White Villa~

He was surprised that they suddenly stopped, but he decided to brush off his surprise for later.

"Hey," he called out to the guy and as he looked at Zane, with a flick of his wrist, a silverware shot out from his sleeve and hit the man's forehead; just as quickly, he pulled out a gun and shot all three of them by the head.

With them out of the way, he looked at Alessia. "You have geass," he said straight and simple. "It... stops time?"

Anisette gave a big sigh of relief; they were safe for now. She cringed at the sight of the dead men - blood and her was never on good terms.

But she had to admit, she was just as surprised as Zane and looked at Alessia expectantly. Although, it wasn't like geass was rare anymore. Still, a geass that stops time or movement or anything close to that, she has never seen before.

"That's fascinating," she said, in between all the tension, truly finding it wow. :O

She flinched away from the sudden gunfire. But it had been Zane who had fired, not the man that had been about to blow them away.

"Not, really. Well, I suppose it stops time within the physical construct of a body, so tech-
- This isn't the time," she said, catching herself before she built up to a long-winded (most likely confusing) ramble about geass while they were running for their lives.

"It stops people. But thanks," she finished lamely, looking at Anisette.

Zane opened up a passage on the floor, kicking the carpet out of the way to reveal the entrance.

"I have to agree, now is not the time," he said and made Anisette go down the passage. He then motioned for Alessia to go down as well. "But we can talk downstairs. So let us hurry," he gestured.

With that said, and the three of them going down, they entrance closed as soon as they reached the bottom. Zane clapped twice and the torches of the hallway lit up immediately.

He can see the surprise look of Alessia and supposed he should explain. "Ojou-sama is part of high society but she is also under the orders of Britannia for their bidding," he said. "Such is how the House Michaels work for generations."

"Let us move on, my ladies," he started walking then continued. "Every location of ojou-sama has safe rooms like these as attempts of assassination is, though not frequent, happen."

Anisette nodded and went down and waited for them to come down as well. When they reached the bottom of the staircase and the entrance to the passage was secured and the lights on, she let Zane explain the purpose of the safe room.

But this safe room... was really built to hide him when there was attempts of assassination on his life when he was a child, she thought.

"...Orders of Britannia??" she half mumbled.

They were... The enemy?? No. Not right now. Right now, they were nice people she had happened across. Nice people that might be saving her life. She ignored the small guilty flame that suddenly flared in the pit of her stomach.

"Do we wait down here or is there a way out??" she asked after a brief look around the room.

He opened the door for them and ushered them inside. It was an elegant room, but was designed as if it were to ease the tension of a child. Blue wallpaper, comfortable sofas, a coffee table and there was even a tea cupboard.

When they were all inside the room, he turned to Alessia. "Yes, Britannia's orders," he repeated. "We are only in the intelligence department, more or less. We find information they want, execute if must, but we rarely handle field work."

He knew he should not disclose such delicate information but Anisette looked like she trusted Alessia much already. He decided to trust her as well.

"And for the meantime, we wait."

Anisette walked over the desktop table and quickly turned the picture frames down, hiding the pictures. Pictures... of Zane... they didn't take them down...

She then turned to them. "I hope you are not harmed anywhere, lady Alessia," she smiled at her and did not leave the picture frames. "Oh! And about your geass, please continue your explanation?"

She was a bit suprised at Zane's quick description. "Sounds like a pain," she replied.

Alessia had only been glancing around the room with passing interest - there were more important things going on at the moment - until she noticed the pictures suddenly turned down. Pretending to have not seen them being adjusted, she surreptitiously checked the walls for more. There was one in the far corner of a little boy. She could tell that much, but it was too far away to make out details.

Anisette's question snapped her out of her pondering and she gave herself a quick look-over before she answered. "I'm alright. I assume you both are as well??" After a nod from both of them, she continued. "There's not much more to it than that, really. I can stop people. It wears off after a while, though... Do you know who's attacking, by any chance??"

"It's a silent contract of loyalty for the House Michaels and Britannia," he replied as he started to prepare tea for them.

Zane glanced at the room. They rarely came to China that the safe room here was not modified nor cleaned up. What luck. There was still pictures of him, and he briefly wondered why they even bothered.
But what's done is done and even if she finds out now, all they have to do was to find a way to keep her quiet about it.

"I see," he said. "Where'd you get your geass, my lady, if you do not mind me asking?"

The room was still, as if there were no attacks above ground. The other servants were trained to handle these situations. "No, we do not know, unfortunately."

It was the first time for her to enter this safe room; and it was the first time she saw a room that was left untouched when the main house burned back then.

So much so that she was so indulged that she noticed a picture at the far end and hurried to it. So absorbed and forgetting for a while, she turned to Zane with a smile. "Zane~ look here, you look so cute here!" she said, then took a sharp intake of breath. OOOPS.

"I mean! Look, how cute big brother was..." ...I... fail... so... bad...

Zane's sudden question about the source of her geass put an edge in her voice that she had not intended. "It's not that important, I think," she said simply, piercing him with her blue and brown stare.

Anisette, who had been zoning out, it seemed, turned and said something Alessia was sure she shouldn't have. Two stride brought her close enough to the picture to see it better. Dark hair. Red eyes. Facial shape. It was Zane, without a doubt.

Well, well... I wonder why they have a framed picture of a butler...

"I think it is rather important," he said, discarding his too formal attitude as a butler. She was perceptive right from the start, and Anisette's blunder was too hard to cover up and she moved too quickly and saw his picture.
"This is just a wild guess, but are you part of the Cult of C?"

He walked towards them and stared at the picture then sighed and looked at Anisette with a silent scolding.

She looked at him apologetically, and latched on to him, to say sorry. "I didn't mean to," she said in a hurry and hid behind him. "I'm so sorry!"

But decided to look at her, and pressed on the question. "Lady Alessia is part of the Cult of C? She won't harm us, won't she? She's a nice person, Zane! I trust her!"

There wasn't really a whole lot she could do in this situation. She could lie, of course. But what good would that do?? They still might want to know how she came across such an ability... And if not from Him, then how?? I guess there's risk either way.

"Your trust is touching, but how can you know I deserve it?? Zane is right, of course." It might be best not to tell them her place in the echelon of this little group, but at least she was being honest.

"So you're part of the Cult of C," he mused, Anisette was still hugging him from behind. There was certainly no way anymore that he can hide the truth. "Well, personally, Anisette and I, have nothing against the Cult of C. That's Britannia's problem."

He looked at her. "Who knows if you deserve it, my lady," he said. "But the trust is there already. Why not let this relationship be a positive one?"

Zane smoothed Anisette's hair, reassuring her in a way.

"I believe in lady Alessia," she said firmly. "You were such a nice person... I want to have faith in you," she said, hugging Zane tighter.

She was glad at Zane's word, relieved.

"So it's okay," she said. "But what do you do in the Cult of C, lady Alessia?"

Relief flooded her mind and she wasn't exactly sure why. It probably had something to do with not being attacked by the two people she had just admitted her cult involvement to.

"I do whatever they want me to, I suppose. The tasks I'm asked to perform are suited to my particular talents, of course," she confessed. "Since we seem to be in a sharing mood, however, why don't you tell me why a family butler is in pictures, framed on the wall."

He smiled at her. It's not like he didn't like acting like a butler, he was used to it. But it was nice to drop it once in a while.

"And your particular talents suit to what kind of tasks, Alessia?" he asked as he let Anisette calm down. "Ah, I will answer that if you answer my question first. We won't hide anything either."

Anisette relaxed her hold on Zane and smiled at Alessia. "You won't hurt us right?" she asked.

"And, a hint~ Zane's higher up than I am~" she smiled, rather having fun.

The conclusion she came to after Anisette's hint couldn't be wrong. Anisette was the Lady of the house. The only one higher up would be...Master Zane, apparently.

Dropping the subtlety she had begun her explanaion with, she said to them, "I'm a mechanic, mostly. But I'm also a bodyguard, a biologist, a potential assassin, and a gardener of rare and dangerous plantlife. Like I said. I do whatever is needed. I have no reason to hurt you." She was sure to look them in the eyes for that last sentence. After revealing yourself to be what she was...well, things could get sticky if the people you were being honest with didn't believe you.

"It's nice to meet you lady Alessia," he said. "I'm Zane Michaels, head of the house. It is a pleasure to meet you," and he took her hand and lightly kissed it to be polite.

He let go a second after and stood straight at her explanation. "Ah, I see. You know quite a lot and have a wide range of experience."

He nodded at her. "I believe you."

Anisette giggled at his gesture. It's been a while since he acted his status, after all. "And I'm not really a Michaels," she chirped, curtsying. "Only a relative."

"...rare and dangerous plantlife?" it was rather a curious thing for her. "What for, lady Alessia?"

"The pleasure is all mine," Alessia said, mostly to distract herself from the polite - and what she considered to be minutely intimate - greeting. She took the rest of his words as compliment, and let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding.

Adressing Anisette's curiosity, she answered in an off-handed manner, as if it were obvious. "Biological warfare, of course."
Way to make yourself sound like a terrorist, Alessia...
"And cures for various horrid diseases..."
That you probably created...

Getting tired of her mental argument, she asked suddenly, "Are these poeple after both you, then?? Or just one of you??"

There was a ghost of a smile that played in Zane's lips at her startled face. It was a nice sight, rather amusing and he found that his nobility and manners were worth showing to her just for that.

"You sure know how to answer, lady Alessia," he chuckled. "How amusing. Biological warfare? ...like a terrorist?" He shook his head in playful gesture, teasing her.

"And no. They're probably after Anisette. Nobody knows except you, myself, Anisette and the few survivors of the fire incident that befell the main house years ago, that I am the real head of the house. Otherwise, they all know Anisette is the head. So they're probably after her."