To say Saito was in a good mood would be in question. On one hand, he was spending a nice evening at a local tavern and just taking in the atmosphere of calmness. On the other hand, he was no closer to getting to the Pope and what was in his mind. Saito wasn't a heavy drinker so the most mugs he had was two and that was enough for him, the young man knew the night was going to be very hectic it things went how he wanted. He sat in a corner of the tavern.

"Partner, what is the plan now?" Derf asked his master who was thinking the same thing.

"Lets see… we need to get to the Pope place first and maybe sneak in through any vents, that is if there are any in this place." Saito responded as he sipped his second mug of alcohol. He never really liked the taste but for some reason, water wasn't available here.

"You are hiding something, you want to do more don't you?"

"Honestly?"

"How can I trust you if you don't me?"

"Fair enough… I was thinking, if I find out more than what is deemed good, we kill the man. You probably see the problems with that already don't you."

"Julio will be one, along with that, assassinations are not the easiest thing to pull off and since we need to fly the plane back, the higher ups will thing our country did it if they see it at the same time." Derf said in the mind of his master who nodded in agreement.

"There has to be an organization in the area who would gladly take the responsibility, terrorist maybe?" Saito though as he knew about his home world's example of terrorist in the Middle East but that is questionable at best. "Excuse me sir." Saito said to a waiter like man who was giving drinks out.

"Yes sir, what may I get you tonight?"

"Actually, I'm new to this city and was wondering if there were any people who hated this government, you know, like the one's in the other countries going on?" Saito knew he was taking a huge risk but if he got what he wanted it would be a good payoff.

"Well… there is one but I only know their symbol but not the name." The man in front of the hooded Saito said which was perfect.

"Could you show me the symbol so I could avoid them?"

"Of course!" He said as the man grabbed a piece of parchment and drew a circle with what appeared to be a bear's footprint in the circle. "Here you go, I hope it helps."

"Poor guy, I feel bad doing this to him." "That will be all, thank you, I must be going now." Saito said as he rose from his seat and put the paper in his pocket. He walked out of the building and saw what he assumed would be the Pope's home. It took about twenty minutes of going from crowd to crowd to avoid the looks of the guards who were still on high alert for the assassin for him to reach a bridge that stretched over a river and to the huge building. All over the bridge crawled guard upon guard and no crowd was going in or out so he couldn't blend in. "Any ideas Derf?"

"You see those poles sticking out of the water on the right side of the bridge?" Saito looked to the right of the bridge and indeed there were wooden poles sticking out of the water.

"What the hell do you think me for, an athletic jumper, there is no way I will be able to jump from one to another without landing into the water." Saito said moving to the edge of the bridge on his side.

"Tell me, you see any other way to get inside?" Derf made in point known, there was no other option for Saito as he submitted to the idea. He leaned his back to the wall to look casual and as soon as the guards looked away from his direction, he flipped his body backwards and landed on a pole. He jumped and overestimated his distances so he put his hand on the pole he was jumping over and pushed himself up to gain more distance and landed on the second. He continued this approach until he reached a support in the middle of the bridge which had stone sticking out. He observed his next few jumps and proceed to land on each one and finally reached the end as he grabbed a hold of the edging to the opposite side of the bridge he was looking at just a minute ago. He decided that it was best to wait an hour for the sun to set and have darkness be his ally in the infiltration.

Darkness filled the air and space of the people of the city. Saito woke himself up from his little nap and the sun had set and the moon shined down on the planet side. Saito pulled himself up and ran to a side of the walling. He knew the guards were changing shifts and any ground he could gain now would be valuable. He entered through the gate and saw a stable with a horse in it. Saito made a mental note to this and proceeded to the next gate but chatter was getting louder and without thinking, he jumped into a bale of hay which was in front of the horse. Said horse gave a look a horse would give and continued doing whatever it was doing. From all the chatter, Saito could tell his sword was going be a bad idea is a guard checked on any place he was hiding.

"I swear, what I would give for a hidden blade right now."

"A hidden blade?"

"Sorry, just something from a video game I used to play." Saito chuckled as he knew he was literally using things from the series such as the bale of hay. The guards that entered through the gate had left and only one was patrolling the area which Saito bypassed. Going through the gate, he saw a curving staircase which ran along the body of a tall tower like structure which stood in the middle. Saito ran to the door as he was surprise the door was unlocked. He opened it and saw a guard standing in the opposite direction from him. Saito drew his sword and thrusted it into the poor guy's back while placing his other hand over his mouth to prevent any screams. Seconds later, the guard died on duty and Saito closed his eyes and rolled him under a table.

"Was that necessary Partner?"

"With all the noise I would have made, it was necessary, that doesn't mean I enjoyed it what so over." Saito answered his sword and saw a very large vent like structure sticking out of the wall as he could literally walk right into it. Doing such thing, he continued to move from vent lane to vent lane, following Derf's instructions to guide his to the source of the Void magic. As Saito took a right, He could hear what the Pope was thinking.

"Saito Hiraga, that man will definitely be a problem in the future. Perhaps I could have assassins deal with him to weaken their country. Henrietta will no doubt submit to my ideas with her husband gone and not knowing what is right for her people when it was her husband who took lead." The thoughts of the Pope entered the mind of Saito as emotions began to form up.

"He plans to kill me off to get Tristain to fight against the revolters. How the hell does he plan to not only get to me but also get Henrietta to say yes to it. Even if I die, she is still a strong enough woman to say no." Saito whispered to his sword as the link between the two would surely be heard by the Pope as well.

"Agreed, I think this is the setting up for an armed conflict Partner." Derf responded as knocking was heard from the door as a man who appeared to be of high command entered the room.

"What is the meaning of this?" The Pope asked as the man stood in attention.

"Forgive me your holiness, but one of our men was found dead at the entrance of your tower sir." The man said as the Pope's eyes widened.

"You think the assassin is in this building?"

"Yes, but the hole made by the person was not from a dagger or small weapon, it was a large one which seemed to be from two-handed sword. Not only that but our mages say it was from a magical weapon with void magic" At hearing the last part, Saito knew he was in trouble. The Pope was informed that he might be in the castle and he was in said building, escaping without blowing his cover would be near impossible. Saito began to sweat bullets on what to do.

"A Void weapon you say, either that means Louise is here or King Saito has infiltrated the building." The Pope wasn't an idiot, he knew something was up from the morning event being interrupted.

"Sir, what are your orders?"

"Lock down the building, no one is let in or out without getting fully searched and ID checked."

"Dammit Derf, what should we do now?" Saito asked knowing he was running out of time.

"Drop the picture and run like hell to that horse and make your way to the plane." Derf told him as he pulled out the picture and dropped in through the vent to the Pope's sight. Saito wasted no time and ran down the vent going backwards until he reached the door he entered the vent through. "Don't leave any of them standing; otherwise they will see me or you!" Derf ordered as Saito broke down the door and stabbed the first armored person he saw in the upper back which went through his heart. Saito pulled the sword out and held his hand out and shot a fireball from his hand which missed the majority of targets but got a few nonetheless. With the remainder, he chopped of one head, stabbed a man in the knee and the stomach, and stab in the head for the final guard in the room. Saito destroyed the main door to the courtyard where about fifty men were stationed. He saw the horse was still there to his relief as he jumped in the railing to the steps and landed on top of the back guard's head which resulted in his skull being crushed. Every man turned around to see the boy who just jumped about one hundred feet from the steps to a man's head jump onto a horse.

"See ya assholes!" Saito shouted as the horse stood on its two back legs and galloped through the final gate and onto the bridge where everyone was wondering what in the absolute hell is going on. The question was answered but Saito chopping the first guards head clean from his shoulders which told everyone that whoever it was is very determined in escaping.

"Assassin, it's the assassin!" A poor woman shouted in complete fear as Saito was heading in her direction. At the last second, Saito was able to move to the right and dodge the woman. This practice of dodging citizens and killing anyone who dared to get in his way continued as Saito reached a bridge that separated the entrance of the city and the outside world. The only problem was that standing between Saito and said freedom was a spear wall which meant he could not get through by horse. Saito stopped a good fifty feet away from them to assess the situation.

"Behind you." Derf told his owner who turned his head and saw another spear wall was behind him. The young man was trapped between two walls of spears and a river that was more than willing to drown him.

"Think, think, think…" Saito muttered under his breath looking at the guards to his front and saw the building to there left was pretty low. Not waiting another moment, He charged at the wall of spears who readied themselves. What happened is Saito stood up on the horse and at the last second before the horse would be in range of the spears, he jumped onto the building which hugged the wall that connected the city. He then jumped down from the wall of the city and rolled to relief some of the falling impact. He then took his right index and put a tremendous amount of energy into it and shot a lightning bolt at the top of the arch at the front entrance and rubble fell from the top which prevented anyone from chancing after him from the amount of rubble. Saito took this opportunity to run to the west where his plane was still in hiding. He threw his sword who muttered in pain from being chucked in like he was junk and Saito jumped into the cockpit and turned the plane and in a few seconds the plane was moving and the two were in the air.

"That wasn't necessary to toss me partner." Derf said as Saito gave a sigh of relief from escaping what appeared to be sure capture.

"Sorry, caught up in the moment, I'll give you a good polishing when we get home, how does that sound?"

"I will hold you to that partner." Derf said as the two chuckled. They were one moment running from sure capture and toture and now are talking about polishing his sword.

Author's Notes – I have decided on who will get the honor of being Marie's boyfriend and future king. I must say, it was between two choices but I believe I made the right choice in the end.