Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Rosario Vampire. I am merely twisting the creator's vision into my own dream. If the supernatural, sexuality, or violence is offensive to you, than you should not read this.

Chapter 264

Moka was glad to get back to Japan. Being summoned to Lord Gray's court was a part of the price of holding a title, and she accepted that. What she didn't like was leaving Tsukune's side. Her most recent trip, while not as frustrating as her week listening to arguing gnomes, and not been a pleasant one.

The reason Lord Gray had called summoned his court was to have them witness his handling on the dregs of Fairy Tail. It was a political move to demonstrate his power to those under him, and to show any rivals or allies that he had the power to hold his territory and enforce his will. By holding public hearings of the Fairy Tail members that had been captured in his territory, Lord Gray was proving his fitness for his title.

From the opening of the hearing, Moka had thought she knew what to expect. The woman that had been marched into the hall in front of Lord Gray and his court had been in rags and shackles. As she was brought forward, a man in dark wool suit had read a list of charges. The woman was accused of being a spy for Fairy Tail and preying upon humans. The woman was given a chance to speak in her own defense, and to name anybody she might think could in some way vouch for her innocence in the charges listed.

"I was just minding my own affairs I was," The woman had started out calm and defiant. But the longer she talked the more nervous an desperate she became.

The woman was a kind of leach. She appeared old and ugly and homeless so she could upset people when she confronted them. She was like a distant cousin to a succubus, drawing whatever scraps of negative energy she could, usually by frightening them, or if they were weaker than her, by hurting them. She had been captured while beating on a homeless old man under a freeway bridge with a stick.

It turned out that the woman had been caught before. The first time she had been switched. The second time she had been branded and then expelled from Lord Gray's territory.

"My law is clear," Lord Brone spoke in a firm voice. "You may only prey upon the willing. This is your third violation of the law, and there will be no forgiveness for you. In addition to violating the law, you have allied yourself with the enemies of this court. Your life is forfeit."

The old woman had been reduced to begging and pleading for her life. When someone dressed all in black, wearing a black hood, approached holding a long spike, the woman started giving up every scrap of information she had about Fairy Tail and its members. When she finally ran out of information to offer, she just whimpered as the executioner held her head with one gloved hand, and held the tip of the spike to her eyelid with the other.

"You have given testimony against Fairy Tail," Brone spoke up. "In return we will grant you a merciful sleep."

Another servant approached, also dressed in back head to toe. This one offered the old woman an iron cup. She looked at the cup and shuddered.

"Any last words?" Brone asked.

"I thank m'lord for his... his mercy," The woman said. She lifted her shackled hands to take the cup. Whatever was in it she drank it down in three gulps. The servant took the cup as the woman gave a sigh and went limp. The executioner let her fall to the floor, dead.

From there the week was a long series of hearings. It was clear that the ones that the old leach woman had named had already been rounded up. Her testimony had simply added to the cases against them. Four more were granted an easy death from the iron cup. The executioner used his spike on two. The next four were beheaded. The last three cases wrapped everything up.

Moka had thought that she was capable shrugging off the darker parts of the world into which she had been born. That week made her glad that Tsukune had shown here that she did not have to accept that world as her only choice. The men and women that she saw put to death had all been willing to make others suffer for their own benefit. Their crimes included rape, murder, and enslavement of humans and even other youkai. All of them were connected to Fairy Tail.

It was clear that Lord Gray was doing more than just cleaning up Fairy Tail members. Each day the prisoners were accused of greater crimes and greater involvement with the shattered organization. On that last day of the hearings, a man was brought in, chained to a heavy beam that was laid across his shoulders. The men who brought him in were dressed in fine suits and radiated power and confidence. As soon as she saw them, Moka knew they were vampires of strong bloodlines.

The one in chains had a defiant look on his face as he walked into the hall. Guards came out of the shadows to escort him and his companions to stand in front of Lord Gray. The man in the wool suit read off the charges as the prisoner approached. He was accused of multiple murders, and with being a senior office of Fairy Tail. When given his turn to speak, the man proudly admitted to his own guilt.

Moka was surprised by what happened next. Lord Brone stepped down from his throne and approached the prisoner. An attendant moved in his wake, carrying a try that held a long casket shaped box and a knife with a long, narrow blade.

"You have sided with those that seek to do evil," Brone said. "But you manage to hold on to some shred of loyalty. For you there will be mercy." He reached out and took the long knife from the tray. "May you face justice in the halls of judgment." He stabbed prisoner in the heart and pulled the knife free before the condemned man could fall. The force of the strike was enough to make him fall backwards.

Brone's next move was an even bigger surprise. He threw the knife with enough force that it stuck into the stone floor. A light sprang up from the knife and lines spread out across the floor from it. In an instant a circle of blue-black fire filled with twisted characters covered a section of the floor. Within that section of the floor stood Lord Gray, his attendant, and the two men that had brought the prisoner.

"What is the meaning of this?" The older of the two men demanded. "This is treachery." The blue-black flames had spread up over the man, shackling him in place. He could move, but only a few inches in any direction.

Brone moved calmly, as if he had all the time in the world. He opened the casket on the attendants tray and pulled out a cloth wrapped bundle. As soon as he removed the glyph embroidered wrapping, Moka wished that he hadn't.

"Just as loyalty should be rewarded," Brone said. "So should betrayal be punished." He turned to the younger of the two vampires he had trapped. "You willingly brought your companion here to die. You were his equal in Fairy Tail, and his partner in many crimes, yet you thought to sacrifice him to hide your own sins. Even as I know you would betray your master if you thought it would save you now."

Brone held up the knife he had unwrapped. It was a hideous thing, with a yellow, waxy, wet looking, blade. As soon as it had been unwrapped, Moka had felt the knife's presence. It was like a rancid oil that tainted the air, and a sour note that grated on the ears. As soon as she saw the knife, Moka wanted to hide from it, at the same time she wanted to see it thrown into a fire and burned. Brone put the flat of the blade against the trapped vampire's neck.

"Stop!" The vampire was clearly frightened of the knife. He tried to pull back from it as his eyes went wide with terror.

"You would betray your master to escape this," Brone said. It was a statement of fact and not a question. "You would, if you could, betray anyone to save yourself from this death."

"Yes!" The vampire cried out. "Yes! I was following orders. It was my master's idea. He made me do it. He made me, I swear."

"And so you prove yourself to be a betrayer," Brone said. "And so you will be rewarded."

It was a gruesome death. Brone twisted the knife so the edge was to the vampire's neck. With a flick of the wrist he cut the throat open, the edges of the cut blackened instantly. There was no bleeding, just a deep black gash. The vampire convulsed and fell to the floor. He could not yell or even moan, because his air no longer reached his vocal cords. Likewise, his arteries had also been cut, so his brain would soon die, taking the rest of the body with it.

"Lord Stelarnox," Brone addressed the vampire he held trapped. "It is time for you and I to conclude our business."

Moka barely managed to contain a gasp of surprise. The Vampire Lord was one of the oldest known. The Star of Darkness, was an Elder Vampyre. He was the kind of vampire, if not the vampire, that had inspired most of the frightening stories about their kind in the western world. He was every bit as much of a true demon as he was a human, and Lord Gray was holding him trapped with a binding spell the likes of which she had never seen.

"You would dare to threaten me?" Lord Stelarnox demanded. "You would violate the treaties you have sworn to support? Is your petty lust so important to you that you would destroy yourself?"

"You misunderstand, Lord of Nothing," Brone sneered. "I have declared war on Fairy Tail, and sworn I would see it destroyed. You have used that organization as your personal amusement, supporting and guiding it for sport. In doing so, you have broken every treaty to which I have signed. Your every breath has been a lie. Even your own servants, whom you were willing to sacrifice, were ready to denounce you when they saw you could not protect them." Brone held up the living, twisted knife in a threatening gesture. "Now it is your turn."

"You do not have the fortitude," The elder vampire declared. "The moment you attempt to harm me, you will make enemies of my allies, and together we will destroy you."

"You have no allies," Brone said. "You betrayed each and every one of them. When you fall, they will descend on your holdings like a pack of hyenas, laughing at your memory as they take what they want."

"You don't fool me," The trapped vampire blustered. "I know what you want. And angering me will make it impossible."

"I am not as petty or as simple as you are," Brone said with a shake of his head.

"Release me now," Lord Stelarnox demanded. "Or I will have her killed."

"You would kill your own wife?" Brone asked with a smirk. "Just because you think it would benefit you in some way?"

"I would do it just to spite you," The eldar vampire hissed.

"This game is over," Brone shook his head. "You have not denied your control of Fairy Tail. As its mastermind, you bare the responsibility for its atrocities. I pray that the gods will be merciful..."

"You think I fear the gods of men?" Lord Stelarnox scoffed. "I am a god compared to the grubbing masses..."

"I pray the gods will be merciful and forgive me," Brone said as a cold smile spread across his features. "Because I am going to enjoy killing you."

Brone thrust his obscene knife into the elder vampire's chest. In an instant the rancid presence of the knife flared, making Moka want to retch and run away at the same time. The dark energy of the elder vampire was drained from him, sucked up by the knife as it drank in his very sense of presence. The knife was consuming his soul. Lord Stelarnox putrefied where he stood. His skin turned black and oily. His body started to sag. In the time it took for his clothes to fall to the floor, the vampire was reduced to a pile of dark soot.

The hall was dead silent. Everybody watched as Lord Gray, who had never let go of the knife, gave a flick of his wrist to banish the binding spell, as he turned back to his throne. Once he was seated he held up the living knife.

"Fairy Tail is broken," Brone declared. "The name may be reused at peril of those that wish to be struck down, but the evil that it had been made to be is no more." He clenched the fist that was holding the evil knife.

Moka felt a stabbing pain behind her eyes. She realized that the knife was screaming in pain. There was a muffled crack, and as the knife turned an ashy gray color its presence faded. The power it had taken in was absorbed by the man that had killed it. An oily shadow seemed to fall over Lord Gray as he lowered his hand. There was a moment when the power he had taken in tried to rebel, to consume him from within, but then his eyes flared with blue fire.

"This court is now at an end," Brone said as he tossed the remains of the knife aside. "For the remainder of today, we shall rest. Tomorrow, we shall feast and celebrate our victory."

Moka had to stay for the feast out of etiquette. She made sure to visit her holdings, the Argent Cairn before the celebration, because she intended to return home as soon as she was free to do so. When the time came, she dutifully made her appearance and lingered as long as it took to meet the demands of courtesy. When she was free to go, Moka was so eager to return home she almost forgot her bags.

Xx

Moka had been happy to return home. She would have been happier if when she called upon Tsukune he had been free to welcome her home. As it turned out however, Tsukune was visiting with Mizore as she delivered their second child. It was left to Ruby to fill Moka in on what she had missed.

Ruby hadn't known all of the details, but it had been enough information for Moka to be upset. She was upset that Tsukune had ended up in harm's way again. She was frustrated that he could not seem to stay out of trouble. The idea of keeping him locked in a cage was looking more appealing the more she thought about it. It would be very satisfying to keep Tsukune all to herself, but she knew that life just was not going to let that happen.

XxxxXxxxXxxxxX

Tsukune was careful to keep the sour feeling in his stomach from being reflected on his face. He had no arguments with Kurumu finding advantage for her career in what had happened at the LaLaPort mall. What was giving him problems was his own popularity. There had been enough press at the mall taking pictures that he and Kurumu had been photographed together. Those pictures were circulated enough that he had been recognized and identified. Enough people seemed to remember who he was that he was a pseudo celebrity.

While Kurumu was kind enough not to try to use Tsukune's popularity for her own benefit, the same could not be said of others. Through official channels, shortly after returning home welcoming his second daughter, Natsuko (Summer Child) into the world, he received orders to appear in uniform at the headquarters of the National Police Agency. Tsukune had never imagined that he would be used as a publicity tool by the police.

He had tried to argue against it. He had pointed out that he had always had others helping him. All of his arguing only gained him the support of Inari, who was pulled from her usual work as well to be used in the public relations and recruiting campaign.

For the next three months Tsukune and Inari were the center of a political machine. They spent more time filming training than they had ever gone through before. They crawled through mud, climbed ropes, and fired handguns on a range. Tsukune and Inari posed with what seemed like almost every piece of equipment the police had. Inari got her own short video where she busted the chops of a train molester. Tsukune "raided" an opium den. Just when Tsukune thought that the brains behind the project were satisfied, he and Inari were issued a new set of uniforms.

Article 41 of the Japanese Constitution established the Self-Defense Forces in 1954. Although they are equipped as a conventional military force, the Self-Defense Forces are, by law, an extension of the police, created solely to ensure national security. Tsukune and Inari were effectively transferred to the SDF so they could make recruiting posters and commercials for their new branch of service.

The new round of propaganda included more training footage. More mud, more ropes, and more guns. Some of the footage clearly made Tsukune and Inari out to be special-ops, complete with all black uniforms. While Tsukune did have fun with some of the weapons and equipment, what man wouldn't after all, Inari's favorite piece was for undercover security, where she and Tsukune were dressed up formally but shown to still be armed and ready, as if they were elite bodyguards.

"We've done everything from foot patrols to driving tanks," Tsukune complained towards the end. He was in a ship's cabin, changing out of the uniform he had been made to wear as he stood on the command deck of a destroyer. "We've done just about everything except fight Godzilla."

"Hey!" One of the production assistants perked up.

"NO!" Inari and Tsukune shouted together.

XxxxX

While Tsukune was filing promotional and recruiting commercials, rumors about the LaLaPort mall incident were circulating. While Tsukune had been there, he had been able to keep from taking the credit for leading the uprising among the hostages, if only by the thinnest margins. The fact that music, the Space Battleship Yamato theme song, had been used to rally everybody and lead them to freedom had become an exciting story.

It was a moving story that was reminiscent of the plot used by several popular anime. Some people tried to come forward to take credit, but were quickly proven to be false. That did not diminish the value of the story however. Kasumi, who had not even realized that her son had been involved, was an avid fan of the story.

Kurumu had written a article about that night at the LaLaPort mall. She had downplayed the extremists to be little more than a petty gang, and never identified them by name. Her focus had been on the food and the atmosphere before the party crashers had shown up. As for what followed after the party had been interrupted, Kurumu wrote about how people had kept calm in the face of threats of physical violence until the right moment came along. She went into detail of how one person standing up, taking the risk of standing out, and starting to sing, had been all it had taken to bring everybody together.

"My sweetheart and I had been enjoying out date until it was interrupted," Kurumu said in an interview. "When everybody was singing, we just went with them... The man who started singing first? He never gave me his name that night."

Kurumu liked the frustration she caused with that answer. Tsukune had not bothered to tell Kurumu his name in years, so her answer was technically an honest one. After all, she knew exactly who had started singing, but she didn't need to share that information. Not only would it bother Tsukune if she did, Kurumu did not want any more people after his so limited time. She had enough competition, thank you very much.