven and Irelia standing with them, they were definitely in the intelligence reports circulating High Command as people to kill on sight by that reaction. The guards withdrew their weapons only for them to be brought to their knees by short flashes of LeBlanc's magic before she walked past their corpses that had fallen to the ground.
Riven followed LeBlanc's lead, marching throughout the building, taking the lives of only those who stood in their way as they had agreed. Riven had forced LeBlanc to concede to this, not wanting to kill anyone who was willing to step out of the way and let them through. Many of the younger and lower ranking officers of High Command were willing to get out of their way, they didn't care for who was in charge of High Command at this moment, not when they could possibly live through a regime change instead of dying to protect the existing one. Due to the time of night and with Swain being gone, it was far more relaxed in High Command, leaving it vulnerable for a coup like this one to succeed.
Once they got through to the inner halls of the building, they began to run into higher ranking members of High Command, including some Generals. One of the generals they ran into, Riven barely recognised, she only knew the man by name. He had done a good job and largely kept to himself throughout the years, not liking the fanfare that came with successful military campaigns. At the sight of LeBlanc, Riven and the others, he rose his hands in a defensive position before smiling at LeBlanc.
"So it's been a success so far?" The General asked LeBlanc, his eyes flicking briefly to Riven.
"It looks like it. Are you ready to begin the next stage then?" The man raised his eyebrow before nodding.
"I'll inform my men to find their way here, once you've killed or subdued them all, we will need my men to lock the place down." LeBlanc offered him a small smile before heading off in the opposite direction, being pleased with his reaction to their success.
Riven and Irelia split from the group after this moment, the Du Couteau siblings heading out on their own in hopes to find some more information on their missing (probably deceased) father while they headed throughout the floor that housed the General's offices, wanting to make sure they had taken care of the rest of them.
After several minutes of searching, finding nothing but demolished offices from the chaos of it all, they found their way into Swain's office. The lower ranking officers and some of the Generals must have pillaged the place on the way out, taking any possessions they felt they could sell. Riven scanned the room with her eyes, most of anything worth having was already gone. She figured this plan had only worked because Swain wasn't here to take charge, most of the soldiers were scattered due to the time of day and couldn't respond quickly to their attack. Riven didn't expect anything less from the Deceiver, she knew exactly when to strike for their small group coup on High Command to succeed.
Riven watched Irelia as she took the opportunity to search the room for intel, for information she could bring back to Ionia before they would have to have a wall of confidentiality between them. Riven let her have this opportunity, letting Irelia have something useful to bring back to Karma, she didn't need to keep this a secret from Irelia when she was going to change where Noxus was going. Her attention on the captain was drawn away when something caught her eye from the corner of the room, Riven headed over to it. Swain had left his Grand General coat behind, he hadn't ever been fond of wearing it but she was still surprised he left on a diplomatic mission and left it behind. She ran her fingers over the patches on the shoulder with the Noxian insignia and the markings that showed rank of Grand General. She was brought out of her focus on the coat when Irelia called out to her.
"Riven, watch out!" Riven turned quickly, just in time to spot General Darius bringing his axe down on her through a powerful overhead swing.