All Epilogue 14 - Political Coup

Cress stood at the door and gave it a sharp knock. He hadn’t been here in a long...come to think of it, he didn’t think that he’d ever been here. A butler opened the door, “Good afternoon, sir. Can I help you?”
“Yeah...um, yes,” he straightened. “I’m here to see Mr. Komatsu? My name is Cress Rivale. He doesn’t know I was coming, but, he knows who I am.”
“Mr. Komatsu is currently in. Please, come in and I will announce you,” the butler offered.
“Thanks.”
----
“Hi Cress,” Ryuji said cheerily as he entered the room, “I didn’t expect to see you. What brings you to Nara?”
“Well…” he said slowly, playing with his shirt sleeve. “I was thinking…” He took a breath and stood up straighter. With a serious look, he said, “It’s been almost five years. It’s time we take care of Xander.”
Ryuji’s expression froze. Taking a deep breath, he moved over to the chair across from where Cress sat, sitting down to be level with the other man. He was silent for a few minutes, as mCress tried to explain that the two of them should probably be able to handle him, though he guessed that maybe they could find someone else to back them up in case. When Ryuji finally did respond, he said simply, “No.”
“...Wait, what?”
“No, Cress. I’m not going to attack Xander. Not now.”
Cress looked shocked, “What do you mean, you aren’t going to? He can’t just…”
“Not now,” Ryuji reiterated. “Yes, there will be a reckoning. Yes, the people of Duvallon will be avenged. But not now.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have a wife and child, Cress,” Ryuji replied. “Because Xander will still exist in a hundred years, and so will I. But Caitlyn and Shintaro won’t.” He looked sad as he explained, “If I fail, Xander will control me again. It will take time and preparation to make sure that he won’t be able to take over my will as easily as last time. Training, equipment...I won’t waste what little time I have left with my family on planning revenge. He’ll keep.”
“This isn’t about revenge!” Cress said. “Well, yeah, maybe it’s a bit personal, but, it’s not all about that! He’s a murderer! He killed tens of thousands of people, maybe more! And we left him at war with Tinoco! Who knows how many more he’s killed since then, and how many more he will kill! We can’t just...leave him to keep killing! He has to be stopped, and it was bad enough that we let him go last time. Just like we let Aries go. We kept letting people go who we shouldn’t, who we knew would keep on hurting people who couldn’t step to them. It’s been long enough. Asanon is back on track again. It’s time we go stop those people who shouldn’t be allowed to mess up innocent people’s lives.” Ryuji continued to look distant, unconvinced. “Come on, even two against one, if we think about what we’re doing, we can take him on.”
“No, Cress. I’m not discussing this,” he said, standing back up again. “I just want to have the time I’ve got to be with Caitlyn and Shintaro. I’m not risking it. We’ll have all the time in the world to fight each other when their time is over.”
“So...so you’re just going to keep letting him get away with his crimes?”
“How old do you think he is, Cress? Do you really think that’s the only unaccountable thing he’s done?” Ryuji asked, voice tired. “He’s not getting any less corrupt; he was a mass murderer when we met him, and was probably one for centuries before that. Another fifty years isn’t going to make a difference in the long run. It won’t for you either. So I will kill Xander, don’t get me wrong. But I won’t throw away my life for his. He’s not worth it.”
“I can’t believe you! Really?! I thought you were supposed to be a paladin!” Cress accused.
Ryuji was taken aback at the comment. He blinked in shock a few times, then frowned, “It was good to see you again. Feel free to stay as long as you like; you’re always welcome. If you want to join us for dinner, I will see you then, but for now,” he turned to leave and added coldly, “I’m done with this conversation.” Without any further comment, he left the room.
Cress watched him leave, anger on his face. After a moment, he stood up in a huff and walked out, showing himself to the exit. “I’m not letting him off the hook for fifty years…” he muttered. “I can find other back-up.”
----
The midday sun hung high over Lockeport when a knock on the door brought Junko to the house’s entryway. Cress was there, looking slightly unsure of himself. “Oh, hi,” Junko said, lacking surprise or concern. “Lucca’s out druiding or something. Don’t know when he’ll be back. I can ask?”
“Oh! No, no,” he said quickly. “Um...I’m not actually looking for Lucca. I...wanted to speak to Mako?” His voice held more than a little trepidation. “Is he around?”
Junko’s eyebrow slowly lifted. “...Yeah, he’s always here...the hell do you want him for?”
“I wanted to ask him a question. Is...that cool?”
She shrugged and walked away, implying he could follow, “Whatever you want. He’s out back.” She went upstairs, leaving Cress to his own devices.
“O-ok...I’ll just...go there…” he stuttered quietly, moving into the house and closing the door. Making his way across the rooms, he went out the back door and into their sizeable backyard, landscaped flawlessly into a series of gardens and lawns. In one particular grove, Mako lay napping in a hammock in the afternoon heat, wearing the disguise that made him look like a canary-haired elf. Cress stood awkwardly nearby, unsure as to how to approach the man.
After a few minutes, Mako, eyes still shut, called over, “You just gonna stand there, orrrrr…?” He opened one eye and added, “Lucca ain’t back here, but that’s about all I got for you.” He closed his eye again, appearing to drift back to sleep.
"Uhhm. I...actually wanted to...ask you something...?" Cress ventured. When he didn't continue, Mako rotated his hand around, prompting him. "You were like...a general or something, right?"
"Yeah."
Cress stood fumbling for another minute before he took a deep breath and said, "I need help taking down a super powerful necromancer who killed like, 20 000 people and needs to be stopped, but Ryuji doesn't think it's important, Mr. Webber will just tell my mom and make a deal of it, I don't wanna make Lucca go when he obviously doesn't want to get in danger anymore, and I...really don't want to bug Mr. Erzebet..." Mako sat up and stared flatly at the elf, prompting him to continue, “Please...don’t tell him, it’s cool if you aren’t interested, but I don’t want him thinking that I put Lucca in a tight spot, and I don’t want him going and making Lu upset or him dragging Lu if he doesn’t really want to but says yes anyways, but…”
“Kid!” Mako said sharply, cutting him off. “Too much BS. Say the very first part again.”
“Uhmmm…” Cress winced and said, “I...need help taking down a super-powerful necromancer?”
Mako grinned widely, almost ferally, “And that’s where you sold me.”
----
“So! That was fun!” Mako said brightly. He was absolutely covered in blood, from his face to his feet. Cress looked green to say the least. “He was a lot...wetter, than I would’ve guessed. I didn’t think undead bled.” He shrugged, “So, dibs on the guy’s jewelry. That stuff’s always magic, and sells easy. Let’s see…” he began stripping items off of the flayed and mangled corpse and threw them in a pile. When he finished, he took his own magic hat, and gave himself the form of a hobbit that looked like, for all intents and purposes, his old Yeto body. Taking each item, he noted which changed size to fit his small body: they were magic. “The hell did he have one magic glove for…?” he asked the room. “Yeah, guy was pretty loaded. I’ll take the glittery stuff, you can have the rest, including the scythe?” he asked Cress as he pulled his hat off and jammed it unceremoniously back into his side pouch, obviously a bag of holding.
“Uhhmmm...yeah. Yeah, that’s...fine,” Cress said, still distracted from battle and the blood. The pair put the items into their bags, neither of them possessing the knowledge or skills needed to identify what any of the objects could do. Cress noted that the mantle in particular felt strange though, as though it held power. He had had that feeling before, when he held Gemini’s earrings and the huntsman’s axe. Vaguely noting that for the future, he tucked it away.
"Alright!" Mako said brightly. "Round 1 is over; what's the plan for Round 2?" Cress looked genuinely confused, so Mako explained, "You know? The army? We probably don't have too long before they find out, so we should clean out this building first, then spread out towards..."
"Wait, woah, what?" Cress interrupted. "What are you talking about?"
"The army," Mako repeated. "The one we have to take care of...?" he trailed off, like his statement was obvious.
"Woah. We just came to stop this guy. He was a corrupt, murdering bastard, but, like, I talked to some of the guys here; we don't need to waste them."
"...Why...not?" It was Mako's turn to be confused.
"The guys here just wanted to have a place to live; that's...they don't deserve to get killed for that. Xander had more than enough crimes, but...what?" he stopped.
Mako had been looking at him like he had two heads. He asked, "You...wanted to kill the general, but leave everything else...and you think that's a good idea? What the fu...ok, kid, what exactly was your end goal here? Because I was under the impression it was 'kill necroguy and his army; avenge dead people; make world happy'. Was that not the plan?"
"I...no! The whole group doesn't need to pay for his crimes!" Cress retorted somewhat indignantly. "Wait..." he paused. "You thought we were killing a wholearmy by ourselves?!"
“Uhh, yeah? Now, back it up: seriously?! First of all: army. Not colonists, not villagers, not refugees. Army. They are all soldiers, who were all following a murdering general. They probably don’t have too many issues with his deal if they were choosing him as a leader.”
“Well, they...weren’t all doing it by choice…” Cress said, already unsure of his argument. “Bunch of ‘em were mind-controlled...I think.”
Mako blinked at him, then let out a series of colourful expletives. “OK. So, it’s an army, and a bunch of the soldiers already know their leader is dead, because they won’t be mind-controlled anymore, and we are seriously losing our advantage. There will probably be people here in minutes or less, wondering who offed their leader. If we don’t want them alerting everyone, we’re going to have to make sure no one leaves.”
“But...this is…” Cress appeared to be beginning to clue into the situation they were currently in. “We just need to leave then! Call Junko back; we’ll leave and it will be…”
Mako cut him off, “It will be anarchy, is what it will be! We just killed their leader! There are two outcomes,” he said, holding up two bloody claws to illustrate his point, “One: they already have a second-in-command ready to take over. That means we basically did jack shit here, because the army is gonna keep doing whatever the fuck it’s already doing. Siege warfare against the surrounding country, from the looks of it. Which means, unless your goal totally was ‘fuck that one guy in particular,’ nothing here is any different. Except we probably did fuck their chances of winning, because we murdered their super-powerful leader.” Cress just watched with mounting panic as Mako talked. “Or two: they don’t have a succession plan. They’re gonna start arguing about who the leader is. They’re gonna split into factions. They’re gonna fight, and either take it out on each other, or the countryside. As soon as they ain’t focused, they’re gonna get fucked by the surrounding opposition, and hey, since the survivors aren’t getting integrated, bam: you’ve got bandits. Wandering leaderless soldiers that beat up villages for food or cash. Except, ‘cause this is an undead army, the bandits are fuckin’ vampire-zombie-monsters, where each single guy can cause more shit than whole gangs of normal guys, and will do it for generations. So congrats! You fucked up the region.” Cress opened his mouth, prompting Mako to point, cutting him off before he could say anything, “This is your problem, not mine. I’m just doing what I’m told. Now. Here’s your options. You let me go right now and finish what we started. If they’re all dead, there’s no problem, but if they’re already alerted, window’s closing fast. Or, you got exactly one minute to give me a new plan, or I’m calling Osamu to clean up the mess.”
“No!” Cress almost shouted. “No, no no, don’t, don’t call him. Uh! Uh uh uh…” he flustered, panic growing every second. He continued making unintelligible noises, pulling at his hair and pacing in a tight circle. “Uh! Uh! Ahh!!” he suddenly stopped, whipping off his bag and digging in it. He pulled out a small, black-shelled creature, covered in spines and dominated by a huge eye. “Ah ah ah ah ah!!!” he tapped the creature repeatedly in the eye while shouting.
Only a few seconds passed before Pierce suddenly appeared in the room. “What?! What is it?!” he asked, looking around. “What’s…” his voice dropped from panic to confusion, “What’s Mako doing here? And where is this?”
“Hey Percy,” Mako said, notedly less manic than normal.
Pierce looked around, squinting and ignoring the devil. “Is this…?”
“We’re in Duvallon!!” Cress shouted, interrupting. “We’re in Duvallon and I wanted to make sure that Xander couldn’t hurt any more people but Ryuji wanted to wait another fifty years and I couldn’t let him get off the hook like that but I didn’t want to tell you ‘cause you’d make a deal out of it and I didn’t want to take Lucca away from his kids and Victor or Osamu scares the everloving FUCK out of me, but I needed help so I asked him,” he gestured broadly at Mako, “‘cause I thought he’d be able to handle it and we did but now there’s an army and I didn’t think of that and they don’t have a leader and they’re gonna be fucked and the army outside is gonna be fucked and the people living there are gonna be fucked and I fucked everything up and what am I supposed to do now oh gods help!!!” Cress said, grabbing Pierce’s jacket front.
Pierce stood blankly, staring at him. “...Ok...you...what?” Before Cress could start yelling again, Pierce held up his hand, “Wait. No. Do I have a minute?”
“You got 15 seconds…” Mako said dryly.
“Good enough…” Pierce said flatly, disappearing.
“Wait no fuck come back!!” Cress yelled at the air.
Mako rolled his eyes, and said bitterly, “No no, keep yelling. That ain’t tellin’ anyone where we are…”
Slightly less than 15 seconds later, Pierce reappeared with Cohen, obviously extremely confused. “There. Made it. Explain what’s going on.” Cress went to start again, “No!” he cut him off, pointing at Mako. “Your turn.”
Mako sighed, “Kid told me that he needed a guy and his army offed. Didn’t tell me that he didn’t actually want the army dealt with until ‘’after’’ the general was dead. That was a couple minutes ago. He also didn’t tell me that a bunch of ‘em were under mind control, so they have to know by now that he’s dead. We got seconds to decide what we’re doing.”
“You seem to have asked distressingly few questions about this before you started…” Cohen commented.
“Nobody fuckin’ asked you, doc,” Mako said. “So, Kid doesn’t want me to waste the soldiers…”
“Stop calling me ‘Kid’!” Cress shouted.
“Stop being one!” Mako retorted, just as angrily. “So if you don’t got bright ideas, right now, I’m going to call Osamu, and we’re going to finish the job.” Cress looked fit to be tied.
Cohen rubbed his eyes and turned back to Pierce, “Why did you pull me over for this?”
He replied dryly, “Because you’re honestly the only one of us who can think under pressure.”
Cohen groaned. “Alright. Thoughts. Thoughts.” He waved his hand at Cress and Mako, “Both of you are idiots. Obviously neither of you thought this through.”
“Don’t fuckin’ put this on me,” Mako said angrily. “I had the mission changed on me at the last fuckin’ second.”
“Well, that’s what you get for taking orders from, as so bluntly put, a child. You should know better.”
“...Are you fuckin’ lecturing me?” Mako growled.
“Problems, problems…” Cohen ignored him. He started walking back and forth, rubbing his forehead and looking into the middle distance, “Xander is dead, and I assume I’m walking through his blood. This is an incredibly insecure location. Webber, secure the area.” Pierce nodded, and began summoning Shares while moving towards the window. Cohen continued talking, “There’s an army. Are they still fighting Tinoco soldiers?” No one responded immediately, so he looked between them. “I can’t make a plan without some context! Now, someone, are they still actively at war?!”
“...Yes…” Mako said, voice bitter and expression dark.
“Ok, then they’re still primed for fighting; they’re going to be in disarray if Xander is gone. Why aren’t we killing them?” he asked Cress.
“Because...because they’re people!!” he said indignantly. “They just want to live somewhere! I’m not fuckin’ murdering a bunch of people for that!”
“But you killed their leader, who also just wanted to live somewhere,” he said dryly. Cress puffed up, but Cohen talked over him. “Fine, whatever. Either we’re killing them, or the Tinoco soldiers are. Or they’re killing each other, because gods know that’s what’s people do when they don’t have a leader telling them not to. Non-killing solution: a leader has to tell them to not to attack us, because we’ll kill them; to not kill each other; and to tell Tinoco to stop killing them. Where are we getting a leader? We need one now, because the old one is already dead and the clock is ticking. Mako, you’re the soldier: what kind of leader do we need?”
Mako was still obviously perturbed by Cohen’s attitude, but snorted and replied, “In this situation? Someone trusted, or someone so fuckin’ powerful they’re all too scared to tangle with.”
“Fine. Trust. We can’t exactly go take a poll now, can we? We don’t know anyone in their ranks; we could easily promote someone just as bad or worse than Xander.”
“If we pick someone, it’s pretty fuckin’ obvious that we’re in charge, not them,” Mako added. “I’d be pretty fuckin’ pissed if some random shmuck got made leader ‘cause an assassin picked off the general and named him king. Sure as hell stabbing that guy the moment the assassin’s gone. Unless someone here’s staying to supervise?” he asked sarcastically.
Cohen replied, “I’m not staying, I have other things to do, and I’m certainly not diplomatically getting an army to back down. I assume you’re also busy, Webber?”
“I have enough to manage, thanks.”
“We can’t stay; we don’t know their ranks,” Cohen continued. “We have to install an external leader that will be able to maintain command, and who we know will make them all stop fighting. Someone that is either so disgustingly overpowered that the soldiers won’t question them, or who has their trust in some capacity.”
“They’re a fuckin’ undead army. If they ain’t internal, who the fuck are they going to trust?” Mako asked.
“Only another undead,” Cohen said as he dropped his hands down, obviously having come to some sort of conclusion. “Webber, we need Komatsu. Now. His credibility will be increased if he takes credit for Xander’s death, and Mako is right, we have seconds. Apparently he and his wife play diplomat; now’s his chance to shine.”
Category:Advent of the All