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Many years of preparation was coming to an end here. If the prophecy said there were two who could defeat him, and one of them would be finished here and now. Serghei had been living free of the Soldați Perfecți for far too long. He should have ceased his life the day he decided to steal from the bank vault, but foolishly he'd allowed his son to live on. He figured he could get Serghei to be something of a spy for the United Kingdom, but then he had missed several summons home for training. So now he knew that his son had officially turned his back on the family, and here would be the day he would finally end the line before it could begin. Of course, he'd been delayed by Radovan's incessant request for sharpened practice, but he had quickly put and end to that before using a set of international floos to get to Kenmare, Ireland.

Once there, Markus was delighted, if a bit curious to see that he'd had someone else there to visit. Both seemed startled and on edge, but surely that was because of his sudden arrival. Serghei had likely thought himself safe from the swift hand of retribution, when in fact, he should have been expecting it. He should have known he was living on borrowed days. Serghei stood at attention, as any good soldier should, while Linsey... my, she was a defiant one, wasn't she? Markus would have his fun killing her once the stronger threat was cared for. Of course, he hadn't been expecting the traitor to fight back.

All at once, every one of his senses were gone, replaced by a dull hum throughout him. As he tried to fight back, he could vaguely make out words, but they sounded distant. He couldn't make out the words. It was a moment later that he felt the pressure on his ribs faded and his senses swirled back to life. Markus was angry now, knowing he would need to dispatch quickly before Serghei tried another dirty trick. Markus struck first, casting the stop-breath hex. It was one that was usually surprisingly effective against his sixth son. He quickly followed that with a cruciartus curse, the rage within him making it ever stronger. Serghei grit his teeth, arms quaking as he pushed out his own magic. Markus stumbled back a few steps, just long enough to stop the curse on the boy. "Nu mă vei învinge!"

Markus drew out a laugh at those words. "Sper că ai avut parte de un moment plăcut cu ea. După ce te voi fi trimis, ea va fi următoarea." Serghei shook his head, firing off another spell, this one swirling with red. Markus pushed aside the magic, this time firing back with a stronger variant of the same magic. Serghei bit back pain, but kept going. Their duels matched in sharp clashes of color, all causing Markus to get even angrier. How had he gotten this skilled with no formal training during his lapse?

It took a few minutes, but Markus finally managed to flip Serghei back. The younger brunette cried out as his head slammed into a cabinet before he sank into the floor. His chest was heaving hard, his vision clearly swimming. Markus stepped over him, using his wand and a strong spell to carve a rune into his chest. He ignored the screams his son was emitting, listening with a cruel grin as he continued his work. He wouldn't survive this encounter, but the world would still know he was a traitor. He betrayed his very family. He deserved every moment of this death.

Stepping back a bit, Markus looked over at his son. "I have spent twenty long years training you. I gave you every ounce of power you've ever known. I trained you to be a part of the most elite, the strongest of men. And you? You spit in my face. You betrayed your family and decided you were better than us. You deserve to die a slow, agonizing death, and it will be me to deliver that blow. They will find your body, then I will find your girlfriend. I will tell her how pathetic you were in your last moment. How you simply gave up. And I will tell her how you betrayed her as well." He spoke, offering a sharkish grin. "You.... can't...." Serghei tried, but his voice was weak.

"Oh, but I can. Sectumsempra." Serghei cried out as slashed ripped through his body, blood welling to the surface as he sank further against the cabinets. Markus watched for a second, seeing his dark eyes staring off at something. Markus looked back, seeing a framed drawing of a quaint little house... somewhere. It was initialed "LGC". Linsey Grey-Cavendish, most likely. Markus lifted it off the hook, waving it in Serghei's direction as he watched his son struggle. Oh, there was something special about this one. Once Serghei's eyes fluttered closed, Markus stepped back, then apparated away with the frame in hand. His job here was done, and his Sixth Son was no more.

As soon as he'd warned Serghei, Radovan made it home. He had to distract Father. He had to give his siblings a chance to survive. The second his feet hit the ground, Radovan started. He laced a few distraction spells around the fireplace, then went to ask his Father for a practice duel. It worked exactly long enough for Markus to push him toward the eldest brothers, cackling for a moment before walking off. After making sure the duel had begun, Markus left. Damn. Radovan effectively defeated his opponents, then bowed out to let them continue in their multi-man dueling.

It took a suspiciously short amount of time for Father to return home, blood splattered over his clothes. "Soldați! În rând." Radovan sighed softly at the sharp tone. He stepped to stand between Matej and Demyan. There was no longer a space between himself and his brother. There was no longer space for Serghei. "Trădătorul e mort! Nu va mai păta numele familiei noastre." Radovan kept himself silent as the others cheered. It disgusted him that again they would cheer for one of their family being murdered. But Markus had been wrong about Ella... could he possibly be wrong again?

Dark blue eyes watched Markus pace in front of the boys, before stopping in front of him. "And since we have but one who wears stars of silver, one who tried to delay my leaving. We have one who should take care of the mess. Radovan, you were closest to Serghei, you shall clean up the mess then hide any evidence. This will not return to our name. So far as anyone knows, Serghei Emil Antonov never existed." He cackled again, with five of the boys returning the sound. Radovan, however, simply nodded. Once they were allowed out of attention, he stepped over to the Floo.

Over in Kenmare, the scene that awaited him was one of pure chaos. There was blood splattered all over the walls and floors, the kitchen half turned upside down.... but no body. There were footprints in the blood, signs of an apparition. Serghei was alive. If he had died, then he would still be here, likely with Linsey sobbing over his form. But they were gone. And just that inkling of a moment brought up a pang of hope.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Radovan began work. He used a few carefully placed spells to repair the damage, then to clean up the absolute mess. He flipped through a few of Serghei's Durmstrang textbooks, before finding the one he needed. He cast the Fidelius charm, granting himself secret keeper. It was the only way to keep his brother safe. To keep his sister safe. He knew he would do anything to ensure his family was to be kept from harm. He disconnected the Floo from the network, disallowing trips from Romania for now. With hope, everything would go back to normal soon. Looking around, Radovan apparated away, his next destination to be the Grey Manor.

It had been many long weeks of a bunch of work. What he hadn't known from watching Father was that there was a ton of work behind the scenes to keep the Antonov family afloat. Thankfully, a lot of it had been dividing assets to the remaining families. All the wives got a stipend, but none wanted anything to do with the Antonovs beyond that. Thankfully, their families were independently wealthy. He did still divide a portion of the money for all nine children, now that Iolande had given birth to young Sabin. The majority was split between himself, Serghei and (eventually) Linsey, and Ella. He had tried to get Mother to take a fourth, but she insisted that she wanted to move to the isles to be near her kids and wanted to leave everything to the kids.

Harder than that had been dealing with both the Romanian and British Ministries of Magic, who were working on prosecuting the Soldați Perfecți. All five were on trial for several counts of abuses, dark magics, and several counts of collusion to attempt a government overthrow. Apparently Father had been plotting a lot more than Radovan had ever known, and Dmitry knew all about it. Weirdly, it was Matej who cracked, spilling everything he knew. That was causing quite a bit of drama, but Radovan wasn't sure that it wasn't an attempt to get his own sentence reduced.

But now came the trouble. He had to be there at all the trials. He had to dredge through every painful moment of their entire lives, including some horrors he'd probably never thought to see. Originally, they said that Ella would need to be present, but he had negotiated that since the trial would be after September First, Ella should remain safely at school. Her memories would be provided, collected by a trained Auror, and delivered safely to the trial. Of course, explaining that to her had been a lot more difficult, but they did have Ioana carefully collect the memories. At least he could spare the poor girl further tortures. Ella was still rather shaken up and he simply could not allow her more harm.

But now came him. He knew that in an ideal world, he'd be the one to handle everything, however, with everything that could happen.... So that left one option remaining. He'd have to ask Serghei. As he appeared at his brother's house, he was a bit worried by how Linsey would react. "Determined the best option.... was me?" Or maybe Serghei was a bit too dense. "Somewhat, yes. The trials for our brothers is set to begin in a few days and I..." He paused, not sure how to continue. Never before in his life had he been allowed to show weakness. Never before had he been allowed to hesitate. "I do not think I can do it alone. It is going to be incredibly difficult and I know I will have to spend countless hours reviewing every evil from our lives. Besides, the more evidence I can provide, the better our chances at securing them away."

Serghei looked alarmed by the question, but after a moment he nodded a bit. "You want me to go too? It would be difficult, I agree, but... what all would it comprise?" He looked over at Linsey, wondering what she might add. "Most of it would be us watching selected memories, both of Father and all the Five. They are going to be incredibly difficult to watch. Some will be ours, some will belong to our brothers.... some of them are from Ella." That caused Serghei to look a lot more concerned. "No. I made you swear that Ella would not be hurt. This means-" "Te rog, calmează-te. Ella will not be coming along. Zenzi, Ioana, and I have made it so that she would not have to be there. Ioana collected from her the memories we would need, with her permission, of course. I would never dare allow her to witness those horrors again. That is one promise I would never dare to break." Now he just had to get Serghei to agree. He noticed his younger brother looking over at Linsey, as if to ask what her thoughts on the matter might be.