Barracks - 513 A.F.

Rook sat there dumbfounded, his jaw slightly open. After a moment of silence he finally spoke up. “How the hell wasn’t he arrested?” lil Sug looked over at him and finally put in his two cents. “Honestly, because he’s close friends with the prince. When he got back, his mother had already passed. I think the prince knew he was heartbroken so he offered him a position as his guard captain. He was hoping that keeping him busy would keep his mind off of it.” Sug sighed “well it worked, but now all he is sometimes is a bundle of duty wrapped around obligations” Cro tossed his cards down and looked Javi dead in the eye. “He's a good man, albeit a little bit broken, you’ll get along just fine, just don’t piss him off” Rook gulped.

Old York - Citadel

Jack sat in the antichamber but he could hear some of the shouting coming from inside the King’s office. “You can’t protect him forever son, we have rules in place for a reason” The prince's reply was lost through the door, but Jack cringed nonetheless. He hated putting his friend into this position. But he hated the human trash named Chad more. He heard the king speak again, but could only make out snippets. “Punished… Elisade… Station... duty” He was tempted to get closer to the door to listen in, but Janice, the king’s secretary and her desk blocked his access. She was rather stunning and many a man tried his wiles on the woman, but she was cold as ice. Regardless, he stood to walk over and attempt some conversation, hoping to hear more, when the door opened and the prince stepped out. He looked at Jack with a small frown and a sign. He walked over and put his hand on Jack’s shoulder “My friend, you must not let your emotions affect your actions.” the prince sadly shook his head. “I feel like we have had this conversation a thousand times over the last five years. I can’t protect you from yourself Jack'' Jack became rigid and his face blank. “I only wish to do my duty sir.” Aiden looked at Jack’s face, trying to find the kind boy he grew up with, but at last he sighed. “My father has an assignment for you, you will not like it, prepare your team for a long day tomorrow” Aiden squeezed Jacks shoulder and walked away. Jack was thankful he would miss the king's ire. He began to follow Aiden from the room when the secretary spoke “the king will see you now” Jack stopped and sighed. He trudged toward the office door for his ass chewing. If he didn’t know better he might have thought he saw the secretary grin.

Near midday, the doors opened to a private audience chamber and as Mary stepped in the door closed behind her. Her father sat in a large lounge chair with a glass of wine, across from him was his cousin King Dom, also sipping a glass of the deep red wine. Dom spoke first “sit princess, your father tells me you had something to tell me?” her father poured her a glass and passed it to her. As she sat on an open chaise lounge, she tasted the wine. It was deliciously robust with a hint of blackberry and currant. The king cleared his throat and she looked up again, how silly she must look, the king might think she was soft between the ears. “My king” she spoke politely “when last I stayed in Sanfran with Lord DuMorte’s daughter Cecila, I overheard a conversation, I believe the were speaking of a Dragon?” Both men looked at each other and visibly paled. Mary quietly wondered what the hell a Dragon was.

Old York - Barracks

Jack stormed in steam practically rising from his ears. Sanitation duty! His team would be responsible for guarding the breakdown team after tomorrow's event. That included escorting the sanitation team to the dump outside the walls in the lower city. It was a shit duty, no pun intended, to embarrass him. But as everything else, they would perform to their best effort, because if there was one thing Jack knew, it was duty.

Old York - Citadel Courtyard

Slightly exhausted from the night before his team stood firmly at attention as the proceeding began. They were on a raised dais in the citadel courtyard surrounded by the royal family. In the courtyard seating area was a large gathering of nobles and few rich merchants. The sun beat down on the gathering and several people had hand fans to help alleviate the heat. The guards and the peasants did not. The gaggle of peasants that were there to see their new queen are what stressed him the most. He would have held a private ceremony if it was his choice, but the king maintained that the peasants must lay eyes on their leaders. Something about not being able to lead from the shadows. Jack stood on the dias with a few other royal guards, his team spread out around the courtyard for quick response, and Xyla on the roof across the courtyard on overwatch. Today they would announce to the masses the next king and queen of Amica. Jack wasn’t sure how he felt about his ex marrying his best friend. Not that anyone knew she was his ex, or her father would probably try and have him killed. He realized he didn’t feel anything. He felt empty. He was distracted with his thoughts but he still saw the flash of light from a window in the building across the way. He instinctively shoved one of the guards next to him in front of the future power couple. The guards chest exploded as a round passed though his breastplate. The bullet exited out the back, but it had gotten deflected off target and only graze the princes right arm. In a flurry of motion the guards grabbed the royals and began escorting them off stage. Jack called out to his men on his radio. “Four story brick building three’o’clock, flash on the fourth floor second window from last.” there were several calls of affirmative as his team started making their way through the crowd. People were screaming and running for the courtyard exit and they were making it hell to get to the building. Xyla came on the radio “Target cited, building roof, in pursuit” “Dammit Xyla, wait for backup, we will be there in ninety seconds.” Jack shouted into his radio.

Xyla heard Jack but she had a clean line of site on the assassin, and she would be damned if she lost him. He leapt across a rooftop to the next building over and kept moving toward the east side. If he made it to the alleyway he would be lost for sure. She leapt between the buildings in pursuit doing a barrel roll as she landed. She saw the assassin look over his shoulder and notice the pursuit, but he kept running. He leapt the next building, again, just making the ledge. He was now only three buildings away. As she jumped she hit the rooftop low and on her shoulder, turning it into a roll. As such she didn’t see the assassin drop something as he made the leap to the next building. Sweating now, she turned on the speed pushing her legs faster. On the second building she saw Jack break through to the rooftop , only just behind the assassin.

Jack came to the rooftop breathing heavy, he had pushed hard to make it here ahead of the assassin. He was moving for intercept, when he noticed the man pull something out of his pocket. He couldn’t quite make it out, he looked toward Xyla and saw a glimmer of metal on the building edge. His breath caught, it was a detonator.

Xyla saw Jack look back at her with… fear in his eyes? She didn’t have time to consider it as she got toward the edge of the building. She heard a soft boom, felt a shockwave, then the rooftop gave away and she couldn’t leap. She was falling, her momentum carried her forward but there was no way she could make the rooftop. Terror gripped her as the alley five stories below, seemed impossibly close. Then a hand gripped hers and she hit the wall hard. Her breath knocked from her as she dangled listlessly above the ground below. She thought perhaps she had a few cracked ribs. She looked up and saw Jack hanging onto the ledge with one hand, the other gripping hers. She would have breathed a big sigh of relief, but she still couldn’t catch her breath. Jack began to swing her to the side, and realizing what he needed, she caught the lip of a nearby window and held on while Jack got back to the roof. Reaching down from a more secure location he pulled her up to the roof and they both rolled over out of breath.

Jack had made a split second decision and abandoned the chase to save his teammate. A decision any commander would make, but he didn’t have to be happy about it. He reached his radio from his back. “Cro report” Cro came back on, breathing hard.”Gone sir, we’ll keep scouring the alley, but it branches of ten feet., he could have literally gone anywhere” “Copy, keep searching, we will be down to join you in three” He stood up and helped a guilty looking Xyla to her feet as well. “Focus soldier, now's not the time for pity” She stood straighter and saluted, they headed down to join the rest of the team.

In the end they found the assassin. Dead, in a dead end. Two knife wounds in his back lying in a pool of his own blood. Nothing on him, no money, no weapon, nothing to identify him. They only knew it was him because Xyla could ID him from her brief glance on the rooftop. It was left unsaid that the commander could probably have caught him if he hadn’t turned back for Xyla. There was a paul over the group as they regrouped back at the barracks. They got a report, none of the royals were injured outside of the fleshwound the prince took. But seven peasants that had been there to watch the ceremony had died from injuries and another twenty injured. All of the injuries from being trampled in the mad rush to flee. While one way in and out was great for security, it wasn’t great when several hundred people decided to leave at the same time. Jack had just sat down, when he was called to the citadel to report. With a tired sigh, he got back up and headed out. He didn’t notice the sorrowful glance from Xyla.

Old York - Citadel

“Captain report” The king was furios, but his ire was fortunately focused on the captain of the royal guard Bosun. Theoretically Jack’s superior in the chain of command. But it was generally known, Jack only answered to prince Aiden. The captain didn’t look perturbed by the king's anger. For a man who had only held the position for the last five years, Bosun was a rather stoic bastard. “It was a professional your highness, and well paid. We were unable to take the man alive” Jack noticed a few glances his way but chose not to respond as it wasn’t a question. “But the round taken from the guard killed” Again some glances his way, and some decidedly angry “we can confirm that it was a .50 cal slug.” Jack almost whistled. The royal guard unit had a few themselves, but they were never used, the value on them could feed a small town for a month. The king spoke again, slightly mollified. “We confirmed the target was Aiden?” “or the princess your highness, they were standing right next to each other, and while guard Tanner’s sacrifice saved them, we can't be sure who the target was.” At this the king looked over at his cousin the duke, and put his chin into his hand. Something passed between them in that look, but he damned sure didn’t know what it was. “Leave us, everyone out.” Bosun bowed and he and his men started to leave. As Jack walked toward the exit he heard the king speak “Commander, hold” Bosum looked back at him and frowned. THen proceeded to close the door behind himself. Jack stood at attention with only the king and duke still in the room. Elisade looked at the king doubtfully. “Him your highness?” The king looked at the duke, then back to Jack. “Regrettably he is very qualified and I think this has to be handled with the utmost care” Elisade nodded in acceptance. The king sat up and put his elbows on his desk. He looked at Jack until he was starting to be uncomfortable. Finally he spoke. “It seems you will be relieved from sanitation tonight. I need you to go somewhere else. A mission of critical importance. What do you know of project Dragon?”