John Carter stood in the garden of his mansion watching as the three dark hooded figures approached him. He knew that hidden somewhere in the hedges the three mages from Sabertooth he had hired were watching the encounter and ready to attack at his signal. The signal was for him to raise his left hand over his shoulder. John looked down at his left hand and then clenched it into a fist, he would not give the signal until he knew if this person really was his son as Ruby had suggested. Ruby seemed a cold character but she looked like the kind of girl to not mess around and do what had to be done. He trusted her with his life, he knew she would protect him. Her blood red eyes said that they would, then again if Roberts was somehow involved then he would have warned his companions of the three hired mages. Perhaps they had already been dealt with and he was actually out here alone. The thought terrified him, he knew that these people most likely would kill him, if he handed the company over or not. There was a large possibility that he would die. He glance around quickly in hopes off seeing maybe a glimpse of Ruby's white hair in the night but of course he said nothing. They were either very well hidden or they weren't there at all.

"You seem distracted John." Said the leader if the group of three. The man that spoke stood closest to John and the other two that were with him stood slightly behind him. "You wouldn't by any chance be thinking about those three mages from Sabertooth you hired are you?"

"How do you know about that?" John asked. This man's voice didn't sound a big like his sons it was much too deep.

"There is not much you can hide from us. We know everything."

"I assume that is because you have spies on the inside."

"Then you would assume right. We do have a person on the inside."

"Person? Just one? Would that person be my eldest son by any chance?" He asked and the man laughed coldly.

"What little faith you have in your own son."

"It has recently come to my attention that he may very well be jealous of the fact that I am planning to give my brothers company to his younger brother instead of him. I need to know if he is co operating with you or not."

"I'm afraid that you are in no position to to demand information from us." John glared at him and lifted his left hand over his shoulder. Instantly Ruby, Sting, Rouge, Lector and Frosch appeared just behind him. In Ruby's hand she held a red gun, it was hard but it looked like it was made from blood.

"I think it would be wise from you to answer the question." He said with a slight smirk, he had won...or so he thought. The leader stepped closer to John but the hoods man to his right put and arm in front of him and he stopped instantly. The leader took a step back and the other forward. The man took down his rood to reveal none other than Robert Carter.     

"I am disappointed Ruby. I warned you to stay out of this." He said in a seductive voice.

"As if I was going to listen to a creep that betrays his own Father."

"I guess that means you knew about me all along, even when we danced together at the ball. I suppose that I really let myself slip, gave myself away really didn't I? But to think that you would run straight to my Father and tell me all about it."

"Why would you do this to me Robert?" Said John angrily. Robert glared at his Father.

"You have never understood my feeling Father. I want to be the head of this company. I am the next right full air. Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to be over looked for your geeky 12 year old brother?"

"We talked about this, you agreed that this was best for the company."

"Yes well looks can be misleading Father can't they? This here is Mike do you remember him? You let him go because he accidentally set the fire alarm off and you had to shut the factory for a day." He said pointing to one of the hooded figures behind him.

"I had no choice. Closing the factory for even one day cost the company 1.5 million joules. We can't afford to be losing that kind of money because of one employs mistake."   

"You mis understand Father. That day Mike made that mistake because his daughter had come down with a grave illness the night before. She was placed into hospital, he did not sleep much that night and the next day he was naturally worrying about his daughter. His wife left him many years ago for another man, his daughter was all he had. His job was the only way he could pay for her hospital bill and after you fired him he couldn't pay that bill. The hospital then had to stop treating her and she died a month later." John looked at his ex employer.

"I-I-I'm sorry I didn't know." He stuttered.

"Your sorry's are not going to bring my daughter back." He said bitterly.

"For everyone here they had a similar story. The result of them losing this job caused them to suffer and because of that I managed to collect such a large group of followers."

"What makes you think that you will be able to run the company much better than I do? I will admit that yes I have made many mistakes but you would make even more. You only have your own personal interests at heart, you will not do what is best for the company."

"You do not know that. Anyway I'm having the company. Those mages have manages to protect her very well but we never had any intension of killing her. She was simply a decoy, I haven't even touched her. She was just to make sure you really did meet me her tonight and too keep the mages busy for a little while. They were much to busy protecting her they did not realise the 50 men coming onto your estate."

"50 men?" John repeated.

"That's right. They are all around us right now. Watching and waiting. Give me the company now or you and the three mages behind you will be blown to smithereens." John began to shake in fear, they had failed. They hadn't protected him and now they were all going to die. He looked behind him at Ruby and the others. They all looked perfectly calm but then again it was hard to tell it they were actually panicking, their faces were all so emotionless. He had no choice, he hired then to stop this from happening but they had failed. He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a small document. It already had his signature on it all Robert had to do was sign his name underneath and the company was his. He began to extend it towards the son that betrayed him when Ruby's pain slender hand stopped him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She said bringing his arm back down.

"We will all die if we don't." John protested but Ruby said nothing and glared at Robert.

"Gone on do it. Give the signal for them to fire at us." She said coldly. John opened his mouth to protest again but Sting placed his hand on his mouth to silence him.

"Just be quite and let Ruby work." He told him. Robert laughed maniacally.

"Do you think I'm bluffing? I will say that yes you are beautiful and I would love to have you on my arm as a wife like I said at the ball but if you stand in my way I will not hesitate to kill you."  

"So do it. Go no, stop wasting my time. Prove that you really mean it."

"Who knew you had such a large death wish?" He said with a smile as he lifted his hand up into the sky. John closed his eyes waiting for the pain but none came. Sting and Rogue smirked and when John opened his eyes he saw that nothing had changed. No sound, no gun shots, no blood there was nothing. Robert frowned and looked at Mike who was behind him. "What's going on?" He asked angrily.

"Oh I can answer that one." Said Ruby. "The reason that your men are not currently blowing us to smithereens as you out it is because their all dead because I killed them."

"What? No that's not possibly. There were 50 of them, an army. How can three mages and two talking cats defeat them all?" Ruby stepped forward and smirked at the scared looking Robert.

"It might seem that we were at a disadvantage but we are mages of Sabertooth, the strongest guild in Fiore. A place were the weak are not welcome not only that but you're dealing with me, a phoenix slayer. My magic is powerful enough to kill a phoenix and my companions are dragon slayer, I think you can guess that they use that to kill dragons. Do you really believe that people like that are going to be beaten by 50 men that have pathetic little guns? If you wanted to defeat even just one of us you're going to have to times that number by a thousand maybe more. Now I suggest that you admit defeat because the way I see it is that there are inly three of you left. You're all unarmed and I wouldn't eve think about thinking that you could defeat me because I could wipe you all of the face of the earth in my sleep."

"Your a monster." Said Robert backing away.

"No, I'm a Sabertooth mage and the daughter of the Queen of phoenixes." Robert turned and ran, followed by the other two he was with. Ruby sighed and was about to form a blood whip when...

"Let them go Ruby." Said John. "I don't want that boy in my sight again anyway..."