As Bri gathered her stuff she noticed a boy waiting patiently until she was done to talk to her. He looked about her age with blonde hair and energetic blue eyes. He was the classes best puzzle solver and a total teacher's pet to Mr. Vale. Bri sighed before slipping on the straps of her bag and turning to face him. The next day, Bri was once again awoken by the sound of the bell.

"May I help you Mr. Lambert?"

"Uh just call me Lok… Please. "He scratched the back of his head and Bri could sense the nervousness emitting from him. She was known to be rather cruel as all the kids that had ever picked a fight with her lost their titans due to her SorrowBond spell. Bri smirked and leaned on the desk.

"Alright Lok… is there something you wanted to tell me or are you just here to waste my time?"

"O-Oh! Well I was wondering…. Could you maybe help me study for the upcoming exam?"

"Why would you want my help? Not like I pay attention."

"Yeah but you used to answer all the questions so I figured you were really smart you just don't… Participate?"

Bri stared at him blankly as she worked him out like a puzzle in her head. There was something off about this. Why did this boy, who she had never talked to before, suddenly want her help when everyone knew she didn't pay attention enough to help herself. Lok fidgeted about nervously and looked around to avoid her gaze which caused her to chuckle darkly.

"Alright then. I'll do what I can."

"Y-You will?"

"Sure, why not?"

Lok smiled and adjusted his messenger style bag. "Great! Do you mind starting today?"

Bri simply shrugged in response.

"Alright, follow me~" Lok started walking and was pleased to hear Bri push off the desk and follow 'The sooner I convince her to do her work the better. I don't want to spend any more time with her then I have to. She's creepy!'

When they got to Lok's dorm, Bri wrinkled her nose in disgust. The place was cluttered with different puzzles and garbage. There were posters covering the walls of different chess pieces and all sorts of nerdy things however, Bri looked at a few of the puzzles and figured out how to solve them in seconds without even actually touching them. Puzzle solving and history was her thing. It was the only thing she was good at. Lok saw here looking at the puzzles and grabbed one and held it out to her.

"Like puzzles?"

Bri took it and solved it quickly and easily before handing it back to him "Yeah, I do."

Lok looked over the finished puzzle in astonishment "How did you do that..?"

"It's simple. All you do is slide that one rectangle all the way around, slide those other two down half way then click the square into place."

"Have you seen this before?"

"No, it was just a really simple puzzle."

"I've been working on it for weeks!"

"Oh really? Wow…"

"Anyway… So uh… Can you quiz me on my spells?"

"Hm? Sure."

Lok handed Bri a paper with both spells and what they do on it. Bri would read out the effects and Lok had to name them. After they did that and studied the different types of titans they decided to mess with some of Lok's puzzles. They both sat on Lok's couch working on different things. Bri was working with a badly jumbled rubix cube and Lok was working on a puzzle much like the one Bri had solved when she first came into his dorm. As they sat in silence, Lok thought it would be a good time to try and get to the core of the problem with class.

"So Bri, how come you don't ever pay attention nor do your work?"

"I don't know. You see I was a seeker before they passed that stupid rule about seeker school so I guess I'm just annoyed that I'm stuck here when I could be out and about being a real seeker."

Lok nodded "But then wouldn't it make sense to pass these classes so you can do that? I mean if you don't have a choice then you might as well do your best right?"

Bri put down the rubix cube and looked at him "I guess… Hey, what titans do you have Lok?"

"Oh well I have Kipperin and Freelancer. Mr. Vale gave me Freelancer~ What about you?"

"Me? Oh I have Fenris, Caliban and Ignatius."

"Wh-What?! Your titans… They are all so strong!"

Bri shrugged and begun working on the nearly complete rubix cube to avoid Lok who had long since put down his puzzle to stare at her in disbelief and amazement.

"Bri!"

"What..?"

"Wh-Who was your first titan and how did you find it?"

"Fenris, and he found me."

Lok was silent. She acted as though it were normal for someone of their age to have such strong titans and to be picked by one to. She was extraordinary for sure. Once Bri completed the rubix cube she stood up and grabbed her stuff.

"Well I have to go. Nice talking to ya Lok."

"O-Oh okay. See you around?"

"Yeah sure, whatever." Bri let herself out and headed for her own dorm. She didn't sleep that night but instead, like most nights, she played on the computer and read until it was time for her to take a shower and prepare for class the next morning.

The next morning Bri got to class late, as usual, but this time Dante refused to let her in. Bri sighed, dropped her bag next to the door and walked off with her hands in her pockets. Unlike most people, Bri truly didn't care so if the teacher wasn't going to let her in then she wasn't going to waste her time where she wasn't wanted. She strode right out of the school as if that's how it was supposed to be and used Hyperstride to get up to a balcony a few floors up. She stayed there, staring off into space, until she was approached by Dante during lunch break. He put a hand on her shoulder and dropped her bag next to her.

"You forgot this…"

"Oh… So I did…"

Dante sighed and leaned against the stone wall that acted as a railing next to her. "Bri… I-"

"Sir, honestly. I don't care. Thank you for returning my bag and what not now please leave me be."

"I talked to Lok."

"That's nice…"

"You didn't let me finish, I talked to Lok and he told me about your little study session with him last night."

"Oh? That's nice…"

"You're really good at puzzles. I think you might be better than Lok."

"Whoop-de-doo."

"Bri, if you can't take a second to care about your grade then I'm going to have to put in a referral to have you removed."

"What?! Mr. Vale that's not fair!"

"It's not fair that you sit in my class everyday and do nothing. It's not fair that I do my best and work really hard for you then you don't do anything."

"But-!"

"No! Either you get your act together or you will be removed from the school."

Bri glared at the ground and muttered a cross "Yes sir." Before jumping over the edge of the balcony and using Featherdrop to break her fall. Dante shook his head

"All you have to do is try… You could do so much better Bri…" Dante made his way back to his classroom and Bri back to her dorm. Bri decided to look up some things like myths and such in her dorm for awhile. She had been doing so for around three hours when she suddenly heard a knock at her door. Curious as to whom it could be, Bri got up and opened the door. Lok smiled when he saw her.

"H-Hey Bri."

"…..Hi"

"Why weren't you in class today?"

"Eh, came late."

"Ah, teach wouldn't let you in huh?"

"Nuh."

"What's wrong? You seem off…"

"Nothing… Mr. Vale threatened to recommend my removal from the class if I don't start caring."

"Really?!"

"Yeah…"

"Dude that sucks! You gonna step up or are you gonna let him take away your dream?"

Bri didn't answer; she looked away instead before stepping aside to allow him room to enter. Lok walked in nervously and set his stuff down by the door.

"Come on; don't tell me you're seriously going to let him take this from you. Bri, I've only talked to you once but if there's one thing I know it's that you want this more than anyone else and you deserve it just as much as I do. This is the last year, you can't give up now!"

Bri frowned. "Alright, alright I get it. I'll try but we've only got a few weeks left and I don't know anything that Mr. Vale has taught."

"Sounds like you've got a lot of catching up to do then~"

"Yeah I suppose…"

"I know just the person to help with this."

"Yeah? Who's that?"

"Sophie Casterwill~"

Bri groaned "Not the British snob! Please Lok, you can't do this to me man!"

"Should have paid attention in class then~" Lok had a huge grin on his face as he gathered his stuff and grabbed her wrist to pull her out of the door. Lok pulled her all the way to the library where they found Sophie reading a book alone. Lok pulled her with him to the table that Sophie was sitting at before finally releasing her wrist.

"Hey Sophie!"

"Hello Lok…" Sophie responded, not even bothering to put her boor down or look at them.

"Hey so uh… I was wondering if you would be willing to tutor a friend of mine..."

"Who?"

"B-Bri…"

Sophie practically slammed her book shut and on the table "Absolutely not!"

"Wh-What? Why not?"

"Bri is exactly the type of person we Casterwills defend the world from! I will /not/ help such a person!"

"B-But Sophie-!"

"No Lok!"

"I-"

"Alright enough!" Bri suddenly spoke up with a firm tone causing both of them to go silent. "It's alright Lok, thanks for trying. Thank you for your time Miss. Casterwill." With that Bri walked off back toward her dorm.

"Tsk, and I thought Casterwills were supposed to help people… Bri! Wait up!" Lok ran after Bri, leaving a glaring but silent Sophie alone once again. Lok was a bit surprised to see Bri had actually stopped to wait for him. Once he caught up they started walking again, Lok matching her stride perfectly.

"Sorry about that…"

"What are you sorry for? You didn't do anything wrong."

"But I kept insisting that you talk to her. I didn't think she would act like that."

"Exactly, you didn't know. Its fine Lok, I appreciate that you attempted to help me but I think I'll just handle things on my own. I'm gonna go back to my dorm and break open my textbooks. See ya later Lok."

Lok stopped and watched her continue walking "O-Oh okay. See ya Bri!" He waved before heading off to his own dorm to get some sleep.

Bri dug out her textbooks from the closet and opened up the main book they used in class. That night, she read from chapter one up until chapter 12 which is the chapter they were currently working on in class. Class started at 7:30 and currently it was 6:30 so Bri got up and started her routine for getting ready for class. She showed up about three minutes before the bell and was surprised to see that not even the teacher was in the classroom. The door was unlocked so she went in and sat in her normal spot next to the window all the way in the back of the classroom. Bri stared out the window blankly until a stream of people poured in about a minute from the bell. Class went on like normal, Dante gave them a few activities to do with solving puzzles and the class worked silently to complete them. For once Bri actually did her work but she was done within five minutes so she just stared out the window again until lunch break. Dante was surprised that she had actually done her work since every time he looked up she wasn't doing anything. Everyone left to go eat their lunch and hang out but Bri didn't move because she didn't have any money for food as usual nor did she want to talk to Lok at the moment. A few minutes in, Dante silently placed half his sandwich on her desk along with an apple and a water bottle before sitting on the desk in front of her. He waited for her to finish eating before saying anything.

"Penny for your thoughts? You've been really quiet."

"You can keep your penny because I don't want to share."

"Fair enough. Good job on your work Bri. I didn't think you had done it but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised seeing how good you are at puzzles~"

"Yeah okay, whatever."

"Just a few more weeks Bri, you can do it. I know you can. I promise I'll be the one clapping the hardest when you graduate."

"Heh, thanks Mr. Vale but can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Not to sound rude or anything but why do you care?"

Dante sighed "You know Bri, I don't really know. But I've known you for awhile and I've just wanted you to do well ever since I saw you. How are you doing with your studies?"

"Smooth topic change. Uh well I read up to where we are in the textbook and I'm pretty good with everything else but I'm more worried about memorizing everything I need for the exam."

"Thank you. And you just have to study. You've got this Bri, don't worry." Dante slid off the desk and went back to his desk as the bell rang to tell the students that lunch was over. The class went pretty normal with more puzzle solving worksheets. The days seemed to drag on forever so by Friday she was so done with school that it wasn't even funny. Nothing had really happened out of the ordinary up until this point. Dante had made a tradition out of giving her some of his lunch it seemed. She wasn't really surprised because she had never eaten in his presence and she doesn't really eat at all. She wasn't anorexic or anything because she did in fact eat dinner… Sometimes. If anyone can tell you something about being poor, it's Bri. It's a pain in the ass. When the bell rang to dismiss school for the week, the class was like a stamped getting out. As Bri was heading to her dorm Lok approached her.

"Hey Bri!"

"Hiya."

"Doing anything this weekend?"

"Studying?"

"Aw that's so lame!"

"And what do you suggest I do then Lok?"

"Come on a secret mission with Sophie and me!"

"A secret mission huh? I don't know…"

"Is it because of Sophie? Don't worry about her, I'll handle it."

"Lok, I don't-"

"Please?"

"Oh alright, I'll come…"

"Yes!" Lok punched the air excitedly.

The next morning, Lok came and got her and they went to meet up with Sophie at the library. It was only about six in the morning but they wanted to get an early start. When Sophie saw her she crossed her arms and glared at both Lok and Bri.

"Lok… What is she doing here?"

"C'mon Sophie, she's really good at puzzles. You said this will involve a lot of puzzles so she can help us out a lot."

Sophie sighed and nodded "Alright fine, but I don't like it."

Bri and Lok high-fived and they all started walking to the main entrance of the school. The mission was to find an ancient seeker collection of amulets. They headed to an ancient church to look for the clue that would lead them to the location of the collection. Once they got to the church they saw that the doors had a chain through the handles with a large key lock on it.

"Farslip…. No good. Anyone know how to pick a lock?"

"Who doesn't?" Bri asked and received a glare from Sophie and an innocent look from Lok. Bri sighed and pulled out a lock picking kit. "I got it..." Within a few seconds, the lock and heavy chain fell from the handles and Bri pulled the doors open. "Hm?"

"Awesome!" Lok cheered before walking inside.

"Show off…" Sophie mumbled crossly before following Lok inside, leaving Bri to go last and shut the doors behind them.

"Woah this place is huge!"

"Meh… The church of Nostradamus is bigger…"

"Y-You've been to the church of Nostradamus?!"

"Yeah… "

"Hey guys! Look what I found!"

Bri walked over to Lok, leaving an astonished and envious Sophie by herself. Bri stood next to Lok

"Whatdya find Lok?"

"I think it's a clue!" Lok held up an ancient looking scroll. Sophie came up and looked at it from over his shoulder.

"It's ancient Italian. It says: Only the purest of heart may cross the bridge where the world screams. Be warned that those who are not pure and attempt to gain the treasure under the golem's grave will join the golem in eternal sorrow."

"So basically only certain people can cross some bridge and if you're not the right type of person then you'll die and this location is under some golem's grave. Could the golem referred to be the clay golem? The same grave where Dante found Metagolum?"

"Hm… It sounds about right. Maybe Dante missed something then?"

"It would make sense. Let's try. If I remember correctly then you have to spread clay on the grave and write the symbol for truth to open the grave because the golem was brought to life by the written word truth on his forehead."

"You really know your stuff Bri. Do you know the symbol for truth?"

"No. Sophie?"

"Yes I think I do… It's a difficult symbol but I think I remember it correctly."

"Alright then, c'mon. We're wasting time."

The two nodded and followed Bri out of the church. Bri quickly put the lock and chain back on the door before they headed for the graveyard. Thanks to Bri, it didn't take long to find the grave where Sophie opened it up by drawing the symbol and they descended into the darkness. They lit up the place with a Boltflare by Bri. Once they found the room where Metagolum originally rested they began searching the room. Lok was investigating the bookcase next to the vase where Metagolum had been hiding when he accidently dropped a book on the vase shattering it. Suddenly the whole place started shaking and begun falling apart.

"Lok! Seriously?!"

"Sorry!"

"Uh hello?! The place is kind of falling apart! Let's run shall we?"

"Right!"

As they were running however, the collapsing grave caved in blocking their exit.

"Shit! We better find that passage and quick then!"

They ran back and started frantically looking around once again. Lok noticed what seemed like a loose clay brick and pulled it out to see it was hollow behind.

"Guys! I found something!"

Bri and Sophie ran over and soon joined Lok in pulling out bricks. Once the opening was big enough for a person to fit through they ran through one by one. The grave soon collapsed and covered their entrance and the trio stopped and panted heavily.

"That was way to close…"

"No kidding. Next time be more careful Lok!"

"Yo! It doesn't matter now! Let's just keep going."

Little did the group know that they weren't the only ones there. Members of the organization were already there and setting up an ambush for the trio since they had been so loud. There were around twenty suits waiting for them, way more than they could handle.

"So how do we know that the path isn't blocked up ahead?"

"By walking there to check?"

"Fine then ms knows it all. You go ahead then."

Bri shrugged and started along the path but was ambushed. A suit came behind her and used Darksleep before putting her in shackles and waking her up. The other two were getting worried as it had been several minutes since Bri had left.

"It's been too long; I'm going to check on her."

"No Lok!"

"Sophie I'm not going to sit here when my friend could be in trouble!"

"I know Lok, I'm coming to."

They both took off running down the hall but soon were met with a suit holding the chained and gagged Bri. There were also ten others behind him. The suit smirked and kicked the back of Bri's knees to make her fall. Lok growled and stepped forward but the suit spoke up before he could invoke a titan.

"Nah-uh-uh." He waved a finger back and forth as though he were talking to a young child "Come quietly and we spare you lives, try to fight and your friend here will die."

"Lok we don't have a choice, we're outnumbered so there's no way we could even save ourselves."

"I know but…"

"You have ten seconds to surrender or else!"

Lok and Sophie looked at each other then slowly raised their hands to show they surrendered.

"Heh... Smart kids, chain 'em up."

"Yes sir!" Three suits saluted and moved to carry out their orders. Two put the students in shackles while the third used Sorrowbond to get their titans away from them. Bri was jerked to her feet and the three were led to the main cavern of the secret passage. As they walked in DeFoe pulled a bag out of a chest. It was clear to everyone that these were the amulets the trio had been after. DeFoe walked up to them and paced back and forth before them

"What have we got here? Three foundation babies? You three will make wonderful slaves for The Professor!"

"We won't do anything for you! We won't tell you anything! The council will be on you guys and take all of you weaklings out!"

"Insolate boy! Dragonfist!" DeFoe rammed a power charged fist into Loks stomach causing his knees to give out. He was jerked back onto his feet but couldn't support himself so Bri and Sophie held him up as best they could. "We have what we came for. Let's go."

"Sir yes Sir!" The entire team saluted before following him out of the only exit. The three were shoved into the back of a black limo that soon started driving off. A few minutes into the drive, they heard frantic cries for backup over the headsets of the two suits in the front. Not two seconds later, a large fist slammed into the front of the car throwing the three students hard into the seats before them and the suits out of the front windshield. Then the car door on Lok's side opened out and he was yanked out by Zhalia. She then helped Sophie out but Bri was snatched out by DeFoe through the door on her side. As Zhalia was taking the cuffs off the other two, DeFoe was using Bri as a shield against Dante's Touchram. The pain of the blow was almost enough to make Bri blackout and her body went limp in DeFoe's arms. Unable to carry her, DeFoe dropped her and ran. Bri's vision blurred and her ears were ringing as she lay motionless on the ground. She saw Dante kneeling over her, checking her vitals, before she blacked out. When she woke up, she was in the schools infirmary and Dante was pacing back and forth. Dante noticed she was awake when she sat up and he quickly moved by her bedside

"You're awake!"