Twice Royal (a company tower)

[Thanatos_M]

It took a minute to strike him, but Than almost started when he realized it, quickly regaining his composure before Ceres could take any notice of his change. Right there. He didn't even mean to get anything out of her, but she'd said it. Her weak spot was right there, with Griffin, just like everyone else in this forsaken little family. He kept himself from grinning a the revelation, and he suddenly felt a sense of power over Ceres. Keeping it to himself, he responded to her as would typically be expected of his supposed arrogance. "I should hope he doesn't become vile and evil." He chuckled softly to himself, tilting his head back to look in Ceres's direction for a moment while he brushed the blood she'd drawn from his finger over his lips. "If he did, I'd have to kill him."  

[kaiori]

*Than would have to be a complete idiot to believe Ceres had any sort of emotional weakness, considering the fact that she was basically insane and could probably care less about anyone's death. She frowns and steps further away from Than.* You're such a foolish, foolish, son of a b***h. How dare you make such claims. Who do you think you are? Why won't you leave this place alone? Heartbroken? Wish you could be with lovely lovely kaiori? Or have you become so twisted like your "father" to believe that it's okay to just attack whoever the ******** you want without any reason. Home-wrecker. *She laughs manically.*  

[Thanatos_M]

Although it was too quiet to be reliably heard under Ceres's uproar, Than was chuckling, laughing along with her. Which part he found the funniest he didn't say, but he at least tried to answer the question when the laughs died down. "Become my father?" He seems muse over the question for a moment. "No, no, I haven't become him, I've replaced him." Tired of leaning his back against the edge of the counter, he propped himself up on his arms and sat right on the counter instead, raising himself up. "I won't deny you I've learned a few things from him, not to mention the others in the citadel. However, my path has long since diverged from them." It wasn't a point he felt worth continuing on with Ceres, so he turned to her other questions. "I'm not as concerned about this place as you think. The only reason I'm here right now is because I got wind that Apollo would be here. Now I can think of ridding the world of him more effectively. As much as a spine would do him some good, I would feel much more satisfied with Griffin at the throne." He rolled his neck a little, with a small snap or two. He had avoided the question of Kaiori all together. "Oh, and I dare say such a thing because I'd really kill him if I had to..."  

[kaiori]

*Ceres stops laughing the moment Than begins. staring with a dark anger her lips curl into a snarl.* You can try to kill him, but only I know how. His death is for my hand alone to deal! You think you deserve that honor or chore however you see it, again after you did such a poor job the first time? Or should I be the one to kill him, someone actually wronged by this man. Don't do things for no reason besides annoyance and the fact that you can. *She mutters bitterly with a sickening sadness in her voice.*  

[Thanatos_M]

"The first time I'm not even sure anymore if I wanted to kill him or not." He adds sharply, not elaborating any further. He seemed to let things remain in silence after that, almost like he was mocking Ceres's demand, but then he inquired suddenly: "You know how?" Out of the corner of his eye, he was blindly looking in her direction. "But do you really have the will to carry it out?" His interest now turned to whether or not Ceres would even bother to carry out what she seemed to claim was her right. "The power he holds over you and Kai is pretty strong; I'll give him that. You're right though. Why should I give my effort to eliminate him when you, as you claim, possess the knowledge to do so and have the reason. I can see it too. But I ask you again: can you tell me you will succeed in vanquishing him?" Than was obviously putting something up to Ceres's answer, but he wasn't saying yet exactly what Ceres could gain or lose based on her answer.  

[kaiori]

You are a waste of time. *She mutters harshly before dripping into a black pile of oil and fading into the floor as if the stone surface had sucked it up.*  

[Thanatos_M]

"I thought you said taking things slow was better." He chuckled to himself, letting the woman slip away. There probably wasn't much more he could have accomplished with Ceres anyway. Than had a feeling if they were to work together, Ceres would end up getting herself killed anyway. When she was gone, Than resumed a bored and disinterested trance, laying back completely on the counter and sighing loudly. Now that the conversation was done, he was just thinking. Than didn't stay at Twice Royal for any other reason than he had nothing else to do. He wondered briefly what kind of turmoil Kai, Bell, and Griffin must be in at the moment if they hadn't decided to try and sleep. Perhaps Apollo had come and gone while Than was talking to Ceres. It didn't matter to much to him right now, and he soon trailed his mind to more pressing thoughts.  

[A Broken Husk]

"I have a question for you, child of the Citadel." Rookin said, in an attempt to interrupt Thanatos' train of thought. Standing impassive and silent thus far, after all who was he to interrupt the pair bickering over who'd kill who, the large cyborg idly unhitches the heavy spiked mace from his bet. The metal looked brand spanking new, as though it's weight had never before crushed the life from a being but then again so did his armor, but then again with all the weird and impossible things going on at any one point of time here in the Black Company who was to say Rookin didn't have some strange ability to produce new weapons when ever he felt it or hell, even have a weapon that never seemed to deteriorate! "You want Apollo dead, seemingly enough to kill Kaiori. Why?"

The metal of Rookin's armor sounded, echoing in the vast and empty ball room, as he took a step forward. Metal on metal, sliding against one another as the plates ground against one another in over lapping layers, and metal on tile. Whether or not the fine material of the flooring would resist the scratching Rookin's full metal armor would produce was really not of concern as the whole place could very likely go up in a fiery inferno very quickly.  

[Thanatos_M]

Than didn't show it visibly, but Rookin's sudden interjection made him almost jump, since the man had been almost silent. An audible grumble was the first response to Rookin's question. It may or may not try Rookin's patience that he had to wait a full twenty seconds before Thanatos sat up on the counter to look in his direction with an annoyed look. "You, your commander, and everyone else at this party has the comprehnsion of my little brother when he was a few days old. I'll save you the effort of going over your records. I said quite clearly that I did not want to kill him; killing him is merely the easiest step to getting rid of him. Perhaps you'll recall I said I had 3 possible alternatives for him, but of course he didn't hear that." Than turned and hopped off the counter, now facing Rookin on his feet. He didn't seem to care, or at least didn't know, that Rookin had his weapon unholstered. "Now that that point's out of the way, I can answer your question. I want to get rid of him both because of all the things he's done and the position of power he wields. I could actually name multiple benefits to getting rid of him. And I'll tell you straight, it's not my plan, yet, to kill Kaiori with him. The only thing protecting him is a cheap little magic trick. Give me a day or two and I could come up with a way around it. You can keep asking me questions if you want, but you'll have to answer one of mine first. Why do you care?"  

[A Broken Husk]

"Soldiers kill many people," Rookin responded, mace in hand and standing roughly five or six feet away, "As you can imagine I have had my share of violence as well, I wouldn't have been chosen for my rank had I not the stomach to end lives, but that doesn't mean I enjoy doing it." Nodding his armored head in the direction of the elevator, towards the exit Kaiori and Griffin had made, "She seems out of place in this world, in my honest opinion. She doesn't seem to be made of the mettle that the rest of you are, doesn't seem to have the abilities to back up her apparent cold blooded nature - which in of itself seems a sham to me." Of course Rookin was talking about Kaiori, or maybe Belle since Rookin should have had no experience with either or and thus his assumptions could have fallen wrongly. "You have all ready demonstrated unrestrained ability to end lives in fashions I would have avoided, have all ready stated your desire to remove a body from a seat of power by what ever means necessary. My next question is why do you want Apollo gone, if not dead. Griffin is ambitious in his youth, and I can see the Twice Royal leaping in great bounds under his rule if guided properly by those who would see the Twice Royal flourish for it's own majesty and not as a part of a plot to do this or that. So where do you fit in?"

Standing tall enough that Thanatos would have to crane his neck to look Rookin in the eye, chances are he wouldn't have too as expecting a blind man to look in any one particular location was an effort in futility. Rookin had been watching Kaiori, Ceres, and Apollo during the incident, watched how the damage was transferred from man to the women, and thought he may know how they were doing it. If he were correct he may have a solution to the problem, or failing that could have Kaiori's consciousness imprinted and reapplied to a body, having taken time to remove the essence that held her bonded to Apollo. A complicated procedure, one that had few precious ways to go off without a hitch and so many reasons and ways it would fail that even Tegral was unwilling to attempt a copy of his own consciousness despite the fact it could literally birth him a copy of himself in every way, shape, form, and thought.  

[Thanatos_M]

"Your share? With an a** like Tegral for your commander I think that's an understatement. I'm not calling him a willing war-monger, just a pathological one." Than rocked his neck from side to side, working out some stiffness from laying still so long. "But that's a different topic, let's stay away from it."

"Kaiori's 'mettle' was unparalleled in the early days." That started, the early days being within his first year or two of life. "Without getting into that story, it costs her a great deal now to show that voracity. In other words, she has it but it's now restrained by multiple factors. How am I sure of that? I've seen it more than once on multiple occasions. Remove a few of her current circumstances and I believe you'd see what I mean."

Than chuckled a little at the supposed response to his question. It was satisfactory. "As I said, there are multiple reasons, even if you remove the personal ones. You've seen yourself what his style is: it's unfit for a King, and frightening if he should ever expand his rule through Griffin. If he's removed, Griffin has the potential to change the face of his people, even if he doesn't know it. Him and Bell. In fact, Bell may be even more beneficial as a ruler. You saw it, right? After I slaughtered KB, she was the only one who reproached me for it. I'll grant both have a lot to learn, but Apollo is just one of the things stopping them from doing so." Than had several possible ways of removing Apollo's hold on his wife, but those were all unnecessary if Apollo himself just disappeared. "In fact, that was one of the alternatives I was going to offer Apollo. I'd let him live if he abdicated his power to his children. Of course, he's not going to listen to that proposal, so I have to resort to more violent alternatives." Rookin was wrong about Than having an unrestrained ability to kill; it was very much restrained. KB was just a special case, but Than didn't feel like pointing this out to Rookin. In fact, Than wasn't even going to explain to Rookin none of this was the fundamental reason that guided his actions, but they were reasons it was necessary to remove Apollo to fulfill those purposes. "Apollo is only one of such people I aim to remove from power; probably the easiest one."  

[A Broken Husk]

"Tegral is a good soldier, he follows orders." Rookin used the present tense, aiming to signify that no matter what course of action Tegral sought to take he'd always be both a soldier and the Admiral that he and his counter part Kah - along with the others - had so dutifully followed. "Whether or not he agrees with them isn't really for us to question." With that said Rookin followed Thanatos' advice and steered away from that particular topic. Yeah, Tegral was a bit gun-ho in his advance on everything, even if orders didn't call for direct force, but it usually always got the job done.

"Pray forgiveness, but obviously I wasn't around in the earlier days," Rookin responded, "What I know of the woman I can only deduce from my own findings, despite a rather extensive knowledge of the Black Company's inhabitant's combat abilities my know-how of your personal dealings is somewhat limited." Having no real weaknesses of muscles, no fatigues as far as biological needs went, Rookin was still ram-rod straight, unmoving, as he had the second he had gained his weapon. Being so far constructed of machinery one could argue that Rookin wasn't even a cyborg anymore and merely an android with a 'living' conscious inside. Then again the same could be said about Kah or even Tegral, though any who wished to keep their lives very quickly shied away from implying the Admiral was less than human. "Though you seemed to have avoided answering my question: Where do you fit in with all of this and why? If Apollo is unfit for ruling than what do you care if he remains in command, or do you feel by leaving him on a seat of power acts as a sort of restraint against what ever it is you might be planning? I'm merely guessing at this point, your kind is still a mystery to me."

The fact that Thanatos had, more or less, a hit list of people he aimed to remove from power didn't fall on deaf ears. In fact it was recorded and send to Kah, Rookin having assumed that Tegral was one such person Thanatos meant to eliminate despite the Admiral's all ready vocal desire to dismantle his armies and vacate to some quiet corner of no where.  

[Thanatos_M]

"Have I? Then I apologize for that," Thanatos replied when Rooking said he'd avoided the question. "I suppose I get a little lost when someone makes me try to spell out all my reasons and purposes. To be brief, I agree that Griffin has the potential to accomplish a lot, but I strictly believe it is only potential. As of yet, I haven't seen him accomplish one feat of power or significance that isn't the result of him 'piggybacking' on his father's reputation. In other words, he's just a carbon doll for his father, even though he possesses all this economical power. To continue, I believe he has accumulated enough power that if his ties to Apollo were severed, he would be successful. Even if he didn't ascend to the throne in Apollo's place, he's fully empowered to expand and keep his place. He doesn't need the little dust bowl that Apollo is ruler of."

"Although I find many faults with him and him many with me, I am on his side. Without going into detail, let's just say the similarities between me and Griffin are numerous so much that he'd probably blush if I mentioned them all." Than had way to many parallels between himself and the prince to mention, but he still allotted Griffin 'some' distinctions. "I have no plans to reach the kind of position he has, but I believe our goals are not dissimilar. Thus, if Griffin ascends to full power, I believe what he does will either help what I plan to accomplish or at the very least he will not harm it in the way Apollo would. If that's too confusing, then let's just say I like Griffin better than Apollo." He laughed a little again. Than still had loads of problems with Griffin, personal and non-personal, but that wasn't worth letting get in the way of grander schemes. "Oh and you're getting all of this and sending it to the others right? Tell Tegral's toaster I said 'hi.'" The toaster could only have been Kah, whom Than had seen with Tegral on numerous occasions.  

[A Broken Husk]

Rookin smiled at Thanatos, despite the knowledge that the boy could not see him, but even still the genuine mirth that could be heard in his voice was easily recognized. "She says," He responded fully aware that Thanatos was taking a shot at Kah, "That she's got something for you to do with your daddy's toaster." What she meant by that he didn't know, Kah was as crazy as they came while still being completely competent in her duties. Maybe it was some kind of inside joke between the two? What ever, Than was irritating and Kah was a headache at the best of times.

"At any rate," He continued, "What is said between you and I is of my own personal wishes. As you're likely aware the Admiral...Tegral is all ready preparing to send his army and fleet elsewhere." Mace still held in his hand his smile faded aware as he spoke, his voice growing more somber and further from the sound of laughter he held a minute ago. "I'll say this once, Thanatos: Give me a reason and I will kill you." Plain, simple, and to the point.

Rookin hated needless killing, which is probably why he refused adding mounds of heavy weaponry on him like Tegral had or implemented sophisticated technology across himself like Kah, but could and definitely would kill if needed. "You're starting a fire you may not be able to control and rather than see innocence hurt," If such a thing could be found in the Black Company... "I would have you killed."  

[Thanatos_M]

"Such scary words!" Than remarked with a louder tone. "Yes, yes, I suppose you big shots in the galactic navy, or where ever you come from, always think it's never too late to turn over another leaf. What's a few nukes, persecutions, and terrorizing sprees in the past to you, after all? Yes, you don't need to do anything else but stop and suddenly everything's better. Oh no wait, give an innocent woman a kill switch to end 75% of the things in your army. THEN it's all better." Mockery wasn't absent in Than's words in the least. He was implying all of the Admiral's, and Rookin's, too, faults in his statement.

"Your leader claims he's getting ready. That doesn't mean I believe him, or that anyone else does. But I'll make it clear, too, that if the Admiral can really do what he says and better yet make some token of proof to his intentions, then he has nothing to fear from me. Despite all of his wrong doings and the fact he won't make any reparations for that, I'd rather him settle down than have me go through all the effort required to kill a being that can travel from body to body. And you can tell him I've got a way to do it." Although he still needed to make a way to kill Apollo after his new information, he already had a method for attacking a cybernetic being of Tegral's nature, as difficult as it was. It was only natural for Than to have made such plans, since Tegral was one of the most dangerous around whereas Apollo was one of the weakest.

"And you're wrong; I haven't even started yet. It'll take time, but I'll start tossing my stones at the problems soon enough. Maybe you're right and I'll get lucky, hit a faultline and start a tremor that'll shake the region or even the world. That's the whole point, really. If rivers of blood flow and fires in the sky burn because of what I do, then it's your obligation to stop me, the same way it's my obligation to do what I plan to do now..."