A Promised Rest [Alastair, Lukas]

The paperwork had been sent off and approved, the bureaucrats satisfied, and so came the time for the Grandmaster to follow up on his command. His stance on discipline had been made pretty clear, this course of action laid out plainly, and - whilst it would have been preferential for the Todgestalten Director to handle this - he would not shy away from taking matters into his own hands when it was required. Alerts had been sent out to the other Directors, a notification about what was occurring and who it concerned. But Alastair did truly believe that reason would triumph over vanity, that this would be begrudgingly accepted as the kindness that it was.

So, with a small entourage of Todgestalten personnel in tow, he arrived at Lukas' place of residence. There was no pomp or ceremony, not that he was the type to enjoy such things even when it was expected of him. Instead, he hoped it would be a quiet affair. There were onlookers, certainly, but hardly enough to be considered a crowd. With a nod, he sent forth one of the officers to retrieve the man. They would knock first, expecting him packed and ready, but force would come if attempts to stall were made.

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
The spiritual pressure was the first sign - attempts at hushed footsteps the next. Lukas had assumed something might happen, but, for once in his life, hoped cooler heads would prevail. He had no ill-intentions, no plans for spilling blood. Of all the things he was and had been, Lukas held no dishonesty, cared little for deceit.

Maybe he was in the wrong line of work for that.

The screen of his phone lit up, scrolling with a few taps, a red circle taking host in the corner. Lukas' face swam into view, streaming live to the internet. A few more taps, a title pushed underneath, and he sat the phone behind him. Standing as his front door vibrated, Lukas turned, and went to meet his entourage.

The door swung open, silent on recently oiled hingers. Lukas leaned with his dismembered shoulder onto the frame, cold steel in his gaze cutting across those gathered. "Funny, a WMD shows up on our doorstep, and none of you do. But a cripple who's had ninety-nine percent of his skin burned off for your sake talks back to the new boss and now - you're ready to do something?"

He attempted to stifle the emotion in his voice, but frustration still boiled to the surface. "Alastair - Grandmaster -" the word dripping with venom, "I came to you concerned. Trying to make things better. You fired me, and now you want to drag me to a cell to die in?"

In the palm of his hand, hidden from view, Ahnengeist's hilt had already formed; prepared for the worst to happen. Frustration emptied from his voice, exhaustion all that remained. "Did you think that through at all?"

At the head of his soldiers, Alastair showed no shift in emotion as Lukas emerged and began spitting his vitriol once more. If he had hoped for more of a reaction then there was none, just a dour reception with a level gaze that met his own evenly.

"By your words and your actions, you make it clear that my decision was not unwise. But if you comply now then there need not be any mention of this outburst on your official record."

The Grandmaster stepped forward, offering out a hand expectantly. He wanted Lukas to take it, to surrender to him, and yet he was not so foolish as to let his guard down entirely. The brutish man had made threats enough against him and he could not take them lightly.

"You have served the Vandenreich admirably these past few years, now it is clear that you need to rest and recover. Your death is not what I want, nor what I have ordered, only that you return to your former internment to continue to serve your sentence as is expected of you."

The one advanced officer, who had previously knocked upon the door, would go to move past Lukas and into his quarters. Sorting through his belongings could wait, but it was likely that he would notice the obviously placed recording device if given the space to enter.

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
"My words and my actions?? Of not wanting to go to prison? Listen to yourself! So high and mighty you can't even hear your own bullshit!" The few bystanders that could've heard anything now certainly did, drawn with the burst of volume. Behind him, the faint sound of notifications blip-ed to life.

"Internment? A cage with no windows, no human contact - torture worse than death, and you call that internment?" Rage overtook the word, Lukas pausing as the other man approached. His arm shot out, fist lodging itself within the doorframe, barring it from entry with an explosion of splinters. Unless the man was an exemplary unknown, there wasn't a chance for him to get by. Silver eyes shifted to the todgestalten member, smoldering with hate.

"Step away, junior. We're having a conversation."

Lukas' attention shifted back to the grandmaster, a cold, shockingly calm, response following. "You come to my home in the middle of the night with a small militia, threatening me, and then point the finger when I react non-violently? That trying to talk further justifies your actions? What exactly, do you think I'm going to do if you leave me here, "free"? There are trackers in my clothes, I have to submit four kinds of paperwork to leave the stadt. Why do you need to see chains on me too?"

It pained Alastair truly to bear witness to this performance, witnessing a man truly lost to the world save for himself. It was only when Lukas’ fist slammed into the wall with enough force to splinter it that his gaze hardened with resolve. The hope remained, as it did for even the most lost of souls, but it was buried behind the armour of contempt.

The officer looked back to the Grandmaster, and was given a curt nod in response to a question that went unasked. For a moment longer they lingered at Lukas’ side before retreating to join the others at Alastair’s back.

“You are still a criminal, given the courtesy of enlistment as means to serve out your sentence. As you are not currently fit for duty then you are to return to the state you were in before. This sentence has never been considered commuted.”

His offered hand dropped, returning to his side to rest upon the pommel of his blade. Unlike Lukas, he made no effort to hide the weapon’s presence but nor had he drawn it yet. Instead his gaze alone bored into the man before him with an incandescent intensity, enough to wither most men into subjugation. Perhaps that would encourage wisdom, though it seemed that this man was too far gone to be easily silenced.

“Come quietly, Mister Atherisch, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that your internment is as comfortable as it can be. Threaten a member of the Vandenreich again and we will be forced to treat this as an attempt to obstruct the judicial process and you will be charged as such.”

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
It came as no surprise; a bureaucrat couldn't be reasoned with, and the yardstick Alastair had shoved up his ass made him the biggest bureaucrat Lukas had ever met. A short chuckle escaped the quincy's chest, followed shortly with a sigh. His gaze turned skyward for a moment - the stars, as beautiful as ever. An ancient memory, now.

Of arrows and a loving parent. "If you believed any of that, you'd have come alone."

He had tried reason. The numbers made attacking too risky, especially missing an arm. The only trackers left on him were his leiden hant and phone - shortening the list of his options severely. Even with the risk involved, Lukas' innermost thought was to go as hard and fast as he could at Alastair. That was assuming they didn't have anything prepared beforehand, and with the amount of men, that was unlikely. So, despite his efforts to grow, despite his efforts of reformation, despite it all... Lukas was going to have to run.

A moment between heartbeats, that was all it took. The blade of Ahnengeist snapped upwards, fracturing the doorframe. Blut coursed through his veins as he kicked the agent away, at the same time pushing his arm deeper into the building, spirit weapon dissapearing as quickly as it had formed. Lukas' hand gripped, and with the tug of reishi on his fingertips, he launched himself back, and pulled the entire building's front down where he had stood. A crude stopgap, rubble enough to obfuscate and delay. But he didn't have much time.

Lukas was already sprinting as he grabbed his phone, talking to the livestream as he moved to the back wall of the apartment. "Vandenreich, this is what your leader thinks of you. Inescapable from your past, impossible to be redeemed. Uncaring for the sacrifices you've made, and deaf to reason. This is Lukas Ätherisch, Todesjager. I have given everything for the Vandenreich, and it only wants more." A last glance at the screen, a shifting glance at the scars littering folds of skin, the short cropping of hair burnt in vain.

"Don't let it take all of you, too." The phone splintered in his hand, erupting in a fountain of sparks as he tossed it behind him. Ripping a go bag from under the floorboards, he slung it vertically across his good shoulder. Taking a deep breath, Lukas valued the last second of peace he would have for a long time.

With an explosion of light, he crashed through the wall, steigen at his back and underfoot as he ran with everything he had.

With a burst of speed, as sudden and immediate as Lukas' own, Alastair launched himself forward to yank the office clear of any further assault as the front of the building was soon brought down upon the Grandmaster. Rubble alone would not stop him though, and he stood his ground as a human shield for his comrade as the other officers began their pursuit. The initial kickup of dust and scattered debris was not settled before he emerged, a solemn sigh the only remark to follow as he considered whether to pursue.

Keying on his headset, he sent out the order for a citywide lockdown. This was what they had been preparing for ever since Ichigo Kurosaki's attack, so now was the time to put that training into use. Messages were sent to the Directors, Sternritter and Todgestalten made aware of the threat which was currently roaming loose within the city whilst Albedochiffren should handle enforcement of the curfew. He had been speaking to someone, who exactly Alastair had no idea, but they would track down who they were in time.

"I want him captured alive if possible, but he is dangerous and unstable. Lethal force is authorised if deemed necessary for the protection of civilians."

That was his final command and one that left a weight in the back of his throat. It was a harsh sentence to mete out, and not one that he had wanted to issue, but the needs of the many outweighed that of the few so he would bear this burden for all those that this might spare.

THE CITY OF LIGHTS
Lukas had been half considering an escape plan for a long time - only recently discarding it. Luckily not stupid enough to get rid of his go bag, the few changes of clothes, ginto tubes, and wads of cash nestled inside far from enough insurance. It would have to do.

Launching himself to the rooftops made things faster, less obstacles, less chokepoints.

Escaping the stadt was going to be it's own endeavor, growing harder by the second as klaxons filled the air. Lockdown. Shit. Wouldn't change his plan. Getting to the outskirts was his number one priority, half concerned with a chance to drop into the armory. It wasn't on the way, but if he ended up encountering resistance... When.

The buildings had blurred beneath him, each step carrying on the flow of reishi that pushed against him. Distance after distance, he aimed towards the horizon, silver eyes cutting across the landscape for any hint of an approach. The flare of hollow reiatsu as a garganta appeared in front of him a surprise, gripping the hilt of Ahnengeist tighter. Fight or flight triggering in the back of his skull - and it spoke.

"Fuck off, freak." Lukas spat back, his sword twirling in hand, swirling blade aimed at the street beneath as he leapt another rooftop. The tip dissolved, and arrows launched downward, launching the quincy further into the sky. Flight - distance was what mattered, now. In the stadt, he'd be easy enough to track even without the monitoring. In other words, no point in releasing his letzt, regardless of the speed it gave him.

Not until he was almost out. Not unless he had no other choice.