Tatsumi stood there staring at the man whom he had sworn to kill for the Creed. Like his teacher taught him, he quickly grabbed General Esdeath's Rapier. In a sudden fluid motion he sunk the blade into the Minister's abdomen. Leaned in and whispered, "May your Gods watch over you as…"

No he couldn't, first off, he wouldn't live long enough to. Second, if the Minister died now then someone within the Templars would take his place and the others would still be where they are now.

"It's fascinating," The Fat Man began to speak, "to see General Esdeath care for someone so much. I've heard much about you from her." Tatsumi noticed that his right hand began to move. The manner was similar to a man beginning a handshake. The issue stood that Tatsumi was missing his ring finger on his right hand, which was the one that the Minister was moving to shake. Acting quickly Tatsumi slipped his right hand into his pocket and quickly raised his left hand for the minister for him to shake.

Their two hands meet and they both looked awkwardly at their to hands. "I-I'm sorry, here al…" Tatsumi began to sputter out.

"No." The Minister said with a massive cheshire smile. "It's alright." The Minister lowered his hand and instead raised his other. The Minister and him shook their hands wordlessly. They jointly lowered the others hands. Then the Minister motioned to a man behind him. "Have you meet The Great General Budo?"

Tatsumi froze. While being face to face with the Grandmaster was a freight itself, The Knight Commander was something else. Esdeath may have power over ice but her Teigu wasn't what gave him a chill up his spine.

The Knight Commander stared at him. Sizing him up before giving a loud groan. The Minister laughed a little, "The Great General isn't much one for words." He cleared his throat and turned to the audience. "Now it is time for the Great Banquet!" The Minister shouted.

Soon after the announcement the entire room began to empty. Tatsumi was being dragged along by General Esdeath to the banquet. However soon after Tatsumi felt himself pulled away from the General. He looked towards his rescuer he would call him, or her, he couldn't see whomever it was.

Eventually the horde of courtiers and retainers passed the two of them. Tatsumi didn't know if Esdeath was able to break free herself or was sweep along with them. With the dance floor empty Tatsumi looked at the person who tugged him out of the group.

They were wearing elegant clothing befit an upper class male with a good position in the Capital's Administration with a brown hood covering his face."It's good to see you again my friend." Tatsumi recognized the voice. "It's been a few weeks hasn't it."

The man lowered his hood exposing his face. "David!" Tatsumi said relieved. "What are you doing here?" Tatsumi asked.

The bureaucrat gave him just the stupidest look imaginable. "Remember. I live here. In the court." Walsh said.

"Oh yeah." Tatsumi said remembering that the bureaucrat should more than likely, you know, live somewhere useful. "So was there a reason you pulled me aside?" Tatsumi asked.

"Indeed. I heard that you've been brought here by General Esdeath. I figured that we should have a private word." The bureaucrat said to the boy.

"And this is the only time you could peel me away from Ms. Esdeath, isn't it?"

"Percissly. Now I need you to tell me, what is going on?" Walsh inquisitively asked him.

"Well…"

"So Esdeath isn't aware of the Brotherhood, nor you being an Assassin?" Walsh said.

"Not that I'm aware of." Tatsumi said in a rather relieved tone.

"Good." The bureaucrat stood in front of him thinking. "Tatsumi, do you want to escape from the Palace?"

"Of course!" Tatsumi didn't even hesitate to respond.

"Alright." Walsh paused and thought for a moment. "Did you bring any weapons with you?" He asked.

"No I gave everything to one of me Assassins." Tatsumi said while shaking his head.

"Alright that'll limit our options. In the meantime you're going to need to blend into the Palace's high society. However," Walsh said whilst rolling up his sleeve exposing his hidden blade. "You're going to need something to protect yourself." He unhooked the hidden blade and handed it to Tatsumi. "You'll need some sort of weapon in this snake pen."

Tatsumi looked at it for a second. "I...I can't take that."

"Tatsumi, you'll need something to protect yourself. I have my reputation and my connections that I can sort of hide behind, you on the other hand." He pushed the blade into Tatsumi's arms. "You have a psychopath."

Tatsumi reluctantly took the arm mounted blade. He studied the mechanisms on the strange blade, it seemed to be reliant on the use of a ring connected to a finger on the Assassin's hand. Sadly he surrendered his right ring finger years ago, although he still had his left. He rolled up the sleeve of his left arm and strapped the hidden blade into place.

"Tatsumi!" His name rang out through the hall. It was Esdeath's without a doubt.

Walsh closed in and whispered, "I'll contact you in the next day two. Remember our Creed and the Tenets." With that the man turned around and threw his hood over his head and marched away.

"Tatsumi!" He heard his voice a second time.

'Well I best be going to see what she needs. I guess all I can do now is wait and see what happens.'

Days passed. It was probably, about four days since the ball and he hadn't heard or seen neither hide nor hair of Walsh. His thoughts drifted to his small band of Assassins that he had the privilege of working alongside for awhile now. And also Mein, that Night Raid agent.

"So Seryu, but I'll be gone for a week or two." The Professor calmly said.

"Bu-uu-ut you can't! Please stay! What if Night Raid attacks suddenly?!" The young girl said to the man.

"Well that's why we have the new boy." He pointed out. Although he could see that she wasn't convinced "Seryu if you're a good girl while I'm gone, I'll bring you back a nice new toy."

Seryu's face lighted up, "Will it be a Chain Sword! Or how about a Grenade Launcher!"

The Professor smiled oddly, "How about I surprise you."

Soon after that The man said goodbye to everyone, especially Tatsumi and Wave, and left the Jaegers meeting room.

Shortly after though he turned to Wave and asked a simple question, "Where is he going?"

"He has a lab up North somewhere." He said and continued to eat the food they had made earlier. "General Esdeath ordered him to deal with some rebels or something."

The days continued to pass without word from Walsh or anyone one else for that matter, besides Esdeath or one of her Jaegers. His night's continued to be sleepless due to the overly affectionate General sleeping next to him. It was on this night he saw something slide underneath the door. Interested he snuck away from Esdeath's embrace and crept over to the door to see what it was.

When he arrived he noticed an envelope with the single word on it. Tatsumi. He quietly opened the paper case and removed the letter and dagger that were on the inside. He then used the little light from the moon to read the message.

Tatsumi,

I have finally worked out a way for you to escape the palace. First you'll need to meet me by same ballroom where we meet earlier. Afterwards you'll need to trust me to lead you out via a secret passageway.

Walsh

Tatsumi looked to General and began to walk over to the sleeping women. 'She is a threat, while not a Templar she is their puppet.' He prepared the blade with the movement of his hand and was about to sink the knife deep into her heart or her throat and end her life. However, suddenly, he stopped. 'This women really hadn't done anything wrong. Yes she kidnapped me but it wasn't like she had a malicious reason for doing so.' In the end he didn't kill her.

He quietly reignited the fireplace and threw the letter inside and slipped the knife in his pocket. He silently moved to the Ballroom through the strangely empty palace. Hadn't Esdeath told him that the palace was regularly patrolled? Then why weren't there any guards? Eventually he arrived to the entrance of the Ballroom.

"Good." He looked up to see Walsh jump from a massive immoveable Chandelier. "Glad to see you made it."

"Yeah can you show me how the hell to get out of here?" Tatsumi said anxious to escape.

"Of course!" Walsh pushed open the a small section of wall. Soon after a section of the wall opened up to them. They pressed inside. "You know Tatsumi. I don't believe I thanked you."

"For what?" Tatsumi asked checking behind them.

"For saving my life." Walsh replied.

"It's no problem Walsh." Tatsumi said.

"No Tatsumi. Doing something like that brings a man into a debt. If there's anything that you need just ask." Walsh said sliding through a narrow point in the passage.

"Hey, you're doing more than enough right now." Tatsumi said sliding through the same point as Walsh just did and into a large storage room with a long hallway that Tatsumi couldn't quite see down.

Walsh sighed a little bit before walking into the center of the room. The room was wider and had several pillars in the middle each with multiple barrels at the bottom. The two Assassins approached the passage. "So end of the line Tatsumi." Walsh said as he patted a barrel he passed. "We'll have to part here real soon. Now I just want to tell you this, when you return to kill the Prime Minister. These barrels are full of gunpowder. Apply enough force to it...boom."

Tatsumi looked at the barrel, "I'll remember that." He held his silence before they closed the distance to the passage. After they had reached the opening of the passage Walsh extended his hand and Tatsumi shook it. "Hey why don't you come with me." Tatsumi finally broke the silence.

Walsh looked at him for a second, "Why? My place is here."

"Walsh your in danger here, even more so than most brothers are. Plus we need extra bodies, more than we do the information on Honest."

Walsh turned his head away for a second. "Well I thin…" They heard footprints storm into the room. Soon Esdeath, the Jaegers, and multiple Palace Guards stormed into the room. The two looked around taking in the situation. Esdeath was saying something that Tatsumi couldn't make out, however he did make something out.

Walsh turned to him and said two words as he thrust a piece of paper into his hands, "I'm sorry." Before he could react he felt Walsh's foot hit him right in the chest. He flew back at least five, maybe seven foot. Tatsumi looked up and he looked back into the room. That's when he saw Walsh, pistol in hand, shoot one of the barrels. The explosion collapsed the room and Tatsumi could no longer see into the room.

Tatsumi continued down the passage for what felt like several hours until he reached the end of the passage. There was a large stone door in his way. Tatsumi had to use his full body strength to open the door. He encroached into the area beyond the door. It lead to a spiral stair case. With no other options to him he followed up the stairway. Once he approached the stairway's top he was greeted with a small trap door. He slowly lifted it up and looked around to ensure that no one was around. When he was sure he thrust open the trap door fully and exited into what seemed like a small home within the city.

Judging from the surrounding area it looked like it was falling apart. Outside, the sun was starting to peek up over the horizon. He opened the door and looked around. He was certian that he was near the Western Gate, which put him on the opposing side of the city from Bismarck Cathedral. It would probably take a few hours to get back. As he started walking he felt a piece of paper. Suddenly he remembered, that Walsh gave him a piece of paper before he saved him. He tucked it into his pocket, remembering to bring it up with his Assassins.

Five Hours Later - Bismarck Cathedral

Reluctantly Tatsumi wondered into the Assassin's base exhausted. As soon as entered the main area at he started staring at least five crossbows locked and loaded. Until they realized whom they saw. "Tatsumi?" He heard Mors's familiar voice.

"Hey Mors." Tatsumi responded. With this the other crossbows lowered. They approached and quickly embraced. "So who are these guys?" Tatsumi indicated towards the four other Assassins.

"While you where missing we decided we needed more people. So I recruited the four people I trusted the most from the Guard." Mors explained. The Assassins that he indicated towards had their masks and hoods up and seemed to be a mixed group from what he had seen.

"That's good to hear we need members and income." Tatsumi said nodding his head. After doing a quick inspection he turned towards Mors. "Where are the others?"

"Asleep, but not for long." Mors said and left with Tatsumi.

"I want to hold a meeting in my office." Tatsumi said to his companion.

Tatsumi sat behind his desk. Slowly Seamus, Flint, Mors and oddly enough Sophia and Mr. Avery also arrived. Tatsumi told the events of the previous week or so. "So it sounds like you had an interesting experience. Shame about your contact though." Avery said after Tatsumi gave his account for what had happened in the past week.

"So I want hear your updates of what has happened while I've been gone." Tatsumi said.

Avery spoke up first. "While you were in the capital, with the Assassin's help, we have not only removed the Templar's influence in the Markets, but I have also been elected to be the head of the guild." He said.

"That sounds perfect, the Markets will deprive the Templar's of their wealth." Tatsumi repleyed.

"Not only that, but, Sophia and I have decide to join the Creed and bring our resources to you."

Tatsumi was taken back for a moment before he moved on. "So when I was greeted I meet some new faces."

"Yeah." Seamus spoke up. "So we decided that in order to expand properly we'd need to bring in new recruits that can be trusted." Seamus said slowly.

Tatsumi nodded his head. "That sound good. We need to expand our manpower. Although we all need to ensure that all of our recruits will be loyal, we can't be betrayed now." He sunk into his chair. "Is there anything else that you need to tell me?" After waiting for seconds Tatsumi pulled out the paper that Walsh had given him. "I haven't read this yet, but Walsh made sure I received this before his death."

Tatsumi,

I have discovered the the Jaeger, Dr. Stylish, is a Templar agent. As you maybe able to recall he recently left the Capital to head north to his private lab. It is a oddly newer facility that is close to Alamut, placing it a risk. I believe he maybe getting ready for an attack. We cannot allow this to occur. I am giving this to you to allow you to decide the next step of action.

Signed, David Walsh

After taking in the information Tatsumi started to speak. "Stylish has almost a day on us. A raven or message will take to long to alert Alamut. I feel the best course of action will be to try and eliminate him ourselves. I want a message sent immediately just in case. I will go and deal with him after I get a chance to eat something and rest."

After he finished Sophia, who had been quiet up until now. "Tatsumi, you can't leave now. You just escaped from the Palace you aren't in shape to go and deal with Stylish by yourself."

"None of you can go." Tatsumi quickly shot back. "The recruits will need to be trained by Seamus, and Flint. Avery and you are too unexperience in the kill to be of much use. Mors is of to high of a note to disappear for a trip to the frontier. Going by myself is the only option."

"At least bring someone, Tatsumi." Mors joined in. "If the Creed demands me to leave for now I have lieutenants that'll be able to handle things here in my stead."

Tatsumi sat in thought for what felt like hours. "What about Night Raid?"

The people of Night Raid had assembled around Akame at their base. "So Tatsumi wants an Alliance." Bulat thought out loud.

Author's Notes

So this has been looooonnnng over do. I am sorry about that. I just want to say I am dedicated to make sure that this gets completed. However my favorite Readers, I need your help. I am not completely satisfied with my previous chapters. Please take a look at the older chapters and give me analytical feedback. It is appreciated and thanked. I will make sure to respond to all feedback and discuss with you what and how something can be improved. BTW this counts for this and all future chapters. You guys are awesome. DFTBA