Chapter 42: Uprising.
Yamcha was never a claustrophobic person, he could be sure of it. But, to say he had good experience with cramped spaces, it would be a lie. He remembered all too well, he, Jonathan, and Bulma were all cramped inside the time machine; it had been a miracle it barely fit all three of them plus their belonging. The cockpit had been flooded with vomit the moment the Time Machine had reached its destination, and everyone on board had been disoriented, Jonathan had had the worst of it as his scalp had been severely burned by Bojack's people, explaining the boy's baldness as he growing up. The Old World Trio had come to two realization: 1,this place was not their intended destination; 2, it was hostile. Because when Bulma had finish struggling to open the cockpit, the hospitality this world had greeted them with had been attempted murder.
Out of the frying pan into the fire, well it was actually the other way around when they compared the Titans, the Government and the world beyond the Walls of this world to Bojack and whatever celestial threat in theirs, they had just escaped a danger to land head first into another.
Now, Yamcha was in another cramped space, though less than the Time Machine, he was nowhere near comfort. By the wooden texture of the interior of the space he curled uncomfortably into a fetal position in, the traitors in the Wolfpack must have shoved him into a crate.
"Lord Reiss, we give you the Papa Wolf!"Yamcha heard Bury barking, and the Alpha himself yelped when the he felt the crate impacted and rolled on the ground.
"Is this a joke? Why is he in there?" He heard Rod's voice. And Bury respond was like music to Yamcha's ears.
"Kenny's fucked up! The Survey Corps shattered his section, the Ripper himself captured by the Usurper. The brass in all the three branches are rallying both their troops and the mass to march to King Fritz's palace. Zackley himself is leading that coup. Couldn't let any one recognize him."
"What about Historia and Eren? Did you get the Lady?"
Yamcha grinned when Rod mentioned Bulma, he could only wish the Royal Government good luck trying to get to his blue-haired ex, because they could have all the luck in the world wished to them and they still wouldn't be able to breach the Bunker.
"Your bastard and her would-be-supper weren't in the Castle, never saw them went there after the Wolf's Den. I bet my money they're at the Survey Corps HQ, but not my life, me and mine are not going anywhere near that place after your precious Kenny had fucked this up for us." And there was the snark of Peter Bury, Yamcha was little bit consoled that the traitor's personality had never been an act. It still pained him that the boy he had once raised by his one had betrayed him,of course, but it did give him a little bit of consolation that he still knew something of him. "As for the Alpha Bitch, we found the Bunker's entrance, couldn't pry it open. Gathered all the explosives we could find, the fucker didn't even charred by the smoke."
A moment of silence took place, or at least Rod and Bury were conversing in such a vollume that Yamcha couldn't eavedrop, which would make a lot of sense. Either Rod and the renegade had lower their voice in fare of their captive eavesdropping them or for whatever reason, or they just shut their mouth awkwardly, Yamcha could felt his crate was jerked from the ground, and the next thing he felt that it was being moved.
"So, it's real." Rod Reiss' voiced muffled through the crate's wooden cover once more.
"You bet your fucking ass it is. If that fucking thing's door it strong enough to be unaffected by a ton of explosives, then we can only imagine what inside it."
"She could be hiding everything. Her secrets, of her technologies, her true origins, where she came from, and..." Replied Rod, the abrupt silence cause Yamcha to raise a brow before the 'real king' continued. "You sure Historia isn't inside that thing?"
Well, the Reiss King was surely paranoid, good thing Gohan was going to replace him.
"Was that stupidity? Or hearing impairment? Or just plain paranoia? Because I've just fucking told you that Jaeger and your would-be-queen didn't go back to the Castle." Snarked again Bury, his lost of patience on the king was audible. "Please tell me it's not a Family trait, because if it is, I understand why the Winters try to replace you Reiss, and I hate it when I have to agree with the Winters."
"You're start to remind me of Kenny with your insolence." Rod made a feeble attempt at standing up for himself.
"Execute me for lese-majesty if you like, Your Majesty. It doesn't change the fact that Eren and Historia aren't inside the Bunker." Spoke firmly the renegade Wolf, traitor as he was, he had spent ten years being a Wolf.
'You won't be able to pull that off in Gohan's reign!' Mouthed Yamcha, then the Alpha realized he didn't just mouthed it, but rather spoke it out loud.
"Sounds like somebody's awake." Yamcha yelped again when the crate was dropped to the ground. "Open it!"
The crate crackled as the captors was prying the crate open, the Alpha covered his eyes from the blinding light once the lid was opened. He could barely see two people yanked him out of the crate, it was outside the aforementioned cramped space that he was aware of the fact that his hands and feet were chained. His feet had been cuffed closed to each other and his hands were cuffed behind his back to prevent the man from escaping, Yamcha had to give the traitors and Interior Police some credit, they had learned some lessons from their previous encounters, or atleast thought that had learned some lessons.
Among the first people he recognised when his eyes adjusted with the light were Fox and Bury, and they all fell victims to the Alpha's ranting.
"You all are more rats than wolves. The Wolfpack was your family. The betas that had died back there were your brothers and sisters. How could you betray them?"
"Family?" Irina slammed her foot onto the Alpha's face, though he was unfazed by the kick, he faked pain, this Wolf was going to play with his food for a while. "You're the one who took OUR family away from us!"
Irina's reply caught Yamcha completely off guard.
"Yeaah! The Wolfpack Security Personnel's recruitment policy: only take orphans under the age of 15." Bury crouched down to the Alpha's level, and press the muzzle of his pistol to his forehead. Nothing couldn't be picked up from the Top Beta's tone, nothing else but cold bitter hatred. "But it never occur to any of you how those orphans ended up as orphans in the first place."
'Shit.' .Yamcha was about to vomit at his own crimes that he had commit in the past. The shame had already shut the Alpha up ,he wouldn't be giving his captors any clever rebuttal any time soon. If Yamcha could go back in time and slay the man who had massacred the entirety of the Salf Mines in the proximity within Wall Rose and further within, he would... he loved to say that he would, but he knew he hadn't had a choice back there, it had been all do or die back at the time, his power level was diminished, his life and his friends' had been at constant risks. It's had never been personal, it had been just... survival. 'Yeah, go and say that to the people whose parents you killed. Sure they'd understand.' He concealed his hyperventilation, which worked since he had been avoiding making eyes contact with the renegade Wolves since they just revealed the reason why they betrayed him.
"The Papa Wolf still has a conscience, after all." Rod signal the renegade Wolves to keep silence.
"Not much is left of it!" Yamcha replied tiredly. His conscience had really worn him out.
"If I have to guess, the Lady has already known of the truth about my family's true power. Historia would be too valuable for her to neglect, she wouldn't have her returned to the Survey Corps that easily would she?" Rod knelt down near Yamcha.
"You don't know jackshit about Bulma, do you?" Smirked Yamcha, though he forced that smirk faded away rather quickly. "She had her returned to the Survey Corps that easily."
"WHAAT?"
"Bulma perceives your daughter to be the greatest threat to Gohan's ascension. She's the Reiss' only remaining heir, you think Bulma'd let her lurking about after Gohan takes the thrones?" Mocked Yamcha, though his conscience had really eaten him up, it didn't change the course he had taken. Gohan was always the best solution to fix everything. "What's the better way to get rid of her than to have her killed by the people who works for her father?"
"YOU BASTARD!" Yamcha faked a pain when Rod punched him.
"Your prized Interior Troops must have already killed her in the cross-fire. Seriously, you think your daughter would fucking sit about and let your men kill the people she went through hellfire with? And you think your lackeys would check their fire with their lives on the line. C'mon, they're humans. And after what I've heard, yours really caught in the wrong end of the stick." The mocking continued, despite the Alpha's moral crisis and the uncomfortable position he was lying on, his words were fill with confident, the one and a half decade of doing unspeakable things to survive, at some degree, had desensitized him. "With all that Adrenaline, be real now, you think they would fucking mind their shots on a blond bastard daughter of the pathetic excuse of a king who couldn't keep his hormone in control? Bitch, they'd be fucking shooting any Survey Corpperson they had their eyes on."
"SHUT UP, YOU FOREIGN FUCK!" Rod kicked him straight in the nose, and the Yamcha faked a groan again. The incognito King snatched the pistol from Bury and pointed at Yamcha, and that pistol was then snatched again by Bury before Rod Reiss could pull the trigger.
"Calm your tits. He might be the key to the Bunker." Yamcha recognised that pistol, it's Jonathan's Glock, he was sure of it because only Ingham and himself were armed with autoloadings. "Beside, we've already agreed that he is ours to kill."
"But Historia, she...he said she's c-could already... b-been de-dead." Stuttered the King. His face was fuming with anger and his eyes were already watered.
"Try to cling on the possibility that she's still alive. Try to weigh it on his conscience. Just look at the poor son of a bitch." Snicker Bury, the renegade gesture at Yamcha's twitching torso. "The fucker's quite quiet for sometime when we tell him why we did this. Probably it'd work if you could get his conscience to speak for him. I heard he and John and the Lady and your family met once or twice."
And it was silent, no response from the incognito King. Rod Reiss re-regulated his breathe, trying to regain his composure, it was possible what the nobleman was about to say was still to hard for him. And it was visible that Rod was considering Bury's suggestion, because nothing read 'I am comtemplating' louder than the expression on the King's face and the silence.
"Alpha, do you remember Frieda?"
Bulma Brief, or Winters rather, had never been known as ill-tempered the moment she had made herself known to the Eldians of Paradis. Even with the two instance of the Interior Police had attempted on her life, Bulma had never lost her cool. However, that was for the Eldians who were not in her inner-circle, people that had somehow managed to enter that circle, if they hadn't known her in her homeworld, would find it amusing to see the Blue-haired Bitch lose her composure. This amusement was shown in Petral and Carla's eyes when they saw the Lady threatened to throw them out of the Bunker in a fit of rage.
The exposure of her calm disguise didn't last for long, however. After a ten minutes of sulking at the two Eldians guests in her Computer Room, the Lady took a dept breath and took a deck of cards out from the drawer beneath the Computer.
"Couldn't do any to help Yamcha. As for the Survey Corps, Gohan is heading to them. Knowing the boy more than any of you guys, he would do wonders." Bulma sat down on the floor, crossing her legs. She offered Petra and Carla a space near her as she shuffled the deck "So relax, miss Ral, your comrades would be fine. Can you help Mrs Jaeger down for me? Let's kill some time."
"Wh-" Petra was about to protest but Carla yanked her cuff , the amber blond soldier tilted her head to the paralyzed house wife to catch Mrs Jaeger's eyes signaling her to comply. Though Carla was equally angry at Lady Winters as Petra was, she was not going to risk the Lady doing accordingly to her threat.
"I'm not familiar with this kind of card game." Spoke Carla as Petra helped her off the wheelchair, in a feel careful movements, Carla Jaeger was laying sideway on the floor, facing Bulma's left.
"I'll explain it as we play." Bulma dealt the card when she made sure that Petra had joined her. "Hope none of you is colorblind."
Bulma dealt each of them seven cards, Petra and Carla received their respective hands and was puzzled when they saw colors and number on the cards.
"Whoever plays all their card first wins. I'll go first. Then Petra, and then you Carla." Bulma placed down a blue 4.
"Okay, what do I do?" Petra gawk at her own cards.
"You'll have to play a card that match either my color or number." Bulma explained the rule.
"What do I do if I have neither no fours or no blues?" Petra scanned her hands carefully and quite frustrated that she couldn't spot any four or blue card.
"You'll have to pick up a card from the deck." Explained Bulma, but she then grabbed the Scout's hand as she reached to the deck. "Do you have any card that looks... odd? Ones that … stand out?"
Petra scanned her hand again and then she noticed a black card. If this new card game had anything like the card games her people played, it would have only four suits, and she spotted yellow, red and green on her hand, and the Lady just placed down a blue card, which meant blue, red, yellow and green were the standard colors. The black card must had been the 'odd card' that the Lady was refering to.
"I have a black card, with a … white circle thing in the center, with all the four colors in-side, it had a cross before a number 4 in … the corners."
"Oh, a plus 4. That mean you can make Carla here pick up 4 cards from the deck and change the color for the next turns." Grinned Bulma as she menacingly shifted her eyes to Carla.
"Oh, I don't want to do that to Mrs Jaeger. She's been through a lot." Petra shook her head. She placed her cards face-down as she rest her hands on the floor.
"Tsk. C'mon, you take this too seriously. You'll have to play it." Bulma clicked her tongue when Petra had became too sentimental for just a game. "You won't be hurting her with a card."
"I don't think I will, we've just started the game. I don't want to start my turn with that." Petra continued to shook her head. "Disqualify me or something."
"Fine!" Sighed Bulma, she could had sworn that the Eldians she had seen had been very competitive when they played cards. And Bulma knew that Petra must had played cards or other forms of gamble or games, and she doubt she and her comrades had been this clement. "You don't have to leave the game. Pick up a card!"
Petra bit her lips and reached to the deck and picked one card, she stared at her hands and clutched the cards together and press them on her lips, and remained silent.
"Thanks, Petra. You asked for blue didn't ya, Bulma?" Carla showed Bulma that she had learned how to play the game rather quickly when she placed down a blue card. "Pick two from the deck!"
Bulma sighed when she added two cards to her hand. She started to think that Petra didn't refuse to play the plus four on Carla out of mercy but rather in hope Carla would somehow get to her. These two were working together to beat her, not the first time someone tried that.
"Since I have to pick up cards from the deck, I skip a turn. Normally I would implement stacking rule. But since you are new, we can play without that." And it didn't take Petra a genius to get what Bulma meant.
"Stacking? You mean you have plus 2, also?" Flinched Petra, she didn't realized how commit to the game she was to be afraid of the Lady's plus 2 stacks. She almost forgot about the battle above her head and the attack on her regiment miles away.
"Yeah, with Carla plus 2, it'd be like plus 4 to you." Chuckled Bulma, though she loved the realization appearing on Petra's face, the fact that the Eldians picked up on the rules fascinated more. These people were not as backwards as she had thought they were.
"Damn it! I still don't have any blue." Pouted Petra. She felt ashamed of how commited she was to this game and not her comrades' perils. Then again, she was stuck down here with no way of going back up, she had no way to help them, so keeping her mind away from the thought was her only possible option.
"You still have your plus 4!" Suggested Bulma.
"Nope, I'm gonna pick another card." Petra drew a card from the deck.
"You know you can play the card you just draw if it match the color, right?!" Petra immediately jerked the card she just drew off her hand and stared at it.
"Uh, it another plus four?" Tilted her head, Petra did. She looked at the card with confusion. "It doesn't have the 'plus four' symbol thingy on it."
"Oh, the Wild Card, you can change the color of the turn." Once heard the explaination from the Lady, Petra played it without hesitation.
"Petra, switch to yellow!" Ordered Carla, which Petra followed. If there was someone in the room that was enjoying the game the most that would be mother of Eren. She was the person mere moment ago, antagonised Bulma for sitting duck in the Bunker and letting her friends to their death. Now, she didn't even bother to curb her enthusiasm in a card game while knowing the Survey Corps was braving an extermination attempt, which two of her children, one biological, one adopted, were participating in.
She placed down a Yellow Reverse Card.
"Does this function the way I think it does, my lady?"
"Y-yeah!" Facepalmed Bulma as she confirmed it. Crap basket, they're learning.
"Petra, use the plus four!" If a light bulb was put on Petra head, it would lit. Petra picked up Carla's cue as fast as a kite and slammed her Draw Four on the floor near the Lady.
"Take that!"
The Lady sighed and drew four cards from the deck, they were going against her.
"You guys are targeting me, aren't y'all?"
"That's what you get for locking out Yamcha and Gohan." Scolded Petra, she didn't bother to curb her excitement of getting on the Lady. "Red."
"Yeah, you denied their registration. Let me ask you this. If they somehow manage to defeat the Interior Police, and subsequently the Royal Government. How do we know?" Carla arched herself up with her elbows, closing distance between her and the Lady. "If they can't get down here. We might be trap down here for god-knows- how-long, and like you've said, the mansion above it's the only source you can communicate to the outside. Now it's gone. How do we communicate with them? Risk a peek up there?"
"Shit!" Cursed Bulma. She shouldn't had Gohan's voice recognition deleted just like that. Hindsight, the Lady smacked her own forehead as she thought she should have had edit the Lockdown subroutine to not revoke Gohan's voice registration when she had had the time, but her overconfidence had made her so convince that she would have never needed to put the Bunker on Lockdown. Stupid, stupid.
"The Survey Corps has Gohan." Continued Bulma as she thought everything through. "The boy can do wonders. He will certainly turn thing for the better on their side, also they have your son, Eren and that girl Ymir, two Titan Shifters. So I think they will win this for us, if they couldn't conduct a successful coup. Their situation with the Interior Police will be in their favors, they will come for us. So, let's give them five days. We risk a peek."
"Five days? What if they need our help, Titans or something. Marley could already attack at any moment." Retorted Petra. In five days, a lot of things could happen, even if the coup was a success, many non Government related issue would occur. And by the looks of the equipment within the Bunker and the Lady's grand plan of Gohan's Kingship, the people on the surface may need her.
"Marley failed to capture Eren and recover their lost Titan Power, and Braun and Hoover are dead. They wouldn't dare attacking us so early on after such losses." Retorted Bulma, she was aware and fulling understanding of Petra's concern, but despite her mistakes, the blue-haired earthling was still the smartest person in the room.
The conversation was interrupted when the women spotted the Computer's screen was blinking red, and only one of them knew what that meant.
"Is it normal for it to do that?" Asked Carla, she was unfamiliar with how the computer worked, not that she knew anything about the device.
"No. But it's nothing you should be worry about. The blast door sensors just informed the mainstream that the enemies above are trying to breach it with explosives."
"Nothing to worry about? Will they get in here or what?" Petra got up on her feet and glared down at Bulma, she was awed by how the Lady said it with no urgency knowing the enemies were breaching the Bunker. The Scout had never seen anyone so relaxed about impending peril like the noblewoman before her.
"The Bunker is designed to withstand a blast from a device that could level an entire city. Those things they're using up there won't put a dent to it." Bulma crossed her arms and leaned back, but there was nothing for her to put her back on, so she let out a yelp as she fell.
"Level an entire city? What can do that? Where the fuck did you come from?"Ignoring the Lady's fall, Petra couldn't help to ask what the Lady's true background was, because she obviously not a Paradisian. And neither Annie's or Ymir's testimony of the world mentioned device that could level an entire city. Ymir could have been behind in information and Annie could have been withholding such an intel, but by the ingenuity of the Bunker, it was most likely because the world Bulma had came from, wasn't outside the island of Paradis.
"Gohan's the one who promised to tell you everything, not me." Bulma recovered, she didn't show or had any concern that the Eldian had became suspicious of her homeworld. "You'll have to wait 'till his coronation."
"TELL ME!" Probed further Petra, being trapped inside of the Bunker and oblivious about the above did not make her anymore patient.
"Petra! Don't push her!" Demanded Carla, the paraplegic grasped her palm to the female scout and tried to pull her down. "If she doesn't want to answer, don't force her. And Gohan promised he will tell us, didn't he? Let's not ruin that moment by knowing before hand."
"I'm Survey Corps, getting the information as soon as possible is what I do. It's what WE do. Dramatic pause is for the mummers." Though she had reluctantly sat down, Petra had no intention to stop probing the Lady. And she had a point, she was a Scouts, getting information quickly was her rule of engagement.
"You'll have to wait for Gohan. I've made no such promises. Yes, I might help him present the truth to you lot. Or might not. I'm bounded with no obligation in such matter." Smirked Bulma, the noblewoman rearranged the cards on her hand. "Sides, the knowledge of our true origins wouldn't really change your people situation for neither better or worse. Knowing about it would be just... knowing."
"Wanna bet?" Carla surprised her with such a proposal.
"Never took you for a gambler." Bulma raised her eyebrow.
"I thought you know everything. I was a waitress at a bar before I marry Grisha. Some harmless bet was one of the thing I did in my leisure."
"Fuck, I'm down. What's the stake?" Asked Bulma.
"1000 Talents, when Gohan disclose your real origins, if the Command find it useful, I win." Stated Carla, firmly.
"Mrs Jaeger, please don't." pleaded Petra. "You'll be in crippling debt!" Then the scouts quickly covered her own mouth for her insensitive, poor choice of world.
"A thousand Talents? It doesn't sound to me as harmless at all" Grinned Bulma, malicously. "You don't have that money, if you lose... you're already crippled.." Petra gawked angrily at the Lady as she deliberately chose that word. "so debt'd be coming your way. You sure you can win?"
"What's happened today proves that you're not always right. And you're already losing this game." Carla tightened her grips on her cards.
"I've only picked up 6 cards, and none of you have laid down your last card. How am I already losing?"
"One way to find out! Where were we?" Carla scratched her chin as she looked at her cards.
"We seriously keep playing?" Gasped Petra. After all they had just argued about, the two mothers still wanted to play.
"Your turn. Red!" Bulma ignored her.
Carla played a red 6. Petra didn't want to play, so she just sat still. There was a long pause before Petra raise her head and jolted when she saw both older women staring at her, not threatening but pressuring. The elite scout sighed and relented and played a red 0. Now it was Bulma's turn, she slammed a red plus 2 down and forced Carla Jaeger to draw 2 cards.
"Bulma, are we the first Eldians you play this game with?" Asked Carla as Petra continued the turn by playing down an 8.
"Nope, Yamcha, Jonathan and I once played this with the Reiss." Bulma placed down a red 3. "For once or twice. Before their 'accident'."
"What? You got to get that close with them?" Petra had already let the Lady's origin go, she was not going to do the same with this question, however.
"Couple a years before Shiganshina! After we swatted two attempts from the Interior MP. The relation between the Wolfpack and the Royal Gov was quite a bit... in reconciliation. They had us for dinner. Not just the Reiss, about every family in the Council did the same. Discussing our 'non-aggression pact' , some business planning, such and such... Yada, yada. Never know they were the Royals. Our conservation was much alike with the other family, nothing really out of the ordinary." This was a question Bulma felt comfortable answering, so she saw no need to withhold it. The Lady of Castle Jutnar noticed the next person in play, Carla, was so focus on her answer. Bulma gestured her to continue, and the paraplegic placed down a green 3. "Much like you, the Reiss were surprisingly enjoying this one. Thought they had more chill than you do."
"Chill? They're cold or something?" Confused Petra as she play a green 9.
"Oh, sorry. They were much calmer. Even Yamcha and Jonathan at the time thought that we could've been friends." Bulma played a Green Skip and quickly retaliated by Petra when she played a Yellow one. "I remember Jonathan talked to their eldest quite a lot."
"The eldest?"
"Freya, Frigga or something. Your people's names are the same to me. She's only a bit younger than Jonathan, so it's not a weird thing for him to have a certain fondness for the girl." Bulma rubbed her chin, the story distracted her from the game for a while. "Thought the boy would have some happiness , but then she died with rest of her family, so the young lad buried himself in the Pack's business once more. Kinda bit of a tragic friendship, or love story even when you think about it."
"Did you … have anything to with their demise?" Bulma stared daggers at Carla for her question.
"God damn it, Carla. I know I'm nowhere remotely close of being a saint but I'm not that heartless that I would simply go out and kill my business partners. Or slaying Mr Ingham's tiny bit of Happy Retreat." Protested Bulma.
"Point taken."Commented Carla as she played another reverse card. "However you're heartless enough to fiddle while the city burns. Or rather, fill your pockets with the Wall Maria folks who didn't wanna join the reclamation mission. Killing a bunch of innocent Salt Miners just so you could take over. Or playing card games while yours and mine are giving their lives fighting. "
"Mr-s-Mrs J-Ja-Jae..ger?" Whimpered and winced Petra when the paraplegic woman berated the She-Wolf. And the She Wolf's facial expression gave no signal of pleasantry.
"Well, you Eldians aren't really much of my concern, the first time we encountered, you people tried to kill me. First impression is everything." Petra whimpered again as Bulma played down a plus 2. "And it's not the first time I sit by and watch."
Before Petra took the penalty of the Plus Two and drew two cards from the deck, Bulma threw her entire hand of card down in anger and stood up.
"When Piccolo and Goku were rescueing Gohan from Raditz, I stood by and watched. When my friends got slaughtered by Vegeta and Nappa, I stood by and watched. When Goku fought Cell, then he tapped out and called Gohan to tap it, I and the collective of his friends stood by and watched, in a safe distance no less." Ranted Bulma, the anger in her voice was not masked and the Lady's hand gestures made her frustration even more overt. "Because you know why? Because I did all what I could to help, stand by and watch was all I could do afterward. I'm no fighter, neither are you. I didn't see you or your collective horde of peasants lifted a fucking finger to help the Garrisons and the Cadet Corps in Trost. So don't be high and mighty like you are now and judge me of what I do, I've already help the Survey Corps with everything in my faculty, you think I'd able to do that if I haven't done what I've done? So , be grateful that we're on the same side and stop it! "
Bulma stormed off from the two guests and open the elevator, she gave it a quick 'Storage' and the elevator went down . The Lady had lost her gaming mood. Shocked and awed by the Lady outburst, Petra and Carla lost their words. They look at one another with their head lowered, the Lady did have a point. She had been doing all she could to help them, and few people within the Wall with similar wealth would be that willing to offer them such help, if at all. Carla and Petra knew they should have cut Bulma some slack. The Lady had even offer to play game with them, a rarity she had ever done with anyone, and they had to ruin their little moment of leisure.
The entirety of the Interior Police Division had all been sent to either the Survey Corps HQ or the Castle Jutnar. The Castle was far from Mitras, and wherever the remainders of the contigents in Trost regrouped to, it was not the Capital. It was clear as day that the security Rod's Council was having in the citadel, was not either of sub-branch of the MPs.
Gohan coldly eyed the two bodyguards he just knocked out, like the tens he and his retinue of soldiers had just taken down, they didn't look Interior Police to him, they was wearing plain clothing. The Monkey Boy and his Military followers had been informed before marching to the Capital that Interior troops could be in plain clothes as well. But the security guards had neither been fighting like the ones they had fought back at the HQ.
"Use your guns you dumbasses!" Yelled one of the bodyguards as he pulled out a pistol from his jacket and aimed at the mutineers, and several other followed suit.
Gohan spun his Pole to block the bullets, and he failed to block any. Not that he needed to block the shots, because for every bullets that came from the loyalists' firearms, they all missed.
"Gerald hand picked you, didn't he?" Frowned Erwin as he sheathed his swords. And charged at three of the loyalist, knocking them all down to their backs.
Six of the mutineers also charged, 4 Scouts, 1 Garrison and 1 MP. Each of them fought a bodyguards in hand-to-hand combats and without any surprise the loyalist guards either submitted or unconscious. That made clear of the Mitras Castle's hallways, Gohan's Ki sensing indicated that most areas within the Castle were under his followers control.
"And if I have to bet, Deltoff paid them." Said Gelgar, one of the mutineer who had charged, he threw Erwin one of the loyalist's pistol. It was an old, small sized, double-barreled flintlock pistol. "The fucker didn't even bother to arm his thugs with the Lady's rifles. "
"Is this the throne room?" Asked Gohan as he approached a two-doors entrance, stroking on it.
"Yes, my lord." Answered Erwin, and continued with another question. "How many of them do you sense in there?"
"Eleven. You say how many are there in the council?"
"Five, counting Reiss. The real, current King." Pyxis walked to the hallway, escorted by a squad of Garrison troops. "We've secured all of the rooms in this Castle, except for this one, Lord Winters. Or should I say, King."
"That's for later! Arms up, people. Get them ready. Five armed hostiles possibly inside. Don't let your guard down!" Ordered Gohan before he pushed the doors open. And the six armed guarded inside aimed their riffles at the mutineers.
"Traaitors!" Bellowed Roderick as he witness the uniforms of all the Military Branched barged inside the room, training their guns and swordtips at them. "You have sworn to defend humanity and the king. And you come in here pointing your arms at your monarch, starting a civil war in the Capital. This is outrageous. Have you no honour ?"
"What king? The one who isn't presented here?" Gohan rested the Power Pole on both his shoulders, then he rested both of his elbows on the dangling staff. "Where's Rod?" He hissed when he saw the five thugs who was still aiming their rifles. "Put them down. For god's sake. It's over!"
"Gohan Winters, we should have known..." Aurille words were cut off almost immediately.
"Don't you go and play victims on this. You're the one who's drawn first blood." Retorted Erwin, firmly. With undeniable evidences and a large quantity of witnesses to support his claim, nonetheless. "You've sent two contingents of Interior Police just to kill me and his mother. Dozens of my men and the Wolfpack have laid dead in result of your assassination attempts. All just because you've felt threatened!"
"You're charged guilty of conspiracy!" Retorted Aurille.
"Conspiracy or not. The ones who is responsible for civilians casualties is neither the Survey Corps nor the Wolfpack." Even with Ki Sensing, Gohan was still startled by Zackley's voice. His platoon of troops from the Premier Office had the loyalist gunmen to drop their weapons and held their hands up in surrender. "One of your Captains in the Interior Police has killed 20 innocents civilians and injured 36 others. Just so he could shake off three Scouts that were pursuing him. Tell me, were these 56 unarmed civilians co-conspirators of Erwin Smith and Bulma Winters?"
"It must be the Lady's ruse. You have no idea how trickery the bitch is." Said Deltolt in a miserable attempt to avert the fault from them.
"Kenny the Ripper was wearing the Interior Police's Anti-Personnel 3D Maneuver Gear. And he's only apprehended when Gohan here sodomized him with his stick. If you think that mad man would allow such thing to happen to himself just for a ruse, then you are madder than he is." Nile didn't give any man in the Council to have a slightest bit of hope that their attempt dismissal could even temporary work.
"And what is up with that, by the way? That man had killed hundred of my fellow Military Policeman back in the day. And you mother fuckers put him in charge of the Interior Police. Have those MPs who fell victims to the Ripper no value to you?" Spat Nile, if Erwin and Pyxis were bitter of the loss of their fellow Scouts and Garrisons, then the same thing applied for Nile with his MPs. Levi had briefed him about the Anti-Personnel Captain before their departure, if Gohan's report on Annie's testimony hadn't already put out the Commander faith in the Royal Government, then Kenny had done it.
"By private Ymir revelation of the world, and the confession of Annie Leonheardt, our prisoner. We have reason to believe you've been lying to the people the whole time, you know exactly what is beyond those Walls, you know how the Titans worked, and you know how to stop them. But none of you had lifted a finger to stop the Tragedy of Wall Maria from happening." The four men in the Council winced when Erwin stated his accusation. "And your desperate attempt at capturing Historia Reiss and Eren Jaeger removed all of our doubts."
"Turns out. The true enemy to the humanity is humanity itself, both within these Walls, and without." Added Pyxis. "Do you know how many men in my Regiment are from Maria? Erwin and Nile over here have no absent of those either. Even Dalis over there has some from men and women who lost their love ones five years ago aiming their rifles at you." Pyxis drew out his flask, took a sip before continuing. "Do you know, when the Colossal attacked ,what the patches the initial casualties were wearing?" The old alcoholic commander tapped on his shoulder patch. "Mine. The Garrisons stood no chance at defending the Walls once they're breached. Neither my regiment nor Nile's is combat effective against Titans. But should we needed to ? And you had everything in the Founder's Power to put a stop to it."
"We've lost the Power befo... Mm" Words blurted out from Roderick's mouth causing Aurille to cover the man's mouth before he spoke further. But those few words were more than enough for the mutineers.
"So your memories are intact? The Marleyan prisoner had already informed us that the Founding Titan could affect the memories or all Subjects of Ymir." Gohan raised his eyebrow on this new finding. "You're not Subjects of Ymir, are you?"
"How? How did you bastards know about this?" Fumed in anger and desperation, Aurille had no reason to deny their knowledge of the Founder, as well as the fact that the had been withholding it for centuries.
"Having terrible memory is no trait for leaders. We've just mentioned the Marleyan prisoner, Annie Leonheardt, the Female Titan, told us everything. Also one my fellow Scouts, Ymir, she is from Marley too." Snickered Gohan, noticing that the nobleman's memory wasn't all bad, but he was in denial. None of the noblemen in the Royal Government had been expecting that the truth of the Titan Power and the real world would be revealed that quickly. "I guess that memory erasing trick would never work outside this island when there were non-Eldians constantly reminding them of the Eldian Empire atrocities."
"The Military holds its true allegiance to humanity, well, the people rather. And consider everything you've done just to retain your positions, we're not very convinced that you people are fit to keep them safe." Said Zackley as he motioned his rifle men to surround the Council Members. "This is a coup. All resistance is futile. We're not gonna let you lead us for another minute."
"You're gonna replace us with him? His mother's hands are as dirty as ours." Retorted Aurille as the plum noble pointed at Gohan.
"We'd lost Maria because the rest of the world hate us for the transgression of our forebears. We're not making the same mistake judging the Angel of Trost based on the misgiving of his mother." Answered Pyxis, emphasis on the moniker the mass had given Gohan. The man then gave the boy a look of assurance. "And the difference between Bulma Winters and yous is that her goal is aligned with ours. With humanity's. She's more eager to resolve our loss of Maria more than any of you. No, she is the only aristocrat that risks her position for our war effort."
"And she risks her life,too. Which one of you willing to do that? This is not the first time you tried to kill Bulma, is it?" Now it was not just the Scouts took note of Gohan and Bulma's first name basis. "You must've been desperate to send the entire Interior Police Division to get rid of her and her allies. Now you have none left. Both your attacks failed." .Gelgar gulped at Gohan's last sentence, Nanaba averted her eyes from him and Erwin deadpanned.
"One funny thing about soldiers: They're more likely to follow their commanders' order than the king's." Commented Pyxis, on how hopeless the Council's situation was. "Especially when that king is a fake. And knowing the Angel of Trost is replacing that King? Good luck trying to turn them against us."
One of the four nobleman had finally broken. Gerald fell onto his knees, defeated. The other three had given up as well, though they stood fast on their feet, none of said another word, not even a hard breathe. Their arms were all dropped to their sides,not bothering to move an inch. None of the men looked at the mutineers. Gohan motioned his hand and Zackly's men escorted the council out of the thrones room.
King Fritz was still sitting on the thrones, oblivious of the situation, Zackly's troops pull the senile old man out of it aswell.
The Coup was a success, now to get rid of the old king. Finding Rod's whereabout would be a chore, but it had to be done.
If he had been the Z Fighter who had fought for his Earth countless of occasion, Yamcha would have shed a few tears after hearing the Reiss' tragedy. But that Yamcha was long gone. The current Yamcha had sullied himself with the blood of countless innocents, not even in his bandit that he had killed so many- not the people he had deemed innocents, anyway. If he didn't shed a drop of tears for the Salt Miners whose sons and daughter now were exacting their revenge on him, he was not going to have the thought of crying for the family he had barely knew.
Yamcha had been at friendly terms with Uri Reiss, but he had never considered the man anything higher than just an acquaintance, that was if they had ever reached that level. Frieda, he had liked her, but that was because his Jonathan had shown a fondness toward her. It had been a relief at the time to see Jonathan had found a friend who wasn't from his homeworld nor the Wolfpack. So only Frieda's demise barely touched Yamcha's heart a bit knowing the two Founding Titan had been eaten by Titans.
He did felt sorry for them and couldn't help to call Grisha Jaeger an asshole, however. Yamcha understood why Dr Jaeger had to kill Frieda, the Reiss would never raised finger to help the sittuation. Rod had told him, that many if not all Reiss who named to be inheritor of the Founder's power, had expressed their wishes to eradicate the titan before they had acquire the power. After they had acquire the Founding Titan, well, they had gone full pacifists. Must be something King Karl Fritz had done after he had had the Walls built. If Frieda had still had that Power, most likely she would have wiped the people's memories of Gohan clean, the poor Monkey Boy's heart would have broken if he found out that his friends had all forgotten him. So, good job Grisha! But murdering the rest of the Reiss was unnecessary , if Reiss' legal wife and the rest of his legitimate children were still alive, it would be easier to negotiate their abdication than their father's. Or, Bulma could have kidnapped all, some or one of them and made them her hostages, less blood would have been spilled in this coup. So, fuck you, Grisha!
"Never had a chance to give you my condolences!" Said Yamcha, coldly. "Same could be said for Bulma."
"I don't need your false sympathy! I need Historia! I need Eren! I need the Founding Titan returns to my family." Rod read the cold in Yamcha's voice.
"I do not have them. Neither does Bulma." Yamcha chuckled as he spoke. "Not that I'd give them to you if I had them, though. We didn't go through all those troubles putting Gohan on the thrones just to have it undone, no thanks!"
"Have you not listened to what I've just told? Only us Reiss could control the Power of the Founder. The Founding Titan is useless in the possesion of non-Royal blood." Roared Rod as he pinned Yamcha. "We could end our suffering once Historia inherit that power."
That didn't fool Yamcha, especially when Rod had neglect to leave out the part all Reiss Founding Titans became full-fledged pacifist the moment they had their power. If they could end it, they would have done so before.
"I've heard everything! It's why I won't let that power fall to you again!" Yamcha cracked his head as he made sure Rod knew he had made a mistake being honest to him. "Uri gave up on wiping out the Titans when he became the Founding Titan. What make Historia any different? Your family had the power that could will all the Titans away, but what had you been doing all that time? Huh. Keeping it the same as before. Now, that Maria has been lost. Would Frieda do any thing if she was alive? Hmm, don't think so!" Yamcha shook his head before Rod could reply.
"We were atoning for our forebear's sins. You know what us Eldians had done in the past. You know we deserved it. We can only hope that our God would forgive us, and perhaps direct us from the Vow Renouncing War. And we could defend what is left of our people."Explained King Rod. None of it sounded good in Yamcha's ears. "We have no desire to retaliate the outside world. But we, do want to live, Alpha."
"The entire world wants you people dead. If you managed to have the whole world hates you, you are far from being forgiven." Commented Yamcha.
"Then you understand.."
"No, none of that. Shame on you!" If the King though the Papa Wolf agreed with him, he was wrong. "Bulma, Gohan and I have nothing to do with you people. Neither did Jonathan. Our ancestors had nothing to do with what yours had committed. Allowing you to have it your way, we would go down with you atoning for the crimes YOUR ancestors did. So, no, I have no intention to suffer the punishment of somebody else's crime, or in this case, their forefathers'."
And even without the Earthling's uninvolvement in the Eldians' past. It was absurd that the descendants should pay for the crimes of the ancestors. But, Yamcha had left that out, he knew that the world had believed that if the fathers had escaped justice then the children should pay the debts, so there was no point bringing that up.
"So all that I've told you is for nothing?" Asked Rod, the Reiss King felt so hopeless that he had turned away and was about to leave.
"Not for nothing. It's succeeded convincing me. Just not what you expected it to be."
"What?" The king turned to him again.
"Yield the throne to Gohan. He's a good person. He'll give you amnesty. You can live the rest of your life with your daughter in peace." Rod sighed when Yamcha brought up abdication. "And he could fix the problem your ancestors had create without the extermination of your people."
"Why are you and the Lady so insisted on making that boy king? He's not of Royal Blood, he's not even Eldian. How could he our leader?" Argued Rod. The Fritz, then the Reiss had been leading the Eldian people for centuries, none of them would like the idea of handing their leadership to an outsider. No race would allow the someone who wasn't theirs to lead them.
"That's the idea. Him not being Eldian is what make him so fit to lead your people. The outside world would be more willing to accept peace with Paradis if he was your King."
"Peace? We managed to have the whole world wants us dead, we're far from being forgiven. You said it yourself. How a non-Eldian being our king makes them forgive what the Eldians had done?" retorted Rod, none of what the Papa Wolf made any sense.
"That's the neat part. They don't have to forgive you." Smiled Yamcha. "They just need to believe that you're still being punished, just that the punishment is rather... unorthodox."
Rod raised his eyebrows.
"The shepherd is never the sheep, Rod. Once the world had percieved that, the Eldians, the conquerors had became the conquered. They just need to think that Gohan, a non-Eldians is subjugating your people. They'll think you've been broken. They'll think that you aren't living with impunity, they'll be convinced that an Eldian Empire 2.0 will never be a thing. A world wide empire, once brought terror to all under its rule, now under the feet of one man who is not them? Hmm, the though of King Fritz the First rolling in his grave, will certainly satisfy all who hates you. They would leave you be. Or in the way they think it is, well, leave you at the mercy of the Hegemonkey-King Gohan Winters." It had the never been the reason why Bulma nor Yamcha wanted to install Gohan on the Paradisian Throne, but it did sound so perfect in Yamcha mind when he had given it some thought.
"Is he intending to subjugate us?" Asked Rod, though he probably knew answer.
"No, the Angel of Trost is never going to do that. He just need the rest of the world to perceive that he is." Explained Yamcha, causing the Reiss King to stare blankly in to the wall. Rod was considering Yamcha's proposition, whether would he accept the offer or not. The King was convinced that Yamcha's reasoning behind the offer was right.
"Peace through deception? You're going give up your power for that?" Bury stepped in. He had been silent long enough. He hadn't betrayed the Wolfpack just so Rod would surrender.
"Really? Bury, his family has been doing the same thing within this Walls. Why can't we do the same without ?" Yamcha glared at his former Beta before returned his gaze to Rod. "Rod, what say you?"
"Shut your fucking mouth, Yamcha. We're not hearing another word from you." Peter Bury had his pistol trained on the Alpha's head. "My King, don't listen to him. It's all bullshit. It's all that comes out from their mouth holes."
"No!" Reluctantly, Rod Reiss spoke.
Bury lowered the pistols and stared at the monarch. "Were that for me or for him?"
"Alpha, I'm sorry, I can't." Rod shook his head, the King tried his best to avoid looking at the Alpha so he missed Bury's smug and Yamcha's terror on their respective faces.
"Even after what I've said?"
"You don't... It's not just mine. This position. This responsibility. It's not simply what I want. It something my family have been doing for generations to generations. I don't want it to be me who end it." King Rod shakily gave Yamcha his answers, he then hesitantly gave Bury an order. "Mr Bury, bring him to his cell. Try to get him tell us how to unlock the Bunker. After that, he's all yours." And the King walked out from the room.
"You craven fuck! You can end the bloodshed right now! You can fucking put a stop to your people suffering just by taking a fucking step back. And you denied that chance because just want to maintain your family's legacy. You don't have any idea how many of your people that you just doomed just because you were to proud to concede ." Ranted Yamcha as the King's silhouette was being swallow to the stairs and Bury swinging him to his shoulder. "And you, you can kill me! But do you have to doom your countrymen to certain death just because of your vengance. You already have me! What difference does it make Gohan's king or not if you just can kill me before that? You stupid dogs."
It had been two attempts to breach the Bunker's door with explosives, the second batch was even bigger than the first. Yet, they had not made even a dent to it. Bury had already told them to not bother to try a second time when he had left for the Reiss' Resident. Karl Reader smeared his hand on the charred, blacken by the smoke blast door, and reveal the silver steel surface. The man let out a long sigh, he should have listen to Bury. If the first explosion couldn't even burn the surface of the Bunker's entrance, then they could try for ten times and ten times all they would do would be blacken the door with ashes. There must be atleast one or two persons outside that knew how to open it, and they were both not here. Gohan, the Usurper had escaped their grasp this sunrise, and the capture Alpha had been brought to Rod Reiss.
So, the 10 Anti-Personnel Squad-members and the renegade Wolf would have to wait. Until Peter Bury could extract something from the Alpha, the possibility of them opening the Bunker and capturing the Lady was zero. Raeder had yet been informed of the result of Kenny Ackerman's section. None of the Anti-Personnel MP that had been put on stand by in the castle knew any thing of their comrades attacking the Scouts other than the fact that they had attacked them the same time they had attacked here. However, considering how well the Interior Police had fared against the armed-to-the -teeth Wolfpack until they had to relied on the Wolf renegades' aid, they were all confident that Kenny had demolished the ill-equipped Scouts in Trost. Gohan's reign had ended before it could even started.
Of course, they had seen the Angel of Trost leaving the Castle before the battle commenced on that freakish vehicle, probability to aid his Survey Corps brethens. But there was no chance he could reach there in time, he would arrive to see the HQ in ruins and his friends piled dead. Strong as the Usurper was, no one could start a Dynasty all by himself.
It put a smile on Karl Raeder's face knowing his parents were avenged. Killing Bulma Winters would be too easy for vile woman. No, she had to suffer. It was a better revenge tearing down everything she had worked so hard to build. That her plan to install her son to power had became undone, all effort, all the bloodshed that she had done were all for naught. And the Renegade Wolves needed her to know it was them who thwarted all her plans, all her efforts. Then she could beg for death. So they really need to have the Lady out of that Bunker to shove it in her face.
Mister Raeder glanced at the Interior Policemen he now called his new friends. He and them are all on stand by so they all took their leisure. The Interiors had made a campfire the moment they detonate the second batch of dynamites, and already started cooking. Half of the unit was already slurping the soups from their canteens, and the other half had finished their meals prior, so they were walking around the Castle's landscape and started to patrol the area. The only renegade Wolf put on standby picked up a nearby tin can and approached the soup camp fire. The MP gave him three ladles of soups, and after a quick thank the Beta started to drink it.
"You...Hear that?" One of the MP asked him. And no, he didn't heard it. Not yet.
"Heaaar what?" Puzzled Raeder.
"Horses!"
"Bury's back?" Asked Raeder as he took another gulp of soup.
"Don't sound like carriages." Then Raeder heard it too. Horses whinnying and gallops were heard in the distance, and they heard no heavy noise of a carriage. Was Bury riding? He never rode. Why would he rode now?
"SURVEY CORPS!" One of the patrolling Interior warned them as he and the four others scurried back to them.
"What?" Karl Raeder found himself and the five other asked them same question.
"How? Shouldn't Captain Kenny and his element already obliterated them by now?"
"They could be regrouping!"
"I saw their green cloaks. Couldn't be mistaken." The patrols replied.
"Shit!" One of the sentries exclaimed in frustration. "How?"
"Kenny fucked up!" Facepalmed Raeder before he could give an order. "No time trying to figure out how. You guys hide. My status as a Wolf will be our element of surprise. Go!"
The Interior Polices nodded and activated their ODMs to their hiding spots. Raeder reached within his jacket and pulled out his revolver and cocked it. His face tensed as the MPs were finding there hiding spot, and only allowed his face and posture to relax when they had all hiden.
The traitor cracked his neck as the horses sounds came closer and their riders became visible. There were twenty riders total, outnumbering the Interior Police, and they were not only consisted of scouts.
"Mr Raeder? The hell happened here?" Asked Levi, he was only of the 20 riders that didn't gasp, gape nor have their eyes when they saw the rubble that once the Castle Jutnar's main building.
"We've underestimated them. They've got to our outer defence much sooner that we've anticipated!" Karl Raeder kept up his facade as Levi dismounted, following him were Oluo Bozado, Gunther Schultz, Eren Jaeger and Hitch Dreyse. The rest were about to do the same but Levi gestured them to stop. "Then shit went sour from there, couldn't really remember the rest of the detail. When I wake up, I'm the only one alive. And you see what you see."
"Wait, you're the only one alive? Then how..." Asked Mikasa asked she dismounted, but Levi beckoned her to stop.
"Gohan already with us, he's not considered a Wolf. And Yamcha is not invincible!" Levi then whispered something in her ear. Causing her to signal the other to dismounted. Hange, Connie and Historia were kinda confuse when Mikasa slowly took her steps behind a pile of debris and motioned them to do the same.
This worried Raeder, the Scouts must have sensed something was wrong. And his ambush required them to come a bit closer. And Hange had already marginally lowered ambush's success when she waved her squad-members to joined her behind cover.
"Fuck this!" it was obvious that they had seen through his lie. So he stood sideface and aimed his revolver with one arm at the Scouts and fired.
Levi winced in pain as the bullet hit him faster than his dodging, and bounced of the Captain head. And the Scouts and the MP regulars scambled behind covers just a couple of seconds before the Interior Police got out of their hiding spot. And the horses scattered away in fear when the guns fired.
"That explains it!" Commented Hange as she ducked under a bullet from the Interiors handcanon.
"Wait! You can sense Ki too?" Asked Mikasa as she fired her flare gun at an Interior.
" Ki? No. It explains why the Lady failed, because the attack was an inside job."
Both Mikasa and Levi had sensed the other ambushers before they had even reached the Castle, by their signals, they were healthy and they had been initially thought as Wolves there had been no chance the Beta couldn't have found them. So both the Ki Users had known something had been off. So the Interior Police had no element of surprise, not entirely.
"What the fuck?" Levi gawked at the misshapen bullet half a feet from him. This was the bullet that had hit him earlier, in the head, and it had bounced of him instead of killing him. It was because the bullet was of a low quality, or..?
Levi leaped off from his cover and used the thruster to launch himself toward an Interior. His target pointed both his hand-canon at the Captain and fired. This time, Levi didn't even bothered to dodge, he took the high catridge bullets squared in the torso, thought they had the force to push him back but they also bounced off him.
"Captain!" Oulo and Gunther hollered when they saw their captain slid on his back to where their horses used to be.
"Had to test that theory!" Sighed Levi when he was eyes to eyes with Hange. He was unscathed, albeit the two holes on his shirt. "We could've ended the fight at the HQ much earlier."
"Mikasa, Eren, Connie, Ymir and the Special Operation Squad. Commence counter-attack!" Order Hange. "Everyone with a gun. Return fire."
"Roger!" Hitch was one of the soldier who were armed with rifles to respond to the Section Commander's order. She got up from her cover and returned fire, just to got shot in the head by Raeder.
Eren and Connie thrust themselves toward an Interior Police, he fired and hit Connie on the head, though the bullet bounced, it managed to knock the Krillin-with-a-nose back. But the loyalist was out of bullets and Eren took the chance to deliver a clean cut on the Loyalist's shoulder, severing the Interior's right arm and sending the man falling in agony.
Knowing that the Interiors' weapons were now ineffective to them emboldened Yamcha's disciples. Oulo tanked all bullets that went to him, and covered Gunther effectively before the latter swiftly dispatched two confused Anti-Personnel operators.
"Shit! They're bulletproof! Abort! Abort!"
"Ki-Users, this is the Alpha's doing! Get to the horses."
The two Interiors who just ordered the retreat were then riddled by bullets from the Mutineer MPs' semi-automatic rifles.
"That's for Hitch you fucks!" Exclaimed Marlo before he reloaded his M1 Carbine.
"Fucking dirty old man!" Raeder mantled over a protruding rebar and took cover under the debris, the renegade Wolf broke the top of his revolver, and the empty cartridges ejected off the cylinder. The traitor could only curse the Alpha when he put new bullet into the cylinder, two at a time. "Why didn't you teach us that one."
The renegade Wolf was so occupied with the fighting and the reloading that he could not react in time when Hermann Gleave lunged at him and buried his knife deep into his abdoment.
"Why would he? So you could do this easier?" Gleave twisted the blade and kneed his former brother in the thigh. Karl Raeder gasped for his final breath and motionlessly plummet to a fetal position.
The only living loyal member of the Pack snatched Karl Raeder's revolver, slid away from his former friend and shot an Interiors in both of her legs who was desperately dodging Mikasa's blades. The loyalist cried in pain as she fell and gave the Ackerman an clear shot at finishing her with a thrust to the chest.
Six Interior Polices laid dead with sword-inflicted wounds on their bodies ,and the other four with bullet-wounds. The fight would have been more gruesome for the uprisers should Yamcha's Ki training hadn't been fruitful. Not that they hadn't suffer any loss, however, the men and women of the Survey Corps had never guessed that they would mourn a MP, Hitch.
Gleaves' knife in Raeder stomach didn't make Levi to trust the Top Beta fully. So the Top Beta found the Captain putting both his blades on both his shoulders.
"Captain, I just helped you. I'm on your side." Gleave handed over both his revolvers, one was taken by Ymir, the other by Historia.
"How can I know if you just offed your own co-conspirators to gain trust? Probably when you heard 'they're bulletproof', you've double-crossed them?"
"Levi, if he is like what you said. He would've been standing with Mr Raeder and make the facade more believable." Hange approached Levi and lifted one of the Captain's away from the top Beta. "And let give him the benefit of doubt like we did the Lady and Gohan, shall we?"
"Again? Four-eyes? With this benefit of the doubt nonsense?" Stood down Levi, the Captain sheathed his swords.
"Not nonsense if it has worked for us so far. Sides, yeah you didn't know did ya? He's been helping us even since before the pact. He was our inside man in the Pack. Never felt Survey Corps works this unrestricted before. Unbounded by the politician and their 'treasury being well spent'." Hange pat Levi on the shoulder as walked by them and to the Bunker's blast door, the trapdoor was also visible. She then joyfully kicked on it. "It this the Bunker?" The clanking of the door was unable to mask her excitement. "The Lady is inside?"
"Looks like it is. I saw one of yours went in there with her, and his mother,too." Gleaves pointed at Eren and the boy let out a breath in relief. "I mean... There was a barn. I saw them walked into the barn. How the situation on your side?"
"Oh, we failed to defend the HQ. The Interior Police killed every single one of us. We're already dead." Oulo answered in a sarcastic voice. "So Mister Gleaves, how does it feel to be a psychic?"
"Oh, that explains you guys being unaffected by bullets and only casualty was a MP." Gleaved glanced at the MP Uprisers and Scouts who were mourning Hitch. And he also proved Oulo that he wasn't the only one who could be sarcastic.
"Oh, that's a good one." Gunther earned a glare from his squadmate.
Gleaves observed the MPs who followed Levi and Hange, they were all from Gohan's squad in Stohess. The soldiers would follow their commander rather than the false king, but was it Gohan they followed? Or was it Nile? Or both? What of the Garrison? What of Premier Zackley?
"Has it begun?" Asked Gleave.
"Begun? It must be done by now." Shrugged Levi. "The Interior Police sent all they had at us and you. And we have the entire military."
"Is our King... the king now?"
"Beats me!"
"What happened here? We asked Mr Raeder but it was looked like he wasn't very honest." Hange gestured to Karl Raeder's corspe. "Not that he can, now, if he changes his mind."
"We were supposed to have the upper-hand. This should have been a cake walk for the Pack. The semtex the Alpha had us planted in the perimeter were supposed to wipe out half of them." The thought of lying to the Survey Corps never cross Hermann's mind. "But they were all duds. We didn't have time figuring out what happened. When we did though, as it turns out, Peter had tampered with it."
"Peter? Mr Bury?" Hange neck almost twisted like an owl. "Not just Mr Raeder? Who else betrayed the Wolfpack. Did it have anything to do with the mansion in the state it is?"
Gleave took a deep breathe, he started to tell them everything that had happened in the Battle for Castle Jutnar. He left out no detail. He told him how the Alpha had split the Wolfpack into three groups, one defend the Castle Southern perimeters, led by the Alpha , one led by Bury to defend the Northern perimeters, and Gleaves had been put in charge of defending the mansion. The MP contingents of the mutineers that were with the Scouts shook their heads in amusement when the Top Beta described to them how quickly the coordinated attack of the Interior Police ODM troops and their riflemen had forced the Wolfpack to retreat to their second line of defence. And the struggles of for the main building earned Gleaves a pat of sympathy from Eren when he mentioned the grenades. Then, it was amazement from both the MPs and the Survey Corps heard that he had been on the third floor when the building collasped when Bury detonated the Semtex he had planted in the building's foundation.
"Holy shit! You survived that?"
"Yeah the shape of the roof that fell on me saved my life. I guess I was always the lucky one. I was undetected when I have the Semtex smuggled to you. Survive the Alpha's game of Revolver Roulette when I did get detected, though that was his test, but I didn't know at the time." Connie smiled in approval at the Top Beta's reply. "And then when I recovered, I see Bury and the rest of the traitors took the Alpha away."
"They took the Alpha?" Eren mouth was agape when he learned that the Alpha could be defeated. But Ymir had another thing in her mind.
"He's alive, too?" But the better question was from Levi.
"Wolf, seriously, how about you just skip the war story and cut to that part in the first place the next time we ask you, okay?" The Captain cross his arms, unamused.
"Who were the traitor? Aside from Raeder and Bury." Probed Hange, though Gleaves' 'War Story' didn't give her answer to the traitors question, it did satified her mansion question. So she was as irritated as her low heighted comrade.
"It was Irina, Armin..." The Scouts raised their eyebrow when their friend's name was mentioned as Gleaves listed the traitors. "Our Armin, not your Armin. And James. That the ones I've seen, there could be more. The roof I hide under isn't a very ideal place for observation."
"Know where they could be taking him?" Asked Mikasa. None of the Scouts, not even the Ten Pupils was a fan of the Papa Wolf. But after being bulletproofed as a result of his training, he had proved to them as a valuable ally. So, it was safe to say that the Oriental's concern for the man was warranted.
"Bury mentioned Rod Reiss."
"Great, now we have to find where that trash lives." Remarked Levi. The Captain twisted to Historia. "Any idea where your father lives?"
"Not like I've ever go to where he lives with his legal family." Answered Historia.
"Can't you and Mikasa sense Ki? Just followed the Alpha's Ki." Suggested Connie, the young pupil had yet to be able to sense Ki. He obviously did not know how the technique worked.
"Ackerman, can you sense his Ki?" Levi turned to Mikasa. The Oriental activate her Ki Sensing but unlike the Oozaru's , Yamcha's Ki was too low comparing to it to be sensed from a long distance. She couldn't sense any one further from a 20 kilometer radius either. It was either the ability limit, or the object's power level or the subject's. The 104th Number Two shook her head in response to the Captain's question.
"Me neither. Four Eyes. Does that thing Bulma gave you any better?" Hange got a bit jumped by the Captain. She pulled out the scouter from her jacket and put it on her eye, and activated it.
"Got some readings!" Everyone's face became more brightened when they heard the Section Commander's remark. But the concern returned to their facial expressions when Hange showed no joy on hers. "None of them belongs to the Alpha."
"What? How can you tell?"
"The Alpha power level is a three-digits number. All of the readings I'm seeing have two, well except for your and the rest of your fellow pupils. And... or one" Hange shifted her sight on every direction. "Not there, not there either. And the readings shown could be just surrounding Civilians. Can't narrow down whose are the Interior Police."
"Well, I can think of something can narrow it down." Suggested Gleaves. "Papers. You have the records of the Reiss once lived?"
"Commander Nile can help us." Answered Marlo. His face was still puffy from the crying for his fallen comrade. "The Military Police Brigade holds all records of all citizens."
"We'll go to Mitras then. Getting the record from Nile and warning the King of our defeat here."The Beta couldn't have put that any firmer. Thought not as firm as Levi's threshold when the Top Beta attempted to climb on one of the Uprisers horses.
"Not so fast, canine." The Captain and the Top Beta were exchanging glares. "What makes you thing we're gonna let you coming with us?"
"Levi, he's coming." Hange deescalated the unnessary tension brewing between the two. Levi gawked the Section Commander for her sanction of the Beta accompanying them. She personally walked up at the Beta and offered him her horse as she walked it over to him. "Take mine."
"This is embarrassing. None of us in the Wolfpack is a very good rider."
"Then why you so adamant on mounting one?" Hange yelled at him. The Beta and Levi had just almost got into a brawl just over a horse earlier.
"We can ride, okay. Just not very good." Hange got on her horse and grabbed Gleaves hand and yanked him up behind her.
"Hey. Four-Eyes! What 'bout the Bunker?" Levi gestured to the entrance of aforementioned Bunker. He didn't show his anger about how the Section Commander just that quick on abandoning their initial objective, but he was. "Didn't Erwin send us to rescue her?"
"The Interior Police just tried to blow it open with explosives before we got here. The only person who can open that is already inside. She doesn't need us." Hange turned her horse around and the beast started trotting. "Our priority now is Rod Reiss-"
"And the Alpha." Gleaves interrupted her.
"But the info of where he might be is at Mitras. So we'll rendezvous there." Hange eyed the MPs and the Scouts as they mounted on their steeds, Marlo and Boris lifted Hitch's corpse on her horse and fastened her on the saddle with a rope.
With a jolt of her stirrups, Hange's horse galloped out from the Castle. Squad Levi were the next riders to spur their horses to follow her and the MPs were the last. The combined platoon were heading to the Capital. They had failed to reinforce the Wolfpack in time, not that they could be subjects of blames. But their trip had not all fruitless. They had discovered the betrayal of several of Wolfpack members, acknowledged that the Alpha had been taken, the Lady, Petra Ral and Carla Jaeger were safe within the Bunker and they had successfully exfiltrated a loyal member of the Wolfpack, Hermann Gleaves.
Next Chapter: Right of Conquest.