【Chapter 10: Reviens!】

ー Reviens! ー
ー Come back! ー

Control room, Le Fantôme, Unknown location 9:17

"Up to 90% of the world's trade is carried by sea. If we have the sea, we essentially have the world. Fufufu~," Kantaris chuckled from under her hooded coat, folding her arms as she stood in the Fantôme's control room. She seemed to be pleased with her work as she reviewed her latest progress.

"Heh, seems that someone knows the sea's charm," Gauthier said, leaning back. "Not your average method of world domination, but I guess it worksーno one's expecting it. Doubt anyone else can pull this off if they don't have your resources."

"Of course! And you've been a great help, Gauthier. I hope you'd continue the great work. Ohoho~," she laughed, knowing that victory was already in her hands.

Gauthier had been an able captain, just as Kantaris had expected. No matter how many men she asked him to command, he seemed to be able to manage them with ease. She might have spent millions to provide him with this one grand battleship, but he had returned her investment tenfold, capturing many smaller battleships and eventually, two SSBNs. One of the two missile submarines had been used to hound a part of the French Navy into cooperating with them. As for the other one, though, she had grander, darker plans.

"Gauthier, dear, would you look at that...," she asked breathlessly, opening a window on the huge computer screen in front of her.

The window showed the second submarine being taken apart at one of the Kantaris Organization's secret bases. Engineers, mechanics and technicians moved about busily as they noted their studies, making blueprints of the submarines and missiles to be readied for mass production.

"It won't be long until the blueprints are ready. And with a lot of these submarines, I can basically hold the entire world hostage!" She exclaimed happily, unable to hold back her joy as she envisioned the fruition of her perfect plan. A blush crept to her cheeks as she hugged herself and swayed. "Aahh, just thinking of my new toys makes me feel hot~"

Gauthier winced a little. His boss might be a little over the top, but he supposed he could put up with it since she was so competent at her job. He turned back to his screen, working on the next task Kantaris had entrusted to him.

She'd supply him with a bigger fleet, and he was to position them worldwide to ambush and capture every country's military vessels for the keeping. The preparations were almost ready and he smirked. This was going to be a lot of fun.

Corridors, Le Fantôme 9:19

"Move along!" One of Gauthier's gruff pirate men ordered impatiently as he pushed Giorgio's shoulder without care. His one friend standing next to him laughed. Giorgio frowned, fighting back the urge to shout various unholy curses at them.

Giorgio, along with two bulky pirates, were just on their way back to Giorgio's room from the Fantôme's canteen, right after the pirates had forced several pieces of bread down his throat and he had finished with any toilet business. Being captured at the festival, Giorgio was still in his expensive tailored black suit, hands safely cuffed behind him. He hated seeing how soiled his favourite suit was by now, but he hated the men walking with him a hundred times more.

The mysterious blue lady, having wanted to 'play' with him as she had said it, had told the men to keep him alive. But much to Giorgio's dismay, she had forgotten to ask them to treat him like a proper human, and these two bullies seemed to have taken advantage of that. The pirate on his right joined his friend in bullying him, smacking Giorgio's shoulder so hard he almost fell over.

"Cut it!" He snapped, glaring at them. They just laughed.

"Whatcha gonna do? Summon good ol' Davy Jones?" One of them teased.

"He's so unlucky he should get himself a cat! But I bet even the cats think he's a lost cause! Hahaha!" The other one joined in.

Giorgio didn't reply, knowing that he'd go nowhere. He decided to quicken his pace instead, thinking that getting to his room meant that these two idiots would finally leave him alone. The pirate on his left grabbed him by the shoulder.

"What's the hurry? Ya don't have anything to do until the Lady comes to see you, anyway. Have fun strolling with us," he grinned evilly.

"She's coming again?!" Giorgio asked, frightful dread clearly oozing out of his voice.

"Of course. This time with a gift!" The other pirate smirked, "In fact, it had already been delivered to your room!"

The way the man said it, Giorgio knew that it couldn't be anything good, but curiosity got the better of him. "What... sort of gift?" He asked, despite being sure that he wouldn't want to know the answer.

"Ooh, I think they caught your friend or something. Hehehe!" The pirate replied with a snicker.

'Evan!' Giorgio wanted to think that it was him, but then he was reminded that Evan was dead. His heart sank for a moment, before he pulled himself back forcefully to consider the situation. Did the VSSE send in another agent?

"Was that captive... okay?" He gulped, daring himself to ask.

"Look forward to it!" The other pirate grinned, nudging him. "I can tell you that his sleeping face is pretty as a mermaid's. Hehehe!"

Giorgio felt rather nervous now. Who is this? But as he continued walking with the pirates, something about them struck him.

Davy Jones, lucky cats, mermaids... Could these two by any chance be highly superstitious? He had heard that sailors have the tendency to be. If these two were, then he might just have a chance at distracting them and escaping. Glancing at the handcuff key hanging from the belt of the pirate to his left, he decided to give it a shot. After making sure that the corridor they were walking in had no one else in it, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Hey, why d'ya stop suddenly? Move it!" One of the two pirates scolded.

"Oh, it just suddenly struck me," Giorgio said, making up a worried tone, "I thought bringing a woman on board was bad. You brought two! Pretty ones, too. You sure some calamity wouldn't suddenly strike your crew in a few days? Maybe... in a few hours?" He continued.

"W-Well... We'll be fine! This ship's a battleship! It's sturdy and all!" The pirates replied, one of them knocking twice on the walls to prove his point. Giorgio noticed the nervous, shivering forms beneath their made up confidence all to well though, and he smirked in his mind.

"Well then, how about this?" He asked as he gently made a soft but long, clear whistle. Both pirates grabbed at his elbows frantically. Whistling was thought to bring about destructive storms, and Giorgio was secretly pleased that both his pirates were behaving just as he wanted them to.

"STOP! Ya wanna die?!" One of them asked in alarm.

"Oh, that's nothing compared to what I heard yesterday," Giorgio made up, "The guys patrolling in front of my room were whistling up five whole songs last night. Guess they got bored standing around."

The pirates were fear stricken, he can feel the panic building up in them as they began arguing and blaming their friends for future misfortune. Seeing that they had completely forgotten about him, Giorgio took the chance to lift up his leg and perform a spinning kick, hitting one of the pirates in the head and knocking him out immediately.

"One," he said calmly.

"Hey!" The other pirate protested, reaching for his gun. Giorgio wasted no time in shouldering him against the wall, knocking all the air out of him. His foe dropping to the ground and still in a disoriented state, he added a finishing kick to the side of the man's head.

"Two," he ended, putting his foot back down neatly as his enemy dropped to the floor unconscious. "Shouldn't have put your guard down around a trained agent."

Looking down both sides the corridor, Giorgio made sure that the coast was clear, before bending down immediately to procure the handcuff keys from the pirates. He held it towards his wrists and hurriedly unlocked his handcuff, letting the metal constraint drop to the ground.

'How good to be free!' He thought to himself as he rubbed his red wrists.

"Now...," he looked down the corridor towards his room. The pirates said that they had captured a friend. If it was indeed another agent, then rescuing him might just give him that little extra chance of getting out of here.

Stuffing the handcuff key into his pocket and taking the two pirates' guns, Giorgio ran down the corridor, chasing his single ray of hope like his life depended on it.

Once he arrived at his room, Giorgio made quick work of the guards patrolling in front of it, carefully hiding their unconscious bodies. The area secured, he barged into his room, expecting to see a bruised up agent being tied up to a chair like he had been. Naturally, he was thoroughly surprised when what he found instead was a pure white coffin.

Immediate shock followed in the next moment, various questions attacking his head all at once. Does the coffin contain the captive? Did they kill him? Who is it? Giorgio had never felt such pressure for some time. He knelt down in front of the coffin, his fearful hand shivering as he ran it along the smooth, white wood.

It was looking at a Pandora's boxーhe knew that opening it would only bring misery and despair no matter which agent laid inside, but he had to know. Gulping, he brought himself to open the coffin's lid, and his eyes widened in astonishment.

There laid neatly in the pristine cushioning was Evan.

The always cheerful and healthy look was completely gone from his face, replaced by a limp lifelessness and a deathly pale countenance. His body laid completely stillーunmoving, not breathing.

"Evan...," he said, his frown deepening as he put his hand on Evan's cheek, gently brushing his hair aside. He was so cold.

When it finally dawned on Giorgio that his friend would never open his eyes again, it felt as though an entire building had fallen upon him with all its crushing weight. It was one thing to force himself not to get distracted in a mission, but seeing Evan's body in front of him was another matter altogether. He felt a sudden loss of control, and the walls he had painstakingly put up crashed and burned. His eyes watered against his will.

"Evan...," he called out desperately, sobbing as he pulled Evan's body into his arms, gently leaning against his head.

Having lost many who were dear to him, each time Evan had successfully survived another mission, Giorgio thought that the young man would be able to probably outlive him. But just how many people were the heavens planning to rip away from him? Feeling broken by the cruel fates, he swayed there with Evan in his arms, unable to let go as he sobbed to himself quietly.

He had forgotten that he was in the middle of a dangerous situation. For all he knew, the blue lady could come at any moment and shoot him, but he found that he didn't care. His partner was the only thing that mattered now.

"Come back...," he cried, burying his face into Evan's chest. He was so deeply drowned in his sadness that he didn't notice Evan stirring a little.

The effects of the drug slowly wearing off, Evan took in a slow breath as his heart began to beat again, circulating the blood in his system and returning the warm colours to his face. There was a heavy lethargic feeling, as though he was an animal who had just woken up after a long period of hibernation. When most of his senses finally came back, he felt someone holding him. Expecting it to be one of the enemy men almost gave Evan a heart attack, but to his surprise, it was none other than his long lost partner.

"Giorgio...?" He said in disbelief. Giorgio looked up, face streaked with tears and the most miserable look in his eyes. The moment he realized that Evan was still alive, he recoiled, jumping back and standing up.

"Whatー?!" He stood back, unable to contain his surprise. Evan just tilted his head and smiled his bright innocent smile at him.

"Juliet's Potion," he grinned mischievously, and Giorgio felt as though he had been had by the mean trick.

"You IDIOT! I thought you were dead!" He exclaimed, frantically trying to wipe the tears off his face. He felt his cheeks heat up for accidentally showing his vulnerable side.

"And you didn't see anything!" He warned. Evan only stood up and gave him the tightest hug, happy tears flowing down his cheeks as he cried in joy.

"Tonton! I knew you're still alive! Iー... Iー...!" He was unable to continue as his emotions flooded over. Tightening his hold, he could only cry into Giorgio's shoulder as he let the relief wash over him. Giorgio studied him quietly, rubbing his back a little to comfort him. He couldn't tell how happy he was himself, but he was just glad that things had turned out better than he had expected and feared. Content with their reunion, he pulled away gently.

"Well, Evan, you can tell me what happened later. First, we must get out of here!" He said hurriedly, worried that the blue lady and some guards might be on their way. He took out the two guns he had taken from the pirates earlier and gave one to Evan, readying the other for himself.

Wiping his tears away, Evan grinned at Giorgio, taking the weapon and being excited that they could fight together again.

"Let's do this!"