House on a Hill

@anicka & @isaiah
Outfit

When they had started this game, it had been not about the rules, not about way the game was played, it had been about the players. There were only two that had really mattered, himself, and the man that he had come here today to destroy. It had been back and forth, moves and countermoves. Every action, every reaction was thought about five steps in advance. He didn’t know what it was that had possessed the other man to play this silly game. He didn’t know what it was that was driving him to try and destroy them, but Ares knew something that he didn’t. He knew that he had the emotions behind all of this. He wasn’t doing this for himself. Not anymore. This was no longer a game of chess. This was no longer a game at all. This was war. Because if there was one thing that he would not stand for it was someone hurting his family. Whether it had been Durant’s intention or not, Andrew was dead, and it didn’t matter one way or another what he had done, he was still family. Anicka had still lost her husband, Constance, and the rest of the girls and Philip had lost their father. There was nothing that could fill that hole in their family, there was no one that could ever replace what they had lost, and Ares was certain that there would be hell to pay for what had happened that day.

He would make sure of it. There would be no question at the end of today just who was in charge. He knew that the transition was not going to be as easy as they had all once thought that it was going to be. It couldn’t be. Not with what had happened in the interim. Things were messier now, than they had been before, but that didn’t change the fact that the Minister had to die. That this afternoon Isaiah Durant would meet his wife and his whore on the other side. He wouldn’t get the quick death that Ares had graced the women with. For them he had simply come up behind them, and finished it. Lights out. No fuss, no fight, well there was a little fight. The whore had put up at least a little bit of a fight, but really she wasn’t a fighter, not many of the Ministry pawns were. She had needed to go, not for the fact that she was really hurting anything, but because the Moron had liked her, and he had spent more time with her than anyone else. Killing his right hand, well that would cripple anyone. That and she was family. Ares knew that that was a hard blow. But unlike the incompetent man that the fools had chosen to lead them in putting the purebloods down, Ares would not stand up and watch his family destroyed.

There would be an end to all of this. And it would come today. The Death Eaters knew what was coming. They were here, they were waiting in the shadows, all throughout the halls of the building. They were ready. When Ares gave the word they would purge the Ministry of everything and everyone that opposed them. There was nothing that Ares truly wanted more out of today than to watch the light leave the Moron’s eyes as he drew his final breath, and this battle, Ares would then know that he had won. He was no fool, he knew that there would be many hard battles to come. That today would only be the first step towards rebuilding the future that they deserved. That those that held the same ideals as his family, the proper ideals, would no longer be the bottom of social order, but back at the top, where they deserved to be. Those that had caused their fall would pay for it, in blood. And in pain, and in screams, and pleas, and tears. There would be torture, and in the end, there would be death. Today was the day of deliverance for one such occasion. This was not retaliation, this was not justice. This was retribution, this was revenge. And the witch standing next to him knew it. Looking over at his cousin Ares studied her for a moment.

Anicka looked the part today. More than a foot shorter than him Ares was certain that it was her that the Minister needed to fear more than he. For Ares this was about power, this was about taking control. This was the first step towards the future. For Anicka this was a lot more personal than that. He knew now, what she had gone through. She had told her sister, and now they knew. They all knew. It wasn’t a secret from anyone but the children anymore, and yet, it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter, because the witch next to him had a purpose here today. She wanted to do this. She had asked for this, and after the hell that he knew that she and her children had been through in the last couple of weeks, he would not deny her her moment. Looking down at her he smiled a little darkly, as he led her into the Atrium of the Ministry and towards one of the lifts. Their long black cloaks concealing them for the moment given the late October weather no one thought much of it. When the lift stopped at their desired floor Ares smirked and then turned to look at her before the doors opened, and they stepped out into the hall. A hand on her arm stopped the witch before she could keep moving. Her eyes flashed bright for a moment, but then she relented under his touch, and he spoke the one question that he needed an answer to before they did this, “Anicka, what is it that you truly seek, revenge?"

House on a Hill

living, living still. Their intention is to kill and they will they will
Outfit

Anicka was fire. The way that Ares was shadows, and darkness, Anicka was fire. And today they would watch the world burn. She was dangerous, and she was reckless, and these days she knew it. There was a reason that her brother and her cousin had kept her under house arrest. It was more for the safety of everyone else than it was for her. She was just as dangerous to herself locked in that penthouse as she was out here in the real world with the rest of them. Anicka was fire, and Dominick and Aurora’s furniture had paid the price. She owed them, Merlin, she didn’t even think that she remembered how many things that she owed them. But her brother had finally relented the other day and let her go to the office after Jacqueline had come by again and brought a resume… No one actually applied to work for her, she chose them. She asked them, even her intern… Anicka was picky, and that translated into literally every aspect of her life. When it came to her magazine, because now that Andrew was gone it was well and truly hers, she was not going to be changing the way that she did things. She would not be walked all over anymore. She would be just fine on her own. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself. One of these days it wouldn’t hurt anymore. One of these days it would be okay, and that was the day that she knew that she would truly start to be okay.

Until then though, she would just deal with everything piece by piece. She would handle it all day by day and see where that got her. Today that had gotten her here. This was what Ares had talked about last spring when he had told them all in that church that things were going to change. They were changing now. He had started the process this summer, and then things had gotten quiet. Anicka knew though, about the things in the cells in the dungeon of the manor. She knew about the grenades, she knew about the snakes… There were things down there that told her the men in her family were gearing up for something that they hadn’t shared with the women yet. Something that was more dangerous than they had expected. Only, things had changed. The camp had gone up in flames, and Anicka’s world had come crashing down around her. She was not one to lose it. She was always so very good at keeping herself under control until she was alone, until it was okay for her to break down. When Dominick had broken the news that Andrew was gone Anicka had lost it. She had screamed, and she had cried, and she had waylaid her brother’s chest with everything that she had had. Anicka had lost it, and then she had stopped crying. The moment that the tears stopped though, the fire ignited, and it was still there.

The fire that had started burning all around her two weeks ago was still burning in her eyes. It had been burning there when she had killed the Chinese delivery guy, it had been burning when she had lit her desk on fire at the office. It had been burning when she set their bed on fire… Anicka couldn’t sleep in that room, she couldn’t stay there. Instead she was redoing the room, none of the reminders of Andrew would be left in there when she was done. She didn’t want to see him, she didn’t want to think about everything that he had meant to her, she didn’t want to think about how, despite every horrible thing she should have never forgiven him for, she loved him. She had never forgiven him, and she never would, about some things, and she didn’t know if that made it worse, or if it made it better. All she knew is that it hurt. Merlin it hurt like hell. She didn’t think that she could ever accurately describe the pain in her chest, knowing that she was alone for the first time in thirty-one years. Knowing that her children were fatherless, that her son was now the Lord that his father had once been… Anicka knew that someday the pain would go away, but right now she spent her time trying to come up with ways to numb it. To numb herself, because feeling nothing, or feeling something else entirely, was better than feeling the pain.

She had taken Constance with her the other night. No one knew about Gwendolyn, no one knew that Anicka had met the vampire nearly thirty-three years ago on the streets of Prague. No one knew that they were friends, and absolutely no one knew what they did in the dark of the night. Only the other night Anicka had looked in her daughter’s eyes, and she had seen the same pain reflected back at her. She had known that Gwendolyn coming by, she wasn’t going to leave her daughter behind. Not this time. It helped, she didn’t know if Constance had believed her at first, when she had told her that the blood would help. That ending muggles worthless lives would make her feel better… Only it did, and Anicka had laughed, and she had seen the fire in her eyes when Constance had smiled after her very first kill… She had been so proud of her. Today though she was not allowed to come. Today was too big of a deal. Anicka would face today at her cousin’s side. She would stand next to Ares, and she would do what he asked of her, she would do what she asked of him. She was fire. And today, fire would help them reclaim what was rightfully theirs. She followed Ares silently through the Ministry, and when he grabbed her arm she spun around to look at him, her blue eyes flashing dark and dangerous. At his question though, she paused. Her voice was low, and just as dark as her eyes, when she answered him. "That man killed my husband in cold blood. I seek righteousness. But I'll settle for revenge..."

Rules were more like guidelines right now. Ares didn’t have to follow the same rules that everyone else did. He had his own rules. Rules that he stuck to in most situations. But they were not the same rules that the rest of the world played by, and they were certainly not the rules that Durant had to play by. Ares knew that he wasn’t the best man in the world. He knew that there were quite a few people that would indeed consider him a very bad man, but even bad men had families, and today that was what this was about. It was about family. The future was about more than just the Wentzells, but today, this moment, it was about Anicka and it was about the rest of the family. It was about doing what he could for them, because no one got away with hurting his family like that. Ares would not stand for that. Today was a message, a warning. No one messed with the Wentzells, because they would exact their revenge, and in their case, it was a dish best served in flames… What had been done was done, and there was no going back, there was no changing it, but they could, and they would, change the future, and all of that started today. The start of a new era… The dawn of a new age. It would all come to pass today.

He would rid the Ministry of the filth that filled these halls. He would cleanse the place, they would start over. There wouldn’t be a mudblood left in this place by the end of the day. If someone refused, they would die. At least, if they didn’t die before that. Ares had a plan. He wanted things to go a certain way. He wanted the Minister drug out in front of everyone, he wanted him put on display. He wanted him destroyed. Because unless there was a spectacle made of all of this then none of it would have truly mattered. There were a million reasons why he wanted to do this this way, a million reasons why he would end the world the way that he planned on ending it. The world as they knew it was ending. There would be no survivors of the old regime. Not when they had their way. Not when the Death Eaters started pulling themselves back together, they had regrouped many a times before. And after the fire that had been a direct hit to them, then there had been only a moment to breathe before Ares had called for this. They were going to take this building, this government, and this country, by force.

If they didn’t know already, there were plenty of people that were in for a rude awakening. Ares knew that the woman standing in this hallway with him was dangerous. He knew that his cousin was not someone to back down from a fight, and right now she had more to fight for than anyone else. She blamed the man in the office at the end of the hall for the death of her husband. And though Ares had no real proof that the Minister had been in on it at all, he was quite sure that Anicka was right. He knew how she felt and he would let her have her revenge. The Wentzells each had their own particular style when it came to fighting, when it came to killing, and Ares knew that the tiny witch was the most dangerous of them for a reason. He would simply kill you if you were a problem for him, one quick move and it was over. No fuss, no drama, none of that. Anicka was more of the kind to make a mess… The kind to strew blood from one end of the room to the other, simply because she could. Watching her today would almost be worth it, but he knew that he had more to do than that. He was going to come up here, and take this office for himself. When all was said and done he would be Minister, and that would be the start.

He would start something new, and they would head into a future where he was the one that they looked to for answers. Ares would put the purebloods back on top of society where they were supposed to be. He would undo the legislation that the Moron in office had thought was a good idea. He had plenty of things that he wanted to get accomplished in this time, in this space. But for today, this moment, the moment of revenge… it was all about family. His family would always come first. They always had. Ares would do whatever it took to protect his family, even if that meant that he had to protect the family from itself. There were secrets between all of them that would eat them alive one of these days. Things that he didn’t want to think about, but couldn’t help it. There were people in this family that should have been here today. Ares and Anicka were the only Wentzells in the Ministry, and that had been how the planned had been formed. That was the way that it was supposed to go, and then, everything, and yet nothing, had changed… They would face the storms as they came he supposed, but today, right now, this was about revenge. He smiled at his cousin, and nodded once. “Wand out Sestřenice…” There was no telling what they were walking into up here. Ares somehow doubted that the Minister was up here all alone… Pushing the outer door open Ares went in with every intention to kill to get to what he wanted.

The witch kept repeating one thing to herself over and over again. One of these days it wouldn’t hurt anymore. One of these days she wouldn't feel the way that she felt now. Anicka was lost. She knew that she was, because she had never been on her own. She knew that when it came down to it she had always had someone else around to tell her what the best thing to do was. She could run the magazine, and she could handle keeping track of her children and their lives. But when it came to her own life, and figuring out what she was supposed to do, and how she was supposed to do it, Anicka had no clue. She was certain that someone was supposed to take over that role in her life now, and propriety said that it was supposed to be Philip, but she refused to take orders from her eighteen year old. Instead she had diverted to her cousin. Ares had gotten to Philip and for the moment, though her son was officially the Lord Mountbatten, Anicka had retained the title of Lady Mountbatten. She had legally taken back her maiden name, but she would hold the house, and the vaults, and everything else that had been Andrew’s until Philip’s twenty-fifth birthday. She knew that she had her cousin to thank for that. She had him to thank for a lot of things actually.

Today. She had him to thank for today. He was the one that was figuring all of this out, he was the one that had made this possible. She knew that he hadn’t done it all for her, Anicka was well aware that she wasn’t quite that important, but Andrew’s death had something to do with it. Family had always played a unique role in her life, and she was quite certain that that would not be changing any time soon. They had a tendency to rely on family more than anything else. The Wentzells, the Mountbattens, and she would even say that Ares’ sister was a part of this family in one way or another. They were all part of this, and they all had their own part to play. Right now she had to hope that between Philip and Ellanora they had managed to keep Constance and Theodora at home. She wasn’t really worried about Temperance listening to her, her youngest daughter normally listened without question, but the middle two were a touch more free spirited, and while Anicka loved that about them, today she hoped that they would listen, and do as they were told. She didn’t want anything extra to worry about right now. Not when she had enough on her mind.

The loudest thing on her mind was that she would get her revenge. She would take his life as payment for her husband’s. It would do nothing to make her feel better. Anicka was quite certain that the emotions that were building up in her body were too conflicting to even be settled with murder. Something that felt altogether quite strange for her. She was certain that killing people, especially unsuspecting muggles, would always have the calming effect on her that she needed, but there was something different about knowing that she was going to have a hand in the finishing of the current Minister for Magic. Knowing that Ares planned on replacing the man. When he had asked her what it was she was truly after Anicka had known what he had meant, and she answered him truthfully. She sought righteousness for Andrew’s death. She sought to avenge murder by murdering in return. She could take her husband’s place in Ares’ assembly. She knew that when it came to the Death Eaters her husband had always held a slightly more elevated role than herself just because he was a man. Her cousin may have been a chauvinist, but he did know how powerful she was, and so she thought that perhaps, she would take Andrew’s place there as well.

For the moment Anicka simply nodded when Ares told her to get her wand out. There were moments to resist doing exactly what one was told and there were moments to follow orders. This was the latter. This was not Anicka’s first battle, the mark on her arm was proof of that. She had earned the right to stand next to her cousin and do this today. She deserved to be here. But first they had to get to the man that they planned on dragging through the halls, on tying to a stake, and then filleting and burning alive. They had elaborate plans for the way that this afternoon was going to go. This was just the first step in getting there. The witch waited for Ares to pull the door open and then she did the one thing that she was very good at, she took advantage of her size and she went in with the intent to kill. They had a momentary element of surprise because no one was expecting them. This plan, just like Ares’ last one in the Alley, was completely out of the blue. Of course this one had cause, the fire in the camp had prompted this attack. And really, this wasn't an attack. It was a targeted hit. Everything could go smoothly and Durant could be the only person to die today… of course that would have been rather disappointing… but still, it could happen.

She very much doubted it. Mudbloods were so pathetically stupid that she was sure a few of them would move too slowly, that they would put up some sort of a fight. It was too bad really that all of their intel said that the Potter bitch didn't work here anymore. Anicka was sure that she would have tried to fight, simply because it seemed that none of them were intelligent enough to realize that they would lose. They would always lose. Those like them, the purebloods, those that had been born into this for generations, they would always out do the mudbloods. The mudbloods would never be good enough, and in the end, they were simply proving today, that they, as purebloods, would not be kept down forever. When Ares opened the door and they were met with two wizards whom Anicka assumed were bodyguards of some sort she was not surprised. Rumor had it the Minister was paranoid these days, and really, when they were the ones knocking, he had every right to be. A dark smile crossed her face as she aimed for the nearer of the two guards and a fiery, red jet of light shot from her wand straight for his heart.

There was only one way that Ares would stand for this game to end today. He was going to win, or he was going to be dead. There were no other options. They would fight their way to the Minister, they would fight the Minister himself, and then they would end this, in a spectacle, where everyone in the bloody building would be able to see. He was quite sure that there was nothing that was going to stop all of this. Part of his mind kept wandering through all of the things that had lead up to today. There were a lot of things that he thought all in all had turned out quite well. That he didn’t think a thing needed to be changed about. There were a few little missteps, of course, nothing could have ever gone perfectly. That would have been impossible, but there were also a few bigger things that looking back now Ares was certain that he would have changed. He would have said some things sooner, he would have gone through with a few things that he probably should have done back then. There were a few of his own personal choices that he would take the chance to redo if he got the chance… But today wasn’t a time to dwell on all of the things that could have been, it was a time to focus on what was going to be.

They were going to fight the fight in front of them, and at the moment that meant that he was going to stand next to his cousin, and that they were going to do this, together. A part of his mind thought briefly the fact that there was someone that wasn’t here. Someone that couldn’t be here, but that he wished could have been. Shaking his head he tried to shake thoughts like that. Things had to happen for a reason. There was a plan to all of this. A plan that they had made before… Ares hadn’t realized how easily his world could have been split into a before and an after, and then it had happened, and he knew. There was a difference in before and after that he had never seen coming, and part of him wondered if he was alone in that. He had to be. There was no way that it had meant anything stronger on the other side. Not when things had ended the way that they did. Not when she could just up and walk away after that… There was before, and there was after, and this, here, and now, this was very clearly after.

Pulling the door open Ares had been ready for a fight. He was glad that he had Anicka with him though, because she was a good enough distraction. People tended to aim for him first, and that was to be expected, she was a much smaller, and in most people’s opinion, much less dangerous opponent. They were wrong. Ares knew as well as anyone that of the Wentzell siblings, Anicka was by far the one to be feared, some days that position as the most dangerous threatened to encroach on his own dangerousness, and today he thought that this might be one of them. She was the one that would finish things today. He had told her that she could, she could have her revenge, because it was not only for her. It was for her, and it was for her children, and it would be what they all needed. The moment that the family had its revenge Ares could move on to the future. And the future was the end goal of the day. They would clean this place out. All of the scum would be gone. There would be no one and nothing left behind that did not fit nicely into Ares’ plans. He had them laid out. The Death Eaters knew that when it came down to it, they were to wait, he had a few things that he needed to say, and then they could clean house. Their purpose was to rid the corridors of mudbloods, and traitors, it was not to be chaos, but a clean sweep. They would take down targets one by one, and anyone that stood in their way would be eliminated. Starting with the man in this very office.

Isaiah Durant had to die. That was the first objective of the day, and so to get there they had to get to him. It was rather difficult to kill him without having him in their possession. He was no longer a human, today he became a prop. He was nothing more than the figure that Ares wished to watch burn in the background as he took over the Ministry, and the country, and returned those that were meant to be at the top to their rightful stations. He watched as Anicka’s first curse was aimed directly for the man’s chest. Ares could feel the magic that was filling the room, it was dangerous, and it was powerful, and it wasn’t entirely controlled. That was what led him to know that it was his. His magic was loose in the room. He could not fire a curse and risk having it backfire, or go to the side and hit his cousin. No… Ares had been more than prepared to handle the situations without magic. He knew, he had known for days now, that his own magic was out of sorts. Not enough to be noticeable to anyone else, and nothing more, he was sure, than the weird build up of energy in his body regarding today. There was no way that it was more than that. He would just have to take care of things by hand.

Anicka had been warned. He had told her to incapacitate and that he would kill up here. He threw a stunning spell of his own in the direction of the second bodyguard, and the man blocked it easily. Ares had thought that he would, and a quick Killing Curse would have done the trick, but he wasn’t risking it. There were two lives in this room that were not up for taking chances with. His own, and hers. Instead he heard Anicka dealing with the first bodyguard on that side of the room, and Ares went for something that the other man probably never expected of a Death Eater. He disarmed him… The man’s wand went flying out of his hand and Ares thought that perhaps he had an advantage in that moment. There weren’t a lot of things that he was all that great at when it came to not using magic, but he could throw one hell of a punch, and the moment that the man’s wand was out of his hand Ares’ fist was headed for his jaw. He felt the blow radiate through his own hand and the man staggered backwards a step, before shaking himself and coming after Ares in return…

There was a sort of pain in her chest that Anicka couldn’t even really begin to describe… There was a loss there… something that she wasn’t quite sure how she was handling because she felt broken. She knew that Andrew had never been perfect, that there were things that he had done, that he had let others do to her, that she would never forgive him for, even in death, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t love him. Anicka knew that that didn’t make sense. That she could hate him for some things, but still love him just the same. There was a part of her that didn’t know how it was that she was supposed to figure out how to be by herself. That was the hardest part of all of this, she felt entirely alone, and yet no one left her alone for longer than it took her to take a shower. When she had effectively escaped from her brother’s penthouse she knew that Ares had not let the babysitting thing go that easy. She knew that there was always someone watching her. Whether it was at home and it was Ellanora, or Constance, or if she was at work and it was Jacqueline, she knew that there was always someone with an eye on her. He was worried that she was going to lose it again, and really she wasn’t even angry with him about it. There was a very good reason for him to be worried.

Her reaction to the news that Andrew was dead was not a pretty one. Anicka had lost control. For a moment she had not been the lady that she had been raised to be. She had screamed and she had kicked and she had punched. She had stood there and waylaid her brother, and Dominick had taken every hit, because she wasn’t angry with him, she hadn’t been trying to hurt him, she had just been trying to get her anger out. Somehow, maybe he picked her up, maybe she had climbed up there on her own… somehow she had ended up in her brother’s lap, and then Aurora’s… The woman that she had called her sister in secret for thirty years had been there, and without thinking Anicka had gone to her. She had wanted her. Because she had done this before. She had known the loss that Anicka felt. The knowing that there were no real words to describe the feeling of emptiness… Her brother had told her something that Anicka had taken to heart what Dominick had told her and she knew that he was right. That the only way to go from here was up. It was just a matter of making that leap. Of really getting there… She would survive these worst days, because she had to. And one of these days things would look better.

Coming into the Ministry, knowing that they were here to kill the man that had caused at least a part of this pain. It should have been enough to at least make her smile. It wasn’t. She couldn’t find a smile in herself today. There were too many things going on in her head. Too many things that she was worried about. Anicka didn’t have the endurance to go on pretending that everything was fine forever, and so she hoped that today would bring about some sort of something that she could latch onto to try and figure out if she was going to be able to pull herself completely through this. She was tired of everyone treating her like the ticking time bomb that they knew that she was. She wanted everyone to at least act like they weren’t worried she was going to set something on fire for the hell of it. She wanted them to think that they were fine. That they were all fine. She would get better about it at least. Anicka kept telling herself that one of these days it would all work itself out, that she would be okay again. Always just okay though, and that was what really worried her. She had yet to even think that one day she would be happy. Because there was no such thing as truly happy anymore.

She would smile and she would laugh, and she would put on one hell of a show… She was brilliant, and she knew it, but that didn’t make it easier to fake what she wasn’t feeling. She knew that one of these days someone would see through the facade that she planned on building for herself, and she thought that perhaps it would be her own mother, but for the moment Anicka didn’t want to focus on that. She wanted to focus on what it was going to take to kill the man that had been responsible for Andrew’s death. There was some balance of power or sorts that made her feel justified in killing him. It wasn’t anything more than her thinking that she deserved it. That he deserved to die, and that she wanted to be the one to kill him, but it was there in her thoughts, and in her heart anyway. It was the one thing that she knew she wanted to feel right now. Anicka would have given damn near anything to turn off everything, so that for just a little while she didn’t have to feel anything at all. The desire to watch Durant go up in flames, flames that she was controlling… that was something that she wanted to hang on to.

When Anicka had seen the man coming towards her she had reacted. It was as simple as that really. She had reacted. He had come towards her and she had gone with the first thing that had come to mind. The Cruciatus Curse flying from the tip of her wand and heading straight for his chest. The man sidestepped and she cursed in Czech under her breath when one of the windows in the office smashed behind him as the curse made impact there. Narrowing her eyes she shifted on the balls of her feet and the second flash of red headed straight for the bodyguard. The fact that the Minister was hiding behind bodyguards was ridiculous to begin with, and so she moved like fire itself as she slid around him. Holding him under for a few seconds… the pain of the Cruciatus Curse not fully taking effect before she had wrenched it away and let him breathe… Killing him in one fell swoop was no fun… Anicka played with her kills, she always had… Toying with him, like a cat and a mouse, was more entertaining for everyone. She heard the sound of skin on skin contact and looked over to see the second bodyguard headed back for her cousin. With a roll of her eyes she flicked hers into the wall, knocking him unconscious for the moment before focusing in on the one that was attacking Ares.

They could really only do this one step at a time. They could only take out the target directly in front of them, and Ares knew that in this moment the target in front of him was not the one that he wanted. He wanted Isaiah. He wanted to ring his neck, and slit him open. He wanted to lay all of his organs out on the floor and watch them burn… He wanted to see the light leave his eyes in those final moments and have him know that he was the one that had brought this about. He wanted Durant to know that he had been the one to kill his wife, to kill his, well, whatever she had been. He wanted him to know that he had been the one to take everything from him, and the moment before he died he wanted him to connect the dots, he wanted him to realize that everything that had gone wrong, everything that had happened since Brant had attacked his wife nearly a year ago. Everything since then had been Ares’ doing. He had been the one pulling the strings, he had been the one that was causing everything to go wrong. In Ares’ mind that meant that he was winning. He was winning because until two and a half weeks ago there was nothing that the Moron had done to try and retaliate. His retaliation had been met with this. He would pay for Andrew’s life, for all of the lives that they had lost in the attack on the camp, with his own life blood.

The Wentzells had a tendency to be messy. They had a tendency to make things take a little longer than necessary, to drag things out for the sake of dramatics. Those were the same things that they were going to do today. He knew that at this very moment there were Death Eaters sweeping through the Ministry. That they had come in, with no masks, in just their robes, or even in normal clothes. They were not hiding. They didn’t have to. This was going to work, they were taking over. The Death Eaters were going to take what they wanted, they were going to start with this place, and slowly they were going to take the country. He knew that the ties in the school were, strained, but it didn’t matter, she was a Wentzell, and she would do right by the family. She would at least do right by her sister, and somehow it had been Anicka that Ares had fixated on for all of this. If he could focus on why he was doing this for her, for her children, then he could focus on why it was important. They had to do this, and they had to do this right, and it didn’t matter what the mess behind the scenes looked like, because he was going to do this and do this right. Family first. Always.

While they took the office upstairs Ares was certain that his sister and Rodolphus would handle things downstairs. He had already asked Athena if she would be his Undersecretary when this was all said and done. By the end of today he was certain that he would be standing right back up here in this office with her, and Jacqueline, and possibly Rodolphus and Anicka. They were going to win today, and it would be the start of every tomorrow. Because every tomorrow would matter now, every move that Ares made would no longer be hidden in the shadows. There was no sneaking around anymore, but he would not forget what it really meant to be a Wentzell either, and shadows were where they thrived. The greatest of secrets could control the world, and Ares was certain that he would be picking up quite a few secrets to lord over others by the end of this power shift. There should have been some sort of struggle really, but Ares was certain of one thing, the Death Eaters were on his side. They were outnumbered by the general population of the Ministry, but they were far more powerful today. They were the ones in charge now. And everyone there was about to find out.

Not trusting his magic to kill someone, he had done it before, but there was that word again. Before. Before everything had changed. It was ridiculous really, that everything had changed so much like that that. That in one night, everything had gone from the way that it had always been to a disaster, and he didn’t know which way was up to pull himself from under the churning waves. He couldn’t think about that now, he didn’t want to think about that today. There were other things that he needed to focus on. People that he needed to make sure were handled first. Ares wanted everything securely in place today. He wanted Rodolphus downstairs waiting for them on a stage with a stake. He wanted Athena ready to help him sweep every department and clean this place of all of the trash. He wanted everyone destroyed that did not belong here. That did not belong among them. He wanted all traces of mudbloods wiped from the Ministry, and he wanted a fresh start. To put the purebloods back where they were supposed to be in the world.

He had let his fist collide with the man’s jaw, and Ares knew that it had been a long time since he had actually been in a fist fight. He had broken Dominick’s jaw last month, when he had seen what had really happened all of those years ago, but he hadn’t been in an actual fist fight in years. When the man lunged back for him Ares did his best to avoid him, and ended up taking the blow in the shoulder instead of the head, which was where he was assuming that the man was aiming. He had dropped his own wand in the process of going after the bodyguard and so it was a series of repeated blows, one after another that the two men exchanged instead of spells. Ares lost footing when the man came at him again, and he let out a sound when his leg collided with the desk that was behind him. One more swing, and Ares looked up at the flash of red that had the man shaking on the ground. He had struck with his fist, and Anicka had been faster. Looking across at the other man that was stirring against the wall Ares pulled the dagger he had brought with him for the Minister and moved that way.

A quick, deep, slash to his throat and there was the guttural sound of someone choking on their own blood as the man died in front of him. The dark red blood spilling from the gash in his neck, and oozing all over the floor to form a puddle under where his body had slumped limply when Ares had let it go. “Enough.” His voice carried through the room, and he had no doubt that she had heard him over the muffled cries that came from the gagged wizard that she was holding under the torture curse. Ares didn’t know where the gag had come from, but he was glad that she had thought of it. The strength of her curse was unquestionable. Crossing the room towards her, and the man that was twitching on the floor he smiled at her, and then bent and repeated the same motion from the other side of the room. The second man bleeding out in the same manner as the first… Now the fun could really begin… He nodded to the door on the back wall of the room. The Minister’s office…

When all was said and done today Anicka knew that her cousin would be the Minister. Ares would have wrought control of the Ministry by the end of the day, and that meant that the government was in his hands. Ares would have the government, Aurora had the school, Dominick had Aurora… and Anicka… Anicka didn’t know what she had, or where she fit in. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect from any of them, and she most certainly didn’t know what she expected from herself. She knew what it took to be who she was, and she knew what she had done to get there, but it was moving on that she didn’t understand. They would win the day today, and Ares would come out the victor, but where did that leave her? Since Andrew had died Anicka had thought of little else besides what she wanted to do to avenge his death. At least once she had calmed down enough to think rational thoughts all together. There were plenty of things that had run through her mind that she would have liked to do, but none of them were really options at all.

She couldn’t kill the guards that had been at the work camp that day, she couldn’t go back in time and stop Andrew from dying. She couldn’t take back how she had reacted, she couldn’t not say the things that she had said to her sister. Anicka wondered if that what was really bothering her the most. The fear that she lived with now that he would find out. That her father would find out that Ares knew, that Aurora and Dominick knew. She was scared to death that that was what was going to happen. That they were all going to wake up some morning and Ondrej was going to be here and everything was going to be worse. There was nothing that was going to be okay in the end if that happened. She would not take that risk. The thought of her father coming here was enough to terrify her on a normal day, and a day like today… when emotions were high and everything was crazy anyway… Well the last thing that she wanted was to waste time thinking about her father.

For now her children were safe. Philip was always safe. He was the boy, and the only Mountbatten heir. A family of one sons, that was what they had always been, and yet Anicka had managed to have four daughters before that had happened. She had four beautiful daughters that she would protect with her life, and little did they know that she had. Once upon a time Anicka had literally thrown herself between them and her father. The one time that she had stood up to Ondrej was to protect those girls. Girls were not useful, girls were not Lords. Girls were not what Ondrej had wanted as grandchildren… The only thing girls were useful for was to keep their mothers in line… That Anicka had learned the hard way. All Ondrej had ever had to do was threaten her daughters and Anicka had become instantly compliant. She would have done, and honestly had done, anything that he had told her to to keep those girls safe. Everything that had happened to her, everything that she had allowed over the years… It was all because she refused to defy her husband, and she refused to give her father a reason to do harm.

There were only a few things that she was truly afraid of and he was one of them… Everyone else was scared of her, or they should have been scared of her. Her older brother was still in Prague, choosing not to fight this time, choosing to be the coward that he truly was and remain safe behind the walls of the palace that their father called home in that city… It wasn’t really a palace, but it was huge, and it was cold, and it was lonely, and it was everything that Anicka imagined a palace must be. She wanted nothing to do with it. It had been her childhood home, and her summer home when she was in school… but it was not the place that she truly called home. Her mother’s house was home, the Hall was home, Prague was no longer home. Somewhere along the way she had made her mother’s country her home, and Dominick had too. Dominick and she and Ares, they were all Czech by birth, but they were English now. Just like the rest of them… Though Anicka was still more than likely to speak a language that was not English in conversation. She was most likely to speak in Czech if she was talking to family, or French if not… It had only ever been with Andrew that she had been forced to speak English at home.

But all of that had changed now. Home was different. She was still the Lady of the Manor, but she was a widow. She was alone, in a way that she never had been before, and she wasn’t quite sure what she thought of that. Those were the thoughts running through her mind as she toyed with the man in front of her. She had switched Ares opponents. He had given her orders to incapacitate and that he would kill. That had been what she had been told to do, and so that’s what she was doing. Repeated exposure to the Cruciatus Curse was always fun… though sometimes it was the third or fourth time that she hit them that was her favorite. The moment that he had started to make noise though she had gagged him. The Minister was probably already aware that something was happening outside of his door, she didn’t need her prey screaming and making it worse… She looked up when she heard Ares say ‘Enough’ and stopped instantly. "Samozřejmě." She watched as he slit the man’s throat with the silver dagger in his hand and then nod towards the door. Oh yeah… here they go… She stepped forward, and with her wand drawn she nodded at her cousin to open the door...

This year had been a long one. There was no doubt about that. It was just about a year ago that he had heard about the little attack that had happened at Hogwarts—or the prank. Whatever the hell they wanted to call it, but he hadn’t seen it as much of a prank. He had seen it as students realizing what he already knew. That purebloods, and those that surrounded themselves with those sort of people, were not to be trusted. That they were not innocent, and that it was important to show that they were going to fight back. It wasn’t just purebloods and Death Eaters that needed to be feared. But he had known it was important for the rest of the wizarding world to think that it was nothing but a prank, so that was what he had assured people. Students being students, and it had just happened to go too far. He had let them think that everything would be fine, because he knew exactly what was going to happen. Those daughters and sons of Death Eaters would figure out some way to get even… and that, he would be able to exploit in order to get a better hand in what went on in the school, and have more control there. He hadn’t been wrong. It had taken longer than he had suspected, but some daughter of a Death Eater decided to attack the Potter children and he could use that…

While that silly little ‘prank’ had barely made the paper, the new of the Potter children being attacked and the culprit being arrested most certainly had. It was proof that purebloods and Death Eaters were poisoning the next generation, were making them just as evil and just as dangerous as they were, and that was what he needed. It worked out in his favor, just the way he had thought it would… just the way that he had planned. It couldn’t have been better if he’d had orchestrated exactly what had happened himself. He had been sure that it would be the push he needed to oust Minerva from the school, to put someone in that he trusted, and it would just secure his hold there. As always, everything that he did went perfectly. He never doubted that. But then the attack in Diagon Alley had happened… that had not been anything that he’d expected. He had thought that the work camp had torn the Death Eaters down to the point that their show of force would be weak at best, and in that respect he had most certainly been wrong. Lives had been lost, it was a tragedy of course, but no one that he had cared about had died and so he knew that he just had to figure out how to spin it to his advantage. Some people questioned him, but some felt like they needed a firm leader more than ever before.

But then Elena had been killed—then Leigh had been killed. Someone had come into his home and had taken them from him… had taken… well, he still couldn’t think about that. He couldn’t think about what he could have had, what could have been, because it was done. It was over. They were gone and there was nothing that he could do about that. It was all he could focus on to get the revenge that he craved, to not do something the proper and official way for a change, and the fire had… not been nearly what he had wanted. It had been put out. Less than ten lives had been lost, when he would have been glad to see them all burn. Either their leader would burn with them, or he would lose a good half of his little army… instead, no one that mattered all that much had been lost. And since then he had been paranoid… waiting, knowing that something else was going to happen and that if they’d gone after his family, it was relatively obvious who they would go after next. It made sense for him to hire protection, especially since Elena and Leigh had been killed in their apartment. When he was home, there were no shortages of guards there, making sure that no one got in and nothing went wrong. When he was at work, though, there was less. They were in a building full of people—if there was a place to target him, he’d wager that here would be a rather foolish endeavor indeed.

Still, he did have two guards in the main office. He hadn’t replaced Ellya after she’d quit. He and Elena had managed everything just fine without her, but when Elena had died… he couldn’t replace her. He should have—a Minister without either assistant… it made everything a bit more complicated. Everything had to be done himself, even menial work that he had always made Ellya do, or work that Elena had always been better at. But he figured it out, because he didn’t have the patience to hire another assistant when he had no one to train her, and he couldn’t replace Elena. Instead, the front of the office had mostly been taken over by whatever guards were there that day. He had been trying to focus in on whatever paperwork was in front of him, but it was hard to think of anything other than making the Death Eaters pay for what they had done. A part of him contemplating heading over to the hidden rooms of the werewolf capture unit… seeing some werewolves being experimented on always made him feel better, but before he could further the thought, he heard a sound. Then another… the clear sound of a struggle, a fight, a duel… someone was here. But how many? And would they be able to get past the guards that were decently trained in combat? He couldn’t assume one way or another, and so he got to his feet, wand in hand. If they wanted a fight, he would give them one… and show them just why coming here today had been a horrible idea. The moment that the door open, a wave of his wand had a cutting hex sent in the direction of whomever would try to enter. It could be his guards for all he knew, but he wouldn’t take that chance.

Outfit

Ares liked to leave a mess… Not in the way that he knew that Anicka did… not in the way that left blood, and guts, and gore everywhere, he didn’t have to make a mess to leave a mess in his wake. There were other ways of making a mess and today he had every intention of doing just that. He was going to make a name for himself and for his family. They were going to do this, all of this, together. They were going to take the magical world back by force, and they were going to make one hell of a mess in the process. Ares knew what messes looked like. His entire life was a mess these days. There were things that had happened that he didn’t want to think about, but that kept popping up in his head. He had a mission to carry out, he had a witch at his side that he had to have her back. They were going to do this, all of them, and there wasn’t anyone that was powerful enough to stop him right now. He wasn’t stupid… he thought that there was a very good chance that someday someone would be stupid enough to push back, but they would stay right where they were… They would stay on top, because that was where they belonged.

Righting the world well that was only half the battle. This was war, and it wasn’t war in the way that everyone usually thought of it. This was war in the manner that it was moves and countermoves. They were fighting battles that no one saw, they were taking things that no one was missing. The Death Eaters were still more powerful than anyone would have liked and when this office belonged to him that camp would be the first thing to go… He didn’t know what had become of the place in the last weeks, that hadn’t been his top priority. His first priority had been, like always, the family. The family was supposed to come first, and they had. He had kept his secrets, because there were some things that it was easier to keep to oneself than it was to try and explain them. He didn’t want to explain how he couldn’t explain some of the things that had happened. He didn’t want to look into faces and see the things that he knew that he needed to make up for. He didn’t want to see any of it. He didn’t want to have to deal with knowing that minutes could have changed everything. That wasn’t going to change anything now, and so they pressed on. They would change the world, one step at a time.

There were people all through this building by now. Downstairs he was certain that there were those that were making sure that everything was running smoothly. There were those that he was quite certain were going to make things rather interesting down here. Ares would admit that he was going to be quite disappointed if there was no one that resisted them. There had to be some of the mudbloods that were stupid enough to not do as they were told, or slow enough that they didn’t get out of the way in time. Part of him hoped that there were some people that were going to be that stupid. Just because a plan working out perfectly was simply boring. By the time that they got downstairs he was sure that everyone in this place was going to know what was going on, that something was going to happen. He looked over at Anicka as he pushed the door open, glad for once that he had someone that he knew that he could trust with him in that moment. Ares knew that she would do whatever it took today, and so would he.

Slitting the men’s throats was the easy part, there were other things that they needed to do today… There were things that needed to happen, and getting into that office was the first real challenge. They had expected the bodyguards. Ares had known about the paranoia, he had known that there would be people to get through before they got to him, and a part of him was rather let down that there had only been two. He was glad, because his own emotions, and the adrenaline in his system, he was sure that he didn’t have good enough control to help Anicka if he had had to turn to magic, and so he was thankful that they could easily dispatch two the way that they had. Ares didn’t think that the Minister was a complete fool though, and he also didn’t think that he was going to come quietly. He would have heard them by now, they weren’t exactly being quiet, though Anicka had managed to muffle the noise somewhat… He still wasn’t sure where she had gotten a gag, but that had been quick thinking on her part before she had thrown the Cruciatus Curse at the bloke.

When Ares opened the door the first thing that he had seen was the flash of light that had come shooting towards them. He didn’t have time to get a word in, but he watched as she danced out of the way, and it made contact with the back of her dress. Ares smirked as he watched the fabric hit the floor behind her and the tiny witch’s eyes somehow burned even brighter. Pushing the door the rest of the way open Ares followed her into the room, still holding the bloody silver dagger in his hand. He watched as a jet of light flew from Anicka’s wand towards the Minister, and he laughed darkly. “Not happy to see us Durant? Shame… We are just burning with delight at seeing you…” Ares had to stop himself from chucking at his own little joke before focusing on his cousin and the Minister. He would get in the way if he had to, make the fight physical instead of magical, but for now she was okay on her own… He would get to do the physical part in a minute…