#this is the most I've been able to find about Bertha

[wonder-worker]

The career of Bertha, daughter of Lothar II [and Waldrada], reveals that women were not simply passive bystanders in the politics of the period. As the transmitter of legitimacy through blood, she was in fact a key player. [...] She was considered a major force in Italian politics, and her political aspirations may have extended much further than the Tuscan region or even the kingdom of Italy.

-Patricia Skinner, "Women in Medieval Italian Society, 500-1200" / Daniel G. König, "Bertha of Tuscany's Correspondence with al-Muktafī bi-llāh in the Version of Ibn al-Zubayr."

[Bertha of Lotharingia was] an ambitious and politically successful female member of the Carolingian elite. The daughter of Lothair II of Lotharingia, she was born around 860 or 865. Married before 880 to count Theobald of Lorraine, she shared her husband’s exile in Arles, where he had sought refuge with Boso, the King of Provence (r. 879–887) after the latter’s brother Hugo had attempted to conquer Lorraine. She bore him four children who were to attain influential positions in a region spanning southern France and northern Italy.

When Theobald died around 887, Bertha married the margrave Adalbert II of Tuscany (r. 885–915). Adalbert’s family had much property in Provence, carried the epithet dives and led a lavish court life in Lucca. […] Theo Kölzer described Adalbert’s policy as

“characterised by a skilful manoeuvring between the individual candidates for the royal and imperial crowns, which he played off against each other for the sake of his own advantage, always taking care that the autonomy of his margraviate and his quasi-royal position did not suffer any damage in the turmoil of the time.”

Adalbert’s policy involved reacting to the ambitions of margrave Guido II of Spoleto, his son Lambert, margrave Berengar of Ivrea, duke Arnulf of Bavaria, and King Louis of Provence, all of whom aspired to the crown of Italy between the end of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth century. Adalbert II and Bertha first sided with Guido II and his son Lambert against Berengar, thus ensuring that Guido was crowned King of Italy in 889 and emperor in 891, his son Lambert becoming royal and imperial co-regent in 891 and 892 respectively. The couple’s support for Guido and Lambert expressed itself in the fact that their two sons were christened Guido and Lambert between 891 and 894. Adalbert tried to impede Arnulf of Bavaria from interfering in Italian affairs in 894, but then turned against Lambert by cooperating with Berengar of Ivrea between 896 and 898. If we believe Liutprand of Cremona, it was around 898 that Adalbert tried to become king of Italy himself.

Around 900, Adalbert and Bertha supported the aspirations of King Louis of Provence to become emperor, possibly in the hope that Bertha’s son Hugo would thus be able to become King of Provence instead. When Hugo’s promotion failed to materialise, the couple turned against Louis, first by not impeding, then by actively supporting Berengar in his conflict with Louis. In this period, the couple already exerted enormous influence in Italy: the anti-pope Sergius III (sed. 898 and 904–911) had sought refuge with Adalbert and, according to Liutprand of Cremona, was “made pope by Adalbert” (papa per Adalbertum constituitur) in 904. In this year, the couple felt strong and independent enough to begin dating their documents according to their own regnal years. When Louis was eventually captured and blinded by Berengar in 905, he entrusted Bertha’s son Hugo—count of Vienne and Arles, duke and margrave of Provence—with the government of Provence.

[During this time, Bertha has been identified the royal woman who most likely sent a letter with an embassy in c.906 to the Caliph of Baghdad, al-Muktafi, where she described herself rather grandiosely as "queen of all the Franks". First brought to light by Muhammad Ḥamīdullāh , it has been rigorously studied and re-examined by historians. According to Daniel G. König: '...it becomes impossible to presume with Ḥamīdullāh that Bertha was a woman without political ambition who offered her hand in marriage to the caliph to escape her allegedly weak and unsuccessful husband [...] Rather, it becomes conceivable that Bertha could have developed a foreign policy strategy that looked beyond Italy and Byzantium and as far as Aġlabid North Africa. When she eventually understood that the Aġlabids were nominally subjected to the ʿAbbāsid caliphate, she looked eastwards to ʿAbbāsid Iraq. If there was a marriage proposal at all, she may have wanted to offer one of her daughters to the caliph, as François Bougard suggested [...] Bertha’s son Hugo (r. 903–947) certainly pursued a Mediterranean strategy as soon as he became king of Italy in 926. His intensive relations with Byzantium are recorded by the emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, his complex relations with the “raider colony” of Fraxinetum by Liutprand of Cremona. According to Ibn Ḥayyān (d. 468/1076), he approached the caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III of Córdoba in 328/939–940 with the demand of a “security guarantee for merchants of his territory that travel back and forth between there and al- Andalus.” It does not seem far-fetched to assume that Hugo’s mother had already begun to think in the same lines of securing the Tyrrhenian Sea for Tuscany and of expanding the region’s security and economic purview.']

In 906, the year in which Bertha is said to have sent her letter to the ʿAbbāsid caliph, Louis of Provence had retired from the competition for the imperial throne, whereas Adalbert and his wife were confronted with the imperial ambitions of Berengar of Ivrea, which they opposed by blocking the Apennine pass leading him to Rome. Bertha seems to have been strongly involved in containing Berengar. That she wielded power at the side of her husband is evident from her correspondence with the archbishop of Ravenna. Germana. Gandino proposed that, in the contest with Berengar, Bertha was able and willing to present herself as a descendant of Charlemagne, as heiress of the Carolingian dynasty in Italy, and thus as a legitimate alternative candidate to the imperial throne. While this may seem unconceivable at first sight, we should consider that her husband Adalbert II did not have an equally prestigious pedigree and, by 906, had receded into the background politcally. Bertha’s quest for power also seems to have prompted contemporaries such as Liutprand of Cremona to harshly polemicize against her in particular and against women striving for power in general. Gandino believes that Berta may have even called herself “basilissa” (Βασίλισσα) in her letter to al-Muktafī bi-llāh, thus seeking imperial recognition from a foreign leader in a time, in which she—not her husband—formulated a claim to the imperial throne.

Bertha’s activities in the period after writing the letter demonstrate that she occupied an important political position in a region spanning the Provence in the west, Ivrea in the north, and Tuscany in the south. Still confronted with the imperial ambitions of Berengar when her husband died in 915, she installed her son Guido as margrave of Tuscany with herself acting as regent and married her daughter to the margrave Adalbert of Ivrea after his wife’s death. When Berengar chased Adalbert from Ivrea and arrested Bertha and Guido in Mantua between 919 and 920, she still managed to prepare the ground for her son Hugo. He was to become King of Italy in 926, shortly after Berengar’s assassination in 924 and Bertha’s death in 925."

[pathoscleaved]

@willxtoxsurvive

The halls are a mess. The creature is relentless, yet sloppy. It screams what almost sounds like speech in some cases, but mostly just intelligible, animalistic nonsense. It's a shame, really. Had this happened in a more controlled environment, had they sent scientists instead of soldiers to deal with the situation, then perhaps things could have run more smoothly. She could have studied him, or at least taken a sample of tissue. But she's heard enough about the one they call Mr. Death to know that he is no easy man to kill. Chances are he will get the sample of the G Virus. Perhaps she'll be able to study it before it is handed over to their superiors. For now, they just have to retreat and wait for new instructions. She almost cursed Vector for distracting her with mission related things when he did, because she could have sworn she saw a glimpse of orange when the man removed his tinted glasses. But there was a chance it was her imagination. Orange is not a natural pigment that human eyes possess... For once in her life, she didn't mind the closeness. Only dreaded that she'd missed whatever she had just caught a glimpse of. But that didn't matter, she had no plan of being too far from him. She'd see something, eventually. His full name finally made something click inside her brain. Her interest peaked. "Albert Wesker," she repeated. "I've read your reports regarding some B.O.Ws. Fine work, very thorough." Her voice lacked much emotion, but if he'd known her, he'd have known that her complimenting his work at all was something to feel pride about. As she didn't do that often. In fact, most of the time, she aimed to try and debunk other's theories, rip apart their philosophies. His... she could agree with. "We were sent to arrest Dr. Birkin and retrieve a sample of his creation," she tells him. "As you saw, that didn't go well. It's what happens when they send so many soldiers. Now, we ensure the place is shut off and nothing else gets out unless it's Captain Hunk." He was lucky he'd run into them when he did. Otherwise, he'd have fallen into the 'nothing else gets out' category, as would any other survivors of the facility that hadn't yet emerged from it. But something told her he'd have put up far more of a fight, been far more of a challenge, than the average Umbrella worker. Part of her wished he'd been just two minutes late, just to see what he was capable of when his life was put on the line. Distant screams told her that he'd still have plenty of chances to prove himself. "We also pick off any stragglers, and any witnesses." yeah, he really is lucky to have run into them when he did. Her gaze turned curious, questioning, brows rising behind the glass of her gas mask. "Think you can do that, Captain?" Without Hunk there to man the ship, Vector took over. "We're down a few men. But we're not done here yet," he said. "Bertha, with me. Beltway and Specter, deal with the exits. Four Eyes and the sec chief, find the security office and destroy the camera system. We don't need any more proof that we were in here." Then came the wave of 'Yes sir's. There was a hint of a smile on Four Eyes' lips as she gazed up at Wesker. "Lead the way, Captain."

WESKER ACTUALLY SMIRKS; HE IS USED TO PRAISE, BUT NOT SOMEONE SPECIFICALLY READING HIS B.O.W. RESEARCH. If this Four-Eyes had studied him, well... then her knowledge of Bioweapons must be absolutely immense and well-read. This woman surely gets more and more interesting as time ticks on, as he falls into step with her. It is easy to match her gait as she speaks. His shoulder barely brushes hers, and the strange fact that his skin buzzes under his shirt from the touch makes him pause again - curious. Even biologically, she seemed to have a pull that others did not.

"Bio Organic Weapon research is my magnum opus," he states a moment later, finally feeling seen for what felt like the first time in his life, "little else drives me in my work."

He regards her with a tilt of his head, careful not to show his golden-orange eyes by keeping his head level. The glasses mute his expression, help him reel in that not long before this, he'd come back from the dead: a revenant that had been made powerful upon his untimely demise. It had been everything he'd hoped for. He rarely tired, achieved more stamina... Wesker was simply made more perfect with his death. And this treat of being able to get back at Umbrella and slaughter the remaining idiots under Birkin's command? Oh, this day is so perfect, the contentment skirting down his spine in pleased ripples.

Quickly, he removes his gun from its holster and makes sure it is primed and loaded, giving it a slight spin to test its weight. This moment, he misses his sniper rifle - but then he's also taking out a spare combat knife and holding it in a reverse grip as well. He's ready to gut whomever they come across that doesn't fit the bill.

When the sound of screams reach his ears, adrenaline starts to kick in, and he feels excitement flaring. Just what he needed.

"As Security Chief, of course I will do everything and anything to ensure success and get us out safely." He's dripping honey with every syllable, but in this case, he is telling the truth: he thinks he will keep this one, pending her trial of fire. How rare for Wesker to mean every word he utters. A teasing (and oh so flirtatious) air slips into his tone, and he says, "Will you back me up, Four?"

Wesker does not offer a "yes sir," instead giving a nod. He's immediately pulling forth all of the plans he can remember - years working with Birkin and being in this lab made the lie easier to fulfill. Not that it was a full lie, of course. He had been a Security Chief at another lab. Just not this one. His credentials would work, however, thanks to Umbrella's systems. Oh, hell, her smile - something shifts in his chest. It's casually filling his ribcage.

Albert offers his own small smile in return, feeling that expansive pressure in his chest letting up when he sees her follow behind him. He nods his head to the left and uses the mental map of the compound as his guide. Level B5F. The Security Office had to be close by. A few more hallways, he thinks.

Wesker turns the corner, but when his boots thud against the floor, blood smears lead a sinister trail - at the end stands a zombie, swaying like it's intoxicated, and a low groan comes from its mouth. Wonderful. Against the white wall is a woman with her throat completely ripped out. The sight isn't that gruesome to behold. Wesker had seen worse, but what was troublesome was the fact she was reanimating at the same time as the other one started a charge.

"Left," he murmured, opting to save his ammo for larger targets. The blade twists in his free hand as he runs forward, jamming the knife as deep into the zombie's forehead as he can manage (and with his amplified strength, that is a lot). By the time the being has become a puddle of rotten blood and decaying matter, Wesk's gaze looks towards Four. He wants to see how she handles her zombie.

[nothingbutfangirlsmut]

The Trials of Emi

Pairing: A little Minho. A sprinkle of Frypan. Gally x Emi(OC)

Summary: Emi, her twin brother Thomas, and a small group of gladers had been rescued and taken to a safe haven. Or so it seemed. It doesn't take long for Thomas to realize something is wrong. What happens next is a true trial for all of them but Emi's trials began the moment she was ripped away from a dying Gally. Watching someone you love die right before your eyes truly takes a toll.

Finally meeting the right arm could have been the end but betrayal leads to even more chaos and loss. A new mission to rescue those taken from them leads them to a city. The last city. After Emi finally comes to terms with everything that's happened something unfolds that changes everything again. She will have to not only deal with helping her brother take down WCKD and save their friend but also deal with all the new problems in her head and her heart.

Rating: As of right now it’s at most PG13. Some strong language that’s about it but it could change.

(This is the 2nd part/book to my other story "The Maze trials: A Gally Fanfiction". This will cover the events of the scorch trails and the death cure.)

Chapter Eight

The next morning Newt woke me up. I felt even worse now than I did last night. He helped me up to my feet. I swayed a bit from the dizziness.

"You alright?" He asked as he held onto my arms.

"I'm okay" I said quietly.

Jorge led us out back into the sand cover street. There were people all over the place now. We stayed together as a tight group. Newt and Minho stayed close to each side of me. I was trying my best to keep myself steady as we walked but each step seemed harder and harder. I felt hotter than I should. The sun was out and it was warm but not enough to make me sweat like I was.

"It's right up here," Jorge said.

Not far ahead of us was a large group of people. One man was standing outside a door. He spoke to a few people as they took a drink of something then went inside the door behind him. Jorge stopped a few feet from that man.

"Marcus, we need to talk," Jorge said.

The man glared at him then snapped his fingers. Two men armed with guns appeared at his sides pointing their weapons at us.

"I have nothing to say," Marcus told Jorge.

"I'll make it worth your wildest dreams," Jorge said.

Marcus looked intrigued. He dismissed his guards as he stepped closer to Jorge.

"Go find Thomas and Brenda," Jorge said to Teresa.

She nodded then took off towards the door. Marcus tried to stop her but Jorge punched him. He fell to the ground as Newt followed behind Teresa. Minho and Aris helped me into the building with Fry and Clint close behind us. A few feet in front of us Teresa and Newt were kneeling. As we got closer I could see it was Thomas laying unconscious on the floor.

Jorge stepped inside pulling Marcus by the collar of his shirt. He pulled out his gun then fired two shots into the ceiling. The party that was going on instantly stopped as everyone turned towards Jorge.

"Parties over" Jorge shouted.

The large group started to empty out of the door until it was only our group with Jorge and Marcus. Brenda was silently sitting in a chair on the far end of the room looking drugged out of her mind. Jorge put Marcus into a chair then quickly tied him there with a rope. Newt and Fry moved Thomas onto a small bed in the corner. Minho helped me over to a chair.

"You don't look so good," Minho said softly.

"Jeez thanks" I said softly with a small smile.

Minho chuckled.

"You know what I meant Emi. We gotta get you better." He said as he gently touched my cheeks then my forehead.

"Hey, hey you're okay," Teresa said softly.

I turned to see Thomas now awake.

"Hi. We have to stop meeting like this." Teresa chuckled softly.

Minho left my side to step over to Thomas.

"Welcome back you ugly shank." He said jokingly then stepped back over to me.

"Son of a bitch!" Jorge shouted then slapped, Marcus.

"Dammit!" Jorge shouted.

Thomas got out of the bed then slowly walked over to me. Newt was sitting on the arm of my chair sulking.

"I'm sorry you're gonna have to leave my house," Marcus said to Jorge.

Thomas stopped to look at what Jorge was doing.

"Looks like you've been having fun," Newt grumbled.

"Listen, I don't enjoy hurting you. Where is the Right Arm Marcus?" Jorge questioned harshly.

"Wait, this is Marcus?" Thomas asked.

Marcus laughed.

"Kid catches on quick. Are you the brains of the operation?" Marcus asked Thomas.

"I know you know where they're hiding. So you tell me and I'll make you a deal. You can come with us." Jorge told him.

"I burned that bridge a long time ago. Besides, I make my own deal. You're the one who taught me never to miss an opportunity." Marcus laughed.

"What's he talking about?" Newt asked.

"I'm talking about supply and demand. WCKD wants all the immune they can get. I help provide that for them. So I lure the kids in. They get drunk. They have a good time and then, later, WCKD comes in. They separate the weak from the chaff." Marcus laughed menacingly.

"I change my mind Hermano. I do enjoy hurting you." Jorge said then kicked Marcus causing his chair to tip back so he was laying on his back.

Jorge jumped on top of him then pulled out a blade pressing it to Marcus' throat.

"Talk! Talk!" Jorge shouted in his face.

"Okay, Jesus, I'm not making any promises. These guys like to move around." Marcus said.

Jorge climbed off of him then pulled his chair upright.

"They have an outpost in the mountains. It's a long way away. You got half of WCKD on your ass. You're never gonna make it." Marcus informed us.

"Not on foot. Where's Bertha?" Jorge asked with a smile.

"Not Bertha," Marcus said with a pout.

As Jorge pried the location of Bertha out of Marcus Minho helped me back to my feet. Thomas turned to face me.

"What happened to you?" He asked with worried filled eyes.

"Her wound is getting worse. Jorge said she's lost too much blood." Minho answered for me.

"I'm fine Tommy," I said softly.

Jorge took a set of keys from Marcus then told us all to follow him again. Minho wrapped his arm around my waist to help me walk. Jorge led us out of a back door to an area that looked like a junkyard. Off to the side was a huge blue tarp that covered something. Jorge went straight over to it. He ripped the tarp off revealing a large blue vehicle.

"Hello Bertha" Jorge said with a smile.

We all climbed inside as Jorge took the driver's seat. A sudden wave of exhaustion came over me as I laid my head against Minho's shoulder.

"Emi, you have to stay awake. If you pass out we might not be able to wake you up." Clint said from behind me.

Minho was quick to lift my head up. He turned my head to face him.

"Talk to me about something," Minho said quietly.

"Like what?" I asked barely above a whisper.

I could feel my eyelids growing heavier by the second. Jorge had sped up once he heard what Clint had said.

"Tell me how much you hate me," Minho said.

I chuckled softly.

"I don't hate you Minho. It breaks my heart that you were the one who threw that spear. It was my spear. It's something I've thought about every day but I had a dream and it convinced me not to withdraw from any of you guys because you're my family. I need you as much as you need me." I explained in a whisper.

—