Ummm.... I've been singing the Troll Song the whole time I've been writing this part... And no, not from that stupid Trolls movie, I haven't seen it and I thank the Outsider... because if I have, I bet I would be feeling as my brain cells commit suicide one by one... I mean THE Troll Song. 

Don't ask why, I have no fucking clue. Even when I listen to Two Steps From Hell, the song keeps creeping back into my head. It's worse than Let It Go!

They hid behind the columns of the gazebo, listening to a maid and a guard speak.

"Don't you love the view from here?" He said.

"This place makes me sad." She replied.

"Why is that?"

"This is where the Empress was killed by that wretched murderer. Everything changed for the worst after that day."

"It was a dark day, for sure, but things where already bad with the plague. In any case, I wouldn't dwell on it. Let me comfort you." He turned and grabbed her chin gently.

"I need to get back to work." She practically growled.

"Can I come by and see you later?" He asked, obviously not getting the fact that he had ruined the moment, and maybe any chances with her.

"I don't think it's a good idea tonight." She replied with hollowness as she left him behind. He watched her go, then left the area himself. Axton was the first to leave the cover and make his way with hesitance towards the tomb of his mother. He stared down at the placard, seeing his own reflection as he read.

 In Memory of

Her Majesty
Jessamine
Kaldwin

Mother to Emily.
Empress to us all.

Corvo came up behind his son, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder as he too stared down at the placard. He pulled out a rose he made from some wire and bits of colored glass a long time ago. A time when he was still a timid child, when he first became a Whaler. He's had it with him as a good luck charm. Hidden away from prying eyes, like Billie's or Daud's. Even from Emily and Corvo. It was beautiful, and even more so if the light where to hit it. He kept it with him, even after he lost faith in good luck. After Jessamine's murder. He stared at it for a small while, twisting it in his finger before laying it down over her marker. 

Without uttering a word, the two vanished back into the shadows, as if they where never even there. They slipped past the guards and into Dunwall tower through a small vent. Unseen, unheard, like two shadows creeping through the night.

~☆~

"Your report, General Tobias?" The oily, shriveled voice of the Lord Regent rang out like a Gong in a quiet room. Axton and Corvo had entered from above, the chandlers dangling at eye level, so close that they could jump to them if need arises. Two men stood before a monitor below, at the base of the stairs where they split in two. And there, in the monitor in all his cowardly glory, was the Lord Regent himself. His hooked nose and bald head made him look like a vulture, ready to pick at an old, decaying corpse. Hiram Burrows, the usurper, the wielder of the Knifes of Dunwall.

"Everything is secure on the grounds, Lord Regent." The man in red, that Axton and Corvo can only assume was General Tobias, replied.

"It won't hurt to check again. I'm going to head down and retire to my bed room." He said. Corvo and Axton glanced at each other, even with their masks on they could tell what the other was thinking. I can't believe our luck!

"Begging your pardon sir, but I think it would be best if you stayed in your safe-room on the roof for now." General Tobias protested. Corvo and Axton didn't dare move, nor breath in that matter. If he decided to stay up there, then it might complicate matters. Sure, they could just blink up there and take him out, but why raise an alarm in such a way when he could come to them? In the lonely confines of his bedroom. Possibly asleep and easy prey to any assassin who sneaks in, one simple knife slit across the throat will do him in and they could return to the Hound Pits victorious in another contract well done.

And your father will finally be free once more.... A voice whispered in his mind. 

He turned to Corvo, who  waited as the Lord Regent pondered. His body ridged with anticipation. Corvo will be free. Emily will return to the throne as Empress, but what will happen to Axton? Sure, he could always return to the Whalers, but would he really want to? 

Or, more like will Emily and Corvo want him to?

He already knew that she'd want him close, she trusts Axton and Corvo. She loves them. But, where will he go? He can't be the prince, perhaps Emperor himself. By all rights, Axton should be Emperor... No, he'd rather swan dive into a swarm of rats and be eaten alive than to be placed in that situation. Ruling an entire Empire sounds like a pain in the ass and he wants no part in it. Learning etiquette and manners. Politics and nobles and people always plotting to dethrone you. He'd rather just stab them all and mosey on to his day to day activities. 

Yeah, not the activities of a fair and just Emperor.

He could become Royal Protector in training, as much as he hates it, Corvo is getting older and will need someone to protect Emily if anything where to happen to him. But again, that means being nice to nobles. But at least he could learn to fight like his dad. He was pretty sure that Admiral Havelock will become Royal Spymaster and Perhaps Lord Pendleton will become an advisor, much to Axton's dismay but he knew it was possible. But again, did he really want a high court position?

"No, I need the comfort of my own bed tonight." Burrows voice replied, snapping the assassin from his thoughts as he focused on the task at hand. "I trust that you and your men can handle the tower security. Double the guard if you have to. Come see me before you finish your rounds."

"Yes, as you wish Lord Regent." He replied as Hiram's figure turned and walked away. Then the monitor was turned off and General Tobias turned to the Officer to his right. "I'm heading up. Keep this area secure and use the alarm if there's any sign of trouble."

"Yes sir." He replied. Axton used this moment to make his move. He used his Bend Time and lept off the ledge he and Corvo where just sitting at. He made a back-flip and used his wristbow to shoot a sleep-dart at Tobias, then linked him to the Officer, and the Guard who was patrolling the bottom floor as well as the one by the door on the top floor under the Lord Regent's balcony. He landed in a crouch and let time resume, all falling to the ground gently. He felt slightly whoosy, lightheaded, he has never used two powers that required so much spiritual energy before. But it made life so much easier. Corvo blinked down at Axton, handed him one of Piero's elixirs and mumbled, "Show off."

The assassin lifted his mask, gulped it down and then glared at his father as he placed it over his face again. They took the guard's bodies and hid them behind the door the one guard was guarding, which ended up being the room that held the whale oil tank that guarded the hallway. They then headed down to one of the servant's halls on the bottom floor and tried the door.

"Locked, Axton, can you pick the lock?" He asked, turning to his son. 

"I can do one better." He replied, pulling out a key. "Took it from Waverly's room. It's a skeleton key to the tower. Hiram truly is an idiot."

Corvo snorted as Axton placed the key in the lock and turned it. The door obeyed and opened without protest, the two assassin's crept in and stopped at the door, listening.

"And this trey needs to go to the torturer, I mean the Royal Interrogator."

Corvo stiffened besides Axton, his hands began to shake as he heard the words the man spoke. Axton knew then that his father had suffered at his hands, perhaps in prison. He grabbed his father's hand with his own in a comforting way. Telling him silently that he was alright, that he wasn't alone.

"Oh no, why do I have to take it?" The maid asked with exasperation. She obviously didn't like the man any more than Corvo.

"He's harmless unless you are scheduled for an execution or for- questioning." The manservant replied.

"He's so strange. Always working on something he keeps secret. And he has that brute of a dog." She replied with distaste in her voice. 

"trust me, he's as gentle as a lamb. Now take him his food."

"Gentle is the last thing I'd call that man." Corvo growled as they heard the footsteps come closer then recede up the steps to the door's right. 

"Come on, this way should take us past the Wall of Light and to Hiram-"

"Let's follow the servant." Corvo said, his voice dangerous.

"What? No, we need to eliminate Hiram Burrows and get the Void out of here."

"Axton, you have no idea what he put me through-"

"And you where the one who taught me that killing was never the answer-"

"Axton." A new voice said from behind them. Corvo whipped around and pulled out his blade. 

"Dad, It's fine, he's a friend!" Axton yelped as he jumped between his father and the Whaler.

"Pierce? What are you doing here?" He asked, turning to the Whaler crouched behind them. 

"I have come to tell you. Instead of out right killing the Lord Regent, why not switch your roles? Why not broadcast his sins over all of Dunwall for all to hear? I had just... 'spoken' to the broadcaster and he told me about a safe in the Lord Regent's room. An Audiograph is in there that could ruin him. I can just say that bringing him down by truth over blade... well... I'd think that death would be a mercy."

"Well, that's all well and good, but a safe is not something I can pick-lock..." Axton muttered.

"Well, it's a good thing that he told me the combination. 9-3-5. I recommend blinking up there now before he arrives. Or perhaps he's even already there. Good luck... both of you."

With that said, Pierce vanished, leaving a stunned Corvo gaping at his son. "Pierce pops in every now and then to help me out with contracts. With you I mean." He said awkwardly. 

"So, you still talk to some of the Whalers?" He asked.

"Of course." Axton said. He wanted to add that he was still a Whaler, but decided that right now wasn't the time. He didn't want to say it out loud either. Because that fact was, he didn't even know what he wanted to do. A part of him wanted to stay with his family, but another part of him knew he had no place with them. He was an assassin through and through, nothing can change that. And as much as it pains him, he knew that there was only one place for him in this world. And it wasn't living in Dunwall Tower.

"I'm going for it." Axton said. Before Corvo could open his mouth, he vanished and appeared inside Hiram Burrows' room. He heard voices outside the room. He recognized the Lord Regent's voice, and knew he had to act quickly. He hurried to the safe and started to turn the first dial to 9. He heard the voices stop as he turned the second to 3 and was on 2. The door opened right when he placed the last to 5 and the safe opened. he grabbed the audiograph and a few other items before closing the safe and blinking out of the room, just as Hiram Burrows' eyes scanned the room. Still false thoughts of safety implanted in his mind.

~☆~

Corvo stood behind Axton as he held the audiograph before them. 

"Let's hope this is as damning as Pierce had claimed." He said as he turned on the announcement speaker and placed the Lord Regent's audiograph inside.

"If I explain, then you will see, I am not at fault. My Poverty Eradication Plan was meant to rid us of those scoundrels who waste their days in filth and drink, without homes or occupations other than to beg for the coin for which the rest of us toil." 

Corvo and Axton slowly turn to one another.

"Oh yeah." Corvo said with a grin under his mask "That already sounds damning." 

"And it was a simple plan- bring the disease baring rats from the Pandyssian Continent- and let them take care of the poor for us."

Corvo and Axton took off their masks in unity and stared into their royally shocked eyes.

"Did he just..."

"Yeah..."

"Holy.. By the..." Axton shook his head in disbelief. "I knew he was bad, but not that bad!"

"The plan worked perfectly, at first. But the rats- it was as if they sought to undo me. They hid from the catchers, and bred at a sickening rate. Soon it didn't matter, rich, poor, all where falling sick. And then people began asking questions. The Empress assigned me to investigate whether the rats had been introduced by a foreign power. I knew the truth would come out eventually."

No shit!

"So there was no other way than to be rid of her, and take power myself. She had to die, you see. SHE HAD TO DIE! Bringing about the death of an Empress is not an easy thing, but it gave me the chance to attack the plague with some real authority. Quarantines! ..." The audio droned on and on, each thing worse than the last. Corvo and Axton stood speechless. But they eventually shook themselves, thanked the Outsider that no one came up, and placed their masks back on and made their way back down. 

"What are you doing!?" The voice of Hiram exclaimed. Corvo and Axton crouched and peeked around the door to find Burrows at the other side of the hall with two guards facing him on either side. "I order you to put down your weapons! This is treason!"

"It's over Hiram, your head will roll for what you've done!" The Officer growled.

"No! I'll make you rich men if you just let me go, I beg you!"

"You nearly destroyed the city! No amount of money will undo that!"

they grabbed Hiram harshly and dragged him away. 

"Get him ready for the walk to Coldridge Prison." The Officer said to the watchman. 

"Yes sir!"

They watched as the guard lead Hiram away.

"I hate to admit it, but your friend from the Whalers was right." Corvo said as he watched. Axton turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "There can be no better end to him, than being disgraced. Tasting power only to have it ripped from you by your own words. There can be no other end."

~☆~

The Outsider stared down at Axton and Corvo with amusement dancing in his cold black eyes. The Torturer lay sleeping behind them, the dog dead to their right. They decided it best to wait and see what was around Dunwall Tower for when they arrived. But they still poked around to see if there was anything of interest. As it turned out, Martin had dispatched an Overseer to check on the 'Royal Interrogator,' for any signs of heresy. For rumor has circulated that he worshiped the Outsider. They decided to investigate, and saw his shrine. Of course, they wanted the rune, so they took care of the dog and the Torturer to avoid any unwanted conflict.

"Well, well. What a fascinating turn. Many would have slit this man's throat and left his cold corpse to be found in the morning. But you two turned the tables on Old Hiram, and broadcasted his deepest, darkest secrets throughout all of Dunwall to hear. Burrows lives, and that is most surprising. 

"The past year must have been agony for a tightly-wound man. Watching as the plague spiraled out of control. As people on the streets went mad and died bleeding from the eyes. 

"Knowing that it was all his fault. 

"As you hunted down his people one by one, and finally came for him. he must have realized that all his planning was for nothing. And that must have been exquisitely terrifying. But in the end, you chose the more measured response. What will that mean in the days to come I wonder. I've lived a long, long time, and these are the moments I wait for."

And with that he faded, and the father and son vanished from the tower before any rays of dawn could reach it's walls.