Election III

Posted on Sun Jul 23rd, 2023 @ 10:24pm by Princess Royal Giana Orsini & Major Sacha Lavigne & Crown Prince Paolo Orsini

Mission: Historiae Terrae Et Imperii
Location: The Pyramid
Timeline: Date 2371-08-14 at 1445
3543 words - 7.1 OF Standard Post Measure

ON


Giana was sitting across from Sacha with the table of the fine restaurant they had come to between them. They were outdoors enjoying the beautiful weather and fresh air, the steady and unrelenting din of the citizens below carried up on the breeze. This idea of the Senate restoration had been a wildly popular one amongst the peasantry of Terra; they already loved their Emperor, but now they loved him even more. She sipped her wine delicately with one hand and the fingers over the other were entwined with Sacha’s on the table. They had finished eating, but they were lingering for a while as was common in this kind of appearance. The gathering of reporters and paparazzi around them was impressive, but Giana was very well versed in ignoring them.

She turned her head to Sacha suddenly and smiled. “Delicious, wasn’t it?”

Sacha had not adjusted to the cameras and paparazzi who were kept at a respectable distance by the Imperial Guard. The flashes, the glances, and all the buzz were distracting to him and, while he had started to like the feeling of importance it was giving him, it had made him a poor conversationalist. He smiled at Giana, though, quite happy to be with her.

“It was. I feel like I need to work out twice as hard this evening to pay for my calorie-based sins.”

Giana laughed and it was genuine, but there was also an element of theater to it as she shifted her body and mostly covered her mouth. Her eyes were on Sacha, and the cameras clicked furiously at the cute moment shared between the couple. “I know how you feel.”

A certain glint settled in her eye. “Maybe we’ll work out together. Later.”

Sacha returned the grin, making it clear that something particularly interesting was being said to them. As he did so, he saw a man with a camera lean forward with interest and snap a picture of his expression. This was a strange situation for him to find himself in, even as the son of a Lord Mayor of a major Terran city.

So much attention was directed to the couple that it was barely noticed when two members of the Imperial Guard stepped up to the table and leaned in toward Giana.

“Please come with us immediately, your Highness.” Said the one of higher rank. The two of them were on her detail, so they wouldn’t be strangers.

“What’s going on?” Sacha said with a slightly concerned expression. It wasn’t like the Guard to interrupt except in case of an emergency.

“Quickly, ma’am. We need to move you now.” the same guard said without respect to Sacha’s inquiry. He was focussed, following his training. It was clear that, when it came down to it, the members of the Imperial Guard were handpicked loyalists for a reason. Not only were they true believers, they were die hard patriots, monarchists, and cream of the crop soldiers.

“You’ve been asked a question.” Giana pointed out, narrowing her eyes at her guards - strangers or not, they should have known better. “Answer Major Lavigne’s question.”

The lead agent had worked with Giana for years, but had kept his distance in everything non-security. He seems to suppress a sigh, clearly not showing any particular respect or love for Sacha. He was dutiful, however, and didn’t flaunt his feelings or give much resistance to her order.

“We’ve received orders from His Imperial Majesty to move the entire Imperial Family, direct and extended.” He said, looking from Sacha to Giana. “Your brother has escaped from prison and captured his wife and son. It appears to be a military coup of some kind. Now, please. I don’t know any more than that.”

Giana’s eyes widened and it was plain to see she was immediately nervous. She was trying very hard to not show too much publicly, but the cold rush of fear that ran down her spine had been unlike anything she had ever really felt. Giuseppe had escaped; did he know it was her admission to their father which had finally done him in? She knew her brother’s temper and knew his violence first hand. If he did know…

She stood immediately and moved over to Sacha, grabbing onto his arm and leaning into him for security once he had stood. “Let’s… let’s go then.”

The officer frowned, looking like he was about to take a nasty dose of medicine.

“Since it’s a military coup and we aren’t sure the scope of the involvement, I think it’s best that Major Lavigne doesn’t come along, ma’am. After all, the Emperor’s concern was for family only.”

Sacha’s frown said it all as he balled up his fists and shook his head.

“If you plan on moving her anywhere without me, you’d better factor in me rearranging your fucking face.” He said, sticking his chest out, masculine and brazen. “I’m going with her.”

“That would be a bad idea, Major.” The Captain said, placing his hand on his hip beside his firearm.

Giana frowned, working to keep her expression displeased but not completely sour. She leaned into Sacha more and put her other hand on his chest. “He is my fiancé; he is coming with us. Do not make an issue of this, Captain. If there is a problem when we arrive with the Major coming with us, it will be handled, but it is not your place to decide.”

The last thing he wanted was for Giana to get hurt, a prospect that could result in his execution. The second last thing was to defy her and end up losing his job. The Captain sighed quietly and placed his hand on his face for a moment.

“Fine, we’ll leave that up to someone higher in the food chain.” He said, then gestured both of them toward the limousine that was pulled up near four Imperial Guard trucks.

Giana started to move, but then seemed to remember who she was with and what he had asked of her, so she stopped and looked up to Sacha. She waited on him to lead her instead of leading the way herself.

Sacha would have smiled if the situation hadn’t been so tense and mysterious. Instead he simply fell in step with her, guiding from beside her in a way that wouldn’t be obvious to anyone but the two of them. He helped Giana into the limo as the door was opened and then slid in beside her. Only when the door was closed did he turn to her and frown.

“Where the hell are they taking us?” he asked, then shook his head. “I knew I should have knocked that stupid haughty look off Giuseppe’s face when I had the chance.”

“The Pyramid, probably.” Giana replied, nervously messing with the hem of her dress and looking down. “That’s where father would be with the secretariat right now.”

“Extended family too, though? Isn’t that a little extreme?”

“Giuseppe escaped, Sacha.” She reminded him lightly. “My brother escaped security and on top of that, he also was able to kidnap Jessica and his son. He wouldn’t have been able to do it alone, he had to have help and intelligence missed that. There’s been a cascade of failures and broken loyalty for this to happen. My father… my father would want to make sure of the family being close.”

Sacha had a million questions, but he decided instead to keep them to himself for the time being. He didn’t want to seem like he couldn’t be strong for her, so he opted for silence. The ride to the nearby government building was quick as all traffic stopped for them. When inside, they stepped onto the transporter pad for their trip to Rome.

When they reappeared, it was in a standard transporter pad with a bright orange label over the landing which said “Welcome to the Pyramid”. Sacha looked at Giana, a bit uncertain. Many questions had been answered, but many more remained.

“Good afternoon, sister. Sacha,” Paolo said, standing tall despite the feelings of uncertainty that churned in his breast. “You’re the first to arrive. I trust nothing…bad happened on your way here?”

“No, nothing.” Giana confirmed, finally moving from Sacha and stepped up to Paolo. “What’s happened, Paolo? How did Giuseppe escape? Do we know?”

“Maybe we should sit down.” Paolo said, his heart pounding again. And then, without waiting for input from his big sister, he turned and made for the exit. When the doors opened, he stepped into a sitting room with a multi-pane floor to ceiling window that provided a view of the Roman skyline. All of the walls were even save the glass one, which dipped in slightly as it was part of the large pyramid shape of the building. Cream and brown couches were scattered around and a piano sat in the middle of the room. At a certain sitting area, Paolo picked an elegant chair and sat down. “Father’s office doesn't get used very much and his sitting room even less. It’s a simple result of having about five in this city alone, I suppose.”

“Yes, well this place is ostentatious even for me.” Giana noted with a bit of a huff since Paolo hadn’t even remotely answered the question she had posed after sitting down. She preceded Sacha this time, her feet stomping a bit in annoyance now that the immediate fear had abated. “But what’s going on?”

Paolo watched as the two of them sat, not seeming to have difficulty in saying what had happened so much as wanting to be comfortable and prepared.

“We were having the weekly Secretariat meeting, discussing the business of the Senate and the war, when Colleen White was pulled away from the table. She came back a couple moments later and interrupted the defense report with news from Silas Sharp. Papa shut down all inter-system and intra-system travel and has ordered that the entire family be brought here.”

Paolo turned his head and looked out of the window. Though they couldn’t see it from their seated position, the masses still gathered below to vote on the members of the Imperial Senate. An Imperial Holiday, the Emperor's Birthday, and so much more made this day extremely complicated. Once CJ gave the greenlight to the news, there would be no telling what the reaction would be.

“According to the report from the Internal Security Service, a military unit of Fleet, Marine, and Army units blasted their way into the prison in upstate New York where Giuseppe was being held. They killed everyone who stood in their way and freed him from his cell. While that was happening, an army unit ambushed a car carrying Jessica and Antonio. You know how badly he treated her, of course.”

While Giana had really had no love for Jessica, the girl with royal blood with such an incredibly peasant name, she couldn’t help but frown at that news. Jessica was dead, but nobody else either knew or wanted to face that fact. As soon as she gave birth to that new baby, Giana knew Giuseppe would strangle the life out of his wife. The thought made her shift uncomfortably, but she nodded at Paolo to continue.

“Father signed a Kill-on-Sight order for Giuseppe and any accomplices. He put the military on high alert and put the ISS in charge of locating Giuseppe and his band. He’s also called in Director Callahan. I think he intends to lose the Compliance Authority dogs on the military to weed out the traitors. As you may have heard, their methods are always very…persuasive.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard.” Giana replied absently then looked out of the window at nothing in particular. “Kill-on-Sight… that’s…” She didn’t finish the thought and just frowned.

“I believe Father regrets breaking the biggest law of political survival.” Paolo said, and then turned his eyes to his sister, lingering there for a while. “Destroy your enemies completely. He let Giuseppe sit in a cell, waiting for a fair trial, threatening the throne of the most powerful man in the Empire. Now the life of his grandson is in jeopardy and a military coup of undetermined scale is underway.”

“Giuseppe is his son… was his son, Paolo. He may have chosen you in the end - and rightly so - but… Giuseppe was his first boy… his first baby. Maybe there’s a part of him that blames himself for what Giuseppe has become and the part of him that is the father couldn’t bring himself to raise his hand against his son.” Giana observed, her voice quiet. “Giuseppe won’t kill his son.”

“But Jessica was half dead when he was arrested.” Paolo said, a bit louder and, unusually enough, a hint of emotion in his voice. “I know you don’t like her, Giana, but she’s different than I thought. I’ve had time to get to know her since she came to live with us; she’s kind. And she was scared he would find a way to get her.”

The prince blinked and tears welled up in his eyes. Despite this change, his face remained stoical; neutral. He was much like their father in that.

“They found her half dead when he was arrested. She’d been strangled, Giana.” Paolo blinked and then looked at his sister squarely. “He should have been stopped.”

“He’s father’s son.” Giana replied again as if this were the most obvious explanation to the entire ordeal. She couldn’t really understand the reasoning in full, but she did at least have some imagination of how hard it would be for a parent to accept their child was a monster - for a father to accept that of his son. Perhaps that was why he had ordered him to be killed-on-sight; if Giuseppe were to be brought back before Antonius, could he really kill his boy?

“Giuseppe won’t kill his son. The reason Jessica isn’t dead is because she’s pregnant. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Jessica, I was indifferent to her, but I am sorry for her situation now and expect if she isn’t found soon, Giuseppe absolutely will kill her once she has that baby.” It was the brutal truth, but she said it anyway, frowning as she did so.

“But why?” Paolo asked, frowning finally, a single tear running down his cheek. “Why would Giuseppe do that to his wife?”

Giana blinked a few times, quite surprised at the emotional showing of her little brother, though she did remember he did the same when she had told him about what Giuseppe had done to her. “Because Giuseppe is the kind of man who thinks that because he is a man, he has the right to do whatever he wants. I’m sure when it started off with Jessica, he thought of it as disciplining his wife because she was being mouthy or whiny or whatever. Then it escalated as it always does.” She shrugged. “He’s a monster, Paolo. That’s why.”

“Then someone should make him a head shorter.” Paolo said in a sort of low growl in his boyish voice, a look of distant bitterness in his eyes. The statement was uncharacteristic enough of him to be a shock to anyone who heard it. Paolo, the gentle boy, wanted an execution for his brother. He looked up at his sister, his eyes suddenly lacking the kindness and softness they usually possessed. “Someone has to slay the monster.”

For just the briefest of flashes, Giana actually looked like she was physically hurt by the tone Paolo had used. While she understood it, that wasn’t… that wasn’t how he should be. She got up and moved to him, lowering herself to her knees in front of him and taking his hands in her own. She looked up into his eyes earnestly. “Not you, Paolo… not yet. You… you’re supposed to be the best of us.”

Paolo looked at her and noticed the pain. His gaze didn’t soften except after a beat of several long seconds. He blinked and looked down at their hands together, her manicured nails next to his.

“An execution isn’t evil, Giana. It is a solution for evil.” He said, and sounded absolutely convicted. “He has a lot to pay for, and it’s the job of princes to establish Justice. He has to die, or all of this will just happen again, and millions more might die.”

“It is the job of the Emperor.” Giana said, still holding her brother’s hands. “Father will do it, just have faith that he will take care of it.”

The door opened again, but this time it was the face of an older man in a button up shirt, gray slacks, and dark brown shoes accompanied by a beautiful middle-aged woman with strawberry blonde hair.

“Uncle Mario, Aunt Eleanor.” Paolo said, turning from Giana and adopting a tight smile.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite niece and nephew.” Prince Mario said with the most neutral of smiles. “It’s not everyday my big brother wants anything to do with me at all. What’s the special occasion?”

The moment she had heard the door opening, Giana had started to stand and was on her feet a split second after Mario and Eleanor entered. She kept her expression relatively neutral, but there was no big secret that the emperor and his siblings - and by extension their families - didn’t hold much love for each other.

“Uncle. Aunt.” She greeted coolly and then moved to sit back down by Sacha.

“Now what is going on here?” Their uncle asked. “Am I to understand that Giuseppe Angelo has been allowed to escape from prison and take his damn wife and son?”

“That’s the rumor and probably likely given we’ve all been called here. My father isn’t exactly big on family reunions, you know.” Giana pointed out, sounding almost bored though she sat close to Sacha and took his hand. Obviously despite how she was playing it off, she was nervous.

“And for good reason. He can’t even manage his own children.” the old prince said, shaking his head and walking his wife to a nearby coach. “I was in the middle of an important meeting when I was interrupted for this. Someone’s going to have to pay for that one.”

“Well I do encourage you to let your Emperor know that very important detail, uncle. See how far that gets you.” Giana rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly. She really had no particular taste for her uncle or the cousins from his line… and their aunt wasn’t exactly much better.

“I intend to.” Prince Mario said with a scowl. “You may fear your father, little girl, but I remember him when he was a child and I am not very much impressed! I could tell you stories that would make you think twice about that man.”

“I sincerely doubt that, uncle, but you can certainly try.” Giana replied with a roll of her eyes.

“You sincerely know nothing, girl.” he retorted, giving her a dismissive wave. “You play the dutiful daughter as Giuseppe once played the dutiful son. What will you do when Antonio Orsini tosses you out on your ear? And how will I be inconvenienced then when you decide to do it?”

“Oh your concern is so touching, Uncle, really.” Giana replied, icy voice dripping with sarcasm. “My father will do whatever he wishes and if that is what he wishes, I will simply go and live a life with my husband in a different kind of spotlight instead of constantly living in my brother’s shadow.” Her blue eyes - just like Antonius’ - flicked up to Mario.

“Unlike some.”

“Some brothers have inescapable shadows, Giana. You will be learning that lesson one day, courtesy of Paulo here.” The man put his hands on they fourteen year-old’s shoulders and gave a dark grin. “How are you, nephew?”

“Fine, uncle. A bit stirred from the recent family news. I’m eager for Elana to arrive as well as your children so we can ensure the family’s safety. Until then, I would suggest you relax. We won’t be going anywhere for a while.”

Giana leaned over to Sacha and squeezed his hand. He’d been sitting there staring off into space for a long while now. “Hey, let’s get out of here, hm?”

“I love listening to your uncle bitch everyone out, of course. But somehow I think we won’t be missed.” Sacha said and stood, yawning. This was going to be a long few hours of hiding, if not more.

END