A Black and White Cross

Chapter 6

Wild Animals

Alba sat in the reception chamber just outside the throne room, rubbing his white cross. He wasn't alone, on either side of him stood members from Esdese' Wache des Kommandaten, fully armored and equipped, their uniforms pressed and starched; the crème de la crème. Alba himself wore the white dress uniform of Army Group North, only without any insignia or decoration. He tapped his heal nervously and leaned his head on his hands. The Emperor, and by extension, the Prime Minister, was holding court and Alba intended to bring the charges against him in as public a manner as possible in order to avoid the Prime Minister shrugging them off. He had calculated that the Prime Minister would follow the rules of propriety and hospitality, but he may renege and try to have him killed.

That was one reason why the Wache were there in the first place. The other was to make it clear that he was under Esdese' protection, and hopefully make the Prime Minister think twice before having him executed outright. That was just a temporary measure however, it was a fact that the Prime Minister would try to have him killed, regardless of whether or not he had Esdese' support. He stopped moving his leg and took a deep breath. The Prime Minister was an animal, a predator, and must be handled as such. If he wanted to pull this off he needed to project an air of complete confidence. He went over how the plan had gone so far in order to calm himself down.

The tribunals had gone off without a hitch. The three living members of Night Raid that the Empire knew of; Mine, Najenda, and Akame; had all secretly come into the Capital and were pardoned under the pretense that their actions 'were in the best interest of the Empire and the Emperor'. Although the tribunals were more or less a secret, the bureaucracy had been sated and Alba could reveal them when he chose, as long as they refrained from their normal operational pattern. Najenda had gone along with the plan with a few changes she had deigned not to share with him at the tribunal. Her reason for agreeing to the plan instead of killing him for going back on the spirit, if not the word, of their contract was that she actually liked the plan. Her exact words were "I like it, this plan has more balls than every one of those dick monkeys back at HQ."

Alba actually chuckled aloud and realized that he wasn't nervous anymore. He shook his head and stood up, the Wache beside him coming to attention, their heels and rifles making an audible clack in the empty reception chamber. He took another deep breath as the large double doors to throne room opened, revealing two Imperial Guardsmen dragging some poor bureaucrat kicking and screaming. The morose scene passed him and he gulped before bringing the steel curtain of self-control back down.

Esdese stood inside the throne room while Alba had been outside, quite bored. The excitement she had felt when she had arrived that morning had long since worn off with the constant stream of whining nobles and sniveling bureaucrats coming in for petty problems or brought in under charges. She looked around as the latest man, who had probably done nothing actually wrong, was charged with some crime or other. The young General Nasim from Army Group South stood across from her, looking similarly board. He wore the tan uniform from his Group and every time he shifted on his feet Esdese thought she could see more sand fall to the floor. General Nobunaga from Army Group West stood next to him in West's olive drab uniform, giving off an aura of complete calm and disinterest. Field Marshal Budo stood next to her in the silver and black of the Imperial Guard. The Field Marshal, a large man even in civilian clothes, seemed to tower over her, his impassive expression increasing his intimidation factor. The Prime Minister stood behind the young emperor's throne, eating a slab of what Esdese guessed was salted meat.

She sucked a breath in as the last bureaucrat was dragged out, kicking and screaming. The next one up for an audience with the Emperor was Alba. The doors flung back open and Alba entered, tall and erect, a look of casual interest on his face, flanked by the two members of the Wache she had assigned to his protection. The scribe next to the throne called him out.

"Alba, Citizen of Aachen, Province of the Lioness." He said and half the room seemed to freeze. Nasim openly stared at the boy and Nobunaga and Esdese turned into blocks of impassive stone. She-she hadn't known. How could she have not known such an important detail about her lover? Of the others in the room, none seemed to show any reaction to the deceptively simple statement, even the Prime Minister, who had ordered the village's destruction.

"What is your purpose here?" the scribe asked.

"My purpose here is to bring charges of genocide, corruption, abuse of power, and treason against Prime Minister Honest." The room had been quiet before but now the silence was palpable. Nasim's jaw had dropped and Nobunaga took in a deep breath, the first time Esdese had seen him move the entire proceedings. It took the scribe only a few moments to recover from his shock.

"Do you have the necessary documents?" He asked, getting up.

"I do." Alba replied, pulling a parcel from his left breast pocket. The scribe crossed the area between his desk and Alba, but when he reached up to grab the parcel the Imperial Guardsman standing behind his desk, presumably for the scribe's own security, raised his rifle to fire at the pair; which one Esdese would never know because one of the Wache rose his rifle and put a single round into the Guardsman's closed helmet before he could even train the rifle. His fellow on Alba's other side turned in the blink of an eye fired a three round burst into each of the Guardsmen flanking the door before they even knew what was going on. The first Wache retrained his rifle and similarly dispatched the two Guardsmen flanking the throne, and by extension, the Prime Minister. Esdese noted them for later commendation. Supposedly the Imperial Guard, especially those designated for palace security, were the best of the best, and the two of them alone had killed all five in the throne room in under three seconds. The three generals had all drawn the conventional weapons they carried in the palace (they weren't allowed to carry their Imperial Arms) and trained them on the trio, but Esdese rose a hand and the weapons froze in their hands.

"Now, now, let's not be hasty, he hasn't broken any laws yet." She said. Her blood was pumping now and she had an evil smile.

"Your men fired first you traitorous bitch!" Nasim said. He had always been jealous of Esdese' military success and her status as the 'prodigy child'. She turned the full force of her unsettling smile upon him and he flinched.

"My men are veterans of a long and bloody war against a shrewd and powerful foe. Leveling a weapon in the direction of their charge is announcing intent to kill and they responded accordingly. It's something a mewling babe like yourself could never understand." Nasim's anger grew, but he lowered his hands, now frozen to his handgun. Nobunaga and Budo lowered their dai-katana and warhammer, respectively. Esdese lowered her hand, but the smile remained. By now the Prime Minister's mildly amused silence turned to a cold, calculating rage.

"STOP!" the single, high pitched word rang throughout the throne room like a bell. The young Emperor Makoto, who up until this point had been silent stood up, striding over to the pale haired boy and standing on tip toes to get close enough to his face. "By what right do you bring such charges against my Prime Minister? One who has served well and in good faith?"

"It is my right as a citizen of the Empire to bring such charges against any government official should I be able to collect enough physical evidence of the crime, Your Majesty." He replied coolly, bowing his head slightly and putting his fist to his heart in his unique gesture of respect.

"Scribe, is this true?" he asked, turning to the scribe who was now thoroughly shaking in fear.

"Y-y-yes, Milord" he replied, voice shaking as hard as his body. The Emperor closed his eyes and framed his chin with his fingers in a posture he emulated from his predecessors. After a moment he opened them again and spoke.

"Very well, I know that my Prime Minister is innocent, but if the laws say that he must be brought to trial, so be it." He said, walking back to the throne and sitting down again. Alba nodded, finally handing the scribe the small parcel before coming to attention and bowing more fully. The Emperor waved his hand and Alba walked out, as calmly and confidently as he had walked in. Esdese tried not to look at him as he did, because if she did, she might show a sign of weakness in front of the other wild predators in the room.

As soon as Alba's party was in a fairly secluded spot on the palace grounds, he promptly fell to his knees and wretched. He hadn't eaten anything earlier for this exact reason and all that came up was bile. His limbs started to shake so bad that he could barely hold himself up on all fours. He continued to heave for several minutes before he got it under control. He was still shaking terribly, but he was able to push himself to his feet. He took a few deep breaths to get his heart rate under control and grabbed his cross through his shirt to steady himself. After he had gotten himself under moderate control he turned to the nearest Wache.

"I can trust you not to tell anyone about this, can't I?" He didn't move and Alba couldn't see his face through the Wache's full face mask. "Of course I can." Alba said sarcastically to no one in particular. It's a good thing they had full face masks, because the Wache was smiling. His charge was young, inexperienced, and a virgin to true combat, but he had a pair. The Wache had faced down ten-to-one odds in the most recent Northern War alone and were considered among the other soldiers of Army Group North to be "the bravest bunch of assholes this side of the moon." But the two Wache with Alba couldn't convince themselves that they could have done what he had. They went on back to Esdese' wing of the palace to await her arrival.

When they got there Wave and Kurome were training out in the yard and Wave wanted to know all about what happened, and although Kurome seemed disinterested, she was just within earshot to hear what they said. Alba was still recovering from the after effects of his nervous breakdown and waved them off. Wave's disappointment was very visible and although she said nothing, Alba thought that he could see a slight wave of it ripple across Kurome's face. When he got inside Bols asked him if he had any requests for dinner and Alba waved him off as well, citing that he wasn't hungry. Alba was extremely relieved when he finally closed the bedroom door, alone at last. He guessed he should be nicer to them, they were leaving tomorrow, and he wouldn't get a…

"HIYAA!" He heard, turning around quikly with a yelp.

"Sir, are you ok?" One of the Wache asked from just outside the door

"Y-Yea, I'm fine." He said loudly, projected toward the door, before bringing his voice down and storming across the room toward the two intruders.

"What the hell are you two doing here? You're supposed to be combing the countryside for support and you're supposed to be doing the same thing in the slums." Leone and Tatsumi both grinned at him and giggled. Leone started off,

"The people in the slums aren't going to support anybody, they're going to keep their heads down until the smoke clears-"

"-and the people in the country already support the revolutionary army, and you've already got their support -"

"-so the Boss told us to come down here and protect you-"

"-and here we are!" Tatsumi finished. Alba wondered if they had practiced the little speech beforehand.

"What makes you think I need extra protection?" he asked. This must be one of Najenda's 'corrections'.

"Listen, the Wache are good, but they won't be able to stand up to Imperial Arms users, and you're sending the Jaegers off to the four corners of the globe, and Esdese can't be everywhere at once." Tatsumi replied, Alba sighed resignedly, completely missing the contradictory metaphor.

"What other changes did Najenda make to the plan?" he asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Don't worry, Akame is already moving against the PM's underground resources, Mine is set up to defend whatever judge is selected for the trial, and Lubbock is collecting the books you specified and moving them off to the northern industrial cities." He ended his statement with a knowing smile.

"Why am I still worried?" Alba muttered, shutting his eyes. He opened them and released his nose, turning back to them. "Look, fine, don't tell me, just stay out of sight, you guys are my trump card and I don't need you revealing yourselves too early."

"Don't worry," Tatsumi repeated "we're assassins, remember?" He said before jumping out the window. Leone sat down on the stone rail, waving, and simply fell back. Alba sighed as the tension left his body. He more or less staggered over to the bed and fell face up on it. It was warm and inviting and…

Alba woke up suddenly at a murmuring sound in his ear. It was night now and Esdese had returned. He felt an unnatural draft and realized that she had undressed him and was now cupping him in her arms. He smiled and fell back asleep, knowing full well that he was now a target of the most powerful man in the world, but that it didn't matter. He had Esdese, and he was going to change the world.

Thanks for all of your support!

I know that my characters and their situations are starting to diverge from vanilla, but this far in I can't change anything'

What should Chelsea do? She's not alive long enough for me to learn enough about her to decide (She'll probably live here though)