NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is part three in the Viannor Saga. Find Episodes One (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=456607) and Two (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=561803) elsewhere on this forum.

Stop the tape of reality, then rewind it. From Tiberius Starblayde striding into a Cartel conference room in Lamoni, past the Starblaydi championships in the 41st World Cup and the 23rd AOCAF Cup. Back beyond the wedding of Tiberius to Dominique Domasca, even before the International Leaders' Volleyball and the Baptism of Fire. Keep on rewinding, just beyond the political rallies that began the formation of Starblaydia's first real parliament. Go past the cessation of hostilities in Atlantian Oceania. Go back to that conference room in the lightly-defended building in uptown Jhanna, Starblaydia's capital city. Back to that stormy, rainy night. Freeze it just there, as Jaehaerys Fyreskar brings his pistol to bear on the Lady-Protector, Viannor, as she rushes towards Tiberius Starblayde.

Outside the window, on the floor below, stood two KERES agents. Two female members of the highly trained and lavishly equipped Kalonii Emergency Reaction Enforcement Service (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/k.e.r.e.s.html) who, by definition and recruitment, were all female. The night was quiet, bar the occasional bit of shouting from the policemen and random hooded teenagers, though for the two KERES agents alertness was always paramount. Both dressed in long, black close-fitting coats, they concealed a number of weapons, highly technical gadgets and probably no end of miniscule make-up implements. Under their purple berets, one had her flame-coloured hair harshly tied-back while the other had tied her long brown locks into a long braid. The flame-haired one stepped out from under their doorway and into the open air, with the rain starting to fall lightly from the low clouds high above. She lifted her hand to her face, speaking in to the concealed microphone in her sleeve.

"Moira, Nyah," she said, "can you see what the street-beaters are up to?"

"It's just kids, Titania," the brown-braided one said, "relax."

"Kids always need checking on," Titania replied with a knowingly-maternal look, returning to her mic, "Nyah? Moira? This is Titania, sitrep please."

Nothing. Nothing save a glint in her peripheral vision. Maybe it was the reflection in the rain, or light bouncing off the increasingly wet pavement, but Titania noticed the flash. Two flashes, from the window high above. The chamber within which Lady Viannor and her councilors were meeting.

"Keiko," Titania said, "did you see that?"

"What?" Under the doorway, Keiko had seen nothing.

"Nyah, Moira," Titania said into her mic, "all local units, possible shots fired at the Inner Council. Can anyone see what's going on? Where the hell are those two."

Keiko had stepped out into the light rain and looked up at the window. Nothing further was happening, just the regular light from the window, all they could see from down below was the ceiling of the room in which the Council was meeting. Lady Viannor, her Lords and advisers, a Major who was to meet them.

"Where's that bloody Venator?" Keiko said over the network, remembering his presence at the meeting only a fraction of a second before Titania had. The bad blood between the two agencies, one an ancient and traditional Special Forces operation - translated from the original latin as 'Hunters' - while the other was a newly-formed Secret Police. The fact that one was mostly male and the other mostly female only added to the tension.

No-one had any chance to respond to either call before a dark shape flashed suddenly into view at the window - shattering it into tiny shards of glinting glass. Titania and Keiko ducked, covering their heads with their arms to protect themselves from the dangerous falling fragments. The dark shape landed with a thump on the pavement and a crunch of glass, before rolling a couple of times and coming to a halt. The two agents looked up to see the shape getting slowly to its feet, standing tall and proud. It was the Lady-Protector, Viannor Starblayde. She had been shot twice in the chest and fallen through the window on the second floor., yet she stood, straight-backed and calm before them.

"Get a car," she said with a tone that brooked no arguments, "we're getting out of here."

It didn't take long. Any direct order from the KERES was answered swiftly and surely by any unit in the area. The personal guard of the Lady-Protector were respected by all, but near universally feared, their jurisdiction was total, answerable only to Lady Viannor herself. A police-owned car soon appeared, evidently an unmarked or under-cover one, of which there thousands on the streets of the nation. One thing Viannor had done in her relatively short time was to massively increase the numbers, funding and effectiveness of the police. A Police State Starblaydia had been before, but now it was the very definition of one. The police driver was male, much to the KERES agents' dismay, and he made much of his driving ability, so much so that Viannor did not bother to argue with his boasting and allowed him to keep his spot in the driving seat. Titania knew she could have done a better job, but her place was at her Lady's side. She sat in the back with Viannor, while Keiko rode up front in the passenger seat.

Viannor said nothing for much of the journey, resting her head on the window as the rain spotted and trickled down the outside of the glass, her face illuminated by the passing cars and lights from buildings and street lamps. Titania looked across to Viannor's wounds, making to inspect them before offering some medical attention, but... there were no wounds.

Viannor's jacket and shirt had holes in them, blood was drying around the bulletholes, but Viannor made no protestations for pain or injury. Titania leaned over and, taking her gloves off, felt the bullet holes in her clothes, probing inwards to feel the extent of the entry wound, but there was none. Just smooth, toned flesh beneath her clothes. Titania's mouth opened wide, but Viannor simply stared out of the window with a half-smile on her face. The police radio crackled into life.

<Code Oberyn.> That made everyone's ears prick up, the highest level of importance in a law enforcement communication. <All units, all channels, nationwide call to all units on all channels. Lord Starblayde is alive, repeat, Lord Tiberius Starblayde is alive and has re-taken control of Starblaydia. War is to cease, repeat, war is to cease - the war is fucking over! Lady Viannor is deposed and removed from all power, arrest warrant for Viannor is in circulation, approach with extreme caution.>

"Drive on." Viannor said, simply. No KERES would argue with her, even when given a direct order from Tiberius Starblayde himself. It was three against one and the driver, therefore, didn't argue either. Two uniformed policemen high-fived each other as they walked their beat down the street. Viannor paid them no attention.

The car sped through the city, moving from the twisting and unplanned streets of 'Old' Jhanna into the simple block-pattern of 'New' Jhanna. The driver ran through amber and red lights when he could, completely ignoring the general rules of the road. No policeman would be able to stop this car, he knew.

Titania continued to stare at her charge, the undisputed and absolute ruler of all Starblaydia, the most powerful nation in the region and one which was at war with what seemed like the entirety of the rest of the region. 'Starblaydia stick' they would have called it on a playground, but in the deadly game of international conflict, they were playing by far less, but far more risky, rules. As they came to a crossroads, the driver again floored the accelerator pedal, drawing a scowl from Keiko as Titania was forced back in her seat. Titania leant forward again, seeing Viannor illuminated by the white-yellow lights of an oncoming vehicle. A vehicle, lights dazzling her, that wasn't stopping.

There was a screech of tyres and a scream from Titania as the oncoming car slammed into the right side of the vechile, crushing the rear door that Viannor was leaning up against. The glass shattered, like the building window a few minutes before, into thousands of tiny fragments and were scattered throughout the car. More tyres sounded their displeasure at skidding across the tarmac as their car was flung around in a wide arc, the driver desperately applying some opposite lock to get them heading straight again - it was too late. The car slammed head-on into the solid metal pole of a traffic light and came to a sudden halt. The front airbags had gone off and the driver was stunned, but unharmed beyond some minor lacerations to his face from the flying glass. Keiko, too, was gathering her thoughts and checking all her body parts were still attached and functioning.

In the back seat, Titania had braced herself for the crash and knew that her first priority would be to tend to Viannor, but she had already opened her door - crushed and twisted it must have fallen off it's hinges and onto the floor some yards away - and was out of the car. Unclipping her seatbelt, Titania slid across the back seat and looked out of the unmarked police car. Viannor was there, crouching on the bonnet of the car that had hit them.

She brought her fist down in a wicked arc that shattered the remaining bits of windscreen, before reaching in and plucking the driver out of the car like a rag doll. The man cried out in pain as his seat belt caught tight against his flesh but Viannor's force was strong enough to snap the belt and wrench the man from his vehicle. By the throat she had him, holding him in the air like it was nothing. With a crack that sent a shiver down Titania's spine, the man's jaw broke within Viannor's deadly grip. He howled with a terrifying, almost inhuman sound before Viannor threw him to the ground, his skull cracking on the tarmac and his body going limp immediately. Once more Viannor reached into the car and again pulled out a body, this one a bloodied but alive passenger. She put her mouth to his neck and the man cried out, his hands scrambling against Viannor, but to no avail. As the life was drained from him, Viannor cast him aside, her mouth red with gore. She turned to the awestruck Titania, who had barely got out of the wrecked car.

"Death is all around us," Viannor said, looking at Titania's coat, "agent Stankovich, T. You would do well to remember that."

"Yes, my lady." It was the default response to say in any situation with Lady Viannor. Titania could think of nothing else to say. Luckily, she didn't have to. For the first time, though, Titania noticed that Viannor's teeth - her canines, in particular - were long, sharp and pointed. They were fangs.

"Fetch me a new vehicle, there are thing that require doing. And unmaking."

"Yes, my lady." Titania raised her hand to her face as Keiko joined them.

"Not over the channel," Viannor warned, "do it the old fashioned way. Oh, and get rid of him." she gestured at the figure of the police driver slumped over the now deflated airbag.

Titania nodded to Keiko, who drew her pistol and fired one clean shot through the head of the driver. Titania smashed the window of a nearby parked car and quickly hotwired the vehicle, cutting out the alarm as she did so. Now she would get to drive the Lady-Protector around, Titania still thought of her as such despite the official call to say she was no longer holding the nation in her grip, and there would be no accidents on the way to their destination.

"...brutal regime of fear and oppression is over. From dawn tomorrow, all Starblaydi forces currently engaged in operations will be pulled back to Starblaydi borders, as defined before this tragic situation began. The agencies of the previous government will be removed, as will the supreme powers of the Praetor himself. 'Lord-Protector' will no longer mean 'dictator', because starting tomorrow, preparations will be made for free and fair elections to a parliament with full executive powers. Starblaydia will become the great nation in the eyes of the world that she is in the eyes of her people..."

"Off," Viannor said, forgetting herself for a moment as she mentally flicked the switch on the television, blanking it before the nearest KERES agent could get anywhere near it.

Viannor looked around the room, her eyes glaring deeply into those of her inner circle, the most trusted of KERES agents. She knew that they were all hers; mind, body and soul. The usual amusement she felt at probably not having a soul herself was now long forgotten, but in the minds of every single one of them she could feel loyalty and obedience. There were others in the building, ones with less confidence in her, but they had already chosen their side. The KERES headquarters would be the first place that those damned Venators would hit. Tiberius' own force of underlings would be pitted against hers, man against woman. Mars against Venus.

Viannor, though, remembered who the Roman God of War was.

A hundred different contingency plans were in place for every possible situation, as Lady Viannor was no creature to be caught unawares and unprepared. No mere 'Attack Pattern Alpha' was her plan, she had been making preparations for over a decade, even before she took control of the nation. In the ten years and more that had passed, her control, her ideals and her powers had all developed inexorably, but she had yet to age a day. She was a demon, a creature of magic and darkness, a malevolent predator of the night.

She was a vampire.

"They will come," she said at last, breaking the silence of her expectant followers, "the men will come with their masks and toys, with guns to murder us all. We will not let that happen."

By 'we', of course, Viannor meant 'you'. She was nothing if not a pragmatist, knowing that until she held the world in her cold-fingered grip there was nothing truly safe for her. Her first attempt was quite obviously about to fail and, though it had lasted over a decade, it would not be enough. She would start again, somewhere else. Starblaydia itself was too much for her this time around. As her minions made their vows, readied their weapons and went to defensive positions, Viannor promised herself, not for the first time, that she would take it all. Starblaydia would be hers for all eternity, one day.

One day. But not this day.