Claudius paced across the room. He should have sent one of the less expendable members on this trip, he was going to look like a fool. 

“Claudius, darling sit down. If you want the job done right you should do it yourself.” Clara scolded him from her chair at the side of the office. Claudius glared at her, causing her to close her mouth preventing whatever snarky comment she was going to make from spilling into the silence. He smirked on the inside, she was still the obedient wife he had trained, even if she did gain some sass over the years they had been together. 

“I don't need any of your criticism Clara.” Claudius scolded her as he sat down at his desk. Clara nodded her head and went back to her book she was reading. Claudius glared at the doors to his office as Clarence burst through them, he was not in the mood to deal with his son’s bullshit. Clara let out a shocked gasp and jumped up and ran over to Clarence and began to baby him again and comfort him. Claudius held back a scoff she made Clarence week, he needed to learn how to live without his mother taking care of him. 

“What do you want. I don't have time to deal with your pitiful blabbering about some drunk guy who beat the snot out of you because you pissed him off.” Claudius said, trying to brush Clarence off and get back to work. 

“Come on babykins mommy will get you to the med bay and they’ll get you all fixed up,” Clara said as she tried to comfort Clarence. Claudius sat in silence looking down at his papers as Clarence pushed his mother off of his and ran over to his desk and slammed his hands down in front of him. 

“Dad this wasn't some stupid bar fight, this was the leader of the Dietrich Mafia,” Clarence said with a frantic look in his eyes. 

Claudius scoffed, “don't be ridiculous. There's no such Dietrich mafia that exists, it was probably just a soldier from another mafia messing with you.” Claudius said rolling his eyes not even looking up from his papers. 

“No, there is a Dietrich Mafia, the woman Valentina Dietrich, she killed Soren,” Clarence said pleading with him. 

Claudius chuckled “finally somebody gave that son of a bitch what for.” Soren was his old rival. It would be nice to have some new blood in the mafia game. Claudius rolled his eyes at Clarence. 

“You probably walked into her territory and she beat the snot out of you,” Claudius said standing up from his desk. 

“You don't understand. Valentina is Jaxon’s mom.” Clarence gulped, Claudius shook his head from what he knew of Jaxon he was weak any mother of his couldn't do anything like this. 

Claudius stormed over and grabbed Clarence by the ear, “you've been beaten by two people in two days I want you out of my sight until you win something!” Claudius shouted as he dragged Clarence behind him. Claudius stopped dragging Clarence as the doors too his office opened again and Yerik walked in.

“ Straight Jacket, come in,” Claudius said as he glared at Clarence and let go of his ear. 

”The mission went well sir, in a few weeks we should be hearing from the Delgado Mafia.” Yerik said calmly, slightly glancing over at Clarence. Claudius stood and observed them both for a moment, something was going on between those two. However, at the moment he didn't have time to deal with them at the moment he had more pressing matters. 

“Thank you Straight Jacket, you're dismissed.” Claudius huffed as he sat back down at his desk, at least the mission had gone well. 

“Why don't you take Shotgun here and take him down to the med bay and get him fixed up, seeing as he can’t do anything himself.” Claudius sneered as he returned to his papers. Clarence opened his mouth to protest when Yerik covered his mouth and led him out of the office. 

“Claud, love. You can’t just do nothing about Clarence.” Clara said, walking over to him and wrapping her arms across his shoulders so her hands gently rested on his chest. 

“What do you want me to do Clara? The Santoro boy’s at least been sliced into decently, Claudia deserves better than him anyway, and Clarence is impulsive and he easily pisses people off.” Claudius huffed trying to work. 

“Or Valentina could have hurt our son because he hurt her son. It’s a motherly instinct, too protect your children and get rid of anything that could be a threat to them. Valentina saw Clarence as a threat to Jaxon so she was going to get rid of him. This was her warning.” Clara said as she rubbed his chest. Claudius pondered the thought, she wasn't wrong. 

“How about we take out her son before she can take out ours?” Clara whispered as she kissed his cheek. Claudius smirked, it wasn't a bad plan and it would also give him a chance to show Valentina Dietrich who she was dealing with. Claudius quickly pressed the button on his intercom. 

“Jane, set up a meeting with Farzan and me or a Krennic Representative,” Claudius demanded as Clara sat on his lap. 

“I love when you're demanding,” Clara smirked as she kissed him. Claudius quickly reached back over to the intercom and pressed the button again. 

”oh and Jane nobody is too disturb me for the next hour under no circumstances.” Claudius said as Clara blushed and giggled. Claudius smirked as he gripped her waist, He knew exactly how to improve his mood and he had an hour to do it.

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Yerik growled and slammed Clarence against the wall. 

“What the hell man! Where the fuck were you?” Yerik yelled at him, his voice full of concern. Clarence glared at him and pushed him off. 

“It's not like I wanted to be gone Yerik!” Clarence huffed at him as he fixed his shirt. Yerik sighed as all his rage seeped out of him with the sigh, Yerik nudged Clarence's arm. 

“Come on let's get you to the med bay.” Yerik sighed as he quickly grabbed Clarence's hand and led him down the hall. 

“I know where the Med bay is Yerik, you don’t have to take me,” Clarence grumbled as he pulled his hand away from Yerik. 

“can you not act like this for five seconds? Just let me help you.” Yerik sighed as Clarence glared at him.

 “Don’t you have something better to do with your time?” Clarence snapped at him. Yerik just shook his head and walked off without a word. Clarence knew he had just upset him, but Yerik was a man he could handle himself. Clarence walked to the med bay, he could find a way to make it up to Yerik later. Clarence Scowled as Yerik walked into the Med bay a few minutes later, he wanted to make it up to him but he was still angry right now. 

“I thought I told you to get lost,” Clarence growled as he crossed his arms. 

“Actually, you told me you knew where the Med bay was and that you didn't need my help, and I can see you do know where it is,” Yerik said smugly as he walked away from him. 

“Well you know I can get here now why don't you leave me alone,” Clarence said, rolling his eyes. 

“First I'm not here for you, I'm here to pick up my date,” Yerik said as he stared at the Medical staff-only door. Clarence felt something twisting inside him, what was this feeling? 

“There he is now,” Yerik smirked as Jacob from the Medical department walked out of the door. Jacob always looked afraid of everything, when he saw Clarence he looked like he was about to wet himself. How could Yerik like a sniveling rat like that? 

“Yerik are you sure this is alright?” Jacob asked meekly. Yerik smiled, and Clarence felt his gut twist. 

“I’m sure Jacob, Clarence is a good friend of mine, he’s like my brother,” Yerik said, emphasizing the word brother. Clarence flinched a little at Yerik’s words. It felt like the words had been burned into his skin. 

“Yeah brother,” Clarence muttered as he stormed off. He didn't even want to hear what Yerik or Jacob had to say to him. He was going to prove to Yerik one way or another that Jacob wasn't right for him, no matter what he had to do even if it meant killing Jacob.

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Valentina walked down the labyrinth of hallways in the base. The cold hard click of her heels echoed around the empty corridors as she walked. Valentina turned the corner and saw Nova waiting by the meeting room like she was asked. Nova was punctual unlike half the other members of the mafia. 

“Good morning ma’am,” Nova said as Valentina approached her. “Please only lower ranks should be formal just call me Val,” Valentina said as she got to the door. 

“Alright, well Leonela Evazan is waiting for you with her second in command. So whenever you're ready.” Nova said gesturing towards the door. 

“Well let's not keep them waiting any longer,” Valentina said as she walked into the meeting room. A shorter-than-average woman with sandy blond hair and amber eyes stood next to a tall young man with silver-blue eyes and long dark brown hair that was tied into a bun on his head. 

“Valentina, meet Leonela Evazan.” Nova said as she gestured to the woman. “And her second in command River Cruz,” Nova said, nodding her head in the direction of the young man. 

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Valentina,” Leonela said as she held out her hand to Valentina. Valentina smiled as she shook Leonela’s hand. Leonela had grace and gentleness to her while she still radiated power and strength. 

“It's a pleasure to meet you too,” Valentina said as she let go of Leonela’s hand. 

“Now how about we get this meeting started,” Valentina said as she sat down. 

“Now this may seem a bit rude but what is the purpose of this visit?” Valentina asked as the others sat down at the table. Nova appeared sitting next to her like a light appearing in a pitch-black room. Nova was exceptional at sneaking around, they could use that to their advantage. 

“Well, the Evazan Mafia and the McIntyre Mafia were allies. I called this meeting because I wanted to know if you wanted to continue the alliance. The Evazan mafia provides trained soldiers and weapons specialists to you and the Dietrich mafia provides us with trained dogs and medical treatments. Your doctor Shaun is very gifted in the field of medicine.” Leonela explained getting straight to the point. Valentina liked Leonela and she could already see them being good allies. 

“Of course, we must figure out new terms of an agreement that work for both sides, along with protection and backup commitments,” Leonela said, continuing. Valentina nodded her head. 

“Before we go any further, I’d like to see examples of weapons you can provide us with,” Valentina said, staring them down. 

“Of course River, if you would,” Leonela said looking at River. River nodded his head and reached for his holster and looked down at it, his face twisted with confusion. Before anything else could be said Nova tossed a few weapons onto the table. 

River gave her an impressed look, “how did you?” River asked out of shock. 

“Sleight of hand, you should learn the skill it comes in handy.” Nova shrugged as her face stayed expressionless. 

“Alright, well here we have some of our best weapons. Your soldiers already use our tranquilizer darts, along with our regular pistols. As for some of our newer deadlier stuff, here we have what looks like a regular switchblade but when you stab someone with it, it releases poison into their bloodstream, turning an ordinary wound into something more deadly. We also have bullets with the same effect, along with specially made poison darts. The poisons we use come directly from your medical department.” River explained as he picked up and presented each weapon. Valentina checked her watch, she was going to be late soon. 

“Impressive. Alright how about we write up an agreement and terms of an alliance and Nova and I will go over your proposal tonight and get back to you.” Valentina said as she stood up from the table. 

“We took the liberty to write up an agreement already. I'll leave it with you so you can go over it and see if there are any problems you have with it.” Leonela said as she stood up and handed Valentina a folder of papers. 

“Thank you for your time and I hope we’ll meet again soon,” Leonela said, shaking Valentina’s hand, as River put the weapons away as he kept his eyes locked onto Nova. 

“Of course, I'll make sure someones in contact with you soon,” Valentina said as Leonela let go of her hand. 

“Until next time Nova.” River smiled at Nova as he left with Leonela. Valentina turned too Nova who still had the same emotionless hard look on her face. 

“Meet me here at six o’clock sharp and we’ll go over these papers,” Valentina said as she handed Nova a piece of paper with an address on it. 

“Alright Val,” Nova said, trying out the nickname. Valentina nodded her head and walked off, if she didn't hurry she’d be late getting Oliver from school.