Stepping off the loading ramp of the Fuck You Roland, Jack scanned the massive structure of struts, machines, and robots built to handle multiple docked airships at once.

Rows of MECHFrames filled the interior, along with artillery shells, vehicles, and personnel mustering for deployment.

“Seems Selfia has been busy while we were away… oh, incoming!” Sahaqiel commented as a little girl wearing a white skull cap and a blue uniform sprinted across the gunmetal hanger.

“DADDY!” Celeste squealed, leaping into Jack's outstretched arms.

“Hey Princess,” Jack said, smiling as he picked his daughter up.

From both sides of the loading ramp, the gathered formations of soldiers snapped salutes, their uniformed movements heralding the coming of the white-haired woman adorned in a blue dress with silver arms and jewelry.

“Welcome back my husband,” Selfia said, approaching with her entourage of gold-armored Bell guards, one amongst them being Leona.

Amongst the crowd of thousands, Jack lowered his head in accordance with custom.

“Your Majesty, I've returned from my campaign,” Jack said with all the decorum of a general returning from war.

“So you have,” Selfia said, a gentle smile on her face as a reporter snapped a photo in a flash of light.

****

“What the FUCK were you thinking?” Selfia spat, visibly annoyed as the door of her armored limousine slammed shut.

“Language!” Leonas hissed, reaching over Jack to adjust Celeste’s bunny-styled headphones on the child’s head.

“I did what needed to be done,” Jack replied, holding Celeste who lay in his lap more concerned with playing her handheld game.

“What needed to be done?! You murdered twenty-six prisoners!”

“No,” Jack snapped towards Selfia, the pair locking eyes, “I put down twenty-six monsters. I took their lives as easily as they took others. Say what you want to say, I know what I did was right and I won't apologize for ridding the world of creatures unfit to waste the oxygen in the air.”

Selfia pursed her lips, taken aback by Jack's tone. However, her shock was short-lived as Jack passed an intellipad her way.

“What's this?”

“All related information on the High Table that was recovered from the prisoners and the citadel.”

Selfia looked down, swiping the screen repeatedly to read the dossier composed of paragraphs of information.

“This…” Selfia could scarcely believe what she was reading, “Is too easy.”

Jack glanced over to the woman before glancing back out to the streets they passed, “You think so? The Green Bishop said the flying city was a gift from the Black King.”

Selfia furrowed her brow, tapping her chin with a metallic finger.

“Gift,” Selfia scoffed, “This is definitely a trap… Or a means to tie up our resources while he sucks off my brother.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“You mean a diversion?”

“Could be,” Selfia frowned, “The last holdouts of my brother's forces are collapsing and whatever hasn't capitulated will be ours within a month or two. If the High Table were to make a move it would be amidst the chaos of several ongoing operations. Throw in a few misdirects-”

Selfia held the tablet up and pointed at it, “-And it would tie us up nicely while whatever shenanigans he's got planned happens.”

“So what do you think we do?” Jack said, leaning forward.

“We hit them,” Selfia said, lowering the pad. “We hit them all and leave not a single place unturned.”

Jack frowned, “So you want us to play into his hand?”

“We hit them but we do it on our terms,” Selfia said, leaning back in her chair.

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

Selfia smirked, a wiry smile on the Queen's face. “Well if the plan is to waste our resources and split our manpower, we'll just hit them so fast whatever plans he's got cooked won't have the opening to deploy.”

“You make it sound simple,” Jack said, petting Celeste's head who was now fast asleep and drooling onto his lap.

“If I was still the princess with a large triad backing this would be a problem, but hiroshimaing several buildings on land I own? To stomp out a genocidal cult? Yeah, no problem, can have this done in a week now that I don't have a council of old geezers to entertain,” Selfia giggled maniacally, “Of course if nuking them isn't in the equation this is what Checkmate was made for, the strategic elimination of High Table assets. I'll have tier-one units move onto the sites. If wasting resources is the name of the game, the Imperium has infinite to spare.”

Jack grunted, looking down at his daughter and then back up. “Whats hieroshimaing?”

“Don’t worry about it, anyway of course we'll have to deal with my brother first. The war is almost over but the sooner his forces are dealt with the more manpower I’ll have to spare,” Selfia said, handing Jack a tablet. “Of course, You could always help.”

Jack's heart dropped, his eyes going wide at the aerial image of a blonde woman with short hair wearing red armor.

“Colette?” Jack said, his voice breaking slightly. It had been four years since last he saw the former bodyguard of Victoria.

Four years since they last spoke.

Four years since Celeste was born.

Jack immediately looked down at their daughter who was nearly five and then back the picture of her absent mother.

“It so turns out that the defense of this fortified city is being helmed by the Regalia of House Light with none other than Colette commanding one of its many trench lines,” Selfia said as she stared intently at Jack, almost as if she were reading his reactions. “Windermere is a heavily fortified port city and to siege and capture the city could take months.”

“So you want me to talk to her? Convince her to betray her house?” Jack asked, turning the tablet off and making sure Celeste was asleep before speaking in a hushed whisper. “She gave up our daughter, what makes you think she'd listen to me?”

“I hold no illusions of managing to convince a loyalist like Colette to defect. Believe me, I tried. I just wanted to give you the chance. My army is on the march and House Light is impending us. I only care about her because you do, but to me she is just another enemy.”

Jack sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I don't understand, if the war is basically over why is House Light fighting still?” Jack asked.

“Because even if they surrender they'll all be hanged,” Selfia said bluntly.

“What?”

Now it was Selfia's turn to sigh.

“The condition of your Aunt's support. From your reaction I can see you don't know this so I'll fill you in,” Selfia said, the limo now parked in front of their mansion. “Before Roland attempted his secession bullshit, House Light was under orders by my mother to eliminate House Bell. After your fight with Lancelot, it became open season on any and all Bell familia members. Hundreds died, be they Bell familia or simply someone that had spoken to one in passing. Of course your Aunt and I knew this would happen, and made arrangements to mitigate this, but because of the chaos of the invasion, many Bell members were isolated and hunted down by members of House Light.”

Jack listened to the words and processed them intently, knowing that what came next was still more words he didn't want to hear.

“So they'll fight to the end…” Jack muttered, looking down at the image of Colette barking orders at several Roland soldiers.

“I know what she means to you and I'd be appalled if I was the one responsible for taking Celeste's mom away from her,” Selfia said as the car came to a stop outside their palace. “Maybe you can do something.”

“Tch, more like push the responsibility on us,” Lilith hissed inwardly.

“Yeah, maybe,” Jack said as he attempted to wake Celeste gently.

“Mhhhhm,” Celeste groaned.

“Come on honey, time to get up.”

Instead of sitting up, Celeste closed her eyes, cuddling up to Jack who then resigned his fate as that of a pillow for his daughter.