Chapter 5

"...our impulses are too strong for our judgment sometimes"...

~Thomas Hardy Tess of the D'Ubervilles

Saint Giles Church
Near Bowes Castle
approximately 2130

…."Peter is a good friend of mine General, if he doesn't come out in five minutes...there won't be any explosions. You have less than that to come up with a plan in case that happens." Riddle looked straight into Amelia Bones' eyes and conveyed his sincerity. She immediately scrambled to come up with a contingency plan. While Petegrew was not his most trusted or even the best of his friends, he still had his invaluable animagus skill that has assisted his goals for decades now. There was no way he would give it up so easily just to satisfy his need for revenge...

Peter Petegrew scurried from shadow to shadow as his rat animagus planting sticks of C-4 explosives. His second excursion into the church was more harrowing than the first, at least it felt that way. Peter knew these people were highly dangerous, and felt that he was pressing his luck. But if he completed this task, it would make the full assault that much easier.

He sniffed the air and looked at his surroundings. He wandered into the lower floors of the compound when he caught a strong scent of blood. Squeezing under the door, Peter noticed a man strapped to a metal chair. Coagulated blood coated the floor around him and splattered parts of the walls.

When he looked at the prisoner's face, Peter almost lost the contents of his stomach. Pieces of flesh on the man's face were carved away in a grotesque fashion. Most notably, the right eyeball and most of the nose was missing. Quickly, Peter transformed back into a human long enough to plant an explosive, return to his rat form, and exit the cell.

Mission be damned, Peter was fully intent on making his way out of this house of death. He made up two floors before he ran into a problem. Several of the assassins were loitering in the stairway that Peter needed to go. Unfortunately for Peter, this area seemed like it was a normal hangout spot for this group. 'I don't have time for this', he thought.

********oooo********

"Sir, it's been three minutes past the detonation time. We need strike before we are compromised. There are too many boots on the ground for us not to be noticed for long." General Bones has stressed their position several times to the Emperor. She knew what it felt like to lose friends in battle, but for military purposes the mission always comes first.

"We need to give Peter more time", Riddle said.

"Emperor, if he has been caught, the more time we wait...the more time they have to get information about our assault. He hasn't moved at all from the spot on the map and he is surrounded by assassins. We need to launch sir."

Riddle never took his eyes off the church. 'Come on Peter.' He fully agreed with the General, but he also knew that having ground teams assault the compound will result in casualties. He was also thinking about political repercussions if this operation went bad.

'This is why politicians have no business on the battlefield', Bones thought tiredly.

"How airtight is your secondary plan?"

"I believe it will work. I'll run two entry teams on each opening and hopefully flush the targets into each other. I've had both teams up here getting familiar with the layout and what they need to do. Worst case scenario, being that it is so enclosed, is that we lose a team. In which case, the three back up teams will shoot whoever comes out. All personnel know to announce their exit, so we should be good."

Riddle exhaled hard, as if the decision caused him physical pain. "Very well, General. Send them in."

General Amelia Bones nodded and grabbed her microphone, "General to all units, be advised we are a go. Repeat, we are a go. Teams One and Two proceed to breach. Bring the wards up"

Bones immediately received two whispered acknowledgments from the team leaders and the five wizards casting the wards. Riddle, Lucius, and Bones watched the enchanted map of the compound and seen the names of the team members appear as they moved to their first obstacle.

One team moved up to the rear of the church and stacked up near the door of the crypt. "Team Two, in position."

The other team silently crept inside the church to the confession booth. Just like the other team, they stacked up at the entrance to the facility, "Team One, in position." Both teams were awaiting orders from General Bones to enter. She wanted an entry as silent as possible since the assassins appeared scattered throughout the five floors of their compound. As the teams went through the corridors, she would warn them on the radio and provide details about the size of the enemy force and their positions.

Amelia's radio squawked, "All wards are up General."

"Copy."

"Team One, no enemy contact behind the door. You are clear for silent entry. Re-stack at the stairs," Bones ordered.

Since she couldn't effectively watch two teams at once, Bones had Lucius issue orders to Team Two. "Team Two, same traffic. Secure the chamber beyond the door and await orders." Lucius said calmly.

Team One silently stepped through the doors of the confession booth. The wards having long been dismantled on both entrances by the missing Peter Petegrew. They moved quietly to their next checkpoint and called out their position as Team Two called, "all clear, standing by."

Team Two found themselves inside a circular chamber that had one corridor that sloped down to the third floor of the compound. It was under Father Jacobs quarters on the second floor where Team One was beginning to enter. On the map, Bones seen how the third floor had over a dozen different rooms with multiple corridors that spider webbed into a common area in the center.

"Team Two take up positions in the chamber and engage all approaching targets. Both teams, be advised that we still have a friendly within the compound, so be alert." Lucius made sure to inform the teams that Peter was still inside. Hopefully, the rat animagus wouldn't be dumb enough to run up to them as a human and get killed in friendly fire.

When Team Two whispered that they were in position, General Bones instructed her team to move up. "Team One, when you clear the steps, you will be entering the master's area. Remember the plan."

"Roger that command," he whispered.

"Very well, the map shows your target out in the open. Proceed down the stairs and engage."

"Copy, moving."

Team One descended the stairwell silently. As they stacked up and prepared themselves for the breach, the team leader pulled two flash bangs from his pouch and handed them the his point men. On his count of three, the two soldier pulled the pins and tossed them into the room, "FLASH BANG OUT", they shouted.

After two loud explosions, Team One swarmed the room looking for their target. Automatic weapons and wands alike searched within the smoke filled room as they cleared it and gravitated towards the two other entrances. "Command, room is clear. No target. Where is he?"

********oooo********

A few minutes prior...

Father Jacobs sat in his office area and rubbed his tired eyes. Reading was usually a good way to put him to sleep, but he had to fight through it and prepare for his upcoming sermon to the civilian masses. O'Connor had just left his office after reporting all of the useless information he gathered from the now deceased Mundungus Fletcher.

O'Connor left for a quick meal and said he would start on the man's grave and clean up the room. After reading the same passage three times, he gave up. Putting away his writing utensils, he stood up and stretched aching his back. Then the unthinkable happened. The secret ward he cast on a nondescript stone in his stairwell alerted him to the upcoming danger. His people never used that entrance, it was for him and him alone.

Casting a disillusion spell on himself, he knelt down and opened a trap door that lead out of his office. Once again, nobody knew of it but him. He paused at the hatch and waited to see just who the hell was trying to sneak up on him. He heard the shuffling of the tactical boots as they came down the steps. He heard the tinkering of the weapons as they stacked single file in the stairway. And before he dropped into his secret getaway and closed the hatch, he heard the men holler and the canisters hit the wall.

They were definitely under attack by a well organized enemy. 'I hope the others heard that', he thought.

Two loud 'whomps' followed immediately afterwards as he crawled to the opening above third floor. When he got to his destination, he once again heard the voices spreading out around the circular chamber near the rear exit. Gathering his throwing spikes and double checking his disillusionment spell , he counted the infiltrators and waited until they found their position before he dropped in on them.

********oooo********

"He's gone Team One, no target. Proceed into the facility," Bones said. Bewildered, she looked to Lucius and the Emperor, "where the hell he go? He just disappeared off the map."

"I don't know," Lucius said. "He still can't leave without us knowing about it. Those flash bangs stirred up a hornets nest though, we have a lot of movement down there."

Bones seen a few names approaching Team One and warned them about it. She also seen a few taking defensive positions within the corridors. Touching the button on her radio, she instructed her team, "get loud gentlemen, they know we're here."

"Copy, weapons free," the team leader responded. After clearing the spartan looking bedroom of Father Jacobs, the team left the office and descended to the third floor. Three young targets ran around a corner and stop dead in their tracks when they seen them.

Pop pop pop. "KRISTA", one of them hollered as they pulled the injured one back behind the corner. The third reached into his belt and threw a smoke pellet down to cover their retreat. As the main corridor filled with white smoke, Team One continued advancing. When they came to an intersection, they were met with their first casualty.

When their point man stopped, he motioned at the blood trail leading around the corner. When he looked back down the corridor ahead of them, a long knife penetrated his skull with a sickening 'whack'. As he dropped dead, all hell broke loose. The man behind him unloaded an entire magazine from his X-01 assault rifle as the magical behind him cast cutting curses.

"MOVE UP," the team leader hollered as Lucius tried to warn them about multiple contacts surrounding their position. Continuing forward, the team leader ordered the last three soldiers to walk backwards as rear security. He was about to order a magical to create a physical barrier to protect their "six" when the stone wall of the corridor they had just passed slid open.

A thunderous roar echoed all around them as a large assassin emerged between them wielding two swords. The first man wasn't able to lift his rifle fast enough as his throat was neatly sliced open. A smaller magical soldier cast a quick Diffindo at the large man's head, but it wasn't strong enough causing only a minor gash. When the third man shot his first round at the assailant, the wizard soldier's head came clean off and twirled to the deck.

Another burst put the burly assassin to his knees. One of his weapons clattered to the ground as he held himself in a kneeling position with the other. Suddenly, despite his wounds, the assassin slung his remaining sword at them. The remaining soldier for the team's rear security leaned to the side as the blade sailed past him. Right away, he unloaded another burst into the assassin that dropped him to the ground permanently.

"Target down", the relieved soldier said as he cast a glance at his team leader. Only, the team leader was dead. Pinned to the stone wall by the assassin's sword that stuck out of his chest. The soldier panicked slightly as he keyed up his radio, "Command, team lead and three others are KIA. Our squad has been cut down to four. Advise!"

Bones was frantic, her secondary plan was going to shit. 'We should've blown the place sky high', she thought. "Team One, you are surrounded, over. I want Burns in the rear to conjure a shield to block physical objects. Lay down suppressing fire until you..."

Bones stopped, a name on the map rapidly made it's way toward Team One. "Team One, contact front", she said. Muffled sounds of "where" and "I don't see anything" came across the radio. "OPEN FIRE", she said elevating her voice.

Gunfire rang out in the hallway and blindly whizzed down the corridor. Burns, the team's last remaining wizard, cast an Aguamenti spell thinking the attacker was under a disillusionment spell. The torrent of water had the force of a fire hose and soaked the corridor from the chest down. Unfortunately for them, he didn't aim the water towards the ceiling.

General Bones watched as the name O'Connor continued to make a beeline at the remnants of Team One. "He's right in front of you! Seven meters and closing...Five...Three...Oh god!"

O'Connor, using partial transfiguration, clawed his way towards the remaining team members like a rabid chameleon. Only his hands and feet were transformed as he pressed his body as close to the ceiling as possible. Luckily for him, he made the distance unharmed and dropped in on the panicked special forces group.

General Bones watched the names of the team disappear from the map and heard the screams of her dying soldiers. Lucius appeared to be having a similar issue. "Team Two, what's going on? Report!"

********oooo********

Father Jacobs steeled his nerves, and took a deep breath as he prepared to drop from the concealed trap door above Team Two. Sitting above them, he picked out the magical users from the group and targeted them first. With six spikes in each hand and nearly invisible from the disillusion spell, he dropped to the deck of the chamber.

He landed lightly and expertly threw his throwing spikes into the unsuspecting wizards. Before they hit the ground, Jacobs had grabbed a nearby invader from behind and slit his throat. He held the dying man as a human shield and took control of his MP-7. He squeezed the trigger and unleashed three quick bursts before ducking and rolling away.

The startled soldiers turned to where the shots came from and fired at their comrade as his carcass hit the ground. They didn't see the outline of the invisible assassin as he ducked away. The two remaining soldiers looked around desperately for a target. From the corner of his eyes, one soldier saw an outline of a person a split second too late.

The expert assassin slashed his knife at the invader's neck just as he brought up his rifle. Blood spurted out of his artery as Jacobs spun around him stuck the last soldier in the chest. Jacobs let the last two soldiers fall to ground to die. While they did, he listened for any stragglers or reinforcements that could be en route.

For a few seconds, the only sound was that of shallow, dying breaths. Then slowly, the twitching of the dying soldiers stopped.

Satisfied, Father Jacobs ran back into the compound to check on his people. Halfway down the slope, he met with O'Connor, "these guys got top of the line shit Father. Government issued even."

"Yeah, so it seems. What's our casualty rate?"

"Don't know for sure, maybe a quarter of them are injured. Half of that are dead. I know Krista and Peter are gone. Has Harry or Davin returned?"

"No, they're still out."

"So what's the plan? You know there's more somewhere."

Father Jacobs thought for a second. For the enemy to know about both of their entrances, there had to either be a spy or a traitor. "Get everybody to the chamber and we'll go from there."

O'Connor nodded in understanding and took off to pass the word.

********oooo********

"Shit, we lost both teams," Bones said.

"I thought you said this plan was good to go General", Riddle asked her heatedly.

"Obviously, they are more skilled than we gave them credit for Emperor."

Tom Riddle was pissed. They had the assassins pinned against the wall and blew it. He knew that if they came out into the open, the rest of his men would be hard pressed to finish the mission. This needed to be taken care of right now.

He looked at Lucius, "I want everybody focusing on the crypt entrance. Re-deploy your troops accordingly General." Riddle took off his thousand galleon blazer jacket and laid it on the back of a nearby chair. He walked out the door rolling up the sleeves of his white button down shirt and grabbed his wand. Walking to the front of the church, he watched as his troops began scattering to new positions. Caught up in his anger, the Emperor barely heard General Bones frantically obey his order from his ear piece.

Lucius knew better than to question the man that has made him rich and powerful. He quietly posted himself near Bella, wand at the ready. "We're going to see a show, aren't we," she asked.

"I don't know what he is doing, he didn't say anything other than focus on this entrance."

"Shit", Bella said under her breath. She raised her wand and conjured a few barriers for cover. "I think we might need this," she told Lucius.

"I think I need a drink", he remarked jokingly.

Tom stepped in front of the church, he let his rage fuel his focus and intent. He raised his arms to shoulder level and concentrated on his magic. Not even a second later, he slowly pulled them into his chest as if they were being restrained. The air around him became atomically charged as Tom nursed the harnessed magic around his body.

Lucius and Bella could feel magic leech towards their friend and Emperor, but they could not see him from their position behind the church. But, they knew well enough to get to cover.

What seemed like five minutes to Tom was actually only a few seconds to the onlookers. The strain of containing the magic was getting difficult, but not unmanageable. Tom looked back to church with hate filled eyes, he bent over slightly and screamed a war cry. He thrust his arms outward to his sides and erected his back, unable to contain the magic anymore.

St. Giles Church, the surrounding trees, and the old graves erupted. The ground shook hard enough for it to register as a four point five earthquake. Debris from the church (wood, brick, steel and earth), peeled away in layers so fast that it disintegrated almost on contact. The smell of ozone permeated the air within the confines of the wards as the rumbling continued to rattle the bones of the nearby spectators. Everything had shot into the sky as if the Earth jumped away from the compound; too scared to be in contact with it.

As Bella raised her head and cleared her vision, she looked at the damage wrought by her friend. A fifty yard section, from the street to just past the church was obliterated. As if an artist just gouged it away. Instead, he replaced it with a painting of a twisted winter blizzard in sickening gray hues. The ash fell like frenzied snow within the wards and started to build up on the ground. Her hand went to her mouth in shock and surprise at the devastation, but as they touched her lips, she received a slight shock. The air was still charged with static electricity.

Even though there was nothing left of the facility or the shrubbery, dust and ash still swirled around the area begging to settle down. Sirens could be heard in the distance, the nearby muggles must have called them thinking a gas line exploded. The soldiers within the wards took a few minutes to regain their bearings as their ears slowly stopped ringing.

Standing in the same spot, unaffected by any of the side effects from the devastation he caused, was Tom Riddle. Looking every bit as an angel of death, his mind continued to rage from the betrayal of the assassins to the assumed death of his friend Peter. He touched his wand to the palm of his left hand and created a small flame. Gradually, Tom swirled his wand over the fire making it bigger and bigger. As it touched the ground, he whispered a spell and concentrated with all of his might.

The thin four foot rope of fire began to rapidly flicker and expand. The larger it became the more it seemed to be writhing in protest. It looked as if the Emperor had pulled a demon straight from the bowels of hell, but such acts were impossible to achieve. The raging inferno started to take the shape of a giant serpent.

Bella, awed by the display of magic, whispered the name of the insanely difficult spell, "Fiendfyre". She could feel the heat fifty meters from the fire serpent while it consumed the air within the wards. She watched as Tom spoke in a low, yet commanding voice, before it sped into the underground complex.

Tendrils of flame continually spewed from the opening. The ground beneath them rumbled as it consumed everything in it's path. Corridor by corridor, room by room it traveled hungrily. The fire serpent consumed all and left nothing but ash in it's wake.

********oooo********

Peter crawled out from under the crevice of a stone wall. He seen the teams enter and shoot anything that moved. 'This plan has gone to hell', he thought disturbed. He quietly made his way to the rear entrance, positive that he could escape the snipers as he exited the crypt.

Slowly, he traveled down the hall to where his exit was. He had to stop several times due to passing assassins going in the same direction. He even had to hide in the wounds of a dying team member as a man covered in blood ran past hollering for his companions. Panic started to creep in, he scurried down the hall leaving small footprints of blood.

Before he came to the corner to where his salvation lied, he felt the air within the compound get sucked out. It seemed as if it was being pulled back into the compound. Making it difficult to supply oxygen to his already overworked lungs. A deafening roar was moving within the walls. The sound slowly became all encompassing, especially to his little rodent ears. The heat of the corridor steadily rose to alarming degrees.

Peter panicked. Desperation kicked in; he had to escape. Peter took the chance and transformed back into his human form. Sweat instantly poured down his forehead. His breathing became erratic. His sweaty palms grabbed for his wand as he turned the corner to the path leading to the crypt. He could feel the fire tasting his flesh as if it were toying with him. Peter turned the corner and prepared himself to run for everything he was worth.

Only to stop mid step. The remaining assassins took up residence in the slope leading outside. He brought up his shield and ran back to the corner as spell fire blasted the stone near him. He was trapped. He tried to think of what to do. But nothing came to mind. There were no cracks in the wall, no holes in the floor, no doorways to go under. Trapped... like a rat as it were.

Then, like a switch being turned, Peter had a moment of clarity. He knew that he wouldn't make it out alive. He resided himself with the fact. Pulling the detonator out of his pocket, he took his last deep breath.

********oooo********

Tom and all of his invading troops were lifted off their feet from the explosions underground. Just as swiftly as they raised up off the ground, all persons standing over the compound dropped several feet below the normal level. Dust and lingering ash from Tom's disintegration of the above ground church spewed into the air. Visibility was reduced to almost nothing as the assaulting SpecOps force choked and coughed.

Hollowed screams could be heard from the crypt as smoke billowed out of the entrance. Tom's Fiendfyre fizzled out when his concentration was interrupted when he hit the ground. But the small fires within and around the complex continued to burn as tribute to the great fire serpent.

Tom's ears rang from the explosion. He stood on shaky legs and forced the cobwebs out of his head. He inhaled a deep lungful of dust and coughed loudly. A swipe of his arm and the offending debris swirled before forcefully being sucked back to the ground. When his desire for air eased, he realized what must have happened. Peter was alive, or at least he was. Why they couldn't find him on the map as the teams were being slaughtered, he did not know.

He didn't weep for his friend. He didn't even feel much sorrow for his death. Tom did feel guilty though. Not for Peter's death, but for his actions. He let the situation overcome his judgment. Peter's name didn't disappear from the map until they sent in the teams. Maybe, if he had waited for a bit longer, he would have made it out and he wouldn't have lost Peter's most valuable skill.

Tom half staggered towards Bella and Lucius. His spell to clean the air helped everybody immensely. Then they heard several pops followed by a maniacal whizzing noise. A split second later, they heard the unmistakable echo of gunshots. In Tom's peripheral vision, he seen a person drop that was near the crypt entrance.

'Survivors', Tom thought questioningly. A group of assassins, struggling for fresh air, dropped dead as the back of their heads exploded when they lurched out of the entrance. All seemed quiet for a minute, then another group ran out fully intent on fighting.

The first person held a physical barrier while the others fanned out screaming bloody murder. Spell and automatic rifle fire lit up the night in a chaotic symphony. The assassins formed a tight perimeter, half on defense the other casting fire and explosive hexes. They slowly move back to where the church used to be. The remaining three teams furiously kept adjusting to keep them in a cross fire.

"THEY'RE TRYING TO ESCAPE FROM THE WARDS", Bella screamed. She cast spell after spell in an attempt to stall the assassin's progress. Lucius stood by her side trying to cast spells with his off hand since the bone in his other arm poked out. Team members littered the ground around them bleeding out.

Tom Riddle, worn out and bleeding from the explosion, watched as his well laid plan went down the shitter. 'This can't be happening', he thought. His brain was still in a fog, he shook his head and fought off a wave a nausea. Bella's scream sent jolts down his spine and pressed him towards action. 'They can't be allowed to escape!'

Digging deep within himself, Tom cast the killing curse at an assassin holding up a magical shield. His spell rocketed towards it's target with incredible velocity. Before an assassin could levitate an object to block it, the spell hit it's mark. The dead wizard's body was violently pushed into another assassin that was preforming a solid object shield to stop the lead projectiles.

Bullets rained within the assassin's formation, killing half of their numbers before another set of shields went up. The group tried to move faster to escape the anti apparition wards, leaving their dead and wounded behind. Tom cast another Avada Kedavra and hoped for the same results as the last one. Unfortunately for him, it hit a large piece of debris that exploded on contact. The force of the blast staggered some of his group, but didn't physically harm them due to the solid object shield.

Tom thought of another way to at least slow down his quarry. 'Inertia', Tom thought, 'the physical shields do not stop the force of the blast.' Dodging several spells, he took aim a few meters behind the assassin's perimeter and cast several explosion hexes is quick succession.

Once again, they were saved from the debris that ricocheted off their shields. However, the force of the blasts knocked them all off their feet. An older male assassin held the physical barrier shield up while the magical one collapsed almost instantly. Spell fire rained into the retreating assassins giving Tom Riddle the surety he was looking for. The battle was almost over. Even though they lost more than half of their original number, they still succeeded.

********oooo********

Father Jacobs fell to one knee when Tom's explosion hexes hit the ground around them. Maintaining the shield to stop the rifle fire was paramount in his eyes. Spells could be avoided or blocked, but stopping what seemed like a thousand rounds coming at them would give them a chance.

His ears rang, the burns he sustained from the Fiendfyre hurt terribly along with the bullet wound on the right side of his abdomen. His mind swam in and out, his vision alternating from clear to blurry constantly. But his shield held.

Gathering what strength he could, he cast a wandless magical shield with his other hand. The strain of holding both spells didn't help his condition any, but with a feeble hope, his hoarse, pain filled voice begged his family to go to safety. Even if it was only delaying the inevitable, he didn't want to give up on their escape. Only, there was no escape.

Thoughts of his fallen brothers and sisters crept into his mind as he looked around. He seen a young man, whom he had trained since he was a toddler, cut almost in half by simultaneous severing charms. Jacobs looked around and seen similar cases all around him. Blood, limbs, and internal organs littered the area of their last stand. 'An Avada Kedavra would have been more humane', he thought morbidly.

His attention was turned to a scream he heard to his left. Looking over, he once again witnessed the futility of fighting back. His brother, O'Connor, screamed louder when he became the victim of an Incendio spell that set him completely alight with angry flames. The smell of burnt flesh wafted over Father Jacob's nostrils and nearly caused him to retch.

He had to look away, he couldn't take the sight of his family suffering in such a way. His gaze turned in the other direction to see Michael, the last remaining antagonist of Harry and Davin, furiously sending spells and bladed weapons at as many opponents as he could find. Even after he received bullet wounds and cutting hexes from his foes, he still fought on like a man possessed. Father Jacobs had never been so proud of the man.

One of Michael's legs were blown out from under him, but still he fought on. A bullet grazed his head and another punctured his chest, but still he fought on. He threw a knife at a platinum blonde wizard that caught him in the shoulder. A cutting spell decapitated a black ops team member.

Pop. Another round found it's mark on Michael. For Father Jacobs, the whole scene played out in slow motion. Rolling and twirling with his remaining leg, Michael's movements became sluggish as the effects of blood loss took it's toll. The second he slowed down to catch his breath, Father Jacobs watched part of his pupil's head disappear. He could have sworn that he heard the sniper rifle's echo above all the other guns that were shooting.

Despair permanently set in. Kneeling, exhausted, in pain and half in tears...Father Jacobs released the shields he had been holding. He prayed for a quick death. Not in fear of the pain that he was about to receive, but to relinquish the pain of being without the only family he had ever known. The longer he survived, the greater that pain had become.

His wish was granted by a man he recognized as Tom Riddle. The good Father didn't feel his death blow. He even smiled in Tom's face as his heart was expunged out the back of his spine.

********oooo********

It amazed Tom how eerily quiet the night became after he sent the last remaining assassin's heart out through his back. He suddenly wished he hadn't when he seen the smirk on the man's face. The feeling of satisfaction he wanted for winning the difficult battle now eluded him. The mental picture of that bastard smirking at his defeat remained at the forefront of Tom's mind.

So much so that he didn't hear Bella tell him about Lucius' condition and expected survival from his wounds. For a moment, he seemed broken. 'How dare he smile', Tom thought. 'Was he happy about the difficulty of the mission, the losses Tom suffered, or was the man in so much pain that he became delusional?'

Bella shook his arm to get his attention, thankfully snapping him out of his funk. "Are you alright Emperor?"

"Yes Bella dear, I'm just glad it's over", he said tiredly.

"Your not hurt are you? I'll fetch a healer just in case", Bella said with rising panic. But Tom placated her with, "No no, I am fine. Not even a scratch. Just tired."

"With the magic you commanded, I can only imagine Emperor. You are the reason why we won! Even when we had them pinned in a crossfire, they were still picking us off left and right. Bones has the casualty report," Bella stuttered, "it's not good."

"Actually", General Bones said walking up to the pair, "they are far worse than that. As you already know, Teams One and Two are K.I.A, that's sixteen dead. Out of the three teams of ten, we lost a collective amount of seventeen. There were a few magical casualties that brings our dead to a total of thirty-six. As far as injuries go, I think it would be fair to say that everybody else has an injury...other than you apparently Emperor."

The news of all his dead soldiers amplified Tom's feeling of loss. There was no victory here. Thirty-six soldiers dead, Peter among them and everybody injured; except him. 'Vengeance has it's price', Tom thought.

"Forgive me, General", Tom Riddle said sullenly.

"For what sir", Bones asked perplexed.

"If I had known that we would lose Peter anyway, I would have given the order to blow the C-4. I let my anger get the better of me...and our people paid the price for it."

A look of realization hit Bones like a ton of bricks. She tried her best to school her features to hide the look of surprise on her face. At first, she was only going to nod her head in response but seeing the look on the Emperor's face made her think better of it.

"We can second guess ourselves for years to come Emperor. We did what we had to do with the information we had at the time."

Tom, of course, knew that decisions could be second guessed and picked apart. Hearing Bones say it brought him out of his 'funk'. "I'm going to leave this to you two. Bring down the wards and go through the complex. I'm sure there are citizens and reporters waiting to know what happened. Just do me a favor and leave the battlefield as it is. Let it be a reminder to all of Britain that treason will not be tolerated."

Amelia Bones knew Tom wanted the newspaper to report this battle as treason when he emphasized the word. These assassins would be fuel to the Emperor's movement of unity within the country. While they, muggles and magicals, have lived side by side for a few years now, they were still far from the "utopia" Tom Riddle claimed to take them. Mostly because of the muggles and magicals fighting 'tit for tat'. Muggle baiting would piss off the muggle population and they would retaliate by beating up a magical.

Tired of their 'bullshit', as Tom called it, he issued an order that labeled such acts as treason. "We need to come together", he would say. Or better yet, "we need to overlook our petty differences and be more tolerant of each other."

Amelia was all for the new world. While she wouldn't label petty differences as traitorous acts, if it got the population's head out of their ass, so be it.

"It will be done Emperor. I'll also make sure they know of the sacrifice Peter and our men have suffered", General Bones said softly.

Satisfied, Tom nodded his head, "very well", and apparated home.