Centuries

How It Began: The Incident

No author's note today. Enjoy! (And please don't kill me)

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The orchestra played, the aristocrats conversed, and, from the head table, Blake watched with ambers glowing in barely concealed delight. Maybe, finally, she could be liberated from her curse. However, the Queen was not prepared for what would take place tonight. Everything was going exactly how she envisioned it. She accepted Adam's invitation to dance, holding her floor length, dark lilac, dress by the hem to hold it from dragging along the ground.

As she twirled with her husband - to - be, she watched as Roman Torchwick, Cinder Falls, and Martin Schnee discussed something, business from what Blake could tell, over by the recess near the orchestra.

"Adam," Blake said to the dashing man she danced with. "What do you suppose they are talking about?"

Adam glanced to the side, noticing the group, and a gleam Blake could not interpret appeared in his eyes. "Do not worry, my dear," he stated in a faux calming voice. "All will be revealed in due time."

Blake immediately sensed the peril. That's when everything crumbled and her eyes opened to the cruelty hidden in the human spirit.

The sense of danger came from behind her, in the shape of a speeding bullet. Shadows swirled around the Queen, causing her to vanish from view. Adam sidestepped to the left, the bullet whizzing by him and affecting an innocent. His blood red eyes shined in anger as he looked about the gathered panicking crowd. It was difficult to find the Queen with all of the other bodies rushing to leave the palace. He eventually found her.

Or, more like she found him.

Her gun, a harquebus that's barrel was sawed that she named Gambol, was pointed at Adam's head. And, he could tell everyone that he has witnessed his childhood caretaker angry, pissed, and furious, but he has never seen her eyes burn in such pure fury. It made him feel something he has never felt before: terror.

"I invite you into my house," Blake snarled, "feed you with my food, and ask you to be mine for eternity; and this is how I am repaid for my hospitality?" An animalistic growl slipped from curled lips. "And so I send you my gratitude." Blake's eyes glow brighter and her pupils narrow. Fangs grow and shine in the candle light, ebony, feline ears grow atop her head, and sable colored claws grow from her fingers. Black the beast descends from shadows.

Hiding under the table, Martin Schnee scowled at the creature as it pointed a modified gun at Adam's head. "I remembered you said this would have been easy!" He hissed at the two other people under the table.

Roman chuckled nervously. "Considerably, we might have forgotten about her Majesty's sixth sense."

Cinder scoffed. "That was you, Roman. I tried to inform you of such, but you would have none of it."

"That is not a concern at the moment, though," Martin sneers. His ice blue eyes glance back at the Queen as she pulls back the hammer of the gun. "We must save Adam. He knows the most about that beast."

"It's 'her Majesty', Martin," Roman sighs, which turns into a shriek when Martin grabbed onto his silk tunic and yanked him down to eye level so that Martin could mentally freeze Roman with his glare. "N-not the point, right?"

"Where are your accomplices," the three hear Blake growl out.

They looked back out at the scene in front of them, confused at how Blake was unable to figure out where they were. Cinder's eyes widen in realization before she brought out her revolver, aiming it at the Queen's head. Her hand was steady as she pulled back the hammer and set her finger over the trigger. Roman hissed at her. "What are you doing?!" he whispered harshly.

"Putting an end to her reign and starting a new empire." She pulled the trigger.

Blake sensed it at once, mentally marking where the bullet came from, and moved. But not fast enough. The bullet scraped across her right eye, causing her to grab her face to hold back the blood from flowing and hiss in pain. Adam decides to take advantage of this.

A hand in a black glove shot out to attempt and take hold of the gun in Blake's left hand, but she intercepted his attempt by straightening and keeping a steady hand pointed at him while she still holds the bleeding wound. "A coward's shot," she spits out. "If you were going to try and overthrow me, you should have found a decent group of people." With her remaining eye still glaring at Adam, she points the gun in the direction of the table and fired twice. Two thumps were heard. "Come out, Schnee."

Martin crawled from his hiding spot, red splattered across his pallid face and white robes. "Y-Yes, Your Majesty?"

Blake never glanced at him. "I am allowing you to leave if you promise to never attempt this kind of stunt again. Do you understand?"

Martin's eyes widen in astonishment. "Y-Your Majesty?"

"You heard me." A single amber eye glared evilly at him before facing the traitor in front of her. "Both of you are allowed to leave. Martin, your wife is pregnant, correct? It is the reason she could not attend this atrocious event?"

Martin nodded again. "Yes, Your Majesty."

Adam glanced to the side to see Blake's friend slowly peeking his head out from behind an overturned chair. A plan began to form in his head.

"Then go back to your wife. You are deprived of your title and neither you, nor your wife, nor your children, etcetera will ever be nobility under my rule." She pointed Gambol in his direction. "Here is a reminder of such." And she fired, shooting the first two fingers of Martin's hand off, causing him to scream in pain, clutching the wound like a lifeline. Blake pointed the gun back at Adam. "As for your old friend-"

"Your Majesty!" Sun yells out, distracting Blake. Adam took this chance to leap across the room, yanking Sun from his hiding spot and placing him in front, using the blonde as a human shield with a gun to his back.

"Let me go with no repercussions," Adam declares. "Or your old friend dies."

Blake scowled at Adam, Gambol never wavers from Adam's arm wrapped around Sun's neck. "He is of no concern to you, Adam. This triest is between you and me."

Adam pulled back the hammer of Blush, his pinfire revolver, and pushed into Sun's back, making him wince. "Let me leave."

"I was going to, and I still will. Just let. Sun. Go."

"Adam," Sun whispered. "Please, listen to her Majesty. She means to let you go."

"Quiet," Adam hissed. "Let us make a deal, Your Majesty."

Blake studied Adam, her hand never leaving from the wound that still bled freely. Her left ear twitched as the giant castle doors closed, signifying Martin's retreat. "What is your deal."

"Give me your kingdom and I shall give you your friend."

Blake's remaining eye widened in astonishment, then narrowed in barely concealed abhorrence. "I built this kingdom with my bare hands. Under my reign, this kingdom has become one of the most powerful kingdoms in all of the Remnant. It took me 250 years to make Vale what it is today, and the only way someone else will rule my kingdom is if it is my child and I hand over the kingdom to them." Her glare hardened. "I will never hand my throne over to a man like you."

Adam's eyes were filled with righteous fury and he decided to act without thinking. He pulled the trigger. A scream of horror ripped through Blake's lips, she forgetting about her fatal wound, deciding to run and catch the lifeless body of the young man she took in as a son 25 years ago when she found him as a baby in the freezing cold, near death. "You should have accepted my deal."

Adam should have anticipated what would have happened next as he walked toward the door, turning his back on the woman he used to call mother. Blake aimed the gun at Adam's left shoulder, not wanting to murder someone that still held a part of her heart, and fired.

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So...not all chapters will be the same length, as you see.

Please don't kill me. Please. (I'm talking to you KrysBabdon)