Oi! Let me just apologize for the slow pace. I was going to have finished this on Friday and written at least 2 more chapters over the weekend. But then I got a nasty stomach virus and spent four days spewing other things instead of literature. Well, I rushed parts of this chapter. Sorry, but I was ina hurry to get it to you all, and I'm more eager to write ch. 11. Ending sucks, and I'm sorry. But I promise I'll make it up to you. Anyway, I'm well again and will be writing up a storm this weekend.
Review now and I won't tell you about my illness vomitting adventures! :D
Chapter 10
Alice hadn't noticed it at first, he always wore gloves. It took her a few weeks to finally catch on. She wished she had found out sooner.
She didn't like it when someone tampered with her pets, especially Decus.
"Is that an exsphere?" she asked sternly. Decus nodded with a heavy huff. He was training, except he was using two swords instead of one. Alice didn't like that either.
"Why do you have one? And why are you using two swords?!" she demanded. Decus took a few deep breathes before answering.
"Just… following orders… unless…" he inhaled, "You'd like to override them, my dear!"
Alice rolled her eyes before getting up from her seated position to leave.
"Where are you… going?" Decus puffed. Alice waved her hand nonchalantly as she left.
"Somewhere else, you smell!" she snapped. She would not tell Decus what her true objective was; it would imply that she cared about him. And she couldn't have that.
"Richty~ Could I have a word with you?" Alice sweetly asked as she skipped up to the taller and older half-elf. He sneered.
"What?"
"Well, Richty," she giggled. "It seems that you've been a bit naughty, haven't you? Going behind Brute's back with some special assignments and whatnot."
Richter narrowed his gaze at Alice, "What are you implying?"
"Implying? Who's implying?" Alice shrugged. "No, I'm warning you. Warning you of things you should not do." Alice playfully waved her rapier. Richter scoffed.
"Oh are you? And what should you be warning me about?" he growled.
"Well, as fate would have it, you've picked one of my little slaves to be one of your guinea pigs," Alice sighed. "And I just can't have that, you understand."
Richter shot her a dangerous look. She took no heed.
"So, Richty, I'm warning you against any future actions you might have in mind that could possibly threaten or disrupt my slave's abilities," Alice scolded. "Because I don't like that you've ordered him, stupid as he is, to wield an exsphere. You and I both know how dangerous they can be," Alice snapped her rapier in her hand.
"Alice," Richter snarled, "You really are conceited."
Alice frowned. She paused before saying, "Richty have you been-"
"STOP calling my Richty," Richter barked violently. "Because as much as you'd like to think you have some control over me, you don't. And as much as you'd like to think you could someday run the Vanguard, you won't. So I suggest that you stop trying to threaten me and go make sure that pathetic little lap dog, Decus, remembers to follow orders." Richter was towering over Alice, a certain amount of vicious malevolence in his tone. Alice didn't say anything. "Because I'm the one who holds the power around here," he hissed.
She hesitated, not sure how to respond. It had been a very long time since she had been intimidated.
"And you can go ahead and tell Brute what I've done," Richter added, "Because even if he didn't approve my actions beforehand, he'd certainly agree with me now."
As Richter stalked away, Alice was left alone in the hallway. She was speechless, and admittedly scared.
She no longer liked Richter, he would be a future rival, she could tell.
Alice had carried on her life normally, completing missions and abusing her troops. Her usual procedures for the week.
That is, until the meeting was called.
One week after Alice's confrontation with Richter, a Vanguard-wide meeting was called, summoning all division leaders and their regiments to the throne room.
So here she was, standing straight like a general, with Hawk behind her and her men behind him.
To her right, Decus stood, not so professionally, as he stole quick glances and waves her way. She rolled her eyes.
Before her was Brute, seated on the Cape Fortress ancient throne, Richter on his right, and his daughter seated in a chair on his left. She looked rather nervous. Alice didn't care for her. Marta was far too uninvolved with the Vanguard to call herself a recruit, yet she acted like she was the vice-president. Marta was far too sheltered to be allowed in Vanguard activities, let alone anything else, yet she acted like she had seen the world and knew all truths.
Alice hated it.
"Members of the Vanguard!" Brute's thundering voice boomed throughout the ranks. "I have gathered you here today to announce a new realization I have come to. As you know, our mission is to defend ourselves from the Tethe'allans. But…" Brute cleared his throat. "In order to do this, we must first raise Sylvarant into a respectable nation. And to do that, we must look to the old ways. We must," he paused, "Resurrect the Sylvarant Dynasty."
There was a small silence that spread across the room. Like a short and brief plague, realization was thrust down upon the Vanguard.
Brute has become ambitious.
But to Alice, she only thought: Richter has become ambitious.
"To do this, we shall begin a long term and collaborative effort that will utilize all Vanguard divisions and combine all efforts," Brute continued. "We are going to find out way to the mystic realm of the Ginnugagap and seek out Ratatosk's core. With it, we will be able to wield the mana cannon, which will be our founding army." Brute's heavy voice drifted over the crowd, filling their influential heads with new ideas and new hopes.
There was an applause.
Alice looked shocked, she glanced to her side, hoping to find a similar expression on her old friend's features. But Decus looked completely aloof, he was just smiling like usual.
"How can you say that?!"
Alice's head shot up. Marta, the usually quiet-during-meetings daddy's girl was standing and pointing accursedly at her father.
"Daddy, what's wrong with you? The Sylvarant Dynasty?" she protested. Alice's annoyance rose. True, she didn't agree with what Richter had plotted, but Marta's open disgust with the idea made her cringe even more.
As Marta's idealist voice continued to refuse her father's ultimatum, Richter quietly dismissed the Vanguard. Obviously he did not want them to see nor hear Marta's point of view.
That day there was a decisive shift in the Vanguard tides.
Alice did not like it.
"Were you even listening to what Brute was saying?!" Alice growled at Decus. He had followed her back to her office and began to platter on about something that meant nothing to her.
"Huh? Sure," Decus reassured. "Something about the Sylvarant Dynasty and all that," he chuckled. "But Alice, my sweet, were you listening? He said collaborative effort! Do you know what that means?"
"It means that all of our cards are in one hand. We're investing everything in one thing," Alice chanted while pacing. "This disrupts everything."
"We'll get to spend more time together!" Decus sighed happily. "Blissful, I say. Give my compliments to Brute!" he laughed, lounging in the guest chair of Alice's office. When Decus finished his sentence, Alice's rapier found its way to his head, sharply whapping his ear.
"IDIOT! Don't you know what this all means?" she growled. "My plans are ruined!"
Decus gave Alice a rather blank look, "Plans? We had plans? Why Alice," he grinned, "You ought to tell me in advance, I hardly have the time to freshen up! But maybe I can try out that new cologne I bought…"
*SMACK*
"My plans you dolt!" Alice barked. "My plans for power. Richter… is proving to be far more imperialistic than I had anticipated." Decus blinked a few times.
"What can I do?" he peeped. Alice glanced over her shoulder at him.
"Unfortunately the only thing you can do is follow orders. If you start disobeying, no doubt Richter will come straight to me," she muttered. "He already knows I have bigger plans than simply being the Vanguard Combat Leader." Decus nodded dumbly.
"Alice," Decus stood up and walked before her, as she stalked back and forth in front of him. "Alice, do stop walking, it's hard to talk to you when you move."
"Too bad," she mumbled bitterly. Decus jut out his arm, halting her from her pacing. She stopped in front of him.
"Make it good, I'm trying to think," she barked. Decus smiled and gave her head a small pat. Alice made a move to bite his hand. She missed.
"Ah, dear little Alice," he sighed. "Relax. You are the esteemed leader of the Vanguard Combat Unit, you are feared and respected throughout the world, and most importantly, you have a dashing knight at your service," Decus declared, Alice snorted at him in mock amusement. "Nobody, not even the Goddess herself, shall take that away from you. Therefore, no reason to fret!"
"You really are stupid," Alice snapped. "I want more than just to be just a vigilante group's general. I would much enjoy ruling my own government," she informed. "It has higher stakes, more thrill." Decus rolled his eyes with a grin and plopped back down.
"Indeed," he sighed. "But please calm down. It twists my heart strings to see you so distressed!" he melodramatically flung a hand to his forehead and swooned in his seat.
"Pssssh," Alice grumbled. Decus really was stupid. But… in all his silliness and stupidity, he did manage to make her forget about Richter. She was now preoccupied with trying not to laugh at him as he made his exaggerated movements.
Alice thought, why was he so silly? He never used to be. Had it simply come with age? Had something happened to his brain while they had been apart for those few months?
Only Decus would know.
"Good morning, lovely!"
"Too early, go away!"
*CLICK*
"Happy birthday!" Decus declared, grabbing the new picture. Today, Alice was eighteen. It was close to 8 AM, and he had woken her up. He made it sound like an emergency while knocking.
Alice's half-asleep face soon transformed and morphed into something only a berserk banshee could rival in rage.
"DID YOU JUST TAKE A PICTURE OF ME WITH BED HEAD?!?"
Decus smiled as he tucked the photo into his pocket, "Of course not, darling, there was no film in it!"
Well, at least he could now say she was awake. And that she would be when Brute made his stop by her office. Decus had been visited first. There was a surprise visit to all division leaders, explaining their to-be missions and effort assignments. Apparently, Richter was chewing out all the Vanguard who weren't up yet.
Decus knew Alice usually slept in until 9.
"There better not have been film in there!" she barked as she slammed the door shut and stalked back to get herself ready and clean herself up.
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"Is this… a cake? Because it doesn't look like one," Alice scoffed. Decus rolled his eyes.
"Well it is, I'm just not a very good decorator," he admitted. "Now please try it! It tastes good, at least that what my troops told me." Decus thumbed over his shoulder at the table of recruits behind him. They were currently in the Vanguard galley.
Alice put her life on the line and swallowed the baked good. It actually tasted better than anything Alice had tasted before. Whatever recipe Decus had used this year, it had worked.
But she would not tell him this. It would be far too outwardly nice.
"Meh, it's ok," she sighed, waving her hand in a so-so manner. Decus's face fell.
"Ah, and I thought this year's recipe was the one. Looks like I'll have to go with something else next time!" he sighed. Alice shuddered at the thought of any other cake recipe he might try. She had been fed almond, chocolate, carrot, vanilla, butterscotch, plum, ginger, and rum cake over her eight times of Decus trying to cook. She dreaded the thought of what other type of cakes there could be.
Yet there was a small part of her that enjoyed the special dedication Decus gave to her birthday each year, always something new. He was always trying. She grew aggrivated with when there was an abnormal warm spot in her heart. Nostalgia be damned.
"Ok, besides the cake!" Decus clapped his hands together, "I've got a whole day planned for us!"
"I'm busy," Alice waved her hand nonchalantly. She lied. She did so love to watch Decus squirm.
"WHAT?!" and Alice thought Decus looked depressed when she didn't compliment the cake. He had a certain atmosphere of attemptive suicide.
"You heard me, I'm busy," she sighed and got up, preparing to leave.
"B-b-but I've asked around and you weren't assigned any missions…." He muttered.
"Just got it, this morning. Commander Brute wants me to go rid the area surrounding the Otherworldly Gate of any Tethe'allan threats," she relayed.
Decus frowned deeply as Alice left. He shoved the cake to his right. His men turned and muttered before switching back to his table.
"Did she like it, Sir?" one asked curiously.
"No," Decus pouted. "And she has a mission."
"Can we have the left-overs?" one of the new men cheerfully peeped, he was quickly smacked by a senior field-agent. Only the very niave or very new would ask such a question.
"No you may not!" Decus snapped. "What if Alice changes her mind and wants some? No, you… what ever your name was, go run laps. Learn your lesson!"
The new soldier was shooed off by his fellow espionage agents. The others sat down at the tabled Decus was seated at. They chatted amongst themselves about miscellaneous events.
"So, Sir, is it true that we're going to have a new mission soon? Like the Combat Unit is getting?"
Decus rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we're being shipped out to the… Ginnug-something soon. And Brute says you'll be receiving a commander, his name is… Let's see what was it? Oh yeah, Magnar or something like that," Decus informed lethargically. His mind was still on Alice and the ruined birthday plans he had made.
He had so looked forward to it! He had arranged for the two of them to go to Altamira and take a day off for the Casino. Now that Alice was eighteen, she could get in. He thought it would be fun. And he knew that Alice would enjoy such a trip. Gambling and the ability to rule over other people's money would make her happy.
But she had a mission.
"Sir, Richter's calling for you!"
Decus grumbled unintelligibly under his breath as he sluggishly got up and reported for work.
Yes, things in the Vanguard had taken a change. And a fast one. Over the next week, Decus would be giving his troops new uniforms, ones made to look like Papal Knights. All division leaders would be assigned territories in which to search for Centurion cores.
Soon they would be preparing to leave for the Ginnugagap.