The Crown (Private|Invite Only)

[Dutch-Empire]

Empress Anna Charlotte touched her necklace as she looked up at the balcony that ringed the ballroom of the Zentrumpalast palace. That was strange. Over the music and chat, could have sworn she heard something faint, like a muffled pinging noise. Her eyes drifted up to the glass dome. It must have been her imagination.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Frederica dropped to the floor, sliding across the marble as Alexandre fired. The knife went flying out over the crowd below. She activated one of her gloves and it stopped in midair for just a fraction of a second and went whistling backwards towards Frederica and Alexandre.

[Kingdom of Derita]

Alexandre turned around just as Frederica’s knife came flying back, hitting him in the thigh and sending him crashing backwards. He cursed as he lost his balance and hit the marble floor. He hated being stabbed. And Frederica’s love of stabbing was really getting on his nerves.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Frederica jumpedcto her feet as she ran past Alexandre and held out her hand. The knife yanked itself out of Alexandre’S thigh and went obediently into her hand. She deactivated the gloves and threw two knives at the fallen prince, one after the other.

[Kingdom of Derita]

Alexandre didn’t have time to nurse his wound. He rolled out of the way of the first knife, barely escaping impaling and rolled back the other way as the second knife hit the floor. Alexandre pressed his hands against the floor and flipped himself up through the air back on his feet. He spun and kicked his foot out at Frederica’s head.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Frederica was thrown backwards as the Duke of Alençon’s foot connected with her face, siding her over the railing of the balcony. The Queen Dowager attempted to stop her fall but quickly realized that she couldn’t. Instead she went with the fall, twisting around to catch the lip of the balcony’s floor, dangling several feet in the air.

Marie Louise, Frederica’s eldest sister, noticed her sister hanging from the balcony and rollled her eyes, talking in her headpiece to her other sister, Alexandrine.

“Alix, Frederica is playingost dangerous game again.”

“Again?” Alexandrine rolled her eyes. “I’m telling you, she needs a boyfriend.” Why was it that Frederica was always murdering people she felt might be a challenge. They rarely were and it just lead to her being disappointed.

“Why is it that you think all problems can be solved by romance.”

“Because they can.”

Marie Louise rolled her eyes. She always like to think she was a happy medium compared to her two sisters. Alexandrine was vain and shallow, while Frederica was intense and blunt. Marie Louise set down her clipboard and made her way towards her dangling sister.

“Come on Alix. We have to help.”

“What? Why do I have to go?” Alexandrine pouted. “It’s Frederica’s toy.”

“Alix.”

“Ugh. Fine.” Alexandrine looked around, making her way towards the other side of the ballroomas she slipped a hand into a secret pocket of her dress, fighting her fingers around a gun. Her sisters liked flashy weapons like knives and whips, something that made no logically sense other then the fact that they wanted to show they could defeat an enemy with a inferior weapon. The Queen Dowager of Cadilade had no such desire and preferred to simply blast the enemy to pieces.

[Kingdom of Derita]

Down below the Duke of Alençon could see two figures not moving with the rest of the crowd. The other Brandenburg sisters. Inconvenient, but he’d have to adapt. Alexandre ran at the balcony railing and leapt over the side, rolling against the floor before jumping up to his feet. He had an idea. He ran towards the middle of the ballroom.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Queen Dowager Frederica looked led over her shoulder as the Duke of Alençon jumped down into the crowd. Frederica let go of the lip of the balcony, landing on the floor. She spun on her toes and ran after Prince Alexandre. The crowd meanwhile had been mildly panicked as people started jumping into their midst, not recognizing the prince with his mask on. They started to moved away as he ran through them.

Queen Dowager Alexandrine pulled out her gun as she saw the masked man, her sister’s latest hunting toy and clicked off the safety, hesitantly slightly. She couldn’t be sure to fire and not hit the other guests. She ordered him to stop.

[Kingdom of Derita]

Alexandre took advantage of Alexandrine’s hesitanton by attacking her. He slammed his door into her kneecap and grabbed her wrist, twisting it till the gun aimed at the glass ceiling, pushing down her finger on the trigger to forced the gun to fire up in the air.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Alexandrine screeched as she lost her balance and her gunfired all of its rounds into the glass dome anover them. It pierced the glass, causing cracks to jump out from the bullet holes spread across it like a spider’s web. The crowd screamed as a round of gunfire went off next to them and they bursted into a panic, running for the exit.

Frederica launched herself at the Duke of Alençon, flinched three of her knives at him. Behind her, Kaiser Wilhelm III squeaked in horror at his damaged dome. The Kaiser had work so hard on that dome.

[Kingdom of Derita]

Alexandre jumped away from Alexandrine, kicking her to the side as he tried to jump away from the Queen Dowager of Zidaria’s blades, one slicing the air behind him while another cut the air in front of them. Another however dug its way into his torso, pushing through the thin armor, cutting into his skin. Alexandre hit the crowd rolling. He leveled his gun towards Frederica and fired.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Frederica activated her gloves, causing the knives to jerk back and fly into her hands as she twisted in the air, the bullet flying past her as she landed on her feet in a crouch, brandishing the blood covered knife with a smirk.

“Missed me.”

Meanwhile, over head, the glass dome, now riddled with bullet holes and covered in cracks, exploded, or rather, imploded, shattering with a deafening roar as it cane falling down atop the ballroom in a cascade of millions of glittering pieces. A full on stampede insued. .

[Kingdom of Derita]

Alexandre bit his lip as the knife was yanked out of him, his torso growing warm as blood cane out from the wound. He couldn’t help but smirk.

“I wasn’t aiming for you.”

As the glass dome imploded above them, Alexandre pulled himself to his feet and ran into the crowd of stampeding guests, tossing his gun, now empty, aside and pulling off his maskand stooping over as he looked to blend in with the crowd.

[Royal Genes]

Adelie screamed as she saw the dome shatter over head and ran to the exit, grabbing the Duchess of Granada with her as she joined the rest of the people bursting out of the ballroom into the hallway.

Meanwhile, Princess Helena was recovering from her fainting spell in the fainting room. She stood up and walked to the door, opening it, only to reveal a flood of people running and screaming down the hall.

“Oh my.” The princess said before promptly fainting.

[Dutch-Empire]

Anna Charlotte tried to screamed as a bullet hit her, before her voice was swiftly silenced. A surprised look spread across her regal face as she held her throat, her hands covered in gushing blood, running down her chest and onto her dress, turning all the diamonds on her red. The Empress of the Dutch collapsed to the floor, her crown falling off of her head and rolling across the floor.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Frederica looked over her shoulder and cursed under her breath. Of course he’d been going after the Empress of the Dutch. She’d thought she’d could have stopped him, but it seemed the Duke of Alençon was slipper than she’d thought. Frederica looked back at the Prince, only to find that he was missing. Frederica hissed. She ran to to Alexandrine and helped her up as Glass cascaded down atop them.

“He nearly broke my leg!” Alexandrine hissed as she limped with her sisters support.,

Meanwhile Marie Louise rushed over to the fallen Empress of the Dutch. She ran over to her and crouched down to her head, trying to check to see if she could be saved.

[Northe Scotland]

Princess Zénaïde screamed as she ran out of the way of falling debris, running to the wall of the ballroom, trying to get out of the way of the chaos that had exploded across the ballroom. She could believe the sudden turn that the party had taken.

[Polonge]

The Duchess of Granada gasped as she was yanked by the tall Princess of Savoy, barely able to keep up with her as they ran into the hallway. The Duchess has barely been able to follow the intense events that had lead up to the dome exploding over them, catching only a glimpse of the fight before panic had taken the crowd.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

The Kaiser of Rhine-East Berlin had his guards rushing to his side as they lead him outside of the Zentrumpalast. The sun had set and already police were head towards the palace as the guards scrambled to sort everything out, but without the Queen Dowager of Zidaria to direct them,,5)36 were even more confused.

Wilhelm III looked out over his palace, its iconic dome now completely gone as he pouted and stomped his foot against the asphalt.

“My dome!”

Meanwhile inside, Prince Karl had nearly been traded led to death by the panicked crowd, causing him to run to the edge of the ballroom, the Duke of Saxe-Hanshalt’s tuxedo shredded by the falling glass. As he was doing this, he saw No tits, aka Princess Zénaïde. He joined her side.

“Are you okay?”

[Northe Scotland]

Zénaïde brushed some glass out of her hair. She had a few scratches on her arm and some pieces of glass had impaled the fabric of her dress. The Scottish princess looked up and down at Prince Karl covered in cuts.

“I think I am fine, you look far worse off than me. What happened?”

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Prince Karl shook his head.

“I’m not quite sure, though I suspect my sisters have something to do with it.”

He looked at the mass of people trying to force their way into the exit. That would be no good. He wasn’t sure of what the danger was, but if his sisters, especially Frederica, were involved in this mess, Karl wanted no part of this. He grabbed Zénaïde’s hand And ran in the opposite direction.

“Come on, I know another way.”

[Northe Scotland]

Princess Zénaïde didn’t really have a choice in the matter as she ran off with Prince Karl, trying to avoid stepping on glass. She glanced behind her and then back at the Duke of Saxe-Hanshalt and took a breath.

“Okay. I’m going to trust you.”

[Dutch-Empire]

Anna Charlotte groaned as she tried to move. Pain burned through her like a fire, starting from her hand. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. She coughed up blood, feeling sick. She tried to say something, but realized in horror that her neck burned with pain as well. She’d lost her voice. Again.

The Empress of the Dutch has caught sight of Frederica and the masked assailant fighting in the midst of the crowd and had watched with horror as the two fought each other like a lion and a lioness, with knives instead of claws and bullets instead of roars. Then there had been a spilt movement when Frederica had moved and a such pain exploded in her neck and hand.

The bullet fired at her had pierced her hand and gone straight through and collided with her heavy diamond and silver necklace, causing the silver to twist and one of the diamond to shatter knocking her to the ground, damaging her throat. The bullet however, was still longed in her necklace.

[Rhine-East Berlin]

Prince Karl lead Princess Zénaïde outside via a servants entrance, hidden away to simply look like a panel of the wall. He didn’t take a breath until they were descending the steps of the Zentrumpalast, police swarming the area.

Marie Louise gasped as she saw the Empress of the Dutch try to move. Dear God She was alive. She lifted her up, struggling a bit with the monarchMs famously heavy dress as she pulled her out of the ballroom. She was joined by Frederica who gasped at the surivival of Anna Charlotte from Alexandre’s bullet. Sometimes dumb luck could trump even the best. Or well, second best.

[Dutch-Empire]

As Anna Charlotte was lifted up, she grabbed her fallen crown, her injured hand covering it in blood. This was the second time an assassination attempted had almost succeeded against her. The last time she’d lost her empire. She would not do so this time. She would never give up her crown. To anyone.