-7-

Edited by Etherdrone

It took the corrupt advisor a moment for him to register the situation. His mind, not entirely sure on what to feel, brought him back to his senses as Vix Cole, unyielding, stood firmly between him and the empress, whose voice was locked inside her own throat, aghast.

"I'm sorry for being tardy, my lady," Vix softly explains, his eyes not taken away from the denied assassin. "I would have come sooner, but I had to remain a distance away from the palace until I could intervene, ere my efforts would be discovered."

Yasmine only responded with a confused glare, her tears of fear still slowly tumbling down to the floor she stood on.

"Empress? Are you alright?"

"I! ...I'm fine! Um… " Yasmine gasps, just before Kongzhi stood up and interrupts her, furious.

"What is the meaning of this?! Who do you think you are?!"

"Me? I am a simple mercenary that was passing by, when a little bird told me a lady was in distress," Vix coyly says, resting most of his weight on the staff he was carrying. "And as we all know, little birds are always right. How could I ignore such a thing?"

"...You. You think you're being charming with this?" Kongzhi snarls, the knife he still held in his hand being gripped with so much strength that he felt his fingers getting numb. "You think this is a game?"

"Oh no, I'm still up to paying witness to a game. I figured you were the expert on that, but apparently, I was wrong." Vix says. The advisor fumed with anger.

"...It doesn't matter. I think I should appreciate your presence here," The rodent boasts, holding the knife in an obviously aggressive manner. "All I have to do now is place the blame on you when the Empress dies!" He immediately took a lunge at the rabbit, making Yasmine yelp in surprise. Vix calmly pulls himself back and let the knife pass right through him, whiffing the strike completely. As the rodent lost his footing due to the clumsy assault, Vix swept the staff by his feet which trips the advisor, having Kongzhi fall face-first on the cold, hard floor. Without losing a beat, Vix points the staff at the rodent, with the sharp pieces of metal sticking out of top of the weapon only a few inches away from Kongzhi's face, who lied on the floor, helpless. "Y-you wouldn't dare!" he lashes, his eyes betraying the tone of his voice.

"…You're right. I wouldn't," Vix claims, his tone not flinching in the slightest. "Mortally wounding someone, unless I need to isn't part of my life."

The rodent didn't seem to care about the jagged end of the shaft just a few inches away from his face. "You claim that so easily? You're weak-minded, boy!"

"So what? Do you think that killing people is the right way to feel good about yourself?" Vix chuckles back at the advisor, who growls back in silence. "Tell me, what does that prove? That you've killed someone? That's not real strength."

Kongzhi snaps his teeth with anger as he tried to pull himself away from the tip of Vix's staff, to no avail. "Tell me! Who are you, really? A mercenary that thinks the way you do? Ludicrous!"

"You misjudge me," Vix interrupts, still keeping the weapon aimed straight at the advisor's neck. "I am, in fact, a mercenary. Admittedly, I don't have the best relationship with my people… you can say our ideas of 'morality' are quite different."

The advisor sneered. "Morality and honor. That's cute, but did you really think I didn't plan this all through?"

"You did? And here I was, actually thinking you were just a complete idiot."

"DON'T MOCK ME, MERCENARY!" Kongzhi shouts, making the empress back away, reluctant. "I have more of this prepared than you could possibly imagine!"

"Indeed? Good thing that I prepared insurance of my own," Vix explains as a troupe of youths finally arrive at the empress' room, all running in different speeds, Milla at the front of them all. "Good evening! Took you long enough to finally get here."

"Vix Cole?!" Kai asks, the rifle he aimed at the room in reflex now aimed at his feet. "What are you doing here?!"

"Nothing extraordinary, just saving the empress for you," Vix explains with a smile, the bravado from the advisor all but gone at this point. "You certainly took your time, however. What were you doing?"

Norah began to whistle in embarrassment.

"Norah?"

"Well, uh. Kai originally wanted to climb out of the palace through the balcony, but Milla mentioned how there's likely to be guards outside?" Norah begins to talk almost in rapid-fire. "S-So she suggested going through the ventilation shaft. However Kai argued how the vents were too small for us, so they started arguing so I was just going to punch them or something, until…"

Vix simply waited for her to talk. The silence was mortifying for the next few seconds.

"Until I needed to pee, so I told the guard behind the door that I needed to use the bathroom!" she admits so loudly that it was almost a shout. "C-Check it out though, the idiots actually let me out! It took me a while to realize what had happened, so I beat the crap out of them and we ran all the way here!"

"I'm surrounded by idiots everywhere," Kongzhi mumbles, finally attracting attention back to him. "It's a good thing I thought about all of this."

"Wait… what?" Vix says as the room immediately got filled with a thick, dark smoke. Kongzhi, making good use of the surprise, escapes from Vix's staff and tackled Yasmine, carrying her away from the safety of the mercenary's presence.

"HEY! Get off of me!" Yasmine demands, sinking her teeth in the rodent's shoulder, blood gushing out from it from the strength she fought back.

"You little brat!" Kongzhi yells in pain as he crashed her head against the wall, knocking her unconscious. As the youths still tries to understand what was happening amidst the confusion, two agents appeared from the shadows, assisting the advisor in carrying the empress away from their presence.

"Take her away!" Kongzhi orders as he follows the agents past the group, darting down the hallway as fast as they could.

"No! They're trying to escape!" Vix warns the three confused youths, "Guys! You go after Kongzhi, I'll catch up soon!"

"What? You're leaving us?!" Kai complains, cursing to himself in silence about the fact they were ambushed.

"Don't worry, trust me!"

"Kai, just… just trust him." Norah nods with insurance, thought feeling slightly skeptical herself about the rabbit's motives.

The three then immediately turned around and ran down the hall, leaving Vix behind them as they did. It didn't take long before they were interrupted by three cloaked Qin agents accompanied by a few royal guards, all of which barred their way and equipped with naginatas, spears and rifles.

"Halt! We will use deadly force if necessary!" The head agent demands, equipped with a pair of neko tes.

Almost as if by complete, silent understanding, none of the youths reply. The agents all pointed their weapons at them again, their speed not decreasing in the slightest. "I will not warn you again! STO—"

The warning fell on deaf ears as the youths seemed to increase their speed instead. With a final yell of surprise, the guards all gasped as the three barreled through the barricade, trampling over the guards as they tore their weapons and rifles in half with the sheer gargantuan effort of their combined advance.

"…Strike." Kai chuckled to himself as the barricade simply collapsed to the ground, some of its members more hurt by their barreling advance than others.

"What's this? You actually have a sense of humor?! I'm impressed." Norah laughs, making Kai roll his eyes in response.

"Newsflash, I guess? Come on, we should hurry; there's no way they could've gotten far with the empress!."

The youths immediately continue their pursuit. As the group reaches the hallway leading directly to the entrance door, they witness Kongzhi and his agents exiting the palace. The rodent, noticing the youths running towards them from the other side of the hallway, shouts at his own guards. "Hand me the empress, you stall those children!"

The two agents each responds with a quick nod and immediately turn themselves around to assault the group as another pair of agents descends from the hallway ceiling, flanking the three.

"…We're surrounded," Norah points out, the adrenaline rushing through their blood as the obviously more well-trained agents slowly approached them in unison.

The four agents then took to action, attacking the group in unison. Milla, by sheer will of reflex, made two shields for both hands and followed with two simultaneous shield bursts to her sides. Her attack was successful in blasting two guards away as the husky and panda both turn to face a different agent.

Kai, in a surprising use of sleight of hand, loaded a chamber inside of his rifle as the agent took a dive in his direction, trying to use melee as his advantage over the husky. With mild success, the agent pushed the weapon away and swung at Kai, who ducked under the attack and tackled the agent away with his shoulder, who tried his best not to be pushed too far, to still threaten the husky with a counter-attack. Just as he did so, however, Kai grinned in victory, wielding the rifle at the hip and blasting a spray of blue energy against the agent, who immediately got frozen in place, the shotgun-like blast from the gun painted the ground behind its target, creating a clear, vicious zone of ice and artificially-formed snow.

Norah, after parrying the attack from the agent that rushed her, missed the counter-attack as her opponent slipped away, backwards. Clacking her tongue in annoyance, the panda made good use of her window of superiority, doing a quick jump forward and grabbing the agent's left wrist with her right hand, immediately jumping back and stopping, dragging the enemy with her. The agent, opening in eyes in surprise, tried to land a flying knee on Norah, but she saw the attacking coming and, raising a knee of her own, crashed hers against his, winning the exchange and using the opportunity to swing her leg up as hard as she could, crashing her foot against the agent's chin, the flame charge that ripped through the attack blasting the defeated agent several feet into the air before crashing against the cold, hard ground.

Milla, making use of the fact the two other agents were knocked out cold by her surprisingly powerful attack, dashed forward to square off against Kongzhi, who was still carrying the empress with him, whom slowly regained consciousness.

Kongzhi, out of desperation, raises his knife against the red panda's neck, stopping Milla's advance. "Stop this instant! If you get any closer, her blood will be splattered across the pavement!"

She immediately stops. Not knowing what to do, she was joined by Kai and Norah, who also remained still from the threat. They needed to retrieve the empress, but they didn't know how – cornering this man even further would guarantee the empress' death!

"Good," he slyly claims, his eyes absolutely hazed with combined fear and anger. "Drop your weapons and the empress will be spared. I think I might have some use for her after all, so long she cooperates." Kongzhi continues as he kept the knife at Yasmine's neck. She was in tears.

"What is the matter?" he said with anger as he dug the knife's blade even closer to her throat. "Is that not enough for you? If it isn't, then I'll personally pardon you for your crimes. DROP YOUR WEAPONS, NOW!"

Reluctantly, the three complies. As they did so, several agents appeared from the palace and surrounded the group and the advisor.

"…W-What now?" Milla asks, shy. Everywhere she looked at, all she could see were the cold stares of the many agents that now surrounded them.

"I… I don't know." Kai admits. …They were done for.

Then… just then, when all hope was lost, a loud, snapping sound rips through their ears as a yellow blur blasted across the palace entrance, the wind that soon followed was enough to push the youths forward a little. In a flash of an instant, the majority of the agents were crashed to the ground and the empress was miraculously out of Kongzhi's clutches. The knife he had in his hand also vanished completely.

"W-What?!" the rodent gasps in shock as he steps back, his eyes bulging in pure, unfiltered horror.

"What? What just happened?" Norah asks, her eyes being just as filled with confusion as everyone else.

"I told you to trust me," a familiar voice, rings in their ears. As soon as everyone turns to see who it was…

"Vix!" The panda joyfully cries, her smile couldn't possibly get any bigger.

"Was that you?!" Kai asks, receiving a negative response from the rabbit, who simply shook his head.

"Of course not. That was just a friend of yours."

Just as Vix said so, a person appeared before both the group and Kongzhi, holding the empress on his arms. The man was a yellow scaled dragon with brown hair, one broken horn; sharp claws while wearing a general's uniform and with a pair of twin swords strapped around his waist.

"This is the second time I had to save you, Empress Yasmine." The dragon speaks with a smile on his face.

"You… I remember you!" Yasmine acknowledges, making the dragon open a jovial smile at her in response. A very nostalgic one.

"Sorry if I caused you any inconvenience these past few days, Milla Basset." Turning around to face the hound, the dragon apologizes.

"N-No, It's fine! I'm glad you're here!" Milla responds, making the dragon smile in relief.

"You! Who exactly are-?" Kongzhi demands, being interrupted by the sudden turn the dragon gave, his eyes being so sharp that the rodent felt like it would slice him in half.

"My apologies, where are my manners? My name is General Jin Glaust" the dragon introduces himself with a dry, slashing courtesy worthy of an execution. The rodent wince in response.

The advisor stood speechless. The draconic general had defeated all of his agents in mere seconds! So this… this is the speed and power of a dragon?!

"Thankfully, Vix Cole informed me about what happened yesterday regarding your arrests. I figured that at least one of the council members was corrupt, but you guys… You all fished the worst of them all," Jin explains, carefully bringing Yasmine back to her own feet. Kai, still wrapping his head around the speed of which the general had blasted through the opposition, raised an eyebrow at the explanation.

"Then why did you send us here?" he asks with genuine curiosity. "If you knew there was corruption…"

"I figured if you were the ones to reveal it, things wouldn't scale into problems beyond our control. I should have told you my real intentions, but at least Yasmine was reasonable about the situation." Jin chuckles once to himself as he carefully turns around to face the rodent, still protecting the Empress by the sheer power of his presence. "As for you, Kongzhi… you're through. This is it for you."

"W-What? You can't do anything! You're a mere general, I'm still the head of the council!" Kongzhi argues, his voice absolutely wavering with fear.

"…Actually, you're not anymore," Yasmine counters, her eyes now completely dry from the tears she shed before, fear being taken over by anger.

"W-What do you mean?!"

"What do you mean?!" the empress mocks, imitating the advisor's tone with a barbaric effort of mockery. "Shut up, Kongzhi! …I know someone much more appropriate for the job!"

Just as she finished her sentence, several royal guards ran out of the palace. Looking at the situation at hand, they immediately made mention to arrest the youths, but were instantly barred by the empress. "HEY! You idiots! What do you guys think you're doing?"

"Uh? Y-Your Highness, didn't these children assault you?" one guard says.

"Of course not! Don't you have eyes on your heads? He's the one who tried to kill me! Arrest him!" Yasmine demands, pointing directly at Kongzhi, who became pale at how fiercely his whole world crumbled around him.

"Y-You can't do this! I'm head of the council! I am—"

"And I'm the Empress of Qin, jackass! Kiss my rank right in the butt!" she snarls, making a vulgar gesture with her finger at him, making all the guards around her to look at each other in confusion, of which was promptly snapped out of by the empress herself. "What are you DOING? I gave you an order, arrest him!"

"Y-YES! We're, sorry your highness!"

As the guards overwhelmed and apprehended the rodent, Yasmine stepped forward one more time. "Kongzhi Dong, you are hereby arrested for your crimes against the Qin Empire and by the attempted murder of yours truly," Yasmine announces, having him being taken by the squadron of soldiers. As soon as he wasn't in their sights anymore, the empress first sighs, then chuckles, then opens up a great, relieved laughter from the bottom of her heart. "Hahahahah! Oh, I always wanted to say something like that!" she confirms to Jin and the youths, who all responds with smiles of their own.

It took them all a couple of moments to readjust to the night as Jin slowly approaches Yasmine's side once again, trading looks of acknowledgement to one another.

"So, you're empress now." Jin notes, having her smile softly at him.

"I should say the same to you, Mr. Big Shot General." Yasmine retorts, having the youths all look slightly out of place in this conversation.

"You guys know each other?!" Milla asks with innocence, her small smile coming along for the ride.

"…Yes. This man saved my life more than a decade ago. I… never got his name back then, but it's hard to forget the face of a young dragon boy." Yasmine explains.

"Though we promised each other that we would meet again. It was a rather uncommon way to make friends, I'll admit." Jin adds, making the empress blush, grimace and smile, all at once.

"I did give you a necklace or something, didn't I?"

"Ah, yes. You mean this, right?" Jin asks, removing the necklace from his pocket, a beautifully adorned trinket, extremely expensive-looking, definitely worthy of belonging to an empress, though slightly worn by usage and time. "I used it as a good luck charm, always… After all a blessing from a princess isn't something to ignore, is it?"

Everyone then traded looks of agreement. They had finally won their night, as the cold wind that blew past them all made the empress shake a little. "It's truly getting late, now. There's no point in staying in the open like this," the general says, watchful as always.

"Yes, I agree," Vix says as all of them made their way to the palace, once again. The empress, feeling relief dominate her completely, finally felt fully comfortable around the party of her saviors.

"I guess we can make room for more people. Good thing this place is so big… I never used even half of it, even living in it for twenty-three years!"