Here's another installment to keep up the pace I'd like to do. I revised to fill in some backstory I want to use further in. To give an idea just how much carnage the "real" royal families caused, see Maximillian I… of Mexico.
Yor continued walking, still composed. She turned her head toward the woman walking equally casually at her side. She had dark hair beginning to turn gray. "Sharon?" she said.
"Yeah," the other woman answered. "I guess we lost track of each other, didn't we?"
"Yes," Yor said evenly. They passed a group of men in body armor, with no markings save a rune that was the symbol of the Cold Front. "You had told me your husband accepted a job at Blackbell."
"We split up last year, actually," Sharon said. "Still, he got me my own job, and the kids are happy here. We really stayed together as long as we did because State Security came down even harder on divorced women than the ones who stay single. Once that was off our backs, it was just a matter of winding down."
"Yes, I can understand," Yor said. "You know, Loid and I are still together…"
"I know. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for you," Sharon said. "Some people are meant to stay together, some are better off going their own way."
"What do you think of all this?" Yor asked.
"See for yourself," Sharon answered. She waved to one man who was talking to another. "Hey, Len! This is my old friend, Anya. What do you think of Cold Front?"
The man smiled. "I say it's about time someone stood up for us," he said.
His companion was even more enthusiastic. "The new Centralis government is just the same old phonies," he said. "Baltica is the real homeland! Why shouldn't we be in charge?"
"But if the new government fails, then everyone starts fighting again," Yor said, by an instinct she never had before Loid. "It will be worse than before, because the old border is gone."
"What's that to us?" the man said. "Westalis and Ostania only agreed to unification because they were both weak. The real Centralians will be waiting for someone strong to step in."
"But how?" Yor said. "There are whole countries between Baltica and the borders of Centralis. Do you think they would just let you walk in?"
"Oh, we'll go right through them!" the man said with a laugh. Len smiled and nodded in agreement. "Then we'll make them all pay!"
"Pay for what?" Yor asked. The men ignored her.
"Say," Len said, "what do you think the Queen looks like under that armor…?" Sharon was already pulling Yor away as they chuckled.
"That is how it is," she said to Yor. "Whoever the Queen really is, she's had 10 hours to tell everyone what they want to hear. A lot of them wouldn't care either way. Some want to stand up to her, but they think they can wait for someone else to come to the rescue. The rest are like them. If you really push them, they'd say she wouldn't really do what she says, but she can keep them entertained until she's already done it. Here, look at this."
They stopped in front of a screen over a set of vending machines. It showed the Ice Queen on one side, and the children on the other. Loidy listened curiously to her. The girl nodded along with peasant familiarity. "…So the two oldest sons of the king both ruled the South. The brave young Prince went north, and he made a greater kingdom. And their sister married a great warrior king from the east, and it is said that their descendants rule a great land to this day."
The Queen gestured. "It is a fairy tale, but it is also a true story, in the broad strokes. It is how the royal house of the Empire of Centralia came to be. But their rule was no happily ever after. They placed their sons on thrones in every land, and ruled with terrible cruelty or worse indifference. They slaughtered each other's subjects with their feuds. When they finally fell, they split the world in two in pure spite, yet even now, they are feared. Centralis, Baltica, Hugaria and many more are their successors, in spirit and in fact. We did their dirty work, in the east and west and lands beyond. We know their secrets, and now, we have taken the heir of the Emperors themselves hostage. As long as we control this facility, we will use its full power to broadcast the truth!"
Sharon shrugged. "It's all been like that," she said. "Hand-crank anarchism and blue sheet gossip. Enough to impress people like Len, nothing the people who matter don't already know. It's spicy on presentation, though."
The camera retreated to keep the Queen in frame as she emerged from the elevator into a greenhouse of tropical plants. "I have arrived on the 200th floor," she said, "to accept the surrender of Exotrooper Loid Forger, once the great Twilight." The girl fell in beside her, still carrying young Loidy. The camera pivoted to show an atrium with two pairs of elevators at the far end. The Queen stepped into the center, the girl still at her side. "So, has Twilight truly come himself? Will he keep his promise to save his son, and the heir of Prime Minister Desmond? Let's see…"
A view of the tower exterior appeared, taken from a hovering saucer. The elevator had reached a point where the sides of the building tapered inward, leaving the shafts wholly outside. "The elevator has passed the 176th floor," a voice confirmed. The camera zoomed in, enough to show the features of the passenger. "He will arrive in just another minute…"
"I need to get up there," Yor said.
"I can show you a way," Sharon said. She held up her badge. "They'll have it locked, but I have clearance."
The elevator door opened. The passenger stepped forward. The face of Twilight looked directly into the camera. "I have come," he said. "Now, release my son."
The Queen only laughed. "Come now, dear Twilight," she said. She chucked young Loidy's chin. "We both know, that is not how this works." On either side, armed men lined up.
And high overhead, an armored figure glided on a pair of sweeping wings, straight for the spire of the tower.