#i highly doubt the black squad could make klaus do anything he didn't want to do

[ushas42]

Bringing this back because, yeah, it is looking more and more likely to me that Klaus is back on the castle of his own free will and as a prearranged part of the plan. My best guess is that he intends to scuttle the ship on Castle Heterodyne as soon as the time stop is lifted.

So yeah, I think quite a few people are going to have to decide very quickly if their loyalty to the empire means loyalty to Klaus or loyalty to Gil. In that respect, the group chosen to infiltrate the castle are, by sheer coincidence, very aptly chosen.

The Jagers? 100% loyal to the Heterodyne first and foremost. The Vespiary Squad? Would probably be delighted for a chance to wring the Baron's neck after what he did. Martellus? If he's given a diplomatic excuse to slit the Baron's throat so much the better.

Boris? Well, he's loyal to Klaus unto death, but he already suspects that the Baron is a revenant, has put thought into what to do if that were the case, and his definition of "loyal" might well include "putting the Baron down like a dog if that's what he would have wanted in his right mind".

This will be interesting.

I'm not sure I agree with Martellus's assessment here. Yes, I think he's right that this is an attempted attack on Mechanicsburg, but I don't think the Queen of the Dawn is behind it. I think it's much more likely that Patel is acting on standing orders from Klaus himself, regarding what to do if it looks like the timestop is about to be lifted. It being the Queen of the Dawn requires that Patel be either a revenant or loyal to Lu/Zola, neither of which I think are likely. It being Klaus only requires that Patel be more loyal to Klaus than he is to Gil.

Because we haven't really been dwelling on all the conflicting loyalties that are about to pop up once there are two Baron Wulfenbachs running around. I can't imagine that Gil hasn't given it a lot of thought, but what's the plan? How are they going to prevent Vole's predicted "messy, terrible, civil var"? I know Gil doesn't *want* the empire, but as things are he can't safely hand it back over to Klaus. They'd better have a way to yeet his ass back to Skifander or some such or this is only going to get worse.