Sweet Venom Arc 03 Ch. 20

Suddenly, Evangeline's composure changed again, more flustered now.

"I-If I may, Your Majesty, I feel like this is besides the point. My station was attacked and boarded, my staff obliterated in their hab-barges. You have all the footage that exists, Your Majesty. You can hear the dying cries of our soldiers and guards as they bought time for the survivors to evacuate. Y-You can see this... monster, melting the flesh of loyal DA citizens. My staff. Our people."

The princess suddenly shifted uncomfortably in her throne, her gaze drifting towards the floor. She tapped on her bracelet, and the walls of the courtroom lit up with a projected image:

The fiery halos of Moltezz's gaze through a haze of black smoke, the image distorted from the heat. The room fell into an almost fearful silence, as though Moltezz were watching them directly.

The princess raised her hand, ensuring the silence was maintained as she stared down Moltezz, her eyes narrowing as she slowly leaned forward in her throne.

"I am... quite deeply troubled by that, yes." The princess replied in agreement.

Jace raised his hand once more and was met with a nod.

"If I may, Your Majesty? This court case is supposed to be about Doctor Caizer's potential concealment of a crime aboard her station, not about the attack. I completely understand everyone's concern and upset about the incident, but I fear that Doctor Caizer is distracting from the points made. We also have reason to believe that the attack was because of the falsely held czarite. It may well have been a retaliation of sorts, meaning Doctor Caizer's illegal deception was the cause. With that said, we all want justice, nothing more, nothing less."

The images of Moltezz disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, leaving the princess's pondering gaze to drift around the room.

"You both place me in a difficult position, with one side proclaiming deception and lies, the other claiming misunderstanding. I need time to fully review the evidence and claims brought forward. Doctor Caizer, you understand that if the claims against you are found to be true, I will have your titles stripped and your next two hundred years spent in jail? The authority of the Royal Military Division is no trivial matter."

Evangeline merely nodded, her gaze ice cold.

"For the time being, I cannot bring any action against you for the accusations brought by the RMD. I am, however, deeply concerned about your station's lack of record keeping and downright terrible research conducted." Evangeline's tail flicked from side to side; she was barely able to conceal her disdain and disappointment. Although her gaze held firm with the princess's, the tension rising from her body was undeniably aimed at Scyler.

The princess continued her speech. "If you have been researching this... corruption on our borders, you've failed to inform the other divisions of your discoveries and as a result, there is an unknown variable on the edge of our territory. I don't know what you've been up to over the last six months since recovering this alleged corpse from Barru X, but it appears to be anything but your actual divisional role. Whilst I won't be bringing any charges against you, I do want a review meeting with you after this to ensure you understand your place within the DA, and to update us on everything you have learnt in the last six months, Doctor Caizer."

Evangeline nodded again. To anyone else, she might have looked rather cool about the verbal dressing down she had just received, but the agitated flick of her tail and slight twitching of her claws told Scyler that his boss was absolutely furious.

With Evangeline dealt with, the princess turned her attention back to Jace.

"Commander Koa, obviously you face no charges should your claim be incorrect, but you will be barred from further claims against Doctor Caizer for a limited time should you be proven incorrect. Next time you chose to make a case against Doctor Caizer, as I'm sure there will be another one, given your two's track record -" The princess smirked slightly "- you'll have some hard evidence to back up your claim. Perhaps in the meantime, however, I'll schedule some court-mandated couple's counselling for you both." The princess grinned as she witnessed the brief panic in both Jace's and Evangeline's eyes. "Something that is considerably easier to decree, however, is to place a bounty on that murderer's head."

The princess turned her attention to her closest standing guard.

"Make it known, make it an open contract across our borders. Anyone who brings me proof of death of the fiery red czarite shall receive a fixed sum of twenty million dies for her crimes against the empire."

A series of shocked gasps erupted across the courtroom as the closest guard typed it onto his gauntlet, nodding once it was complete.

Twenty million?! She'll be dead within the week! That could buy a whole damn army! The border will turn into a warzone! Jace thought to himself as he contemplated the future of the nomad sector, concern heavy on his face.

"We will reconvene when I desire. For now however, go as you were. Wind be with you all. Dismissed."

Without another word, the princess stood from her throne and exited out the back of the courtroom, swiftly followed by her entourage of guards. An excited bickering broke through the crowd, as the witnesses discussed the sheer volume of dies on offer, and the exchanging of theories following the back and forth between Jace and Evangeline.

With the session now closed, Jace quickly took Theo by the arm and guided him away from the crowd of journalists and photographers who were quickly swarming themselves and Evangeline, tripping over themselves in a desperate attempt to reach the stands. He practically had to drag Theo away, whose claws were still gripping at the pew, his hands shaking with fury.

Eager to avoid the barrage of questions and photographs, they made for one of the restricted doors to their side, which read 'RMD Personnel Only' on the front. They pushed inside, and immediately felt the relief of the cool, but most importantly quieter, corridor. Jace ducked into one of the empty side offices and Theo followed, his tail thrashing and metal leg stomping against the floor. Jace took a deep breath and leant back against the wall, as Theo's rage finally overflowed.

"How dare she, Jace! How fucking dare she! I killed Mooki?!? Is she fucking serious?!"

Jace looked across the room at the rhargnorn. His entire body was trembling. He slammed his fists against the wall in frustration.

"We just... We just needed a little more. Her story is propped up by lies and convenience." Jace did his best to console his friend. "We just need one scrap of solid evidence, and it'll all fall apart." Jace paused for a second as he saw the simmer in Theo start to boil over again. "Don't let her get to you, Theo. We both know you didn't get Mooki killed. I don't believe that for one second. See this for what it is, an attempt to shift the blame, and play you."

"I thought we had her, Jace. I thought we were about to see justice through." Theo clenched his fists, scowling bitterly, stamping his metal leg against the floor. "Fuck. FUCK!" He landed one more powerful thump into the wall before storming out of the room and down the corridor, out of Jace's sight.

Well, that was a fucking shit-show. Jace let out an exhausted sigh. I can't believe she leaned so hard on Theo's report... Well of course she did! I signed off on it! I would have done the same. I wasn't good enough. I should know better than this. I'm Royal Military Division! Evangeline should be in prison right now, not 'reviewing procedures' with the princess, with a fucking cream cake in her hand.

He sunk against the wall and pulled his tie away from his collar - a clip-on, a well-tied tie was something he'd never been able to master, and he couldn't help but feel relieved that no-one in the court had noticed - and took off his blazer, draping it over the back of a chair. Just as he was loosening his gauntlet from around his wrist, a familiar voice called out from behind him.

"Permission to enter, Commander Koa?"

Jace swung around. A czarite head was poking around the doorframe, concern in her eyes but a cheeky grin on her lips.

"Isabelle?"

"The one and only." She moved into the centre of the doorway, pressing her fingertips against the strong wooden beams as she regarded him warmly. "You know I can't legally enter RMD quarters without the correct permissions."

Jace shook his head, trying to hide the grin that was quickly spreading across his face.

"Permission granted, Officer Koa." He quickly gestured for her to come inside. "It's... it's been too long."

*

The weather hadn't improved since Jace had first arrived at the courthouse. He was back outside in the misty rain now, with Isabelle by his side, the pair making their way towards the memorial gardens. The gardens were a fair walk away, on the edge of the estate and close to the cliff-face, but it was obvious that they were just as well tended to, and looked after, as the main buildings were, if not more so. The gardens were surrounded by thick, luscious floral bushes, with gentle pink and purple flowers and brilliant green leaves. The path beneath their feet shifted from that smooth concrete to a more rustic, gravel walkway, which made a nice, satisfying crunch underfoot. Jace looked a lot calmer now, and more casual, wearing only his shoes, shirt and trousers. He'd also left all of his electrical and communication devices inside the RMD office; he didn't want to be disturbed now. This wasn't the time.

"Glad to see that some things never change. Evangeline is the same pretentious know-it-all that she always was." Isabelle glanced over at Jace with a small smile. Her emerald eyes had a warmth and kindness to them that could calm the fiercest of storms, but there was also a determined ferocity to them; Although she was a good foot shorter than the dragon, there was a confidence and attitude to her demeanour that said she was not one to be messed with. Not that this was a trait unique to her; officers in the Cosmic Navy Division often carried a quiet, but strong authority. She had a rather dainty, elegant build compared to Jace, with soft lavender skin, and a soft grey hue to her carapace, which framed her long, braided jelly-dreadlocks. She was wearing a floaty, summery dress decorated with green ribbons, and didn't seem to mind the bad weather one bit.

They slowly padded around the carved path, hidden from the rest of the world by the towering green hedges around them.

"You were in court?" Jace was a little taken aback. "I... I didn't think you'd want to be there for that."

"Jace. I want to support you. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, I'm here for you, no matter what. Especially when it involves that bunch of pricks." Isabelle scoffed. "Did you notice Evangeline's suit?"

"No? What about it?" Jace replied, a smile crawling across his face.

"She had a little stain on the collar of her blazer. A little white blob, say from, perhaps, one-too-many cream cakes?" Isabelle laughed, a cheerful, contagious laugh that Jace couldn't help but catch.

"She's always been one to stress eat."

"Honestly, Jace, she puts on a good act, but I could see from a mile away that she was bricking it going up against you in court like that. I can picture it now, her munching her way through cream cake after cream cake on the flight over here." She laughed louder, her pink tongue briefly tasting the fresh air. "I can't help but agree with what the princess said though, about you two and some court-mandated couple's counselling."

"Belle, please!" Jace retorted playfully, fake-retching at the thought. "As if my spirit hasn't been broken enough!"

"Hey, even when we were married, I always said that you two needed to get over yourselves and fuck each-other. The sexual tension when the pair of you are in a room together is... heavy."

Jace retched again, genuinely this time. "Do you want to see a grown man cry, Belle? Is that what you want? Because that's what's gonna happen, if you don't change the subject this instant!"

Isabelle giggled, but did as he asked. She ran her hands gently through the bushes, collecting the droplets of water on the tips of her fingers. "Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood a little. Even after all these years, I can still tell exactly how you're feeling."

"I'm that obvious, huh?"

"Only when you're really hurting. Been a tough day?"

"Been a tough year." Jace sighed, his eyes fixed firmly on the ground. "I've uh... I've tried to make some plays and... and they've not worked out at all. And that's putting it lightly."

"Talk to me." Isabelle said, reassuringly. "Like we used to."

Jace paused for a second, feeling his wrist, double-checking that he'd left all his equipment behind.

"Are you sure you're okay with that? I don't want to -"

"- Oh shush, you! You're not imposing. Tell me your woes, see if I can help you make sense of it."

Deep within the secluded maze, they've arrived at a small clearing, with a tall grey obelisk in its centre, and a silver plaque mounted at its base. They sat down together on one of the benches around the clearing's edge.

"I am... I am investigating Dynasty activity within the Draconic Alliance. They're growing in numbers as of the last couple of years, and I know they're up to something, I just don't know what. At the start of this year, there was a conflict outside of our borders that I got involved in. Scyler -" Jace spat the name out with as much venom as he could "- and some strike teams were poking around nomad territory, and had gotten approval to launch a capture mission on a wanted criminal outside our borders."

Isabelle nodded intently, siddling slightly closer to Jace on the bench.

"A coralith komodo, of all people. I don't think there's been one this close to the DA border in decades. We recovered him successfully, but when I checked his profile, his crimes were obviously fabricated. Shit like border smuggling, drug charges, data elicitation of all things. It looked like someone had quickly built a profile for him, and made his crimes just serious enough to get permission to grab his ass from beyond the border."

"So, had he actually done anything?"

"Yeah. He had. His profile actually predates the Grey Wall, but obviously, all of that has been long since scrubbed clean." Jace shifted uncomfortably on the bench.

"He's older than the Grey Wall? He must be ancient! They didn't just grab some old random man off the street, did they?" Isabella stifled a giggle at the thought.

"Nah, they're an ageless species, he looks young as they come. But whatever this guy did, it's long gone. And there was no way to trace who had made the new profile. I couldn't dig too deep with the Enforcement and Lockdown division either, I only have a few people I trust over there and I'm trying not to spook the fuckers too much. What I needed was for them to make a mistake."

"So, what happened? What did you do with the komodo?"

"Well..." Jace sighed deeply through his nose. "It's impossible to know exactly what he did. The ethics of the Grey Wall are as vacuous as they come. For all I know, he could be a war criminal, or he could have just been a civilian who managed to survive the Dynasty's fucking 'draconic cleansing,' and knows too much. What I do know is that someone on our side of the border wanted him, and I hoped I'd be able to use that. He was entered into the EaL's labour auctions but I fast tracked his case, and scrubbed his date and location data, so no one would know where he'd get auctioned or when; I didn't want any of those fuckers getting their hands on him. I then placed a tracker on his profile."

"Why?"

"I figured, with his fabricated profile, no one was going to bother looking into him unless they had a reason. I wanted to know who, if anyone, would bother searching through some random slave's profile." Jace pulled a face at the word - it didn't matter how much the draconic elites tried to disguise the auction house's practice, it was nothing more than a goddamn slave trader. "I figured whoever went through all this effort to fabricate the profile and get it pushed up the list might be inclined to follow up on their labour. But... it hasn't worked, no one has bothered with him, no one has opened his profile or even searched for him." Jace hunched over slightly and let his hands fall by his sides. He looked well and truly defeated now. "Whoever did this is playing it safe. It's likely the second I came into contact with the case, they just dropped it."

Isabelle was quiet for a few moments, taking in Jace's words. The trees all around them rustled in the breeze, but she was so lost in her thoughts that she barely heard them at all. Finally, she exhaled deeply. "Wow, Jace. This is one heck of a conspiracy you're working here, especially for someone who likes to deal in absolutes... Although, conspiracy or not, I'd bet my last die that you're absolutely right." Isabelle grinned up at her ex-husband, and despite the weight he was carrying in his chest, Jace couldn't help but smile back. "I'm guessing that's not the end of it though?"

"No, unfortunately not. Nothing is ever that straight forward these days." Jace chuckled wryly. "This komodo isn't just some random nobody -"

"- Not that it would make it okay if he was." Isabella interrupted, sternly.

"...Right. Anyway, I've been trying to build a relationship with the nomads on our border. It's taken years to build any sort of trust with them, as you can imagine, and they've had their own hell to deal with in recent months too, what with the increased presence of Vora Barons, and that in itself has come out of fucking no-where." Jace closed his eyes and rubbed his eyebrows with his thumb and index finger. "I've been working closely with a nomad merc - another czarite, actually - her name's Seeth, but the locals call her Lockblade, and... she's his girlfriend."

"Jace..." Isabelle's heart was already starting to sink - she had a bad feeling she knew where this was going.

"She's done more for the nomads in the last six months than I've ever done for them. She's cleaved through Baron ships and saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives. She's been doing what I should have been doing, but I got so wrapped up in this Dynasty business, in the bigger picture... She knows that her boyfriend is in DA territory, and she's been fighting tooth and claw to raise enough money, and get him back. She's been begging me for months to find him."

"Oh, Jace... No..." Jace flinched as Isabelle's disappointment stung him at his core.

"It's not like I could just press a button and get him back! The EaL have scrambled the auction data, as they always do."

"We both know you have the authority to override that." Isabella countered firmly.

Jace visibly recoiled, then sank into the bench in an almost defeated manner. If there was one thing Isabelle always did well, it was humbling him.

"I know. And, as if that isn't bad enough, the Vora Barons that she's been killing, she found our stealth tech on them, as well as unlocked security crates."

Isabelle turned slowly on the bench to face Jace, eyes wide with horror. "Do you mean to say... that someone's been supplying Vora Barons, from inside the DA?!"

"Yes. They must be, there's no way those crates could have been opened without the codes. And now, the nomads are blaming us - blaming me - for the attacks. None of my plans have worked. All my work in fixing our awful relationship with our neighbours has... gone. It was all for nothing. I've worked for years on this, it's... it's not fair, Isabelle! I can't even get the proof I need to convict Evangeline of malpractice! And don't get me started on that either, her and that little fucking eel are behind all of this!" Jace's usually calm demeanour was starting to crack. "The czarite prisoner, the one that that whole farce of a court case was about, she's with Seeth and that blasted komodo! And I know she was there, Belle, I can't prove it, but I know it. Everything is connected, and I feel like I'm so close, I'm clawing at the walls but I've got nothing to show for it but my own bloodied fingertips. And the second anything touches the Grey Wall, everyone ducks their heads and leaves the room. It's all just roadblocks and... and shadows!"