Chapter 10: A very old friend
"I think I got one", her secretary had entered Liz' bureau without knocking first, what she hated, so she ignored her altogether. "Liz?..." Aquamarine sighed, left the room again and knocked. "Come in!" Aquamarine entered shaking her head. She hadn't expected to work under such a picky boss back when she applied for a job at the Inter Kingdom Alliance of Reconnaissance and Undercover Services, or short IKARUS. "Anyway. So I think I found a possible recruit for the SPIRIT-devision." SPIRIT was short for Special Purpose Instant Rescue and Intervention Tracker and they were the most secret as well as sadly the ones put in greatest danger. As masked fighters and trackers they work mostly alone, being dispatched should a peaceful solution prove itself impossible.
Aquamarine handed Liz the folder with information. "Indigo Jones.", she continued, "sort of a huntsman, no social contact, morally stable." Liz just nodded while reading the reports. "Oh right! Lavender is still on the profile, she'll bring it up as soon as she's done." Again Liz nodded. "Sort of a huntsman?" she asked. Aquamarine chuckled: "He dropped out of Beacon after only half a year. He never graduated." Liz closed the folder. "Smells like a story." Aquamarine nodded, "it's quite one. He caught a student dealing on the campus, one of his teammates. He reported it and the case went to police, who directly arrested the student without researching further. Indigo regretted his decision and started investigations himself, endangering himself and other students. He caught the man responsible but his whole team died in a face off with the Mafia. Indigo saw himself responsible and left the school." Liz got up. "Any other candidates today?" Aquamarine shook her head "None that fit so well." Liz waited with her decision for the profile but sent a free SPECTRE (short for Special Purpose Exploration, Communication and Territory Reconnaissance Entity) to shadow Indigo.
Who sat in a bar drinking, trying to forget, as usual. What wasn't as usual was the group of three men coming in with guns blazing and demanding all the change of bar and customers. "Take what you want but stop shooting!", Indigo said, "My headache is already almost killing me." He heard a gun clicking next to his ear. "Don't mind if I solve this for you right?" Indigo shook his head. "Begging for trouble, are we? Well, I think I'm sober enough to deal with you, even if hungover." The robber fired his gun but missed entirely as Indigo suddenly stood behind him holding a blade to his throat and pointing an totally oversized handgun at his co-robbers. "Give the cash and everything back and leave, blood stains aren't something I want to have on my shirt." The robbers just laughed at him, what he didn't exactly liked. He turned around, put the sword back into the scabbard/ handgun and struck down the robber he'd just threatened. And all of that in less than a second, creating a motion blur that looked like a wave on the shore. He changed hands on the scabbard holding it like a rifle, aimed and shot the guns out of the hands of the robbers, then switched back and struck them down too, before they could even react. Indigo massaged his forehead and slowly went back to the counter re-claiming his seat. "What was that?", the bartender asked, "thank you man... boy... alright give me your name and you'll get discounts no one though were possible." Indigo again massaged his forehead. "Nah, thanks. Just give me some whiskey for now, a hair of the dog is what I need." After that glass was finished to, he got up, paid and just went out, ignoring the bartender begging him to stay and tell him his name.
Indigo soon found out he was being followed. 'This fellow isn't as dumb as the usual ones', he thought, 'he looks like a normal man sitting on a bank to relax. But I've walked past him 4 times this day.' The next time he saw the man sitting on another bench he sat down next to him. "Beautiful weather today, right?", Indigo asked, "blue sky, bright sun, clear sight. Perfect to shadow someone." To his surprise the man kept his cool. "Yup. Wonderful weather. How did you find out? I guess you saw me every time I took a break to enjoy the sun, not when I really shadowed you. Or did you notice me this morning in your hotel?" Indigo shook his head. "I was the waiter. What about lunch? No? I was the man sitting the table next to yours. And of course in the bar, where I set next to you on the counter." Indigo was astonished. Either this man was lying, or he was the best spy he knew.
"... In short, He's perfect for the job." Lavender had just finished informing Liz about Indigo's psychological profile. "You recommend him?", Liz asked to make sure. "Yes", Lavender said, "he fits the SPIRIT stereotype perfectly." Liz didn't get the joke, or just didn't think it was funny. "Recruit him." "Huh? Oh right the SPECTRE." It was hard to tell whether Liz was talking to whoever was in her bureau, or to someone on the radio.
"So when you're really that good as a spy, why didn't you help me out in the bar?" Indigo was kind of interrogating the SPECTRE "I had to find out your combat abilities, whether YOU are really as good as you say and I'm no fighter. By the way, I'm with IKARUS. We're some sort of a secret police/ intelligence service for inter kingdom affairs. And because we always need new recruits -due to our high mortality count, I won't lie to you- you're hired. That's also the reason I shadowed you in the first place. If you want I bring you to the boss who will explain everything to you..."
"I leave you alone for one weak and something like this happens?!", Mag complained as she returned from home, "Doc in the infirmary, Luce in hospital and Onyx talking casually to Lenpha. Though the last isn't bad, do I want to know how the first two things happened?" The group ate breakfast and looked down, ashamed. Mag was really pissed and she had every reason to be. The gang's little adventure quickly went around and for the last few days it was the number one topic on the campus. Surprisingly most of them were able to keep their... participation a secret so the only ones involved everyone agreed at were the infamous Reaper, the mad Rogue, Bastian, Lucidus and Helm. And the storytelling escalated really quickly. "Speak of the devil. Look who just entered", Onyx grumbled so he wouldn't have to answer Mag. And indeed, there was Noir accompanied by Lucidus walking on a cane. "Don't worry guys, I'm just using this because my doctor insisted", he greeted them, "and could you please tell me who that Paladin Crusher everyone is whispering about is?" The group blinked at him and Perdix, Leto and Onyx burst into laughter. Necros, however, rubbed the ring under his eye. "He's one of the most well known students of Beacon. Atlessian, white hair, some kind of heir, talks posh regularly." "Schnee?", Lucidus just looked at him confused. "They are talking about you, genius", he yawned, "our team is the only one they now for sure was involved. And they know you ripped Paladins apart." Lucidus was completely baffled but only for a short time. Then he began to grin. "Paladin Crusher, huh? Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" Mag, on the other hand, was not amused. "Paladins?! Are you completely nuts?", she demanded raising a finger, "don't answer, please, this question was unnecessary. But now, explain. Everything." And they did. Luce kept silent most of the time and Nec was hunched over his meal as if his face could meet his plate sleeping anytime. After the story was finished and Mag had blown off steam by vigorously peeling and eating fruit Nec wagged an envelope in front of Luce's face. "The letter was delivered to our room but addressed to S. Albus", Necros explained handing it over, "and the only sign of a sender is some fancy "L". Some prank?" Luce just shook his head. "Why prank? It's addressed to me, Saul Albus. Nothing special." Now everyone else was confused. "Dude, since when is you name Saul?", Leto was the first one to ask. "Your name is Lucidus, not Saul.", Noir added questioning. "Who told you that?", Lucidus, or apparently Saul, frowned in disarray, "I definitely did not. My parents gave me the name Saul Lucas Albus and why should I tell you any other name?" He took the letter and left leaving everyone else confused. He was right somehow. He was definitely not Lucidus, his personality had changed completely. But who was this new/ old personality called Saul? "I tried to warn you", Noir explained with a sad face, "but he is 'blessed' with amnesia. He isn't remembering the death of his sister and anything connected to it. And yesterday is also gone due to anaesthetics. So, he's basically someone with Lucy's memories. But please, don't talk about her, he seems happy for once and the doctor said the memories will come back eventually. There's no need to rush things, right?" And as the group saw her desperate face they silently agreed on doing her the favor.
Meanwhile Saul had returned to the dorm and opened the letter.
Dear Saul,
I know you hate your former name, but no matter what you say or do my dear, to me you'll always be the little smiley boy that made me laugh.
Saul didn't understand. What was Liz talking about? He had never changed since he was a child, at least not that deeply.
However honey, it has been a long time since we last met and shared a cup of tea so I'll be visiting you and your school in a few days. Actually, my airship should arrive a few minutes after you've read this letter. Hurry, I don't like to wait!
Classic for Elisabeth or 'Liz', his grandmother. No asking, no warning, just arriving precisely as she meant to. Saul did as he was asked, got up again and went for the airship ports.
Meanwhile Liz had already arrived and was coming out of the airship. "You're sure they'd be possible recruits?", a man in a blue trench coat who wore a plain white mask and was armed with some sort of anchor and a sword asked her, "Aren't they -I don't know- a little too young?" Liz shook her head, "Too young to recruit them now; Yes. Too young to observe them and recruit later; No. And don't speak so loud. Not everybody needs to know of our Intention. Plus, you were just recruited yourself, no need to judge others." Liz closed her eyes and sighed. "You can come out now, I've heard you." Onyx stepped confused out of the airships shadow, which had hidden him completely. "Ok granny, how did you?" Liz smiled and turned away towards Saul who had just left the dormitory.
Saul recognised his grandmother already from the distance. Long grey cape, white scarf, a grey suit beneath, her white hair up and silver eyes fixed on him from great distance.
"Granny!" Saul ran towards his Grandmother, his arms stretched out for a hug. "Granny?" Liz asked confused, "It's almost been a millennia since you called me that last honey... Aaand since you last hugged me.", though confused by her grandsons suddenly changed behaviour she quietly enjoyed being treated like a family member again. Nothing she was very often due to her job. "Tell me,", she asked, "what broke you up?", she noticed Noir walking out of the hall and looking at Saul, "or should I say who?" Saul smiled and chuckled "Well,... she's definitely special to me -don't tell her- but broke up? What should be broken up?"
Saul and Lucidus definitely weren't the same, though having the same body. OK both were posh talkers and had white as their favourite colour but the similarities ended there. While Saul was highly emotional, grinned and chuckled all the time, Lucidus had always controlled his emotions and barely ever smiled if ever laughed. And of course clothing: Lucidus wore everything ALWAYS clam, Saul however left his collar open and wore the coat fully opened up.
"Anyway," Liz said, "I'm not here just to see only you, tell me is Ozpin's office still in the tower's pinnacle?" Saul nodded and Liz walked off again heading for the main building.
"Granny huh?", Nec asked Saul, "you two seem further attached than that." Nec was right. "She basically raised me.", Saul said, "My parents hadn't the time for me, due to my father being CEO of ASL and my mother a Captain of the Atlesian air-fleet, so she raised me for them although she's still very active in the inter kingdom relationships." Nec shook his head. "You lucky bastard had still a granny to look after you."
"Not now Glynda! I'm busy." It wasn't quite Oz' typical behaviour to answer the door that way. "How rude", Liz responded, "No time for very old friends?" Ozpin had to laugh. "Come on in Liz, It was far to long since we last enjoyed a cup of tea, well coffee for me, together, and I surely need a small break."
"So", Oz continued after handing the cup over to Liz, "what brings you to Vale, except visiting your grandson and an old friend?" Liz first took a sip of the tea before explaining her idea of recruiting team NOBL for IKARUS as soon as they had their exams. Ozpin first disagreed, fearing Onyx and Necros wouldn't obey authorities but Liz, as usual, proved his concerns to be unnecessary because she wanted to see them in action first before deciding anything. And of course would she have the necessary leverage to be able to control at least Necros. Oz, under protest, agreed on sending team NOBL on a mission to an old water power plant's dam in the ruined city of Lake Galoot. The mission was incredibly dangerous, so he insisted on Liz taking further reinforcements which she could choose with her but should at least be trained huntsmen. Nodding she kept her bodyguard's qualification a secret. Nobody had to know that Code Dutchman was a just recruited self-trained fighter as long as he did his job sufficiently.
As NOBL entered the main hall, the other teams were picking their first field mission. "Great, they get to choose their activity.", Onyx grumbled. He had to admit, their job seemed promising but he was annoyed by the fact of assignment. "Stop complaining wolfboy", Bastian scolded Onyx and turned his plain steel ring between his fingers. The group just looked at him confused. "Oh come on!", he groaned, "I saw it during the fight with Cen. Plus it's the only reason for him to talk to someone so totally out of his league like Lenpha." Surprisingly, Necros was the first one to laugh, followed by Saul. Onyx just hemmed and kept quiet for once. "No hard feelings, man", Bastian continued grinning, "anyway, I have to get something before we can depart. Wait for me!" With that he ran off to the dorm. Almost every other team was busy doing something, picking their job or getting ready and meeting up with their observer. MNDL was exempt from this task since Doc was still injured but TPAZ had to choose a mission on their own. "Do you know", Necros heard Thalia approaching them, "how hard it is to get a mission that is not overkill should bad luck wants your team mate to forget about time?" She shot a glance over to a very sorry looking Autumn and adjusted her slingshot-gauntlet. "Nope", Saul dryly answered, "since we had the honour of Ozpin assigning a mission to us out of sheer awesomeness. And maybe also because my Grandma is supervising it." Thal shook her head chuckling. As always she had her very large handbag filled with traps, grenades, exploding slingshot ammo, first aid stuff and the likes with her. Almost everyone in their class was wondering how all of this junk could possibly fit into the bag but Thalia kept it a secret. She whistled as Bastian came back. "Shopping at Huntsmen's Taylor?", was the only thing that came out of Saul's mouth. "You have to spend your money on something", Bastian replied winking. And indeed, instead of his run down coat he wore completely new gear, except for his scarlet headphones and the plain steel ring on his right ring finger. He was now dressed in a white shirt showing a Vale Kingdom print around the heart's location. Additionally, a black leather jacket with silvery fur seaming the collar, sleeve- and lower-rim that had his signature icon in white on the back covered his torso. On the right hand he wore a black fingerless glove and, as mentioned, his old steel ring, the left only showed two white gold rings, one around the thumb and one around the middle finger. Above the white shoes was a jeans, its lower right leg also silvery. And each of his gunblades, Typhoon and Tsunami, hung on one of the crossed belts. "Now that we all are ready", his smile got wider, "we shall meet with the old lady, shouldn't we?" And grinning he marched towards Liz's aircraft, leaving the rest's jaws dropped.
Describing Liz' airship as futuristic doesn't quite cut it. The overall hawk-like shape was only disrupted by the manoeuvring thrusters mounted under the tailplane fin, while the main thrusters must have been inside the Aircraft's wings. It had two sliding doors on the main body, opening to some sort of cargo bay. Inside Liz's secretary Aquamarine and bodyguard Indigo -or Code Dutchman as he was called wearing the mask- awaited the team guiding them to the main passenger cabin located just in front of the cargo bay, where Liz had awaited them. She sat on a chair with a wing-shaped back in front of a escritoire in a, by a curtain, separated part of the room. While Indigo went on to the cockpit to tell the pilot they were ready for take-off, Liz welcomed the team explaining why they would be taking exactly this aircraft instead of a standard issue one. "Main reason? I arrived with this one in the first place, and I don't like paying my men for sitting around doing nothing. Second: We have to take a longer flight and this one is a little more comfortable and faster." Bastian chuckled, "And let me guess, it's made by ASL right?" and he poke Saul with his elbow. "It's the ASH Hawk Mk 4 to be accurate... So no, it's produced by the Atlessian Ship Hangars." Liz answered. "We call this one 'The Owl' because of it's upgrades." Aquamarine entered the conversation. "It's all white, and the advanced radar and the sonar make it, well, like an owl." "They are made by ASL." Saul noticed tilting his head over to Bastian. He just rolled his eyes. "Like every technological knick-knack in the world. Or at least it seems like that to me." Liz had to chuckle because of Bastian's frustration. "My son is the CEO of one of the biggest technology corporations, after all."
"...so where exactly are we going?", Bastian asked Liz about half an hour later, "I mean I know how it is called but what is this Lake Galoot place exactly?" "It's a ruined town around an artificial lake, created by the dam of the old Water-power plant.", it wasn't Liz but her secretary Aquamarine answering the question, "it was called Lake Galoot because of the fossils of an ancient civilisation found there during the construction of the dam." Dutchman snapped his fingers to gain Aquamarines attention. "Maybe they want to know the exact mission too, Mermaid", he interrupted. Aquamarine sighed. "All right, boozehound! Just let me finish talking", she gave Indigo a look like she wanted to slap him but remembered her manners, "anyway, our mission is to check the dam's integrity, because if it should collapse, the resulting flooding would cause massive damage to Vale's defences, possibly causing a second Breach. Which wouldn't be that great, you can imagine right?" The team nodded in agreement. "You should know", Liz began to talk, "the dam and town themselves are deep into the woods where the Hawk can't land, so we will start our mission in a deserted village near the forest. There we will set camp for the night and move towards the dam tomorrow. The village was victim of a Grimm attack twelve years ago but since then Grimm weren't spotted there. Nonetheless we have to do guard duty. I hope you have slept enough, this mission will be a tough ride."
The village didn't look too bad given the fact that all the inhabitants had been slaughtered by Grimm. Sure, plants sprawled everywhere and a bunch of windows was shattered but finding shelter was no problem after the pilot had dropped them and flew off. The team simply walked into the small town hall. Necros, however, had a bad feeling. "I can't tell why", he explained kneading his right temple, "but the crystal inside my eye is itching, tickling and hurting like poison ivy as if it wants to tell me something." Bastian shook his head. "Dude, most of the time it's just your crystal clamping some nerves, so relax", he tried to calm down his captain during dinner. "Well, if you want to investigate this shabby backwater", Dutchman, who stirred the soup, suggested, "you can take the first shift. It's all yours." And so he did. While the others slept, Necros scanned the perimeter of the village, searching for anything. He wasn't sure what to look for, so he walked through the former homes of families, ignoring the bones lying here and there, the torch as only source of light. In one home he found an old family picture, took it and sat down on the couch. The young boy depicted grinned but the parents' faces were completely faded. "Oh, this is too cliché", Nec laughed. Then he looked more closely and felt a sudden sadness radiating from the picture. Saul awoke to relieve Nec, giving him the opportunity to sleep a little but his captain wasn't in the hall, so he went out to look for him. As he saw light in a window he approached the house and indeed, there he was, Necros, sitting on a couch, one single tear sparkling on his cheek. Saul immediately understood to keep his mouth shut. "Three years under her, huh?", Nec mumbled clinging to the yellowed picture, "were I really that bad at maths? So I was five, not eight..." Slowly Saul took one step closer to Necros and as he was directly next to him he rested one hand on his shoulder and looked at the photograph. "Are you saying...?", was everything he could whisper. Sorrowful, Necros turned towards Saul and nodded. "Yes. I think I've finally returned home."
A/N: Welcome, dear reader, to the first part of the Lake Galoot Arc! And as it seems we ended up in Nec's old home. Will he find anything there? Well, you'll see...