AN: Lets get to the next chapter. Also, Happy New Year!
Five days. Five days of torture. Five days of being a Mob getting tortured. Cid didn't tell them anything useful, considering he knew nothing useful. It wasn't really that bad, he could easily deal with pain. It was annoying that he had no fingernails or toenails. He could regenerate them, but it would be a bit odd if he recovered too quickly.
He was finally tossed out, bare assed. The clothes soon followed. Cid got dressed with some difficulty, he could heal later, in private. He started walking back to the dorms. Unfortunately he had no money for food, the Knight Order took all the money he had with him. He hadn't had a good meal in days.
"Everything is okay, nothing is wrong."
Two people were tailing Cid, so it was reasonable to assume that Alexia was still missing.
"Later…" Whispers a quiet voice.
Cid can't help the smile that forms. Shadow Garden has his back. He feels refreshed, though still hungry and thirsty. Cid goes straight to his dorm, and as he opens the door Alpha is waiting.
"You must be hungry." She handed Cid Tuna King's double tuna deluxe.
"Thanks, Alpha. Been a while since I last ate." Cid wasted no time tearing into the sandwich. Tuna King had never tasted so good before.
"What a mess." Alpha sighs. Cid can't help feeling nostalgic, it had been a while since he last saw Alpha. "There's water in there."
Cid grabs the large glass and chugs the water down. "Ahhh! I'm alive again." Cid reaches out and grabs a second sandwich. "They don't know I'm Shadow. They would have asked very different questions if they knew."
"Do you think you were interrogated by the Cult?" Alpha looked taken aback.
"I doubt the interrogators know any secret organizations exist, let alone the Cult. At worst they were bribed to cover things up and find a scapegoat. The minor son of a minor Barony is a good patsy."
"I'm glad you know the situation you're in." Alpha sighs.
"We know they are targeting Cid Kagenou, anything they use to frame me will help us find the Princess." Cid stretched out as he grabbed another sandwich.
"I suppose that's better than manually searching every suspected Cult facility." Then Alpha threw a glare at him. "Though I'm not sure why you decided to woo the Princess."
Cid started running through reasons he could give for that. He didn't want to date her, or fake date her, for that matter. Then he realized a simple reason. "She was being targeted, seemed like an easy way to keep an eye on her."
"You would already know that the Cult was responsible. Now we just need to figure out how they got past you. We must be dealing with the best the Cult has to offer."
Cid stiffened. He needed an excuse. There wasn't any real extra effort used to kidnap her, and it would make him look weak if it was discovered that the kidnapping wasn't an expert act. It might be better to look stupid. "I did underestimate something."
Alpha was taken aback. "Whoever took her-"
"Alexia was so annoying. If I didn't know better I'd think she was trying to annoy me. She was so artificial and fake. The only good thing about her was her swordplay, but she hated her swordplay so it just pissed me off!" Cid let a bit more emotion out then he intended.
"...I see."
"And now two weeks were wasted because I wanted to get away from her. Two weeks that were meant to specifically avoid a situation like this." Cid let out a sigh and shoved his face into his hands, hopefully that was convincing. He spared a glance to Alpha. "Why are you smiling?"
"I'm not smiling." She was smiling. "By the way, that last sandwich was supposed to be mine."
"I owe you dinner."
"Don't worry about it." She gets up to leave through the window. "I'll be leaving now. Lay low for a while."
"Got it. What's our strategy?"
"We'll assemble an army. There aren't enough members in the capital, and I believe we should summon Delta."
"You're sending for Delta?" Cid thought that might be a bit excessive. Delta was extremely good at fighting. Not exactly skilled, but excessively dangerous. She also caused a lot of collateral damage. Not that Cid could criticize her for that.
"She wants to see you."
"It'll be nice to see her." Cid wouldn't deny that he considered the 7 Shades to be friends before he realized he was already an Eminence in Shadow. Now, they were all subordinates who looked up to him. It was nice, but he missed it when he thought they were his friends acting to make him feel big and important.
Now, only Delta and Alpha ever felt like they were anything more than subordinates. "I'll let Delta know you said that. I'll send Beta when everything is ready."
Alpha slipped out silently. He had nothing to worry about. He didn't know how big Shadow Garden was, but they were big, and they had his back.
She didn't have time to see her brother. Cid was currently not in custody. She had to focus on getting his name cleared. She marched through the halls, going past the members of the Knight Order. She was glad that she got to shadow the Order, it made it mostly easy to walk among them. Unfortunately it meant they all recognized her when she tried to see her brother while he was imprisoned.
Thankfully, no one was stopping her as she opened the door to the office Princess Iris was using. "Your Highness! Please listen!"
"Claire! What are you doing here? Excuse us, we'll be leaving!" Zenon, her instructor in Royal Bushin, grabbed her and tried to push her out.
"Marquess Zenon, who is she?"
"Claire Kagenou! I'm Cid's older sister!"
"Claire! Sh-she's currently one of our top students, and she's shadowing the members of the Knight Order."
"I see… All right. I'll listen."
"Thank you so much!" Claire shoved her way past Zenon and approached Princess Iris to plead her case. "My brother would never kidnap Princess Alexia! This must be a mistake!"
"The Knight Order is taking every precaution in its search to avoid any mistakes. It hasn't been confirmed that your brother is the criminal."
"Yes but if no one finds the real culprit, my brother will be sacrificed!" Claire knew how things worked. If they found no one, they would consider Cid guilty and kill him.
"Our knights are carefully investigating the matter. I can assure you that no one will be wrongfully convicted." Claire's gut twisted. The Princess wasn't going to help.
"But-"
"Claire!" Zenon silences her. "Settle down. I know how you feel, but any more would be an insult to the Knight Order."
She was getting nowhere. At this rate her brother was going to die. "If anyone lays a hand on my brother, I'll…"
"That's enough!" Zenon roughly grabbed her and dragged her out the room, slamming the door behind him. "What are you thinking?!"
"I'm trying to save my brother!" Did he really expect her to just abandon her brother?
"If you want to protect your brother, WHY were you about to threaten Princess Iris? How does that help your brother in any way?"
Claire froze. She wanted to deny it, but she couldn't. She was on the verge of threatening the Princess and Heir to the Throne of the Kingdom of Midgar. Claire mumbled out "I just want to protect my brother…"
"I'll do what I can to protect Cid, but please, don't make things worse."
Claire held her head down. All she wanted was for Cid to be safe.
"The time is ripe… The shadows run the world tonight…" That was how Beta's Lord greeted her. "Come, sit with me."
She was quick to join him. She had always been in awe of Lord Shadow's humility. Deigning to allow a mere subordinate to sit with him. It was confirmation that Lord Shadow likes her, he wouldn't do anything like this for Princess Alexia. Alpha had told her what Lord Shadow said about the Princess. She walked through the room, awed by the luxury he had on display. She took her seat and she was touched by Lord Shadow's generosity. He had a glass of priceless, rare wine from the Oriana Kingdom waiting for her.
"A world of shadow. The clouds cascade over the moon tonight. How fitting. For us," Beta adds as she takes her seat. She takes a sip, and is a little disappointed. She can't tell the difference between this and the wine Mitsugoshi makes. Then again she couldn't tell the difference between high-end and low-end Mitsugoshi wine. She wasn't like Alpha and Lord Shadow, they could obviously appreciate the subtle differences. "We're ready."
"Uh-huh." He already knows everything, his omniscient tone tells her everything. He obviously knows everything Beta is about to tell him.
"Under Lady Alpha's command, we've assembled all the people in the area and mobilized them in the capital. There are 114 in total."
"114?" Beta stiffened. Was that too few? Of course it was too few, Lord Shadow deserved better, and they should have brought the full might of Shadow Garden to protect him.
It was a failure on her part. She tried her best but she wasn't good enough. "I'm sor-"
"You didn't bring anyone ill prepared, did you?" He interrupted her. "I don't want our less skilled members put at risk over this."
She tried to hide her smile behind the wine glass, taking another sip. Her Lord was infinitely benevolent and kind. He didn't want to risk them with bad planning. "The 114 includes the 40 held back for support and healing. The less combat adept members will be kept back."
"Uh-huh." Back to normal. They weren't being reckless, that's what he needed to know. They mattered to him, unlike Princess Alexia.
"Our strategy is to launch synchronized attacks against the hideouts of the Fenrir sect in the Cult of Diablos scattered throughout the capital. At the same time, we'll search for traces of Princess Alexia's magic. Once we locate her whereabouts, we'll switch plans and prioritize her rescue. Gamma will handle tactical command. Lady Alpha will command the battlefield, and I will serve as her assistant. Epsilon will lead support from behind, and Delta will ambush them, marking the beginning of the operation. The troops will…"
Lord Shadow raises his hand, stopping her brief explanation. He's holding a letter. "An invitation." He flicked it to her.
Beta felt her blood boil, they clearly wanted to frame Lord Shadow. "This…"
"Anything that could effectively frame Cid Kagenou, should give us a good trail to follow. They will be careless as they frame someone so… irrelevant." Lord Shadow smiled as he sipped at his wine. His false identity, his fake weakness, made everything go according to plan. "Send my apologies to Delta, she needs to delay her ambush, but this prelude is mine to perform."
"Of course, We'll make sure that happens."
"Come with me Beta." He finishes his drink. "Tonight, we unmask our enemies before the world."
Beta trembles with joy, knowing she gets to fight beside her Lord.
How did Shadow Garden become so big? That feels like something he should have realized by now. Also, that was just in the area? How many did he have under his command? Did he have a secret army under his command? That was awesome! Sure it was so secret he didn't even know about it, but that just made it even more awesome.
For now, he had to focus on his own role. He could already feel two energies approaching. He recognized them, they were the two who tortured him. Something flew at him and Cid caught it. Princess Alexia's shoe, and it contained traces of her magic. It would be child's play to find her now.
"Hey there chick magnet. What're you doing with Princess Alexia's shoe?" This was such a stupid plan, they needed him to do so many stupid things for it to work. They needed him to go by himself, they needed him to tell no one. Considering that his sister is way better than these two, an obvious possibility, shows how idiotic these two were. Either these two were massively incompetent, or the Knight Order was so wholly consumed by the Cult that they could afford such amateur action.
"You're the culprit, Cid Kagenou."
"You idiots probably don't even know who you're working for, do you?" Cid sighed. He was hoping it would be a little more difficult.
They pointed their swords at Cid. "We serve the crown. You're under arrest for the abduction of a princess."
"Deal with them." Cid muttered. These two weren't relevant. What was the point of running a massive shadowy organization if he didn't give orders?
A black blade immediately protruded from the neck of the man on the left, silencing him. His partner panicked, falling back. "You bitch! Who are you!"
Beta stomped on his sword, breaking the blade. "You attacked my Lord."
This was a great chance to say something cool. Cid slowly has his black inky bodysuit, boots and coat form. "We are Shadow Garden. And you, you're not even a pawn." At that, he formed his sword and beheaded the fool.
Shadow looked at the shoe, he could feel the traces of Alexia magic on it. He already had a feel on where it would lead him. They couldn't afford to delay, they had to act tonight. Trying to frame him with this kind of evidence meant the Cult probably planned to move her fairly soon. Shadow turned toward Beta as she put away a book she had been writing in. "Inform Alpha and Delta. Tell them to start the operation as soon as possible. We're going to shove the Cult into the light."
"Can I hunt?" Delta whined. Alpha kept an eye on the therianthrope, it was hard enough holding her back at the best of times. Now she had obvious targets and was being told to wait.
"Shadow wants you to wait until he's ready." Alpha warns. Shadow has a plan, she wouldn't deviate. Delta was ready to leap into the fray as her magic started building. Alpha rests a hand on her head. "Stay."
Delta shuddered and sat, loosening the grip she had on her magic. Alpha only had to constantly remind her to not charge in. She was getting frustrated delaying the attack, the window was closing, they would need to start soon. She had a view over everything from atop the clocktower.
"Lady Alpha!" 539 had arrived, she was assigned under Beta. "Lord Shadow wants us to start the operation immediately!"
"YAHOO!" Delta screamed as her magic flared and she leapt off the building with enough force to crack the roof, shooting at her designated target. There was no holding her back anymore.
"What did Lord Shadow need to do?" Alpha asked.
"He sprung a trap the Cult prepared for him, and used it to uncover the Princess's location. Lady Beta and Lord Shadow are moving in on it now." 539 reported.
Alpha almost laughed. Of course he already was on the verge of finding the Princess. The series of attacks occurring tonight was originally supposed to be exploratory, a move to collect information quickly and hopefully find the Princess quickly. Now it was a diversion. He could effortlessly take her best work and improve it.
A building collapsed under Delta's onslaught. The carnage spread as Delta's loud attack served as a signal for everyone else, with nearly 30 locations being attacked, "It's begun."
This. Was. A. Dream.
Beta was assaulting the Cult base holding the harlot Princess who didn't deserve to be saved by the magnificent Lord Shadow with Lord Shadow. Well, she wasn't assaulting anything with Lord Shadow. He really didn't need help. She was following behind as Lord Shadow assaulted the base. It was a bit odd that he was trying so hard to save the harlot who he was forced to pretend to be dating, especially when her horrid aspects annoyed Lord Shadow to the point he stopped protecting her against his better judgment.
She felt a nervous twinge in her stomach, what if he actually liked the Princess? The idea was sickening, even if there were no one more worthy of becoming a King than Lord Shadow, although "King'' was too lowly a title for Lord Shadow.
Beta saw one of the 3rd Children off to the side, identifying him from his relatively lower quality gear, looking to flee down a hallway. Odd that a 3rd Child was fleeing, most didn't have the mental faculties to do more than blindly follow orders. He was probably on the verge of being a 2nd Child, just barely being too corrupted to be useful. He was likely given orders to inform a 2nd or maybe even a 1st should there be an attack.
Beta dealt with the 3rd Child in a single slash, using the combat skills Lord Shadow taught her. It was easy to cut him down as he fled, Shadow Garden didn't show mercy.
"Beta, we will separate here." Shadow turns, going down another hallway away from Alexia.
Beta nearly says something before stopping herself. The Princess annoyed Shadow, so of course he doesn't want to be the one saving her, even if it's in a way that she wouldn't recognize him. Beta continued on her way, ready to take the burden of dealing with the Princess.
Beta cautiously made her way, most of the Cults forces already dealt with. Listening close for anything.
"Give it up. Resistance is futile. If you unchain me now, I'll ask them to spare you." It's that whore of a Princess.
"They'll kill everyone… everyone!" Beta wasn't sure who the crazy sounding person was.
"The Knight Order doesn't kill without reason. If you don't resist and go quietly, they won't take your life." That wasn't even a good lie. Beta quickened her pace.
"The Knight Order? Who gives a shit about the Knight Order? The shadows, the shadows will kill everyone! Everyone!" Beta glowered, the insane man wasn't wrong, she was going to kill him, and the Knight Order was irrelevant at best. Any stories she might write about everything going on with Shadow Garden and the Cult, the Knight Order would be little more than a footnote.
"You're not talking about the Knight Order?" Beta could see into the room and felt a knot of guilt twist in her. The Princess looked bad. Track marks from regular needle pricks covered her arms and she had what looked like gruel poured on her. Were it not for Lord Shadow, that would have been her. "Either way, this is the end for you. Turn yourself in."
"NONONONO! Not un-until it's complete!" Beta carefully shifted. She could feel guilty later, she could feel three presences in the room, so far she could only see two, Princess Alexia and an insane man. "I-I've made a prototype. I-if I use this, even a worthless shit like you might be useful."
"You shouldn't do that-" The mad man jabbed a needle into the unknown third party, and Beta charged in. She could see now, he was injecting something into one of the Cursed. She thrust her slime sword, fed magic in to extend the length, and stabbed the man in the back of the neck, severing his spine and making him go limp. She wasn't going to let anything happen to a Cursed.
The Cursed looked at her, it was hard to see any emotion from her. Her hand seemed to have fused to her chest, no part of her looked like it could be human, elf, or therianthrope. She had never seen anyone who had been a victim of the curse for so long. She fed a bit of magic into her vocal cords to more effectively disguise her voice. "I'll help you in a moment."
"You're not in the Knight Order."
"I know." Beta said as she approached the Princess. She thought on the words of her Lord Shadow as she spoke them. "We are Shadow Garden. We who lurk in the shadows, who hunt the shadows." A pale imitation to when Lord Shadow delivers it, but she hoped to capture a mere crumb of his magnificence.
"Don't come closer!" The Princess was flinching away from her.
Beta grabbed her arm and started healing. From what she could feel there was only blood loss, it seems they hadn't been injecting anything into her. She healed Alexia thoroughly, getting rid of the track marks and any aches or pains she might have. "Worry not, we only target our enemies."
Beta cut the chains, removing the magic restraints. She returned to the cursed girl to see to her issues. She had never healed anyone who suffered for so long, but she should be able to once she got a feel for her magical overload. "Umm… Is Pooch- is Cid Kagenou alright?"
Beta is taken aback, why was she asking about him? "You care?"
"He's my… Closest friend. Did they do anything to him?" She thought Lord Shadow was her closest friend? That was pretty sad, considering how annoying Lord Shadow found her. That probably meant that Princess Alexia didn't have any friends. Beta was glad the Princess couldn't see her grimace.
"He was arrested by the Knight Order for kidnapping you." Beta saw no reason to lie, she just left out a few details.
"They accused Pooch? How stupid are the people assigned to search for me?"
"The idea of him kidnapping you is absurd. Your kidnappers do include members of the Knight Order." She needed to heal this possessed, and she couldn't do that in front of the Princess. "You can leave, the way should be clear."
Shadow split off from Beta, she was fully capable of saving Alexia. What he was doing was more important. This area was full of documents tied to the Cult. The best part was that the stuff was in a simple code! Not at all like Shadow Garden who constantly changed codes and used inexplicably complicated codes.
Even better was the stuff in the runic script, that wasn't even in code! It was so disheartening when he learned how to read runic script and Shadow Garden still had their runic script in codes that kept changing. The Cult must have been in power for ages if they were this careless.
Still, Shadow now knew a few things. Fenrir came up a lot, however he wasn't sure if it was a sect of the Cult or a person. Also, Shadow was sure that there were infiltrators in his school. Also, everywhere. The Cult had infiltrators everywhere. It gave Shadow a lot of options. He could keep an eye on them and get in at the most opportune time!
He could set up some massive convoluted plan, sit back with some fine wine, sipping it as everything falls into place. The only way to improve it was if he was playing the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata! He just needed to make sure no one else got a chance to look at any of these documents.
"IT'S YOU!" That was Alexia shouting. He had to save her for his Cid identity. He might have to cut his reading short. He didn't get to read nearly as much as he'd like. He moves in quickly and quietly, ready to move in when it will look the coolest. It begged the question of where Beta was, but he could hold back.
He observed from a distance and saw Zenon. The sword instructor. He was a Cultist? Shadow actually wasn't expecting that. Alexia was actually right about the man. That was kind of annoying. "You seem to know what I am. Pity you didn't learn earlier when it could have helped you. Now I have your blood."
"What is with you weirdos and blood? Is this a research facility for vampires?" Shadow smirked, he could give a good reveal, it seems she didn't know about the Cult.
Cid caught a glimpse of Beta, she was with another girl with gray hair. For some reason the new girl was wearing a bloody white lab coat and nothing else. Beta was trying to hide the girl. Cid wasn't sure what she was doing, but if she wanted to keep the new girl hidden he would trust her judgment. He didn't want to go in now, but he could play this off as wanting to see what Zenon and Alexia were capable of.
Cid glanced back to Alexia and Zenon, he missed some of their conversation.
"You're coming with me. With my research and your blood, I'm destined to receive the twelfth seat in the Rounds. I shall bid farewell to my meaningless position as an instructor."
"The Rounds? More lunatics like you?" Shadow wasn't quite sure what the Rounds were, but they had to be important, like the elite fighting force for the Cult directly serving the leader, like the 7 shades were to him. He could definitely play this off as wanting to observe what a candidate for the Rounds was capable of.
"The Knights of the Round are the 12 highest ranking members of the Order. Becoming a member will bring me rank, honor, and fortune beyond anyone's imagination. Princess Iris would have been a better offering, but I'll settle for you." Shadow held back a sigh at such an obvious provocation. And Alexia took the bait, her first swing was uglier than her norm, filled with rage and blind power. Zenon casually parries. "Oh, excuse me. I forgot you hate being compared to your sister."
She kept going, Zenon easily parrying every strike Alexia made. He was toying with her, and Alexia was fighting poorly. It could be seen on their faces, from Zenon's relaxed smile and Alexia's enraged glower.
"I'll kill you!" Alexia's form suddenly changed, and for one slash. It abruptly improved, she suddenly overflowed with magic, and she slashed at Zenon's exposed jugular.
She successfully lured him into a false sense of security with her earlier fighting, and she exploited it. Unfortunately, it only got a slight cut on his cheek. For a brief moment, Alexia unleashed a blow that was stronger than Zenon's.
Zenon made some distance, and Shadow was almost ready to make a proper entrance. It was almost the perfect moment to go in. "I'm impressed. I had no idea you were hiding your strength."
"I'm going to make you regret looking down on me."
Zenon laughed. "I was taken aback, but you're just a poor imitation of Iris. Let me give you a taste of what I'm hiding."
Zenon's magic takes a sharper form, and he moves in, no longer toying with her. One swing, and Shadow could tell that Alexia only moved by instinct. Her sword stopped nothing, it simply evaporated into dust under the force and magic Zenon had. Not only that, but his form was better than her's. He outclassed her in every way.
"You'll never be as good as your sister." Shadow can see a tear forming. Alexia's grip on the hilt of what was once a sword slackens. "You're coming with me." The tear fell.
This was the perfect moment to make an entrance.
AN : And that's a cliffhanger. We are deviating a bit from canon now. Not much to say. Thanks for reading and leave a review or comment!