Wedding Arc - Side Story A: Traitorous Love.

It had finally happened, the thing she feared the most in the world had come to pass. When she was a young girl plotting against her oppressors she had clung to the idea that the worship of a benevolent deity might give her some solace. As thing so happened she ran into an undercover missionary who gave her the motivation to fight back against not just her oppressors within the clan but those who made such a thing possible, Pandora. It was only when she became a part of Pandora that she realized she had been rash in her judgement and it was too late to stop the information she had passed on to them before she fell for the person who brought her the most joy in her short miserable life.

But it was too late to change anything, five minutes prior she had seen the Shogunate crash the wedding of Ka and his lady bride under the grounds that doing so would be a crippling blow to their financial sector if one of their nobles married a Pandoran. She had witnessed the members of the Church of Kami pour out in support of the elites sent by the Blades to slaughter everyone present forcing Baek, Zaku, Sam and even her master Telarossa into action. All of those things were not of a concern to her she knew those she cared about could handle thenselves and she could slip away during the chaos with Tyrell lest he be in danger for simply being born the way he was.

No it was the damning words of Vendetta that not obly filled her with terror but implicated Karliah and forced her to flee for her life. It had been a close thing she almost felt when life end when Xan-dono glanced at her and moved to snuff her out only for Vendetta to block his blow with Kabutowari. Even while clashing with the Blade he continued to stare at her before turning to regard her Anata and saying the words that spelled her doom. "So you are the mole. Very well, she gave birth to your heir Hiro,therefore she is your traitor to kill." It stunned her not because he ordered her death no it was the verbal acknowledgement that he still considered Tyrell to be his blood despite it. She fled as quickly as she could without a glance toward her love, for she knew if she saw his expression she wouldn't be able to get Tyrell to safety.

After two minutes she came across a clearing, the volcanic ash giving a light dusting to the ground which was illuminated by the moons rays. It wasn't empty as Karliah spotted Suzume-dono waiting in a position to take the baby from her. It was a relief, she trusted that she'd take him to safety without any complications and Suzume spared the baby a quick scan before vanishing with a Shunshin. "Anata..." she whispered as she turned around and spoted Hiroshima entering the clearing...

“Nice change of pace isn’t it?” Hiroshima said with a smile as he put his arm around Cleo. It wasn’t every day there was a wedding this big in Pandora or a wedding at all for that matter, so it was pretty great to see some sort of unity within different races and factions, even if it was just for a couple of hours. Being here with his family made him realize how truly lucky he had been in life. Having had to fend for himself after being abandoned by his biological parents, he somehow managed to climb from the depths of despair to be a part of something he was truly proud of and now with the birth of his son he was on cloud nine and all that was left was to ask Cleo to marry him. He had picked out a ring with the help of Xan and Zaku and as soon as this was over he would ask her to be his wife.

His daydreaming would immediately come to an end as the wedding ceremony was interrupted. At first, he thought it was probably some woman or man that Kai had pissed off and wanted to take revenge by crashing his wedding but his head and his heart couldn’t have prepared him for what was about to happen. The Shogunate? Here? How? He thought to himself as he recognized the headbands and the woman. His first instinct was to move to protect Cleo and Tyrell but they were already gone. He stood there confused for a moment but was quickly brought to reality the moment a member of the church came into his peripheral and was promptly cut down. Turning his attention to his father, he would look to move in to assist him in killing the witch the orders he received baffled him. “Cleo? Traitor? That can’t be…” He said aloud with a confused expression on his face. They had known that there was a mole in Pandora for a while now but the mother of his child? His heart sunk the moment Xan reiterated his order and though his heart didn’t want to his body began moving on its own to complete his Father’s will.

Having arrived at the clearing, he would notice Cleo and Suzume standing in the distance with Cleo handing over his son to her before she left the area. He didn’t want to believe what was happening right now but it was hard to ignore what was in front of him she really did betray them, betray him. “How could you?” He finally said after having stood there for what felt like an eternity looking at her.  “How could you betray your own family? How could you betray the man that was responsible for your freedom from the Tenshi? Xan went out of his way to interfere with matters that didn’t concern him to ensure you wouldn’t have to live that horrid life. He risked his reputation for you… No, he risked it for me.” It was then he realized, all this was his fault. If only he had stayed out of Tenshi clan business none of this would be happening right now. Right now if anything had happened to anyone he was the sole person to blame. “I loved you. Its obvious that you weren’t the person I thought you were, Cleo probably isn’t even your name but I genuinely loved you. You brought out the best in me. Whenever I came home from getting my ass kicked by Xan in training, seeing you smile made it all worth it because I wasn’t seeking power for fame or fortune it was all for you. It was so that I could protect you and Tyrell no matter what happened to the family or But clearly that was all for nothing.”

Her heart was breaking seeing him like this, but she had to explain even though she knew it was futile. "It was before I met you, I was alresdy passing information to the Church it was. The only way I thought I could escape from the clan. Then I met you and everything changed but I was already committed, once you make a deal with them, especially for someone like me you can't break it not as long as the person who officiated the vow is still alive. I had hoped that Vendetta would be killed and that at some point I could tell you but I was terrified that you would think this was just some elaborate scheme to hurt you." Karliah said and while she wanted to reach for him she knew that he would probably not take kindly to it.

"I love you Anata I really do, and I'm grateful for everything you've done for me, and Tyrell is proof of thst he's perfect. But the Tenshi Clan killed my entire family because they just related to alchemists who  tried to rebel. Every time I broke myself to train it was because I wanted to get strong enough to kill all of those who bind my fellow alchemists in chains. Before you I thought the only way I could do that was through them, now I know different but it was too late to change anything." This was one of those times she wished she wasn't a Cypher, if she could cry maybe it might change things but it was unlikely the Bloody Ruler, his father had ordered him kill her.