Savants (Classic Edition)

***PROLOGUE***

Deep in the underbrush of a small planet chunk, four
figures struggled through the swaths of tangled shrubbery. Besides a motley
collection of skittish wildlife, they were the only living things on this
chunk- that is, them and the Maelstrom, if living it can be called.

The planet chunk had no name, only a number: 3172. The
Venture League had only recently added it to star charts. At its conception,
the faction had been assigned the incredible task of scouting, mapping and
recording all the Crux chunks that now littered their system. Despite the
enormity of the job, Venture League continued pegging away at it with an
enthusiasm and tenacity that no one else could have provided.

And while they could discover and explore these chunks, it
became evident that they did not have enough resources to clean out the ones
that had Maelstrom on it. Hael Storm discussed this shortage with his fellow
leaders and suggested a solution.

Enter the Vanguard. A collection of remarkable units, each
team comprised of one warrior from each faction, under the direct supervision
of Hael Storm. They existed solely to travel along perilous space-routes to
battle the Maelstrom that were found on new chunks.

The squad on 3172 were officially known as Unit 12. 3172 was
the third chunk they had been to this month alone. They were scheduled to go on
furlough as soon as it was clear of the enemy, and they were looking forward to
it.

"What are you going to do on furlough, Gambit?"
asked one of the party members as he used his buccaneer sword to hack away at a
clump of vines.

The Paradox Marauder replied with a dark voice from
underneath his equally dark helmet. "No plans." He revved his
wormholer and used the rotating chain to obliterate a leafy obstruction.

"No plans?! How can you not have anything to do? It's
like a vacation, man!" the buccaneer exclaimed. "Why don't you hang
out with me? We'll have a GREAT time!"

"No," Gambit said shortly.

"I'll take you up on that if he won't," the
Assembly cut in. He was wearing a mish-mash outfit comprised of whatever
expanded his Imagination capacity the most, and was currently battling the
vegetation with a pair of serratorizers. "I don't have much else to do.
How about you, Percevel?"

Percevel was at the forefront of the group, wielding a
"little friend." He was using it to clear most of the plants out of
the way before the rest of Unit 12 came through.

"I might tag along every once in a while," he
shrugged. He stopped and rested his over-sized weapon over his shoulder as he
turned to the Assembly. "Can't wait until we destroy this last group so we
can head home. How much farther to the Maelstrom, Thomas?"

Thomas quickly consulted a small device. "Half a mile
or so, but we've strayed too far south."

"Better readjust the old trajectory!" the buccaneer
piped up. He stuck a quicksicle in his mouth and dashed ahead of the group,
nimbly weaving out of sight.

Percevel shook his head and tried to catch up. "Peragrine!"
he called into a commlink. "Get back here and help the rest of us clear
these plants! Not all of us can squirm through them like some kind of
squirrel!"

There were a few moments of silence before they heard a
reply. "Heeey," came Peragrine's voice over the comm, then announced
in a sing-song tone, "I found somethinggg!"

Peragrine’s teammates exchanged glances of terror; there
were few phrases uttered by the daredevil that caused them as much anxiety as
this one. Indeed, Peragrine had said it many times before, and it had always-
always- ended in near disaster, with each encounter more deadly and stress
inducing than the last. They couldn't even begin to imagine what this new
"something" might entail.

"Peragrine!" Thomas demanded as they renewed their
hack 'n slash journey through the entangling bushes. "Get back here!"

"In a minute," the response came distractedly.
Then, "Ooh, this looks like a button!"

"PEREGRIN!" Thomas screeched.

The trio struggled forward and very soon saw their friend
not too far away, partially hidden by the mossy trees. Percevel grunted and
started wading over, exclaiming, "Peragrine, what are you- get away from
that thing!"

Thomas and Gambit brought up the rear, unable to see what
Percevel was talking about. They heard Peragrine's voice waft over now, close
enough to be heard without the commlink

"This wasn't in the Venture League precursory
report," he commented. They could see him lean forward towards something.

“PERRY-” Percevel’s yell was immediately cut off by loss of
sound.

Thomas and Gambit braced themselves as everything around
them fell into silence. It seemed like all the sound nearby was getting pulled
out of the area and into something else, something near Peregrine.

Percevel noiselessly plunged ahead, his two teammates on his
heels. They worked their way close enough to see Perry standing in front of a
metallic, circular contraption. In the circle, swirls of a myriad of colours
morphed into fantastical landscapes one after the other, faster than the eye
could follow.

Peragrine’s mouth moved, but his words were pulled into the
portal and were never heard by his friends. Then with an insatiably curious
look, he started walking towards the whirling mess of colour. Percevel said
something that was probably better left muted and lunged forward to pull the
Venture Leaguer back.

Unfortunately, as soon as he touched his friend’s shoulder,
Peragrine reached out and touched the portal. It pulled them in instantly and
as soon as they had disappeared, the swirling colours snapped shut and were
gone. Sound returned to 3172 like an exhaled breath.

Gambit lowered his wormholer as he stared at the now
lifeless metal circle, then turned to the Assembly.

“Uh-oh,” Thomas said for both of them.

"I don't know."

"What does it do?"

"I don't know."

"Where did it come from?"

"I DON'T KNOW."

"Well, what DO you know?"

"I know that you're a literal pop-up book from
hell."

"Vector! Gaia!" Plue Abernathy meandered into the
storage room, which currently had an empty space in the middle in order to make
room for the strange construct that the away team had discovered. It was a very
large spherically-shaped, hollow device that could easily fit a group of people
within its center. The exterior was lined with runes and mismatched hunks of
metal, and according to Gaia it was emitting a very suspicious aura. Granted,
she then immediately said that was because of the rubber aliens and that
Pandemonium's Bane should surrender while it had the chance, but there was
still something off-putting about the object that made Plue eye it with
suspicion as she walked over to the quibbling pair.

"Yes boss?" Gaia saluted, standing tall. Her dark
brown hair, dyed with purple streaks, flowed down her back and her lime green
eyes glinted with their usual eagerness as she stretched to her full impressive
height in order to respect the Sentinel faction leader.

"Hey, how come you don't treat me like that?" The
Venture league's commander, Vector Jadewing, glowered at his companion. Despite
Gaia's unnatural height, Vector was still at least a couple of inches taller
than her due to his muscular build. His black stubble clung to his face,
desperately trying and failing to form a beard, and numerous weapons clattered
on his back as he shifted his position.

"Because you don't deserve my respect." Answered Gaia.

"Why not? I'm the same rank as Plue!" Vector
protested.

"Good sir, you're no leader of mine." Gaia
declared.

"I doubt anyone would want a soldier like you, all
things considered." Admitted Vector. "Scratch that - do whatever you
want, just don't "help" me in any way."

"Ah, sir!" Gaia turned her salute on him.
"What can I do for you? Lick your boots? Inflate your ego, sir?"

"Now I KNOW you're just trying to annoy me!"
Snapped Vector, growing impatient with Gaia's taunts. For her part, Gaia simply
shrugged and appeared nonchalant.

"Oh, stop it Vector. I'm struggling for breath because
your ego is taking up all the oxygen."

"What is it with you and my "ego"?! I don't
have an inflated ego at all!"

"You once called your face "proof of the existence
of a divine entity"-"

"Guys! That's enough!" Plue held up her hand, and
her friends fell silent. "I hope you still realise that we're faced with
the issue of what the heck this thing is?!"

"Beats me. All I know is that SOME of us put themselves
- and me - through hell to get it." Vector muttered, pouting and folding
his arms.

Gaia glared at him. "Hey, I stole nothing, broke
nothing, and stabbed nothing - you should be proud of me!"

"That's about all you DIDN'T do..." Reminded
Vector. Plue pinched the bridge of her nose as the two continued to argue. It
was bad enough that the leadership of the Sentinel faction, and consequently
the Nexus Force, had fallen to her after the battle of Crux Prime, but did
every headache she seemed to gain have to be multiplied by the quibbling of the
leader of one of the other factions and the deputy of an elite organisation?

The answer was an obvious "no".

"Look, can we just-" She was cut off by a low
humming sound.

"I don't even... hey, do you hear that?" Vector
tilted his head.

"Yup." Confirmed Plue.

"I don't know what that is, but it's getting on my
nerves." Gaia shook her head from side to side, reminiscent of a dog.
"Can someone shut it off, please?"

At that moment, the humming turned to a screech and a crash.
Shifting her gaze upwards, Plue discovered the source of the secondary noise: a
piece of the device's exterior had slidden along the outside and fallen into a
slot with a loud ca-chunk.

Plue, Vector and Gaia stepped backwards and watched as the
machine continued to whir and hum, centuries-old mechanics being reactivated
seemingly at random.

"Okay, that's moving." Gaia muttered. "That's
moving, that's moving... is it supposed to do that?"

"Looks like that's what it was designed for."
Mused Plue. "The question is what's going to happen-?"

"If you ask me, we shouldn't be staring at it unless
from a distance." The Pandemonium's Bane deputy interrupted, her eyes
showing a mixture of anticipation, nervousness and excitement as she continued
to watch the contraption move. "All in favour of using Vector as a
battering ram to escape from this room, say aye."

"Once again, the door's open." The buccaneer
retorted, proving his words by opening said door. "And I'm never letting
you throw me at a door again."

"You weren't grievously injured!" Protested Gaia
as she and Plue headed for the aforementioned door. She had to raise her voice
to be heard over the ever-increasing hum and whirr of machinery.

Vector looked like he was about to say something back, but
the noise died in his throat as he indicated with his hand. The girls turned
around and saw a blue energy field flickering into existence within the
structure. The roar became almost unbearable and the other items in storage
started to tremble. Plue could only stare in horrified anticipation with her
hands over her ears. Just when it seemed that the noise could not get any
higher, two objects were flung out of the gate. One landed on the floor nearby
with a loud clatter, and the other slammed into a thankfully empty crate,
initiating a \*crunch\* sound.

The energy field died down, and the noise faded. Plue felt
the hairs on the back of her neck begin to die down, until an unknown voice
rang out.

"Peragrine... PLEASE... don't every do that
again."

Plue stared as the object near the gate as it rose, and
realised with a jolt that it was an armoured person. They rose, and she saw
blonde hair so light it could be compared to white. The new arrival adjusted
his glasses and glowered at the other person.

"Now, what sort of trouble have you gotten us into now?"

"You know better than to trouble trouble until trouble
troubles you, Perce!" The other figure stated, rising and casually bending
their limbs back into their correct positions.

"That wasn't an answer to my question, you
insubordinate brickolorum!" "Perce" snapped. "Besides, I'd
say by this point we're well and truly troubled anyhow!"

"Now what trouble would this trouble be?"

"The trouble of temporal dislocation, of course?"

"Uh... is anyone else getting a weird sense of
deja-vu?" Plue mumbled, watching the scene unfold. Turning around, she saw
Gaia with stars in her eyes.

"I think I've just found my soulmate." She
squeaked. "Vector, catch me." She then made a big show of falling
backwards, only to smack into the ground as Vector neglected her catching-related
needs due to being in a shocked stupor.

"We're doomed. There's two of them... we're so
doomed." He moaned, quietly.

"Say, where are the-" The eccentric figure was
interrupted by the sound of feet tapping as Gaia sprinted towards him.

"Hell-oooo!" She chirped. "Can I say right
now, I don't know who you are or where you come from, but I feel like this
meeting was totally destined."

"You're kidding! That's what I thought when I saw you
ungracefully run towards me!" The stranger replied, doffing his helmet to
reveal light brown hair and a face covered in freckles. "Stranger, I know
we met each other seconds ago, but I get the impression that you like pranks.
Do you want to set one up whilst we get to know each other?"

"Oh, you read my mind!" Cheered Gaia, and within
seconds the pair were gone, sprinting out the room like their lives depended on
it whilst shouting something about a whiteboard rubber.

Everything was quiet for a few moments.

"I take it we have a lot of talking to do?" Plue
eventually said. The other man turned to her and nodded courteously.

"My name is Percevel." He introduced himself.
"And yes, I would say that fair amount of talking is in order right about
now..."

### ***MISSION OF HER OWN***

"What do you mean, they're gone!?"

"We mean what we say!" Thomas protested. "One
minute, they were there. The next, they got sucked into that gate thing and
they vanished."

"Okay." Sighed Jonna. "Thanks for telling
me."

"Hey, no problem." Gambit's voice sounded tinny
over the phone. "We'll call you if we get any more news on them,
alright?"

"Thanks guys." Hanging up the phone, Jonna leaned
back on her sofa and groaned, putting her hands over her face.  It was bad enough that she hadn't been in
contact with her now-Mythran friend Talia since the fall of the Darkitecht, but
now her two other closest friends were missing? This was worse than losing any
business, or... anything else, for that matter. The knowledge that Peragrine
and Percevel could be literally anywhere made her feel far more anxious than
she would have liked, considering that she knew the pair could easily handle
themselves when it came to dangerous situations. Peragrine practically was one,
after all.

In fact, it was probably a good job that he hadn't been
offered a seat on the Nexus Force council like the other two had been, because
if he had accepted, it would have been about as dangerous as allowing a toddler
access to nuclear devices. Thinking about it, however, just filled Jonna with
more regret. What if she had joined the council, anyway? Would she have the
authority to organize people to search for her friends? What about the apparent
gate thing that made them vanish anyway? What was happening to that? The lack
of answers was beginning to drive her insane -

Oh no. Percevel's wife. Jonna bit her lip

"She's not going to be taking this well." She
muttered.

Doing an about turn, Jonna slapped her hands over her face
as she meandered down her stairs and into the ground floor of her house. So
busy was she lamenting current events and rubbing her eyes that at first, she
failed to noticed the Mythran standing before her.

"Jonna Fig."

The otherworldly voice echoed through the air, and Jonna
gave a start as she saw her visitor. Whilst there was a brief period of time in
which she was unable to speak completely, but eventually she managed to respond
sufficiently eloquently:

"Um, hi?"

"You have been summoned." The translucent figure
grabbed Jonna's hand, and the landscape blurred around her, disappearing into a
void of blue and white. Jonna's head began to spin as she watched the whirling
surroundings until nothing remained but her, the Mythran, and the void. Just
when it seemed like the white noise would become unbearable, the world
reconstructed itself and Jonna fell onto her knees, gasping for breath. Such
was her disorientation that it took her a few moments to realise that she was
no longer in her home.

Instead, Jonna found herself inside a sterile white
environment, lit with aqua neon lights. The room was enormous, with a ceiling
that stretched many meters above their heads, and several corridors lead down
different paths. Holographic arrows and posters flashed and then disappeared
only to be replaced by something else, and Jonna felt so overwhelmed that she
sunk to her knees - only for the Mythran to help her rise again.

"It's alright." It calmly told her. "You are
in no danger."

"Then... why am I here?" She gaped.

"Your appearance here concerns the fates that have
befallen two of your comrades, known as Peragrine and Percival."

These works seemed to snap Jonna out of her trance, and she
looked at the Mythran slightly desperately.

"You mean you know what happened to them? They can be
saved?"

"Not quite. It is... complicated."

"Uh... I'm listening."

"We believe that the missing persons you know have
disappeared as a result of a Mythran device."

"...huh?!"

"Have you ever considered the possibility of parallel
universes?" The Mythran asked Jonna, beginning to walk towards one of the
corridors. Not wanting to be left behind in an unfamiliar environment, Jonna hastened
after them.

"Um... yeah, actually."

"Well then, what if I were to tell you that the concept
of parallel universes is not just a simple concept, but reality?"

"I wouldn't be too surprise - oh no. Oh no. Don't tell
me this is relevant to...?"

"We believe it is."

"So... so my friends are in a parallel universe?"

"This is the case. But there is no reason for you to
fear."

Jonna stopped rubbing her head, and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? You sound like you have some kind of solution-y
plan sort of thing, and those are good. Please continue."

"First, a question. How far are you willing to go to
get your friends back?"

"What kind of...? As far as it takes, I guess."

"I see."

The Mythran led Jonna to a grey sliding door near the end of
the hallway, where he turned around to face Jonna.

"Normally, we would not interfere in your affairs.
However, we Mythrans are essentially responsible for the predicament you face -
even if it was not US, perse, who created the gate."

"Gate?"

"This is the reason that we are sending you to the
dimension after your friends, along with a means to return. Also with you will
by a Mythran representative, to take care of affairs should you encounter our
parallel kin, as well as defend you from any dangers you might face in another
world. Do you find these conditions acceptable?"

"Uh... yeah. Sure."

"Very well." The Mythran turned around and clapped
their hands, and the door swung open. Jonna walked inside and promptly did a
double take, forced to rub her eyes. Standing in the center of the room,
staring back at her, was a person with blonde hair and luminous, light cobalt
eyes.

"Talia?"

"Jonna?!" Talia Sneeko, stromling-turned-Mythran,
exclaimed as she caught sight of her old friend. "I-I-I-"

"We have elected to send Mythran Talia as a representative
of our kind in this other dimension." The former Mythran filled in.

"Did you know about this?!" Gaped Jonna. Talia
shook her head violently.

"N-no! All I knew was that I was going to be sent
somewhere because of my... um... Mythran–slash–civic duty, or something! They
gave me instructions, but - why, what's happened?!"

"Peragrine and Percevel have gone missing!"
Blurted Jonna, struggling to remain whelmed by an influx of emotions, and
proceeded to relay to Talia what Gambit and Thomas had told her.

"Oh, no! Is that why-"

"We felt as though, due to your personal connection
with the missing persons, you would be more efficient and motivated than anyone
else."

"Well, you're not wrong there." Talia began to
calm down, and her eyes flashed full of power. "Now that I know they're
missing, I don't plan on resting until I get them back!"

"Admirable motivation." Declared the Mythran.

"So... how are we going to get to this other
world?" Jonna asked. Seemingly in response to this, the Mythran tossed a
cube-shaped device to Jonna, who caught it in her hands before clumsily
fumbling with the object.

"That is a method we ourselves have devised of
interdimensional transportation." The Mythran said. "The frequency
has been set to match the one that the gate was emitting. You shouldn't arrive
inconveniently far away from them - say, on the other side of the universe -
but you will have to figure out the details of their rescue yourselves. If you
want more detail, Jonna Fig, Mythran Talia has been given more specific directions."

"Well, that's convenient." Jonna mumbled as Talia
ran to her side. "Man, you Mythrans love your cubes, don't you?"

"May fortune be in your favour." The Mythran
declared as Talia pressed a button on the cube. The next second, the room spun
and Jonna found herself in another whirlwind.

### ***THE SILVER SHIELD***

"...and that's the gist of it."

"I see." Plue rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she
processed the information given to her. Less than two years ago, she would have
assumed that the man was delusional, or an extremely good liar. Of course, that
was before she had fought alongside people who could destroy a building with a
wave of their hand, a lizard mutant and a person made entirely of flames. Black
flames.

She liked to think that her outlook had become broader since
then.

"So... what can we help with?" She continued, as
Percevel and her walked down the dimly lit steel corridor. Now that the noises
of Gaia and Vector's bickering had disappeared, the base was strangely peaceful.

"Well, I don't mean to be an annoyance, but I'd like to
get back to my own universe." Percevel stated, pushing his glasses up his
face; they had been beginning to slide down his nose.

"You know, you're taking this awfully well." Plue
pointed out, not untruthfully. "Both you and your friend."

"I have the gift-slash-curse of emotional detachment
from any situation," said Percevel, "and Peragrine's probably doing
something stupid to take his mind off his mistake. I have a feeling that he'd
be a lot more down if he stopped and thought, but that has never been his
style."

"I hope he and Gaia don't cause too much damage
together." Lamented Plue. "She's bad enough on her "If she's
anything like Peragrine, I shudder to think what the two of them might have
already done." Percevel mumbled to himself, shaking his head in dismay.
Plue nodded.

"Be that as it may, we definitely have more important
things to worry about at present." Her blonde hair fell in front of her
face as she lowered her head, resting her chin on her knuckle as she walked.
"Such as the question of how you're supposed to get home."

"Indeed." Percevel nodded his agreement. "We
just have to hope that, in the meantime, nothing too disastrous-"

At that point, he was cut off by the sound of a rending and
a crashing, followed by a hissing noise. As the two wheeled around, smoke began
to pour around the corridor towards them.

"What the heck?!" Gaped Plue as Percevel grabbed
his powerjouster off his back. Pointing the axe-spear at the cloud, he
bellowed, "Whoever's there, come out with your hands raised!"

Instead of receiving the reply he had hoped for, there was a
ripple of energy across the room and a silvery construct in the shape of an
enormous hand slammed into Percevel, sending him sprawling onto the floor.

"Percevel!" Plue called helplessly, before
growling and raising her katana in front of her face. Out of the smoke stomped
a heavily armoured figure, almost as brawny as Vector. He was clad in shiny
metal armour, a dark silver with crimson decals around the edges. In one hand,
he held a spiked mace, and in the other he held a shield made of a completely
silver metal. His brown-blonde hair bounced slightly in the wind created by the
steam, and when he opened his eyes were the colour of his shield; a deep,
haunting, almost threatening silver. Plue's primary instinct was to back away,
and only her training prevented her from doing so.

"My name," spoke the knight, "is Cadmus of
the Silver Shield." He held the mace in front of him, threateningly.

"I have come for the gate."

"The gate - GAH!" Plue's speech was shattered as
Cadmus indicated with his mace and a wave of polar-coloured energy arced
towards Plue, slamming into her armour and knocking her backwards.

"Percevel, do you think he means-"

"Yeah, I do." Percevel used the handle of his
Powerjouster to resist another attack. "I guess interdimensional travel is
something a lot of people might be interested in - dangerous people. Where is
the rest of your organisation?"

"Jacen, Rose and Maddox are on a scouting mission.
They're on the other side of the system, so we can't expect any help from
them." Plue tried to rise, only to be struck down once again by another
silver fist. "As for Shadow, we have no real way of contacting him and we
have no idea where he's gone."

"So, we're on our own?" Perceval drew a pistol
from his pocket and fired three shots at Cadmus, who blocked the bullets with
his shield.

"Not quite. If we can find the others... we could win
this." Plue drew her bow, and nocked an arrow, letting it fly. Cadmus
craned his neck and the projectile whizzed past his head, slamming into the
wall behind him. "But I don't think we stand a chance on our own."

"No, you don't." Cadmus agreed, beginning to twirl
the mace around. A static buzz began to fill the air, and the creaking of metal
echoed around the trio.

Suddenly, a portion of the wall tore itself off the wall and
curled round, smacking Percevel and carrying him into the wall, where he was
entrapped by the sheet. Grimacing, the stoic man raised his gun and unloaded
the rest of his bullets in Cadmus' direction, but the knight raised his shield
and a silver aura emerged, protecting him from the Percevel's rounds.

"Darn it..." Plue spat, firing another arrow only
to have it blocked by the shield.

"I suggest you lay down your arms at once."
Deadpanned Cadmus, glancing at the pair with what appeared to be indifference.
"Before I am forced to hurt one of you."

"Sorry, but I don't consider myself idiotic enough to
listen to some guy who just attacked me!" Retorted Plue, shooting an arrow
at Cadmus. Unfortunately, the energy shield flickered to life around the knight
again, protecting him from the attack.

"Are you quite finished?" He asked, starting to
take steps forward towards Plue and a still trapped Percevel. "I did not
want to take you in in this method, but you have forced my-"

"HI-YAAAH!" The scream echoed across the
surroundings as Cadmus was knocked to the side. The force of Gaia's flaming
kick sent Cadmus careening into the wall of the corridor, where he made impact
with such force that the metal bent into his silhouette.

"Gaia!" Plue exclaimed. "Be careful! This
guy's a Deviant!"

"A Deviant, eh?" Electricity began to dance around
Gaia's fingertips as Cadmus rose, glowering at his new opponent. "Tell you
what, buddy, let's make it just the two of us. You and me, Deviant against
Deviant. We'll see who's stronger..."

"I have my doubts as to whether you'll prevail."
Cadmus declared, picking up his mace from the ground. "Besides, you are
not my objective. My only target is the gate that is in this group's
possession."

"Oh?" Gaia raised an eyebrow. "Well I'm not
letting you get anywhere near it. We dragged that gate here fair and square. If
you want to get to it..."

She wreathed one hand in violet flames and the other in
indigo sparks.

"...you'll have to go through me." She finished,
eyes bright at the prospect of battle. "Plue! Take Percevel and get out of
here! Leave this guy to me!"

"I hope you know what you're doing!" Plue remarked
as she helped Percevel squeeze out from behind the plating.

"Do I ever?!" Pointed out Gaia as she charged at
Cadmus, who stood ready for her attack, shield raised.

"Good point." Conceded Plue, before turning and
fleeing from the field of battle as the brawl recommenced.

### ***THE FIRE HEART***

The scream died in Jonna's throat as her eyes began to see
properly again. Glancing around, she saw that Talia and her had been
transported to what looked like an enormous cavern, hollowed out unevenly.
Crystals of different colours were jutting out of all the walls, their surfaces
gleaming with an almost polished sheen. There was silence once the noise of
their transportation died down, save the occasional drip of moisture from the
ceiling. Talia breathed an uneasy sigh.

"Great." She murmured. "We arrived. Now we
just need to conserve the power of the olmak-"

"Olmak?" Questioned Jonna. Talia nodded, and held
out the cube.

"Yes. The olmak is the portable dimension-travelling
device we have been given. As I was saying, we need to conserve its power if we
want to get back with Peragrine and Percevel."

"Uh... sure. I'd like to be able to return."
Mumbled Jonna to herself as Talia scanned their surroundings.

"No sign of anything dangerous." She murmured.
"The question is how we're supposed to locate Perce and Perry... I don't
have any idea where they could be..." She turned on her heel and began to
march up a pathway leading to another segment of the cavern. "We should
probably start by getting out of this cave first."

"Okay, hold up!" Jonna clambered, uneasily, to her
feet and sprinted over to Talia. "What's happened to you?"

Talia cocked her head to one side, bemused. "What do
you mean? Nothing has happened."

"Yes, it has!" Protested Jonna. "You...
you've changed, Talia. Last time I saw you, you were all... scared, and
socially awkward, and kind, and adorable, and all these other different things!
And now... you're just... stoic."

"And I thought I was the only person who'd been through
such a dramatic shift of personality type." A voice remarked. Wheeling
around, the girls saw the silhouette of a man approach from another tunnel.

"Let me guess... you two aren't from around here, are
you?"

"Woa! Stranger danger!" Jonna leapt backwards in
surprise. Talia, on the other hand, just nodded.

"No. We aren't from around here."

"Talia!" Snapped Jonna. "Don't tell him
that!"

"It's fine." The man replied, stepping into the
light. Jonna saw short, light brown hair, dark blue eyes and a black trench
coat before the person extended their hand. In the center of their palm, a
purple flame flickered to life. Talia gasped.

"I'm not exactly normal myself." Admitted the man.

"That's... that's maelstrom." Jonna mumbled to
herself. "How are... how are you not infected? Or dead?"

"It's a pretty long story." Said the man, before
eyeing Jonna. "Tell you what, how about if I tell you the story of how I
got these abilities, you tell me why you're here from another universe... and
why you're with a Mythran, of all things."

"Wait, they have Mythrans here too?" Gasped Jonna.
This world was confusing.

"I could say the same about where you come from and
maelstrom." Declared the man, curling his fingers around the flame and
snuffing it out. "In any case, something tells me this conversation might
take a while. Follow me." He turned on his heel and began to walk down the
path he had come from.

"Where are you going? Won't you get lost?" Jonna
called.

"I live here. I should really know the way by this
point." He called over his back. "Now, you coming?"

Before Jonna could say anything, Talia spoke for her.

"Yes. Just... give us a moment."

"Wha...? What are you-" is all Jonna had time to
say before Talia turned to her rapidly.

"Firstly, I'm sorry for acting stoic around you; once I
had gotten over the initial surprise of seeing you, of course." She
sighed. "The fact is, I... I'm scared, or was scared, of your reaction.
The last time you saw me, I became a Mythran, and we haven't talked for
years." She twiddled nervously with a strand of her golden hair.
"And... we need to follow him."

"I... what makes you so sure?"

"Because, this man... reminds me of me."

"Um. What." Was all Jonna, eloquent as always, had
to say to Talia's statement. Her friend rolled her eyes.

"Let me elaborate. You understand how I was once an
entity of maelstrom, and now I am at the other end of the spectrum, instead
favouring imagination?"

"Yeah." Jonna nodded. Talia turned her head to
look in the direction of the man, leaning nonchalantly against the cavern wall,
waiting for them.

"He is the opposite. I can tell that, at his core, he
is a creature of imagination. But he has been almost completely corrupted, and
his soul bound to something else. Something more... malevolent in nature."

"Well, dang. I feel bad for the guy, but why do we have
to follow him? I though the mission was to get Peragrine and Percevel and then
get out of dodge."

"That was before we met him. Now... I'm
intrigued."

"Um, Talia?" Jonna attempted fruitlessly to
dissuade her friend. "Not to bring back any bad memories, but was this the
same intrigue that led you to touching the cube to begin with?"

Startlingly, Talia turned to Jonna with a smile on her face
- a smile that awakened nostalgic feelings inside Jonna.

"Didn't that turn out for the better?" She asked.
Jonna opened her mouth, then stopped herself when she realised her friend was
right.

"It'll be fine, Jonna!"

"You said he was almost completely corrupted by chaos,
though! Shouldn't we be worried?"

"Relax. I don't plan on hurting you." The man
spoke. Jonna leapt forwards in surprise as she realised he was standing behind
her.

"Woa! Didn't anyone ever tell you not to
eavesdrop?" She snapped.

"The way I see it, if someone brings you into the
conversation, you're entitled to the addition of your own thoughts." He
declared. "And you were talking about me, after all."

Jonna thought she heard a low rumbling noise, but dismissed
it in favour of speaking to the stranger.

"Ugh... fine. So, you say you're not going to kill us.
How can we believe you?"

The man stood silently for a moment, as if pondering the
question, before replying.

"Well, there's no sure-fire way that you can trust me.
But you look slightly lost in here, so the way I see it is you can either
follow me or stay here and wander around. And let me tell you, these caves are
pretty extensive. You could be here for a while."

"Come on, Jonna." Talia said. "We need to go
with him."

"Only if you're less formal." Declared Jonna,
folding her arms. "I'm not used to this new you, who acts just like the
other Mythrans and seems to have lost touch with the everyday life the rest of
us lead."

"That's what happens when you spend a while with
another culture, or experience another way of living for a long time." The
man butted in. "You pick up their habits through osmosis."

"And how would you know?" Jonna argued.

The rumbling grew louder, and it occurred to Jonna that
ignoring it may not have been the best strategy.

"Let's just say I'm not-"

At this point, however, the man was cut off by the crumbling
of rock from the ceiling above.

"Get down!" He roared, leaping forwards and
knocking both Jonna and Talia to the ground as a hunk of rock crashed into the
area in which the trio had been standing previously. The rumbling grew
unbearable, and Jonna looked up to see a strange object with a drill attached
fall down and sink into the ground where they stood, slowly dying down.

The shaking stopped.

The compartment flipped open with a loud hiss, and out
stepped a woman clad in regal robes that shimmered alternating shades of orange
and yellow. As she stepped forward, she pulled a dangerous-looking scythe off
her back.

"My name is Ivy of the fire heart." She held the
scythe in front of her, threateningly.

"I have come for the Mythran."

### ***THREE VS ONE IS TOTALLY FAIR***

"Not good, not good, not good..." Plue muttered as
she ran.

"So?" Panted Percevel. "What's the plan at
this point?"

"Well, this guy Cadmus wants to get his mitts on the
gate - for SOME reason." Huffed Plue, throwing her arms out to express her
disenchantment with the current situation. "Heck, all I know is that he attacked
us and now I'm offended. I guess we need to-"

These were the last words that Plue spoke before she turned
a corner and collided with a figure running in the opposite direction to her.
The pair fell to the ground, and Percevel whipped out a freshly loaded pistol
before either could react.

"Another one?" He spat.

"Wait, wait, wait, no! I'm not an intruder! I was on my
way to deal with it!" The new arrival protested, rising and brushing
themselves down. His eyes were a brilliant shade of gold, and his hair was a
light brown. As he shrugged the dust off his trench coat, which was a mud brown
in colour, he realised that he was receiving quizzical looks from the other
people in the vicinity. Rolling his eyes, he reached into his pocket and pulled
out a name badge. Plue barely had time to look at it before he stashed it away,
but it was verification enough.

"See? I'm a member of Pandemonium's Bane!" He
protested.

"I didn't even know we had ID cards, in all
honesty." Plue muttered. "Who gave that to you?"

"The ginger guy in the glasses." The man
responded.

"That'd be Jacen, then. He does like his neatness and
tidiness... listen, I'm going to call you New Guy for now. Is that ok?"

"My name's-"

"New Guy, I'm really sorry, but we're in kind of a dire
situation at the moment. Can you just hang snake until all this craziness is
sorted out?"

"I... fine." The newly christened new guy rolled
his eyes. "What exactly is going on, anyway?"

"Some crazy strong dude called Cadmus is attacking
us." Plue explained, as New Guy helped her to her feet. "He's a
deviant, and a pretty strong one at that. Last I saw he was doing battle with
Gaia."

"Will that be enough? I mean, Gaia's pretty strong,
right?" New Guy queried.

"Not exactly. Her powers are dependent on the
concentration of maelstrom in the area, and we can only afford to have so much
inside the base without becoming infected. It doesn't help that she wastes a
lot of her power on being flashy."

"Like when she arrived and covered her hands in fire
and lighting for no specific reason?" Percevel cut in.

"Exactly." Plue nodded, while New Guy craned his
neck to look at Percevel.

"Speaking of unfamiliar faces, I haven't seen him
around." He said. "Is he a member of Pandemonium's Bane?"

"No, he's... he's a guest." Plue told him, which
was technically correct. "I'll explain the details later."

"Fine." New Guy didn't look sated with the answer,
but nodded nonetheless.

"So. You a deviant?" Asked Plue. New Guy nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't have a power that'll be particularly
useful in here."

"What is it?"

"I can, like, talk to and control creatures. Not that
it's not handy, but I'm not seeing any wild animals in here."

"Fair enough. Is there anything else you can do?"

Here, New Guy smiled a slightly wicked smile as he pulled
his trench coat away to reveal a pair of swords in a large scabbard, conjoined
by what looked like a steel cable, attached to his waist.

"Fortunately for you, I also happen to be a dab hand
with these." He revealed.

"Perfect." Plue declared. "I-"

"Uh-oh." Percevel muttered.

"What is it?" Plue asked, praying that something
wasn't grievously wrong.

"Peragrine. I didn't see him with Gaia." Muttered
Percevel.

"Ugh, you're right... Okay!" Plue turned to the
two men. "New Guy, you're with me. We're going to make sure that Gaia doesn't
get herself killed. Percevel, you're on "find Perry" duty.
Comprende?"

Both men saluted.

"Sir!" They declared.

"Okay, you don't have to be so formal. Geez guys."
Plue rubbed her head as the others began to look slightly bashful.

"Sorry. Force of habit." Percevel muttered.

"Same here... I think I'll prefer this to the last
people I served under." Muttered New Guy. Making a metal note to ask New
Guy what he meant by such a comment later, Plue wheeled around and began to run
back down the hallway. "Percevel, go and find your friend!"

"But how am I supposed to find you afterwards?" He
called after the backs of her and New Guy.

"Follow the noise!" Called Plue, before rounding a
corner; she saw Perceval nod before he disappeared from sight.

"It's been a while since I've been in a proper
fight!" Grinned New Guy, cracking his knuckles as he ran.

"Well, don't get overexcited. Like I said, this guy's a
deviant." Plue reminded him. New Guy rolled his eyes.

"Please. I've been trained to tackle people like
him."

Plue raised an eyebrow. "You're serious?"

"Deadly. Let's just say I wasn't always that nice a
person-"

At that moment, however, New Guy was cut off as the wall the
pair were running beside caved in and Gaia was blasted through it, slamming
into the opposite wall and sliding down to the floor, groaning. Whipping her
head back around, Plue's eyes widened and she barely had time to duck another
silver construct, in the shape of a scythe, whisking towards her. Rising, she
stepped backward hastily and fired an arrow, which bounced off Cadmus' shield.

"So, this is the guy?" New Guy spat, glaring at
him.

"Ugh... sorry Plue." Muttered Gaia. "Not
enough... maelstrom."

"This is why you don't go rushing into
confrontations." Plue chastised her. "Now take some time out. We'll
handle it from here."

"The... the two of you?" Panted Gaia, shifting
herself upright.

"The THREE of us." A voice corrected her. Looking
round, Plue saw Vector approach the scene, pulling a cutlass off his back.

"I thought I heard something noisy around here. Gaia,
can you TRY to not get involved for once?"

Gaia glared daggers back at Vector. "It's not like I
was TRYING to get my butt kicked!"

Sensing a conversation, Plue decided to keep firing arrows
as Cadmus to keep him occupied.

"It's not like you were trying to think either. Now
stay back there!" Vector directed a finger at Gaia's position. "Leave
this to us, you got me? You've done enough!"

"Aye sir." Mumbled Gaia, angrily. Vector breathed
heavily, calming himself.

"I don't know if it's clear, but we do appreciate what
you've done so far." He said. Gaia raised her head in surprise.

"Huh?"

"This staying out of it business is for your own
benefit, you need to understand that. How can you hope to be a hero if you
can't let yourself rest when you don't win?"

Chastised yet complimented, Gaia seemed to have nothing more
to say, and instead leaned back against the wall with a small smile on her
face. Plue looked at her and almost did a double take, for the smile Gaia was
wearing contained no traces of vanity, sarcasm, or mockery. It was one hundred
percent genuine.

"Now, as for me..." Vector began to stalk towards
Cadmus. "... I could use some exercise."

"Hey, save some work for me." New Guy drew his
swords.

"Boys, boys." Scolded Plue, firing off another arrow.
"I'm sure there'll be enough for all of us to do."

"For now..."

"ATTACK!"

### ***WHO’S THE MONSTER, HERE?***

"What do you mean, you've come for the Mythran?"
Jonna immediately leapt forwards, placing herself between Talia and Ivy.
"What do you want with her?"

"Save your breath." The man interrupted.
"She's one of those "strictly business" people. You aren't going
to get much out of her."

The raven-haired newcomer turned her attention to the man,
and a look of disdainful disgust formed on her face.

"Dante Wilder." She spat the name out like the
vilest of poisons. "The Twelve of Infinite Sight are aware of your
exploits."

"Charmed." Dante gave a mocking bow, his coat
fluttering as he did so. "It's nice to see that my reputation proceeds me.
Unfortunately, I don't have a clue who you are. That fine by you?"

"I suggest stepping aside." Declared Ivy, ignoring
his words. "Currently, this Mythran is my prime target."

"Whilst a great deal of me agrees that this isn't my
problem, I can't comply." Dante told her in reply. "If I don't stop
you now, who's to say you won't come after me later? History has a way of
repeating itself, and I can't just let you do whatever you want; not on my
turf." He glared at her, eyes shining with intensity and power. "I
suggest you walk away."

"Flee from your words? What nonsense." Ivy twirled
her scythe. "If you insist on standing in my way, I'll just have to cut
you down!" With that, she leapt towards him, weapon bared.

"Fine by me." Dante stood stock still, hands in
his pockets, as Ivy charged towards him. At the last second, however, his form
flickered and vanished.

"Wha-" Ivy didn't finished as Dante reappeared
behind her, nonchalantly raising his head. Pink beams of light erupted from his
eyes, arcing towards his opponent. Ivy raised the scythe's blade and blocked
the lasers, which snaked away and cleaved a hole in the cavern wall. Dante
raised an eyebrow as Ivy landed in front of him.

"Did you think you knew what I was capable of?"
Dante laughed. "Sorry, Ivy, but I think your intel needs updating."

"Oh, so you can control your power? I'm surprised.
Didn't you gain it recently?"

"Well yeah, I guess so. I've been able to do this stuff
since around the time the Nexus was overcharged."

"Since what was what?" Jonna could only murmur as
she tried to piece together what the pair were talking about.

"What might interest you, however, is that I'm not the
one controlling that power." Dante grinned, baring his teeth. "I can
use it so well because... well, I guess you could say I've had help."

With these words spoken, he raised on of his arms, and
blasted a wave of fire out of his fingertips. It arced towards Ivy, and this
time it was she who stood motionless and let the attack arc towards her. As the
flames reached her, Talia gasped. Jonna craned her neck backwards to check on
her friend, and gasped as she saw the Mythran with a look of terror on her
face.

"Jonna! Are you alright!" She gaped.

"It's not me..." she said as the flames kept
burning. "It's him."

"What about him?"

"As a Mythran, I can sense souls." She said.
"I sensed this man's when we met him, and could tell that there was
darkness within it. And... and j-just now, I suddenly felt that balance be
flipped... now his soul is dark, with light in it."

"I don't quite follow... but he's on our side,
remember? Besides..." Jonna trailed off as she pointed at the woman
standing within Dante's flames. "She seems pretty tough to."

"Ah-ha!" Chuckled Dante as Ivy walked forward,
wreathed in flames that did not harm her. "I guess that's why they call
you the fire heart?"

Ivy said nothing, instead choosing to swing the scythe at
Dante. The man ducked the swing, before jumping back up and knocking Ivy
backwards in a blow that left sparks crackling on his wrist.

"Too bad you're not resistant to electrokinesis!"
He chuckled. "Were you aware of the fact that fire isn't the only thing I
can use to fight you?"

"I was, actually." Ivy filled in. "But
I-"

"Oh, enough TALKING!" Roared Dante abruptly,
sending another bolt of lightning at Ivy with a snap of his fingers. "It
has been over a YEAR since I've been in a proper fight. That Dante just feels
like he has to step away from it all, and hold me back, and it's so
INFURIATING!" He raised both his palms and unleashed a slew of laser
blasts towards Ivy, who either dodged the projectiles or used the metal blade
of her scythe to deflect them.

"And... now he's referring to himself in the third
person?" Jonna's eyebrow had probably risen by this point, but there was
no way to verify that. "Okay, something's very, VERY odd with this
guy."

"I told you!" Talia clasped Jonna's shoulder in
fear. "It's his... his soul!"

"Regretting that curiosity now?" Jonna muttered,
backing away slowly from the fight. She had intended to subtly move far away
enough from the brawl until a sprint would be plausible, but Ivy spotted the
pair moving away.

"No!" She bounded forward and landed in front of
the two of them. "My target is not getting away from me that easily!"

"Concentrate on your own opponent!" Dante, too,
leapt forward. Spinning around in mid-air, he kicked out and knocked Ivy to the
floor, replacing her in front of Jonna and Talia.

"Don't worry, you two. I'm sure Dante'll be willing to
keep talking with the pair of you once I finish this chick off."

"Why are you referring to yourself in the third
person?!" Cried Jonna, not noticing Talia shaking her head is disapproval.
"Aren't you Dante?"

It was as she said this that she realised that Dante's eyes
were deep violet; it wouldn't have been an issue, except she could have sworn
they hadn't been that colour earlier.

"Uh, in short - no. No, I'm not." Dante - or
rather, whoever was truly in control - deadpanned, before turning around and
beginning to sink into the shadows. "But like I said, I'm sure Dante will
explain once I'm done here."

Jonna and Talia did nothing but stare after Dante.

"Now." He murmured. "I'd better-"

He was abruptly cut off as Ivy lashed out from the shadows,
attacking viciously with her scythe. Dante attempted to step backwards, but the
blade nicked his arm and tore through his clothing. Grimacing, Dante hopped
backwards and held his injured limb, before outstretching his left, uninjured
appendage and firing a laser out of the palm. Ivy jumped into the air, dodging
the projectile, before coming back down and attempting to skewer Dante with her
weapon. Instead of hitting him, however, the blade hit a shimmering blue
surface that had appeared between the two.

"What?" Jonna said, before looking around and
seeing Talia with her hand outstretched and a focused expression on her face.

"Since when were you able to do that?" She gaped
at her friend.

"All Mythrans can create constructs such as this."
Filled in Talia. "I'm not as strong as your average Mythran in this field,
but that's not saying much." She stretched out her other hand, and a
shimmering box formed around Ivy, trapping the woman inside.

"You got her!" Jonna fistpumped in excitement;
only for Ivy to press something on her belt. A wave of energy shattered the
construct, and she dropped to the ground before furiously advancing on Jonna
and Talia.

"Did you think..." She panted, "That I would
not have a way to resist Mythran abilities on a mission revolving around the
capture of a mission?"

"I mean..." Talia pressed her fingers together.
"I did until you said that..."

Ivy raised her scythe, but instead of the blow coming, she
instead gasped before falling to the floor. Behind her stood Dante, a grave
expression on his face.

"Did you-"

"She's unconscious, don't worry. Neither of us is that
much of a monster." Dante's eyes faded from purple to the blue-green that
they had previously been, and he shook his arm in distaste.

"That was too close for my liking."

### ***SUBDUED***

Almost immediately after Plue's declaration, pandemonium
broke out within the walls of Pandemonium's Bane HQ. Vector leapt towards
Cadmus, wielding his broadsider blade side in front. Cadmus coolly sidestepped
the buccaneer, bringing his shield up to block the blow as well as kicking
Vector away. However, before Cadmus could do anything, said shield was knocked
out of his hands by New Guy, who threw one of his swords at him and succeeded
in disarming him of his titular weapon. However, the intruder still wielded the
mace, and he brought it down on the interconnecting cable between the two
swords, snapping it. Reeling back, New Guy rolled forward and attempted to
bring his sword up and into Cadmus, but another swing from Cadmus' mace
disarmed him. Unperturbed, however, New Guy brought the rest of his body up
before Cadmus could recompose himself and tackled him to the ground. Dropping
the mace, Cadmus lifted New Guy into the air and flung him away using nothing
but physical strength alone.

As he prepared to attack New Guy, however, an arrow lodged
itself in his chest armour, and he looked up to see Plue standing in the
corridor with her bow loose, reaching for another arrow from her quiver.
Growling, the knight tried to run towards her, but Vector chose that particular
moment to leap onto his back, bringing him down. Cadmus struggled as Vector
tried to keep him pinned to the ground using his weight.

"We need something to restrain this guy!" Roared
Vector.

"I can go and get some cable, or something!" Gaia
offered.

"That'll work!" Nodded Plue, and Gaia hobbled off
to be of assistance. Sensing, however, that his captor's attention was
deviated, Cadmus took the opportunity to rise, before sprinting backwards and
slamming Vector into a wall. Shocked by the blow, he loosened his grip and left
himself open to a punch from Cadmus that sent him crashing onto the floor.

His attacker having been taken care of, Cadmus turned his
attention back to Plue, who fired off another arrow at him, only to be stunned
into stillness as the knight caught the arrow, before snapping it in half and
tossing the pieces away. Deciding to cut her losses, Plue placed the bow over
her shoulder and drew her sword, holding it on front of her in a battle stance.
Cadmus didn't waste any time, and rushed towards her unarmed. However, his
advance was halted by the intervention of New Guy, who leapt out of seemingly
nowhere and kicked Cadmus in the side. The momentum of such an attack caused
Cadmus to careen into a wall, hitting it with such force that an impression was
left there. Raising his fists, New Guy went on the attack and tried to catch
Cadmus off guard, punching him forcefully and repeatedly.

He attacked with such speed that Cadmus seemed unable to
defend, and he was pressed further against the wall as New Guy pinned him there
with a surprisingly scrawny forearm. However, the knight subtly raised a fist
and rammed it into New Guy's chest, winding him and providing Cadmus with an
opportunity to headbutt and stun his opponent. Plue attempt to lunge at Cadmus,
only for the night to grab a temporarily unconscious New Guy and place him
in-between Plue and himself, cutting off her attack. Cursing, Plue ceased her
movement and Cadmus took the opportunity to, in one fluid movement, throw New
Guy away and attack Plue, trying to land blow after blow. Plue, to her credit,
managed to avoid most of the intruder's attacks, but her stamina was decreasing
and eventually she was caught on the side of the head by an attack that made
her see stars. Dazed, she offered little resistance as she was kicked to the
floor, and a heavy boot planted on her abdomen.

Grimacing, Plue grabbed Cadmus' ankle, and pulled it off her
stomach, enabling her to rise. Having lost her sword, she instead attempted to
attack Cadmus with her limbs, sending kicks and blows in his direction.
Seemingly due to fatigue, Cadmus seemed inadept at dodging them and only tanked
the blows as they came. before retaliating by socking Plue. Reeling backwards,
she strained to keep her balance.

"Hey!" A voice called out suddenly. Plue strained
her head to see Vector standing woozily upright, holding his broadsider.

"This won't hurt a bit!" He yelled, before firing
a shot from the grenade-launcher type weapon. Buckshot peppered Cadmus'
chestplate and he was knocked onto his back away from Plue. Perhaps he had run
out of energy, perhaps it was the kick of the projectiles, but he made no
attempt to rise.

"Did I mention that I was a compulsive liar?"
Quipped Vector, tossing the weapon aside and allowing himself a smile of
satisfaction.

"I thought that was Gaia." Plue chuckled.

"Someone say my name?" The aforementioned deviant popped
into view, holding a coil of steel cable. "What did I miss, aside from an
action scene?"

"Just the action scene, don't worry." Vector told
her. "Just make sure that this guy can't run off again."

"Speaking of running off..." Mused Gaia, looking
round the hall as she walked towards Cadmus, "...where are our
guests?"

"Perceval went to find Peragrine." Filled in Plue.
"I guess he's not back yet?"

"Well, I guess he missed all the fun. Shame." New
Guy strolled over to Cadmus with a look of disdain on his face. "Now, the
question is, what are we going to do with this waste of space? Do we have
holding cells in this base of ours?"

"Not officially, but some of the rooms we have should
be strong enough to hold him. We could put him in my room!" Offered Gaia.

"No, because your room is full of maelstrom."
Vector deadpanned. "It doesn't empower everyone, Gaia. In fact, it's toxic
to most."

"Well, ex-cuuuuse me for being a special
snowflake." Groaned Gaia, rolling her eyes.

"You don't ever stop and think that you might be
unnecessarily putting yourself in danger with your actions?"

"I'm not IN danger, I AM the danger."

"In any case, you probably shouldn't just dump him in
your room, he could turn out to be trouble."

"Maybe I don't want to be saved the trouble? Maybe I am
the trouble."

Plue rolled her eyes and turned to New Guy.

"Hey, New Guy, how about we find somewhere to put this
guy? While we're at it, we can keep an eye out for Perceval and
Peragrine..."

### ***IF YOU CAN’T SAY ANYTHING NICE***

Jonna Fig had been through her fair share of weird days in
her time. It was normal, given the life she had chosen to lead. But there were
still moments when she mentally stepped back, looked at her life and began to
despair. And this was one of them - in another universe, looking for a couple
of friends with hers, with her and Talia being lead through caves made entirely
of crystal by some REALLY shady bloke with an unconscious assailant slung over
his shoulders.

"Try to keep up." Dante called. "Like I said
earlier, you wouldn't want to get lost."

"Excuse us for being suspicious." Retorted Jonna.

Dante snorted. "I don't blame you. Raelyn can be really
weird sometimes."

"Raelyn...? Is that the name of the, um... other
persona?" Talia pressed.

"Yeah. Quite the handful, right?"

"She said that you "held her back". Does that
mean you have to deal with her every day?" Jonna wasn't entirely sure why
she wanted to know such information, but she asked nonetheless.

"Well, it's complicated. Seeing as how, for all we
know, this bonding is permanent, we try to avoid arguments and stuff, and I
think we've got things going quite well when you consider the circumstances. I
don't give her much free reign, though. The last time I didn't keep her in
check, someone died, so..."

He said these words so casually, as if the someone in
question had ventured to the shops.

"That's horrible." Talia murmured, reflecting
Jonna's inner monologue.

"Yeah. Well, it's difficult. She has my best interests
at heart, but I can't really trust her around other people. She'll always use
my mouth to insult someone or something. Plue's the only person I can stay in
the same room with for longer than half an hour before some awkward situation
arises. Ah, here we go."

Before Jonna or Talia could press him for any further
details, Dante placed a hand on the wall of crystal and a segment of it swung
open, reminiscent of a door. Dante caught it and held it open.

"Ladies first." He grinned.

"Much appreciated." Cooed Jonna as she sauntered
forwards, past Dante. Talia followed suit, offering a much less voluble
"thanks" as she did so.

Jonna turned her attention back to the room they had
entered, and her eyes widened as she took in the sight. An large portion of
cave had been hollowed out, leaving an enormous room in the shape of a dome
constructed entirely out of glistening, translucent crystal that sparkled in
the faint light produced by the electrical lights hanging from the ceiling.
Hanging off the wall to the left was a large screen - currently deactivated and
lightless. Below it was a crimson recliner chair with what appeared to be
control panels just to the sides of the armrests. On the other side of the room
was a bed next to a desk which had a laptop on it, screen flickering and
relaying information. Beside it was a chair that looked a lot more worn than
the other, complete with a rickety set of wheels enabling mobility. The ground
was smooth, if carpet-less, and gave little indication of the less-than-formal
setting the room was based in.

Dante pressed forward, Ivy over his shoulder, and approached
the wall directly parallel to the door, which he pressed again. A small new
cavern opened up, and a control panel sprung out of the wall. Without
hesitation, Dante tossed the comatose woman into the opening before pressing a
button on the control panel. A thin, azure beam of light flickered into
existence over the hole, like a window.

"That should hold her." He hypothesised with
satisfaction as Jonna shook herself out of her awe.

"Do you... live down here?"

"Oh, yeah." Dante shrugged. "Sorry about the
lack of separate rooms. It's normally just me, so I didn't bother with all of
that."

"How does your tech even work down here?" Queried
Jonna.

"Well, it's actually these crystals." Explained
Dante, tapping the wall. "These things act as a power supply, so I can
just set stuff down here for an indefinite amount of time."

"That seems... convenient." Jonna placed her hands
on her hips. "Anyway, not to be antisocial, but we came here with a
purpose."

"Pray, tell me your purpose." Dante sank into the
wheeled chair, keeping his eyes on Jonna the whole time. "I'm intrigued.
This is the first time I've seen a Mythran before - and one who was once a
stromling, no less... it's quite the parallel to my fall from grace."

"Well, this is the first time I've seen someone be able
to be in such close proximity to maelstrom and not be infected." Pointed
out Talia.

"Touché." Acknowledged Dante. "Man, now I
really want to introduce you to Gaia."

"Who?" Jonna asked.

"A friend of mine. I can explain later. So, your purpose?"

"Ah - yes. We came here looking for two friends of
ours." Talia walked towards Dante and looked into his eyes, light blue
meeting dark blue. "They're called Peragrine and Percevel. Have you-"

"I'm just going to stop you there." Dante raised a
hand as he spoke. "The answer's no, I haven't seen them. As a matter of
fact, you two are the first people I've met in person in almost a month."

"Wait, what?" Jonna gaped at him, but Talia
remained determined; making Jonna feel uneasy once again.

"You said you have friends. Could you get in contact
with them?" She pressed. Dante shrugged.

"I can try, but we're pretty busy as is. I don't know
if they'll appreciate pooling our resources into finding a couple of missing
persons."

"Well, could you at least show us a way out?"
Jonna stepped forward, putting her misgivings aside. "We'd probably be
able to look for our friends a lot better if we were out of these caves."

"I could show you away, but that would mean I'd have to
go with you. And frankly..." Dante's eyes trailed across the room to where
Ivy lay, still unconscious, in the small cell.

"...I'd rather not leave her alone inside my
home." He finished. Jonna could see his logic.

"Besides," he continued, "would you really be
comfortable with leaving the woman who attacked you unsupervised?"

"I guess not." Admitted Jonna.

"Exactly." Dante nodded. "I don't know about
you, but I think that we should get some answers pronto. The sooner we know
what's going on, the sooner we can act and get word out to my team. Let me
just…" He whipped out a small device and began tapping on it, muttering to
himself. “Twelve… of… Infinite… Sight…”

"Why do we need to know, though?" Jonna put
forward. "Couldn't we just... I don't know, keep her locked up, or
something?"

"Jonna, was it?” Dante shoved the phone back in his
pocket before turning back to Jonna with the air of someone exasperated with
their small child. “I know you want to get your friends and get out of here as
soon as possible, but we need to face the facts. Someone is after your friend
for what she is. Not only that, but they were able to detect her arrival in
this dimension and send a force as soon as they could to apprehend her for
their presumably nefarious purposes."

"That doesn't explain why you care."

"This happened on my watch, which means it's my
problem. Something tells me Ivy isn't acting alone, and even if you manage to
leave safely I'll still be stuck here with whoever sent her. What if they
decide I know too much? What if one of my crew comes into their interest? No,
the best thing I can do is track the problem to its source and stop it now,
before everything gets out of hand." Dante looked directly at Jonna.
"I'd appreciate any help you could give me."

"What? Look, Dante, we don't WANT the trouble! What we
want is-"

The man banged his fist on the desk behind him. "The trouble's
already found you, damn it!" He snapped, glowering at Jonna, who gave an
uneasy start as she realised that his eyes were purple once again. "Dante
laid it out for you, I think, perfectly reasonably, and your best hope for
safety is-"

Raelyn was cut off by a moan from Ivy, who was coming around
in the cell.

"Perfect timing." Raelyn stood up, and glared at
Jonna. "This conversation isn't over."

With that, she stormed over to the cell and crouched down,
meeting a startled Ivy eye to eye.

She growled. "Tell me everything about the Twelve of
Infinite Sight."

### ***REORGANISATION***

"Found... him..." huffed Percevel, holding a
grinning Peragrine by the collar. Plue and New Guy exchanged glances as they
looked at the dysfunctional duo, before shrugging.

"Good to see. We managed to subdue that Cadmus
bloke." Plue told him.

"Good to hear." Acknowledged Percevel.
"What's next?"

New Guy folded his arms. "Answers, obviously. I don't
know about the rest of you, but I want to find out why this jerk attacked
us."

"He mentioned the gate as a motivation." Mused
Plue. "Could he have detected that it was activated, somehow?"

"What gate?" New Guy raised an eyebrow.

"The dimensional gate that Peragrine and Percevel came
from, obviously." Plue deadpanned, ignoring the confounded look on New
Guy's face. “Oh, and by the way, I received a message earlier. Does the name
“Twelve of Infinite Sight” mean anything to anyone?”

There was a chorus of no’s and shaking heads. Taking pity,
Percevel walked forward whilst dragging Peragrine behind him and placed a
comforting hand on the young man's shoulder.

"I'll explain everything at a more convenient
time." He said. New Guy still wore a look of confusion, but managed to nod
nonetheless.

"No, it's fine." He murmured quietly. "I've
seen weirder..."

"If you're sure." Percevel turned back to
Peragrine, who was subtly trying to worm his way out of his friend's grip.
Growling, Percevel wrapped his arm around his younger's neck and put him in a
headlock.

"As for you, where were you when we were fighting for
our lives?" He snapped. Peragrine cocked his head, curious at the words,
as he strained to look Percevel in the eyes.

"I don't know what you mean by that." He stated.
"All I was doing was laying a trap with Gaia - oh, yeah, it was BRILLIANT,
by the way, hopefully someone'll trip that wire soon enough - when she perked
up and said something about danger and then ran away, leaving little old me to
fend for myself. I mean seriously!" He stretched his hands out as wide as
he could, considering he was still being restrained. "I have no idea where
anything is in this place! This isn't even my world! For all I know, the
universe could comprise of boring metal corridors!"

"Just so you know, it doesn't." New Guy filled
Peragrine in. "Look, can we ignore the kid's inobservance for now? We have
an interrogation to get done."

"Right. Come on you three." Plue ordered, and
marched to where they were keeping Cadmus, the cell block, with the three men
in tow behind her.

As a stylistic choice, the cell block had been made to look
more run-down than the rest of Pandemonium's Bane HQ, with a greenish hue to
some of the metal and lights that flickered every now and then. Plue stopped
outside a door labelled 03.

"Okay, he's in here." She declared.
"Volunteers for interrogation?"

"I'll do it." New Guy stepped forward.

Plue raised an eyebrow at him. "You sure?" She
queried.

"Look, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not entirely
sure what's going on right now." New Guy glanced around at the visitors.
"All this talk of gates and stuff. But I have experience with getting into
people's heads. Let me do something I'm good at, okay?"

"How old are you, anyway?" Plue asked him,
wondering about his specific skill set and how he could have gained it so early
on in life.

"Seventeen, give or take." New Guy shrugged.
"I'm not entirely sure when my birthday is, so..."

"Pretty rich of you to call me a kid." Choked
Peragrine, Percevel's arm still wrapped around his neck.

"You say that." New Guy leaned down to glare at
the hyperactive youngster. "Not only are you shorter than me, which is
quite the achievement considering I'm smaller than average, but I can't tell if
your voice has even broken yet-"

"Okay, that's enough." Plue remarked, holding out
a doorkey. "You can compete for the position of alpha male later. Right
now, didn't you VOLUNTEER to take the interrogation?"

"Right." New Guy nodded apologetically, took the
key, and sauntered to the door; pausing before his hand reached the handle.

"A word of warning." He deadpanned. "Don't
come in until I come out."

With that, he swung the door open and walked in. The door
shut behind him with a sense of finality.

"What an ominous fellow." Mused Percevel.

"Yeah, I'm going to have to ask Dante some questions
about him later..." Addressed Plue, stroking her chin slightly.

The silence that followed was remarkably awkward.

"Soooo..." Peragrine eventually uttered after a
while. "Mind letting me go, Perce? I value being able to breath as much as
the next guy, after all."

With a disinterested grunt, Percevel released him.

"Woo!" Peragrine stretched his neck and arms.
"Man, that was cramped. Got one heck of a grip on you there, big
guy."

"I'm not "big guy"." Rumbled Percevel.

"Yeah, yeah, you're the smart one too. Man, whoever
handed out genes was totally biased towards you. Man, you've got everything!
Muscles, a brain, lovely blonde hair..."

"I wear glasses."

"Which only increase your cool factor! You can push
them up your face whenever you're making a point!"

"Do we not have more serious matters to discuss?"
Percevel sent a meaningful look towards Plue, but before she could say anything
Peragrine continued.

"Oh, lighten up, Perce! Look, I know this looks pretty
bad, not knowing how to get back and all, but the fact of the matter is we're
in another dimension! This stuff only happens in the net dramas! Shouldn't we
take the opportunity to hang snake and have some fun, or learn something, or...
I don't know, just take advantage of the situation in some way?"

"Return is our first priority." Percevel told him,
sternly. "And the fact is we have no idea how to do that. Maybe you
haven't remembered the fact that we don't even know how TIME works relative to
our dimension. For all we know, the people we left behind might live out their
whole lives in the time it takes for us to eat a meal! And don't forget the
people themselves! Gambit, Thomas, Jonna, Talia-"

His voice broke.

"Trinity." He murmured. Peragrine's face fell.

"Shoot." The boy cursed. "Perce, I'm
sorry."

"It's fine." Percevel hissed softly.
"It'll... it'll be alright."

Plue was about to speak works of sympathy, but before she
could do so she heard voices coming from a turn-off in the corner. Turning her
head, she caught sight of Gaia and Vector meandering towards them, quibbling as
they walked.

"You're insane."

"I know."

"That is literally the stupidest idea you have ever
had."

"How would you know that?"

"You tell me all your ideas, and then expect me to be
proud of you."

"Aren't you partial to chaos?"

"No, not really, I'm not a huge fan. I prefer things
with limits."

"Oh. Well, why didn't you tell me you didn’t appreciate
my ideas?"

"Would you have listened?"

"..."

"Exactly."

The two stopped walking and arrived in front of Plue. Vector
jerked his thumb over his shoulder to Gaia, who was pulling a face at him.
"Plue, can you please tell this literal five-year-old that hanging on
monkey bars from the bottom of Eaglestriker whilst the jet is flying is NOT a
good idea?"

"What he said, Gaia." Plue snapped before Gaia
herself could interject. "Now isn't the time."

"What's it time for, then?" Gaia shot back,
seemingly agitated that Plue had not taken her side in whatever argument she
and Vector had been having.

"Time for thinking."

"My least favourite time."

"Is it because you find thinking hard?" Snarked
Vector. Gaia wheeled around and glowered at him.

"At least I... I... I..." She trailed off.

Plue raised an eyebrow. It was unlike Gaia to be without a
comeback, and she expressed as much. Gaia turned to her.

"Well, I don't know... maybe I'm just not in the mood
right now."

"Weren't you and Vector arguing just now, though?"
Peragrine wondered out loud.

"Y-yeah?" Gaia's words faltered.

Plue rolled her eyes.

"Look, we don't have time for character drama. Right
now, we have a situation to deal with, ok? You four, don't antagonise each
other. I don't want to be the mom friend."

"Loud and clear, mom!" Peragrine gave a mock
salute.

### ***INTERROGATION DONE WRONG***

Annoyance threatened to engulf Raelyn. Not only had she gone
and injured Dante's body during her first stint of control for a year, leading
to threats of a lecture on responsibility and less time in control in the
future, but these insolent other-dimensioners were being a nuisance with their
one-note topics of conversation. They wanted to go home? Well, she wanted her
family back. Dante wanted his best friend back. Everyone wanted something, and
she had learned that complaining never lead to getting what one might want.

Whatever, she thought, hunkering down to meet eye-to-eye
with the startled agent in front of her. At least she'd be able to have some
fun with this one.

"What?" Ivy gasped, subtly flinching away from
Raelyn's malevolent indigo stare.

"You heard me." Raelyn spat. "Twelve of Infinite
Sight. Info, if you please. I'd like to know more about the people who sent
someone to roam around on my turf and kidnap an innocent Mythran."

"Do you not know what you've just said?" Ivy
looked more incredulous than anything else as her gaze flittered from Raelyn to
Talia and back to Raelyn again. "Mythrans are supposed to be extinct, and
yet there's one standing behind you!"

"I know she's behind me, this isn't a panto
performance." Curling her lip in disgust, Raelyn spared Talia - who seemed
someone disturbed at the mention of all Mythrans being extinct - what she hoped
was a sympathetic glance. She seemed to be taking to Talia. Probably the
appreciation of someone unassertive. Raelyn considered herself relatively cool
so long as nobody gave her orders or made demands of her. "And, yeah, I
know Mythrans are supposed to be extinct, but Talia here seems to be from
another dimension. She and this other girl here came to our dimension looking
for a couple o' friends of theirs... I don't know the details, and frankly I
don't care." She glared at Ivy again. "My agenda first. And don't
skimp on the details. The last thing you want...

...is me annoyed."

"You're incorrect." Ivy snarled. "The last
thing I want is for you to know anything."

"You don't intend to talk?"

"Nope."

"Why am I not surprised?" Raelyn leaned back and
yawn, blinking sleep out of her eyes. "Ugh. Well, gimmie a moment. We woke
up about an hour ago, so our brain is not working as well as it should."

""Our"?" Echoed the prisoner, raising an
eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah, our." Raelyn confirmed. "What, did
whoever sent you not tell you exactly what the deal is with me and him? Oh,
that's a good point, actually. Who sent you?"

"Are you not Dante?"

"My questions first!"

The two glared at one another for several seconds. The
Raelyn snapped her fingers.

"Oh, right! Um... it SHOULD work."

Before anyone else in the room had time to ask her what she
was on about, Raelyn had slammed a hand into the wall, deactivating the film of
laser that separated them from Ivy. Without pause, she grabbed the warrior,
standing her up, and then proceeded to violently ram their foreheads together.

Blinking, Raelyn twisted her head around.

"Woo-hoo!" She cheered. "It worked!"

Instead of the cavern, Raelyn now found herself in a pure white,
seemingly infinite expanse. Below, above and around her was nothing. Except for
two people. One was a man lying right beside Raelyn's feet, clutching his
forehead. Dante groaned out loud as he began to drag himself off the floor.

"My forehead..." He gasped, rising. "I -
wait, where even are we?"

"The mindscape." Raelyn shrugged. "I brought
our prisoner her for a thorough interrogation."

Dante tilted his head to the side. "You look...
different." He declared. Raelyn quickly viewed herself. In the mindscape,
her form was significantly shorter then Dante, with long purple hair and eyes
of the same colour. Except at this moment in time she wasn't shorter then Dante
at all. They were the same height.

"Intimidation purposes." She shrugged.
"You're a tall guy. Height equates to intimidation."

Dante opened his mouth to speak, presumably some buzzkilling
words about how intimidation did not equal height, but Raelyn waved her hand in
his face and strode over to the other figure in the infinite white expanse
along with them. Ivy's eyes fluttered open just in time for Raelyn to glare
down at her in what she hoped what a most threatening manner.

"Wha - what?" Ivy jumped up and backed several
steps away from the pair before stumbling backwards, noticing where she was for
seemingly the first time.

"What is this place?" She spat.

"Uh..." Dante began, only to Raelyn to snap her
fingers in his face and speak for herself.

"It's my domain." She declared. This wasn't
exactly, true, but Ivy didn't need to know that.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Having recovered
from the shock of her surroundings, Ivy was returning to her pricklier self.
This was not what Raelyn wanted.

"You have your plane of existence, and I have
mine." She continued, hurriedly. "Whatever! The point is I control
everything around her. Like, literally. I'm basically the god of this
world."

She extended her hand, and a bottle of some kind was
conjured up.

"Mustard." She declared. "Now, are you going
to tell me what I want to know, or am I going to have to shove this up your
nose?"

"Raelyn-" Dante began.

"Shush, my pedestrian friend." Snapped Raelyn.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures." She extended her other
hand and mauve flames licked her palm. "Oh, yeah, this stuff'll probably
hurt in here too."

"I see." Ivy glared at Raelyn. "This is all
an illusion, is it? Some kind of psychological torture?"

She eyeballed the other woman. "Well, I won't give
in." She declared. "If you want information from me, you're going to
have to do a whole lot worse than that."

"Sucks to be you, then, because I CAN do a whole lot
worse than this." Tossing away the mustard and extinguishing the flames,
Raelyn was so busy glaring daggers at Ivy that she almost didn't register
Dante's hand on her shoulder.

"Not now, idiot!" She snapped. "I'm about
to-"

Dante grabbed Raelyn's head and wrenched it around, spinning
her on her heel. Shaking it, she was prepared to turn around and tear a strip
of Dante for disturbing her whilst she was working, but what she saw drove all
thoughts of verbally abusing her best friend from her mind.

There was a fourth figure standing in the mindscape.

Raelyn's words failed her, and apparently, Dante was in a
similar stupor. Eventually, she was the first to recover her senses.

"T... Talia?!"

### ***INTERROGATION DONE RIGHT***

Norik stepped into the cramped space, squinting as his eyes
adjusted to the room's lower light levels. The only light source was a single
ceiling light that emitted a bottle green glow across the room, giving it an
otherworldly atmosphere. Blinking once, Norik's eyes scanned the man, Cadmus.
His silver armour and weapons had been confiscated upon his defeat, and he now
stood in the furthest corner of the room; clad in an undersuit of fabric and
neglecting both of the chairs placed upon the floor. With any luck, he'd be
feeling the absence of his armour most keenly.

"Hello, Cadmus." Norik crooned, pulling up one of
the chairs and reclining in it, taking the chance to view his surroundings.
Minimal decoration on the walls, no table, and no easy access to the lights or
air conditioning. Perfect setting. No secondary interrogator, but he didn't
need one, anyway. Plue had told him something earlier about “The Twelve of
Infinite Sight”, so things already seemed to be going his way. Free information
was nothing to scoff at.

"Have a seat. I insist." He continued. Cadmus
begrudgingly sat down, and Norik too the chance to straighten his coat, giving
the other man a glance at both the swords attached to his hip and the handgun
in his inner pocket.

"So how old are you, Cadmus?" Norik queried
casually, leaning back in his chair. In contrast, Cadmus leaned forward.

"I could be asking you the same thing." He spoke
for the first time.

Norik idly shrugged. "My question first, if you don't
mind."

"Why am I obliged to answer your questions?"

"Honestly? You aren't. But there are some things we're
curious about, and it'll probably be easier for everyone if you tell us what we
want to know of your own free will."

It was Cadmus' turn to shrug. "You make it sound like
you have ways of making me talk. Why not just go ahead and use them?"

"Because we're not the bad guys." Norik declared.
"Sure, desperate times call for desperate measures, but now that we're in
control of the situation... we don't need to worry about those desperate
measures, do we?"

"Now, I'll ask again. How old are you, Cadmus?"

"I'm twenty-one. Why does it matter to you?"

"To me? It doesn't, really." Confessed Norik.
"I'm just trying to make polite conversation. We have all the time in the
world, after all."

"Maybe you do." Grimaced Cadmus. "But I have
a feeling that I'll be free soon enough."

"Are you that confident in your own abilities?"
Norik pressed, innocently. Cadmus gave no reply.

"I see." He murmured. And he did, as he quickly
withdrew a notepad and pencil from his pocket and scribbled down “C is most
definitely not alone”.

"I thought you said you were just trying to make polite
conversation?" Observed Cadmus.

"What can I say? I like getting things down for future
reference." Norik finished writing and stowed the pad away again.
"Still, if you want to get straight to the nitty-gritty, I won't stop you.
Now..." He leaned forward for the first time.

"Who are the Twelve of Infinite Sight?"

The reaction was instantaneous and expected.

"I'm not telling you." Spat Cadmus.

"I would have assumed as much." Norik admitted
without missing a beat. "it's a shame, we know everything else already.
First of all, the name. Twelve of INFINITE Sight. Sounds like some false
advertising right there, wouldn't you agree?"

Cadmus said nothing.

"There's also the fact that you were after the
gate." Norik continued. "I can only assume you mean the dimensional
gate we apparently have in the basement, because you seemed to only show up
after it was activated. And, I mean, who wouldn't want it? A gate that can send
people between dimensions? How frickin' useful would that be, right?"

Norik then glared at Cadmus.

"The problem is your entry. You didn't exactly knock on
the door and politely ask about the gate, did you? No, it was more like
"boom!" "Imma take the gate and kick all the butts!"
"Look at me, I manipulate energy!" Very flashy."

Standing up, the teen began to pace around the room,
speaking as he did so.

"Well, let's see here. The Twelve of Infinite sight
can't be a branch of the Nexus Force, because two of our number have... very
direct ties to that particular organisation. It also can't be the maelstrom,
because this isn't the maelstrom's style, like, at all."

"Are you trying to insinuate that the maelstrom has a
style?" Cadmus spoke, words painfully squeezed out from behind his lips.

Norik smiled. Cadmus had started talking.

"Take it from me, pal." He stopped pacing, and
folded his arms. "The maelstrom can actually be really subtle when it
wants to be. All this breaking through walls and stuff? A few years ago, if the
maelstrom had wanted that gate, there's a good chance it'd be gone and we'd all
be dead already."

"And how would you know all that?

"I have more, uh, experience than you might
believe." Norik shrugged. "In any case, that leads me to assume that
the Twelve of Infinite Sight are an independent organisation, kinda like
Pandemonium's Bane - except instead of watching out for deviants, holding back
the maelstrom, and generally acting as the Nexus Force's long arm, you guys
just take what you want, when you want, because whatever."

"That's not true." Snarled Cadmus, indignancy
wrought upon his features.

"Then enlighten me." Shot back Norik.

Cadmus said nothing, which Norik was okay with. Now that the
knight was rattled, he was more likely to let something slip

"Alright, fine. Be like that. We'll find the answer,
anyhow."

"And how will you find your answers if I refused to
speak?" Cadmus demanded.

Time for Norik's favourite part.

"Oh? Oh, you don't know?" Norik feigned surprise.
"Well, I guess whoever you're working for doesn't trust you. They've
actually sent someone ELSE after us, which was lovely. Another bid for the
gate? An attempt at a rescue mission? I'm not sure. Either way... we've
defeated your little friend, too."

Something flickered in Cadmus' eyes for no longer than a
split-second.

"And, uh... she's being stubborn as well."
Selecting the gender was a gamble on Norik's part, but he could easily salvage
the interrogation if he had messed up. Fortunately, Cadmus didn't react as if
he had said anything wrong. At least the Twelve of Infinite Sight weren't
traditionalists. Besides, it sounded worse if a she was captured. Norik could
only hope that some protective, testosterone-y instincts would kick in.

"I'm not surprised."

Norik raised an eyebrow.

"You believe you are... aware of this second agent's
identity?"

Unfortunately, Cadmus clammed up once again.

"Well, whatever." Smiled Norik. "Doesn't
matter, as long as she tells us who you guys are."

"She won't."

"She will. They've got the psycho brunette grilling her
for info. The one with the purple highlights."

"Didn't strike me as the interrogating type."

"Oh, she can get people to talk, she's just... not as
refined as me. Has a bad habit of shoving things up people's noses...”

"What?"

"I mean normally that big guy, with the beard, is there
to keep her in check, but he's not in the room with her right NOW because he
had to go do something else. For all I know, she's blasting rock music into
your lady friend's ears, full blast. Probably yelling... maybe a little bit of
sleep deprivation..."

"But- why-"

"Well, I said that these aren't desperate times, but
think of it from our point of view." Norik leaned forward, eyeing Cadmus
directly. "We've just been attacked by a couple of agents, who have
managed to do numbers on a couple of OUR agents, and we have no idea where
you're coming from or how to stop the flow of people breaking our walls. Don't
you think we might be eager to get this all over with as quickly as possible?
We have things to do, you know."

Cadmus grimaced.

"It'll only get worse for HER if you don't talk."
Norik continued to exploit the vulnerability he had found.

Cadmus opened his mouth, gritting his teeth.

"I'll talk."

### ***SHOULDER TO CRY ON***

"So, what has you so antsy?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing, shmuthing. You're bothered."

"How can you tell?"

"You think I'd know how to read you after being your
co-worker for over a year and a half."

Gaia threw her hands up in the air in exasperation, a
contrast to her normally chipper self. "I don't like being read... or
reading... or books in general."

Vector stroked his beard. "Is Dante's idea of adding a
library to the base bothering you?"

"No." Gaia snorted. "I can always just, uh,
not GO there."

"Well then, what IS bothering you?"

"Okay, stop." Gaia ceased clomping through the
hallway on the way to her room and turned around, Vector also stopping in his
tracks.

"First of all, why do you care?" She pointed an
accusatory finger at him.

"Well, uh... it's weird."

"Huh?"

"You being in a bad mood. It's weirding me out."

"So, I'm weirding you out?"

"YOU'RE not, your mood is."

"Right." Frowned Gaia. "Secondly, don't you
have anything better to do?"

"No. That simple enough for you?"

There was the sound of teeth grinding.

"Yes, I would say so-"

"Okay, what IS it?!" Snapped Vector, irritation
getting the better of him as well. "Don't start biting my head off just
because I'm trying to understand-"

"I don't want to be understood!" Protested Gaia,
taking an agitated step backwards. "D-Don't try and get in my head!"

"No-one's getting in anyone's head!" Vector
grabbed Gaia's arm before she could move any further away. "Gaia, I just
want to help you!"

"I..." Gaia faltered, obviously thinking. Then,
with a visible effort, she calmed herself down.

"It's about earlier." She confessed. "I... I
know I'm not, uh... not really smart, but I just..."

"You're kidding." Gaped Vector. "That's what
had you so agitated? My saying that you found thinking hard?"

"It's a sensitive topic!" Protested Gaia. Vector
reared backwards.

"Okay, okay! Sorry, I just... I didn't know."

Gaia sighed again. "It's fine. I overreacted. I
just..."

Vector leaned forward to hear what she had to say.

"It's frustrating." She confessed. "It's
frustrating, being the dumbest out of everyone."

"But you're not-" A finger placed itself on
Vector's lips, silencing him.

"I said out of everyone. And, I mean, have you seen the
rest of this organisation? Dante's, like, a genius, Jacen is the most
tech-savvy person I've ever seen in my life. And even New Guy is apparently an
interrogator. And then... and then there's me. No-one else in Pandemonium's
Bane has a ban on social interaction, do they?"

"I think Raelyn was joking."

Gaia ignored him.

"I'm just fed up of being the lovable idiot stereotype!
Whenever something comes up that requires strategy, I'm useless! That's why I
enjoy fighting so much. It's... it's the one place I can really shine. Where I
can be helpful. I mean, if it weren't for Dante and Plue and... and
you..."

She trailed off, and stared into his eyes.

"If it weren't for the three of you, I'd still be in...
in Overbuild's facility. I'd still be in suspended animation. I'd still be in a
nightmare. You all saved me from that, and I can't do anything. Can't do
anything to repay you, or say thanks, or..."

She stopped speaking, breaking eye contact with Vector and
choosing to focus her attention to the ground.

"Anyone can throw a punch." She mumbled. "Any
idiot can throw a punch."

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then Gaia felt a pair
of strong arms wrap themselves around her.

"You're not useless." Hissed Vector determinedly.
"You're my friend. And that alone is thanks enough."

Gaia could do nought but listen as he continued.

"Every day, you cheer us up when the rest of us are
feeling down. Yeah, you're annoying, but at the same time, you're so endearing.
You've been through a lot, and you can still smile brighter than anyone else I
know. And when you throw a punch? You could beat any of us, I'll bet. And not
because you're strong. You'd never give up. You're not one to walk away - not
when there are people relying on you."

"Vector..."

"You should never feel that way about yourself. You're
just as important a link in the chain as everyone else. And I know that
everyone else values you as well." Vector finished, drawing out of the hug
and smiling towards Gaia. "It's ok, honestly. I don't know if you've
noticed, but I'm not the sharpest tool in the toolbox either."

"Please." Gaia was smiling now. "I doubt you've
got anything on me."

"Whatever you say." Shrugged Vector, also
grinning. Then he raised an eyebrow. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah." Gaia nodded. "Yeah, I just... I just
needed a moment."

"You needed someone to listen." Vector amended.
"We all need that sometimes, trust me."

"Well, uh... thanks."

"Hey, it's fine. If you ever need to pour your heart
out to anyone again, I'll be right here."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get used to it, Jadewing. You caught
me in a moment of weakness, is all. Give it another year and a half and then
I'll let you hug me again."

"You mean, I'll let you cry on my shoulder again."

"I wasn't crying!"

"Weren't you?"
Vector craned his neck around, trying to look for any signs of the
contrary. Gaia laughed.

"No, I wasn't!" She smiled.

"Were you planning to?"

"No comment."

Shrugging, Vector laughed. "That's good enough for
me."

"It should be." Gaia grumbled, though she was
still beaming. After another moment or two of relative mirth had passed, she
turned on her heel.

"Well, I'm gonna check out for the day." She
declared. "Between one thing and another, I'm pretty trashed. I need to
recharge."

"On maelstrom?"

"Yep."

"Wierdo."

"Whatever." Shrugged Gaia, though she was relieved
that the pair were back to their usual formula - and she had a feeling that
Vector felt the same way. "Seeya later, nice guy."

"Same to you." Called Vector as Gaia rounded a
corner, blocking her view of him. Opening a nearby door - the door that led to
her humble abode - Gaia wasted no time in gliding across the carpet and flopping
onto the bed of her room.

Gaia breathed deeply, in and out, trying to calm herself
down. The smile that had been so hastily been plastered to her face now slid
off as she stared at the ceiling, almost afraid to move. Vector's words echoed
in her head.

"I just want to help you", he had said.

He hadn't been the first person to say that.

Grimacing, she miserably rubbed her forehead. "Stop
that", she told herself inwardly. It wouldn't do, she had decided years
ago, to dwell on the matter. Besides, Pandemonium's Bane was DIFFERENT. They
were the good guys. She should know; she had helped found the organisation,
after all.

Grimacing, she lowered her appendage and began
absent-mindedly fiddling with the bandages on her left forearm; the ones she
had been consistently replacing for over three years. As she did so, she stared
at the lamp placed on her bedside table. It spawned a bright fuchsia glow, such
a colour at her personal request. Generic, sterile white lights brought back
too many bad memories, and red lights just made her feel uneasy.

So lost in these thoughts was she, she didn't even realise
the bandage had completely come off her arm when her fingers rubbed against
skin against fabric. Tilting it so she could view the underside, her eyes were
greeted with the tattoo she had been given what felt like a lifetime ago; as
jet black and stark as the day it had been inked.

### ***THE TWELVE OF INFINITE SIGHT***

"So glad we could see eye to eye." Crooned Norik.

"Where... where should I start?" Cadmus hissed,
doubtlessly with all the venom in his voice he could muster.

Norik pretended to ponder the question. "Well, there
are a few things I'm interested in. Firstly, what is the overall goal of The
Twelve of Infinite Sight?"

"The security and peacekeeping of the universe."
Replied Cadmus.

Well.

That had certainly come out of left field.

"Is that so?" Norik couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah, you're doing a real fine job so far. Okay, who's it led by?"

"A man known as Damien Ironsides."

"Can't say I've heard of him. Should I have?"

"No. His general existence is anonymous."

"Once again, doing a real fine job. Why are you so
interested in the gate, anyway? The dimensional gate, I presume?"

"It is an anomaly." Cadmus' voice grew stronger as
he spoke, as if he was being empowered by his own words. "Left unchecked,
it could potentially cause devastation."

"And why didn't you get it beforehand, I wonder? I can
only guess you can't detect the gate itself, but rather when it's turned on. I
guess... it's energy, or something?"

Cadmus said nothing.

"Ah well. Suppose that's not too important. Alrighty
then, answer me this. If you're really trying to keep the peace, why did you
start attacking us when you got here, as opposed to knocking on our front door
and asking if we could spare a moment to talk about interdimensional
gates."

"Aside from the fact you don't have a designated
"front door"?"

"Yeah, aside from that."

"People can be possessive of dangerous objects,
potentially even corrupted by them, and will rarely be willing to relinquish
them without a fight. We were already aware of your identities as
troublemakers... though we didn't know you existed."

"Yeah, well, we're full of surprises." Snarked
Norik. "Also, as a side note, how much of that was stuff that you WEREN'T
programmed to say."

Cadmus raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what you
mean."

Norik threw his hands up in the air in exasperation.

"Oh, come ON, man! I know brainwashing when I see it.
Somebody has NOT been telling you the full truth. I..." He sighed. "I
don't even care, right now. I'm not in the mood to argue. But is there any
method of identification we can use to figure out who's a member of the twelve
and who isn't?"

Cadmus bit his lip.

"Unless you want your friend to... I don't know, suffer
in some way, you should probably answer." Reminded Norik. Sighing, Cadmus
rolled up the bodysuit sleeve and brandished the underside of his forearm.
Squinting, Norik saw the words A CLASS - 016 tattooed onto the intruder's skin.

"Every member will have one of these." He
confessed.

"I see." Norik peered closer. "Exactly
that?"

"The number'll be different for everyone." Amended
Cadmus. "And... some will have an "S" instead of an
"A"."

"I see. Which should we be more weary of?"

""S"."

"Gotcha."

Norik snapped his notepad shut with a satisfied nod.
"Well, do you think there's anything else I should know?"

Cadmus glared at him.

"Don't know what I expected, to be honest."
Admitted Norik. "Well, seeya later, pal. I doubt I'm done with you."

He rose, brushed down his jacket, and began to stride
towards the door. However, Cadmus' next words made him stop in his tracks.

"Why are you with them?"

"What?" Norik turned back around to see Cadmus'
silver eyes boring into his own.

"They disrespect you. I've heard them. You're at the
bottom of the pile, volunteering to do their dirty work before they tell you to
themselves. They don't even see you as a threat, as if you aren't worth
worrying about. So why are you allied with them?

Why are you a member of Pandemonium's Bane?"

Norik remained silent for a very long moment, Cadmus looking
directly into his golden eyes. Eventually, he spoke.

"I needed somewhere to go." He eventually
declared, as he turned on his heel and stalked outside the room, letting
Cadmus' strident voice get blocked by the door. Once he was away from the
prisoner's scrutiny, he sighed and leaned against the wall, letting himself
slowly slide down it.

"How did it go?" A voice asked, and he turned to
see Plue standing beside/above him. He shrugged.

"I think I got a decent amount of info." He
admitted. "They're led by a guy named Damien Ironsides, for
starters."

"Noted."

"Also, every single member is a deviant, which doesn't
add up."

"What do you mean?"

Norik peered at Plue. "Most deviants were created over
a year ago, when the Imagination Nexus went all kablooie. Now about one person
in every two has at least a minor power. But beforehand? It was more like on in
one hundred thousand."

"So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that it's odd that this group is so
organised just over a year after founding - or that they were founded during
the war, which raises a whole bunch of questions. If deviants were so scarce at
the time, how did they get twelve on their side?" He shook his head in
distaste. "It doesn't add up."

"And what do you think?"

Norik furrowed his brow. "I think that we might have
been dragged into something highly unpleasant."

"All part of the job description." Admitted Plue,
holding out a hand and helping Norik to his feet.

"I know all about getting dragged into unpleasant
stuff." Countered Norik. "I’m just hoping that this doesn’t compare.”

### ***SIDES TO A STORY***

"What the heck are you even doing in here?" Barked
Raelyn, to which Talia had no immediate reply. Dante placed a tender hand on
the gem's shoulder.

"Calm down, Rae." He muttered. "You're
scaring the poor Mythran."

""Poor Mythran?!"" Echoed Ivy, her tone
incredulous. "Don't you know-"

"Oh, shut up." Snapped Raelyn, waving her hand.
Instantly all noise emitted from Ivy vanished, leaving their opponent to
wordlessly yell in their direction.

"Didn't know that was possible." Admitted Dante.

Raelyn shrugged in response. "I've spent most of my
time just chilling here. You figure stuff out."

"Noted."

"I..."

The pair's attention was drawn back to Talia.

"I'm not sure, to be honest... uh, you're Raelyn?"

Raelyn nodded and stood herself a bit taller. "That's
my name, don't wear it out."

"Right, right. Anyway, you and Ivy basically just
collapsed and-"

Suddenly Ivy rushed forward and tackled Raelyn from behind,
doubtlessly yelling profanities as she did so. Raelyn's form seemed to flicker,
and suddenly she was standing behind Dante.

"Sorry, lady." She declared as she stuck her head
out from her shelter. "You can't manipulate the mindscape, so... can't
touch me. Nah nah."

Ivy, for her part, could do little but flap her hands in
anger in response to Raelyn's taunting due to the sudden mutism that had been
inflicted upon her.

Raelyn glared.

"Talia didn't do anything wrong to her." She
declared. "I don't like it when people attack others with no reason."

"Well, why don't we ask about a reason?" Talia
pointed out, walking up behind the two. "Perhaps the solution is in
negotiation instead of violence."

Dante spread his arms out wide. "Thank you." He
groaned.

Raelyn, knowing she was outspoken, folded her arms in
disdain. "Fine." She muttered, before raising her voice. "Ivy,
why were you hunting Talia? And you'd better give me a good reason, or I'm
coming over there." To conclude her sentence, she snapped her fingers,
causing Ivy to gasp as her voice returned to her.

"You want to know why?" She spoke with equal
disdain. "Fine. Mythrans like her are no better than the Maelstrom."

Dante and Raelyn each raised their left eyebrow, moving in
synchronisation.

"Go on." Deadpanned Raelyn.

"They're malevolent beings." Ivy went on.
"They showed no regard for any lives other than their own. They treated
humans such as us with nothing but callousness, and they never lifted a finger
to help fight against the Maelstrom. To them, our race was no more than
insects. And, as such, they're still dangerous, even though they're practically
extinct. It's my duty as a member of the Twelve of Infinite Sight to either
capture or destroy this Mythran before she..."

She trailed off, interrupted by ugly laughter erupting from
none other than Raelyn, who was clutching her sides.

Several seconds passed, before Ivy snapped. "Are you
done?!"

"Hahaha... wha? Uh, sure. Yeah, I'm done."
Raelyn's smile faded. "Just reacting sensibly to the biggest load of
hogwash I've heard in a few thousand years."

"Hogwash?!" Repeated Ivy, sounding very indignant.

Raelyn turned to Dante. "You mind if I handle this
one?"

Dante shrugged. "Be my guest."

Grinning, she turned back to Ivy. "Okay, a history
lesson for you. Firstly, Mythrans weren't actually alive for either of the wars
with the maelstrom this universe has seen. The First Builders were the ones who
initially fought the maelstrom off. I don't even know if Mythrans even existed
then, and if they had, they wouldn't have been a very old race at all. Getting
them to fight against a maelstrom would be like telling a baby to kill a lion,
or something equally disproportional. And now, as you said, they're basically
extinct, so OF COURSE they can't fight against the maelstrom this time around.
Also, they're not warriors. They're more like mad scientists or something.
Mythrans as a whole were a really peaceful bunch; absolute nutters, with their
experiments and their burning curiosity that always got them into trouble, but
they tried to avoid fights if they could. And as for mistreating humans, or
whatever? Ok, where to start? Firstly, I don't know if you've heard of
Minithrans, but they're kinda like the missing links between Mythrans and
humans. And... yeah. They exist, which in itself kinda defeats the idea that
Mythrans were evil towards humans. And yeah, by the time humans evolved,
Mythrans were pretty much dying out anyway. And like I said, they weren't
looking for trouble, so why would they have wanted to crush a new species? Totally
out of character."

"You confront me with all this information, but the
truth is nothing makes your account any more reliable than mine." Ivy
spat.

"Eeeehn!" Trilled Raelyn. "Wrong! I was
there, sweetheart. I missed a lot of the details, sure, but I got the general
gist of what was happening all around me. Wasn't like I had anything else to do
for thousands of years."

"You're lying."

"Am I?" Raelyn leaned forward and slammed her head
against Ivy's. Within that moment, Raelyn focused on manipulating the mindscape
and copied a batch of her memories into Ivy's. Nothing too specific, but enough
to convey the fact that she had lived, sort of, for thousands of years. There
was a smack and both women reeled backwards.

"Ah! Ow!" Ivy winced and furrowed her brow.
"Wha... what just happened...?"

"That, my dear," Raelyn tried to sound chipper
whilst also nursing her own smarting forehead, "was a memory transferral.
You know, proof that I'm as old as I say I am. I know I've aged REALLY well,
but... you know."

"Why can I see Mythrans?"

"Probably a memory."

"And someone... uh... freezing time?"

"Also a memory."

"And why can I see... is that the Darkitecht?"

Raelyn's blood ran cold.

"Don't think about that. Ignore that one."

"What's he doing?"

"Ivy, focus. Forget about the Darkitecht, ok?"

"I..." The young warrior refocused and glared at
the trio in front of her, though with less strength in her gaze than
previously. "You're telling the truth."

"Don't get too excited." Muttered Dante.

"What can you expect? It's probably a matter of
pride." Reasoned Talia, before turning to Ivy. "Look, Ivy, I don't
intend to hurt anyone. Honestly. But... what gave you the idea that Mythrans
were as bad as you said they were?"

"I..." Ivy faltered, folding her arms. "It's
what I've been told."

"By whom?" Pressed Dante, but to no avail.

"Dante." Talia spoke softly, and in a considered
fashion. "I think Ivy needs to work through some stuff. Her perspective
has been forcibly proven wrong, and that could call a lot of stuff into
question... I, uh..."

"It's okay." Dante nodded. "I get it."
He turned to Raelyn. "Release everyone, Rae. We're done here."

"Got it."

Everything fluctuated once again, and Raelyn once again
found herself alone in the mindscape, Dante back in control of his own body.

Great.

More time alone.

### ***FEELINGS***

"Okay, you first, Perry."

"Oh, I love this game!"

"Hmm... what about... you can shapeshift into anything,
but only for one second a week!"

"Dude, nice!"

"That would suck."

"Would it build up over time? Like, if you didn't do it
for sixty weeks, you'd have tangible shapeshifting time?"

"Uh, I guess."

"Okay, so it's not all bad."

"True."

"Your go, Vector."

"Okay, gimmie a moment here."

"Time's up."

"Don't harass me, Gaia! Okay, what about cooking
two-minute-noodles in one minute and fifty-nine seconds?"

"Dang!"

"That one's useless."

"BUT there aren't any drawbacks to its usage."

"Good point, Perce. You want to have a try?"

"Sure. Uh... changing the flavour of popcorn at
will."

"Perce, are you kidding? I'd die for the ability to do
that."

"Not exactly useful in the big scheme of things, is
it?"

"Nah. Don't worry Perceval, that one wasn't bad."

"Me next! Me next!"

"Gaia, you don't need to shout."

"The ability to make raccoons fall in love with
you."

"Pffft!"

"Wow, that's bad! Oh man, imagine that!"

"I'd rather not, if that's alright with you."

"But think about it though! I could take over the
universe with my army of love-struck raccoons!"

"You're already a deviant, though."

"Hey, let's not bring real life into this,
Vector."

"Anyway, what about being able to fly, but only
North?"

"That would be useful one quarter of the time."

"Yeah, what about being able to shapeshift into
bread?"

"Oh."

"Yep."

"Can you turn back?"

"Nope."

"Geez. I think Gaia's won, you guys."

"What? But what about, uh... being able to teleport,
but only 5 cm ahead of your current position?"

"Hmm... it's pretty bad, but you could still get
through a thin door? I guess we'd need to look more at the specifics of that.
In any case-"

"Hello!" Plue's strident voice blared from the
doorway as she stepped inside, having removed her armour and redressed herself
in borrowed jeans and a t-shirt. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Yes!" She was met by a chorus of voices.

"Alright, sheesh!" Plue raised her hands in mock
surrender. "Keep your respective hair on your respective heads."

The glares of Gaia, Peragrine, Vector and Percevel followed
her as she edged her way past the table at which they were all sat and arrived
in the room's built-in kitchenette. Thanks to generous funding by the Nexus
Force, the Pandemonium's Bane base, originally converted from a Nexus Force
outpost, was equipped with enough rooms and mod cons to feel as much like a
luxurious hotel as a base of operations.

"Anyone want something to eat?" Plue continued, as
she began rummaging through drawers.

"Have to admit, I'd-" Peragrine's mouth was
covered by Gaia, who anxiously leaned in closer to him.

"Don't!" She hissed.

"Why can't he?" Percevel countered. Gaia glanced
over to Vector, who rolled his eyes.

"Because Plue's a terrible cook." He stated.

Affronted, his fellow faction leader turned around.

"I am not!" She protested.

Vector scoffed. "I'm pretty sure you'd burn water if
that was possible."

"Not like the rest of you are any better."
Muttered Plue, folding her arms and grumbling to herself.

"I'll concede there." Gaia declared. "I think
that without Rose and Jacen, we'd have all died or starvation or food poisoning
long ago."

"My money's on food poisoning." Added Vector, with
a pointed glance at Plue, who huffed again.

"I get it! I can't cook! You don't have to rub it
in!" She snapped. "Distract yourself with a mirror, or
something."

"Why a mirror?" Protested Vector.

"To help with your vanity issues, of course." Gaia
rolled her eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

""Vanity issues"?" Echoed Percevel, with
Peragrine sitting beside him looking equally confused.

"Oh, I don't know if you noticed, but there are a lot
of mirrors in the walls." Gaia explained. "Those were supposed to be
windows. Only, someone put the Venture League in charge of remodelling this
place. The Venture League, currently run by one Vector Jadewing."

"Okay, an accident like that doesn't mean I'm
vain!" Vector declared, shooting daggers at Gaia, who only grinned a
demon's grin in return.

"One heck of an accident, that's all I have to
say." Muttered Plue, smiling to herself as she did so.

"Well, at least I don't deliberately fall asleep when
I'm in trouble!" Vector shot back, sounding pleased that he was equipped
with ammunition of his own.

"W-what? No I don't!" Protested Gaia, suddenly on
the defensive. Vector turned to their guests in glee.

"Oh, you guys have got to hear this story! I was
working on something with Dante - who's the leader around here, you'll probably
meet him eventually - and we're doing some paperwork, and he calls in Gaia, and
she sits down, as alert and as hyper as ever. Then he just says "Gaia, we
need to talk about your actions" and she literally just keels over, and
hits the desk like, head first. And he went over to check on her, and said she
was SNORING!"

Peragrine began to laugh as Vector, through his own
chortles, continued.

"I was just- I didn't know what to do, so I just left
the room to laugh!" He spluttered. “Talk about next-level evasive
tactics-”

"Okay that was circumstance!" Snapped Gaia.
"I could strangle you, Jadewing!"

"Eluciss, even you aren't tall enough."

"You've sunk low enough for me to reach you."

Vector, in response to this, stood up. "Try me."

Gaia let out a roar. "Curse you, Jadewing!" She
rose in turn and punched his shoulder, a playful smile on her face. "How
dare you be taller than me!"

"I blame genetics." Vector deadpanned.

Laughing, Gaia began to back out of the room, motioning her
extended index and middle fingers from her eyes to his. "I'm watching
you."

"Glad to hear it." Vector waved her off, before
sinking back down and letting out a sigh. "So, what's next on the
agenda?"

"Well, we need to cover this whole matter of the
"Twelve of Infinite Sight"." Plue responded. "Dante sent me
that message earlier, so my best guess is he’s encountered a member as
well."

"So, what's the plan?" Peragrine asked.

"I was thinking of sending Gaia off to scout out the
surrounding area." Replied Plue, casually. Vector's head whipped around.

"Alone?" The buccaneer demanded.

"With the large amount of maelstrom energy out there,
she won't be short on power." Plue reasoned. “It’s just recon, don’t be a
spaz.”

"Can't I go with her?" Asked Vector. "If
there are more of these freaks out there, it'll be dangerous."

"We're understaffed at the moment." Replied Plue,
turning around to face her fellow faction leader. "As such, Gaia's the
person who'll stand the biggest chance of finding something useful. It's not
like she can't be trusted, and she’s really good at spotting stuff. Any
trouble, she can give us a call. Besides, the two of you would just bicker.
Sorry, but you'd be more of a burden than anything else."

"I'd protect her!" Protested Vector, his brow
furrowing. Perceval and Peragrine's eyes wandered from Vector to Plue, as if
they were watching an intense two-person sports match.

"You'd slow each other down. This is a serious
situation, Vector! This is one of those times when we can't afford your stupid
back-and-forth routine!"

"Well, we can't just let her go out there by
herself!"

Plue narrowed her eyes, irritated beyond rationality.
"Tell me, Vector, are you saying that because you don't think she can
handle herself? Or perhaps it’s because of your personal feelings on the
matter?"

A fire blazed into life within Vector's darkened eyes.

"You watch your tongue, Abernathy."

### ***THE TURNCOAT***

"Kid?"

The call sent a shiver down Norik's spine.

He had been walking past the cells, deep in thought - some
of it more serious, like the whole Twelve of Infinite Sight business, and some
of it less so, like the fact that the doorknob had fallen off the door to his
bedroom. It was a new bedroom, too. He had missed having one. In any case, the
voice had called out to him, causing him to halt in his tracks.

He sighed.

"Yes, Cadmus?"

The muscular blonde rose from where he was seated in his
cell, and walked deliberately over to the bars, staring at Norik.

"What are you doing?" Cadmus' voice quivered
slightly, which puzzled Norik. He opened his mouth to reply, but Cadmus raised
a finger to his lips, before lifting up his forearm.

Sword, he mouthed.

Norik titled his head to the side to express confusion, as
Cadmus rolled his eyes. Unexpectedly, he suddenly slammed his hand onto the
bars, which clattered noisily, and let out a cry. Norik stumbled backwards,
unsure how to react.

No time, Cadmus continued to communicate without making
noise, moving his lips only. Sword! Now!

Norik grimaced. If the prisoner was bluffing, he would be
handing him a weapon, and giving him a way to break out. His first response was
to ignore him...

however, the teen also knew, perhaps better than any other
member of Pandemonium's Bane, that it was sometimes necessary to give people a
chance. That was why he reached towards his waist, unsheathed one of his
blades, and tossed to Cadmus, who wasted no time in turning around and waving
the sword, letting out a final cry as he did so.

Before Norik could ask, the blonde turned back around with a
glistening red piece of plastic held between his finger and thumb, which he
almost immediately snapped in half, tossing the pieces over his shoulder. An
uncharacteristic grin spread across his features as he tossed the knife back to
Norik, before beginning to inspect the shallow yet bloody wound on his arm.

"Good acting, right?" He managed.

"Acting?" Echoed Norik.

"Yes, acting." Cadmus hissed as he rubbed his
forearm. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"Can't say I expected you to give it back." His
younger admitted.

"And I can't say that surprises me." Acknowledged
Cadmus. "But it all worked out."

"What worked out?" Norik pressed. "Stop
playing the pronoun game with me!"

"My plan." Explained Cadmus. "What I just
destroyed was a chip. A chip that served two purposes. To monitor my
location... and to record audio."

"You... you destroyed it?" Norik furrowed his
brow. "Why?"

"Because I'm resigning." Cadmus told him, folding
his arms and staring the boy down as if challenging him to disagree. "I've
had my suspicions about the Twelve of Infinite Sight for a while now, to tell
you the truth. But I saw an opportunity and, after some deliberation, I took
it." He spread his arms out wide, now. "So here I am. A free man, one
who has no qualms with telling you anything you might want to know."

"Well that seems somewhat abrupt." Norik deadpanned.

"Believe me, it isn't. Like I said, I've been
considering it for a while. But my suspicions were unconfirmed, and the
opportunity never arose."

"And have your suspicions been confirmed now?"

"I know that by going against you, the Twelve are going
against the Nexus Force, which is something we were told we WEREN'T doing. And
I know that you guys aren't necessarily in the wrong."

"Look at you, questioning the system." Norik
grinned. "You're better than me. But anyways, I don't suppose we could
count on support from anyone else, could you?"

"There's someone I need to talk to." Cadmus
admitted. "Everyone else... no. Ironsides has got them in his clutches.
Look, could you let me out of this cell?"

"Not so fast." Norik frowned. "I need you to
tell me about how this "Ironsides" came to have a bunch of deviants
working for him before the Nexus Overcharge."

"Gladly." Cadmus stroked his chin. "This
might take a while."

"S'not like I have anything better to do."

"Okay, then I'll begin." The knight rested his hands
behind his head. "I guess it all started a while ago. A few years after
the Maelstrom War had started, Overbuild - you know who that is, right?"

"Yep."

"Right. Overbuild set up a laboratory so that he could
find a way to defeat the maelstrom, because as he saw it, regular warfare
wasn't going to be enough."

"I was told that Overbuild was in league with the
Darkitecht." Norik interjected. Cadmus raised an eyebrow.

"Personally, I wouldn't know. Maybe he had a master
plan, or something. But, in any case, the laboratory was set up and, away from
the prying eyes of the Nexus Force, he was able to try and create the ultimate
weapon. Time passed, and along came Damien Ironsides, an influential man who
was in the market for some... helpers. He teamed up with Overbuild, and
convinced him to set up a program that revolved around the artificial creation
of special abilities within people. The only trouble was, nobody volunteered to
be experimented on, which led the two to take some drastic measures."

"What sort of measures are we talking about?"

"I'm talking about people disappearing. Children,
especially, because it was important to have soldiers that were loyal as well
as powerful. Families would lose their younger generations within the space of
hours. And these subjects were experimented on and put through testing. Each
one..." He held up his arm, showing off the tattoo again. "...given a
brand, to let them know that it was all permanent."

"Well, long story short, Ironsides eventually selected
candidates - twelve of them - to be his lackeys, and thus, the Twelve of
Infinite Sight were born, created shortly before the end of the war. We were
his chosen ones, and I can't remember being more relieved than when he took us
out of that facility and put us to work. After all, we had some degree of
freedom. The rest... well, I guess you'd have to ask the psycho."

"Who - oh. What does she have to do with it?"
Norik asked.

"You didn’t see?" Cadmus grimaced. "When we
were fighting, she struck me as familiar. And there was that bandage on her
arm… you ever seen her without it?”

"…No?"

"She might very well be hiding a brand like mine under
there.”

"Oh no." Norik muttered. "Dante... Dante told
me that he found her inside a facility that Overbuild had run. Are you
saying..."

"That's where it was all happening? Yes." Cadmus
nodded.

Norik furrowed his brows. "How many S-class members of
the Twelve are there?"

"Four. Honestly, it's pretty bad."

"We're up against the brunette, times four, with eight
- sorry, seven - other deviants. I'm beginning to wonder if we shouldn't just
give them the gate and be done with it."

"No." Cadmus glowered at Norik. "That is
precisely what you should NOT do."

"Why?"

"That's my main suspicion. Since we were founded, we
have been made to collect anything of importance or power, and we've been told
that it is for the system's benefit, to keep this power out of the wrong hands.
But... I don't know... something just seemed off about the whole setup.
Ironsides is a recluse - mostly keeps himself to himself. I haven't met him in
person more than a couple of times. And I don't really see any of the stuff I
bring back once I've brought it back. You think I'd at least be able to check
on it."

"You think he's hoarding it for himself?"

"That what I've been suspecting, yes. And considering
all the shady business Overbuild and he were conducting... well, it can't be
for anything good."

"Wait, how do you know that Ironsides was involved with
Overbuild?"

"The reason I was taken," Cadmus revealed,
"is because I overheard something I shouldn't have. I don't think
Ironsides recognized me later down the line, but..."

"Say no more." Norik fished in his pocket for the
key to Cadmus' cell. "We need to do something about this."

"I agree." Cadmus affirmed as Norik pulled the
door open. "We can't waste any more time."

### ***A GOOD TALK***

"I'll go." Perceval declared.

Vector and Plue tore their eyes away from each other to
stare at their guest instead.

"Huh?" Vector grunted, as if the knight had just
made a speech in another language.

"I said, I'll go." Perceval repeated. "You
don't want Vector to go with her because they'll just argue, right?" He
directed his words at Plue. "Then how about someone who won't necessarily
annoy her, but someone who won't just encourage her to be annoying
either."

"I take it that means you're not inviting me on this
expedition of yours?" Peragrine postulated.

"Sorry." Shrugged Perceval.

"Nah, it's cool. Just bring me back a souvenir if you
find one."

"Will do."

"Perceval." Plue broke out of her stupor, folding
her arms. "You don't have to go with. You're a guest."

"I know." Shrugged the knight. "But someone's
got to do it, right?" He eyed Vector. "I can keep her safe."

"I..." Vector's shoulders slumped, and the anger
and tension seemed to fade away as Perceval watched. "Sure. Just... look
after her."

"Hey. Don't mention it." Perceval shrugged.
"Just keep an eye on Perry, okay? We can trade eccentric
personalities."

"Please." Peragrine scoffed. "They don't need
to keep an eye on me."

"You're biased." Perceval deadpanned, rising from
the chair he was sitting in and walking to the door. "Plue, do you want to
come with, and give us the mission?"

"I... uh... yeah, sure." Plue surrendered herself
to what seemed to be the inevitable, and let herself be led out of the room by
Perceval, leaving Vector and Peragrine to themselves.

There was a brief silence, then -

"You *liiiiiiike*
her." Drawled Peragrine.

"Don't test me, kid." Snapped Vector. "In
this world, I lead the Venture League. That means that I have the authority to
inflict corporal punishment on you if necessary."

"Whaddya gonna do, sir?" Peragrine grinned,
sitting upright. "Find work for me in this base that basically takes care
of itself?"

"You'd wish, by the time I'd be through with you."

"You wouldn't." Snickered Peragrine, glancing at
Vector with triumph in his eyes. "You say you would, but I know you
wouldn't. I know your type. You talk a scary game, but you're just a softy on
the inside. And I'm not just saying that 'cus you're the big guy, or
anything."

"You mean, like Perceval?" Vector chuckled, and
Peragrine nodded eagerly, as if Vector had just guessed a quiz show question
correctly.

"Yes, like dear old Perce."

"Alright then." Vector furrowed his brow. "If
that's the case, I think I know YOUR type fairly well too. You show compassion
through jibes, teasing, and a million other really annoying things. You show
that you're feeling comfortable in someone's company when you're not afraid to
mock them. You tend to act like a social butterfly, but the truth is you prefer
a few strong friendships, with your personality being tolerated by a select
few, who appreciate you for some blooming reason."

Peragrine's impish grin had slid off his face. He rolled his
eyes, before the corners of his mouth slid upwards once again. "You mean,
like Gaia."

"Yes." Vector confirmed, smiling himself.
"Just like Gaia."

There was a brief silence between the two.

"Geez, are you besotted?" Peragrine eventually
asked. Vector, for his part, simply shrugged.

"If I said I knew exactly what that meant, I'd be
lying." He admitted. "But I'm going to assume so. Do you think I
am?"

"I don't know." Peragrine stated, simply. "I
don't know what it means, either. But I heard Perce describe himself as
besotted when talking about Trinity, so-"

"Who's Trinity?"

"His wife."

"Ah." Vector nodded, and indicated for Peragrine
to continue.

"So, I figured it would work here." The youngster
finished.

"Fair enough." Sighed Vector, which led to another
drawn-out silence between the two.

"Did you believe in parallel worlds before this?"
Peragrine eventually ventured.

"Well..." Vector thought for a moment, leaning
back. "I never really gave it much thought, to be honest. Never had the
time."

"What do you mean?"

"I grew up outside the system, in the wastelands. My
parents are scavengers out there, just like pretty much everyone else. It's a
pretty tough place, actually. "You can't fight, you can't survive"
sort of place."

Peragrine raised an eyebrow. "Enlighten me. I don't
know if we have these "wastelands" where I'm from."

"Ok." Vector nodded. "Well, there's the
Nimbus System, but nearby, there are a set of planets collectively known as the
wastelands - at least, that's what the inhabitants called them. They're mostly
made up of deserts, or volcanoes, or other undesirable landscapes. Many of us,
we joined the Nexus Force just for a chance to get off those rocks. A chance to
see colours other than earth tones for once in our lives." He laughed.

"Even now, I don't think my parents have seen an ocean.
Anyways, the point is I was busy from a very young age. Our main source of
income was finding junk that meant something to someone in the desert, and
selling it. Kinda like archaeologists, except we weren't giving it to a museum
for no charge once it was all over."

"Find any traps?"

"A few. My mom once had to save my dad from this one
trap where the ceiling of the room was slowly lowering onto him."

"I think I've heard of that one."

"Yeah, like that. But that wasn't often, to be honest.
Most of the time, it was just hard work. Trekking. Manual labour. The usual. It
didn't exactly leave much time to ponder the universe." He sighed.
"That's probably why I don't do much deep thinking. It's a force of
habit."

Having said his part, the man turned on the sofa he had been
reclining on to face his younger.

"So? Did YOU ever believe in parallel worlds before all
of this?"

"I'll give that a resounding yes!" Chirped
Peragrine. "I've always loved that idea, you know? The idea of there being
parallel worlds, where everything's the same but a little bit different. I have
to say, it's uh... it's cool to actually be in one. Wish I had met another
version of myself. I had always hoped that I could just meet myself. That would
have been cool."

"For all I know, there could be." Reasoned Vector.
"Besides, you met Gaia."

Peragrine's gaze brightened. "Yeah!" He agreed
raising a fist into the air. "But yeah, it's cool. I'd like to get out of
this base, at some point. You know, see most of the universe. Right now, I've
just seen this base. It's a bit like just being in any other place, except I
won't be able to come back."

"Mmh."

"Yeah... I'll miss you. And Gaia. And, if I stay longer
and get to know everyone else, I'll probably miss them too."

"Wow. That was... surprisingly profound."

"Well, what can I say? Guess I'm just full of
surprises."

"Fair enough... hey, Perry?"

"Yeah?"

"How'd we both end up in the Venture League? We're
pretty different."

"Well, it could be that the factions have different
quota in this dimension... but I dunno. The Venture League's all about
exploration, right?"

"Right."

"Right. Well, that's what you were doing when you were
a kid, right? So... I guess that's why you ended up in Venture League."

"Makes sense."

"Yeah, and me... I've always been a thrill-seeker. I'm
a daredevil. If I don't flip around or do enough dares in a day, I get annoyed
with myself. It's... it's part of me, you know?"

"So basically, all we have in common is that we look
for stuff?"

"Yeah, that didn't really go the way I wanted it
to."

"Well, maybe, finding stuff is the only real Venture
League, uh... quota."

"Oh? That... that makes sense."

"I guess so."

"Hey Vector."

"Yeah?"

"Good talk, man."

"Thanks."

### ***DANTE AND PLUE***

"Finally! I was really worried, you know!"

Groaning, Talia forced her eyes open to be met with the
dusty brown ground, and a twinge of pain. Rubbing her forehead, she sat up and
glanced around, blurry vision eventually focusing on the concerned Jonna
standing over her.

"J... Jonna?" She muttered.

"Who else?" Jonna snarked. "What happened,
anyway? Some kinda fainting epidemic I should know about?"

"I... uh... no, no. Nothing like that."

"Good to hear." Stretching out a hand, she pulled
Talia to her feet, before turning to where Dante and Ivy were both regaining
consciousness as well.

"Shut up." Dante muttered to himself - no, to
Raelyn - as he rose, before turning to Jonna and Talia with a grimace.
"She's still salty about how Ivy insulted the Mythrans."

"Wait, what?" Jonna turned to Talia questioningly,
who twisted her fingers together.

"It's a long story." The latter confessed. Jonna
rolled her eyes.

"Do you trust them?"

A brief silence.

"I do." Talia eventually answered. Jonna nodded
with satisfaction.

"Well, that's good enough for me, at any rate."
She held her hand out to Dante. "Jonna Fig, at your service."

"Dante Wilder." Dante responded, clasping her hand
in his and shaking gently. "Charmed. In actuality, I think you already
heard my name, but the formal introduction is still appreciated.”

“Whatever.” Jonna shrugged amicably, before turning back to
Talia. “So, care to explain what the heck happened to you guys?”

“Something to do with the mindscape.” Dante informed her,
rubbing the back of his head. “Though, to be honest, I’m not much of an expert,
despite how long it’s been. Raelyn’s really the one who knows about all of this
stuff. And she’s, uh… I’ll go with tired.”

“Honestly, I’m glad I don’t have to talk to her again.”
Admitted Jonna, folding her arms. “She rubs me the wrong way.”

“That makes two of us.” Admitted Dante, letting his hand
fall to his waist. “But, for what it’s worth, I trust her.”

“Didn’t you say she killed someone?” Jonna raised an
eyebrow. “And you still trust her in spite of that?”

“Well, at the moment, trust is kinda excessive.” Dante
explained, shrugging his shoulder backwards as he did so. “But, like I said,
when you end up stuck with someone, you find ways to make it work. For what
it’s worth, despite being essentially comprised of evil, she can be plenty
amicable when she actually wants to be.”

“Sorry if I find that hard to believe.” Jonna didn’t sound
too sorry as she turned to face Talia. “Do you and your Mythran abilities leave
us with any way to find our friends?”

“No.” Shaking her head, Talia’s index fingers twirled around
each other as she fretted. “We were sent to a location near them, but we don’t
have any idea where they could be specifically. I just hope they haven’t gone
too far…”

“If it comes down to it, I can have my team put up “missing
persons” posters, or something.” Dante made a fist and hit it against his
outstretched palm. “Speaking of…” He turned on his heel, and ambled towards the
computer.

“What are you doing?” Voiced Jonna.

“I’m makin’ a call.” Dante explained as he began to press buttons.
“Should probably tell Plue exactly what’s happened – man, she’s gonna chew me
out…”

“Who’s Plue?” Talia inquired. Dante finished tapping at keys
before turning to give her an answer.

“She’s my-” He began, before the screen suddenly flickered,
and a voice blared out from the laptop’s speakers.

“Hello? Hello?” It called. Dante cleared his throat.

“Hi, Plue.”

There was a silence.

“That’s it?” “Plue” eventually snarled into the phone. ““Hi,
Plue”? That’s all you have to say to me?”

“Uh, Plue… listen…” Dante began, only to be drowned out by
the other voice.

“You haven’t spoken to me in weeks! Weeks! Aaron Rodger
Wilder, you should very well know better than to say you’re going to
investigate an infestation and then NOT reply to my attempts to contact you for
almost two months!”

“I was busy clearing it up, you know that!” Protested Dante.
“Those things can sense tech, I had to go clean to take care of it! And you
know my name’s Dante!”

“Ugh, and the name changing! It’s ridiculous!”

“It’s been over a year! Everyone else has gotten used to it
already!”

“Next you’ll be telling me that it’s not a phase, and that
it’s just who you are. Listen, buster, I fell in love with you when you were
called Aaron, so-”

“Okay, okay, I get it! Old habits die hard and all that, you
can still call me Aaron if you want, but whatever!” Dante massaged his temple
furiously. “That’s not why I’m calling you. You got my message, right?”

“About the Twelve of Infinite Sight? Yeah, you were a bit
late on that one.”

Dante’s eyes dilated with horror. “What do you mean?”

“We had our own intruder to deal with, while you were gone.
Some guy calling himself Cadmus the silver shield broke in and started whaling
on everybody.”

“I… i-is everyone ok?”

“Luckily. Only because me, Gaia, Perceval, Ve-”

“Perceval?” Jonna and Talia both echoed, eyes widening as
they rushed over to Dante.

“Who’s that?” Plue’s voice took on an air of bafflement as
she tried to make sense of what she was hearing. “Does Perce have fangirls, or
something?”

“No, it’s Jonna and Talia.” Dante sighed. “I found them
wandering the crystal caves. They said they had come from another dimension,
and that they were looking for some friends of theirs.”

“You don’t say?” Now that this Plue wasn’t scolding Dante,
she struck Talia as quite amicable. “Are those friends named Peragrine and
Percevel, by any chance? One’s kinda short, with brown hair, and pranks people,
and the other’s blonde with glasses and a small variety of facial expressions?”

“Sounds spot on!” Cheered Jonna over Dante’s shoulder.

“Oh, great! They’ve been missing their home dimension. It’ll
be great for them to talk to someone they know. I… hang on.” Her voice
faltered. “You guys aren’t stuck here too, are you?”

“Nope!” Jonna grinned. “We came here to get them, and we
have the means to get back! Ain’t that right, Talia?”

“I… yeah” Talia smiled, clenching her pocket and reminiscing
at feeling the familiar press of a cubed object. “The Olmak has enough power to
take us all back, so long as we’re all holding it when it activates.”

“Finally.” Plue muttered. “Some good news. Anyways, him, me,
Vector, Gaia and New Guy worked together to take him down-”

“Hold the phone.” Dante interrupted. ““New Guy”?”

“Yeah, the new guy. Apparently Jacen gave him a badge, and I
guess you would have met him too, seeing as how this is YOUR organisation,
after all…”

“Oh, Norik. Yeah, you can trust him.”

“Norik? Is that his name?”

“Yeah.”

“Dante, with all due respect – which, all things considered,
is about none – how do you know we can trust him?”

“He came to me with recommendation. From an old, kinda
grouchy friend of ours, no less… if you know what I’m saying.” Talia wasn’t
entirely sure who or what Dante was referring to, but the words seem to strike
a chord with Plue.

“Oh? Well, alright then, I guess. But he’s just a kid.” She
mused. Dante audibly sighed.

“Plue, we’re *all*
just kids, remember?”

“Tell that to whoever decided to put us in charge of the
Nexus Force.”

“I don’t think anyone decided anything.” Dante shrugged.
“You, Vector, and Kaylori were the only ones willing to step into those shoes –
especially after what happened to the last faction leaders – and you all had
reasonable experience, so I guess everyone just kinda thought, “why not”,
y’know?”

“Yeah, well, I- anyway, Dante, he’s LITERALLY just a kid. As
in, not even of age.”

“It’s all about the experience, Plue.”

“Not all of it. Anyway… why did you call me, anyway? I’m
guessing, as nice as that would be, it wasn’t to just apologize and tell me
that you were going to give yourself some time off.”

“I’m not the one running a faction, I’ll be fine. But
listen. Our Twelve member – Ivy, apparently – she came here because of Talia.
She’s a Mythran.”

“I – oh. Ok.” Plue’s voice began to sound slightly strained.
“How does that matter?”

“Talia and Jonna were attacked almost as soon as they
entered this dimension. And the other guy was after the gate?”

“Yeah.”

“How long ago had the gate been activated?”

“We hadn’t done anything with it until taking it back to
base. That was when Peragrine and Percevel arrived.”

“Okay. Well, sounds like the Twelve have a way to detect
energies. That’s how the found the gate, and that’s how the found Talia.”

“I’m guessing we don’t mess around with the gate, then?”

“Yeah, and it’d probably be better if you-” Talia gave a
start as she realised that Dante had turned to face her. “-don’t use your power
any more, okay?”

“I – uh – sure.” She manged to squeak.

“What else do you have in mind?” Dante asked, turning back
to the screen as Plue’s tinny voice replied.

“I’ve already sent Gaia out to scout the perimeter, make
sure there aren’t any other agents lurking in wait.”

“Okay. You might want to brace for attack, just in case.”
Dante warned her. “Whoever’s in charge will probably notice that the soldiers
they sent out aren’t returning with their quarries, or even reporting victory.”

“Good point.” Plue acknowledged. “Well, I’d better sort that
out. Man, I’ve got a lot of stuff to do. Organise everyone, check on our away
team, clean my armour…”

“Oh?” Dante raised an eyebrow. “Are you not wearing your
armour right now, then?”

“Uh, no. Why do you ask?”

“Because you’re probably wearing *my* clothes. Again.”

“Aaron, don’t be stupid, I’m not…” Plue trailed off.

“You’re not what?” Dante encouraged. “No, go on.”

Whilst Talia was unable to catch the entirety of the
profanity Plue muttered, it was enough to make her want to wash out her ears
for even hearing such a thing. As an apparent response, Dante laughed.

“Love you too.” He smirked as he clicked the mouse on his
desk, hanging up the call.

### ***FEELINGS, PART TWO***

“Soooo…” Gaia let the word drag on through the air as she
sauntered down the road. The occasional car drove by, the occasional wisp of
maelstrom drifted past on the wind, but for the most part, it was quiet.
Percevel’s footsteps were the loudest things she could consistently hear.
Because there were sometimes cars. Not because of the maelstrom, though,
because maelstrom didn’t really make a noise. She preferred it when maelstrom
went past, because not only was it quiet, but because she could absorb the
energy and feel herself grow a tiny bit stronger, a tiny bit more energised.
However, Gaia was suddenly reminded of the fact that she had said something,
because Percevel turned to look at her with an inquiring look. Brow raised.
Eyes that said “*what were you going to say?*”. She hastened to continue.

“Why did you come with me anyway?”

Percevel’s gaze softened, which was nice. Though, he turned
his view back to in front of him, and walked without looking at her as he
spoke.

“There was… concern, as to whether you’d be okay by yourself.”
He explained. He didn’t mention who had been concerned. Gaia couldn’t really
have guessed, either. She must have looked curious, though, because Percevel
look back (up) at her and immediately began to speak again. “When I say that, I
mean… well, we still have most of the Twelve unaccounted for. What if one of
them were to attack you while you were on patrol?”

“I’d kick their ass, hopefully.” Gaia wasn’t trying to be
boastful when she said that – she never was. But she had always been good
enough, and lucky enough, to come out on top in the past.  That was just the truth of the matter.

“Better safe than sorry, though.” Percevel shrugged, and
Gaia found herself nodding and making a small noise of consent. After this,
they didn’t talk for a while. Their surroundings began to change, as – led by
Gaia – the pair began to make a round trip around the HQ. The buildings and
urban area began to fade away, to be replaced by browns and greys. A firefly
trapped in ink-stained amber, the sun became their only light source aside from
the now constant lingering maelstrom energy. As Gaia strode through the purple
mist, it warped around her, being pulled in and added to her eternal – no,
internal – power levels. It was like eating handfuls of sugar, and she happily
continued to walk, leaving a trail of clear air in her wake. Percevel was
walking in this trail, probably because he couldn’t absorb the maelstrom like
her. Wait a moment-

Gaia wheeled around to face Percevel, and spoke. “Wait, can
you walk through this okay? Won’t you get infected?”

Percevel, smiling, shook his head. “It’s fine, Gaia. There’s
not a dangerous amount here, and I’ve got an air purifier if I really need it.”
He patted his belt, where Gaia was left to assume the purifier was kept.

“Oh.” Suddenly, she found herself embarrassed at her
outburst. “I’m sorry, I thought…”

“No, it’s fine.” Percevel’s deep voice was almost soothing.
“There’s nothing shameful about being worried about someone.”

Gaia nodded, to show that she had comprehended his words,
before turning her attention back to what was supposed to be their recon. The
wasteland stretched out for what looked like forever, the rocks jutting across
one another like waves crashing against a shoreline. Pebbles and specks of grit
crunched under Gaia’s boots as she walked, the ambient maelstrom now feeling
like a warm dew on her arms. Glancing back at Percevel, she saw a strange
looking metal contraption covering his mouth. Giving her a casual thumbs-up, he
shrugged.

“Maelstrom’s getting thicker.” His voice was muffled by the
purifier. “You sure you’ll be okay?”

“I… yeah.” She declared. “You?”

He nodded. “I’ve seen worse.”

“Same.” The word slipped out before she could stop herself.
Yeah, it was good to be honest, but he hadn’t really asked, had he? Ah well,
she could just… she could just talk about everything *after* her rescue. A lot of stuff had happened then.

“Cool.” He said, a slightly indifferent note to his voice –
not that he sounded indifferent, but he sounded as though he wasn’t going to
ask anything, which was good. All things considered, she should try to change
the sub-

“By the way,” Percevel’s words cut through her ever-faster
train of thought, “what’s with that bandage on your arm?”

*\*\*\*\**.

Ignoring the follow-up question of “did you hurt yourself” –
it was actually very nice of him to care – she forced a smile to materialise
from anxiety as she turned to face him.

“Well, it looks cool!” She declared, the ground below her
suddenly feeling a lot less stable. It always felt bad to lie. Well, kinda lie.
It *did* look cool, but that wasn’t why
she wore it. “Like, “look at me, I’ve survived something!”. It could help to
intimidate someone I’m fighting, or make them let their guard down. Either way,
it’s a plus, right?”

“Right.” Percevel nodded, seemingly accepting her point, and
Gaia felt her stomach sink a little deeper as he accepted her words at face
value. He paused for another moment, as if evaluating whether to say what he
had on the tip of his tongue. Eventually, he decided to speak up. “You know, I
think something similar about scars.”

Well, now Gaia was curious, despite herself. “What, you mean
they look cool?”

“Well, they can. But I was talking more about your “survived
something” idea.” Raising his arms, Percevel pulled some of the fabric and
armour away from his forearm to reveal the skin underneath. Though the view was
incomplete, Gaia could still see a deep, pink mar by the wrist. It was thin and
deep, and looked like a shoddy attempt to chop Percevel’s hand off. Gaia
winced.

Percevel must have noticed her discomfort, for his brows
crinkled apologetically behind his glasses, and he let his armour fall back
into place. “Sorry. It’s not particularly slightly.”

“No, it’s fine…” Gaia waved her arms nervously.

She figured that Percevel was smiling behind purifier. He
didn’t look angry, at least. “But… yeah. I see scars as reminders. I mean, if
someone has a scar, that means they survived something.” He held up the hand –
his left – once again. “Yes, I’ve got a scar here, but I’ve also got two
working hands, so… in that regard, I’m lucky. The point is, when I’m going
through something difficult, and I think I can’t make it, I’ll look at my
scars, and I’ll know that I’ve survived something before.” His gaze drifted to
his wrist. “And I can survive it again.”

“That’s…” For a moment, Gaia wasn’t quite sure what to say.
It seemed like something very intimate to Percevel – why would he share it with
her? Motives aside, she had to acknowledge something. “That’s a good way of
looking at things.”

“Thanks.” Percevel said. “Fighting for your life gives you a
lot of time to think about stuff, I guess.”

Another quip about being able to relate was on the tip of
Gaia’s tongue, but she managed to clamp a mental hand over her mouth. Instead,
she turned around to scour the landscape. It stretched on for miles, a
seemingly empty space, and Gaia could see no sign of any suspicious people
anywhere. In fact, there was no sign of *anything*
anywhere, aside from rock, ambient maelstrom energy, and the occasional
tumbleweed. Man, tumbleweeds looked really funny if you actually stopped to pay
attention to them. That must have been how they were named, because of the
tumbling…

“Hey, Gaia? Quick question.”

“Shoot.” Gaia replied, sort of but not really paying
attention. Though she did wonder, what did Percevel – who seemed pretty wise
and logical in his own right – want from her, the underqualified dumbass?

The answer turned out to be something personal. Obviously.

“How do you feel about Vector?”

The next fifteen seconds of Gaia’s life were dedicated to
spluttering, blustering, choking on air, and generally making an ass of herself
to put off answering the question. However, Percevel didn’t move or show any
disinterest during that time, which prompted Gaia to (eventually) stop flailing
around like an idiot, and answer the question. Or, at least… try to.

“How do I…? Well, uh… I… erm… It’s, uhh…” She sighed. “It’s
complicated.” It was at this moment, however, that a thought occurred to her.
“Wait a minute, why are you asking, anyway?”

“You guys seem close, is all.” Percevel shrugged, as if he
had never done anything wrong in his life. “I wasn’t sure if you two were… you
know… *together* or not.”

“Oh. Okay.” Gaia folded her arms. A very small part of her
pointed out that their conversation was not a suitable one to have in a
maelstrom-covered wasteland, but the rest of her told that part to stuff
itself, and continued to talk anyway. “Why didn’t you just phrase it like that,
then?”

“Because it doesn’t matter what your official status is.”
Percevel said, with surprising conviction. “What matters is how you feel
towards someone.”

“I see.” Muttered Gaia, feeling as though (for once) she
did.

“And about that.” Percevel continued, arching an eyebrow.
Behind his glasses, his stony eyes glinted with interest. “When you say it’s
“complicated, what do you mean, anyway?”

“It means…” Gaia sighed. “It means a lot of things.”

“I see.” Percevel didn’t push the issue, which is probably
what Gaia would have done if their roles were reversed. “Well, I’m not going to
pressure you to talk about it, or anything, but if you-”

“No, I can talk.” Admitted Gaia, suddenly desperately
wanting to do so. “I, uh… haven’t really talked to anyone about this stuff.”

Percevel smiled. (Probably.) “I’m all ears.”

“Okay.” Gaia said down on a nearby rock, and breathed in a
cloud of maelstrom. Most people would probably have choked or something, but
she instead channelled the new source of energy into her nerves. She could do
this, no problem. She’d survived a murder facility, single-handedly killed a
dragon, and fought all sorts of heinous threats to mankind. She could survive a
talk about feelings. “Well, the truth is… I don’t know what Vector is to me.”

Percevel said nothing, instead nodding in an encouraging
manner.

“I know that he’s my friend. Hell, maybe even my *best* friend. But I feel like there’s
something else between us, and I can’t quite explain it. Nothing like I’ve ever
really had with anyone before.”

“And you’ve never been in love before either, right?”
Percevel finished for her.

“Yeah.” Gaia confirmed, staring at her hands. “And, it’s
like, do I love him? Do I like him… that way? Or do I just like him as a really
good friend?” She turned back to Percevel, fists clenching. Her chest began to
feel a little constricted, as though her shirt had suddenly shrunk against her
frame. “Suddenly I’m thinking about all these things, and there he is, just
kinda…” She waved her hands, nonsensically. “…being himself.” She leaned her
head back and stared up at the dark sky. “What is love, anyway?”

“Everyone thinks something different.” Percevel’s voice
sounded more comforting than ever, almost as though he were an ancient Oracle
containing all of her answers. “They think that love is just an electrical bug
in the human neural circuit, or the oldest and most powerful force in the
universe.” There was a brief pause. “Personally, I think that love is just a
word, until someone special comes along and gives it meaning.”

“Gives it… meaning?” Gaia managed to say, despite being
completely wrapped up in thought. For so long, she had ignored the issue. Now,
it was all she was thinking about. She doubted even an attack could shake her
from her pseudo-stupor. And an attack had better not interrupt her session of
thinking. If someone had tried to disturb her then?

Whatever universal entity they believed in help them. Or
maybe just ignore them, and watch them die. Whatever.

“Yeah.” Percevel continued. “When you’re in love, you’ll
associate the word with the person you have feelings more. All it’ll take is
for someone to say the word, and their face will just appear in your mind.”

*Yeah*, thought
Gaia. *I’m definitely going to have to*
test that theory.

“And… you have someone like that?” She queried. She figured
that it must have been the case. He seemed to know so much – it must have come
from experience, right?

“Yes.” Said Percevel, confirming her suspicions. “I have a
wife.”

“A wife…” Gaia breathed, honestly amazed (and quite happy)
that her hunch had been correct for once.

“The point is, love is what you make of it, in the end.”
Percevel continued to talk, just as Gaia (somehow) continued to listen.
“There’s no right or wrong way to go about love. Everyone has a different
relationship. It doesn’t necessarily matter that this is the first time you’re
in love, assuming you are. But, what would you be willing to do with Vector?
What kind of limitations does your relationship have?”

“Limitations?” Gaia thought for a moment. “I mean… with
Vector, I don’t think I’d be uncomfortable with anything, really.”

She could practically sense Percevel’s eyebrow raising, even
as she herself caught on to the double meaning of her words. She clenched her
eyes shut in embarrassment. “Ugh, maybe even… something like that! I don’t
know! I’m not thinking about it right now, you know!”

“Sounds kinda like love to me.” Reasoned Percevel. Gaia
could feel herself blushing, and decided to keep looking at the sky, instead of
turn back to meet his gaze.

“What, the fact that I’d do anything with him?” She
harrumphed.

She didn’t expect to hear laughter.

Percevel chuckled for a moment, and then spoke back. “Well,
maybe. But I was referring to the fact that physical intimacy wasn’t the first
thing on your mind.” He paused for another brief moment. “Let me guess. What
would make you happiest would be spending time with him, and what exactly you
guys do matters less overall.”

“I…” Now Gaia was the one pausing, considering his words.
“Actually, yeah. I think so. He’s… good company, you know?”

For a moment, there was no response. Eventually, she heard
Perceval speak up again. “Sounds about right.” She could feel his gaze boring
into the back of her head, but after a moment, it turned away. “Listen, Gaia…
people may act otherwise, but there isn’t really a single guide to this sort of
thing. No rules, really. I mean, sure, there are good ways to discern feelings,
such as what I’ve just done, but when it comes to actually putting any of said
feelings into practice… it’ll be unique with every combination of people
possible. Everyone has a different method of flirting, everyone has different
things they find attractive. Diversity isn’t most commonly found in something
like race or religion, but in how people go about loving one another.” He
chuckled again. “Man, I sound like a preach. The point is, just… back your
instinct, and see what happens. Though, you ought to know…” He trailed off a
little. “He looks at you the same way I look at my wife. From my… I guess, *experienced* point of view, I don’t think
you’re alone in your feelings.” He turned to face her just as she turned to
face him, and their eyes met. “So, Gaia, how do you feel about Vector? And what
are you going to do with those feelings?”

“How do I feel…?” Gaia echoed, looking down at her hands
again, and trying to decide whether they’d fit in Vector’s. She looked back up
at Percevel, who was watching her intently. She swallowed, and stood back up,
looking down on the man.

“I want him to be happy.” She decided. “But… I want to be
happy too. And, for some *strange* reason,
I can’t imagine doing that without him.”

She could feel herself smiling. It wasn’t the usual Gaia
smile (all but trademarked by this point – all she had to do was a last bit of
paperwork), but something more determined. Gutsier. She was going to take the
proverbial bull by its proverbial horns, and toss it into its proverbial pen of
placation.

“And I’m going to tell him just that.”

### ***REINFORCEMENTS***

Though he would have liked to give them some credit, it
wasn’t his instincts that alerted Norik to the presence of an uninvited guest
inside the storeroom – hell, he only knew which room it was because of the
label on the door that clearly said “storeroom” – rather, as he sprinted past
the door, he caught sight of a figure loitering inside. A figure that didn’t
strike him as familiar. Cadmus all but cannoned into him as Norik skidded to a
halt and, even as he stumbled, Norik was already running back to the storeroom,
shoes squeaking in an undignified manner as he slid around on the metal floor.

“Where the hell are you going?” Cadmus protested, stern
voice ringing out in the deserted hallway.

“I might have seen someone.” Norik decided against spending
any more time replying to the other man. Perhaps it had just been his
imagination, but considering that most of the Twelve were still unaccounted
for, it was definitely best to make sure that the HQ didn’t have another
intruder roaming around.

“Someone?” Cadmus questioned, as the two men came to a halt
in front of the ajar door. The dimensional gate was in the center of the room,
surrounded by boxes. Presumably, that was where it had been dumped
Pandemonium’s Bane when they had retrieved it. In spite of himself, Norik
couldn’t help but devote some of his attention to the device itself – if only
for all the fuss that seemed to be surrounding it.

It stood as a circular structure, at least three meters in
diameter. It looked like it was made of rock, but on closer inspection
(squinting from the distance Norik was standing) it appeared to be metal.
Albeit, incredibly rusted metal. Some type of runes – probably Mythran – were
wrapped wildly around the edges of the machine, crossing over one another as
they enclosed the stone like a group of hungry snakes. They softly glowed a
light blue, illuminating the storeroom and adding to the other-worldly feel the
gate was giving off.

However, these observations formed themselves in the back of
Norik’s head, for most of his focus was on the person standing in front of the
gate, casually twirling a strand of dark hair in her fingers. One of her thin
eyebrows arched as she saw the two standing in the doorway, before a grin split
her face from ear to ear.

“Ah-hah! You finally found me!” She said this with a
reasonable amount of gusto, as if she hadn’t just been found suspiciously
loitering next to a coveted ancient artefact.

“Yeah, I guess…?” Norik muttered, playing for time. Sensing
his tension, Cadmus leant down to whisper into his ear.

“She’s not a member of the Twelve, if that’s what you’re
wondering.” He revealed. “I’ve never seen her before in my life.”

Well, that was some comfort, at least.

The girl, whoever she was, was dressed for combat. (For the
most part.) Metal plates lay on her right shoulder, and across most of her
right arm. Across her waist was a belt with several pouches attached, as well as
a pair of fist-sized metal canisters – one on each hip. A pair of fingerless
gloves were on her hands, stretching down her forearms and wrapped in braces of
some kind. Underneath all this, as well as other articles of armour such as leg
greaves, was a black pair of trousers and an almost-as-dark T-shirt. Atop her
head sat a grey beanie, on which rested a silver-tinted visor.

She carried no visible weapons, but the air with which she
carried herself still forced Norik into a state of caution. Her attitude was a
disconcerting mix of “*We’re friends*”
and “*I could kick your ass without*
breaking a sweat*”, compounded by the fact that she was a complete stranger*
who had somehow stumbled into what was essentially a military base.

“Who the hell are you?” Norik was almost glad that Cadmus
had cast the first proverbial stone. In any case, the situation would have to
be treated with caution. A new, unknown, element had arrived to make its play.
For good measure, he decided to back up the former Twelve member by adding a
“And what do you want?” to the mix. They were in a rush, after all. Better to
get all the questions out of the way as quickly as possible.

For her part, the girl didn’t seem to bat an eyelid at the
questions directed at her. Instead, she pulled her right hand out of the pocket
it had been nestled in, and gave a lazy wave. With a slight jolt, Norik noticed
that the index and middle finger on that hand weren’t real. Instead of flesh,
silver rivulets shimmered as the two digits flexed with the rest of the limb,
and Norik swore he could almost make out a metallic whirr as they did so.

“The name’s Kaida.” She informed them, smile still on her
face. “And I’m here to help.”

Thus followed a brief silence, which was broken by Norik.

“Okay, that’s, uh… really suspicious.” He told her. Kaida’s
reaction was to shrug.

“I mean, fair enough.” She said, raising her shoulders and
adjusting her facial expression to look almost bashful – though there was still
enough of that suspicious amount of relaxation present in her posture to keep
Norik on edge. “Suspicious times, right? You’re fighting… what’s their name?”
She tapped her fingers against the side of her head, and grinned at the pair
apologetically. “I’m no good with names. It was something to do with a number…
the Lucky Thirteen?”

“The Twelve of Infinite Sight?” Guessed Cadmus. Kaida nodded
enthusiastically.

“Yeah, those guys! I knew it was something pretentious-”

“Where did you come from?” Norik interrupted, taking a step
forward and down the stairs. His hands twitched as he curled them around the
hilts of his swords. At his question, Kaida’s face fell somewhat.

“Sorry, Norik.” She sounded genuine, but Norik was somewhat
disturbed by the fact that she knew his name – he hadn’t told her that. “Can’t
answer that one.”

“Well, what *can*
you answer?” He pressed. “Look, it’s not that I don’t want to trust you… I…” He
furrowed his brow. “I know how important it is to give people the benefit of
the doubt.”

Cadmus twitched beside him.

“But I need you to give me a reason to not throw you in the
brig and ignore whatever you have to say.”

Surprisingly, Kaida didn’t protest his harsh ultimatum.
Instead, she simply nodded, eyes rolling upwards as she began to think.

“Okay, I get it. Well…” She turned back to Norik. “I can
give you information. I know a lot about all the people who work here, you
know.”

Norik shook his head and chuckled. Part of him was endeared,
but part of him just worried over *how*
this girl might have known so much.

“That’s just even more suspicious.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Sighed Kaida. “Okay, uhh… I have an ID
card.”

“Wait, what?”

The next second, something silver landed at the storeroom
entrance. Cadmus cautiously picked it up, and stared at it for several long
moments before turning to Norik.

“Is this… legitimate?” Personally, Norik had hoped for
Cadmus to have an inkling of experience with events such as this, but it was
clear from his expression that the older man was just as lost as he was.
Fantastic.

Taking the card, Norik pulled out his – the official
Pandemonium’s Bane identification that the ginger guy had given him – and
compared it with her card. Weirdly enough – aside from obvious discrepancies
such as being about different people – the two cards were identical. The
layout, font, and make were all the same, and there was every possible access
code one could need (and them some) on the back. Everything security-related
basically matched, and the cards had even the same colour scheme. If it *was* a forgery, Norik mentally concluded,
it was a very good one.

“Told ya.” Kaida said. “I’m cool.”

“Damn it.” Norik said out loud, as he processed the fact
that he’d probably have to explain both Cadmus being out of a cell and Kaida’s
arrival, especially considering that he was fairly new himself. What if he wasn’t
believed? He was basically leading team untrustworthy by this point. “Well, we’re
in kind of a hurry, so I’ll have to let this slide.”

Kaida fist-pumped.

“You’re coming with us.” Continued Norik. “I’ll have to
introduce you to Plue, or someone. Hopefully we can get all this sorted out.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll win them over.” Kaida tried to
reassure him as she sauntered in their direction. “I’ve been complimented
multiple times on my winning personality.”

“Good grief.” Cadmus muttered as they turned around and
stepped out of the storeroom. “She seems…”

“I know.” Norik didn’t need Cadmus to finish. “But if what
you’ve been saying about all those savants is true-”

“It is!”

“-then we’re going to need all the help we can get.” Norik
turned to look back at Kaida, who was trotting behind them and smiling just a
little too widely to be considered not suspicious. “In any case, this is going
to be hard to explain. All we can do is hope that we’re believed.”

“Let’s pick up the pace.” Cadmus said, before breaking into
a run down the hallway, closely followed by Kaida, who passed Norik by with a
cry of “Keep up, slowpoke!”, surprising him into a run. As he hastened forward,
Norik’s thoughts drifted to how he was actually going to explain the situation,
and who to. Based on his (admittedly slightly meagre) assessments of the
Pandemonium’s Bane members, Plue seemed the sanest person in the base, as well
as the one in charge. It made sense to talk to her about the whole mess, and
see what she had to say about it. If what she had to say revolved around
throwing him in a cell for being some sort of traitor (which would be a logical
conclusion, what with Cadmus and a strange woman as his company) – well, he
could run. He was good at that.

The base itself looked surprisingly like the inside of an
office instead of something more militaristic, and Norik assumed that was the
result of its large leeway from the Nexus Force. There wasn’t a whole load of
colour, but every now and then, Norik would run past a framed photograph. The
pictured depicted several scenes of members of the organisation, presumably
going about their day-to-day lives. A short woman asleep in a chair, Plue
holding hands and laughing with a brown-haired man, the guy who had given Norik
his ID (Jason, or Jacen, if he remembered correctly) with a smile on his face,
as if he had just finished laughing at a particularly satisfying joke. They
reminded Norik of the pictures hung up in a typical family home. Were all the
members really that close?

He was drawn from his thoughts by the sound of a fleshy
thump, quickly followed by a curse and the sound of a body hitting a floor.
Zoning back into reality, he saw Plue standing before the group, her foot
planted squarely on Cadmus’ chest. Though she wasn’t wearing her armour, her
sword was drawn and pointed at the man’s neck.

“No!” Yelled Norik, extending a hand helplessly. Whether
Plue would have actually stabbed Cadmus, Norik wasn’t sure, but her movements
stopped as his words. Her foot eased off Cadmus’ chest, and he took the chance
to scramble backwards and to his feet. Plue looked up and met Norik’s gaze, and
confusion became apparent on her face.

“Norik?”

Norik reckoned he had a few seconds before that confusion
turned to anger, and he fumbled his words as he tried to explain the situation.

“It’s – uh – Cadmus, he, well – he left the twelve, uh, and,
uh, we were trying to find you!2

Plue narrowed her eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

About to speak again, Norik was silenced when the back of a
hand appeared in front of his face.

“Shhh.” Chided Kaida, confidently sauntering forward. “I’ll
handle this.”

“And who the hell are you?” Retorted Plue.

“Easy, girl.” Kaida sounded like an exasperated pet owner. “The
name’s Kaida –” she held up her card “– and I’m a member of Pandemonium’s Bane,
I guess. This is a one-time thing, though. I’m just here to help you guys with
your Twelve of Infinite Sight problem. Speaking of which…” Her eyes trailed to
Cadmus. “Pretty sure that guy defected, or something, because I can see the
tattoo on his arm, and yet he’s not killing any of us.”

“Yeah, that’s what I wanted to tell you.” Added Norik,
reaching out and flipping Kaida’s name badge over in her hand – she had been
holding it upside-down. “Cadmus quit the Twelve, and he’s given me info on
their members.”

“If you want to trust me on it, I can go into further detail”
Concluded Cadmus, brushing himself off and gingerly rubbing his shoulder, where
he had hit the floor.

Plue gave the trio an evil look for a moment before sighing,
and sheathing her sword into the scabbard at her waist.

“You know what? I’m tempted to accept it, just because I’ve
seen weirder by this point.” She glowered at Cadmus. “If it turns out you’re
just pulling some double-agent crap, I won’t hesitate to slice off your arm and
beat you to death with it.”

“Duly noted.” Muttered Cadmus, who was looking incredibly
uncomfortable by this point. Plue proceeded to turn her glare to Kaida, who
faltered somewhat.

“And if *you’re* a
spy or a troublemaker, the best you’ll get is a punch with a cactus.” She
hissed. The other woman visibly flinched. Finally, Plue turned to Norik, and
Norik’s spine turned to ice. She sighed.

“Just don’t be wrong on this one, Norik.” She said, before
turning around and walking away from the trio. “Come on. The meeting room is
this way. We might as well talk in there.”

There was a moment of silence, before Kaida turned to Norik,
glaring as she did so.

“How come you don’t get threatened?”

“Oh, shut up.”

### ***HOW COULD ANYONE HAVE KNOWN?***

“Question.”

“Shoot.” Dante turned around to view Jonna as she ambled over to the cell that Ivy was being kept in. Crouching low, she frowned as the other woman, whose back was turned. She was hunched over, sitting at the back of her cell, facing the wall.

“Actually, a couple of questions.” Amended Jonna, turning back around to look up at the man. “First of all, why do you have a holding cell in here?”

“Hmm.” Dante couldn’t help but notice Jonna’s concern at the fact that he was actually pondering the question. “Well, it’s not a holding cell, perse, it’s more like a little spare room. In case I need an extra storage space.”

“Uh-huh.” Jonna nodded, furrowing her brow as she indicated for him to continue. In the background, Talia was standing close to the room’s entrance with a worried expression on her face – or maybe that was just her worried resting face. It wasn’t quite clear.

“But, to be fair, a lot of the time, I’m dealing with some weird or dangerous creatures.” Dante tried to maintain a semblance of attentiveness to his listeners as he reached for a coat. “Mostly maelstrom, but every now and then, there’s just some really freaky wildlife. I keep them in there until they can be efficiently researched.”

“And that’s all humane?” Jonna pressed, standing up and folding her arms. Dante rolled his eyes.

“If we’re dealing with, y’know, actual animals, then yeah. If we’re dealing with maelstrom, then-”

“She gets the point.” Talia said, stepping forward in an almost-out-of-character spurt of daringness. “Jonna, what was your other question going to be?” She suddenly flushed, and stepped back, rubbing the back of her neck. “I mean- I don’t want to interrupt, but this is an important situation, and we have to… focus…” She trailed off.

“No, it’s cool.” Said Dante, realising that it was. “Jonna?”

“Right.” Jonna nodded, turning back to Ivy. “Well, our friends are with your friends, so – I mean, I’m definitely going up there. And Talia has the Olmak, and you know the way…” She sighted, sounding very disgruntled. “So, are we going to have to take her with us?”

“Yeah.” Answered Dante.

“Yes!” Added Talia, looking slightly affronted.

“Yeah?” Repeated Jonna.

“Oh, hell no.” Said the disembodied voice of Raelyn. She sounded more annoyed than Dante had heard in a while, and he tried to not let it rub off on him as he continued.

“We can’t leave her here unsupervised.” He stated his earlier reasoning, trying to convince certain dissenters that it was the right thing to do.

“Carrying her around is going to be a pain.” Raelyn pointed out. Her words may have appeared rational to an external observer, but Dante could feel just how angry she was. She held nothing but contempt for Ivy, it seemed. Not that it was too much of a change from the status quo, but he knew that Raelyn had, at the very least, capacity for respect. She respected him, and most of the other members of Pandemonium’s Bane by this point. And she seemed to respect Talia, as well. But she obviously had no respect for Ivy (and, to be fair, she had tried to kill them). Not agreeing with her on the matter, however, would be problematic. Of course, Dante reply was reflexive.

“Carrying you around is a pain.” He responded, out loud. The next second, he was slapping himself in the face. Talia gasped, but Dante just shrugged. “Figures.”

“You know, your situation is weird and terrible, and you have my pity.” Jonna stated bluntly. Dante schooled his face into one of light “are you kidding me”.

“I kind of figured, by this point. But thanks.” He sighed. “Let me talk to her.”

Seconds later, he was back in the mindscape, Raelyn was back to her regular height, and she was predictably extremely angry at him.

“I can’t believe you.” She spat, visibly fuming. Perhaps it was a dramatic streak of hers, or some other sort of mindscape-y visualisation, but steam was literally rising from her as she glowered at him. “We can’t trust her, it’d be a pain to lug her around, what if she attacks you or Talia again? She’s obnoxious, she doesn’t know a thing-”

“A: like I said, leaving her alone is a pretty bad idea.” Dante snapped, Raelyn’s irritation rubbing off on him – quicker than normal. “B: you gave her your memories, she’s working through them and adjusting her perspective accordingly, and C: we NEED TO TRUST PEOPLE.”

Raelyn snarled. Dante glared.

“Haven’t we been getting along so far? Co-operating at the very least? Isn’t that a relationship of trust, of us giving each other a chance?” He folded his arms, trying to be decisive and end the argument. “Why can’t we do the same with her?”

“We did this because we had to!” Argued Raelyn, moving her arms. “We did this because we were stuck together, and we had no choice!”

Right as she might have been, Dante still found himself genuinely offended by her assertion that their relationship – on good days, their friendship – was all based on necessity and practically, and not on genuine feelings of companionship.

“Oh, great to know.” His voice rose without him even meaning to as he bared his teeth, hostilely. “Great to be reminded of all the crap you’ve put me through, as well. Can this be one of the times where you just leave me alone and be passive aggressive instead of actively sabotage my life choices?”

“That’s not fair!” Protested Raelyn – her voice was raising as well. “You make it sound like that’s all I do!”

“Well some days, that’s how it feels.” Snapped Dante, beginning to violently wave his arms for emphasis. “You’re close-minded, untrusting, hostile, aloof, cynical, you look down on people-”

He stopped, his arm pausing in mid-air. Introspective. That might have been the angriest he had ever been in front of Raelyn (he had always made it a point to be the mature and level-headed one in their relationship, not that the bar was very high). However, though Raelyn was looking at him with what seemed to be anger, he looked past that, and into her eyes. Something else was there. Experimentally, he stepped forward, and rapidly jabbed his arm upwards, palm outstretched in something of a pre-slapping motion.

Raelyn flinched. Visibly.

He brought his arm down to his side, and then quickly raised it again. She flinched again, almost squinting one eye shut. Arching backwards, she sunk her head down, and her arms twitched – as though she were restraining herself from covering herself.

“Rae.” He muttered softly, taking another step forward. She took a step back, matching his movements. “Raelyn. *Raelyn*.” He reached out a hand, then pulled back, settling for staring despairingly at her. She matched his gaze, a whirlwind of emotions. Anger. Fear. Upset. Frustration. Self-loathing.

“Don’t.” She hissed. Her voice, normally so strident and angry, was now a dark and low whisper. Dante clenched his fists, staring her down.

“Who did this?” He asked her. “Who… who hurt you?”

For a second, Raelyn actually looked as though she were about to answer, chewing her lip in anticipation as she eyed him warily. Then, her expression changed into something more guarded, more hostile.

“Leave me alone.” She said, simply, before dissipating into a fine mist, separating herself from Dante to as great of an extent as possible.

And just like that, she was gone.

Pulling himself out of the mindscape, Dante was met by the anxious and questioning faces of Talia and Jonna – both of whom were looking at him, as if to say – “Well?”.

Right. Ivy. The mission. He shook his head, dazed. The details that had been so important to him only moments ago now seemed clouded and unfocused in his mind, in light of the discovery he had made. It was like nothing else was very important any more.

It had been easy, Dante mused as he strolled over to the holding cell, to forget that Raelyn was (for all intents and purposes) a person in her own right. Probably. She had the anger, yes, and the instability, and the element of danger – but those were all potential aspects of a person. You didn’t have to be a millennia-old rock to be insufferable. To be dangerous. To kill. Humans were quite capable of that on their own.

And it was clear now, he reasoned as he hefted Ivy over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, that she had been fighting her own demons the entire time.

He felt like a garbage friend.

“Let’s go.” He said abruptly to his companions, not waiting for any confirmation before striding forwards and towards the surface.

### ***THE HIGHWING INSTITUTE, AND THE MYSTERIOUS SURNAME***

“So.” Plue sat with one leg folded over the other, arms crossed and leaning backwards on the crimson-pillowed sofa. Despite wearing civvies, she was able to cut an intimidating figure – though the katana with her arm’s reach probably had something to do with it. Opposite her, on three stools, sat Cadmus, Norik, and Kaida – each one looking their own brand of concerned. Norik looked panicky, as if he wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. Cadmus was clearly attempting to be stoic, but the nerves were clearly written in his expressions and mannerisms – even to someone like Plue. (His eyes were darting around, one of his legs wouldn’t stop bounding and jittering, and he couldn’t look Plue in the face.) The most relaxed member of the group was obviously Kaida, who was in the process of stretching out her spine – accompanied by several cracking noises. Plue winced, but tried to not let it distract her. “Who wants to go first?”

For a moment, there was silence. Then, Kaida casually raised her hand.

“Ready and willing, P- commander.” She corrected herself mid-phrase, and okay, that was a bit suspicious. Even if she had managed to guess correctly what Plue’s rank was, there was the fact that she had been about to call her by name… Plue racked her brains to try and remember whether Norik had mentioned her name or not, because she sure as hell didn’t remember telling her what it was. Hmm. Maybe he had. Okay. So not that suspicious. It was still weird, though, how she had been about to address Plue in such a familiar manner. On top of that, she was clearly really relaxed in her surroundings. Most people would probably be at least a bit warier in their situation, but she seemed quite assured that she was going to come to no harm.

In conclusion: Hmm.

“So.” Plue emphasised the word as she leaned further backwards, eying the trio. “Kaida. That’s your name, right?”

“Yep.” Kaida wasted no time in replying, still acting disturbingly unperturbed by everything. “Just Kaida, please. My last name could probably bring the universe crashing to a halt as we know it.” She winked.

Plue wasn’t sure whether to take this girl seriously or not, but decided to brush off this bluster because, honestly, what the cuss? This was not a priority. Plue’s priorities, as they stood at that moment, were to discern Cadmus and Kaida’s motives (AND insure they weren’t up to anything suspicious), and to gather as much information from both as possible. The more she knew, the better she could plan ahead for whatever may come next. Plus, she was always more comfortable in the know.

“Yes, well.” She her attention to Cadmus and Norik. “Cadmus, who exactly are the Twelve of Infinite Sight?”

Cadmus sighed. Plue could only guess that he had told some of this to Norik, earlier.

“Where do I start?” He sighed, bitterly.

“Start at the beginning.” Plue suggested, leaning forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Kaida and Norik lean inwards too. Clearly, they were also interested in whatever Cadmus had to say.

He nodded. “Okay.”

“As I believe the Nexus Force is aware by this point, Doctor Albert Overbuild set up a private facility. Called the Highwing Institute – because, supposedly, they were flying high on the wings of progress or something pretentious – it revolved around researching ways to combat the maelstrom. Supposedly, he set it up not long after the war began – the war that has, by now, been going on for decades. So… he had a lot of time. I don’t know what it was like at the beginning. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t even born, probably, for some of it. But… but time went on, and the war went on, and I think the guy just got more and more desperate, you know?”

Plue frowned. “Overbuild was in league with the Darkitecht, did you know that?”

Cadmus furrowed his brow. “Not until Norik told me. I’m not going to pretend that I… that I know his true intentions. He could have not trusted the maelstrom, and could have wanted some kind of failsafe – he could also have been wanting to create weapons for the Darkitecht. I don’t… I don’t know.”

Kaida leant back.

“If you ask me,” she said, “I’d say he was using the war as an excuse for quote-unquote progress.” She made quotation marks with her fingers as she spoke. “Like, there’s this whole philosophy that war is what motivates human progress, you know? And this guy – building, and creating, that was his life.” She shrugged. “I just feel like, uh, his motivations could have just been really simple and dumb. Or something like that.”

Cadmus sighed. “Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t know how much I care, either. If I’m being honest.”

Plue sighed as well, eyes drifting upwards as she grappled with the fact that she, also, had no real idea what the Doctor’s motivations had been. Whether she would find out those motivations in the future remained unclear as well. But the “why” was unimportant when compared to the “what”.

“Never mind that for now.” She ordered Cadmus. “Just tell us what… what happened.”

“Okay.” Cadmus nodded, head drifting down to the floor. It didn’t look like he was capable of meeting anyone’s eyes at that moment. “Well, the war happened, and I guess Overbuild was doing some… some stuff, I guess. But one day, he was approached by this guy. One of the investors for the Nexus Force, one of the people funding the whole thing. Ironsides.”

Plue felt a chill crawl up and down her spine. If Ironsides was one of the investors… had she met him? Had he been hiding, in plain sight? Certainly, the investors she dealt with in the present must have known about him. To think, this information had been under her nose for years.

Cadmus continued to talk, though – obviously unaffected by her surprise. “This guy – Ironsides – he… he wanted weapons, or soldiers, or something. I think, at least. But that’s just my interpretation, though. I wasn’t…” He held up his hands, apologetically. “I don’t know for sure.”

“Ok.” Plue nodded. “So, Overbuild sets up a secret facility, and Ironsides approaches him. Why?”

“He approaches him with an offer.” Emphasised Cadmus. “That he would be willing to fund and support experiments on humans, and in exchange, he would get some of the… prime specimens, for his own personal use. There were probably other ideas as well, but that’s all I know for sure.”

“You say experiments on humans.” Norik interrupted. “What kind of experiments?”

“Genetic modification.” Explained Cadmus. “See, every human has a dormant gene within them that, when unlocked, or manipulated, or motivated, or anything, makes people… change. It creates savants. Deviants. Whatever you want to call them. Now, this kind of thing happens naturally. Very rarely – there must be, like, one savant for every few thousand regular people – but it happens. And people who have this gene active… it varies. They could do anything. Control matter, or gravity, or the maelstrom.”

“Or other things.” Norik muttered, darkly. When everyone turned to look at him, he blanched. “Like, I try and be responsible with my own power, but when you think about it, controlling animals and creatures is pretty morally sketch, you know? I…” He trailed off. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Cadmus nodded, before returning to his tale. “Anyway, unlocking that gene would mean that people would, technically, be able to fight the maelstrom from a whole new angle. Powers and augmentation like that would basically be a game-changer for both the war and the species – what ambitious scientist wouldn’t want to investigate that?”

“One with morals, presumably.” Quipped Kaida. Cadmus nodded.

“And that was the problem. Without any real sort of scrutiny – as far as I’m aware, the other faction leaders didn’t even know he had this facility set up – he could basically do whatever he wanted, ethics-wise. He’d forcibly induct people into his experiments, swear them to secrecy on pain of incarceration, trying desperately to unlock that savant gene. And he eventually succeeded. Obviously. But that was when things got really bad. I think a lot of it was due to Ironsides’ interference, but what they basically did was try to build some kind of force. Army. Whatever you want to call it. They started taking…” Cadmus inhaled, then exhaled. “They started inducting children into their little force.”

“Why?” It was Kaida who actually said the word. Plue wanted to know the answer too, but her brain was flooding her with ideas, none of them good.

“Because they wanted to do it properly.” Cadmus growled. “Children are easy to induct into a belief, easy to brainwash. It’s easy to make them believe something, and make them dependant on you. And they’re easier to keep down, physically as well as mentally. It’d be a lot harder to suppress a group of strong adults than a group of children, who are too scrawny to stand up to you – even if they wanted to.”

“Where did they get the kids from?” Norik’s brow was dark.

“Anywhere.” Revealed Cadmus. “I think a popular policy was to just take orphans, kids off the street – you know, children that no-one would miss. They’d occasionally go after others, though. Like, if the family had a lot of kids, and lived relatively out of the way… they’d conduct a raid, I guess. Not necessarily often, because it would rarely be worth the effort of breaking into the house, taking out the parents-”

““taking out” the parents?” Echoed, Plue, incredulous.

“You know what I mean.” Snapped Cadmus. “But they didn’t do that often.”

“How did… how did you get picked up?” Kaida sounds more curious than anything else, though her voice contained a tinge of concern. Some sort of sensitivity. That was nice. Nice to see.

Cadmus sighed. “I was an idiot.” He revealed. “I was curious, when I was younger. Always slipping away from my family, just exploring stuff. Always running ahead.” He scoffed. “Little did I know how much of a mistake it was to sneak into the train car that only had those two men in it – some reserved, first-class thing – and then friggin’ eavesdrop on them while I was doing it.” He rolled his eyes, sounding far too fond of the memory he was describing. “When Overbuild and Ironsides figured out that the kid who had heard them discussing not only Highwing Facility – which was highly classified – but also the details of their deal, and the fact that they were kidnapping people…?” He sighed. “I don’t think my parents ever found a trace of me.”

“Were these kidnappings ever picked up on, or investigated by law enforcement?” Plue pressed. Yes, it was horrifying what had happened. But what could she say? Better, she figured, to focus on the matter at hand, and maybe think of something to say later.

“From what I can gather, they used their combined influence to ensure that any law enforcement never actually investigated any of the disappearances.” Cadmus revealed. “Certainly, we never heard about any follow-up investigations.”

“So.” Plue rubbed her temples, agitated. “You were taken, and experimented on, and given powers.” She looked up at Cadmus, who looked about as tired as Plue had ever seen anyone. “How did you end up in the Twelve?”

“A few years ago, Ironsides visited the institute.” Explained Cadmus. “We are lined up, and he inspected all of us. Tested our abilities. Looked at our psych evaluations. That sort of thing. In the end, I guess he just chose the twelve that were most useful.”

“Question.” Offered Norik, raising his hand as though he were a schoolchild. “You think that the woman who can control maelstrom was there, right?”

“Wait, what?” Assuming they were taking about who Plue had in mind, this was a twist. Cadmus turned to her.

“Tall. Brown hair, controls maelstrom. You know her, right?”

“Gaia? I- yeah.” She admitted. “What, you think she was taken as well?”

“I think so.” Cadmus explained. “I… I remember her, to tell you the truth. If faintly.” He met Plue’s eyes with his own. “You got her out of a facility, right?”

“Yeah.” Nodded Plue.

“Has she ever talked about her time in there? Exactly where she got her powers from?” He leant forward, emitting a feeling of intensity. “Has she ever shown you her arm?”

“Her… arm?” Plue repeated dumbly. Cadmus held up his own forearm, where there was a very clear tattoo of letters and numbers, as Norik spoke.

“Everyone who went to that institute got a tattoo based on the class – I guess, level – of savant they were, as well as a number for organisation.” He explained. Presumably, Cadmus had told him this prior. “They all had ‘em on their right forearms. If Gaia’s never actually let any of you see said forearm…”

“That doesn’t make sense, does it?” Kaida interjected, looking genuinely puzzled for the first time. “Why wouldn’t she trust all of you guys?”

“She’s probably just scared.” Cadmus theorized. “I don’t really know how to describe it to anyone who wasn’t there, but that place…” He shuddered. “I was glad to get out of there when I did. To be honest, I don’t think anyone would want to talk about it.”

“Also, maybe the fact that you guys are high up in the Nexus Force is scary.” Norik added. “Scary enough that she doesn’t want to talk about it, just in case you don’t turn out to be who you say you are.”

“That…” Plue trailed off. It was plausible, definitely, but it also hurt. Did this mean that she had never trusted them?

Norik must have picked up on this, because he hissed through his teeth.

“It’s entirely possible that this is, like, subconscious for her or something.” He revealed. “Or an ingrained instinct. Regardless, I don’t think you should be offended.”

“I know.” Plue muttered. “I know, I’m – I’m sorry.”

“Why’d you bring this up?” Kaida suddenly interjected, staring pointedly at Norik. The young man seemed to draw a blank for a moment, before snapping his fingers.

“Oh, yeah!” He turned to Cadmus. “If she’s so powerful, why didn’t she join the Twelve?”

The other man thought for a moment, then snapped his own fingers as the memory came to him. “Shortly before Ironsides arrives, there was… a disturbance. Honesty, I don’t know if they were trying to escape, or just blindly lashing out at anyone they could find, but a group of subjects clustered together and began to cause havoc.” He sighed. “I think she was at the helm. And, I think, she must have been deemed too dangerous or unstable to be kept wandering around, you know? So, once they got the whole thing under control, they took her away.” He shrugged. “Never saw her again, until earlier today.”

“Well, shoot.” Muttered Kaida. “Great going, old woman.”

“I wasn’t there when Gaia was actually found, so I don’t know what state she was in.” Revealed Plue. “She could have been in a prison cell, or something. I don’t know.”

“Probably…” Muttered Cadmus. Norik leant forward.

“You told me earlier that since joining the Twelve, Ironsides has been making you – what, collect artefacts and anything of power? And keep it?”

Cadmus nodded. “And that’s the thing – I don’t know why. And it worries me. I feel as though he wanted the Twelve because he wanted someone to work for him-”

“To be fair, a bunch of super-powered loyal followers sound pretty appealing on paper.” Pointed out Kaida. “I mean, not that I’m condoning kidnapping and brainwashing kids or anything, but I can see the appeal, you know?”

Norik furrowed his brow, but Cadmus nodded assent. “Yeah. But now he’s going after sources of ancient power. I was sent to secure the dimensional gate…” He trailed off, suddenly. Everyone leaned closer to him. He stood up. Eyes wide with panic. “Hell.”

“What? What is it?” Instantly, Plue was on her feet, clutching her sword to her hip.

“Secure. Not retrieve. Secure.” Cadmus muttered. He turned to Plue. “I don’t know how, but Ironsides must have known that the dimensional gate we were looking for was too big for me to, like, pick up and drag back to our home base. He said that he’d send a task force to help me actually transport the thing, and that I was the advance force. The scout. The… whatever.” He swore.

“Why didn’t you say so?” Norik gaped incredulously at the other man, who recoiled defensively.

“Between being beaten up, interrogated, and actually leaving the organisation I’ve been under the thumb of for years, excuse me if it slipped my mind!” He spat. Plue dragged her fingers across her forehead in exasperation.

Kaida immediately jumped up and cheered. “Yes! Bring ‘em on!”

As Cadmus and Norik continued to quarrel, and Kaida continued to cheer, Plue took the chance to do SOMETHING productive, and observed the girl as she celebrated the prospect of fighting for her life. Energetic. Tall. Long, dark hair. Muscular. Round and green eyes. Excited over conflict. Peculiar as it was, in many ways, she was the spitting image of Gaia, but at the same time, there were a lot of discernible differences. Her clothes were a lot more muted in colour, her hair couldn’t really be called anything other then black, and she didn’t have any moles. Nevertheless… the connection was there.

“Kaida.” Plue said, interrupting the girl’s cheering. “You said that your last name could destroy the universe, or something, right?”

“Bring the universe to a crashing halt.” Amended Gaia. “Why do you ask?”

“Is it Eluciss?” Plue put forward. It was a hunch, but she was curious. And she might as well solve ONE issue before getting attacked by more members of the Twelve.

The effect on Kaida was instantaneous. She stopped jumping around, and her face contorted into one that very clearly said “uh-oh”. She flinched, her arms flying up to her face. A moment passed, the background chatter of the arguing men getting slowly louder. Then, she sighed.

“Jeez, I didn’t think you’d pick up on that so quickly.” She smiled, suddenly looking very tired. “People say we’re alike, but I didn’t figure…” She fell silent, before staring down Plue, abashed. “Yeah. It’s Eluciss.”

Oh, holy woah.

If it wasn’t one thing, it was another, wasn’t it?

### ***TASK FORCE***

When Vector initially heard the doorbell, he wasn’t
particularly worried. He was mostly just mildly annoyed. After all, what did he
have to expect, realistically? It was either going to be someone trying to sell
something, or Gaia (who would have forgotten her keys again). That’s why he
shuffled to the door with a certain lack of eagerness. Perry trotted behind
him, babbling on about “whoever it could possibly be”. He envied the kid’s
energy.

When he opened the door, however, what he instead found was
a peculiar-looking trio. Two men and a woman stood on the porch, staring at him
in a vaguely intimidating fashion. Two of them had their arms folded, but the
man in front had his hands in his pockets in a more casual manner. It was this
man that Vector addressed.

“Can I help you?” He asked.

“With a bit of luck.” Drawled the man at the front, stepping
forward and throwing an arm around Vector’s neck as though they were close
friends. The man was lanky, but he wasn’t as tall as Vector, which meant that
the latter suddenly felt himself having to stoop in order to fit under the
other’s arm. “We’re looking for a friend of ours. Last we checked, he was
somewhere around these parts, and we just want to be sure that he’s alright.”

“We’re quite worried about him.” Added the woman, sounding
about as insincere Vector figured was possible without descending into full-on
sarcasm. He was about to say that he wasn’t really sure where this person would
be, and that they ought to try asking someone else, Perry bounded forward.

“Ooh! I can help! Maybe!” He pondered for a moment, then
shrugged. “I mean, I’m good at looking for things!”

“Perry-” Vector began, even as an uncomfortable feeling rose
in his stomach, but he was cut off by the lanky man’s laughter.

“Alright, kid.” He chucked, voice grating through his
voicebox as though he was rubbing something against sandpaper. Vector had heard
desert scavengers who had inhaled clouds of sand every day with less raspy
voices. “He’s…” He trailed off, before holding his free hand up into the air.
“About yay high. Big lad, you know?”

“Yeah, I have a friend like that.” Perry acknowledged,
furrowing his brow. “Don’t know if I’ve seen anyone like that aside from
Vector, though...”

“Vector?” The man raised an eyebrow, before peering down to
Vector’s head. The man himself was smiling awkwardly, trying to think of a
civil reason to extract himself from the other man’s grasp. “Oh, you mean this
guy?”

Perry nodded, and the man laughed. “Oh, so that’s your name!
My mistake.” Was it Vector’s imagination, or had his grip tightened slightly?
“Were your parents maths nerds, or what?”

Vector laughed uncomfortably. “Something like that”, he
said, uncomfortable with admitting that his mother had actually been so drugged
up and fatigued after his birth that she had slurred out “Vector” instead of
“Victor”, and the name had stuck.

“Classic.” Laughed the man, making a motion as if he were
wiping a tear from his eye. It was probably just him being dramatic – though
perhaps he found maths hilarious. No, it wasn’t a laugh. It was a drawl, in
essence. Suddenly, the pressure around Vector’s neck released, and he gasped
for air in spite of himself, massaging the tender back of his neck. Everything
seemed very fuzzy, all of a sudden. Probably oxygen deprivation. He sank to his
knees.

“Sorry!” The man, still chuckling, held up his hands
apologetically in Vector’s direction. “I forget my own strength, sometimes.”

“It’s-” Vector coughed. “It’s fine.”

The man shrugged and folded his arms, before looking around
the corridor that he had stepped into – giving Vector the chance to observe him
closer. He was lanky, yes, but there was clearly strength behind his grip. His
hair was the same colour as fresh blood, bright and crimson enough to make
Vector do a double-take. He was casually leaning against the wall, eying the
corridor with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. He was like a smug bird, from
his brightly-coloured “plumage” to the way that he almost strutted as he
walked. The jacket he was wearing was some kind of fancy leather, as well. On
paper, he might have seemed a ridiculous sight – and he was, in a certain way.
But there was an underlying tension, an underlying feeling of dread, that
Vector just couldn’t shake.

“Anyway.” He continued, trying to be polite, but also
backing his instincts, which were telling him very clearly that these people
weren’t supposed to be here. “Unless you can give us any descriptors beyond
“tall”, we can’t help you. Is there anyone else you can talk to?”

Before the lanky man could say anything, the final member of
the trio – a man with black hair and about as pale a skin tone as Vector had
ever seen – spoke up.

“Silver eyes. Was wearing a suit of armour the last time we
saw him, carrying a shield and a mace. Brown-blonde hair.” He turned his gaze
towards Vector – it was a side gaze, as though he were being drawn in profile,
but it was enough of a look to convey a very clear message. *We’re not playing games any more*.
Because Vector recognized that description.

“You’re with them.” He said. A vague statement. But the
meaning seemed to have been understood by all, as Perry backed up in surprise.
The red-haired man rolled his eyes.

“Madlen.” He chastised. “You couldn’t have let me have
this?”

“We have a job to do.” The man with dark hair – *Madlen* – told him. The red-haired man
rolled his eyes.

“Killjoy.” He turned to Vector, and performed a sort of mock
bow. “Raleigh the Phoenix Force, at your service.” His wrist flicked behind his
back, and as he rose, his arm whipped forwards. “And you’ve been-”

Whatever Raleigh had been about to say, he broke off. Vector
blinked, and realised that the man had a knife clenched in his fist, glinting a
light silver in the sun’s dying rays. The door was still open. There was nobody
on the streets. Why had Raleigh not attacked? His gaze wandered to Perry.
Quicker than anyone had been able to track, the boy had withdrawn a pistol from
the depths of his body armour – he was still in his faction uniform, Vector
realised – and was now pointing it directly at Raleigh’s forehead.

“Don’t try it.” His voice quivered slightly, but his arm was
unerringly steady.

Raleigh looked at Perry in confusion for a moment, and then
began to laugh again. The disturbing thing about his laugh was how… well, how
normal it was. It didn’t sound psychotic or overly evil, it sounded like the
laughter that followed a well-timed joke.

“Look at me,” he sounded light-hearted and chastising at the
same time. “Bringing a knife to a gunfight. Oops.”

But then his eyes narrowed.

“Not that I’m trying to undermine your spunk, kid, but I
wouldn’t recommend that. The thing is, there are three of us, and there’s one
of you. If you shoot and take one of us out, the other two will rip you to
pieces before you get a chance to reload.”

Perry’s eyes nervously flickered from Raleigh, to Madlen, to
the woman.

“And if you try to focus those two,” Raleigh’s hand
quivered. “I’ll stab this man, and probably kill him.”

Perry turned to Vector. The question was in his eyes. Vector
understood. The boy was quick-witted AND quick on the draw, but he wasn’t going
to take command of this one. That job fell to Vector – his superior, if only by
weak technicality and age.

Fortunately for Peragrine, Vector wasn’t a pushover himself.
He nodded once, staring Perry in the eyes, tilting his head ever so slightly to
the left. Indicating the two still standing in the doorway.

Perry blinked twice. *Got it*.

Raleigh narrowed his eyes. “You two are planning something.”

“I deny it.” Vector said, even as Peragrine fired a shot at
Madlen. The bullet sunk into the man’s shoulder – but instead of any injury, a
wisp of smoke appeared. On the other side of the street, a window shattered as
though it had been hit by a bullet.

“Quiznack.” Muttered Perry.

“Bad move.” Tutted Raleigh, lunging forward towards Vector,
blade in hand. Instead of trying to dodge, however, Vector reached in front of
him and grabbed the shaft of the blade as it swept through the air towards him.
His hand hit Raleigh’s hand, and the knife stopped moving about an inch away
from Vector’s face. A thin stream of blood began to trickle from Vector’s palm,
the knife having cut into his hand as he grabbed hold of it. He gritted his
teeth, but made no sound. He’d endured worse.

Raleigh looked surprised for the first time – but that
wasn’t the end of it. Quickly, Vector grabbed Raleigh’s arm with his other hand
and twisted it violently. Raleigh yelped, and let go of the knife. Vector
pulled back and rose to his feet, still clenching the knife blade in his right
fist. It stung like a mother, but was careful to keep himself stoic as he
tossed the bloodstained knife over his shoulder.

“Is that all?” He uttered darkly. Raleigh’s immediate
response was to “laugh” again. It couldn’t be considered a laugh, Vector
decided. It was like a sigh, but a happy one. The sort of sigh one would make
through either finishing some sort of stressful job, or plain fond
exasperation. The context made it almost intimidating.

“Hardly.” Now that both men were standing at their full
heights, he had to raise his head to see Vector properly. It was a small
victory. “Though I appreciate the effort. For what it’s worth…” he shrugged. “I
thought you looked pretty badass.”

“Hello?”

*That voice-*

Vector craned his neck past Raleigh, and saw Gaia and Percevel
standing in the street, staring up at the doorway. Even as Vector watched, the
tentative smile on Gaia’s face slid away as her gaze travelled to Vector, whose
clenched fist was still dripping blood onto the floor.

Raleigh turned around as well, having also heard Gaia’s
greeting. Madlen and the other woman both turned to eye up the two newcomers as
well.

Gaia’s face contorted again, from confusion and possible
anger to… no. No, that couldn’t be right. Gaia Eluciss never showed fear.
Never.

“You…?” She uttered, in what was an unmistakably afraid
voice.

Though Vector couldn’t see Raleigh’s face, he could hear his
considered hum as he took in the scene before him. Then-

“Long time no see, Gaia.”

### ***CONSANGIUNITY***

Under normal circumstances, Percevel would have been worried
enough. They may have had the advantage on numbers (four to three), but he had
no idea about any of these people’s capabilities. If they were anything like
Cadmus, they would be hell to take on. However, to further complicate matters,
Gaia looked as though she were about to break down. Clearly the man with the
red hair had some kind of psychological advantage over her. Bad enough to
combat, worse to see a friend suffer.

“Gaia.” He said firmly. “*Gaia*.”

She gave no indication that she had heard him, instead
staring at the man in horror. The man himself laughed, looking unerringly
casual with the whole situation. (Especially considering that Vector and Perry
were both standing behind him, Perry with his gun drawn.)

“Well, well, well!” Though he sounded like he was genuinely
happy to see Gaia, Percevel could see something of a smirk on the man’s face.
Add that to Gaia’s fear, and it was obvious that something was terribly wrong.
“It’s certainly been a while. You know, when they whisked you off to solitary,
I honestly thought I’d seen the last of you. Though, to be fair, I should have
expected that they’d find you when they went through Highwing.” He shrugged, as
self-assured as Percevel had ever seen a person. It was… disturbing. “Am I
wrong?”

Nobody gave any reply, and the man sighed before waving a
hand at the two people beside him. “I’m sure you two want to catch up with her
as well, but I don’t want to take any chances.” He thumbed a hand over his shoulder,
and suddenly his façade fell, revealing only a cold stare. “Keep them busy.”

As one, Vector and Percevel lunged towards the man, but were
countered by the red-haired man’s companions. The woman extended an arm, and
some kind of weapon slipped out of her billowing sleeve. Gunshots rang out and
sparks flew. Vector threw a punch. All the while, the man was casually
sauntering down the steps outside the HQ’s front door. Someone – Percevel
didn’t see who – pulled the front doors shut. And then there was nothing. The
noises of conflict were muffled, and it was just the three of them. Alone.

The man’s eyes flickered to Percevel. He sighed.

“I hate introductions.” With that, he shoved his hands into
the pockets, adopting the persona of an introverted child. “My name’s Raleigh. I’m
an old acquaintance of Gaia’s.” His face split into a smile once again, and
suddenly he was back to acting as though everything in the world was perfect.
“And, I mean, I just wanted to say…” He took a step forwards. “What are you doing
here, of all places? Coincidence?” He eyed Percevel again. “Out for a walk with
the boyfriend? Or are you here for some other reason?” His gaze switched back
to Gaia, who still looked like a traumatized deer caught in the headlights.
“Whoever he is, he looks like he’s dressed for a proper war. And you…” He took
in the plastic protectors she was wearing on her elbows and knees. “Well, you
tried.”

Gaia choked out a breath. “What are you doing here?”

“Just some business.” Raleigh shrugged. “I’m here with Cadmus
– though you probably don’t remember him, wallflower that he was – and Madlen,
and Mikala. You probably remember Mikala. She had quite the…” He stroked his
chin. “Stunning personality when we were all younger, remember?”

“How do you two know each other?” Percevel interrupted. It
was obvious that this Raleigh character was stalling for time, dragging out the
experience for his own pleasure, but any sudden actions might provoke him – and
he still had no idea of this character’s capabilities. Also, the name “Cadmus”
rang a bell, but he couldn’t remember why off the top of his head.

“How do we-?” Raleigh tenderly placed a hand on his chest,
and his voice was laden with sarcasm and sincerity and so many other contrasts.
“Can’t you see the resemblance?”

And suddenly, there he was. Leaning on Gaia.

Percevel blinked, then gave a start backwards. He hadn’t
even seen this man move.

Raleigh broke out into a beaming smile, even as Gaia tensed
up like a wooden board from the contact. “We’re siblings! Obviously.”

Percevel stopped for a moment, in spite of himself, and
examined the pair. At first glance, they looked extremely unalike. Lanky,
muscular – blue eyes, green eyes – red hair, brown hair. The only obvious
similarity could see was that both were quite tall, around the six-foot mark.
Raleigh also had a mole under his left eye, just like Gaia, but this was less
conclusive evidence and more a potential coincidence.

Percevel looked to Gaia for conformation, but she couldn’t
meet his eyes. Did that mean they really were…?

“Just a little joke of mine.” Chucked Raleigh. “Of *course* it’s not obvious.” He pursed his
lips, looking to the sky – even as Gaia began to wriggle out of his grasp.
“Gee, you know, I don’t think I have the time for this.” He mused, before
turning to face Gaia again. “I mean, not that I don’t want to catch up with
you, Gee – because, *man*, we’ve both
missed a lot by the looks of it – but I’m here on a bit of a mission at the
moment. Apparently Cadmus was around here recently?”

Gaia paled. Percevel, for his part, reached towards his gun.
If this man Raleigh was looking for Cadmus, then he was with the Twelve. *That’s* why the name Cadmus had struck a
chord with him.

“Name ring any bells?” Raleigh continued, either not
noticing their reactions, or at least pretending not to, before shrugging. “Ah,
well. Worth a try.” He unslung himself from Gaia’s shoulder and began to
saunter back to the door. “Well, I’m sure we can catch up-”

The door buckled and splintered open as a body was thrown
through it. Chips of wood were sent outward and skyward as Vector’s body
slammed through the lock and rolled down the stairs, coming to a rest on the
street.

“Vector!” Shrieked Gaia, in spite, of herself, breaking out
of her stupor to race past Raleigh and to her comatose friend.

Raleigh raised an eyebrow, and glared warily at the broken
door. “…later.” He finished in a huff, before glaring up at the door. The woman
– Mikala? – peered out.

“I know what you’re going to say, and I’m not sorry.” She
declared. “S’not my fault that my shock flung him so far backwards.”

“I was interrupted for the second time today.” Raleigh
emphasised. “Why does this keep happening? I like to talk uninterrupted, thank
you very much.” Each word was heavier and heavier in the air, until he reached
a half-shout in volume. But then, he suddenly stopped as though he had been
struck.

“Oh. Oh-ho. Wait just a moment here.” He turned and looked
down to where Gaia was hunkered over Vector’s body in concern. “You sound…” he
paused with a dramatic flair, as if considering the weight of his words. “Very
concerned.” He eventually spat out.

Gaia’s head rose. Though he couldn’t see her face, Percevel
could hear the cold anger in her voice.

“Leave.” She said. Though it was one word, it seemed to wash
across the surroundings like a chilling wave. Percevel himself had limited
experience with Gaia and her personality, but even he could tell that this was
out of the ordinary for her. Her whole body was shaking with palpable rage as
she stared her brother down.

“Please don’t be like that, Gee.” Sighed Raleigh. “Look,
we’ll just check whether Cadmus died or defected – I mean, my money’s on the
latter, but you never know – and then we’ll be on our way. Oh, and we’ll be
taking the gate.”

“I’m afraid I can’t let you take it.” Percevel declared,
stepping forward. Raleigh eyed him, and he sighed. “Not that I’m trying to
antagonise you, but I need that gate. To get home.” He folded his arms. “Once
I’ve figured out how to get back to my own dimension, I’m sure you can
negotiate with these people for the gate. Surely, some kind of agreement can be
reached?”

“He’s negotiating *nothing*.”
Spat Gaia in a low voice, before standing up with her fists clenched. “I should
drive you into the ground right here and now, Raleigh. God knows, you’d deserve
it.”

Raleigh hissed. “You always were something of a brat. Never
really knew when to stand down, did you? And look where it landed you.” He
shrugged. “Solitary confinement, or wherever they dragged you after that whole
kerfuffle. And as for me?” He spread his arms wide. “I was free, what, two
weeks afterwards, or something? If you had kept your head, you’d probably have
been taken with us. And let me tell you, it’s been great. Travel the world,
meet new people, find and collect ancient whatevers…” He shrugged. “And, I
mean, our exchange programs are fantastic.”

“I got out.” Gaia pressed. Her fingers rolled in her fist,
and Percevel may have been imagining it, but he thought he could see her
muscles tense. He looked up at the door, which had now closed again. There was
no sign of Perry. This was bad.

“Looks to me like you were *let* out.” Raleigh corrected, rolling an eye. “Don’t pretend you’re
some kind of unbreakable warrior.”

“I survived you.” Gaia retorted. “And I survived that place,
and I’ve survived everything then.”

“You survived it.” Raleigh agreed. “But I *lived* through it. I thrived on it. I
manipulated the situation to my advantage, rose above it, and began stronger
because of it. Face it, sister…” This was the first facial expression of the
man’s, Percevel thought, that looked genuinely unsettling. Genuinely cruel.
“I’m the one who came out on top.”

There was obviously a lot of subtext and history that
Percevel didn’t understand, but it seemed to not matter much to Gaia either.
Instead of making any sort of retort, she lunged at Raleigh with a roar,
propelling herself forward with a burst of maelstrom – showing scant regard for
the comatose Vector. Raleigh casually raised his arms – and suddenly, there was
a burst of fire. Gaia was forced to twist her body in mid-air to avoid the
flames, and ended up slamming into what remained of the front door. Instantly
Raleigh turned, what looked like a knife flicking into his hand. He jabbed at
Gaia’s head, and the latter barely managed to duck the blade, which instead
embedded itself in the wood. She then followed up by solidly punching her
brother in the stomach, making him wince, before enclosing her left fist in a
film of electricity and slugging Raleigh in the jaw. The shock blasted him out
of his shoes, sending him flying through the air and slamming into the pavement
with a fleshy thud.

Gaia leapt down the steps to land in front of him, before
hauling him up by the lapels of his jacket. Before she could say anything,
however, Raleigh raised his legs and wrapped them around Gaia’s waist, dragging
her downwards – he then adjusted his position and rolled over, which meant that
Gaia was thrown over him and out into the road. There were no cars, thankfully,
but it looked like a nasty blow nonetheless.

In the meantime, Percevel rushed first to Vector’s side, to
check that none of the maelstrom from Gaia’s initial burst had actually got to
and affected him. He was lucky – the burst must have been too brief to act as
an infectant. He then turned back to Gaia and Raleigh. Should he interfere, or
should he run to help Perry? As much as he wanted to help his new friend defeat
her brother, part of him felt that she had to deal with her demons on her own.
Besides, Peragrine was inside the building, fighting against two members of the
Twelve. He needed the help.

Percevel sprinted through the broken doors, withdrawing his
gun as he did so. The initial corridor was empty, but he could hear crashes and
gunshots in an adjoining room. Barrelling through the doorway, he fired off two
shots at the black-haired figure who was holding Perry up by the throat. The
bullets passed through the man in wisps of smoke, but whatever power he had
also caused Perry to suddenly fall through his hands and onto the floor.

It must have been some kind of intangibility, reasoned
Percevel upon seeing this. He could let objects pass through his body, but he
couldn’t retain any proper physical form whilst any part of his body was
intangible. In short, it didn’t seem that he could attack and defend at the
same time. That was good. He smiled, in spite of himself. A weakness to be
exploited! Perhaps they had a chance-

### ***SORRY I MISSED YOU***

“Oh, shoot.” Peragrine heard himself say as he watched his
best friend get knocked cleanly out with the butt end of a spear. The
knocker-outer, the woman who had been at the door, sashayed forwards, clenching
her weapon tightly as she advanced on him. Suddenly realising “*oh, she’s coming towards me*”, he
scuttled backwards slightly like a crab (but only slightly – crabs moved
sideways, after all). There. Move temporarily out of danger. What was next on
the list? Ah. Yes. Quip.

“You know, for what it’s worth, I’ve gotta admire your
efficiency.” He complimented as he picked himself up, brushing himself down before
reaching for his pistol again. Oh. He had dropped it. Lovely. What did he still
have on him? His sword? Yeah, that was still in his scabbard. Nice. He would
have clicked his tongue, as well, but these Twelve members would have had no
context. He didn’t want to explain himself to these guys while they were having
a fight.

“It’s a dangerous game, complimenting your opponents.” The
woman said, electricity running up and down her spear as she approached.
Suddenly, fighting her with a metal sword didn’t seem like such a good idea.
“Never forget which side you’re on-!” She lunged, suddenly.

Hastily, Perry grabbed his sword, but didn’t take it out of
its scabbard before using it to block the blow from the electrified spear. His
hand stung slightly, but the leather worked well as an insulator. Aww yiss.

“No zapping for you.” He grinned, trying to push her away
from him. Unfortunately, his arms were noodle arms, so he couldn’t actually do
much beyond hold her off. “Oh.”

Unfortunately, whilst he was grappling with the zappy woman,
the other man – who presumably remained annoyingly immune to bullets – began to
run towards him. The room was small. Oh, gosh. Two-on-one was never really
fair, was it? Okay, ideaideaideaidea-

He pushed harder, trying to force the lady backwards.

Didn’t work.

He needed to invest in better ideas.

The man was coming in closer now. He tried to look at both
of his attackers at once, but that just made him kind of dizzy. What else could
he do? Well, the man had dropped him when going shadow-y – in other words, he
couldn’t be solid and not solid at the same time. So… *so*, he couldn’t attack and defend at the same time. Ok. Could he
use that to his advantage?

Technically-!

He ducked as the shadow man lunged at him. What was his
weapon, even? Didn’t know, didn’t care, it was probably a good idea to AVOID
getting attacked by him anyways. Better safe than sorry, Percevel always said.
He tried to get a glance at the weapon. He didn’t actually not care, he *did* care, because if nothing else, he
wanted to know exactly *how* he was
going to be killed. That kind of knowledge, he had found, was always kind of
nice to have in situations such as this one. Grunting with effort, he kicked
the zappy lady backwards into the wall and tried to lunge at the shadow man, only
for him to do that super annoying turn-into-a-ghost trick, and send him falling
onto his stomach.

He squinted around the room again, and then he saw it. A…
(\*drum roll\*) fire alarm. Maybe, just *maybe*,
he could hit it, and people would come running. Or, uh, or something. Also, did
that alarm have sprinklers attached? The zappy lady wouldn’t be able to use
lighting powers if there was water everywhere, could she? Well, he mused as he
scrambled to his feet and blocked a blow from the shadow man (who appeared to
be fighting with some kind of blades attached to his wrists, or something
suitable unoriginal), technically she could, but she’s elektrocute herself and
her ally as well as him. Would that stop her? One way to find out. He’d get
himself zapped either way. Gritting his teeth, he tossed the sword around in
his hand, and flung it at the fire alarm box on the wall – still encased in its
scabbard. Glass shattered and an awful blaring noise rang out. Perry
instinctively clamped his hands over his ears. Sound, yes. Water, no. Well, one
out of two, he reasoned with himself. However – he suddenly realised that that
sword had been his last weapon, and he had just thrown it across the room, and *oops*.

“Stupid boy.” The woman spat, striding across the room with
her spear in hand. She twirled it around in her hand a few times for no reason
that Perry himself could discern, before driving it forward. He did a pretty
epic-feeling twirl out of the way, spinning across the floor-

-his back hit a wall.

*Quiznack*.

The woman lunged again. He ducked, the spear embedded itself
into the wall. He lunged forward, trying to get a headbutt in, but the woman
slapped him in the face (OW) and he fell backward. It must have been an
electricity-loaded slap, because his eye kept twitching and he could barely see
her through the sudden blink deluge. She didn’t look very happy though, trying
to pull her spear out of the wall. And failing. Hah-hah.

Where was shadow man? Shaking his head, Perry could just
make out the black-clad silhouette (seriously, what an edgelord) of the man
standing by the doorway. The alarm was still blaring in his ears, and suddenly
he realised – he was on guard, in case any other people came by with intent to…
fight, or something.

A crashing noise.

Perry could kind of see the hallway from where he was lying
(he was lying down during a fight, he realised, and scrambled to get back onto
his feet), and he saw two figures barrel into the hallway, brutally grappling
and pummelling one another. So furiously did they fight, it took a second for
him to recognise one of them as his friend Gaia. Her hair was flying around,
covering a lot of her face. he also realised that she was fighting with the
red-haired man he had seen earlier, the one who had tried to stab Vector. Hoo
boy.

She punched the red-haired man square in the jaw, and he
flew back into the wall that dust fell from the ceiling. Shadow man stepped
forward, as if to inverting, but the red-haired guyaHSPEAR-!!

Perry was suddenly forced to jerk his head to the side so
fast he could feel his neck snap as the zappy woman – who had apparently
reclaimed her spear from the confines of the wall while he was distracted –
tried to skewer him through the head like a Perry-flavoured marshmallow. He
didn’t want this, because he didn’t want to die. Also because a Perry-flavoured
marshmallow would probably taste of ash and freckles. He recoiled just thinking
of it.

The room was a mess, was there an available weapon? Not
really. SPEAR AGAIN? He had to dodge the other way. He was getting a bit tired
of this whole thing, and the zappy lady seemed to agree as she stood posed over
his head, ready to stick him with the pointy end. Could he grab the spear? No,
he’d get electrocuted. What *could* he
do? Well, he could be dishonourable. Eeeeeeehhh…

Perry hesitated, saw the spear about to stab him again,
realised that his honour wasn’t really worth as much as his life, and spat in
the woman’s face as she leaned over him. She recoiled, he rose and kicked her
in the side, sending her careening into the side of the wall. He then stretched
and looked around, trying to find his sword. Instead of that, he found the
shadow man dodging blows from a woman wearing black. Where had she come from?
Suddenly, there was Plue. Oh. Oh! The fire alarm!

The shadow man looked to the zappy woman, who was probably
still trying to stab him, he really ought to duck. *Duck.* *Zing!* Lucky miss.

“Mikala!” The shadow man called as the black-clad woman’s
fist passed through him for the baker’s dozenth (or so) time. “We have to go!”

“But Cadmus!” The woman – Mikala! – protested.

“Relax.” The red-haired man knocked Gaia’s head against the
wall before kicking Plue in the gut and leaping back to beside the shadow man.
“I have a plan.”

Before anyone could do anything, he grabbed Percevel – *Percevel!* Perry could only grit his
teeth. What did they think they were doing? Unfortunately, this red-haired man
was pretty damn good. He hauled Percevel over his shoulder, bounded across the
room, and dived right out of the window before Perry could blink. Mikala, after
a moment’s hesitation, twirled her spear around, yelling profanities at whoever
else had arrived, before sprinting down the corridor and out of the
open/destroyed front door. Footsteps indicated that someone else was chasing,
but suddenly, Perry found himself light-headed, and found that running was
somewhat beyond his ability by this point. He managed to lumber down the
hallway and to the door before collapsing like a sack of mouldy potatoes,
tumbling unceremoniously down the steps outside the building.

From his vantage point of face being pressed against the
concrete, he could see Plue, Gaia, and the black-clad woman having a stare-off
with the three intruders. The red-haired wanker had Percevel slung over his
shoulder still, and behind them lay Vector’s comatose body! Vector! Oh no! How
they had managed to physically move the big man, Perry was entirely sure. But
he had to do something! He had to-! Oh, never mind, physical limitations still
existed, and he had apparently hit his. Gaia was shouting something, Mikala was
shouting something, the fire alarm was still going off, and then the red-haired
man shouted something before turning to look at a man standing across the road,
and yelling something to him. Suddenly, they ALL vanished. The red-haired man,
the man across the street, Mikala, the shadow man, and both Percevel *and* Vector.

Oh, this wasn’t going to end well.

### ***REUNION(S)***

“Almost there.”

This news was something of a relief to Jonna, who was
feeling quite footsore. They had been walking through the caverns for hours,
and she was beginning to feel quite lost. Not least because every single
passageway and tunnel they had crunched through looked exactly the same (her
capacity for beautiful crystals was only so large). There was also the fact
that something about the geographical layout of her route brought about
concerns – concerns which she decided to voice.

“You said that the headquarters is in Nimbus Station?” She
wheezed. Dante nodded, looking fairly tired himself. (Though, to be fair, he
had carried Ivy a fair chunk of the way before the woman woke up. She was now
striding alongside the rest, restrained by a pair of handcuffs that Talia had
created with her constructs.)

“That I did.” He said, stopping walking for a moment before
continuing in one direction. Pebbles and tiny crystals scattered around his
feet as he walked.

“And… the crystal caves-” Jonna indicated with one hand to
their surroundings, “-are in Crux Prime.”

“Under.” He corrected as he crawled up a ledge. Taking a
seat as he waited for the others to catch up, he rolled his eyes as Ivy
wordlessly raised her handcuffed hands before seizing her wrist and hauling her
up beside him.

“Then how does this work?” Asked Jonna, annoyance from her
tiredness seeping into her voice. “How can we walk to an entirely different
planet chunk?”

“Oh, we’re walking to a teleporter.” Dante grunted as he
rose to his feet, continuing to walk down a new dark passageway.

“Why isn’t there just a teleporter right outside your little
hideaway?” Ivy asked, voicing Jonna’s own thoughts. “That seems more
convenient.”

“I didn’t put it there. It was an old one that we got up and
running.” Dante explained, turning a corner to reveal the soft shimmering light
of a Nexus Force teleporter. “Besides, if someone I don’t want to see teleports
to me, I can just avoid them.” He shrugged. “*And* walking over here gets me some good exercise.”

Jonna probably would have complained again, but she had
reached a level of fatigue which defied the need to talk. Why waste breath on
it?

Eying his party, Dante turned back around and stepped
through the portal. The others followed. Blinded by the flash of light, Jonna
blinked as she took in her new surroundings. Instead of cavern, she had been
transported to a new building. Steel walls surrounded them as the door directly
in front of them opened wide, a gaping maw into the unknown. However, there was
also a loud blaring noise going off. Everyone winced in various degrees. She
saw Dante’s brow furrow.

“Sounds like a fire alarm.” Talia observed.

“It is.” Dante confirmed. “I’m quite familiar with it, by
this point.”

Jonna found herself worried by that implication. “Are there
a lot of fires around here?”

“Unsurprising.” Remarked Ivy. “We’ve always observed
Pandemonium’s Bane to be a group abundant in eccentricity and lacking in proper
command.”

Jonna kicked her in the shin.

“Still.” Dante sighed. “Not sure where we ought to go, in
this instance.”

“I’ve got an idea.” Jonna stepped forward, cupping her hands
around her mouth, before bellowing “Hello?!” loudly down the corridor. A
moment’s pause- then a voice calling back.

“Hello?” Said the voice.

Jonna turned to Dante, trying not to look as smug as she
felt. But really, practical solutions *were*
her forte. Might as well take satisfaction in what she knew she was good at.

“Hello.” Echoed Dante, marching out of the room. “It’s me,
your leader. Why are there fire alarms going off?”

Jonna jogged to the doorway before turning down the
corridor, the footsteps behind her indicating that Talia and Ivy were behind
her.

“Don’t know.” The voice replied. It sounded vaguely
masculine, if a little high. Disappointingly unfamiliar, though. Jonna had been
hoping to hear the voices of her missing friends, the ones she and Talia had
gone to find in the first place. “Plue went to check it out.”

Dante peered through an adjoining doorway, and she hastened
to catch up with him. Were Peragrine and Percevel there? She stuck her head
around Dante’s shoulder to see two men – but both unfamiliar. She tried to
stifle her disappointment.

One of the men, wearing a long bomber jacket and jeans
indicated to the other man, who had blonde hair and was wearing little other
than a bodysuit. “This is our resident Twelve member.” He said. “Cadmus. Of the
silver… the silver… what was it, again?”

“Shield.” Remarked Cadmus, who looked disturbingly free of
all restraints. Before Jonna could comment on that, however, another voice
echoed into the room.

“Cadmus?”

Turning around, Jonna saw Ivy tentatively step forward. For
the first time since their initial encounter, Ivy looked… almost vulnerable, to
her. She seemed upset. Disappointed? Worried? Jonna wasn’t exactly sure. Her
expression could probably be summed up as “negative” and “tender”.

“They got you, too…” She muttered, but suddenly, Cadmus was
striding over. He stuck his hand into the other man’s jacket pocket, and pulled
something out. A knife. Jonna heard a stifled gasp from Talia, and Dante’s palm
was flat out in the air, humming with energy before Cadmus could approach the other
group. However, the other man waved his hands violently, sprinted towards them,
and whispered something into Dante’s ear. A moment passed – Dante lowered his
hand – Cadmus closed the distance and seized Ivy’s wrist. He breathed something
quietly; Jonna couldn’t hear him, because of the fire alarm. The next moment,
he flicked the blade across Ivy’s wrist. She winced and held the arm as he held
something up into the light. A glimmering, tiny green chip. Without any further
ado, he dropped the chip to the ground and crushed it with his heel, before
breathing a sigh of relief.

“Sorry.” He said over the alarm, to Dante. “Couldn’t risk
the Twelve overhearing us.”

“I hadn’t even known.” Admitted Dante, before holding out
his hand for a handshake. Cadmus grasped it, firmly. “So, a defector.”

“Yes sir.” Said Cadmus, before turning back to Ivy and
wrapping her in an embrace.

“Ivy.” He muttered. Out of the corner of her eye, Jonna saw
the other man tense up, suddenly. But most of her focus was still on the
conversation in front of them, as Cadmus continued to speak. “I- I’m sorry. I’m
sorry.”

Jonna half-expected Ivy to erupt in anger, revert to her
former cold fury. After all, this person had left whatever group she was a part
of, right? Surely, she would take that badly. But instead, after a moment, her
gaze softened, and she returned the embrace.

“It’s alright, I think.” She murmured into his ear. “I…” She
seemed to suddenly realise that they were surrounded by people, and broke away.
“We’ll talk later.”

Cadmus nodded, but seemed to suddenly pause, and turn
curiously towards the other man in the room (prompting Jonna to turn as well).
He looked… shocked, to be frank. As though he couldn’t quite believe what he
was seeing.

“…Ivy?” He choked.

There was silence for a moment – clearly, nobody knew quite
what to make of this situation. Except possibly Ivy, who stepped forward.
Jonna, for her part, couldn’t make out her expression. (She was standing at
just the wrong angle, rather inconveniently.) But she could make out the hesitance
in the woman’s movements. The tentative reaching out in the man’s direction,
fingers twitching slightly, as if she were afraid to make contact. Beside her,
Talia let out a muted gasp. Jonna turned to her to find her eyes full of tears.

“Do they know each other?” She whispered, not wanting to
interrupt the moment. It was as if Talia couldn’t quite bring herself to talk –
she simply nodded. How she knew this, Jonna wasn’t sure, but she figured it had
to be a Mythran thing. Ivy, meanwhile was drawing ragged and desperate breaths
through her mouth.

“Norik.” She said his name like a prayer. Another moment –
and suddenly, the two were in each other’s arms, frantically grabbing and
embracing one another as though they were afraid that they might disappear into
thin air at any moment. “I thought I’d never see you again, I thought – I
thought you were dead!”

“Not dead.” The man, “Norik”, sniffled. “Close, a few times.
But I’m here. I’m here now.”

Ivy let out a sob.

Everyone stood silently, watching. Talia had tears streaming
down her face. Dante and Cadmus both looked… less confused than Jonna would
have expected, actually. They mostly looked just happy. Fair enough. *Whatever* they were seeing, it was
obviously important to the people involved. A little emotional, to be honest.
Jonna could feel herself welling up, as the pair finally broke apart and turned
to the small assembled group. At some point, the fire alarm had stopped
blaring. It didn’t seem to matter anymore.

“I…” Norik began to speak, then trailed off, looking
anxiously at Ivy, who shrugged and smiled and stepped forward.

“Norik is… he’s my brother.” She revealed. “Long-lost
brother, that is. Technically. Technically speaking.”

Oh.

Cadmus shuffled up to Norik, staring at him as if seeing him
in a whole new light.

“I had no idea…” He said, dumbly. “I’ve heard a lot about
you, actually.”

“You…” Tears welled up in Norik’s eyes. “You did?”

Cadmus nodded, solemnly, before holding out his hand. Norik
shook it, wordlessly. Something seemed to pass between the two men.

In all honesty, Jonna felt almost awkward. Like she was
intruding on something intimate. But there were still questions that she
couldn’t stop asking herself. If Cadmus had cut some kind of chip out of Ivy,
did that mean that she was free to leave the Twelve of Infinite Sight? Would
Ivy be willing to change allegiance, now that her brother had turned out to be
on the opposing side? What was the relationship between Cadmus and Ivy, anyway?
They seemed to be close. And where were Peragrine and Percevel?

Ivy hugged both men again, before turning to Cadmus,
suddenly adopting a serious facial expression. “You left the Twelve?”

He paused for a moment, then nodded. “I did.”

She bit her lip and furrowed her eyebrows as she looked up
at him. Both of them blinked, slowly, letting time pass, before she spoke
again.

“Okay.” She breathed in, then breathed out. “Then I will
too.”

Cadmus almost flung himself backwards in surprise. Jonna
felt herself react in a similar way. Norik, meanwhile, had his arms folded, and
an expression of… was that pride, on his face?

“I-!” Cadmus stumbled over his words. “I can’t… I can’t ask
you to come with me! The Twelve is so important to you! I thought-! I thought
you…” He trailed off as Ivy wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled his face
closer to hers.

“The Twelve was never as important to me as you were.” She
said, solemnly. “If you’re leaving, then so am I.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment longer,
before Dante rapped a knuckle against the wall. Everyone jumped, and stared at
him.

“As happy as I am at all these reunions,” he said, “any
chance we can’t postpone them for a bit? Honestly, I hate to interrupt, but-”

“Dante!” A voice called from outside the room, in the
hallway. Peering past Dante, Jonna could just make out another group of people
walking towards them. At the front was the blonde woman she had seen on the
screen earlier – Plue, if she remembered correctly. But it was another figure –
being carried, bridal-style, towards her – that caught her attention.

“Peragrine!”

She and Talia were suddenly running to meet the new group.
It was all something of a blur, but soon enough, she was kneeling besides
Peragrine’s comatose body. There was ash in his hair and a bruise on his chin,
but he looked to be sleeping peacefully – though his eyes cracked open a little
at the sound of her voice. She thought she could hear voices talking in the
background, but it was just that – background noise. For the time, there was
only her and her friend.

“Jon… Jonna.” He murmured. “You’re here?”

She smiled shakily. “We came to get you, stupid.” She
muttered to him as she ruffled the boy’s hair. His forehead lines crumpled
downwards as he tried to process her words, until his eyes wandered and settled
on the form of an equally concerned Talia. He cracked a grin.

“Long time… no see…” He muttered to her, trying to rise for
half a second before wincing and lying back down on the carpeted floor. “Wish
the… circumstances were better, y’know?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Talia said, comfortingly, before
scanning their surroundings. “Do you… do you know where Percevel is?”

Peragrine’s face suddenly fell. Agonizingly slowly, he shook
his head.

“…No.” He breathed, his discomfort apparent. She and Talia
shared a concerned glance. What had happened?

Jonna rose to her feet, and turned around to see both Dante
and Plue staring gravely at her.

“We need to talk.” Dante said, shoving his hands into his
pockets angrily.

The talk did not happen immediately. Though there were no
more reunions, which was almost a surprise by this point, there were a great
deal of introductions (mixed in with the odd suspicious squint). In time, the
assembled group were all sitting around a single large table that wouldn’t have
looked out of place in some kind of conference room. Jonna herself sat on the
side of Peragrine (who had recovered enough to sit upright), whilst Talia sat
to *their* side. Across the table sat
Norik, Ivy, and Cadmus. Also, there were a black-clad woman named Kaida, a
brunette apparently called Gaia, Plue, and Dante. Everyone possessed various
grim looks. Eventually, it was Dante who bit the bullet and stood up.

“Hello, everyone. Thanks for coming.” He said with just a
hint of sarcasm. “Now, here’s the problem we face. The Twelve of Infinite
Sight.” His gaze turned to Ivy and Cadmus. “Or ten. Whatever. The however-many
of infinite sight.” He sighed. “Whilst originally looking for the Dimensional
Gate in our possession – which is how Perry and Perce ended up here, for anyone
wondering – what they are currently after is the return of their defector,
Cadmus.” He paused, then continued. “What they want to do with him, I have no
idea, but in order to… *motivate* him
to give himself up, they’ve kidnapped two individuals. Vector Jadewing, and…
Percevel.”

Jonna gritted her teeth. It was horrible, frankly. And
frustrating, too – to finally find one friend, only for the other to slip away.
When would they be able to just go home?

Dante continued to talk. “I know that our best course of
action is to form some kind of plan to get them back – because I don’t know
about you, but I don’t think they’d treat Cadmus very well if they were to get
their hands on him – but before I do, I want to know everything I can about the
Twelve and their history.” He focused on Cadmus and Ivy. “Whilst I would
appreciate any information the two of you would be willing to give me, there’s
one other perspective I’d like to hear first, if you don’t mind.” His gaze
drifted to directly in front of him, the opposite end of the table. Looking
around, Jonna saw the woman in the pink shirt – Gaia – sitting in place,
digging her nails into the wooden table as her hands trembled in what must have
been fury, if the expression on her face was anything to go by. Who was she,
she wondered, and why was she so strung up about the whole situation?

“Gaia.” Dante sounded slightly different. Almost as though
he were a parent talking to a difficult child. “I understand that you’ve always been
closed-off when it comes to your personal history. Probably for good reason.”
He paused as she stared daggers at him, before pressing on doggedly. “But Plue
and Peragrine told me a bit about your fight with that red-haired man. And
Plue’s also talked to me about Norik and Cadmus’ theories.” He bit his lip.
“When I found you, you were in the Highwing Institute. Overbuild’s facility. In
a stasis chamber.”

Jonna herself wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, not
being familiar with a lot of what was being reference in this particular
monologue, but she tried to follow regardless.

Gaia shrugged, as if indicating to get on with it. Dante
sighed.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk about it.” He said,
slowly and carefully. “But it looks to me very much like your past has not only
caught up to you, but is now directly affecting the rest of us.” He rose his
bowed head to meet her eyes. “What happened to you, Gaia? Who was that man? Why
are the Twelve the way they are?” When she didn’t immediately reply, he
clenched his hands around the table he was leaning on.

“I know I could probably get enough information or whatever
from either of these two.” He indicated Cadmus and Ivy with a hand. “But this
goes beyond our predicament. This is me asking you not as a military superior,
but a friend, about your past experiences. Not because I’m interested in information
about the Twelve, so much as I’m interested in helping you. When this is all
said and done.” He eyed the group. “If it’s too big or too foreign an audience,
I understand.” He breathed in, then out. Heavily. “And you are under no
obligation to answer.”

A moment’s silence passed. Then Gaia scoffed.

“I’ll tell you what we’re up against. *Who* we’re up against.” She hissed angrily. “It wouldn’t be fair to ask
you all to fight without understanding… understanding everything.” She paused,
all of the anger suddenly evaporating, leaving something rawer and sadder.

“This might get a little… personal.”

### ***GAIA ELUCISS: ORIGIN***

I think the worst part of it all is that I can’t even
remember what my parents looked like.

I remember that my dad was a lot like me. Tall, with brown
hair. He used to- to pick me up, and let me ride around on his back. And my mum
– I think her eyes were like mine. Emphasis on think. I can just about still
remember her voice. Reading stories to me, late at night. But everything else
is just… gone. Their faces, gone. I don’t remember anything else before…

Highwing wanted children. Children to experiment on,
children to brainwash, children to… Anyway, it wasn’t like my family was short
of it. Five kids, including myself. There were my brothers, Aidan and Raleigh,
my sisters, Nerida and Aella, and me, the youngest. The thing is we lived…
pretty out of the way. Some country village. I can’t remember the name. And
even then, it was on the outskirts of town. We were probably just known as
“that nice family”, which must have made it real convenient when we
disappeared. All of us.

They must have been desperate for subjects to take us while
we were still with our parents. Desperate times call for desperate measures,
and all that. In our case, “desperate measures” was a midnight raid. Me and my
siblings were pulled from our beds and thrown into the back of a van. Aidan
broke his wrist, trying to fight back, and Nerida was hit on the head. I tried
to fight too, but I couldn’t have been older than six, so I doubt that was
actually any help. And… they killed our parents. I don’t know how mom died. I
didn’t see. But dad beat down three of them before they got him. He was like a
badass and angry bear.

But they got him anyway.

Just like that, our lives changed forever. Before we really
knew what was happening, we were dropped off at Highwing. I… I still remember
seeing it for the first time. The white lights that never stopped shining down
on you, and the hallways that all looked the same. If I had been left to wonder
the halls by myself – not that I was, but, you know – I would *definitely* have gotten lost. Anyways… we
were each given our own little cell, and our own little jumpsuit, and that was
that. They didn’t let you ask questions. If you talked out of turn, you were
just slapped, or worse. Maybe beaten down. One of the first thing you learned,
no matter how old or loudmouthed you were, was to keep your damn mouth shut.

It wasn’t so bad at first, to be honest. Some blood tests,
but that was about it. Most of the time, it was just boring. For a lot of kids,
who had been taken from the streets or something, it was probably an
improvement. But not for us. Because, you know, we’d been kidnapped in the
middle of the night.

Boy, did things only go downhill from there.

You know, I went into Highwing with four siblings. By the
time I left – by the time you guys got me out – I had none left. None that I *cared* about, at least. That has to be
some kind of achievement, but I digress. The point is, after the blood tests
came the injections and the actual experimentation. To turn us into deviants.
Savants. Whatever. Most of the time it was just chemicals. From what I
gathered, savant abilities are in some kind of dormant gene, and what they were
doing was trying to forcefully activate it. Kind of cool idea, to be honest.
Not gonna lie. Though I’d say the *execution*
was where these guys really dropped the ball.

Probably because of the kidnap and murder.

Forceful activation of savant abilities was a nasty business.
Not only were you shot up with so many drugs you could barely physically
function afterwards, but sometimes the actual abilities would screw you over,
because your body would have no idea how to handle or control them. So, you’d
just kill yourself with your new superpowers. Like my sister, Aella. Got the
power to pass through objects and, whilst trying to test them out (as she’d
been ordered), she just. Sank through the floor. And that was that, you know?
No-one ever saw her again.

I always complain about how my powers are dependent on
maelstrom levels, but the truth is that that probably saved my life. If I’d
immediately starting creating chaos tornadoes I probably would have torn myself
apart. But because I couldn’t really do anything right off the bat, my body had
time to… climatize. After they figured out the maelstrom factor, I was given
larger and larger amounts to experiment with, to test the limits of my
abilities. And you know what? I never actually found them. They gave out the
tattoos, and sorted us into… “classes”, based on how strong or powerful our
abilities were. I was in S-class, the highest. Because it became apparent that
my limits were greater than the walls that held me.

Would I have tried to break out immediately? It was
tempting, but the thing was, you had to wear a shock collar all the time. It
wasn’t particularly tight or anything, but it was there. And if you misbehaved,
you’d just get an electric shock. And was only really like… ten? When I started
to actually grow into my powers. So, you can bet that I had no real rebellious
plans. My brothers, Aidan and Raleigh, had other ideas. I heard them talking
one mealtime – because meals were when you were allowed to interact with other
people – about an escape plan. This must have been when I was… eleven. Twelve,
tops. Hey, it wasn’t as though we were given calendars down there.

Even now, I’m not quite sure what their plan had been. All I
know is that it didn’t work. Aidan rubbed my head and said they’d be back for
me, that they’d blow the facility wide open and let us all go. Raleigh was by
his side, and said that they’d either get out or die trying. I never saw Aidan
again, and they only brought Raleigh back… God, I don’t know how much later it
was. Months? Half a year? I don’t know. But he was different, after that. I
don’t know what they did to him, but he changed. I mean, he had always been a
little *off* or whatever, but a lot of
people are slightly quirky. Like me. Well, not like *me*. I’m not stupid, I know that I’m more “quirky” than most people.
Anyways, I- uh- well, I mean, personally, now, I hate Raleigh. Probably more
than anything else. But… I can’t blame him for changing in there, because I
changed too. I learnt to savour every joy I could, because in Highwing, you can
bet that no joy was going to last for very long. What else… I learnt to, uh,
think outside the box, just because my surroundings were so boring. I had to be
creative.

I’m getting off track, I’m sorry. Told you this might get
personal, though. My point was that Raleigh probably learned something too,
just something different to me, and that changed him. I mean, I think that’s
what happened to everyone. I just noticed it with Raleigh, because he was my
only remaining sibling by that point. No, was he…? Yeah, he was. Nerida had
tried to get out, while he was gone. She could control fire, or something, so
she made a break for it. I don’t know how far she got, only that she didn’t
make it, because they brought her body in a few hours later. Y’know, to remind
us what happened to any potential escapees.

Stupid girl.

And- and I know I should respect the dead, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Especially because she was my sister. But… she had always been very confident. Too
confident. We were similar, but I’m just plain energetic. Self-belief has nothing
to do with it, for me. But her? She had always boasted that when she was strong
enough, she would… just walk out. I guess she tried. You know, even when she was
no longer with us, she still had that arrogant smile on her face. They could close
her eyes, but they couldn’t wipe that smirk away. That made it easier, I think,
to pretend that what had happened to my sister… hadn’t actually happened.

So that was life for, uh, for a while. I was something of a
solitary creature, because I had been used to talking with my siblings, and
they were mostly gone now. There was still Raleigh, but after he got back, he
just began ignoring me. Like I didn’t matter to him anymore. I probably really
didn’t. I spent most of my time focusing on harnessing my powers. Got pretty
good at it, too. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do. By that time, they
had begun teaching us how to fight, as well. I think they planned on using us
as warriors. For what? God, I don’t know. But they taught us how to punch and
stuff. Fighting was often very personalised – based on our abilities. They
spared no expense, I’ll give them that. It was all so… sickeningly efficient.

It was how I learnt to fight, though. How I learnt my
limits, my strengths. My one true skill in life – physically overpowering
others. I’m proud, though I know I shouldn’t be. Even then, it was obvious that
I was a natural. I always had been competitive, and protective, and snappy. I remember
threatening my brother, once upon a time: if he kept trying to steal my chicken
nuggets, I’d brake every bone in his hand. By that point, if I had had a worthwhile
brother left… or nuggets, for that matter, I probably would have been able to keep
my word.

By the time I met that man – Ironsides – for the first time,
I had definitely changed. I take after my father, in a lot of ways. I was
probably the tallest there, out of both the girls and the boys. And I was
strong, too. With my training, I probably could have killed with my bare hands,
through brute strength. Whatever I was, I was no longer a child.

Ironsides was looking for soldiers. At least, that’s what I
had heard. It’s what the rumour mill said, because of course rumours were going
to spread, no matter what they tried to do to hush us up. That’s how people
work.

He… he saw me, first, I think. Or first-ish. I don’t know.
But my size, and my being in S-Class, was bound to leave him interested. I was
probably of the ones he wanted to recruit to the Twelve. In another life, I may
well have ended up by his side. He said, “I want strong, and I want clever. The
best that you can spare.” I think… yes, it was definitely Overbuild he was
talking to. When he said that. Overbuild seemed fine with it, probably because
they had agreed on it earlier, or something. Whether he’d have given *me* up, I don’t know.

As it turned out, I never got to choose.

A while later, I was woken up by the sounds of boots
stomping past my cell. It was some kind of riot. How it got started, I don’t
know, how it ever managed to get to the levels it did, I don’t know. What I do
know is that my door ended up being blasted off its hinges by someone who had
only managed to control their ability to create explosions after it had cost
them an arm. They said that they were breaking out. I agreed to join. It wasn’t
like I had anything to lose.

Things had quickly gone to pot. From what I could gather, it
was because of Ironsides’ visit that this whole thing had started. I think it
had something to do with the fear of being left behind – he was only picking a
few, after all, and it was the only hope that some of us had seen for years. It
was this aura of panic that let some people rise up, and garner support. To
break out. To break free. It had started with a fire, as many things do. I mean,
not normally a fire that someone has conjured in their hand, but… eh, you know.

I would *love* to
say that I was on the front lines, the best fighter there, you know? Leading
the charge…? Unfortunately, if I said that, I’d be lying. I spent most of the time
trying to find any maelstrom to charge up on, actually, I knew they kept some somewhere,
and I found it eventually, but by that point it was almost too late. Most of us
had been driven back into our cells. Some of us had been killed. And some of us
– including me, were within sight of an exit. Not that it guaranteed freedom. As
a matter of fact, none of us had any idea where it led. But it was better than nothing.
And you know what? We could have gotten out. We could probably had made it.

I haven’t explained why I hate Raleigh so much yet, have I?

He decided that… that instead of risking his future along with
us, he would… God help him, he said that he would solidify his future by sacrificing
ours. And, I mean, it made sense. Word on the corridor was that Ironsides would
return, and he would take some of us away when he did. Put in some good behaviour
at a crucial moment? He was already a powerful savant, but that probably solidified
his chances of being selected. As a matter of fact, I KNOW that it did, because
he’s with the Twelve now.

Anyway… none of us left. Not the way we wanted, at least. Most
of the others were recaptured. Raleigh killed two of them in the fight. And I? That
was the sigh of my “heroic last stand”. I screamed. I punched. I kicked. I had a
decent amount of maelstrom within me, and I made their bodies drop before I was
finally overpowered.

Yeah, you see these? They were from my captor’s weapons. The
only way they could bring me down was by weakening me first. Via blood loss. The
only reason they kept me alive was because of my value as a specimen, or whatever,
but I think at that point, it was obvious to them that I was not worth the trouble
of keeping around or conscious, even if I wasn’t worth killing yet. So, they put
me in stasis. And that’s the last thing I remember, before waking up slung over
someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes, being carried down the corridors I had
wanted to escape from for years. I don’t know how long they put me in stasis, but
it doesn’t matter much to me. I don’t know how long I was down there altogether,
and I don’t even know how old I am, so I’m not too bothered about a jump in my timeline
like that.

But, uh, yeah. Now you know what happened to me, I guess. And
a bit more about the Twelve, too.

See, Ironsides’ group grew up in that same environment as me.
I’d probably recognise most of them. I do actually recognise the two of you, now
that I stop to think about it. Did they have it worse than me? Probably not, but
only because I probably had more siblings to be killed off than everyone else. I
can’t say for sure. But here’s the thing, or things. Whatever.

I don’t… I don’t know if the Twelve can be reasoned with. I know
that you two are on side, but… I just wouldn’t risk it. The thing is, if Ironsides
got them out of there, they might well see him as some kind of saviour. They might
well be loyal to him beyond convincing. I don’t know for sure – like I said, the
two of you are here – but I wouldn’t, you know, consider it a viable strategy in
the heat of battle. Speaking of battle, not only are all of them going to be at
least decently powerful savants, but they’re going to know what they’re doing. How
to use their powers. It’s likely that they’ll also be kitted out with state of the
art weapons and gadgets, or something.

What else…?

They weren’t brought up normally. *We* weren’t brought up normally. They might be… not normal. I mean, look
at me. I don’t think they’ll be exactly like me, but I just… I don’t know, I’m sorry.
I really thought I’d have more to say than this. God, I’m sorry.

Here’s one thing I do know. They aren’t above anything. Case
in point, in order to get Cadmus back – probably just so they can either recondition
or kill him, whichever works best for them – they kidnapped our friends. And, I
mean, who knows how they’re treating ‘em, on TOP of that. I won’t dwell, because
I hate thinking under the best of circumstances, and now it’s just making me angry.
But whatever. A couple more things, and then I’m bowing out. Thank you and good-damn-night
in advance.

Number one: I know we want our first priority to be rescuing
Vector and Percevel, but the Twelve aren’t going to let us go without a fight. When
we act, it has to be decisive and quick and stuff. We have to remove Ironsides from
his seat of power or whatever, and make sure that none of the others are going to
fight against us. You get vibes from Ironsides. He’s the one who orchestrated the
whole thing, ruined my life as well as the lives of so many others. He probably
has a bunch of plans and buggery up his stupid sleeves. So, we can’t risk letting
him lurk out there, to strike against us again.

Number two: the sooner we do this, the better. There’s no telling
what they might do to our friends when Cadmus doesn’t return, so I… I request formal
permission, Dante, to launch this operation tomorrow. And it has to be us. Only
us. I know that we could get the Nexus Force involved, but… but we couldn’t. Not
really. Heavy weapons would mean that Vector and Percevel might get hurt, and foot
soldiers – I’m sorry, but they just won’t compare. It wouldn’t be ten to one, it
would be ten to zero. We can’t risk any more people getting hurt. I… I won’t let
it happen. Okay?

Thanks.

Number three: I don’t care who decides to do what, so long as…
so long as you leave Raleigh to me. I hate him, I’m pretty sure he hates me, and
I think both of us need a grudge match. So, leave him to me. Let me be the one to
drag his ass out of his high aspirations and back into the dirt, where I’ve been
the whole damn time. It has to be me.

Well, you asked me to speak. I’ve speaked. And if you’ll all
excuse me, I need to go.

### ***WHOMST***

““Whomst” am I?” Echoed her doppelganger, turning around to
face her. Gaia simply nodded. Words had no appeal at the moment. She had said
enough for tonight. And the next night. And maybe some more nights. But she *had* to know who this person was, because
she had never seen them before, yet they were so damn familiar and they looked
a lot like her. She had noticed. She was stupid, but she wasn’t blind. And if
she couldn’t keep secrets from anyone else, they couldn’t keep secrets from
her.

To her surprise, the doppelganger laughed, muttering
“whomst” to herself. Perhaps she found the word funny. Gaia did. That was part
of the reason why she used it.

“You heard me.” She said, folding her arms. “Whomst are you?
Why are you here?” She clenched her fingers around her biceps in frustration.
“Why *now*?”

The rest of the question went unsaid. Why was this
suspicious person here NOW, when the last remaining member of Gaia’s family has
raised their ugly head again? When things were nice and poetic? Why did someone
else who looked like they could fit right in have to crop up?

“Because you need me.” The doppelganger said, simply. She
folded her arms too, and *oh*, that was
like looking in a mirror. Too freaky!

“I don’t need you.” She tried to keep the quiver out of her
voice. Her voice didn’t normally quiver. It was embarrassing. But she couldn’t
help it. She was just so tired of everything.

Instead of answering in words, the doppelganger raised her
left hand to her right wrist and began to fiddle with whatever she was wearing
around it. Maybe a watch? Gaia peered closer. Her doppelganger was wearing
plates of armour around her wrists and forearms, including the metal gadget,
although she was clearly copying her with the fingerless glove-looking things
around her hands. The fingerless gloves were *her* trademark. However, her attention was suddenly taken by the
not-particularly-comfortable realisation that two of her doppelganger’s fingers
were made of metal. The index and middle finger of her right hand were spindly
bits of metal, thin tubes connected to one another by ball-looking things that
helped the fingers rotate. As she watched, one of them twitched. Ew.

There was a buzzing noise, and an image flickered into
insistence above the doppelganger’s wrist. Gaia looked up. It was a hologram of
a picture of some kind – the face of an angry man, or something. What she
presumed was the important bit, however, was the caption: “*YOU SIT ON A THRONE OF LIES*”.

“Hey!” She snapped. The doppelganger shrugged, the image
dissipated, and a thought came to Gaia. A rare occurrence, so she tried to hold
onto it, and eventually managed to say: “Wouldn’t it have been easier to just
say that?”

The doppelganger shrugged.

Gaia glowered.

“You still haven’t told me who you are.” She said.

“I don’t know if I’m *supposed* to.” The doppelganger countered, rolling her eyes. “Like- I- it’s complicated,
alright?”

Well, that was just SUPER unhelpful. EVERYTHING was
complicated! Feelings? Complicated. Existence? Complicated. Saying that something
was complicated was just… it was redundant, that’s what it was.

“That’s redundant.” She stated out loud for the doppelganger’s
benefit. The doppelganger shrugged.

“I don’t know what else I can say.” She confessed. “I just
know that I can’t tell you what you want to know. I don’t think I can, at
least.”

“I don’t like vague-ness.” Gaia said, taking a steady step
forward. “I don’t like not knowing things.” Another step. Slowly approaching
the doppelganger, who – curiously – made no attempt to stand back. She COULDN’T
have been being subtle enough to walk unnoticed, surely. “I don’t like
mysterious people pretending to know less than they do when they blatantly resemble
me and I have a kind of hang-up when it comes to family members.”

“That’s weirdly specific.” The doppelganger said. Losing
patience, Gaia lunged at her, grabbing her by her shoulders and shaking her
back and forth until her beanie began to slip off her head.

“WHO. ARE. YOU.” It came out as less of a question and more
of a statement, to be perfectly honest. Such was her irritation and her want to
know.

“I. CAN’T. TELL. YOU.” The doppelganger said back, rolling
her eyes. “I’m sorry that I can’t give you any of that sweet, sweet context,
but I just *can’t*, okay?”

The two leaned close to one another, glaring into each other’s
eyes. Gaia blinked. They really were similar. It was she who drew back first,
being hit once again by a wave of tiredness, brought on by recalling her life’s
story to a room full of people. Damn it all.

“Any chance of a consolation prize?” She muttered, rubbing
her forehead in tiredness and exasperation.

The doppelganger shrugged, tapping her fingers against her
arm. “Well, my name’s Kaida.”

“That’s quite similar to my name.” Gaia observed – not mentioning
that it was just the latest in a long string of similarities she had noticed. She
ached to just, for once in her life, understand what was happening around her. Of
course, she didn’t. She never did, did she?

“Yep.” Confirmed Kaida, with a… pained expression? No, maybe
not pain, but there was something discernible on her face. Gaia looked at her
again, then slumped.

“Fine.” She sighed, turning around and beginning to walk
back in the other direction. “See you tomorrow, I guess.” That was, at least,
something she could focus on. Something she knew about. The rescue mission that
she had suggested. Go in there, knock some heads, get Vector and Percevel back,
never associate with the Twelve ever again ever. It was just so frustrating!
Things were always just so beyond her control, and-

“I’m your daughter from the future!”

The words echoed around the hallway. Inside the meeting room
(where everyone had spoken earlier – by now, there was no-one there except for Kaida
and Gaia), the lights flickered slightly, as if registering the gravity of what
had just been said. Everything seemed to still for a brief moment, like someone
had accidentally leaned on the universe’s pause button.

For Gaia, nothing was making sense. Daughter. As in, child. As
in, a person that Gaia had… *birthed*,
and then raised. No. No way. Children? She would never have children. She- that
was just- nooooo. A kid? A freaking kid? She had had a child? How did that even
happen? How was that possible? And the future? Wha- what the ever-loving cuss?
How?! That wasn’t physically possible! (And that was saying a lot, considering *she* of all people was saying that.)
A-buh-buh-WHAT. System error. System restart. What the cuss. Meltdown. Meltdown.
Not possible. Child from the future. The future. THE FUTURE. THE EFFING FUTURE.
hhhhhhHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAH-! N-no. No way, no how, no way Jose, no way hose A, no
way hose B.

She tried to speak, but nothing came out of her mouth. Maybe
just some air. A drawn-out and startled breath. But words weren’t working, they
just weren’t. Could she still move? Maybe. Her finger twitched. Yes. She slowly
turned around, spinning first her head and then her torso and then her legs. Kaida
was standing in the hallway. She was looking at herself quizzically, scanning
her arms with her eyes, before sighing in relief. Why would she-? Oh. OH. The
timeline. Was that a thing? Was the timeline a thing? Gaia didn’t know. It felt
like she didn’t know *anything* anymore,
except that Kaida was her child from the future. THE FUTURE.

Upon (sort of) accepting the fact that Kaida really *was* her offspring, a number of emotions and
thoughts smashed into Gaia at once:

* “She’s got my eyes!”
* Fear
* Awe
* “What happened to her fingers?”
* “Does she have any moles?”
* Surprise
* “Oh my GOD.”
* Pride
* Shock
* “How did she get here?”
* “A time machine?”
* “Who let my child use a time machine?”
* Some more awe
* “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REACT?”
* Maternal instinct – a whole LOAD of maternal instinct

* Hunger (though that wasn’t really relevant)
* “She turned out so well!”

Everything kind of stopped, however, when Kaida lifted her
eyes to view her again.

“Mum?” She asked, in a voice laced with adult maturity and
confidence, yet carrying a tinge of vulnerability. A tinge of *fear*. This was- this was her daughter,
talking to her, asking for her mother. Oh, God, what was she supposed to do?
She had never been a mother before! But she had to do something, she felt it! Already
the knowledge had bestowed upon her unworthy form some kind of gut instinct to
take care of her daughter. That was probably what confirmed it, she mused. That
instinct. (Even if her instincts were just as confused as her, saying that they
didn’t remember having a child.)

Gaia tried to walk, stumbling over her feet before picking
up speed and heading back towards her daughter. She didn’t even realise that
she was crying until she crashed into her, stopped moving for a moment, and
felt the tears slide cleanly down her face.

There was an awful moment of nothing, and the Gaia felt her
daughter return the embrace.

“Hey, mum.” Kaida said, tightening the hug.

Gaia sniffed. “My baby!”

After that, neither of them talked for a while, content to
rest in each other’s arms. Eventually, it was actually Gaia who broke off the
hug so that, for the first time, she could look Kaida in the face with the
added knowledge that she was looking at her bloody offspring. The realisation
that she had her eyes was a jolt, because Gaia’s own mother had had the same
eyes, and looking at Kaida now made it feel like her mother was back, and
alive, except now she was the mother, and- oh! Oh, she was going to cry again!

She sniffled. Kaida stifled a laugh, before folding her
arms.

“Any more questions you want to ask?”

Gaia opened her mouth, then closed it again. Long explanations
never held her attention, there was still the potential matter of spoilers or
whatever (not that she REALLY cared, but what if something threatened her
daughter’s existence?), and… well, she suddenly felt as though she knew enough.
She shook her head.

“Really?” Kaida raised an eyebrow. “Nothing else? Not whether
I have any siblings, not what happened to my fingers…” She grinned slightly slyly.
“Not even who my dad is?”

Gaia, instead of immediately answering, instead brushed a
tear away from her eye.

“Then I wouldn’t have the fun of finding out for myself.”
She said, pushing down all her speculative thoughts and shoving the idea ungraciously
from her mind. “At the moment, all I care about is *you*.” She placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulders. “Tell me about
yourself, Kaida. Powers? Hobbies? Boyfriends?”

Kaida laughed. “That’d be three for three.” She confirmed, before
looking around. “Do you want to talk here, or somewhere else?”

“Oh, somewhere else.” Gaia said just as she realised that
she actually didn’t want to have the conversation in a dark hallway. “Come on.”

Kaida stepped up to a position beside Gaia as the two began
to walk off, and Gaia, for her part, mused that maybe – just maybe – there was
hope after all.

### ***NIGHT OF GRACE***

“Dante.”

He had been sitting on a small bed against the wall
(reminding him a little too much of the bed in a prison cell), trying to sort
through his thoughts and emotions when she arrived. Following their
confrontation earlier that day, Raelyn had remained completely silent. Earlier
on following their merging, blackout periods had been common – presumably,
Raelyn had been adjusting herself to life in his psyche and, well, he hadn’t
exactly been willing to reach out to the *thing*
that had inhabited his mind and used him as a tool to kill people.

Their relationship had vastly improved since those early
days of animosity, which was why Raelyn reverting to old ways was a worry for
him. Especially seeing as how their operation was set to begin tomorrow.
Dante’s power was reliant on compliance and/or co-operation with Raelyn who, as
the gem, was technically the source of his powers. If they weren’t on speaking
terms by tomorrow, he wouldn’t be able to operate at full capacity – and they
were going to need all their strength.

He knew she could hear him, as well. Hear his thoughts.
There was no such thing as privacy in his own mind any more. Anything he
thought, she saw. He’d like to say that it was the same the other way around
(and, to a certain extent, he could pick up on her feelings), but the fact that
she had the ability to just *vanish* as
she had that day was a sign that he’d be lying if he said so.

Damn it all.

He turned around to see Plue in the doorway. Of course it
was Plue. His rock. His confidante. His best friend. Who else would it be? He
allowed himself a wry smile, as he thought: who else *could* it be? Only they knew the passcode to their room. The room
itself was underused – between Plue’s working in the Nexus Force as a whole (as
opposed to specifically Pandemonium’s Bane), and his offsite expeditions, *and* the fact that the two already owned
a house together that they used more consistently, he was surprised that it had
had any use at all before tonight. Yes, it had, but that was neither here nor
there.

“Hello, beautiful.” He said, by way of a response. There was
a moment of silence – Plue’s shape was silhouetted against the door. Dante
couldn’t see her expression, only her hand on her hip as she stood in the
doorway. Then-

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” And he could hear the
warmth in her voice.

“Oh, really?” He shifted over on the bed, moving away from
the door, and patting the space to his side. She began to walk over to him, and
he couldn’t stop himself from smiling giddily as she approached. “I could have
sworn that you love it when I call you that.”

“You wouldn’t be wrong.” She sat down, staring at him, and
he could see her face now. It was softly illuminated by the only light in the
room – a tiny bedside lamp. He could just make out her eyes in the darkness.
Yep, still the most gorgeous things he had ever seen. She raised a hand to his
face, fingers lightly drifting over his cheek in a gentle touch. He allowed
himself to sink into the contact, only to be jolted to his senses as she
flicked his ear.

“Ow!” He rubbed said ear, affronted. Plue shrugged.

“But let’s not forget how our first conversation in three
weeks was business-related. And don’t hit me with the “they can trace tech”
excuse, because we both know that you cleared those damn things up in about a
third of that time.”

The “they” in question were a type of maelstrom creature
that sometimes made their way into the crystal cave. Leechers were insectoid,
had grabby pincers, and antenna that released static electricity – both
screwing up human technology, and enabling them to sense said tech, and use it
to track people. They were also the size of a car.

Fun bunch of buggers.

She was right, though – he *had* defeated them fairly quickly. It was just…

“Raelyn thinks that there’s another gem somewhere in there.”
He explained. “I mean, I *personally*
can’t really tell. But she’s adamant that there’s one somewhere in those caves.
Says she can… like, roughly sense it, or something. Location-wise.”

“You could have let me know first.” As he had expected, Plue
was unwilling to take his excuses. Not that he blamed her. It wasn’t like he
had *willingly* kept her in the dark
(he would never), but everything had just kind of… slipped his mind. It did
that, sometimes. Regardless, it was his mistake. He had to at least admit that.

“I know.” He said, forlorn. “I know, and I- I’m sorry.”

Plue sighed. He looked at her, concerned.

“I just.” He hesitated. “I just got really fixated on it, is
all.”

“That’s not a good excuse.” She told him. He – he wasn’t
trying to make excuses, was he? No, no, he wasn’t. Did she think he was? Time
to set the record straight.

“Okay.” He turned to face her. She didn’t turn to face him,
which stung a bit, but was also very in-character and he couldn’t fault her
considering the situation. “Plue, I was inconsiderate. Not coming back was one
thing, but I didn’t even let you know what was happening, despite the fact that
lack of knowledge is something that really bothers you. I didn’t do it
malevolently, but I still did it, and I want to apologize.”

A moment of silence followed, during which Dante registered
nothing but the feeling of his heart running rampant inside his chest. Then:

“I forgive you.” Plue muttered, turning to face him. She
tried for a smile, and – well, it was a bit unsure, but he really appreciated
the effort, so he spread his arms wide.

“Hug?”

The pair embraced. The gesture was one of reconciliation and
forgiveness, showing that though an issue had arisen and Dante had been at
fault, the pair had been able to bridge the gap and reunite themselves, as they
had done so many times before over the course of their relationship. This one
was different, though – it also felt *safe*.
Dante could clearly remember the chaos and disaster of the whole day,
everything that had happened since he had stumbled across Jonna and Talia in the
caves, but when he and Plue were together, it felt like he was just sort of
immune to it all. Like time was standing still, someone was hitting the pause
button, and he found himself able to breath.

After the day that they had had, it was nice to just savour
the sound of nobody talking. Or, to be more accurate, the *lack* of sound.

“So.” Plue eventually said. “What’s our plan of attack?”

Dante drew away, and sighed as he thought, leaning down and
balancing his elbows on his knees.

“I’ve been thinking about it.” He informed her, running the
plan through his mind as he spoke. “Power-wise, I’m wary, because the
metaphorical grapevine has informed me that they’re going to have four savants
at Gaia’s strength.”

“You’re thinking that we can’t take them in an open fight?”
Plue filled in. Yes, that was exactly what he thought, but he was reluctant to
admit that. Hmm.

“It’d be tricky.” He explained. “Power-wise, Gaia’s at a
high level, and Talia – well, she’s a Mythran, which has to count for
something. And, of course, there’s me, assuming I can get Raelyn to cooperate.”
Plue looked quizzical, and he realised that he hadn’t explained the conflict
between him and Raelyn to anyone. Still, that was… well, “irrelevant” wasn’t
the right word, but it wasn’t the right time to bring it up. “Beyond that,
Cadmus sounds decently strong, considering it took three of you to stop him.”

“Working together.” Plue added. He nodded in affirmation.

“Yeah, so that’s a decently powerful group. Then there’s
you, Jonna, and Peragrine, who aren’t savants, but are decently skilled.”

“Decent?” She raised an eyebrow, but he could pick up on her
sarcasm, even before she said “You insult me, sir.”

“Apologies, m’lady.” He gave a small mock bow, bobbing his
torso and waving his arm. “I’ll be sure to describe your skills and feats in
full to the Twelve. Perhaps they’ll surrender, and save us the trouble.”

Plue giggled. “Wouldn’t *that*
be convenient?”

Dante nodded in affirmation (because, in all honesty, it
really would), before focusing again. “Anyway, those eight are our strike
force. Vector and Percevel are captured, obviously, and I was thinking about
keeping Norik and Ivy behind as a failsafe. In case either we need to fall
back, or the Twelve mount another attack on our home base.”

“So, we’re definitely bringing Cadmus?” Plue sounded
disgruntled, and Dante couldn’t blame her, but he did have his reasons –
reasons he intended to explain.

“We don’t have any way of knowing where the Twelve’s hideout
is.” He specified. “Cadmus can lead us there.”

“Okay.” Plue nodded, obviously conceding. “That’s fair
enough. And Norik and Ivy are staying back?”

Dante nodded. “We – well, *I* can’t afford mistrust now, of all times. Besides, they…” He
paused, then began to speak again. “They’re siblings, and they haven’t seen
each other in a long time, and I mean, maybe, uh… I just, uh, I feel like they
ought to get some… some time, you know? I don’t know how to phrase it. You know
what I mean?”

Plue laid a hand on his shoulder. “I do. And I think that
you’re very sweet for thinking of their well-being at a time like this.”

“Yeah, well,” Dante rubbed the back of his neck, “we’re all
kind of up to our necks at the moment. We’re stressed because leadership, Gaia
just told us a whole load of personal information, and most of the others are
stuck in the wrong dimension. I figured that those two, at least, I could help.”

“Nice.” Plue said, affirmingly, before yawning and
stretching her arms up into the air. Dante was about to ask if they should
sleep, but she answered the question by letting her head rest on his shoulder. As
one, they leaned back. Dante fumbled for the pillows that were at the end of the
bed, before messily shoving them behind their backs and necks. There were,
surprisingly, enough pillows to remain comfortable. (Which definitely had
nothing to do with pillow fights or anything like that.)

“Stay with me?” He heard himself ask as he let his eyes
shut.

“Of course.” He heard her say.

### ***VECTOR’S GUIDE TO BEING A PRISONER***

Vector didn’t remember a lot between the fight and his next
port of call – which looked to be a very plain room. Based on the fact that he
was sitting on a chair within said room, it was probably a room designed for
interrogation. An interrogation room. Interesting. He shook himself out of his
stupor, and was rewarded for his efforts by a number of unpleasant sensations.
He was sat in a hard metal chair, and his wrists were clamped to the chair’s
arms. *And* his legs were fastened to
the respective legs of the chair, as well. Just to make things more
interesting.

So, yeah. First observations were negative. The second
observations were even more so as Vector’s eyes adjusted to the bright light,
and he made out humanoid shapes in the room with him. It was two men, both clad
in dark clothing. Any possible jokes about being ominous aside, it was… a
little concerning, especially considering his vulnerable position.

“Ah, he’s awake.” Someone said. Vector groaned. So much for
getting a little time to himself before the interrogation began. Assuming-

*Wham*! His thoughts
were cut off by a fist briskly introducing itself to his jaw. Being as solid as
it was, his jaw didn’t feel broken (and, if the puncher rubbing his fist was
any indication, he had managed a little introduction of his own), but the blow
was still enough to snap his head to the side in a recoil, and pain spread
across his head in a shockwave that left his ears ringing. In short: ouch.

“D’you mind?” He snapped, and in retrospect, it was probably
not the best thing he could have said in his position. But, to be fair, he was
annoyed. “Aren’t you supposed to ask me questions and let me refuse to answer
before resorting to physical violence?”

He received no reply – well, no *verbal* reply. He was punched again, this time in the stomach. It
was a good job, Vector dimly mused as he hunched over, that he hadn’t eaten
anything substantial for a while. Nothing to throw up.

“Ah- I see now.” He muttered, taking measured breaths and
trying to ignore the ache that came from being slugged. “You’re just sadists.”

“That’s sa*dist*.” A
voice amended. Squinting into the harsh lights, Vector saw one of the figures
fold its – *his*, he could tell by the
voice – and lean against the wall of the room. The figure folded his arms and
looked as though he was turning to view Vector. His voice was cold and grating,
a harsh rasp that made him sound a bit like a heavy smoker.

“I’m many things, but not a sadist.” The figure continued,
before lazily indicating the other person in the room – the one standing beside
Vector, who had already punched him. “Him, on the other hand…”

“You make it sound so terrible.” This voice was higher –
still masculine, but lilted and far smoother. It sounded as though the speaker
was on the verge of laughing, which really wasn’t a good sign. Especially when
they were also apparently justifying being a sadist.

Vector coughed, but managed to say “So…” out loud, catching
the attention of both men. Why? There were many things that Vector Jadewing
could be accused of, but he’d be damned if he let cowardice be one of them. If
he was going to be harshly interrogated and tortured – all that fun stuff – he
was going to go into it with a head held high and a mouth full of snark,
instead of prolonging the inevitable like a yellow bastard. “…I take it there’s
something that you… *fine gentlemen*
want from me?”

“Now, where’d you get that idea?” Remarked the man closer to
him.

“I’m here.” Shrugged Vector – well, “shrugged” was probably
too strong a word for the movement he made. But he tried, and no-one could
criticize him for that. “Specifically, I’m here in this room instead of either
in a jail cell or a bodybag. I get the feeling that there’s *something* behind that.” He warily looked
up into the blinding lights. He could barely make out the sadist’s face beyond
a pair of bloodshot eyes and a jaw caked in patchy stubble, but he tried to
meet the other man’s gaze nonetheless. “Unless you just want to cause me
physical pain.”

“Well, it’s true that I’m very interested in causing you
pain.” The sadist (for it was *definitely*
a sadist by now) said, simply. “But we’re not stupid. We know that your
organisation constitutes a threat to *our*
organisation, and we need to know what it is we’re up against so that we can
form a plan.”

“You mean, so that *Ironsides*
can form a plan.” The other man interjected. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“I’m not.” The sadist defended himself. Vector tried to
focus on the discussion that appeared to be breaking out, but at this point his
head began to swim, and it was all he could do to remain conscious. Damned
timing for his body to remember its earlier assault, but it’d have to do. If he
couldn’t even attempt to glean anything from what these men were saying, the
least he could do was ensure that no information was let slip. He had no idea
what Pandemonium’s Bane’s plan was (he was hoping for a rescue, but he wasn’t
going to assume that that was going to happen any time soon), but it was
probably best to assume the worst and hunker down on his defences – in this
instance, he needed to make sure that this “Ironsides” couldn’t get the drop on
the rest of the team.

He was broken out of his thoughts by being shoved lightly in
the shoulder. The blow was light, but he felt a twinge of pain that forced him
to arch his back and recoil from the contact. The shoulder, he reasoned with
dismay, must have been hurt during his kidnapping. Probably when… had he been
thrown through a door? Yeah, that would have done it.

“We’re going to need you to answer some questions.” The
sadist – who was smiling (and had almost definitely seen his over-the-top
reaction to a shoulder poke) – told him. He shrugged.

“Timeframe?”

““Timeframe”?” Echoed the sadist, obviously not
understanding the question. Vector rolled his eyes.

“I mean, when do you want me to answer your questions?
Obviously not right *now*, I do my best
question-answering once I’m acclimatised to the environment.” Vector was
rewarded for his lip with another, firmer poke to the injured shoulder. He
winced again before shuddering and continuing to speak. “We could set a date.
I’m thinking February the thirtieth.”

“Smartass.” He heard the sadist mutter – before all rational
thought was dragged forcefully from his mind as his tormentor proceeded to
tightly clutch the injured shoulder, twitching the fingers and violently
twisting the flesh. It would have normally hurt very little, but whatever
injury he had sustained (a fracture? A broken bone? Bruise?) meant that the
experience was almost agonizing. He swore through gritted teeth, and the pain
continued for several agonising moments; even after the sadist lessened his
grip.

“How many members does your group have?” He asked, his voice
morphing into something of a rasp as he became more intense. Vector swallowed,
in spite of himself.

“Uuuh… inconsistent.” He managed to say. “I mean, business
meetings, long stretches of away period, holidays… who’s to say, really?”

This earned him a backhanded slap on his already painful
jaw, and it took a moment for his vision, blurred with tears, to clear up. When
he did, he caught sight of a lethal-looking blade in the sadist’s hand. It must
have technically been a knife, but it looked like something a demented butcher
would use – almost the size of a cleaver, with multiple ridges and spikes
instead of a single straight blade. Weyhay, more potential pain. The sadist
leaned over and breathed menacingly at him, and he choked.

“Pal.” He managed to wheeze. “You know, if you feel like you
need a breath mint, you just have to ask, right?”

“And here I thought *we*
were supposed to be the ones asking the questions.” The third man in the room
remarked dryly – even as the sadist lunged with the blade. Vector clamped his
eyes shut in anticipation, but only felt a slight prick on his cheek near his
eyes – before a stinging sensation as the blade was dragged towards his ear,
across his face. The wound wasn’t deep, but it was there, and it stung about as
badly as any injury he’d experienced in his live. He opened his eyes as the
blade pulled away, and saw that the blade was covered in moisture. Whether it
was just his blood or not, he wasn’t sure, but the ever-increasing pain in his
face had him suspecting that the blade had some kind of toxin or poison on it.

Marvellous.

“You get an antidote if you talk.” The sadist said, simply,
twirling the blade in his hands as he eyed Vector with a disdainful look on his
face.

“And if I don’t?” Vector challenged, wincing.

“Then I get to enjoy watching you suffer.” Remarked the
sadist, living up to their pseudo-name. “The more I think about it, the more
it’s really a win-win.”

“Sounds like a matter of perspective to me.” Vector
admitted, meeting the sadist’s eyes. They were green, he noticed – venomous and
icy, eying him with a mad glint. Was it best to test this man’s patience?
Probably not, but given the situation, Vector wasn’t quite sure how much worse
things could get, so he decided: what the hell. “I mean, from my point of view,
it looks like… like more of a lose-lose sort of situation. You know what I
mean?”

The answer was quick and explicit: “No.” Asshole. *Everyone* had lost at some point.

“Shame you can’t empathise with us mere mortals, I guess.”
He snarked. “Tell me: are you always like this?”

“He’s always like this.” Confirmed the other interrogator,
who had yet to move from his position by the door. To be frank, he seemed less
like an interrogator and more like a glorified guard. His arms were folded and
he wasn’t even watching the proceedings.

“I’m *always* like
this.” The sadist added, for good measure. “What’s so bad about that? You’re
not *scared*, are you? I always
thought…” he kept speaking, but the words weren’t particularly important to
Vector at this point, so he put them out of his mind.

Ignoring the gloating (and the more concerning feeling of
his cheek going numb), Vector eyed the man standing directly in front of him,
taking in the bodysuit and knives he was wearing, before focusing on the man’s
face. The sadist was looking at him with a sickening and undisguised glee, and
there was another aspect to his expression that make Vector pause: an
expression, a particular contortion of the sadist’s face, that made him look as
downright jovial, as if he had just heard a joke. Vector studied this
amusement- well, it certainly *felt* as
though he studied it long and hard, though he probably only analysed for a few
seconds. But it was enough time to come to a frankly *gutting* conclusion.

He was tempted to call the sadist out, but new better.
They’d try and find another way to convince him if he revealed what he knew:
that there wasn’t an antidote. At least, there wasn’t one on the sadist’s
person. That was the only way to explain that cruel glint in his eye. Vector
had seen it before, amongst a number of merchants and hunters and other people
alike. And they had all been swindling or cheating people in some way.

It made sense, he grimly mused as the numbness began to
spread across his body. This way, they’d fulfil *both* of their wishes – they’d get the information, and they’d get
to watch him suffer. Bonus points for the extra suffering that would theoretically
be caused by the realisation that there had never been an antidote. However,
the fact that Vector had already come to this conclusion meant that he could…
well, not rest easy. That was for sure. *Rest*
painfully *was more appropriate. He growled to himself, flinching at the*
numbness began to fade away and replace itself with spikes of pain. But it was
dampened ever so slightly by the knowledge that he knew something they didn’t,
and that he had *some* kind of
advantage.

He was definitely going to need it.

### ***OPERATION: ACHERONTA MOVEBO***

“Okay.” Dante clapped his hands and stared at the motley
group he had assembled before him. “Let’s get started.”

Jonna glanced around at the assembled group. Nobody looked
particularly enthusiastic about everything, but circumstances considered, that
was to be expected. The only one who looked even remotely excited was
Peragrine, who was bouncing around on the heels of his feet as he stood to
attention at Jonna’s side. His russet hair was still a little frizzled, and
there were some lightning-bolt shaped marks visible on his skin – a testament
to the fight he had fought the previous day. On Jonna’s *other* side was Talia, who was standing relatively still. Key word
being “relatively”, because she kept glancing around at the people who stood throughout
the room, as if trying to size them up or predict what they were going to do
next. Except she still looked a bit too fearful to be considered to be sizing
anyone up.

Contenting herself with the promise that she’d check on
Talia later (if nothing else, they still had a lot of catching up to do), Jonna
surveyed the rest of the room. In one corner stood Cadmus and Ivy. Their
proximity was probably a mixture of personal closeness and an uneasiness around
the rest of the group; both of which made sense to Jonna. Near *them* was Norik, who was tapping his
fingers against the hilt of his swords, both of which were in a shared scabbard
at his side. Plue was near the room’s centre, eying Dante with her arms folded,
watching him intently. Presumably, Jonna reasoned, it was because she was eager
to know what their battle strategy might be. Finally, nearest to the door were
Gaia, who wore on her face the same scowl that had been there since the
previous day’s battle, and the ever-suspicious individual known as “Kaida”, who
was twisting a lock of hair around her finger. The most idle-looking member of
the group, the relaxed motion only added to the air of suspicion around her.
Jonna furrowed her brows in her general direction before turning back to Dante,
who had begun to talk again.

 “This one’s gonna be
called operation “Acheronta Movebo”.” He said. “It roughly translates to “raise
hell”, because that’s what I think we all have the intention of doing if it
means getting our friends back. Now-” he indicated with a laser pointer (which
he had pulled out of his coat pocket) to what looked to be a map of Nimbus
Station. It was different to what Jonna remembered, but she attributed that to
the differences in dimension. There were bound to be some discrepancies here
and there.

“Cadmus will give us specific directions, but apparently,
the Twelve of Infinite Sight’s home base is located *here*.” He indicated to – surprisingly enough – an area just off of
Nimbus Station. How had they been able to stay there for so long? “It turns out
that they’ve moved back into the Highwing Facility.”

Jonna picked up on a snarl from Gaia, and couldn’t help but
feel a wave of sympathy. The girl’s story had been a sad one, and she figured
that having to go *back* to a place
that had resulted in so much agony couldn’t have been a pleasing prospect.

“How they did this without any of us higher-ups noticing, I
have no idea.” Continued Dante. “Like, I’d figure that *someone* would notice something like that? Especially seeing as they
launch pods to send agents to places…”

“The pods shoot further underground until they’re out of the
planet chunk.” Here, Cadmus butted in with an explanation. “From there, they
turn back around and head to wherever it is they’re being sent.”

“You got to us quickly.” Jonna observed, remember how soon
after arriving in the dimension she and Talia had been attacked by Ivy. The
woman in question shrugged.

“I was actually on my way to help Cadmus when I picked up
your signal.” She explained. “They sent me there instead.”

Jonna nodded in confirmation before turning her attention
back to Dante’s presentation.

“Yeah, there’s still a lot we need to clarify.” Dante
admitted. “Stuff like that, for instance – but now that we know they’re there,
we can strike.”

“And what’s our objective, exactly?” Plue butted in. One of
her legs was jumping up and down slightly, in a display of nervous energy.

“I’m glad you asked, Darl.” Dante indicated to her with a
fancy wave of his hand before continuing to speak. “I’m sure we’re all in
agreement that getting Vector and Perceval back is priority number one.”

There was a general mutter of assent. Jonna’s mood plummeted
further as she began to ponder Perceval’s fate. In all honesty, it depended
upon what kind of people they were up against. She thought back to when Talia
had been imprisoned by The Darkitecht (or, she supposed, her universe’s
Darkitecht) – he had tortured her, yes, but he had also *wanted* something from her. Even if these guys wanted something
beyond Cadmus, would Perceval even have it?

The bottom line was that she could only hope that the Twelve
of Infinite Sight possessed at least some semblance of rationality. As in, she
hoped that they weren’t going to make Perceval suffer for the fun of it. She
could only hope.

“However.”

She shook her head slightly, reminded of the situation by
the realisation that Dante was still talking and that it was probably best to
listen to their game plan.

“At the same time, I think we can all respect the fact that
letting these guys roam free, after all that we’ve learned, is a pretty pants
idea.” He placed his arms behind his back and began to pace. His gaze roved up
and down as he spoke, as if he were looking at invisible schematics. “So this
mission is also an assault on their headquarters. We’re going to go in and
incapacitate and capture as many of these guys as we can.”

“Sounds dangerous.” Interjected Plue. Her words were stern,
but her vocal inflection was light – as if she was trying to not sound too
critical. Dante nodded in acknowledgement.

“It is, which is why it’s a secondary objective. Like I
said, priority one is rescue. We can worry about everything else behind that.”
He turned to face the assembled group. No-one said anything else. “Okay, here’s
how were going to play it: we’re going to split into three teams. Jonna, Kaida,
Cadmus, and Gaia; you’re A Team. You’re going to stick together and sweep one
half of the base.”

Jonna felt a slight jolt run through her at the sound of her
name being spoken. Dante continued.

“Me, Plue, Talia and Peragrine are going to be the B Team.
We’ll cover the other half.” He viewed the group warily. “Obviously I’m not
expecting full co-ordination and symmetry when it comes down to it, so we’re
going to use communicators to keep in touch. Hopefully we won’t meet more than
one Twelve member at a time, and we can overpower them with numbers – but if not,
we’ll use either communicators or distress beacons to get in contact with the
others. We want to rescue our friends and take these guys down, yes, but we
also want to… well, not get ourselves killed.”

A hand went up. Jonna didn’t immediately see whose hand it
was, but Dante simply nodded.

“Yes, I haven’t forgotten about you.” He said. “Norik and
Ivy – you’re our C Team. You’re going to be watching the base, and make sure
that they don’t try to break in here and destroy everything while we’re gone.
For all we know, this is just a part of some master plan by Ironsides, so I
want to be prepared for anything. Savvy?”

The hand went down.

“Okay.” Dante clapped his hands again, in a show of
satisfaction. “Let’s move out.”

### ***EN ROUTE***

The most terrifying thing was the rattling form the jet –
the flight was supposed to be short, crossing over from one side of Nimbus
Station to the other – but the truth was they were going so fast, Talia was
half-afraid that the jet (Eaglestriker, someone had referred to it as) would
fall apart before they would ever arrive.

The atmosphere inside was chaotic. Dante and Plue were near
the centre of the seating arrangement, either barking out orders or talking
with one another in hushed voices. Both them seemed wholly focused on the
mission – which was good. They were going to need that focus if they were
really going to try and not only rescue their friends, but bring the Twelve
down for good. It was a big undertaking.

Flying the jet was Gaia, which may have contributed to some
of the turbulence the group was experiencing. Another shudder rattled the metal
around the jet’s insides, and the entire craft violently swerved to the left.
Talia winced as her harness dug deep into her stomach and shoulders to stop her
from being flung into the opposing wall.

“Do you even know how to fly this thing?” That other woman –
Kaida, Talia remembered – asked Gaia. In response, Gaia actually turned her
head away from the viewscreen and turned to face the jet’s interior – to a
chorus of yelling and orders to keep her eyes on where they were going. Gaia
turned back, grumbling. Talia could see her shoulders roll in a shrug.

“Normally, I’d lie and say yes, but considering I almost
flew us into that building, I think you know the answer.” She said – which
prompted *more* yelling.

“Remind me why we’re letting her drive?” Talia heard Plue
mutter under her breath.

Turning to her right, she saw Jonna and Peragrine sitting
calmly in their seats. Jonna appeared to going through all of her equipment,
making sure that it was in working order for the fight ahead. Perry was busy
fiddling with the harness. *Why* he was
fiddling with the harness, Talia wasn’t quite sure, but if there was one thing
she had learnt during her time with him, it was to never question his thought
processes.

At that moment, he looked up to meet her gaze, and gave a
jaunty two-fingered salute in her direction. “You holdin’ up okay, T?” He asked.

She nodded. “Fine.” A nice, neutral world. Jonna raised an
eyebrow without even looking up, but didn’t say anything.

With nothing else to distract her, Talia decided to go
through her happy memories. As a morale booster. Well, maybe not “happy
memories”, but memories and ideas that were relatively positive (or, at the
very least, interesting), as a way to distract herself from the reality that
she and the others would soon face. First on the list was the conversation she
had had that very morning…

*“Mythran.”*

*Giving a start, she*
wheeled round to see the former Twelve member standing in front of her. Instead
of the robes she had been wearing earlier, she was clad in a shirt and
undershorts – spare clothes that had been lent to her by Pandemonium’s Bane, most
likely. Even without her scythe and formal attire, however, her golden eyes
still possessed an icy glint that made Talia uneager to look at them.

*“Oh, um… hi…” Talia*
said hesitantly. Not quite sure what else to say.

*It was an awkward*
meeting, for more than one reason. Their first meeting had taken place because
Ivy had been tasked, apparently, with capturing Talia. Their second meeting had
consisted, mostly, of Ivy insulting Talia (and her race), unapologetic until
Raelyn had shown her the other side of the story.  This was their third meeting, and bad luck
traditionally came in threes. Talia wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

Another *reason things*
were so awkward was because of the time: it was between three and four in the
morning, with most people still asleep. Talia had wondered down to the culinary
area, hoping for something to eat – it had been the best chance of settling her
nerves. She could only hope that Ivy was there for a similar reason.

*“I needed to talk to*
you.” Ivy spoke again, and shattered that particular hope. Talia, for her part,
began to silently worry about what the other woman could possibly want.

*“I-” Talia began,*
before pausing. Clearing her throat. Starting again. “I’m listening.”

*“Okay.” Ivy said –*
before dropping to one knee.

*Well,* that *had been unexpected.*

*“I ask forgiveness.”*
Said Ivy, continuing the procession of unexpected happenings. “I need…” She
trailed off. Talia saw an opportunity.

*“You, uh don’t have to*
kneel!” She spluttered. Ivy frowned up at her in response.

*“I do.” She said.*
“Perhaps not for your sake, but for my own. For my – for whatever of my pride
may be left.” She took a deep breath, then continued to speak. “Mythran, I have
long prided myself on – on integrity and on my honour.” She explained. “For a
long time, I believed that my honour was achieved amongst the Twelve of
Infinite Sight. I was found and inducted quite young, and I was told that what
we – what Ironsides – was doing was for the greater good, and the benefit of
all. And that is something I believed for a long time.” She sighed. “The only
doubt in my mind… was Cadmus. It was- it was always a point of contention
between us. He’d always had his doubts about the system, and I- well, I was too
short-sighted and stubborn to examine them. I was determined to believe that I
was being just. In some ways, it was all I had left.”

*She tilted her head*
down. Talia couldn’t meet her gaze. “And then Raelyn showed me that I was
emphatically wrong about one of my convictions – that Mythrans were evil.” She
hesitated for a moment, as if considering her words, before speaking again.
“You should know, I- the idea was… well, as pathetic as it sounds, I can’t even
remember where I got the idea from anymore. I think – I *think* – Ironsides put it in my head in some way.
I… I do not want to make excuses for my behaviour. Circumstances
notwithstanding, it was ultimately a wrong thing to do. And it made me think.
About what else I – and Ironsides – were wrong about. Could have been wrong
about. And so, when Cadmus, who had always… whose doubts had turned out to be
well founded… when he said he had left? I made a snap decision, and left too.
But it didn’t make me feel any better, so I decided to approach you directly to
make amends.” Her speech devolving into a ramble, she finally paused.

*Talia could only look*
on, trying to process all that she had been told. Eventually, she was able to
say something:

*“Why are… why are you*
telling me all of this?”

*“Catharsis.” Confessed*
Ivy. “Catharsis, and because you of all people should hear it, considering you
were the one I went after. You were the one I wronged.” She finally looked up
again. “I really am sorry.”

*“I believe you!” Talia*
hurried to say. “I’m just – I’m just surprised, is all. It wasn’t something I
expected.”

*Ivy said nothing in*
response to this, but instead remained kneeling. The fresh silence dragged on,
until Talia could stand it no longer.

*“Oh, get up!” She*
said, surprising herself with the vehemence of her words. “I forgive you, so
stop… kneeling in front of me like I’m some kind of queen.”

*Ivy stared up at her,*
surprise evident on her face. Eventually, it turned into a small smile, and she
nodded assent.

*“Alright.” She said,*
and rose. “Thank you.”

*“…you’re welcome.”*
Said Talia.

*Suddenly from off to*
their side was the sound of footsteps, clunking along the corridor in their
general direction. Ivy’s hand shot to her waist, only to pat empty air. She
grimaced. Talia only wished that she had such nerves – her first reflex had
been to take a step backwards and hunch over in a vaguely defensive position.

*From out of the*
shadows and into the light of the single bulb that illuminated the kitchen area
stepped the black-haired woman that had appeared the other day. She was still
wearing the black clothes she had arrived in, though most of the armour – like
the gauntlets – were gone. She was rubbing her eyes warily.

*“Couldn’t sleep*
either?” She asked.

*Neither Ivy nor Talia*
said anything, but after a moment’s hesitation, Talia nodded. Kaida – yes, that
was her name, it was something like that – shrugged and stepped forward.

*“Always tough to sleep*
before a fight, I find.” She said as she walked into the kitchen, flipping a
switch on a kettle as she reached a counter. “You start going through the
scenarios in your head, and then it’s just… one thing after another. Next thing
you know, it’s been two hours, and you’re even more freaked out than you were
before.”

*“…You’ve been in lots*
of fights like this, then?” Talia said hesitantly, suddenly concerned. Unsure
what to expect from this woman who claimed to be a member of Pandemonium’s
Bane, yet had such a detachment from all of the other members – who seemed to
barely know her themselves.

*“One or two.” Kaida*
replied, speaking slightly louder over the hum of the kettle. She turned back
to the other women. “Want anything?”

*“Tea.” Talia admitted.*
“Anything. I’m not fussy.”

*Ivy shook her head in*
response.

*Kaida nodded, and*
began to make the drinks, working silently and efficiently. Ever so often,
she’d hum a small tune to herself. The minutes passed idly.

*Eventually, she turned*
around with two cups. “Thirst is one of the direst emotions.” She declared,
sounding almost proud. Ivy raised an eyebrow, and Kaida rolled her eyes. “Okay,
fine. The direst emotion is hunger. But drinks are drinks.” Passing one cup to Talia,
she took a sip of the other before hissing and pulling away.

*“Made it too hot.” She*
sighed. Using her prosthetic fingers, she began to stir her drink, occasionally
pausing to blow on it.

*Talia watched the*
action with a shameful sort of interest. Kaida eventually noticed her, and
without missing a beat, said:

*“You want to know how*
I lost them, didn’t you?”

*Talia blanched. “Well,*
I… I was curious, yes, but I wasn’t going to ask. If it’s something you’re not
comfortable with-”

*Kaida waved her off*
with her free hand – sending droplets of tea through the air as she did so.
“Nah, it’s fine. Kinda my fault anyway.”

*“What happened?” Ivy*
asked – apparently also interested. Kaida took another sip of her tea before
setting the cup down on the counter.

*“My power.” She said,*
simply, before beginning to explain. “Basically, the main part of my savant
abilities is that my body generates large amounts of electrical energy. I can
either release it in discharges, or I can use it to strengthen and intensify my
own muscles.” She flexed one muscular arm. “At full strength, I could probably
break through a decently sturdy wall. Well – full *safe* strength. That’s the catch.” She smirked. “Bodies have limits. Push
your muscles too far, you’ll tear and damage ‘em. My problem is that when my
power backfires – gets too much for my body to control – it causes serious
damage.” Without further adieu, she rolled up one of her sleeves. There was red
welt of a scar spread across her outer bicep, and what looked like a tiny burn
on her forearm. “I can mess up my flesh and muscles, and if the electricity I
discharge is too strong, it can cause damage as well.” Completing the somewhat
macabre showcase, she waggled her prosthetic fingers. “One time, I just went…
way over my limit, I guess.”

*Talia, on her part,*
wasn’t sure what to say. What was the most courteous way to react to a story
like that? Sympathy? A muted reaction? She didn’t know. Thankfully, as if
sensing her discomfort, Kaida smirked at her before shrugging.

*“Don’t beat yourself*
up over it, T.” She said. “It was a little while ago, and I’ve accepted things
as they are now. Besides, like I said, it was my fault anyway.” Having
presumably cooled her drink down to an acceptable temperature, she proceeded to
drink the whole thing in a few seconds, wiping her mouth in a satisfied manner
once she was done. “Anyways. I’m gonna go try and get some sleep. Probably
won’t work, but it’ll be worth a shot.”

*“I- goodnight!” Talia*
said as she began to walk away. Kaida grinned back at her.

*“You too.” She said.*
“Or, y’know, good morning. Whatever.” She made like she was going to turn away,
but at the last moment, she stopped and turned to Ivy instead. “And quickly –
if I’m gonna try to sleep, you and Cadmus have got to keep it down, you here?”

*Ivy made a strangled*
sort of noise, halfway between outrage and embarrassment. Talia looked at her,
puzzled. What had they been doing?

*Ivy turned and noticed*
Talia’s gaze. “We’ve been… well, we’ve been talking some stuff out.” She said
by way of explanation. “Now that we’ve both left the Twelve, there’s a lot to
talk about.”

*Kaida laughed from the*
doorway. “Oh, *talking*. That what
you’re calling it?”

*Ivy flushed crimson,*
and Talia felt heat creep up her own neck at the insinuation. Kaida left
laughing, with a wink and a salute. “See you tomorrow!”

In hindsight, it was almost fitting that the conversation
had ended where it had started – with an extremely thick aura of awkwardness.
But, at the same time, it had been a lot closer to the awkwardness found
between friends than the awkwardness found between enemies, so Talia had since
decided that she was happy with the outcome overall.

*Friends*…

She mused as she kept an eye on Jonna and Perry. Perry had,
by that point, fallen asleep. Helmet covering his face, he was slumped down in
his chair, only kept as stable as he was by the tight harness. Faint snoring
noises could be heard through the rattling of the jet.

“Hey.”

She was jolted out of her thoughts by Jonna’s speech – her
friend was eying her warily, and Talia couldn’t understand why. She raised an
eyebrow. Jonna’s face changed – was that exasperation?

“How are you feeling?” She asked. “About… all this?”

“I should be asking you that.” Talia replied. “We’ve had to
put up with our equal share of weirdness and danger, and…” she trailed off, not
entirely sure what she had been planning to say to begin with. However, instead
of asking what Talia had been about to say, Jonna tapped her finger against her
leg. Talia looked at her quizzically. Was there something she wanted to say?

“What’s been up with you recently, anyway?” Jonna asked.
Talia blinked in response – it seemed very abrupt. Jonna obviously picked up on
her confusion, because she rolled her eyes and elaborated: “I mean, it’s… it’s
great to see you again, don’t get me wrong, but there have been times when you’ve
been super business-like and formal… and I guess it makes sense because you’ve
been assigned to getting us back… but then other times you’re a lot less
confident. And I’m just wondering why, I guess?”

Ah. It was the same point, now Talia remember, that Jonna
had brought up in the caves. Talia suddenly felt rather put on the spot, and
could do nothing for a moment other than “hmm” and “uuh” as Jonna watched her,
eagerly awaiting answers. Eventually, she swallowed her pride (and her fear)
and began to vocalise what she knew of her feelings.

“I want to preface this by saying that – honestly – I’m
really happy living with the Mythrans, and *being*
a Mythran.” She said. “But sometimes I… I just don’t feel like I fit in.” She
hesitated a bit before beginning to speak again. “And I don’t want to blame
anyone. The only reason for it is my… my origin. The fact that I was originally
a stromling before becoming first human, and then Mythran.” She sighed. “Of
course, I’m not a stromling anymore, but the fact that I started off my
existence as one means that I can never be truly human, *or* truly Mythran.” She paused, considering her words. “I mean, I
suppose I can, but not in a physical sense. Not in the same way as everyone
else. And some days… some days I just feel like an outlier. And I know it’s
stupid because no-one’s ever thought less of me because of it, but it’s still
something I can’t make myself get over.”

Jonna was listening intently, which Talia appreciated.

“I’ve been working on… working on fitting in.” She
continued. “Sometimes that means getting business-like, I guess. And when I saw
you again, I found myself caught between being the representative of Mythran-kind,
being happy to see you again, and being scared for my other friends.” She finger-combed
her blond bangs away from her eyes and forehead, now too jittery to even glance
in Jonna’s direction. “I’m sorry about that. But my worries about my identity
just kind of boiled over, and I was second-guessing myself in the moment. Which
must have been…” she chuckled, nervously. “Must have been confusing from your perspective.
I’m sorry, really-”

Jonna took her hand.

“I forgive you.” She said, simply, and just like that, an
enormous weight seemed to lift from Talia’s shoulders.

### ***HAND OVER FLAME***

Under almost any other circumstances, Dante would be glad
for the peace and quiet in his mind. Sometimes, Raelyn’s presence could be a
bit much, and whenever she retreated to whatever corner she tended to hole
herself up in, it was normally a good thing for him. However, in this instance
– when he kind of desperately needed her power – the fact that she was gone was
pretty darn problematic. He had discussed it with Plue during their flight, but
the only advice she had given him was to “try and remember how to swing a
sword”. Was she wrong? Probably not, he figured as he hefted the blade that she
had lent him (she was using a spare, as well as her bow), but it still would
have been… nice to get reassurance that was a little more concrete, he figured.
Ah, well. Too late now.

He stood at the entrance to Highwing, flanked by the team he
had brought with him. His grip around the sword tightened. The last time he had
been in here, a lot of things had been different. He hadn’t known Raelyn back
then (not really). He hadn’t met most of his team. And Will… Will had still
been alive. He sighed. The past was the past, and there was no point dredging
it up now.

“Okay.” He said out loud. “Once we find a convenient sort of
partition, and once we know that we’re in the right sort of area, we’ll split
into our teams. Use the communicators to keep in touch. If there’s any trouble,
let us know. I don’t want to hear that anyone got themselves killed because
they thought they could handle it.” He managed a smirk. “If nothing else, it’d
look really bad on my report.”

No-one laughed. *Oops*.

Plue rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Honey…” She said. Dante
shrugged apologetically.

“Okay? Okay. Not the time. I get it.” He said, a little too
fast. “I just need to-”

Plue’s hand slipped into his, and he fell silent.

“Want me to take point?” She offered. He remained quiet for
a moment longer, considering the offer, but eventually decided against it
(shaking his head to demonstrate this decision).

“Not that I don’t appreciate it,” he squeezed her hand, “but
I think by this point I have more field experience with command than you do.
It’s just nerves. I’ll get over it.”

She nodded assent. He breathed in. Breathed out.

“Right, team.” He said. “Or… teams. Whatever. Let’s do
this.”

After that thoroughly motivating speech, everyone began to
walk forwards and into the facility. Dante kept a careful eye on everyone’s
reactions. Plue was, as usual, comparatively unmoved. Her eyes strayed from
wall to wall, as if she didn’t quite trust her surroundings, and it occurred to
him that she had been a prisoner here before. Cadmus was clenching his weapons
tightly – though his nerves were probably less about the location itself, and
more about what exactly they were doing there. He looked to Dante. Dante
nodded, and he stepped forward, leading the group towards what Dante could only
presume was where the Twelve were hiding.

Kaida – now, Dante wasn’t quite sure what to think of her.
The mysterious woman who had appeared out of nowhere and claimed to be a member
of Pandemonium’s Bane (providing the ID to prove it, for that matter). He
certainly didn’t remember adding her to the roster, at any rate. And though he
was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt – because if he could give it
to a dude made of black flames who had been trying to kill him moments before,
he could give it to her – but considering how tense things were already, he was
a bit worried about how everything was going to play out. She seemed just plain
cautious – wary, as she eyed everything around her, but not outright jumpy.

Peragrine was probably the only person who looked excited.
Despite being electrocuted and fighting two members of the Twelve at once the
previous day, he was almost bouncing around as he walked, and there was a grin
still plastered to his freckled face in spite of everything. The absolute
madman. Then there were Jonna and Talia – Jonna was calm and collected, scanning
the place similarly to Plue: like a soldier scouting out weak points. Clutched
in her hands was the rifle that had been dug out of the Pandemonium’s Bane
storage and given to her, and she held it with confidence. Talia’s gaze flitted
back and forth wildly, and she looked a bit like a caged animal. Her hands were
both free of any weaponry, and twitching nervously.

Completing the line-up was Gaia, who wasn’t even bothering
to watch their surroundings. She was staring straight ahead with an expression
of the utmost focus. Her jaw was clenched. Her limbs were tense. She was the
picture of someone who was ready to punch someone else in the face.

Dante could only hope that they’d all make it through
unscathed.

Further and further into the facility they pressed, until
Cadmus turned to Dante.

“Here’s where our area begins.” He said, pointed to a door
that had an “out of order” sign placed on it. Opening it, Dante was greeted by
a dark and descending passage – a stereotypical picture of foreboding. He
swallowed nervously. It wasn’t exactly a reassuring sight.

“Nice disguise.” Kaida remarked, sardonically. “I’m
surprised someone hasn’t found you guys yet.”

“That would be Isaac.” Cadmus said. Dante wracked his
brains, trying to remember the name and attach it to the ability – Cadmus had
given the team a helpful rundown of the members of the Twelve as they had been
en route.

“That’s the illusion guy, right?” Jonna asked. Dante sighed
to himself. He should have been able to remember that!

“That’s the one.” Cadmus said. “He’ll just lead workers off,
or make them see a dead end. It’s how we’ve been able to hide out down here for
so long, even though the facility’s become public knowledge.”

“Were you guys always down here?” Plue asked. “I feel like
we would have run into you beforehand, if that were the case. When we broke out
of here, and when a large segment of the Nexus Force came down here?”

“No.” Cadmus shook his head as he began to walk down the
stairs. “Assuming we’re thinking of the same event, we were in a different
place at the time.”

“And which place would that be?” Plue pressed.

“Ironsides is a rich man.” Cadmus said, dismissively. “We
were was one of his houses, I think. Can’t remember which one. He has a
couple.”

“Mind if I have their locations?” Dante couldn’t help but
admire Plue’s ability to think beyond the now – even if he did figure that
there were probably more pressing matters at hand at that very moment.

“Once we get this done.” Cadmus promised. “For now, though,
I think we should focus on one thing at a time, you know?”

“I second that motion.” Dante didn’t hesitate to add. Plue
rolled her eyes slightly, but didn’t complain as the three of them led their
group to the bottom of the stairs and into a new corridor – a corridor that
eventually split off into three different ways – a left way, a right way, and a
front way.

“Okey-dokey.” Said Dante. “So – The A team will go that
way,” he pointed left, “and the B team will go that way.” He indicated and took
a step right at the same time.

“Sounds like a plan, stan.” Peragrine chirped as he
scampered over to Dante’s side. Turning back to Jonna, he gave a bit of a wave.
“Seeya later, J!”

“Seeya.” Jonna waved as she began to follow Kaida, Gaia, and
Cadmus – who were already determinedly making their way down the left corridor,
leaving behind the B-team of Perry, Talia, Plue, and Dante himself.

“Okay, y’all.” Dante said. “Let’s move.”

“Oh, here we go.” Talia muttered, as Perry clapped his hands
together. At that moment, they almost looked like a representation of the
duality of man – a mental image that had Dante snickering to himself.

Their walk was, for a good several minutes, uneventful. The
metal was plain, and pale. Sterile white lights shone blankly overhead, and
Dante couldn’t help but critique the whole thing’s aesthetic in his head. It
could have definitely used more cat posters. Or more colour in general, come to
think of it. The whole plain-ness of the expansive facility gave him the
creeps. As he was providing this sort of commentary, however, he was constantly
on the lookout for any of the remaining Twelve members. He had honestly
expected to be met with some kind of resistance upon their initial arrival, and
the fact that they had been wandering through the base unchallenged as long as
they had been was a fact that he found a little disturbing.

Even when something *did*
happen, it wasn’t as the result of a member of the Twelve jumping out to scare
them, or anything. Instead, his luck (or unlucky) break from the tense monotony
came in the form of a sort of mental pulse – a bit like a headache that only
lasted for a second. It was a feeling that he had long since come to associate
with Raelyn.

“*Raelyn*?” He
thought, out loud. For a moment, she gave him no answer, but then-

“*Dante*.” Her voice
was colder than he had heard it be in a while, and it sent shudders down his
spine. It sounded too close to the sadistic monster that had used his body to
kill his leader and idol, and too far removed from the snarky sentient rock he
had come to know and tolerate. Nevertheless, he forced himself to listen to
what she was saying:

“*If you want to know,*
take a left turn here.*”*

“*Know what?*” He
asked her, but gained no response. He was left with the option of simply
turning abruptly left – which he did.

“Dante?” Plue questioned. He shrugged and tapped his temples
in response. Her brow furrowed (she had a deep-rooted mistrust for Raelyn,
after all), but she followed him nonetheless. Talia and Perry, after sharing a
bemused look, followed too.

He kept walking down the left turn, until he heard Raelyn
again:

“*Left again*.” She
ordered him, just as he reached another potential turning. He turned down that
way as well, driven on by his own curiosity. What on Crux was Raelyn trying to
tell him?

What followed was a good few minutes of him going down the
path that Raelyn pointed out to him – although, on one occasion, he ended up
taking a wrong turning, and had to double back past an increasingly baffled B-Team.
At one point, he heard Plue and Talia explaining the Raelyn thing to Peragrine,
if only to make it a bit less confusing for *him*.

Eventually he came to a halt outside another door – there
was a window in the middle of the door that showed him an image large and darkened
room, but that window had been shattered. He couldn’t help but wonder how many
years of bad luck that might have made, only to be brought out of his musings
by Raelyn, who was speaking again.

“*There’s a lot that*
won’t be immediately clear.*” She told him. “*I’ll explain it all later. But there’s some stuff in here that you need
to see.*”*

“Right, right, okay. Cool. Cooool.” Dante muttered to
himself, twisting the door handle and letting it slide open. He placed his free
hand on the sword at his belt. “I don’t suppose you’re willing to help me use
your power if we need?”

No response. Typical.

The room was very dark indeed, and it was only after Plue
and Peragrine had fished torches out of who-knew-where that the group was
actually able to find their way around.

“Dante.” Plue said, approaching him warily. “Why… why are we
here?”

Dante sighed. “Plue, I- me and Raelyn had a fallout
yesterday.” She stopped walking. He had mentioned it to her earlier (better to
explain that he couldn’t use his full power than to let people die because they
were mistakenly counting on him), but it had been in passing, and he hadn’t
brought it up since then. She was now keenly listening to what he had to say –
at least, he figured she was. “And the first time she talked to me today was to
give me the directions I needed to get to this room.”

“You think it’s important?” She asked.

Dante surveyed the room like a detective might survey a
crime scene. “Considering that she was able to find her way here? Meaning that
she must have been here before? I think it’s *very* important.”

Wordlessly, Plue game him her torch. He nodded thanks, and
used it to get a better look at everything. The room had obviously been unused
for some time, seeing as it was covered in dust. There were a large number of
files on shelves, and medical charts hanging up on the walls. It all looked a
bit like a doctor’s office.

“What the heck even *is*
some of this stuff?” Wondered Perry out loud, grabbing random charts and
flicking through them.

“Perry!” Talia suddenly said. “I think those are-”

Perry shrieked and flung the papers away. “Gratuitous
nudity! Did *not* need to see that, no
thank you!”

“Physical examinations.” Talia finished in a forlorn sort of
manner. “With images.”

Shuddering to himself whilst at the same time silently
thanking fate that it was *Perry* who
had found those instead of *him*, Dante’s
eyes continued to rove. “Raelyn,” he said, “what am I looking for?”

For an uncomfortably long moment, she didn’t respond. It was
only when Dante began to consider giving up looking for things in THIS room, and
resuming the search for their imprisoned friends, that she actually spoke: “*Far right wall. There should be a list of*
names and files.*”*

“Right, right, okay.” Dante hurried over and saw- oh, oh
wow, that was a lot of files. Was he supposed to look through all of them?

“*Look through the “J”*
section*.” Raelyn advised him. He complied.*

“Does this have something to do with the Twelve?” Talia
asked, from the other side of the room.

Dante furrowed his brow, but it was Plue who answered: “I
think Raelyn may have hijacked the mission.” He could hear the displeasure in
her voice, and shuddered – even if he wasn’t the actual cause of it.

“I mean…” Perry twirled his fingers around. “I’m normally
all for a big of hijacking, but wasn’t it you earlier who was telling us about
how important this was? Besides, I wanna rescue Perce!”

Dante began pulling files off the shelf, sending clouds of
dust falling to the ground. At the same time, he heard Raelyn say through his
mouth: “There are cells not too far from here. We’ll check there once we’re
done here.”

“But why are we here?” Plue pressed him. “Dante – Raelyn –
there are higher priorities right now, surely!”

Just like that, Dante felt himself slip away from his body,
taking a metaphorical backseat as Raelyn wrestled full control from him. She
stomped over to Plue, still holding half a dozen folders in her arms.

“Yeah. Sure.” She said, brusquely. “But this is something I’ve
been putting off for a while, and I’m nothing if not an opportunist, so-”
Having evidently found whatever it was she was looking for, she shoved one of
the files into Plue’s arms. “We’re done here.” With that she, relinquished
control back to Dante, who staggered slightly, blinking heavily. A moment
passed, and then Plue hesitantly grabbed Dante’s shoulder.

“Is it…?” She asked. He smiled at her in what he hoped was a
reassuring manner.

“It’s me.” He said. “And Raelyn’s right – we’re done here.”
He turned to the rest of the team. “Sorry about that, everyone. But Raelyn’s
gonna give me directions to the nearest cell block, now – there’s a good chance
that our friends’ll be there.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Perry chirped, and Talia nodded assent.
Plue grinned in response before handing him the file that Raelyn had given her.

“You can carry this?” She asked. He nodded, dropping the
other sheets and grabbing onto the rather thick stack of papers that Raelyn had
dragged off the shelf. The two shared a look before Plue broke it off and moved
to the door. “Then let’s go.”

Dante felt buoyed, but as the others began to file out of
the room, he spared a glance down at the file he held, and the name written on
top, and couldn’t help the sense of foreboding that washed over him.

*Jacqueline Typhonus.*

### ***LINES CROSSED***

Following Raelyn’s directions, the group ran down the
corridors. Plue, for her part, was sure to keep her hand near her sword as
consistently as possible, considering her certainty that a Twelve member would
attack them at some point. The fact was, they had gone for a long time *already* without running into anyone, and
she was extremely nervous about it. Things were too quiet so far.

“It’s been too quiet, hasn’t it?” Dante asked from by her
side. She saw him frown when she didn’t answer, but ignored it.

“You’re not gonna hear me complaining!” Peragrine
interjected, seemingly either unaware or uncaring of the tense situation. “If
they want to let us stroll in and make off with their prisoners, I say let ‘em!
It’ll make things all the more easy for us, that’s for sure!”

“Peragrine,” said Talia cautiously, “I don’t think they’ll
let us make off with their prisoners.”

“You have to admit,” panted Dante, “that is what they *seem* to be doing so far.”

*Seemed*, Plue
reasoned darkly, was one thing. It wasn’t necessarily what they were actually
doing. She was tempted to say as much, but she didn’t want to use any more breathe
than she had to (as yes, it sounded kind of stupid when she phrased it like
that, but it was… it was, like, a conserving energy thing). The lights all
blurred together as she ran in a sickening display, and couldn’t help but try
to imagine what it would be like to live in this facility for any given amount
of time. Let alone *years*, which was
how long Gaia had apparently spent in Highwing.

The whole business… the knowledge that something like this
had been happening for so long was sickening to her. What was WORSE was the
fact that it had been two years since the battle of Crux Prime, after which she
had directed an operation to liberate all of the people inside the facility. If
she had done that, how had she not noticed the Twelve still hiding within? And
if they had only moved inside later, how no-one noticed? How had *she* not noticed?

She resolved that she’d triple check every Nexus Force asset
from now on, just in case – grinding her teeth in an invisible display of
determination as she did so.

Suddenly, the world flickered.

She stopped running. For a single moment, everything turned
black, before the world returned to the way it had been before. Something had
happened. She gripped the hilt of her sword. Something had happened, what had
happened-?

She was alone.

Peragrine’s chatter had ceased, and the boy himself was
nowhere to be seen. Plue jerked her head around as she looked. She couldn’t see
Talia anywhere, either, with the quiet Mythran having seemingly vanished into
nothing ness. She turned back around. Dante was gone. As if he had never been
there to begin with. Had something…? No. No, this couldn’t be it. It couldn’t
have been…

“Dante?” She called, unsheathing her sword. There was no
response.

“Peragrine?” she attempted, taking a couple of tentative
steps forward. She didn’t hear anything.

“Talia?” She tried to ask, scanning the hallway and seeing
nothing behind or in front of her. Still nothing.

Suddenly, the hallway flickered again.

The next thing she knew was pain. Suddenly, the floor was
not solid tiles, but rather a molten substance that burned her feet and singed
her legs. It did not appear to matter that she was wearing armour, for she felt
the flames and the magma as sharply as if she was wearing nothing at all. Part
of her was tempted to make a “floor is lava” joke, but the rest of her just
compounded her to scream in pain. A slight pressure centered on her shoulder
came and went, but she ignored it in favour of clawing at the air as the ground
burned beneath her. It wasn’t real. It *couldn’t*
have been real. It wasn’t physically possible-

One of the Twelve could make illusions.

Her blood ran cold.

*One of the Twelve*
could make illusions*.*

This was a physical impossibility, so of *course* it wasn’t actually happening to
her physically! She frantically looked around and around, as if trying to find
a weakness in the fake world, as she processed. This was an attack by a member
of the Twelve – and if the way she was stuck was any indication, it was an
extremely effective one.

Suddenly, the magma faded. She was about to breathe a sigh
of relief, but that relief caught in her throat at the sight of the blades. Dozens
of them – swords and knives and axes and spears – all just hanging in mid-air,
pointing directly towards her. Seized by panic, she made no move.

*It wasn’t real*,
she tried to tell herself, *it wasn’t*
real, it wasn’t real, it wasn’t real-!

She was rewarded for her troubles by one of the weapons – a short
sword – being suddenly thrust forward. It sunk into her arm and, though on some
logical level she knew that absolutely none of this was really happening, she
and her nerves both screamed at the pain. Her logic was further shaken by a
knife sinking itself into her thigh. An axe in her back. And on, and on, and it
was her resolution – her commitment to the truth, that it all wasn’t real –
that kept her standing.

The world flickered again.

Blinking in the suddenly too-bright lights, the first thing
that registered to Plue was that though she felt the lingering pains of cold
steel, she was unwounded. The second thing she noticed was that she wasn’t
alone – Talia was crouched over a seemingly comatose Peragrine, trying to rouse
him, and Dante was standing emotionlessly over another body.

“Dan-” she tried to say, only for her voice to suddenly and
abruptly fail her. She coughed. It was enough to get Dante’s attention,
however, and he turned to face her, looking as though he had aged a decade.

“Plue.” He greeted.

“What happened?” She asked. Dante’s gaze flickered back to
the body at his feet.

“Illusion member of the Twelve.” Dante said. “Trapped us –
trapped you all inside illusions.” He glared at the person on the floor. “Isaac,
or whatever he was called.”

“How’d you get out?” Plue asked. Wearily, Dante tapped against
his head with his forefinger.

“He wasn’t counting on two psyches in the same body.” He
explained. “I got trapped for a bit, but Raelyn quickly got me out of it. Then
I tried to snap everyone else out of it, but that didn’t work so…”

Plue raised an eyebrow, still trying to calm herself down
after the stressful experience that was being burned and stabbed in an
illusion. “So…?” She echoed, trying to incite an answer from him.

Dante shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not sure.” It was at that
moment that Plue’s eyes drifted to Dante’s sword – and the blood that was on
it. Dante seemed to notice her noticing the sword, because he suddenly began to
flail in a bit of a panic. “I mean- he’s not dead! I was just freaking out
because I couldn’t get you guys to wake up and figured I had to take him out to
break the connection or something but I didn’t want to kill anyone and I really
didn’t!”

“Dante.” Plue interrupted him. “I’m not angry at you. Or
Raelyn… I’m just…”

Surprised, she wanted to say. Raelyn, perhaps, would have
done it, but Dante wasn’t the sort of person to cut someone down. Destroying maelstrom
creatures with his powers was on thing, but she knew from experience that
attacking a human with a weapon was an entirely different metaphorical kettle
of metaphorical fish.

As if he could read her thoughts, he suddenly turned his
oh-so-tired eyes onto her. “I was desperate.” He emphasised. “I didn’t… I
couldn’t…” He suddenly sniffed. “I just saw you look so hurt and I just
panicked.” He looked at her again with a certain desperation in his eyes. “You’re
alright? You think you’ll be alright.”

She grabbed his hand. “I *know*
I’ll be alright.” She was able to promise him. “It sucked, okay? It really
sucked, but I’m here, and I’m fine, and we can do this. Just breathe.”

“Okay.” He sighed. “Okay. Breathing.” He sighed, then turned
to her fondly. “This is what I don’t like about going on field missions with
you.”

She laughed, despite herself. “How do you think I feel? I
may be the leader overall, but a lot of that’s just… meeting and maintenance.
It’s basically a desk job. But you? You’re the field commander. You’re in these
situations a lot more than I am.”

He rolled his eyes. “We both know that you’ve got a severe
case of out of sight, out of mind syndrome.” He paused, as if considering his
words. “I mean, of course you worry, and of course you’d miss me if anything *did* happen, but you function in a
different way to me. You can feel that stress without *feeling* it, you know what I mean?”

She did know, as it turned out – her situational emotional detachment
was something he had spoken of with envy before – but as she turned to see that
Talia had finally managed to rouse Peragrine (the poor kid, what had he even
seen in there?) she decided that there were probably better places to talk
about it.

“I do know what you mean.” She said. “But it doesn’t mean I
don’t worry. So, let’s find our friends, apprehend as many members of the
Twelve as we can, and then get the heck out of dodge so we don’t have to stress
over each other any more than necessary. Sound like a plan?”

“Pretty great plan.” Dante admitted. Understanding that
their conversation was over, the two turned to the other members of their party
at the same time. It was Dante who asked: “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re… we’re fine.” Talia said, after a moment’s
hesitation. “A bit stressed out, I think, but we’ll live.” She turned to
Peragrine with worry in her gaze. “You’ll live, right Perry?”

“Of course!” Perry said, still smiling, though it was thin
on his face. His voice was hoarse. “My plan’s to live till I’m one hundred and
twenty, bare minimum.”

“Ambitious.” Complimented Plue as she walked over to him and
offered her hand. “I’d settle for you being able to stand up, though.”

Undeterred, the young man grabbed her wrist and hauled
himself to his feet, leaving her surprised at just how light he had felt. Looking
past her, he saluted Dante.

“I’m in the clear, cap’n!” He all but yelled.

“Right.” Dante said. “Talia, do you think you can use a
construct to move this guy?” He indicated to the Twelve member. Talia nodded.

“Yes, I… I can do that.”

“Good stuff.” He complimented before turning around. “We’re
not far from the cells now.”

And just like that, their little expedition continued as if
they had never stopped, or as if the interference by a member of the twelve was
nothing more than a minor hiccup in their plans (which it technically only was,
but at the same time, it had felt like so much more than that). And yet, in no
time at all, Dante was getting Talia to use her powers to break down the wall
of a cell (Raelyn was still being un-cooperative, apparently), and Peragrine
was grabbing Percevel to hug the life out of him, and Talia was crying into
Percevel’s shoulder as they hugged. Plue opted to stay out of the reunion – it was
obviously an intimate affair – but Dante slapped Percevel on the back of the
shoulder.

“Glad we’ve finally rescued you.” He said. “These guys
missed you.”

Percevel smiled, his grey eyes twinkling. “Thank you for
looking after them for me. While I couldn’t be there.”

Dante clasped Percevel’s hand in his own, and shook it.

“My honour.” Dante said, simply. Percevel nodded.

It was quite profound, but Plue eventually snapped herself
out of her reverie to realise that they were still in a pressing situation, and
cleared her throat. Everyone else jumped in surprise.

“Not to hurry you…” She said, before considering her words.
Why was she saying that? She was trying to get everyone to move faster. “Actually,
no, I DO want to hurry you. We need to find Vector next.”

Percevel nodded. “Okay. He should be in one of these other
cells.”

A few more minutes of searching revealed that Vector was
indeed in one of the other cells – but something was wrong. He was barely
stirring. Perry hauled him into a sitting position from the floor he’d been
lying on, proceeded to rapidly shake his shoulders until Percevel rapped a
knuckle on top of his head.

“Knock it off.” He said. “That’s probably not going to help.”

Peragrine’s response was to apologetically hold his hands up
– this caused him to drop Vector, who unceremoniously crashed back down to the
floor. This time, it was Dante who hauled him upright. His eyes fluttered.

“How are you doing?” Dante pressed, but Vector didn’t say
anything back. His head drooped.

Talia stepped forward. “I can see what I can do.” She said.

“Don’t tell me that *healing*
is a part of your Mythran grab bag of powers now, too.” Said Dante, sounding
impressed. Talia rubbed her arm nervously.

“…Yes.”

It was at that moment, however, that a soft blaring noise –
like a miniature alarm – began to come from Dante’s coat. After shooting a
bemused expression to everyone else, Dante patted himself down and pulled out
his Pandemonium’s Bane ID card.

“Oh-oh.” He said, dimly. “That’s… that’s the distress
beacon. Someone-” he checked the card again, “*Gaia* of all people- really? Yeah, apparently. Gaia’s activated her
card’s distress beacon.” He looked up at the assembled group. “Which means
something *bad’s* happening.”

“Is this the part where we run like hell to catch up with
the other group?” Peragrine offered. Instead of answering, however, Dante jumped
up and sprinted out of the cell.

“Way ahead of you!”

### ***WHAT YOU’RE WORTH***

As Gaia felt herself hit the ground for… like, the tenth
time? Since the fight had begun? She couldn’t help but figure that it hadn’t
actually started off so badly. In fact, it had started off almost fun. An act
of routine. The usual “go in, beat the snot out of someone, come back out
already laughing about it” sort of deal. (The laughs were usual exhilaration
and hilarity and also “wow we actually could have died but we didn’t and isn’t
that hilarious (though mainly because it actually *was* fun).) It had been her, and Cadmus (whose face, she had to
admit, did look vaguely familiar now that she stopped to think about it), and
Jonna (who she honestly knew next to nothing about, which was kind of awkward),
and Kaida (who was apparently her mcfrikin’ CHILD *from the mcfrikin’ FUTURE*), and they had initially only stumbled
across two members of the twelve: some dude who could turn himself metal that
fought Cadmus, and some annoying ass named “Madlen” who could make himself
intangible – pass through object. He had been keeping her, Jonna, *and* Kaida busy.

“Quit going intangible, you half-baked… egg whisk of a
shoe-polish stain!” Kaida had yelled as she had tried and failed to punch
Madlen for the umpteenth time. Madlen’s response was to materialise behind her,
punch the back of her head, and then go intangible once again, flitting
in-between the three of them like an ultra annoying ghost.

“That doesn’t even make any sense!” Jonna had yelled back,
evidently displeased with Kaida’s choice of curses. Gaia, for her part, had
thought that it was completely nonsensical, yes, but that had been part of what
had made it so *inspired*. She had been
proud of her kid. (Her KID!!!!) What had elicited almost as much pride from her
had been the plan that she had used to actually defeat Madlen – Kaida had
figured out that Madlen had been unable to attack while intangible (meaning
that he was vulnerable while going on the offensive), and had used herself as
bait, giving him something to focus on and attack while Gaia snuck up on him
and knocked him out by punching his jaw so hard her knuckles stung afterwards.
She *would* have been prouder of her
daughter for the plan over the insult, except that said plan had involved said
daughter using herself as bait, which would have never been something that a
mother such as herself would have approved of.

However, things had gotten… pretty bad since then. Before
they had been able to held Cadmus take out that Daniel guy, a BUNCH more members
of the twelve had shown up. Some guy who had a massive hammer and some woman
who shot lasers, and a couple of other people, but probably most importantly?
Her brother. Her brother had rocked up again, and she had so far been unable to
get close to him! Because she had been accosted by the laser woman AND some
other guy, and she couldn’t get to him! And he was fighting Kaida! Her kid!

Picking herself up off the floor – from where she had been
tossed by the guy she was fighting – she grabbed all of her pent-up
frustrations and stuffed them into a glare at her two opponents. As well as her
fighting these two, and Kaida fighting her bastard of a brother (not literal
bastard, unfortunately), Jonna was being held up by the absolute unit with the
hammer, and Cadmus was fighting the Daniel guy whilst some other dude in a suit
was watching – probably waiting for an opening so he could jump in and kill
Cadmus or something. No such luck for Gaia, however-!

She rolled to the side as a laser carved through the floor
where she had been crouching. The woman waggled a finger in her direction.

“Don’t get distracted!” She taunted, a sadistic grin on her
face. Gaia decided that she didn’t like her. At all.

“Or do.” Said the guy. “It’d save us a lot of trouble, for
sure.” Gaia decided that she didn’t particularly like *him*, either. Was there no-one mildly likable she could fight? She
knew, of course, that it was helpful to fight against people that you didn’t
like, but still. Didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying to do.

She decided to spite them both by being distracted *while* fighting them. As she lunged
through the air, fist out, she spared quick glances over to Kaida, who was
still grappling with Raleigh several meters down the hall. Even as she watched,
he flung a blast of fire at her, but she dodged it before grabbing one of the
canisters at her waist, twisting it, and flinging it into the ground. A smoke
or mist hissed rapidly out of it, quickly clouding the hallway. Gaia would have
watched to see her daughter’s strategy further, but decided to focus on the
woman who was still firing laser beams at her. Grabbing another canister of
maelstrom (of which there had only been two left), she decided that there was
no time to drink it, so she settled for smashing it on her arm, letting her
body ingest the substance. Blocking a blow that the guy aimed at her – since
when did he have a sword – she flexed her fingers and let sparks fly, before
grabbing the guy’s sword and sending a blast of current through it. He jumped
away, his arm shocked, and the sword skidded across the floor. Jonna, who had
just had her wrench knocked out of her hand by the guy with the hammer, dived
for the sword and used it to clumsily stab her opponent in the thigh.

Suddenly, someone else jumped out at her out of nowhere.
Gaia had no idea who he was, but he had an extremely pointy sword. Hastily, she
held out her arm, which morphed into a blade, and countered his blow with her
limb, forcing his attack backwards, before kicking his knee and sending a
follow-up kick into his gut. He stumbled, and she took the opportunity to use
the energy from a blast of mist to send him flying back into someone else (she
didn’t see who).

“Guy!” Jonna called as she dodged another blow from the hammer.
“We should fall back and get in touch with the other group!”

Propelling herself up into the air over the fighters, Gaia
used the moment’s respite to activate the alarm on her ID – hopefully, it would
send a message to the others. As she flew, she could see that as well as
Cadmus, Kaida, and Jonna, there were nine other people in the fray (not including
Madlen, who was still knocked out). Her blood ran cold. The entirety of the
rest of the Twelve. *All of them*. How
were they not dead yet? How were they…? She realised: the only reason they hadn’t
died yet was because of their team’s raw power.

Cadmus – she had underestimated him. He was using his ergokinesis
to physically force back anyone who got too close to not just him, but to the
other members of the team as well. The hammer guy tried to attack him, but he
countered the blow with his shield before spinning his mace into the other man’s
chest.

Kaida was *controlling*
the mist she had released, sending it into the visions of the people she was
fighting and using blasts of it the same way Gaia would use. *Daughter*, she dimly reminded herself
once again. Though Raleigh wasn’t being taken down or anything, her constant
evasive tactics were enough to avoid all of his blasts.

Jonna was probably having the most difficulty, however – not
having any powers, the most she could do was physically fight the members that
were attacking her, and just run away from the ones going after her with powers.
She was good, however, at misdirecting her opponent’s attacks so that they
ended up hitting their allies instead. Whilst the overwhelming numbers of the
Twelve were an extremely bad thing, Gaia realised that there was a positive in
that it was a bunch of people crammed into a relatively small space, which
meant that they couldn’t operate at full powers in some cases.

Landing back on the ground, Gaia cast a glance over to the
team.

“Let’s move.” She said, before turning to Kaida. “Kaida, you
and me! Force them back!”

“Right!” Kaida nodded. Throwing out a cloud of mist from her
hands, Gaia blasted it backwards just as Kaida did the same with her own mist
supply, creating a bust of air that put some distance between them and most of
the Twelve. She spared a glance over to the others. Jonna was panting heavily,
leaning on her wrench, and Cadmus was just delivering a final blow to the guy
he had been fighting, slamming the man’s head into a wall before dropping him
to the ground. When he looked back over at Gaia, however, the fatigue was clear
on his face.

“We should run.” He said. Gaia nodded. Cadmus indicated with
his hand, creating a construct wall between them and the Twelve, before picking
up his weapons and beginning to sprint in the opposite direction. Not needed to
be told twice, the others followed suit, and soon they were running for their
lives down blank hallways that Gaia almost couldn’t make herself look at.

“This!” Panted Kaida. “Has! Gone! To pot! So fast!”

“I wasn’t expecting *everyone*
else *to be here.” Cadmus admitted.*

“How?” Gasped Jonna. “Are we…? Not dead?”

“They’re wearing us down.” Cadmus explained. “Didn’t you see
how no more than one or two of us actually attacked us at a time? They’re
making us use up all of our energy and resources and then they’ll pick us off
quickly.”

“Best chance of survival would be finding the others, then.”
Offered Gaia. Cadmus nodded.

“Exactly.” He said. “If we can hold out until we find the B-Team-”

“You can’t!” Someone said. Wheeling around, Gaia saw Raleigh
rocketing through the air behind them, propelling himself with blasts of fire.
Shoving Kaida and Cadmus to either side, Gaia raised her arms and grabbed
Raleigh just as he slammed into her, sending the two tumbling to the ground.
Before Raleigh could do anything fire-y, however, Gaia grabbed the side of his
head and used the momentum to push the other side of his head hard into the
ground, before grabbing him by the hair and throwing him away with such force
that when she let go, several strands of crimson locks still clung to her hand.
She shook them away in disgust.

“Geez Louise.” Kaida muttered.

Suddenly, Cadmus yelled. Looking to her side, Gaia saw him
get bodyslammed by a block of red energy that knocked him forwards. Before Gaia
could react, the same thing happened to her, sending her spinning once again.
Rolling and looking up, she was able to make out the man in the suit who had
stood by and watched Cadmus’ fight earlier. He was advancing on them slowly and
calmly. Before anyone could do anything, however, a new strand of red energy
came off of him, and hit Cadmus again. No, not *hit*, Gaia dimly realised. Impaled. The energy had been sharped into
a spike, and this spike drove itself into Cadmus’ leg, forcing him to cry out. Without
missing a beat, the energy dragged him backwards *by* the leg and deposited him at the feet of the man in the suit.

“Shit-!” Jonna muttered, before noticing the same thing that
Gaia had just noticed – the rest of the twelve was behind the suited man.

As one, they rushed forward, passing by both Cadmus and the
suited man. Gaia understood what they were doing now. They were planning to
overwhelm them with physical force, now that their energy had been expended.
Jonna’s arm was sliced by a sword-wielding Twelve member, and she instantly
dropped her weapon and stifled a scream. Why had it been so painful, was it
poisoned or something, Gaia wondered? Grimacing, she checked her vial supply.
One small bottle of maelstrom essence left – but there was no time like the
present, she reasoned as she crushed it with her hand and sent a burst of fire
towards the approaching Twelve members almost within the same breath. They all
dodged the attack, however, and Gaia was forced to dodge another laser, as well
as a swipe of the hammer guy’s hammer. She fell back, glancing round. Jonna had,
by this point, been defeated, if the sword poised at her throat was anything to
go by, and there was no sign of Cadmus. Kaida, however, was actually putting up
a good fight – as Gaia watched, she physically flung one twelve member across
the hallway, before flinching under a bombardment of electrical energy from
another. Gaia, who had been given a rundown of Kaida’s abilities the previous
day, wasn’t worried (well, not worried by *that*
specifically, even if she was worried in general), and sure enough, Kaida
absorbed the electricity before leaping several meters through the air and kicking
the electricity-wielder in the face.

Not able to watch any longer, Gaia crossed blades (arms? Blade-arms?)
with a guy who could apparently ALSO turn his arms into weapons. Small world.

“Copycat!” He spat in her face. She grimaced. Disgusting.

“I didn’t-!” She twisted his arm. “Choose-!” She turned
around and slammed her back into his chest. “This!” She pulled on his arm,
sending him somersaulting over her and slamming back-first into the floor.

She couldn’t take the time to celebrate her victory,
however, as Kaida was suddenly thrown into her. The two went down in a tangle
of limbs, and Gaia could see the remaining Twelve members approaching. The situation
sucked, yes – but Gaia suddenly noticed something else. None of them were rushing
in. Instead, they were approaching slowly. Like hunters approaching a wounded
animal. They were still weary of her, still unsure how much fight she had left.
Cadmus’ words about wearing them down came to her – they still weren’t sure if
she was out of it yet!

Before any of them could get the idea to charge, Gaia stood
up, letting Kaida slide off her. She winced as she moved – her ribs were *really* stinging, for some reason – but she
planted both of her feet in the ground and let bolts of electricity zip across
her arms as she stared the Twelve down.

“*Who’s going to be*
first?*” She asked the question voicelessly. “*Who’s going to risk defeat by coming at me first?*”*

The twelve seemed to recognise this threat, because they
still hesitated. One of them, the one with the spear, shot a blast of lighting
at her, but Kaida moved quicker than even Gaia, letting the energy slam into
her and merge with her own. Gaia gave a start – she didn’t think Kaida was still
up for the fight! But one look at Kaida’s determined gaze told her otherwise.

The two stood back-to-back now, completely surrounded and
pressed against a wall by the Twelve. Who was there still to fight? Gaia
scanned the terrain. The spear lady, the woman who shot lasers, the hammer guy –
the guy she had bodyslammed was rising and muttering curses to himself. There was
also the guy with brown hair, who she had decided she disliked. There was no
sign of the suit guy or the guy with the potentially poisoned sword – but then
again, there was no sign of Jonna or Cadmus. And even as she watched, Raleigh
sauntered over to them as if she HADN’T just flung him down the hallway. So it
was two on six.

“Surrender.” The guy with the hammer said, suddenly and
unexpectedly.

“How do we know you won’t just kill us?” Kaida challenged. The
hammer guy’s brow furrowed.

“If you surrender, I swear on my honour that I, Lambard the
diamond hammer, will not kill you where you stand. I make no such promise if
you keep fighting.”

“I’m not hearing any promises from the rest of you.” Kaida
pointed out, indicating their surroundings with a wave of her hand. One of her prosthetic
fingers was bent out of shape, producing the occasional spark as she moved it. From
among the members of the Twelve, there was a general mutter, but no-one else
made the same promise as Lambard.

“Why would I lie?” Asked Raleigh. “Me and Gaia both know
that we’d kill each other given half the chance. I’m not going to pretend that
I’d be willing to spare her.”

“Come and have a go, then.” Hissed Gaia, clenching her
trembling fists.

“We don’t have time for this!” Interrupted Lambard. “Stand
down. Your companion has already been apprehended, and the traitor is-”

“The traitor,” said a new voice, “is dead.”

Turning, Gaia and Kaida saw the man in the suit walking forwards.
His hands were in his pockets, and nothing about him looked ruffled, or
indicated that he had been in a fight. In fact, as Gaia peered at him, the only
thing that made him look NOT like some bloke who worked in an office was the
drop of blood on his collar. Suddenly, he turned to her with a smile on his
face.

“Oh, it’s not mine.” He said, indicating the collar. How had
he known that that was what she had been looking at? “But yes.” The man
continued. “The sooner the two of you settle down, the sooner we can move on to
the second team that’s running around in here.”

“I’m getting’ déjà vu.” Kaida muttered, before yelling out. “Hey,
asshole! Did you miss the part where we’d be killed anyway if we stood down?”

“I can enforce your survival.” The suited man said. “I’m in
charge here.”

And yeah, that was it. It was definitely Ironsides. Gaia had
suspected, but she hadn’t been certain until right that moment. She swore. How much
maelstrom did she have left? None left in supply, but as she rolled her
shoulders, she could still feel a hum of latent energy. There was probably
enough left for one burst…

“When I say run, run.” Gaia hissed.

“What?” Kaida said back, but Gaia paid it no mind. Instead,
she shrugged.

“I’m inclined to decline your generous offer.” She said,
before thrusting out with either hand. A wave of energy rocketed to the side,
throwing back the members of the Twelve. “Run!” She yelled. Kaida was off like
a shot down the hallway, propelling herself from side to side with powerful,
electricity-fuelled kicks. Raleigh and the laser woman leapt after her, but
Gaia threw up a wave of violet fire that forced them both backwards.

“Hands off!” She yelled, before sprinting forwards and decking
a surprised brown-haired guy in the face. Not pausing to appreciate the irony,
she turned and blasted Lambard and the woman with the spear with lighting. The
laser woman – was she out of lasers or something – made to stab her with a sword,
but she countered the blow with a polymorphed arm before flexing her other hand
and releasing some fire in a small explosion that forced them both backwards.
Gaia winced as her ribs felt the blow, but ignored the injury in favour of launching
herself through the air with a burst of mist to tackle someone else. Everything
blurred together – the figures, the lighting, even her brother – as it was one
punch and another, one blast of fire and another bolt of lightning, one kick
and another headbutt. The only curiosity she noted was that the suited guy –
Ironsides – was watching over her with a passive look on his face, as if she
were nothing more than a child throwing some kind of tantrum. His indifference
filled her with race, and as she punched someone square in the nose, she
imagined that it was him instead.

“Stand down!” Lambard ordered her again, trying to crush her
with his hammer. “We don’t want any unnecessary deaths!” Not willing to comment
on the irony, Gaia settled for jumping out of the way before grabbing the
hammer and sending a jolt of electricity up it. Same trick, different person,
but it seemed to work as Lambard yelled and dropped his weapon. Gaia ducked a
blow from Raleigh before bending down, grabbing his leg, and standing up as
quickly as she could, letting her brother drop to the floor and slam his head
against the cold metal. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the laser
woman try to run down the corridor past the diminished wall of flames, and she
propelled herself forward to kick the woman to the ground.

“Leave her alone.” She hissed, before picking her up with
one arm and throwing her into the brown-haired guy. She then dodged a charge
from the guy who could morph his limbs before grabbing his shoulders and
flinging him to the side. She tried to follow up with a fiery blast, but she
produced something more akin to a splutter of liquid flame. She was getting
pretty low on power. Nonplussed, she settled for physical blows – but every
time she landed a hit, she took one back, and no matter how much stamina she
had, she couldn’t win a war of attrition against so many other people. Damn it.

Risking it all, she sent out every last jot of maelstrom she
had within her within a final blast wave, flinging everyone back again, before
using the last of her physical energy to climb to her feet and sprint down the
hallway. It wasn’t much of a plan, considering she’d probably be killed before
she met the other team, but it was better than lying down and waiting to die. Adrenaline
kept her muscles pumping. An indignant scream from Raleigh alerted her to his
shot, and she dove to the side to avoid the fireball that whooshed over her
head. She picked herself up off the floor, avoiding the- the hammer! Sure enough,
Lambard had tossed his hammer right at her, and she hastily ducked as it
embedded itself in the wall above her head.

“Good grief.” She muttered as she began to spring again. She
was almost at the corner – she could turn around and catch a precious few seconds
of rest – she reached the next hallway and caught sight, in the not-so-far-off
distance, of Kaida leading the B team back towards her. A wave of relief so
strong hit her that she thought for a moment that she’d be sick.

“Over here!” She called, sparing the energy to wave. Stupid
plan, because the Twelve would surely know that something was up, but at that
moment? She honestly didn’t care. “Over he-”

Two things alerted her. The desperate scream of “look out!”
from someone in the B team, and the telltale whooshing sound of an incoming
attack. Too tired for conscious thought, she reflexively jumped to avoid the
low-shot blast, pushing off the ground with her left leg in a sort of hop, and
too tired to properly dodge, her legs dangled sluggishly as she propelled
herself off the ground. She felt a scorching pain under her right foot, and the
same pain as the blast pierced her left thigh. Cursing, she fell backwards from
the blast – but something was wrong, something was very, *very* wrong, in the way that she fell. Her face fell on her knee, and
the pain just kept hurting, and when she flailed her arms she ended up knocking
something away from her head and when she flailed her legs everything felt
numb. She suddenly felt so incredibly tired. The last thing she saw before
lapsing into unconsciousness was her own severed leg spinning across the floor,
and the cutoff point (somewhere in the middle of her thigh) steaming.

She sobbed, once.

### ***LOST***

At the same moment Gaia crumpled to the floor after having
one of her legs severed, Kaida shrieked and leapt forward into the line of fire
in an attempt to shield Gaia’s body with her own. Dante and Plue thundered past
Percevel, Plue nocking and firing an arrow and Dante throwing his sword in the
direction of Gaia’s assailants. Percevel was still slow and unsteady from his
imprisonment, so he didn’t move quickly enough to see the entire fight – but he
heard the sounds of blasts and yells and there was also a crash of some kind.
Inhumanely quickly, Kaida leapt back out of the hallway’s line of sight and
towards the rest of the group, cradling Gaia’s body – her limbs looked red and
raw, and she hissed as she eased Gaia’s body back onto the ground.

“H…” She wheezed. “Help her…”

Ignoring Talia’s horrified cry, Percevel stumbled over and
perused Gaia’s form. As well as the leg, she had numerous other injuries –
bruised cheek and bleeding knuckles. There were also spots of blood on her
shirt, around her ribs. Lifting the shirt, Percevel saw a couple of scratches
and a lot more bruising. Most likely, she’d taken a very solid blow to that
area. And then there was the limb itself – or, to be more specific, the lack
thereof. Around halfway between her thigh and her knee, the leg had been neatly
cleaved off. A thin line of smoke was still coming off of the wound, but as
shocking as it was, Percevel couldn’t see any blood or other reason to panic.

“There’s not a lot I can do right now.” He said. “The
wound’s already be cauterised, so I don’t think her life is in danger. And
she’s unconscious, so she can’t go into shock. I think the best thing we can do
right now is keep her stable and away from the fighting until all this is over
– then we get some medical personal involved. Sound like a plan?”

Kaida, who had previously been simply staring at Gaia with a
horrified expression on her face, looked up at Percevel in confusion.

“I- uh- sure.” She eventually said.

Talia, suddenly, stepped forward and extended her hand.
Percevel just had time to crawl backwards before a film of blue energy surrounded
Gaia and levitated her off of the floor.

“Protection.” Talia said. Her voice wasn’t shaking, but when
Percevel turned to look at her, he could see the horror in her eyes.

There was a yell, and Percevel looked up just in time to get
hid squarely in the chest by Dante as he was flung backwards, groaning. Besides
him, Plue skidded backwards and fired off another arrow.

“They’re all there!” She yelled by means of a greeting. “All
of the rest of the Twelve!”

“Where’s Jonna?” Peragrine asked. “And also that other guy!
Ladmus!”

“Cadmus!” Corrected Percevel automatically, even as the
first members of the Twelve rounded the corner. There was the guy with red hair
whose hands were on fire, and a heavyset blonde man with a hammer, and a few
others that he didn’t pay attention to. He was too busy panicking internally.
Out of everyone there, Gaia was KO’d, Kaida was fatigued, and most of the rest
of them didn’t have the raw power to hold back so many people at once.

Talia stepped forward again.

Something sparked in the air, and a brilliant blue wall of
energy flickered into existence, cutting all through the hallway, cutting the
Twelve off from them. One of them walked into it, but the barrier didn’t even
flicker. It reminded Percevel of some kind of superpowered bulletproof glass.

“Phew!” Peragrine made a show of mopping his forehead. “That
was, uh… a bit too close for comfort.” He tentatively wandered closer to the
barrier, like how a child would approach a lion’s cage at the zoo – aware that
they may end up dead, but too tempted by the prospect of excitement to stop
themselves. He went as far as to tap on the barrier cautiously. One of the
twelve stalked forward towards him, clutching a spear and growling. He waved
coyly, before mock-whispering over his shoulder.

“Perce!! It’s the woman that electrocuted me from earlier?
It’s the nasty sparky spear lady!”

“We should move.” Said Dante, suddenly. “Ivy had a device
that could shut down Talia’s Mythran constructs. If any of them have one of
those, we’re doomed.”

“Ah.” Peragrine scampered away from the border. “Right.”

What followed was probably the quickest Percevel had ever
seen a group of people turn on their heel and run away. Peragrine was gone in a
flash, putting his boundless energy to good use by darting back the way they
had come. Dante and Plue worked together to haul Vector to his feet (Vector
still being weak and half-delirious from his time spent with the Twelve’s
interrogators – Percevel wasn’t sure if he even knew what was going on), and
Talia used her powers to levitate both Gaia and the Twelve member who had
already been defeated, who had been able to create illusions. There was panic
and fear on everyone’s minds, of course: where was Jonna? Where was Cadmus?
What was the plan from this point onwards? But these were temporarily discarded
in favour of sprinting like hell down the halls, thundering along at top
speeds.

“Sitrep!” Dante ordered. “How many of them did we see?”

“Ten-ish.” Said Plue, dejectedly. “Ten at the absolute most,
because we took one out earlier, but also because… their leader was there?”

“Their leader was there.” Confirmed Kaida – the only
conscious member of the A-team present. “And including him, there were eight of
them left. We took out some of them.”

The conversation was interrupted by the barrier around the
captured twelve member jolting and breaking, sending the man skidding into the
wall.

Everyone turned to Talia, who gave no physical reaction but
eyed them all with an unidentifiable expression.

“I… I thought our priority should be survival.” She said.
“My powers do have a limit, you know.”

“Fair.” Perry admitted.

Percevel didn’t have time to ponder the issue for too long,
but it did get him wondering – on the one hand, it was absolutely fantastic to
see Talia again after all that they had been through in their own universe. On
the other hand, she’d definitely changed. Not that change was automatically a
bad thing, but it went to show how a fair amount of time had indeed passed. It
saddened him a little. But, then again, there wasn’t a lot of time to dwell on
it.

Peragrine began to overtake everyone else as he ran – he
slowed to a jog and ran alongside Percevel.

“Looks like everyone else is slowing down and getting
tired.” He observed. “We should, uh…”

“Find somewhere to regroup?” Suggested Dante wryly.

Perry nodded. “Yeah, that’d work.” His voice was still
chipper, but Perceval could see the tell in his expression, and the lack of a
real spring in his (still quick) step. He was worried. For Jonna, presumably –
although the fact that their own situation was pretty dangerous in its own
right probably had something to do with it, as well.

“We’re all grouped.” Plue pointed out from her position at
the rear of the group. “Technically. We’re all already here.”

“Stand and fight, then.” Dante amended. “We could set a
trap.”

“A trap!” Perry jumped as he ran. “I love those. Let’s do
it. Can we do it? I *want* to do it.”

“Worth a shot.” Talia admitted. “They outnumber us now,
right? Or… outpower us, or something?”

Perceval and Plue both nodded confirmation. Talia nodded
back. “So, why don’t we get the drop on them? Or split them up? Something
that’ll swing the fight back to our advantage.”

“I’m down.” Plue said. “How are we gonna do that, though?”

“Stopping would be a marvellous place to start.” Declared
Dante. “They’re not behind us, are they…?”

“Coast is clear!” Perry reported, skidding to a halt on the
white-tiled floor, losing his balance and ultimately falling on his face as he
did so. Everyone else soon joined him in a state of not-running.

Talia seemed to focus for a moment. “The barrier’s down.”
She said. “They must be on their way.”

“Then we don’t have time to lose.” Said Dante, a glint in
his eye.

What followed was six minutes of the most frantic
preparation and planning that Perceval may have ever seen in his life. Dante
and Plue were the heads of it all, commanding (and occasionally countermanding)
and giving orders as if their lives depended on it (which they did, in a
literal sense). Kaida rigged something up with what was apparently a canister
of mist, Talia erected another barrier – and also placed down some trap-based
constructs – and Perry managed to balance a whiteboard rubber that he
inexplicably had on his person on top of a door leading off into a side room
(some office that had been abandoned for long enough for cobwebs to set in), as
well as lay down some actual traps based on what equipment he still had on his
person after all this time.

Perceval himself didn’t do much except stand guard beside
their wounded – Vector (who was slowly returning to the land of the living,
muttering feverishly to himself and slowly flexing his limbs) and Gaia (who was
still unconscious). At one point, Talia halted her preparations to try and heal
Vector (it was unclear how her healing abilities worked, but it seemed to have
something to do with ergokinesis and physical energy in relation to Mythran
energy), but Vector was coherent enough to wave her off and say something about
there being more important things to do – which prompted Perceval to wonder exactly
how much of their conversations and stuff he had heard.

Eventually, their time came to a halt and the procession
that was the remaining members of the Twelve of Infinite Sight turned a corner
and came into view. There was the red-headed man (Perceval remembered him quite
well), as well as the woman with the electric spear – or electric *powers*, it wasn’t all that clear – in
front of the cluster. Very visible behind them was a large blonde man, as well
as a tall and lanky man with a terrifying-looking sword with multiple separate
blades on it. There were other figures in the crowd as well, but what caught
Perceval’s attention was a pair off to the side – a woman with a sword held to
the neck of a still struggling Jonna, each one eying the other with nothing
less than the utmost loathing. And it was definitely Jonna – dishevelled and
with a black eye, but still alive and kicking… for now. Obviously there to be
used as a hostage or something. Good tactic, if slightly scummy, but the fact
that it was being used on them here and now was really rather distressing –
especially considering it had been a very long time since he had actually seen
Jonna at last. He tried to shoot her a sympathetic look, but she didn’t appear
to notice. He didn’t blame her.

Just before Talia’s barrier, they stopped walking. Then, as
one, the little crowd parted down the centre to reveal a man in a black suit,
walking in their midst with his hands in his pockets as if… as if he owned the
place. Could it be Ironsides?

“That’s Ironsides.” Kaida reported, standing beside him and
walking forwards until she was just behind the barrier – just out of reach.
From the other side, Ironsides smiled.

“You’re certainly putting up a fight.” He said.

“What can I say?” Kaida shrugged. “I’ve been told I’m
stubborn.”

Ironsides made no immediate move to answer, instead gazing
at the barrier with a vague interest, raising his head and scanning it
visually, like an artist committing a landscape to memory so it could be
painted later. (Assuming that was how painting worked in any capacity. Perceval
didn’t know. He wasn’t a painter.)

“You’ve stopped running.” He finally said. “All of you.”

“An astute observation.” Remarked Kaida.

Perceval eyed the group. Plue, Talia, Kaida, and Perry all
looked ready for a fight – Kaida especially seemed as though she were ready to
tear Ironsides apart, despite all the action she had already seen. Dante was
massaging one of his temples, but he too was eying Ironsides keenly. Slightly
behind them were Vector and Gaia – still KO’d for all intents and purposes. And
he himself? Well, he wanted to go home, but he wanted his friend back more, and
Jonna was still being held at swordpoint. So that was that.

“What happens to her?” He asked, indicating with a flick of
his head to Jonna. Ironside’s cold gaze turned to him, and he almost blanched.
The man’s dark eyes were… ineffable, almost, in their frosty intensity. It was
like he was anticipating something horrific, but at the same time was
ambivalent to it.

“It depends on you.” He spoke with clarity and diction, like
someone making a speech. “If you resist, she’ll be killed, of course. If you
surrender to me, her life just might be spared.”

“Sounds like… you’ll kill her either way.” Perry snarled.
“Especially ‘cause we’ve no reason to trust you.”

“That would be a chance you have to take.” Ironsides said
simply.

“Bastard.” Kaida snarled.

At that point, several things happened. Ironsides flexed his
hand and Talia’s barrier shattered, Kaida charged forward and made to punch
Ironsides and ended up being flung backwards by a wall of energy, and Plue
fired off an arrow – it hit the woman with the sword (who was restraining
Jonna) in the shoulder, and she fell backwards, Jonna taking the opportunity to
dive forward and slide back over to their side. Blood flew. Kaida slammed into
the wall with a thud. The barrier fell to the ground like shattered glass,
before vanishing into nothingness.

“Wait, did you just kill her?” Perceval heard Perry ask
Plue. She lowered the bow, and didn’t answer immediately.

“I don’t… think so.” She said.

Ironsides, for his part, seemed relatively unperturbed at
the loss of one of his soldiers. He motioned with his hand, and suddenly a new
barrier sprung up – a bright red wall of energy, obviously of *his* making. It shot up around them –
around all of their sides. With the exception of Gaia and Vector (who were
propped up against the wall), the entire group were suddenly encircled by a
blood red force field.

Ironsides flexed his hand again.

The barrier began to shrink.

It took a couple of moments for everyone to twig what was
happening, but once they did-?

“Oh, the old crush-us-to-death routine.” Dante mimed a yawn.
“Real original.”

“I don’t think originality is a priority in a situation such
as this.” Plue told him, experimentally poking the barrier with a sword. It
didn’t give, and it also didn’t give when Kaida slammed her fist into it.

“Any ideas, Perce?” Jonna asked him as the barrier continued
to move closer.

“Honestly,” Dante interrupted before Perceval could say
anything, “I’m just surprised that you don’t crush us straight away and be done
with it.”

“*Don’t give him any*
ideas*!” Plue hissed, clonking Dante on the head with the hilt of her sword.*

“*Ideas?!?!*”
Peragrine frantically repeated at Perceval, who shrugged.

“Can you remotely activate any of the traps you set up?” He
asked, murmured into Perry’s ear just in case the barrier wasn’t soundproof.
“Or any of them at all? They don’t have to be yours, but if you can cause a
distraction, the barrier might fail and we can make a move.”

Perry paused. Thought. Smirked.

“Can I?” He repeated, still smirking. Two seconds passed,
which was two too many for Perceval, who was acutely aware of how the energy
field was going to crush them at any moment.

“Can you?” He emphasised. Perry looked affronted.

“Of course I can!” He folded his arms in a mockery of
indignation, even though it *really wasn’t*
the time*-*

“Peragrine!” Perceval yelled. Perry rolled his eyes, but
nodded to show understanding. Flicking his hand upwards and snatching a detonator
out seemingly thin air (Perceval still had no idea where he kept half of his
knickknackeries), he licked his lips in anticipation before raising is hand in
front of his chest.

“Tick-tick-boom.” He said as one word, slamming his thumb
down onto the switch.

The explosion was surprisingly large, all things considered,
blowing away a good portion of the wall. (As it turned out, Perry had rigged up
one of his flareguns, as well as all of its ammunition, to explode on command.)
Whilst the rescue team was protected by the barrier (in an ironic twist), the
remaining members of the Twelve were sent reeling as the shockwave flew through
the hallway – Ironsides included. The barrier flickered, and Kaida seized the
opportunity to lunge forward again. This time, the distraction enabled her to
succeed, and she slugged Ironsides’ jaw before anyone else could to anything.
The barrier faded away completely as Ironsides stumbled backwards. The nearest
Twelve member to Ironsides tried to grab Kaida’s arm, but quick as a flash
Peragrine had drawn his remaining flaregun and fired off half a dozen snap
shots. The weak ammunition was incapacitory instead of fatal, but it was enough
to force the man back with a yell, and enable Kaida to jump backwards in a blur
of electricity. She twisted her hand as she jumped, and the remaining canister
of mist exploded, enveloping the Twelve from sight – but also completely
obscuring their own senses (or so Perceval hoped).

“And- now!” Dante yelled. Perceval recognised a command when
he heard it, and sprinted into the fray, snatching a sword off the ground from
where it lay at the feet of the woman who had been restraining Jonna. She
moaned, seemingly not dead after all, but did nothing to stop him as he flipped
the blade around in his hands a couple of times-

A whirr of air alerted him to an incoming attack, and he
dived downwards to avoid the hammer held by the muscular blonde man, who was
eying him with a ferocious look in his shattered blue eyes.

“Damn you!” He spat. “Damn you all!”

Unable to place his apparently seething hatred, Perceval
could do nothing more than defend himself. Before the man could draw the hammer
back towards him, he lunged with the sword. Unfortunately for him, the angry
man had a speed unexpected for a specimen of his size, and darted away from the
blow before he could get stabbed in the gut. Fumbling to make sure that his
glasses didn’t fall off his face, Perceval waved the sword again, intending to
drive the man away from the hammer and deprive him of his primary weapon
(because if he *had* to die, he didn’t
want to get crushed into a bloody pulp by a second-hand gorilla with an
oversized construction tool). The sounds of battle rang in his ears, but he
tried to push them to the side and focus-

The man dodged again.

Damn it all, indeed.

Not only did the man dodge Perceval’s second strike, he
actually dove towards the hammer instead of away, as Perceval had intended.
He’d miscalculated.

The next moment, a mechanical whirr had filled the air and
only his reflexes had kept him alive as he threw himself to the side, hitting
the wall in his haste to get out of the way of the hammer as it was brought
down onto the ground from an overhead strike. A cloud of dust filled the air,
making it even *harder* to see (never
mind the fact that the mist was concealing enough from him – he could barely
see his own hands now!). The man stepped over the mini-crater he had left
behind, fixated almost madly on Perceval.

“It isn’t fair!” He roared. “We’re trying to help you!”

“*Help* us?” Perceval
repeated, incredulously, unable to contain himself and certainly unsure as to
where this train of thought had even come from to begin with (though, if he
were to guess based on what he knew, he’d have to say that Ironsides would have
had something to do with it).

“You think that these powers were *meant* for us? For people?” He roared, bringing the hammer up for
another strike. Perceval scrambled backwards, not willing to risk trying to hit
him again with the hammer over him like a potential blow from a judgemental
God. Crikey O’Reilly, this man was intense. “You think that we should be left
unchecked, to run around as we please? That we should bow to the whims of
chaos?”

“Well, *you*
shouldn’t, that’s for damn sure.” Perceval said in retort, trying to stab him
again. The man blocked his thrust with the hammer head, before whirling it back
around for a strike that Perceval would have been killed by if he hadn’t
dropped backwards onto the floor at the last possible moment. Unfortunately,
his frantic dodge meant that his sword was jerked out of his arms, and he ended
up lying flat on his back like a turtle – at mercy to his enemy. He scrabbled
to get to his feet.

As he narrowly dodged the hammer again, he couldn’t help but
wonder something. Not that he was going to complain about it – but Ironside had
demonstrated the capability to immobilize them all in a moment. Why hadn’t he
done so again? Was it the fog? Was it the fact that everyone was packed
together, and he just didn’t want to hurt his own soldiers? Was it-

Right, yes, hammer. This time, he wasn’t lucky, and was
glanced by the hammer across the stomach as it was swung again. He felt his
armour shatter, felt a stabbing pain in his gut, and found himself tossed
across to the side.

That was what he got for focusing on something other than
the fight in front of him.

He scrabbled away, struggling to find traction on the floor.
He was saved by Talia, in the end, who struck the hammer man with a light
construct – a large rectangle slammed into him from out of nowhere and tossed
him into the mist. The next second, Talia was helping him to his feet. At
least, she *tried* to help him to his
feet, because he made an attempt to stand up before his stomach throbbed and he
ended up falling over.

“Perceval!” She shrieked. He managed a smirk up at her.

“Pretty sure… I’ve had worse.” He said through gritted
teeth, remembering the time they’d fought the Darkitecht. He pawed at his face,
feeling as though something was out of place – his glasses were gone. Just
perfect.

Everything was carnage, gone to hell-in a hand-basket. Plue
appeared for a moment, locking swords with someone, before disappearing out
Perceval’s blurred vision. A figure appeared – no, *two* figures – grappling and writing as they stumbled around. With a
start, Perceval realised what he was seeing. Kaida had leapt onto Ironsides’
back and had her legs clamped around his chest while her arms were encasing his
head, covering his eyes. To cap that, she was screaming into his ears. Perceval couldn't make out the words, but he could tell it was loud. Ironsides was flailing around, no longer maintaining
the professional atmosphere he’d previously cultivated.

Peragrine appeared, waving his remaining flare gun. Perceval
realised that he was firing off snap shots at Ironsides. He knew from
experience that the shots would do no lasting damage, but they would sting and
leave a sizable bruise where they hit – which, in Ironsides’ case was just
about everywhere. Perry was being absolutely relentless. Dimly, Perceval
registered that that was why they hadn’t been re-rounded up already; Ironsides
was being forced into a mixture of sensory deprivation and sensory overload,
and couldn’t actually stand still and focus long enough to use his powers. It
was genius, sort of.

A body slammed into the ground in front of Perceval. It was
Dante. He was hunched over, clutching at his hand. Perceval peered over, and he
could see the man’s left forearm coated with soot and blood, shaking in pain.
Dante hissed as Perceval limped over to him, before turning around and
furrowing his nose.

“Lightning.” He said, by way of explanation. Sure enough,
Perceval could make out the tendrils of red, in the shape of a bolt of
lightning, streaking across Dante’s arm like it had been used as a canvas.

Talia darted forward, seized his other arm, and began to try
and drag him… Perceval wasn’t sure where. If he had to guess, he’d reason that
it would have been the corner where Gaia and Vector still lay. However, Dante
slapped her hand away.

“M’fine.” He slurred. “Just protect the others.”

“You’re hurt!” Talia protested. Dante glared at her, but
something stopped him from resisting as she continued to tug him back into the
fog. She turned around to look at Perceval, who hastily gave her a thumbs up.

“Right behind you.” He promised. Talia nodded, and the two
disappeared from his vision once more.

It was a promise that he’d earnestly intended to keep –
unfortunately, the re-arrival of the hammer man prevented that. He’d apparently
been preoccupied by fighting Plue, who was still using her sword to divert his
attacks, stabbing at him and trying to put a hole in his gut. Unfortunately,
she backed right into Perceval before he could say anything, and tripped
backwards. The hammer man then seized the opportunity to lumber forwards and
crush her. Perceval realised that he had to act.

He grabbed the nearest *thing*
to hand – a shard of what looked like his own armour, and lunged, almost
sliding across the ground to sink the shard into the man’s leg. Hammer man
yelled in surprise and pain, and Perceval rolled away, feeling more of a
stabbing pain in his stomach as he did so. Looking down properly for the first
time, he was that his armour had basically been shattered by that “glancing
blow”, and his there was a patch of blood near his stomach. It looked like at
least one of his armour shards had actually pierced his stomach, which… sucked.
The first thing he thought to do was be relieved that adrenaline existed to
null the pain, and the second was to look up to check on hammer man, because
he’d learnt his lesson about not paying attention to the fight he was in. As it
turned out, however, hammer man was *still*
fighting Plue, who was obviously playing on the advantage Perceval had been
able to provide her, constantly aiming for his injured leg and using his
suddenly decreased mobility to her advantage, rolling and jumping and making
sure to stay out of the way of the deadly hammer.

As he watched, Plue finally managed to get into the hammer
man’s blind spot, and dragged her sword up his leg. He yelled and dropped his
hammer, sinking to his knees. Without wasting a moment, Plue flipped her sword
around in her hand before showing it downwards – into the man’s back. Perceval
watched in fear, awe, and distaste as the sword went right through, sticking
out of the man’s stomach. Plue must have noticed Perceval watching her, before
she rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I made sure to not hit anything vital.” She
said, by way of reassurance, before leaning down to be sure that the hammer man
could hear her, and saying: “but if I were you, I’d leave that there so you don’t
bleed to death.” She narrowed her eyes. “If it makes you feel any better, I got
stabbed a load in an illusion earlier, so you can consider this payback.”

The hammer man yelled obscenities at her. Plue stood up,
unruffled.

“You alright?” Perceval asked, not quite sure what else to
say. She glanced over at him again, and then pressed her hand against her head.

“Sick of this.” She said, simply.

“That makes-” He was cut off by a coughing fit that send painful
shudders along the length of his body. Plue ran towards him, but then a dull
thud drew both of their attentions to right nearby them, where Dante’s body had
been thrown onto the floor. His face was covered in blood.

“Dante!” Plue’s shriek was piercing.

The woman with the spear, who’d knocked him out with
lighting – Mikala, he figured her name was – appeared, along with a man he
barely recognised.

Plue grabbed her sword and held it out in front of her, a
non-verbal declaration of determination to protect the two men. However,
Perceval could see her hand shaking.

“Where’s Talia?” He asked out loud. Plue gave no answer. She
probably didn’t know. The sounds of battle still filled the air, and a jet of
fire billowed out of the mist to sail over their heads and wash the scene with
orange light.

Mikala jumped forwards, on the attack, and Plue countered
her. The clanging of metal filled Perceval’s ears. He tried to drag himself to
his feet, but found that he didn’t have the strength.

The battle continued.

### ***INTERLUDE: WHY EVERYONE ISN’T DEAD YET***

Perry checked his magazine. Fifteen saucy shots left (and in
this case, “saucy” was, like, a descriptive adjective and not a literal thing,
he didn’t literally have sauce shots). By this point, he was beginning to
wonder if they could actually defeat Ironsides like this.

“My voice!” Yelled Kaida from her position, perched atop
Ironsides’ shoulders. “Is getting! Hoarse!”

Sure enough, he himself could hear (hhhhey, that was a lot
of hs) the strain in her voice. It sounded painful. And raspy. Like sandpaper,
or raw metal, or sandpaper on raw metal.

Still, he figured, flicking the trigger on his faregun and
firing off another snap shot (fourteen saucy shots left) that hit Ironsides
right on the chinny-chin-chin, they were doing okay for the time being. Wasn’t
as though he was using his ultra powers on them yet, at least.

Yeah. They could buy some more time yet.

### ***EMPTY OF ALL IT HAS***

Sometimes Jonna couldn’t help but wonder how things led to
other, crazier things. A prime case study was probably her current situation –
stuck in another dimension with her friends, part of an all-out brawl between
multiple people with multiple superpowers, armed with only a wrench that she’d
had on her person when she’d been fetched to get sent to said other dimension.

It if were possible, she’d have asked for a pay rise.

After getting released from the clutches of the crazy sword
woman by Plue’s well-aimed shot, she’d found herself as something of a
nonentity in the ensuing fight. She’d gotten a couple of good hits in,
certainly – one of the Twelve was now unconscious on the floor because she’d
managed to crack him right on the head with her trusty wrench while he was
distracted trying to murder Kaida – but beyond that, she’d mostly just avoided
all the fired and laser beams and whatever. Kept her head down. She’d considered
setting up a turret, but those things were always automated and she was in a
room with nothing but humans – it wouldn’t be able to differentiate between the
good guys and the bad guys. Which sucked.

So, yeah, there had been a certain general lack of activity
on her part. Which is why when she’d run through the mist and encroached on a
three-way fight between Plue and two of the members of the Twelve, she hadn’t
been surprised when nobody had immediately paid her any attention. A cry of
“Jonna!” came from the other side of the hallway, and she saw Perceval propped
up against the wall. He was clutching his stomach, and looked deathly pale.
Beyond him was Dante, who wasn’t even moving at all. There was a neat line
across his forehead, like he’d been slashed at with a sword, and below that was
a whole load of blood. She darted over to them.

“Shoot!” She said out loud. “How- what- are you okay?”

Stupid question, but Perceval didn’t call her out on it. He
jerked his head to indicate Dante.

“Worry about him first. He hasn’t actually moved yet.”

Jonna obligingly crept over to Dante, and examined him. On
closer examination, she could see that the wound wasn’t actually as bad as it
looked (which made sense – forehead wounds typically bled a lot), but there
were some other marks of conflict on his body. His left arm, in particular,
looked fairly battered. She flicked her gaze back up to his face, only to jump
in surprise at the sight of his eyes being wide open.

“D…Dante?” She asked. He growled, and she realised that his
eyes were ringed shades of purple. “Raelyn?” She tried again. “Are you-”

“The hell happened…?” Raelyn tried to push herself up, but
her arm – Dante’s arm – shook with the effort, and Jonna placed a hand on her
chest to try and push her back to the floor.

“Raelyn, Dante’s hurt. You shouldn’t push his body right
now.” Jonna chided. Raelyn looked down the body she was controlling in a sort
of stunned disgust.

“…shit.” She eventually said.

“I know.” Said Jonna, grabbing her by the armpits and
beginning to drag her past the fighters and up to the wall.

“No, you don’t.” Raelyn snapped. But something was wrong.
Her voice was shaking. “This was my fault. I shouldn’t have-”

“Look out!” Perceval cried. Looking up, Jonna was one of the
people Plue had been fighting – the man – run towards them. He wasn’t holding a
weapon, but his fists were bared. Obviously he’d noticed them and decided that
his friend could hold off Plue for that moment.

“No!” Jonna yelled, but Raelyn was the one who acted. She
flexed her hand and shot a laser right at the man. It was a clean shot, hitting
him in the hand. He stopped running, stumbling forward and shouting in surprise
and pain, clutching his hand. Raelyn shot to her feet, yelling in exhilaration
– or maybe in pain herself, depending on just how badly Dante’s body was hurt –
as she arced her fingers and unleashed a slew of pink sparks and tendrils of
lighting that washed over both the man who’d tried to attack them, and the
woman who’d still been grappling with Plue. Both individuals cried out, but the
woman seemed to recover quicker, turning to face Raelyn with a face distorted
in fury. The man eventually slumped to the ground, twitching.

“Help!”

Talia’s voice!

Jonna turned around at the sound of it. The mist in the
hallway was finally dissipating, and the resulting image was like a crime
scene. Bodies littered the ground. There was no sign of Perry, or Ironsides, or
Kaida. Perceval was still slumped against the wall. She could just about, by
this point, make out Gaia and Vector – still completely out of it, resting
further away from them. Then there was Plue and the woman, then her and Raelyn,
and then Talia, who was using her powers to shield herself from attacks from
both the red-headed man who used fire, and the man with the terrifyingly spikey
sword. Blocking a burst of flame, she shuffled backwards. Her forehead was
beaded with sweat, and there were scratches all over her arms. The men circled
her, trying to find a weakness in her barriers, looking for all the world like
a pair of ravenous sharks.

Shouting, Jonna used a burst of nervous energy to fling her
wrench – a stupid decision, as it fell short, clattering at the heels of the
red-headed man. Both turned to look at her in bemusement. Metal clashed, and she
looked over to see that Plue was fighting the woman still. Was that it? Was
that everyone?

Before she could come to any solid conclusions, Raelyn
yelled again. Maelstrom energy surround her, and Jonna hastily skittered away.
She wasn’t sure if she could be infected by it, but she had no intention of
testing it!

“Die!” Raelyn screamed as the maelstrom energy carried her
off her feet. She hovered off the ground, supported by a purple cloud that was
in a vaguely humanoid shape, and tall enough to scrape the ceiling they were
fighting under. She extended a hand, and strands of what looked like webbing –
like the webs produced by spiderlings, Jonna mused dimly – shot out and
attached themselves to the two men attacking Talia. She violently yanked on
them, and they were pulled through the corridor to collide with both the woman *and* Plue. All four figures went
sprawling, and Raelyn dived, sweeping up all the members of the Twelve and
propelling them down the hallway with a blast of maelstrom energy. Of the
three, only the red-headed man immediately rose, scrambling to his feet and
sprinting in the opposite direction and out of sight before anyone could really
do anything. Instead of going on the attack any further, Raelyn let the
maelstrom dissipate before hobbling over to Plue, who was trying to pick
herself up in a dazed manner. Her sword, Jonna noticed, was bent out of shape,
and the tip was snapped off.

Nobody said anything. Talia collapsed, and Jonna broke away
from the scene to run to her. She was gasping for breath, her eyes barely open.

“Talia!” Jonna yelled. “What happened?”

“Poison…” She breathed. “His sword was… poisoned…”

“What do we do, what do we do?” She asked, feeling herself
begin to slip into a panic. She placed a hand over her chest and felt the rapid
thudding of her heart. It was strange – people always associated the end of the
fight itself as the end of the intensity of the situation, but in her
experience, the aftermath was often just as bad. She took a shuddery breath.
“Talia,” she managed, “what do we do?”

Talia clasped her hand.

“I- it’s not fatal.” She said. “I can… tell that much.”

Jonna managed a shaky smile. “Mythran powers?”

“Mythran powers.” Confirmed Talia, sighing. “But Jonna, I
don’t think I can fight any more. Even if I… wanted to.”

Jonna nodded. “Okay.” She then turned to look at the rest of
the group – Perceval hadn’t gotten up, and Raelyn and Plue were leaning on each
other.

“I don’t think anyone can.” She admitted.

Talia strained her head to look around. “Have we won?”

Jonna’s initial reaction was “yes”, considering how the
Twelve had basically all been defeated. But then she re-realised that Ironsides
was gone, and-

Kaida and Perry skidded around the bend and onto the scene.
They managed to make it a few steps each before both falling over, obviously fatigued.
Jonna clambered to her feet, and realised, with a grim jolt that she was the
only able-bodied member of the team there.

“What happened?” Plue asked, stepping forward to take
charge. Kaida shrugged her shoulders.

“Lost Ironsides…” She admitted. Her voice was a rasp, and so
quiet she could barely hear it. She tried to say something else, then shook her
head – and began to sign with her fingers. [Anyone know sign?]

Jonna actually did – and signed so back, fumbling a little
with her shaking hands as he did so. [Yes.]

Kaida raised an eyebrow. [How do you know it?] She leant
back after she finished, and let her hands fall in a questioning manner.

[Learnt for convenience.]
Explained Jonna. [Language for stealth.]

Kaida smirked and nodded, signing back through her own
obvious fatigue. [My boyfriend is deaf.]

Jonna nodded in understanding. [How did-] She suddenly
realised that Kaida could still hear perfectly well, and, with a flush,
switched back to speaking. “How did you guys… get away?”

If Kaida noticed her blunder, she didn’t mention it. Which
was nice of her. [Don’t know.] Her shoulders slumped. [He eventually broke free
and we ran. I don’t know why he didn’t follow.] Her lips were pursed – she was
obviously concerned.

 “I think… my last
shot… hit him in the eye…” Perry interjected suddenly, squinting up at Plue as
if trying to figure out exactly who she was. “That’d sting.”

“Ah.” Said Jonna, even as Kaida turned to Perry in surprise
and thumped him on the back.

“Nice one!” She managed to croak.

Jonna watched the whole exchange in something akin to awe.
Those two had survived. They’d actually survived. She was amazed.

But then she remembered – Ironsides hadn’t been stopped yet.

“No.” She admitted. Talia looked up at her in confusion, and
Jonna stuttered: “A- a- about what you were… what you were saying earlier,
about whether we’d won. I- I don’t think so.”

Talia leant back and sighed. “Then, Jonna,” she said, her
voice barely above a murmur, “we have to keep fighting after all.”

### ***WHAT LAYS AHEAD***

*Couldn’t… move…*

“Set a perimeter.”

“I’ll take…”

*Where*…

“…him off there.”

“Keep an eye out for…”

*Where was he…?*

“…waking up.”

“Tell him what’s cracking, yeah? We don’t have much time.”

Vector was surprised by a face appearing in front of his
own. And was also surprised by the fact that he had no physical reaction to it.
And yeah, that tended to happen when he’d had a long day, but something felt…
off. He experimentally flexed some muscles, and felt his fingers twitch. That
was a start, at least.

“Listen up, Vector.” The face told him. Vector thought he
recognised it. “We’re leaving you here with Perceval and Talia and Gaia, okay?
Everyone else is going to have a quick look around, because we have no idea
where Ironsides or that other guy are, and we’re also going to find a cell to
dump all these guys into or something.”

“…Plue?” He managed to say, as the name came to mind. She
nodded affirmatively.

“You got that?” She asked. He nodded. Once. Man, whatever
had happened, he really wasn’t feelin’ it.

Plue’s face left his vision. Bleary and weary, he blinked a
couple of times before flexing said muscles again. They seemed to work better
this time. He groaned, and hauled himself up into a sitting position – just in
time to see Plue disappear around a corridor and out of sight. That was
whelming.

Only then did he properly stop to take in his surroundings.

Stale white hallway, almost medical, and bodies by his side.
To his left was a woman he didn’t recognise, looking almost peaceful in an
ethereal sort of way as she lay on her back. To *her* left was- Perceval? It was! He had a bloodied stomach and
looked worse for wear, but even as Vector watched he shifted his weight
slightly against the wall. So, he was still okay. That was good news. On the
opposite side of the corridor was-

His blood began to thump in his ears.

It was Gaia, but it wasn’t- it couldn’t- Gaia wasn’t that
lifeless, that still. One of her legs was just- missing. Gone. Seared off.
There was a burn at the cutoff point, and that looked to be the only sign that
the limb had ever been there. The sole of her remaining foot was heavily burnt
too, looking festering and painful. Flesh red and raw – and a bit blackened,
which was worse.

“Gaia.” He tried to say. It came out as a rasp. His throat
was hoarse. He paused. Coughed. Tried again. “Gaia!” It was an actual word this
time, but she- she didn’t stir.

Perceval’s voice rang out.

“She’s alive.” He said. Vector craned his neck to look at
him. The other man was wincing, but his gaze was as strong as it ever had been.
“Hurt, yes. Badly. But she ought to survive.”

Vector felt a tug in his gut. Not quite like a weight was
being lifted off of him, but something… something similar. Maybe. “Okay.” He
said. “So-”

And that’s when he heard them. The footsteps.

His first thought was that one of their team was coming
back; that Plue or someone else had finished scouting around and was coming to
check on them. But when the figure emerged from around the corner and began to
stalk towards them, he realised that things were looking. A bit more dangerous
than that.

The red-headed man from earlier – the one Vector had had
that standoff with, the one who had antagonized Gaia (dimly, he remembered
hearing something about them being related) – had his hands in his pockets, and
turned up his nose a little as he surveyed the four of them. After a moment’s
silent consideration, he stalked over to Gaia and loomed over her. Vector tried
to move, to rise, but whatever that freak with the poison had done to him had
taken its toll on his energy levels, and he slumped down, his feeble attempt to
move ignored.

“Hey.” Once again… Raleigh! That was his name! Once again,
Raleigh startled Vector by sounding so casual. He sounded like a friend trying
to wake up another friend after a night of partying. Nothing happened. He tried
again. “Hey.” Gaia still didn’t stir. Shrugging, Raleigh leant back – and
suddenly and violently kicked Gaia in the ribs.

Vector heard Perceval gasp. He himself didn’t make any
noise. He couldn’t watch, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away either.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Gaia still didn’t stir, and
Raleigh sighed. “Lazybones.” He spat, before turning around and stalking to the
other side of the corridor – towards them.

“Wanted to talk to her.” He muttered. “Wanted her to watch.”

Perceval shifted and, to Vector’s surprise, began to rise to
his feet. The next second, however, he stopped as Raleigh unsheathed a knife
from seemingly nowhere and held it warningly under his chin.

“Stay down, man.” Raleigh cautioned him. “You’re not the
first on my list, but I can bump you up if you’re in that much of a hurry to
die.”

Perceval’s gaze flickered to Vector – eyes desperate. More
than anything, Vector wanted to tell him to go for it anyway, to get up and be
the hero, but there was no fooling anyone. Raleigh could kill him in an
instant. He shook his head. *Stand down*.

He could see Perceval’s teeth grit, but the other man did
it.

“That’s the spirit.” Raleigh said, patronizingly, before
ruffling Perceval’s hair and stepping away from him – to approach Vector.

“So, I’m first on that list of yours, right?” Vector heard
himself saying. “Goodie. First place.”

“I don’t think you’ll enjoying coming first in this
instance.” Raleigh retorted, swinging the knife between his fingers. Vector
twitched. He tried to push himself off of the wall, but his limbs still weren’t
really obeying him and he was mostly still very, very tired and sore.

“Question for the big bad.” He said instead, because
apparently he didn’t know when to stop talking. “Why *am* I the first anyway? I’m guessing it wasn’t because I’m your
favourite.”

“You’re hers.” Raleigh said, simply, before backhanding him
out of nowhere. Stunned, he crashed to the floor. Perceval yelled, but he
couldn’t make the words out. Maybe he hadn’t used words at all. Vector wasn’t
sure. He tried to rise, but Raleigh planted a foot on his chest and held him
down. Vector felt himself trembling, and he wasn’t sure if it was from the cold
of the floor or fear. He figured that it was probably a healthy mixture of both.

“So what?” He choked out. “Kill me to hurt her?”

Raleigh didn’t respond, instead beginning to lean down.
Vector felt his heart pound.

“It won’t work!” He said – “yelled”, really, was more
appropriate – “How do you know we’re even that close? You can’t tell that!”

Raleigh paused momentarily, before leaning back up and
snarling. “Oh, is that so?” He sounded ticked off now, and Vector couldn’t help
but wonder what had wound him up so suddenly. “You think I’m an idiot? That I’m
unobservant? I saw how she reacted when you got hurt earlier.” He took a deep
breath, like he was balancing himself. “It’ll work fine.”

Vector thought he got it – this guy took stuff super
personally. He saw Vector doubting his idea as an attack on his skills of
observation. Could he use that?

“No, it won’t.” Vector said. “We both know Gaia, we know she
wouldn’t let something like that get her down.”

Raleigh glared daggers at him. “She would!” He shouted. “I
know it would!”

“It wouldn’t!” Vector shot back, not sure whether he was lying
or not. “Anyway, why do you care? Why do you hate her so much, anyway?”

“*Hate*-” Raleigh
slammed his foot back down onto Vector, who choked from the sudden pressure.
“-is such a strong word.” Still breathing heavily, he idly twirled the knife.
“Honestly, it’s more like a rivalry. You’ve seen how little she likes me. No
irrational hatred here, it’s mutual.”

“Guess you… really are related…” Vector choked. “Your logic-
it’s as bad as hers.”

Raleigh snarled and flexed his fingers. A stream of fired
appeared, gushing from his hand and coating the blade he was holding, and Vector
twigged for the first time that maybe antagonising the man apparently set on
killing him wasn’t the best idea.

At least he’d go out a sarcastic note?

“You’re-” Raleigh’s words were cut off as a hand seized his
wrist, stopping him from plunging the knife downwards. Raleigh writhed, and
another hand snaked around his neck and seized him in a chokehold. Coughing,
Raleigh stumbled backwards into his assailant. The flames died. Free from the pressure,
Vector eased himself upwards.

“Thanks, Perc…” he started, and then trailed off. He’d
assumed that his rescuer had been Percevel, as the only other conscious person
on the scene. But he’d been wrong.

Gaia stood on her one remaining leg behind Raleigh, her face
contorted into a grimace as she restrained him. Her arm trembled as she held it
against Raleigh’s throat. There were smidges of blood on the floor from where
she’d inched along on her one remaining foot, rubbing at the skin and burns.
The stump that had once been the middle of her left thigh was scraped, and
drops of blood trickled from it down onto the floor. Her emerald-green eyes
seemed to burn with fire as she stared – not at Vector, but at Raleigh,
focusing all of her energy on stopping him.

“The hell-” Raleigh managed to choke before Gaia tightened
her grip, cutting him off. Her hand was wrapped so tightly around his wrist
that when she flexed it and threw his wrist out to the side, he ended up
letting go of the knife and tossing it into the corner.

“Stupid you thought… I’d let you hurt him…!” Gaia hissed
into Raleigh’s ear. Her voice shook, but there was enough potent fury in it to
make even Vector shudder a little.

Raleigh’s response wasn’t, unfortunately, to give up then
and there. Instead, he shoved his elbow backwards into Gaia’s stomach. She
groaned and her grip slackened, and he ducked out from under her arms before
raising his palm at her. Dumb luck saved her life – her leg gave out and she
fell backwards onto the ground as Raleigh shot a burst of fire over her head.
The attack ended up sailing past her and dissipating into the air.

Raleigh turned his attention downward to where Gaia had
crumpled, seething with rage. And then turned back in Vector’s direction, eyes
wide open. At first, Vector thought that the other man wanted to kill *him* first, but then he heard the sound
of footsteps. Someone was coming.

In a panic, Raleigh shot another wave of fire at Gaia – but
Gaia had, inconceivably, already scrambled back to her feet – *foot* – and threw herself out of the way
of the flame. Scrabbling into an upright position, she wheeled around on her
foot with a yell of pain and hopped directly towards Raleigh, crashing into him
and using him to stay upright. Raleigh stumbled, Gaia re-adjusted her footing,
seized the lapels of Raleigh’s jacket and, with what was likely a scream of
both pain and adrenaline, threw him across the hallway and into the wall, which
he hit with a dull thud.

Gaia collapsed into a sitting position.

The footsteps grew louder, and suddenly there was a new
person running into the fray. Jumping an inhumanly long distance, they slammed
into the ground right beside Raleigh, before picking him up and slamming him
into the wall in what was clearly an angry motion. Raleigh, however, hadn’t
lost his fight yet – he kicked out at the new fighter’s midsection, before igniting
a fire in his hand and pressing it against the arm holding him to the wall. The
newcomer fell back with a curse, and Raleigh sprinted in the opposite direction
without looking back.

The newcomer began to give chase, but then stopped, and
turned back to the comatose people nearby. With another uttered curse, they
turned back and instead ran to Gaia, who was by now lying on her back and
panting heavily with her eyes closed.

Shit-! Vector began to crawl over to the two of them. They
turned as one to register him as he approached – he felt an unexpected jolt of
shame was over him. They’d both been so capable, and what had he done? Lain and
waited for death. Basically.

The newcomer – a girl – gave him a slight wave. “You’re
Vector, right?” She asked. Vector paused and then nodded.

“Uh… yeah.”

The girl smirked and jerked her head down at Gaia. “She
mentioned you.”

Vector tried to ignore the fact that this made him feel
things. Instead, he fixed his gaze on the newcomer. “Will she be okay?”

To his surprise, the newcomer snorted a laugh. “She’d *better* be.” She said, in an odd sort of
affectionate tone.

“That’s… not really helpful.” He said. The girl laughed and
shrugged at the same time.

“She’ll be fine – at least, I think she will. I have
confidence she will, if you will.” The smile faded as se stared down at Gaia’s
form. “Not that it looks super good right now, I’ll admit.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Agreed Vector. He was about to say something
else, but he forgot it as soon as he saw Gaia stir between them. She opened her
eyes and blinked. She looked tired. As he watched, she began to shift around.
One of her hands reached out and, without really thinking, he seized it.

“…Yo.” She said. He nodded back.

“Yo.”

Neither of them said anything more than that for a good few
moments. Just kind of… stared at each other. Man, her eyes were so round. And
her face was cute. Especially considering how basically intimidating the rest
of her was. Her face was just a friendly one. It was weird. But he liked it?

The unfamiliar girl snapped her fingers, and both of them
turned to look at her in surprise.

“Now isn’t the time.” She said, though she was grinning at
them still. A shuffling sound echoed from Vector’s side, and he realised that
Perceval had approached by dragging himself along the floor. When had that
happened?

“Did you contact the others?” He rasped. The girl nodded.

“They should be here right-” She began to say, only to get
cut off at the sound of footsteps. Vector raised his fists on instinct, but
when he saw a group headed by Dante and Plue, he lowered them again. Okay. It
was the gang.

“What’d we miss?” Dante asked. Despite himself, Vector –
probably just going off the relief as seeing his friends – couldn’t help but
crack a joke.

“Nothing much.” He said. “Just your typical near-death
experience.”

“Ah, that’s a shame.” And now Dante was replying in kind,
which was a bit weird. “I was hoping for an actual-death experience. But you
seem to have made it through.”

“Yeah, I’d say so.” Said the unfamiliar girl before Vector
could say anything. She then turned to him, still with an almost baffling smirk
on her face.

Plue stepped forward.

“That’s enough of that.” She scolded them – eying Dante, of
all people? “Let’s get everyone re-organised. We need to find and apprehend
Ironsides.”

““Apprehend” is too meek.” Dante said, slamming his fists
together. “Let’s make it “brutalize”. Or just “kill”.”

…this wasn’t Dante, was it?

Plue waggled a finger at Raelyn. “*You’re* not doing anything. You’re going to stay back and look after
the wounded.”

“*What*?” Raelyn
seemed outraged, and began to wave her arms angrily. At this point, Peragrine
appeared and blocked Vector’s field of view.

“One of you muscular specimens mind giving me a hand
carrying *this* muscular specimen-” he
indicated to Gaia “-out of the middle of the hallway?”

“I’m on it.” Kaida said, leaping up and hauling Gaia onto
her shoulders before anyone else could do anything. “You steady up there?” She
asked her charge.

Gaia giggled. “Yeah.”

They walked off, Perry trotting at their heels, and suddenly
Vector was left on his own again.

Stars, he felt useless.

Everyone around him – the rest of a team – was a flurry of
activity. Plue and Raelyn were… well, they were still arguing, but at least
they were trying to do something. Kaida was fretting over the wounded – Gaia
(who had lapsed back into unconsciousness – he hoped against hope that she was
going to be okay), Perceval (who was still pale, but seemed controlled and unworried),
and the blonde woman he didn’t know. Around him, Peragrine was talking with
another unfamiliar woman. Weapons were being loaded, final tactics were being
thrown together.

He’d never been good with strategy in the traditional sense.
He had good instincts while a fight was actually happening, but all of the
planning that happened between them was, for the most part, pretty much out his
league. That was part of why he’d managed to secure leadership for the Venture
League, he figured – that spontaneity and instinct was something to be admired
among them, and they’d never really been a group for forward planning.

The reminder shook him like a jolt of electricity. He was a
faction leader! And here he was, lying on the floor. No. No! He wouldn’t accept
that. There had to be something he could do, however small. He began to make
his way over to the group, only for the girl – who had put Gaia down near the
wall – to squad down in front of him to meet his eyes.

“Give it a rest.” She said. “I mean- not like I don’t get
where you’re coming from, but you’re done.” Her face fell, like she regretted
the words. “Sorry.” With that, she stood up and wandered off.

So… what, that was that?

He forced himself to at it logically as he inched his way
over to the wounded section. Embarrassingly enough. Not like he didn’t *want* to help, but when your legs weren’t
moving from exhaustion-stroke-poison, there wasn’t a lot else to be done. He eased
himself up against a wall and sighed a sigh of melancholy, trying to think (and
he’d never really had any success there, to be fair) of some way to contribute.
After a moment, he realised that someone was trying to get his attention.

The blonde woman was still lying motionless, but he could
tell that her gaze was on him, and she was saying:

“…Come here.”

He shuffled over.

“I… I don’t know your name.” The blonde woman said. “Sorry.
I mean- I. I don’t know.”

“It’s Vector.” He said. She made the smallest motion with
her head that may have been supposed to be a nod.

“Vector…” she said. “You want to do something?”

“Y- yes!” His turn to nod, and he did so. Vigorously. Her
forehead scrunched up and her eyes furrowed, as if she was annoyed with
herself, but then her gaze cleared and sighed.

“Vector, I am a Mythran.” She said.

With no warning.

Just like that.

“I- uh-” Vector was too shocked to say anything. Weren’t
Mythrans supposed to be extinct. As if reading his thoughts (could she do that?
Was that a Mythran thing?) the woman smiled and explained:

“I’m from another dimension. And… not quite a full Mythran,
for complicated reasons. But for all intents and purposes, yes, I’m a Mythran.”

“I- okay.” Vector sat and waited. He could honestly say
that, from there, he had no idea where the conversation was going to go, so he
figured his best bet would be to just let the chips fall wherever.

“Listen.” Said the Mythran. “I can- well, it’s not the same,
but one thing a Mythran can do is *almost*
make someone a Mythran, and bestow upon them the powers and energies of a
Mythran for a certain amount of time.”

He… wasn’t sure where this was going. “Couldn’t you use that
power to heal yourself, or get up, or something?” He asked. Because if Mythrans
could give that power, couldn’t they also use it for themselves? Technically?
But the Mythran shook her head.

“There’s a difference between taking from your own supply of
power and bestowing upon someone else a power.” She explained. “It- it’s more
like unlocking *their* than giving them
yours.” Vector must have looked confused, because her gaze glanced up to him and
then she kept talking. “Every living thing has that potential within them. I
can just… let them access that.”

Vector was hit with a thought. “You think it has any
connection to the savant gene? Like, everyone has power in them, but they can’t
necessarily use it unless they’re influenced, or something?”

The Mythran shrugged like she didn’t really mind other way.
“I can’t say.” She admitted. Vector nodded. Right, that was fair. Different
dimension and all-

“I want to give you the powers of a Mythran.”

The words cut through whatever train of thought might have
been chugging along in his brain. It took… a hot second to respond.

“Eh?” He eventually said. Hey, he’d never claimed to be a
man of words. The Mythran nodded.

“I don’t know- I don’t know how long it’d last. I could
underdo it and make it last thirty seconds, or I could overdo it and make them
last indefinitely. There’s a risk, if you’d see it as that. But they’re-
they’re going to need the power of a Mythran to withstand Ironsides, and
whatever abilities he has. And I…” her face fell. “I’m all out. But your
potential is there. And you’re a fighter already. They’re going to *need* you.” She fixed him with here eerie
blue gaze. To Vector, it almost looked as if her eyes were actually glowing.
Was that a Mythran thing?

“I…” He trailed off. For a minute, he was tempted to just
really weigh it all up. It’d be useful, yeah. But he’d have no idea how to
actually control Mythran powers, right? And what if it *did* last forever? How would that affect him, and his life? Would
that be a bad thing? Then he turned and looked at the group, who looked more
and more like they were gathering together. Ready for the end. And then he
turned to look at the wounded. And at Gaia.

“I’ll do it.” He declared.

For the first time, the Mythran smiled.

“Quickly;” she said, “let me tell you. The powers of a
Mythran are very intuitive. Control ought to not be an issue, and the basis is
fairly simple. Visualise what you want to see them do. You want to create a
barrier? Visualise that and make it a reality. You want to create a construct,
like a giant sword? Visualise it in your mind and it’ll become real. You want
to heal someone? Visualise it and it’ll actually happen. That’s the basis of
it. Visualisation.”

“Got it.” Vector nodded.

“It’ll feel strange.” The Mythran said. “It’ll feel like
your body is reassembling itself, even if it isn’t really. And be careful – the
powers are tied to the visualisation, meaning if you can’t take the time to
imagine something, you can’t create it. Also, your body can only produce so
much at a time. Keep using it to heal and create and strengthen yourself, and
you’ll run out and have to wait for it to recharge.”

Resource balancing. That was a concept he was a *bit* more familiar with. He swallowed.
He’d like to say something about how he could swallow away all of his fears and
doubts, but in reality, his throat had just been a bit dry.

“I understand.” He said. Then: “I’m ready.”

The Mythran smiled again. “Then, Vector… take my hand.”

He grasped her fingers with his own. And it happened- it
happened almost instantly.

Yeah, she’d warned him that it’d feel strange, but that had
been an understatement. His limbs began to quiver. It was like something was
slowly replacing his blood with a fizzy drink, the energy bubbling and speeding
around under the surface. His finger twitched. A humming filled his ears as the
energy filled his body. He blinked, and everything slowed down a little. He
blinked again, and it sped back up. The fizzing went away, sort of. Not
completely – but it wasn’t as distracting any more.

His first realisation was that he could move again. Whatever
grip poison and tiredness had had on its limbs, it had been completely shaken
off. He had focus on standing up normally instead of jumping first to his feet,
and then up and down in the air. Was this how people like Gaia and Perry felt
all the time? Like they had more energy than they knew what to do with?

He sighed, and sparks crackled around his mouth. *What. The heck*. As he looked down at his
hands, he saw that they were surrounded by a light blue glow, vivid and totally
visible even in the bright white lights of the corridor. He turned back to the
Mythran, who was staring at him with contentment in her eyes. She nodded again.

He walked – stumbling, a bit, as his feet moved faster than
he had actually thought they were going to – and bit down any shreds of doubt
as he made his way over to the team. One by one, they broke off from their
conversation and turned to stare at him. He clenched his fist, embracing the
staticy-y feeling he got from it, and focused on pushing his bravado through
his fear. Judging by their impressed expressions, it looked like it worked.

“Whatever you’re planning,” he said, “I’m in.”

### ***STANDING AT THE CLIFF***

In the end, it hadn’t been very difficult at all to divvy up
jobs – and to assemble a final anti-Ironsides team. Perceval, Talia, and Gaia
were all too badly hurt to keep fighting, so they were going to be escorted out
of the facility and to safety. Cadmus… Plue had found his body during one of
their sweeps of the area. She wasn’t sure of the details, but she’d checked,
and was certain that he was dead. A fresh feeling of guilt – survivor’s guilt,
a logical part of her knew – washed over her. That was a death she might have
been able to prevent if she had handled the whole situation better.

But it was too late now.

Jonna and Raelyn were on escort-the-injured duty. Raelyn was
unhappy with that – and had rightfully pointed out that she would have been an
asset against Ironsides, assuming they found him – but Plue had been adamant
that in the case that they had been outmanoeuvred again, and that the wounded
were going to come under attack from any source, one of their most powerful
fighters had to stay there and defend them. Raelyn had agreed, and actually put
up less of a fight than Plue had expected. Not that she was going to complain,
but… still. It had been strange. And Jonna had looked more relieved than
anything else, which was fair. She’d been through the ringer, and Talia and
Perceval both were her friends.

That left herself, Peragrine, Vector, and that girl – Kaida
– as the final assault squad. She was confident in their abilities. Peragrine
had proven himself intuitive and quick-witted, given the right direction.
Vector was a powerful fighter on a good day – the fact that he’d apparently
been given some kind of boost from a Mythran (she still wasn’t quite sure what
had happened there, but oh well) was bound to work in their favour. And even
Kaida, weird and coincidental as her arrival was, had proven herself a powerful
savant and wily fighter. As for Plue herself? She was as confident in her
abilities with a sword as she’d always been, although she didn’t know how much
that would mean in the face of Ironside’s overwhelming strength. She just had
to hope that her field commanding skills were up to snuff.

“Okay, team.” She said to the remainders, after waving off
the wounded and their escorts. “Our goal right now is to find Ironsides and
shut him down. In an ideal world…” she trailed off, considering her words. “In
an idea world, we’d be able to restrain him and work with that, but we’ve all
seen his strength.” She met the eyes of each member of the team. “Under no
circumstances can I technically endorse it, but if it’s a choice between him
and you, or him and another member of the team…” The sentence never finished –
she wasn’t sure how to finish it. In any case, everyone else seemed to have
gotten the message, as they all nodded gravely at her words.

Peragrine raised a hand.

“Yes.” She pointed at him. “Perry.”

His hand shot down. “Can I run ahead and try and find him?”

“Negative.” Plue told him. “If you’re caught on your own,
there’s every chance that he’ll kill you in a second.” She turned to Vector and
Kaida. Both of them stood tall and firm. They had a surprisingly similar look
in their eye. “On the subject,” she said, “that’s where you two come in. As of
now, you’re our powerhouses. Especially you, Vector.” She turned to make eye
contact with him, which was… weird. Both of his irises had turned an electric
blue, and flashes of what looked like lighting seemed to criss-cross across his
body every other second. It had to be a Mythran thing, but it was still
surreal. “Talia could create barriers or something that could hold off, from
the sounds of it, a fairly large amount of damage. You’re on defence. It’ll be
your job he doesn’t try the same trick he did earlier, and crush us all to
death.” She then turned to Kaida. “You’ll play offence, try and land hits and
wear him down. Perry will act as distraction-slash-alternative offence, and
I’ll be long range attack.” She played with the string of the bow she still had
strung across her torso. “Maybe if he’s distracted, I can get a good shot in.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Chirped Kaida and Perry at the same
time, before making eye contact and giggling. Plue let the sight ease her
anxieties a bit.

Vector cleared his throat. “Not that I’m gonna pretend like
I know a thing about Mythran powers, but I might have an idea on how to find
Ironsides.”

Everyone turned to look at him, and he looked down at one of
his hands.

“It’s weird, but… I feel like can kind of sense other
people. Or their energies. Or something like that.” He indicated with a finger.
“I can tell you that there are five… blips of energy, or something, over there,
and I’m guessing that’s the wounded on their way out. And there are three here,
where you guys are.”

“So you think you can lead us to Ironsides?” Plue asked.

Vector’s brow furrowed. “I can sense a couple of independent
energies – I figure one of them is Gaia’s bastard brother.”

“He’s not on his way to go after the wounded, is he?” Kaida
asked, her voice hoarse. Vector shook his head.

“No, but if I know where he is, we could get him. Take him
by surprise.”

Plue nodded, but said: “Vector, as tempting as that sounds,
Ironsides is our number one priority right now. If we still have the energies
after we deal with him – and I honestly doubt it – we can deal with
what’s-his-name.”

Vector nodded. “Okay.”

Peragrine pumped his fist. “Take us to their leader!” He
encouraged.

Vector laughed through his nose before turning and pointing.
“He’s in that direction.”

“Lead the way, bigguns.” Kaida encouraged.

And so, the team set off.

Plue wasn’t sure if it was a short journey, or if she just
drifted away attention-wise at some point. Not that she would have *tried* to do something like that, because
now of all times was a very inappropriate time to not pay attention, but her
brain was just like that sometimes. She kept getting broken out of her anxious
thoughts by Vector changing direction, and at one point he said something about
Ironsides being on the move. That forced her to focus. They had to reach him
before he could make some kind of escape (because in a facility this size, who
knew what sort of escape options there may have been?).

The whole time, Vector was barely keeping pace with
Peragrine, who even now seemed antsy and full of energy, hopping from foot to
foot and checking the ammunition in his remaining flaregun. Vector himself was
energetic too – he’d completely shaken off the exhaustion and borderline
delirious state he’d been in earlier, and looked now almost more imposing and
determined than he ever had been before. Kaida was practically his mirror image
in terms of posture, taking long confident strides and holding her head equally
high.

Kaida… she still wasn’t sure what was up with her. Surname
Eluciss, apparently. Perhaps that was the sense of deja-vu she felt when
looking at her – some unconscious similarities between her and Gaia.

Eventually, Vector stopped outside an enormous pair of
double doors. Plue did a double-take, herself. How big was this place? But when
Vector nodded – likely to indicate that this was where Ironsides was – her
queries died down.

“Is stealth an option?” Kaida whispered, placing her hands
on her hips.

Plue took one look at the group – two bulky shitfighters,
and maybe the most hyperactive person she’d ever seen – and shook her head.

“We go in on three. Be ready for anything. Vector, cover us
if he attacks immediately with his energy.”

Everyone nodded. Plue held up a fist, and then raised a
finger one by one.

“One…! Two…! Three!”

Vector kicked open the doors, one of which actually flew off
its hinges, despite its size.

The room was enormous but practically empty, the only
indicator of anything having been there in the past being a small rise near the
back end, like a place where meals were served in schools, and a couple of
tables. Plue figured out where they were pretty quickly. An old dining hall of
some kind – presumably for the inhabitants of Highwing.

Ironsides stood near one side of the room, with a bag slung
over his back. Plue was elated to see how he looked – like he’d come off worse
in some kind of tussle. His blazer was gone, and his tie was torn off halfway.
Part of his collar was up, his hair was messy, his shoe was scuffed. There were
scratches on his face. He turned to properly face them as they made their
entrance.

“Well, I supposed this would happen.” He said, voice still
annoyingly measured.

Kaida stamped her foot onto the ground and shook her fist.
“We’re back!” She hissed at him.

“I see that.” Ironsides observed, dryly. He didn’t move at
first, but then slowly lowered the bag to the ground without breaking off the
stare he was aiming at the team.

Was he trying to psyche them out? Plue wasn’t sure. But she
noticed something gleam from within the bag. She had no idea what it was. But
it looked strange. And it made her remember something.

“You’re collecting artefacts.” She said out loud. “Old
relics. Things that have power. You’re rounding them up.” She paused, but
curiosity got the better of her. “Why?”

Ironsides gave no answer. For some reason, this emboldened
Plue.

“Is it about power?” She asked. “Do you want to control
everything?”

“It could be money.” Vector suggested. “I bet some of these
old things would fetch lucrative prices someplace or other.”

Ironsides shook his head, and then said: “It’s not always
about the money.”

“I, uh, don’t suppose we could convince you to come in
peace?” Peragrine offered. “You know, surrender quietly, let the fighting end,
increase your chances of a fair trial- probably?” He offered Vector a
questioning glance. Vector shrugged.

Ironsides sighed.

A wall of red energy, in what felt like the same breath,
materialised and shot towards them. Plue nocked an arrow as quickly as she
could, but she was too slow-

The wall slammed into a blue energy field of equal size with
a terrifying thud. Plue didn’t figure that energy hitting energy would make a
dull sort of thud sound, but it did. Like two concrete blocks slammed against
one another. Vector’s hand was outstretched and the energy around him was
flaring up in waves. Cyan-turquoise ripples and flames and sparks all rolled
off of him, and the air around him smelt of ozone.

Ironsides grimaced.

After that, things happened very quickly.

Vector made a punching motion and a giant blue construct – a
fist, scaled up by about twenty – shot towards Ironsides, who pushed up a wall
of his own for it to crumple against. At the same time, Kaida ran forward at
Ironsides, who motioned with his hand. A wave of red energy blasted her to the
side. Peragrine began running around the edge of the room, jumping over the
tables and dodging random blasts of energy, still holding his remaining
flaregun. Plue raised her bow and tried to aim a shot at Ironsides, but when
she fired the arrow ricochet off one of his shields and she was forced to stand
to the side as it almost twirled back into her.

Vector clapped his hands. Two wall constructs appeared – he
was trying to crush Ironsides beneath them. But Ironsides conjured a small box
of red energy around himself, and the walls shattered around it as they
collided. Then, from Ironsides, parts of the ground reared up, torn to shreds
by the energy, and curled around towards Vector, who raised his arms in a
defensive position and created another barrier to prevent himself from being
cut to shreds.

Kaida, who had been lying low until that moment, attacked
again. Ironsides raised his arm, and manually blocked her as she aimed a kick
at his head. Jumping backwards, she raised her hand and sent thin tendrils of
lighting towards him. Unfortunately, they didn’t connect. Jumping around
through the air before dispersing. Plue grabbed one of the few arrows her
quiver had left (there were maybe three after this one), but before she could
even use it Ironsides had sent a block of energy at her that slammed into her
side and sent her sprawling across the floor. When she recovered her senses,
she saw that the arrow’s shaft had broken in her hand. She checked her quiver
again. Two left.

Vector charged forward, all of a sudden – sprinting towards
Ironsides like a bull – and began raining blow after blow on his defences,
crushing them almost as quickly as they were rematerializing. She could see
Ironsides’ face distort in concentration. While that was happening, she saw
Peragrine aim his flare gun. Could they do it? The answer, as it turned out,
was no, as Ironsides made a big waving motion with his hand and sent out a wave
that sent Vector careening so hard into the far wall of the room that the
plaster cracked and buckled under him. Peragrine hastily fired, but the shots
seemed ineffectual – Ironsides by this point had an energy shield consistently
encircling him, and any attack he tried seemed to reflect right off.

Dropping back onto the ground, Vector began to run towards
him again, energy spiralling out. Ironsides conjured a barrier. It shattered.
It formed another one. It shattered too as Vector essentially ran into it and
broke it like glass. The air around Ironsides grew thick and clouded, and red
energy that looked as thick as water began to encircle Vector, eating away at
his own defences. Vector raised his hands and the ensnaring force was blasted
away, but it quickly reformed and began to close in on him. Closer and closer.

Suddenly full of fear, Plue fired off her penultimate arrow.
It missed. Peragrine made a desperate charge towards Ironsides, but was blasted
aside. Vector kept trying to destroy the encircling force, but Ironsides’
energy was materialising faster than he could blow it away. His own light
dimmed as it was overwhelmed. The tendrils began to ensnare his limbs.
Ironsides began to hover off the ground, and dragged a struggling Vector towards
himself until he was looking down on him. And for the first time, Ironsides
smiled a terrible smile.

He opened his mouth – but it was someone else who spoke
first.

“Lightning bolt, bitch!!”

 A full-size bolt of
lighting rocketed across the room and struck Ironsides in – well, in the side.
He was blasted across the room, and the energy around Vector dissipated.
Looking back, Plue saw Kaida with her hand outstretched. On further staring, it
looked as though her two mechanical fingers had blown apart from the inside.
There were fresh red lines up what little of her arms Plue could see, and smoke
was rising off her shoulders. Her lips, though, were curved upward in a smile.

The smile, however, faded at the sound of Ironsides getting
back onto his feet. Perry fired another shot at him, but it disintegrated
before it even reached its target. Ironsides turned back to view them, with a
smoking hole in the side of his suit and with murder in his eyes.

The force was enough to force all of them to the ground.
Perry fell on his back; Kaida fell on her face. Plue was forced to her knees as
an intense pressure slammed onto her shoulders. Vector stayed standing,
probably because of the whole Mythran thing, but even he stumbled.

“I tire of this.” Ironsides declared, extending his hand.
The pressure increased, and Plue screamed as she fell to the ground, feeling
like someone had just dropped a wall onto her back. The pressure was intense,
and the pain was blinding, and- and the next thing she registered was the pain
lessening. Looking up, she saw Ironsides reel, and Vector standing by him with
his arm outstretched – it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Vector had
just tried to punch Ironsides’ lights out. However, the attempt seemed to have
failed, even if it bought them a few seconds. Vector went rocketing backwards,
and a second later, the world blared red-hot with pain once again.

Plue tried desperately to rise, but wasn’t sure what she
would have been able to do even if she’d actually been able to stand up. She
had one arrow left. She had no powers. What would she have been able to
accomplish? She dimly registered a tear rolling down her cheek, and she
couldn’t have said whether it was because of despair or just because of pain.

“Stop!”

For a moment, Plue didn’t understand. What good did anyone
think ordering Ironsides to stop would do?

But then, the pressure stopped. Completely.

Not understanding, Plue craned her head upwards. Ironsides’
face was blank. He was standing up, but his body was slack. Unmoving. What had
happened? Had he passed out? Then, she heard footsteps. Quiet. Slight. Getting
louder every step. Eventually, a new body stepped into view, and it took Plue a
moment to recognise them.

It was Norik. New Guy.

“Got your distress signal.” He said, emotionlessly. His
voice was completely flat. His hands were in his pockets. “We were both
worried, so Ivy flew us here and I came in to investigate. I passed by the
others on the way down, the ones who were on their way out.” He paused a little
bit. “Looks like I arrived just in time, huh?”

“What…” Plue managed how to ask. “What are you doing?”

“All I’m good for, I guess.” Norik’s voice was tinged with
anger. And now, Plue could pick up on it. The rolling waves of frustration and
hatred tangible in his voice and posture, visible in every twitch of his shoulders.

“You know,” Norik said, staring at Ironsides (who was still
unresponsive), “I hate people like you most of all. Manipulators. People who
twist other people’s wills, lie to them, fool them into becoming your tools
under the pretence that you actually give a damn about them.” His breath was
like the rasp of a monster under the bed. “You endorsed an operation grounded
in abuse, you twisted your follower’s minds, you stole my sister’s childhood,
you crippled my teammate, and you killed the man my sister loves.”

The quivering had spread to Norik’s arms. Ironsides was *still* unresponsive, and Plue realised
with a jolt (why hadn’t she realised sooner?) that the stillness probably had
something to do with Norik. She snorted with what little energy she had left.
“controlling animals”, huh?

Norik unsheathed one of the swords at his hip, and there was
a terrible moment where Plue thought he was going to run Ironsides through
there and then. But he didn’t. He seemed to stop and think for a moment. Scan
the room. He spotted the solitary arrow still in Plue’s quiver, and sauntered
over, snatching it in a movement that seemed lighting fast.

“Sorry.” He said, brusque, before idling back to Ironsides,
who was of course still… well, still still.

Norik held out the arrow.

“Take it.” He said. His voice had changed – it was deeper,
and darker, but it was also… more melodic. And there was a mesmerising quality
about it.

Ironsides took the arrow. Plue realised what was about to
happen.

“No.” She rasped. She tried to move, tried to stop it from
happening, but her body had nothing left to give. She could only watch.

“What are your thoughts on irony?” Norik asked his captive
audience. Upon receiving no reply, he shrugged. Then he glared at Ironsides
with what looked like all the hate he could muster. “Use the arrow to stab
yourself in the heart twelve times.” He commanded, in that melodic voice.

And Ironsides did.

### ***AND, TO CONCLUDE…***

Things were, Dante had heard, almost remarkably simple after
that.

After Norik had killed Ironsides, Plue had led the rest of
the team out of Highwing and to safety, where they could deliver their report
and call in an official contingent of Nexus Force troops to act as clean-up. Of
Ironsides and his Twelve, two either died on-sight or died while in medical
care for injuries they received during the operation. Eight were taken in to
Nexus Force custody. One – Ivy – was released on bail. Two remained unaccounted
for. Gaia’s brother, and… one of the others. Dante honestly didn’t know which
one.

In the two weeks that had passed since the operation, the
first important thing he could remember was waking up in bed with a towel
wrapped around his head, which was… a bit weird. But when he’d stumbled into
the corridor to try and find someone, he’d locked eyes with that “Kaida” woman.
What she’d been doing wandering the base, he still wasn’t sure. But at that
moment, she’d smiled at him. As if in relief.

“Hi.” She’d said.

He’d started to nod, but it had really hurt, so he’d stopped
and just said “Hi” back. Her gaze had flickered left to right, before she’d
turned to look back the way she’d come.

“I… I have to go.” She’d said. “And you won’t see me for a
while.”

He may have made a disbelieving noise, but he hadn’t really
been coherent at the time, so it hadn’t meant anything. She’d smiled.

“Listen… if you see- if you see Gaia, can you give her a
message?”

He’d nodded, again. And hurt his head. Again.

“Tell her…” Kaida had paused, as if trying to figure how
what she wanted to say and how she’d say it. But then she’d snapped her
fingers. “Tell her that I’m the youngest of three.” She’d said. Dante must have
looked confused (he’d certainly *felt*
it) because she’d rolled her eyes. “She’ll know what that means.” She’d said,
before waving and walking back down the hallway. She’d stopped by a door, given
a final wave, and then walked inside. And that was the last he’d seen of her.

He’d delivered the message, of course. Gaia had- her leg-
she’d been taken to a hospital after being moved out of intensive care once
they were sure that her life wasn’t under threat, and that they’d done all they
could to stabilize her and all that. She’d been barely awake when he’d visited,
but once he’d been able to actually pass on the message, she’d… cried. And, well,
he was *pretty* sure that it’d been
from happiness. She’d said that it was okay, so he wasn’t worried. But it had
been weird.

Still- didn’t sound like his beeswax. He hadn’t really
stressed over it since.

Though he *did* have
to find out how Pandemonium’s Bane had apparently had another member that he’d
known nothing about.

The other-dimensioners – Talia, Jonna, Perceval, Peragrine –
they’d used Talia’s Mythran device to go back to their own dimension after
spending a couple of days recuperating from their injuries. By the time they’d
had to go, they’d mostly recovered from the ordeal – though Perceval’s abdomen
and stomach was still swathed in thick bandages, and Talia still had to lean on
Jonna for support.

“You think you’ll be okay?” Vector had asked. Worry had been
in his eyes. On the subject of Vector’s eyes – they’d changed a bit. At least,
one had. His eyes *had* been entirely
brown, but now near the bottom of his left iris was a splodge of blue, like a
hole in the middle of a cloud. “partial heterochromia”, Plue had called it,
like everyone would have known what that would mean. She’d figured that it had
had something to do with Vector tapping into Mythran abilities – which he had
apparently done. (Turns out you miss a lot when you’re unconscious.)

“No problemo, capitaino!” Peragrine had shot him one last
thumbs-up. And then a two-fingered salute. And then he’d waved. Before anyone
else had done anything.

Jonna had been the one to actually settle everyone’s nerves.
“We’ll be fine, guys.” She had said. “We’ll either re-join the Mythrans in our
dimension, or we’ll just get sent right back to my house. Probably.” Cue
nervous laughter.

There had been a nod from Talia. “I’ll make sure that you
all get safely back to your homes.”

Jonna had rolled her eyes at that. “I think we’re the ones
who are gonna have to take care of you until you get your strength back.” Then,
she’d smirked. “Maybe we can… hang out. Or something.”

Talia had smiled. “I’d like that.”

Then she’d fiddled with the cube, and everyone had waved at everyone
else, and maybe someone had been crying (it was him, he’d been crying) and then
they’d vanished in a big flash of light. And that had been that on that.

(Peragrine had left his gun behind. After a moment’s
deliberation, Vector had taken it.)

The artefacts that Ironsides had been gathering had, for the
most part, been taken into Nexus Force custody. Emphasis on “for the most
part”, because Plue had managed to sort through them all personally, and had
been able to snag a couple for personal use. A few knickknackeries that he
hadn’t yet asked her about, because most of his attention was on the thing
she’d managed to claim on his behalf.

Another gem.

After over two years of essentially nothing beyond Raelyn
yelling in his ear about how she could sense something-or-other (and more often
than not they’d been wild goose chases), there it had been. He hadn’t thought
it was possible for something to be super dark jet black and still *glow*, but this one pretty much had been.
It had small enough for him to hold between his finger and his thumb – not that
he physically had, because he wasn’t sure if that would bond it to him as well,
and he didn’t want to chance it – and unlike his own gem, which was misshapen
and warped, this one was perfectly cut, like a diamond ready to be inserted
into a ring.

According to Raelyn, this gem was the one that could let the
wielder control shadows. So just one step above his *own* gem in terms of “foreboding and thematically evil”. Until
further notice, he’d placed the gem in a small jar (careful not to touch it the
whole time) and placed the jar on his desk. His plan was to keep it on his
person and… well, he wasn’t sure what beyond that. Wait for the right person to
come along, he supposed.

Next on his list of priorities, there was Ivy. And she’d
been understandably upset by Cadmus’ death. Almost inconsolable for a couple of
days, if he remembered correctly – but he didn’t begrudge her that, he’d never
begrudge her that. If anything, he’d almost wished that she’d gotten angry at *him*. It had been his operation, after
all. His brainchild. Operation *Acheronta*
Movebo*. And Cadmus’ death – as well as Gaia’s injury, and the stuff that*
everyone else had suffered – that was on him. And, to rub salt in the wound, he
hadn’t even done that much! Followed a whim from Raelyn, and then gotten into a
fight that had left him unconscious, forced to be carried by the rest of his
team.

He clutched tightly at the coat sleeve around his arm at the
memory. It was a shameful one – one that he knew (well, he hoped) he’d get
over, but still. It was undermining as a field commander and shameful as a
friend. And if the scars on his arm were anything to go by (which had
apparently been blasted there by lighting bolts from a member of the twelve),
he wasn’t going to be allowed to forget these latest mistakes any time soon.

As of now, Ivy was staying at the Pandemonium’s Bane
headquarters, having nowhere else to go – though in the past couple of days,
she and Rose had apparently been looking at the local housing market to see
what they could find. Which was nice. Norik, as her brother, had been a big
help too, and Dante had the feeling that the two had spent a lot of time making
up for *lost* time, what with being
estranged siblings and all.

And Norik…

In light of recent actions, it was definitely fair to say
that Norik had some issues to work through. Dante and Plue had had to pin the
death of Ironsides on one of the “other-dimensioners” to make sure that he
hadn’t faced any repercussions for what couldn’t have been anything but a
deliberate (and unnecessarily violent!) murder. Plue in particular hadn’t been
keen on incriminating their other-worldly friends, what with her whole honesty
thing and all, but the two had agreed that it would almost definitely do no
harm, and it was better than letting Norik rot in a cell for months or years.

Certainly, what Dante knew about the dude’s background and
past (and he was privy to… not *everything*,
but to a fair amount of it) suggested that Norik was a good kid at heart. He
just needed someone to keep an eye out for him while still being in his corner.
And maybe prevent him from committing any more murders. Though, Dante had to
admit, if it had to have been someone… well, it may as *well* have been Ironsides.

Satisfied by his conclusion, Dante turned back to the gate
that he was standing in front of. It was still in the Pandemonium’s Bane
basement, and the team had decided that it ought to remain there. For better or
worse, if any more dimension-travellers ended up coming through it,
Pandemonium’s Bane would be their first port of call. And maybe it was just
Dante’s optimism talking, but he wasn’t opposed to the idea of a few more
friends.

Of course, because that was how irony worked, the portal
chose that specific time, of all times, to crackle and fizz with energy. Not
quite *panicking*, but certainly
startled, Dante took several steps back up to the stairs of the basement as the
symbols on the portal glowed, and the whole gateway area filled with a cyan
blue energy. Crackles of what looked light lightning jumped out of it. Blue
light flooded the whole basement until Dante was forced to squint. And then-
and then *dust* started to pour
through, landing on the ground like it had been blown there during a sandstorm.

Before he could really ponder the context of that, a foot
emerged, and then a leg, and then a torso, and then a figure clad in a brown
cloak stepped through the portal. Well, it was more like “stumbled”. Dante
filled his hands with maelstrom energy (he and Raelyn still had some stuff to
discuss, but they were at least on discussing terms again) as he watched them
gather their bearings and explore their surroundings.

The gate fizzled shut. Whoever they were, they were stuck –
at least, for now.

Dante… couldn’t see much of them, whoever they were. There
was long blonde hair, but their face was masked by a pair of goggles and a
scarf that looked to have once been blue under all the layers of grime pulled
up over their nose. Below their cloak, Dante could see ragged-looking body
armour and what amounted to an entire personal arsenal of tools and weapons;
everything from grenades to various sizes of knife.

He would have surveyed them further, but the figure them
stopped paying attention to their surroundings and started to pay attention to
him specifically. Though he couldn’t see any eyes, their posture and body
language were taut in such a way that they could have only caught sight of him.
He shuffled his position on the stairs. Were they looking for a fight?

Then, their guard dropped. Their shoulders slumped. And in a
couple of fluid motions, their goggles were pulled from their eyes to their
forehead, and the scarf was pulled down below their chin, giving Dante a clear
view of their face.

Only-

That wasn’t possible.

“Aaron?” Plue – not *his* Plue, it couldn’t be, but some alternate version of Plue – asked.

And just like that, life got a whole lot more complicated
all over again.

Credits