Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem.

Enjoy!


An Old Friend

Marisa watched as Joshua blew a heavy dose of smoke into the chilly night air. The way the grey air seeped though his lips in a bundle then disperse into long trail of nothing was peculiarly beautiful to watch.

The next puff from him lasted longer. It danced in a slow and steady swirl against the bright, almost white, blue light that was the street lamp nearby. As it flew higher, it overlaid on the orange of the faraway bridge.

She craned her neck back to catch glimpses of the last trail of smoke before it completely disappeared into the pitch black sky.

It wasn't as if Joshua was doing it purposely, controlling the flow of the smoke that exited his mouth; he appeared absent-minded huffing on his cigarette. She hadn't even realized he was a smoker, though she shouldn't have been too surprised given the man's expertise of pulling one trick after another. What she did realize though, was how frequent he had been sucking on the cancerous sticks.

It started at one mere cigarette a day since they've landed in Grado. Now it was one every 10 minutes.

She figured it was from stress and anxiety they've all been carrying in this week particular.

Their operation was planned to be carried out tomorrow.

Joshua wasn't the only one that seemed to be acting abnormally: she noticed L'Arachel was quieter than usual. Sure, she still babbled irritably, but there would be prolong pauses. Her bodyguard, the hearty Dolza would get excited over the smallest events; from opening doors to throwing a used tissue in the garbage.

Rennac, who had denied he was at all nervous, did a much better job at concealing his anxiousness. He, an occasional smoker, would smoke one or two a day. He'd drink a glass of hard liquor every night before sleeping, and he would sleep a bit earlier than the rest of them.

As for Marisa? She had learned to cope with stress. She would do deep breathing exercise every night before going to sleep. She exercised daily, from jogging around the area to doing cardio workout in her hotel room.

She was her usual self, nothing had quite changed and no one asked.

If someone were to ask her though, she would expect the question:

"are you scared?"

And she would not lie and reply with a "yes."

They have gone over their plan countless times: spending over 19 hours and more a day cooped in the hotel room troubleshooting various scenarios.

It seemed their plan was fool proofed by now.

She looked over at Rennac, who stood with Joshua as they smoked, except his cigarette was doing less activity. It dangled from Rennac's lips, a faint trail of smoke sprouting from it. He didn't seemed to be doing anything in particular, but have a furrowed expression to the ground, his arms folded tightly across his chest as if he was deep in thought.

She wondered what he was thinking so hard about. It seemed at any moment, he was going to have an epiphany.

Trailing her eyes along, she looked at L'arachel who stood near her. Her usual cheery smile was visible, her eyes scanning around their surroundings, which wasn't much as they stood in the middle of a scrapyard. She hummed an unrecognized tune as she twirled a strand of hair around a finger. In her periods of silent rambling, she would substitute with humming. Some tunes Marisa recognized, others, she would have guessed L'Arachel made up.

Dolza, who stood close to L'Arachel was happily nodding his head to her humming, his hand lightly tapping against his thigh.

Marisa had never seen such loyalty between a bodyguard and his master. She could not imagine having someone breathe down your neck at every moment of the day.

Such the life that royalty led.

Though she ruled it as smothering, she quite envied Dolza's and L'Arachel's relationship. He was always there to protect her, be at her beck and call and at the same time be her companion… it almost looked like a relationship between a parent and their child.

It was a relationship she never got to share with her father, nonetheless her mother.

"I think I see them pulling up," Rennac announced.

A car pulled into the scrapyard, making a shaky entrance as it drove over the bumpy terrain between a big pile of metal. Making out its silhouette and little detail that was exposed by nearby light source, Marisa recognized the vehicle as an Escalade. The reason she knew that was because there was a brief period when Cormag had purchased the same car except with a few customizations, and would show off to the others in The Company.

The car's highbeams shone brightly at the group as a few of them rose an arm up to shield the light.

The car shut off and the drivers and passenger door opened.

Dolza let out his usual laugh, not the forced one he had let out all week at every remark one of them made, but the laughter where there was something of decency and genuine that was the cause of it.

"I haven't seen you two in a while!" He let out as he walked towards the two figures that was making their way towards them.

The one that exited from the passenger seat was a woman, Marisa would have guessed form mid-20 to early 30 of age. It was hard to tell as the woman dressed very maturely, like a secretary of a high executive, but her smooth, milky complextion and fluff like blonde hair said otherwise.

The other was a man with his grey hair slicked back and matching facial hair. His face bore a look of scrutiny that was almost intimidating to look at too long. But despite what was apparent of his age, he was well build and that showed nicely through the gray suit he wore.

"Dolza. It's been a while." The man commented as he took Dolza's hand and gave it a firm handshake.

"It really has," the woman added as she was next to shake Dolza's hand.

Still chuckling, Dolza turned to the others. "Guys, I want you to meet Duessel and Selena, the former Obsidian and Fluorspar of Grado."


"Our security is very thorough. A Grado badge along with your ID is required to be carried around at all times where it is visible. To enter rooms, you'll need to scan your cards at the door," Selena said.

"There are at least 20 people for each section of the mansion: the entrance area, the administrative area and maintance," Duessel pointed out on the map laying out on the Escalade's front hood. This map was unlike their tourist map, it was detailed from the room size to which room had electronic locks.

"Vigarde's room, along with his son's, are on the fourth floor. There are 30 people guarding that area as it is the family's part of the mansion. The second and third floors are offices. These would be where all official papers would be."

Selena sighed. "Of course, this was from 2 years ago. Who knows if they've made any changes?"

Duessel nodded, "there was never this many people guarding an area, maybe 12 or 15. But ever since… well, you know."

The group all nodded in agreement without speaking a word.

Whenever Selena spoke, her face would face scrunch up into a look of sadness. Her eyes would fall to the ground, but look as if it weren't looking at the ground, but rather the reminiscent of her king.

A sigh would escape Duessel's lips in between pauses, a look of disapproval whenever he spoke of Vigarde.

The two shared a great devotion to their country and king even though they knew of Vigarde's plan long ago, which was the reason why they've given up their post. Even no longer under the Empire, Duessel had briefly told them that he would only reveal what his oath as a Grado general allowed him to. But at the same time, the two had expressed their interest in wanting them to succeed.

"This here is the outline of their underground dungeon," Duessel laid out another map overlaying the one they had looked at. It had a completely groundwork that did looked like it would not have matched up with the other castle's floor plan. All it had were three long hallways aligned each other, all connected by another small hallway at each ends, making the whole floor plan resemble a square. There were 20 - 30 doors labeled for each hall, all lined up correspondingly to the one in front of it.

Almost simultaneously, the group gave the man and the map a puzzled look. Not in the same order, though. It appeared this was a first they had heard of any underground dungeon.

"As you should know, Grado castle has been around for a long time. It's only fitting that it keeps many aspects of its origin."

The group continued to stare at the man.

"A... dungeon?" Rennac broke the silence.

"It's not what you think," Duessel shook a hand at him. "It should be renamed 'the interrogation grounds' if anything. It's where criminals who are a threat to the political power are taken to be held and questioned.

"I see... But, what does this have anything to do with us?" Joshua inquired.

Duessel pointed a finger to a door belonging to the hallway to the right labelled '3', the very first door at the top corner. "It's not labelled on this map, but if you follow through this entrance, there's a tunnel that connects a harbour a few miles away. If anything should go wrong, this will be your escape route."

They all hovered over the map taking in what they saw before them.

"How do we get enter this underground tunnel, Sir Duessel?" L'Arachel asked as she looked up at the man.

He reached a hand up to stroke his beard. "Through secret passageways."

"Did I just hear you correctly?" Rennac ask as he shot his head up to give the ex-general an incredulous look. "Secret passageways?" He said with much emphasis on the first word.

Duessel nodded. "It's not as difficult as you think, they're laid all over the first floor," Duessel replied. "And they all lead to this middle hallway," he said as he pointed the hall laid in the middle marked '2' on it.

"But don't worry," he continued on, "these passageways are not too hard to spot out. Look for anything... out of place, if you will. And if you do find one, your id badge and fingerprints are required to be scanned."

"Jeez, I don't remember signing up for this..." Rennac quietly muttered to himself.

Joshua cleared his throat, "well, that was quite informative." He stood up as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I think we have everything. I thank you for taking the time to meet with us. I understand how hard it must be for you guys to share all of that."

"No, the pleasure is all our's, your highness," Duessel replied as he took a small bow. Selena followed suit. "I am glad you are well, same with you, Princess L'Arachel. And of course, you too Dolza."

"Well said, well said!" Dolza chuckled.

"I apologize though, for not telling you much, we are sworn to Grado even after our resignation."

"We understand," L'Arachel emphasized. "Your information is much to what we need!"

"And we do want you to succeed. And…" Selena paused, a sullen look on her face, "help Emperor Vigarde. He's not like that, I know."

She scanned the eyes of the group before, making a brief eye contact with Marisa. She saw how sad the former general was; her eyes read as if they were pleading , maybe even begging for her to stop her mad king. But not the 'stop' Marisa would define, the 'stop' as in 'help'.

"Help. Help save him."

"We'll do the best we can," Joshua assured.

Duessel and Selena both headed back to their adjourned seating of the car, the rest of the group stepped back to give some room for the car to drive away.

The engine came to life and the car backed up to the right, making its way to where they had entered.

Before completely disappearing into the night, Marisa got one more glimpse of Selena. The same expression laid on her face: her arched eyebrow furrowed and lips tugged into a frown. It was her eyes that were the most expressive.

Marisa could not quite place it, but she saw it as a look as genuine sadness. The way her curled eyelashes draped over her eyes and dulled the color of her eyes was doleful enough as it hid the shimmer of her emerald colored pupils.

The car drove away and was gone from their sight. The group had already started to head back to their parked vehicle nearby, but Marisa remained standing in her spot, looking past to where the two ex-generals had gone.

She stood wondering, thinking how expressive eyes could really be.


"Badge?"

"Check."

"Fake ID?"

"Check."

"I-camera?"

"Yes."

"Earpiece?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure you want to do this? Last chance to back out."

Marisa gave him an incredulous look. In return, Joshua gave his usual smirk.

To be joking at a time like this.

"I'm going in," she dismissed as she began to exit out the vehicle.

"Wait," Joshua stopped. She turned to face him, an annoyed look on her face as she prepared for whatever nonsense he was about to throw at her.

"Just… Whatever happens," he began, "just know that I'm, um-"

She waited for him to continue. She had never seen him struggle to let out a sentence all the while averting eye contact with her. Whatever he had to say, he was having trouble getting it out.

"Uhh," Joshua groaned. "Just, I'm glad to have met you." He let out a cheeky smile as he finally returned her gaze.

She raised an eyebrow, unsure of how to respond. Whether it was the surprise of him spurting it out suddenly or the confusion of what he meant by that phase, she went with the latter. "You're talking as if something bad is going to happen."

She watched his eyes fell to the ground before making its way back up. 'Well," he sputtered, "I'm just saying whatever happens."

In the time Marisa had known him, she had always thought of him as a confident, optimistic man. Even in his many times of despair he never broke that playful grin that seemed to be a permanent on his face. This mission would be, to her best ability, described as their biggest hit or miss. To falter or give doubt, she would not have expected to come from Joshua, the biggest gambler she knew, the man who lived so much off risks enough to call it a religion.

If Joshua was being pessimistic in the slightest bit, where did that put her?

She was not strong enough to assume the role of the person who brought hope to the group. She was not one to feed false hope for something she herself was unsure of the outcome.

She knew that.

But she also knew that without someone to push on forward, encourage, help, and assure them that everything was going to be okay given any circumstances, they'd fall apart.

For now, she would have to fill the shoes of this 'Lady Luck' that Joshua talked about often.

She inhaled deeply, fixating her eyes on Joshua.

"And I'm saying don't jinx it."

Exiting the car, she heard Joshua's chuckle trail behind her.

She heard the whirring of the car window as it rolled down.

"Hey," Joshua called out, "good luck."

She turned her head briefly over her shoulder as she adjusted her id badge that hung from her waist.

"You too."

We're going to need it. A lot of it.

After she was satisfied with the placement of her badge, she went to fix her hair. She tightened the hair tie that secured her blonde locks that fashioned in a straight tail down her back.

She had observed the guards of Grado: many had a clean cut image even if they all did wear the same black suits.

To make herself look less inconspicuous, she had gotten herself a pair of un-prescribed glasses, giving her a somewhat 'bookworm' appearance.

Rennac thought he was fine, and had Identity Change to thank for the haircut and spectacles. For Joshua, he was to remove all of his proudly worn piercings and slick his mop for a hair back for a neater and professional appearance.

Marisa would only hope they were acceptable for Grado's image.

She exited the alley where she and Joshua had parked and looked to her left, where Grado castle stood just down the street in all its grandeur.

She had seen other castles before, all of them spectacular and colossal, but upon gazing the building, she felt this was possibly the biggest.

Her eyes never left the castle as she made her way towards it.

Big, for more groundwork.

She had nearly bumped into a pedestrian for not paying attention to where she was going.

Big, for more rooms.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw man carrying a stack of what appeared to be boxes, exit from the store she was about to pass by. She stopped and waited for him to pass by.

"Thank you," the man quickly said as he quickly glided by.

Big, for more people.

She was nearing it. She didn't stare at anything in particular; her eyes would float from objects to objects of the exterior of castle. There was a window, maybe 12 feet wide on the fourth floor but its curtains were draped, shielding what was inside.

Big, for more security.

She felt her chest tighten up.

Big, for intimidation.

She was craning her neck by now as she stopped and stood in place.

A flag of Grado laid at the very top of the castle and she could see part of it fluttering in the cool breeze.

There was a sound. It sounded a like a voice but it was to muffled to tell what was said.

"Ma'am?"

She blinked and shot her eyes down to the person in front of her.

She recognized the man's outfit as one of Grado's security then realized she was at the front gate of Grado castle.

"If you want to get in, you gotta scan your badge," the man chuckled, humorous at her daze.

"Oh. Right. Sorry." She took her id badge and ran it over the scanning machine of the booth.

The man watched the screen of the computer, all the while, Marisa watched him, waiting for any indication that she had gotten through.

Two beeps sounded and the gates automatically opened.

The man nodded as a sign for her to enter and she in return nodded back.

She made her way through the front yard, towards the front door. Keeping her composure, she let out a small sigh of relief. There were two cameras hung just above the door, on both sides. One of the camera swung in her direction, making a whirring sound as it zoomed in on her.

There were two more men that stood by the front door with the same scanning machine by the front gates. Only difference would be she would have to walk through a full body metal detection machine.

She had repeated the previous step of scanning her badge, then proceeded to take her shoes, watch, glasses and earrings off and dumping them in a box.

One of the men took the box and ran it through another machine of its own. Simultaneously, she slowly walked through the machine just as the box went through the small machine.

After the procedure had gone smoothly, they gave her the 'ok' and let her in, all without muttering a word.

She had stepped through the doors and stood in place as she placed her belongings back on. She had finished screwing her silver studded earrings back on when she immediately heard L'Arachel's voice.

"Everything was to their liking, I take it?"

Marisa reached a hand up to scratch behind an ear, making her glasses move up and down in its place.

"Excellent."

The technology was quite impressive, it was possibly more advanced than anything she had seen from Knoll or Saleh. The hearing aids they were using was claimed the smallest and most sensitive in the world, as that had been proved.

The device was all build into the small rounded stud, and while you did not need to place it directly in your ears, it would transfer the voice of whoever was on the other end into vibrations that travel through the hair of your ear. It was the same as having a standard ear pierce, but possibly more clearer and louder.

For cameras, there was a build-in micro-bug in the frame of her glasses that shows whoever was watching exactly what Marisa saw.

In Joshua's and Rennac's case, since piercings were refrained to be on men, their hearing devices were built at the end of their glasses. As for communication between both parties, a microphone was build into the glasses frame.

They had it planned so that Marisa was the one who retrieved all necessary documents that revealed Emperor Vigarde's plans in obtaining a bloodied throne.

Having Joshua even set foot in Grado's castle was risky enough; there was a high chance of somebody recognizing him as the dead King of Jehanna. If it were up to Marisa, she would have seated Joshua back in the hotel with L'Arachel and Dolza and have her and Rennac do the 'dirty' work. But as much to their pleasing, Joshua insisted he went. He had also gone as far as to mention a secret protection training he was part of after his mother's death, but he didn't care to elaborate too much on it.

Joshua and Rennac would act as lookout while Marisa rendezvous in the office area. Dolza, back at the hotel would survey Joshua and Rennac and walk them through if any situation should arise.

That would leave L'Arachel to walk Marisa through in obtaining information as much to her displease.

Marisa was not the first person their group had considered to play the important role. Rennac was very skillful in this area. What stopped him was the sexist rule that women were to work in offices.

"So Marisa is it then."

No questions were asked, no concerns arose, as if everyone had assumed that she would do a flawless job.

That's what scared her the most.

What if she didn't?

Not that this mission was any different from all her other missions, the stakes were the same: her life.

Oh, that's right.

There was Joshua's. Rennac. L'Arachel and Dolza.

Four people all depending on her.

It was perhaps one too many, but she didn't like being the person to be relied on. She couldn't handle the mentality of it. She couldn't handle the responsibility of being accountable if… something should happen.

"Make a left at the end of this hallway." L'Arachel instructed.

L'Arachel seemed to have more confidence though, as she should as she would stay up to the wee morning hours studying everything there was to know about Grado's castle.

"The conference room is the fifth door to the right."

Marisa could hear the princess was confident. There was a refreshing twang in her voice that was missing during their planning stage, but now it was back. At first, Marisa had expected L'Arachel to engage in her usual incessant ramblings but so far she had proved to be professional, in speaking when she needed to.

Making her way down the hallway, she took notice of every camera she passed by, making quick wisps at them. There seemed to be one at every corner and turn.

She was at the third door down when she noticed another hallway to her left, it wasn't as long as the one she was currently walking on, maybe 20 feet.

There were no doors along the sides, just one door at the end with a camera over it. But it wasn't aimed at the door or directly in front of the door should anyone or anything enter it.

It was aimed about 10 feet away from the door at the wall to the right.

Odd that was.

She tucked that at the back of her head as she continued her stride towards the conference room.

Duessel and Selena had mentioned that after entering, all workers were to proceed to the conference room where there were specific tasks assigned to every worker.

Another courtesy through Rennac's connection, an advanced hacker named Artur was able to access Grado's first level computer system and add Marisa's, Rennac's and Joshua's fake persona into the system. There were over 600 workers registered into the system, what was three more?

The thought had occurred to them that if he was skillful enough to get through Grado's computer, he would be able to find any documents as well. He had attempted, but as soon as he tried to fight through the second level of Grado's system, which were the security files, his computer had completely shut down, erasing his hard-drive.

Feeling quite bad for Artur's dismay, Joshua offered doubled his expenses.

Marisa entered the room. As she expected, there was not much in the room except for 5 computer screens screwed to the wall and a scanner underneath each of them. At the back there seated a woman at a desk who looked quite involved in the stack of paper sitting in front her of.

"Head over to any computer and scan you badge through. Your name and job should appear."

Marisa did just that. She anticipated for how the screen would show up as, though it should work as she had gotten in.

Amery Walt – Filing Cabinet. Rm. 2b-135

She made sure her glasses was in view of what the screen had appeared as without looking too suspicious.

"Great!" L'Arachel chirped. "As we had planned. That room isn't just any office room. It contains every tax and contract document Emperor Vigarde has ever signed. So the level of security is very high there. Not that you should worry; it's the same procedure as before but with more cameras monitoring the place."

If everything went according to plan, there would be nothing to worry about.

The steps as Marisa had imprinted in her mind went as:

Go in. Plant a sticky device near any cameras that watches her. L'Arachel presses a button that loops recorded footage. That would give her the opportunity to find hard evidence on paper that proves Emperor Vigarde murderous activities. Then walk out.

"Should be easy enough."

Easier said than done was more like it.

"Head to the elevator to the right. It's quicker that way," L'Arachel instructed. "Dolza has just informed me that Rennac is on the second floor and Joshua has just entered the castle with ease."

She blinked and felt her shoulders sag a bit as she let out a silent sigh of relief.

"You're doing great, Marisa. I wish I could say that to the other two. You guys are just halfway there."

Halfway?

What they had managed to accomplish was getting into the castle safely. The hard work was yet to come.

Although, getting through Grado's security was supposedly the hardest part Marisa had thought once, but that had been proven otherwise. If they were able to get through without any trouble then perhaps the next step wouldn't be too hard.

In manner of speaking, they were halfway done.

She stood up straighter, shoulders stiffed back and her head held high and upright.

They could do this. She could do this.

Just halfway there.

"Excuse me?"

Just as she was exiting the room, the small voice of the woman at the back called out. Marisa spun around to face her to clarify if she meant to call out to her.

She was. Though she should have expected it as she was the only one in the room.

"You're… Amery Walt, yes?" The woman asked, taking a look at her computer screen to confirm Marisa's identity.

She nodded once.

"Hm… I see," the woman said as she continued to stare at the computer.

"I… wonder what she wants," L'Arachel spoke, confused of the situation.

Marisa shared the same confusion, except she held her tongue between her front teeth, awaiting for the woman to continue.

"Ah!" She exclaimed. "I forgot to change your assignment, but you're going down to interrogation to help Andy and Lars."

"…W-what?" was what she could say.

"What?" L'Arachel repeated, excepted more dragged on.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I should have notified you earlier, but they really want you down there."

"Um ,"L'Arachel began. "Tell her… no! Ask her why you're needed. And then say that you have some work to do that needs to be done today."

Marisa cleared her voice with a small cough. "Why do I have to be down there?"

The woman shrugged. "I got an email from Lars saying he wants you to help him. And he mentioned that it was urgent."

"Oh… Help him?" Marisa inquired.

The woman shrugged again. "I don't know what goes on down there."

"Ask her if it'll take long," L'Arachel spoke.

"Will it take long?" Marisa repeated.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask Andy, he's right behind you."

Marisa spun around and was faced with a dark skinned man a head taller than her. He had bright red hair that slicked back in quite a messy way that a few strands stuck out. And like her, he wore a similar black suit. In contrast to her stoic expression, he wore a rather impatient look with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What's taking you so long?"

His voice was gruff and spoke in a serious tone.

"Sorry! I forgot to tell her before she came in!" The woman quickly apologized, although his question seemed to be directed at Marisa.

He disregarded her answer and left the room, muttering "follow me."

"Oh my, oh my," L'Arachel sounded as Marisa trailed behind the man. "He's not interrogating you, do you think?"

Marisa looked off to the side. But she had entered the castle without any trouble. Was there something that had thrown her off? Perhaps they found out her identity was a fake.

No.. The woman had mentioned that they wanted her to help them.

"This… changes everything…"

Marisa could hear L'Arachel was faltering in her confidence.

They had hit a snag in their mission; it was not the end of it. Perhaps what they needed her for would not take too long. Perhaps it wouldn't even affect their plans.

Perhaps, just maybe.

They turned in the hallway Marisa had passed by earlier, with the one door at the end and the camera facing the odd direction.

The man stopped midway from the end of the hallway, making Marisa almost stumble into him. He pounded on the wall to the right twice then lightly kicked it once.

"What is he…?" L'Arachel questioned.

The area on the wall where he had hit swiped down, exposing a computer screen.

Ah.

One of the secret entrances Duessel had mentioned. Of course it was obvious: a hallway with a camera facing nothing but a wall. However, given Grado's infamous status of being the strongest on the continent, Marisa had figured they would have done at least a better job at concealing their secret entracnes.

The man placed his hand on the screen when it had asked for fingerprints. Then he ran his badge over the scanner underneath it.

After a beep, the screen rotated to the left, revealing a stairway downwards.

Without even glancing at her, he made his way down. Marisa followed behind him, giving them more than enough space between them.

The stairwell was wide and made of complete stonework. Some of the stones were darker than others and chipped, as if the entire stairwell had been around for a long time. Along the sides hung clutches that seemed to have been made to hold torches, but instead there were light bulbs. Very dimmed light bulbs, at that.

An underground dungeon.

As soon as she thought that, a shiver travelled up her spine. It was enough that she was travelling down a poorly lit empty stairwell with a man she did not know, but her destination was to a place where severing limbs was once a form of interrogation. Of course, that was the past and the art of interrogation have modernized to become more merciful to humanity's standard.

But, in the line of business Marisa comes from, she knows that there was always someone who had no limit and did whatever they could to get what they want. That person would have no doubt resorting to our ancestors' way.

She had been involved in many interrogations, many of which she was the interrogator. Her way, to what everyone in The Company commented as, was straightforward.

Joshua, as she had learned, liked to play games. Rennac and Colm liked to play the bad cop, good cop routine when they worked together and Tethys, in Marisa's eyes was a master. On a mission they had worked on together, Marisa had watched Tethys easily obtain the security code to a national bank from the bank owner itself! Tethys used her looks to her full advantage. And it wasn't just her looks that played a part in her act; with her sweet talk, she was able to reveal Marisa's otherwise feelings to their boss.

Admittedly, Marisa had thought Gerik as more than her boss at one point and Tethys caught her.

Such an embarrassment moment that Marisa refused to recall.

Shaking off the tingle that seemed to leave an aftershock down her back, Marisa wondered just how Grado conducted their interrogation?

The echo of their footsteps was only heard for the past 3 or so minutes they have walked. Telling from what she could see in the lowly lit stairwell, they were not getting to the end anytime soon.

A thought had occurred to her as the tap tap, tap tap, continued.

It was only their footsteps that she had been listening to since they've entered the stairwell.

She reached a hand up to clamp her right earring together in case it had somehow dislodged and stopped working temporarily. Then the left earring.

Nothing.

It was quiet.

L'Arachel would have been asking questions, instructing her, possibly muttering to the gods at this point. Why was she so quiet?

Perhaps… because they were travelling underground, reception had been lost. But Lute, the person who they had purchased the technology from, had claimed her devices had quality reception anywhere, anyplace.

Then maybe there was a cancelling device that was interfering with her's.

Marisa took another careful look at her surroundings but found nothing. Instead, they were finally reaching the ground.

They came down to a hallway; it seemed to be equal in lengths on both sides, 30 to 40 feet long. There some doors along the wall and some entrances to stairways going up, though the placement of both seemed to be random as there would be 3 doors going in a row, a stairway, a door and 2 stairways. The hallway still carried the same aspect as the stairwell in stonework and lightbulbs. Only the doors was apparent in being the only renovated piece of item amongst the centuries years old dungeon. If Duessel was right with the information he had provided, she was in the middle hallway of the underground basement.

The man named Andy turned to the right, strutting his shoulders.

"We captured this gang a couple of weeks ago," he finally spoke, but with the same roughness as before.

"Two of their friends disappeared on them and we wanna know where they are."

"…And?" Marisa questioned after he was silent.

"And that's all you need to know," he quickly retorted.

She already did not like this man.

They reached the end of the hallway and made another right, enclosing into a corner. When they rounded, Marisa was met with another hallway, same in length but different in it had all doors running along its wall. There was a big sign hung at the top that read '1'. Duessel did not go into great detail in what each hall contained, only in hall 3 did it had the tunnel to their emergency escape route.

"So what part do I have to contribute?" Marisa continued to further questioning.

"We're going to give you an earpiece and feed you questions to ask the guy, and responses if he choose to respond. He's the… bratty bitch of the bunch," Andy snarled.

"I see," Marisa responded. "So why does it have to be me that helps you?"

Her question had made Andy stop in place and turn to face her. "Look, I don't know if you know a thing on how interrogations work,"

Yes.

"but these bastards, they're locked up being yelled at by us. They're grumpy, agitated so they're not gonna talk. They see a girl, it eases them. If you're the one asking questions, maybe they'll talk."

"Oh," Marisa nodded her head, pretending this was new information to her.

"Don't flatter yourself," Andy scoffed as he quickly gave Marisa a full body scan with his eyes. "We had more than a dozen women come down the past week and they still haven't talked. I don't expect any more than a blink from him." He turned and continued walking.

"But we have to use everyone…" The man muttered to himself in annoyance.

Marisa narrowed her eyes at the man retreating away from her.

She really did not like this guy.

They finally reached a door and behind it was the other man she assumed to be Lars.

He was the complete opposite to Andy; he was much slim, wore glasses with thick black frames that stood out against his pale complexion and baby like face. His long brunette hair was tied back in a low ponytail that dangled down his back.

"Hello Amery, a pleasure," Lars quickly greeted in a soft voice as he stood to shake Marisa hand. "If you would please, I would like you to wear this in your right ear so I can communicate with you." He handed her a small black earpiece that fitted in her ear nicely.

She watched him press a couple of buttons on a complex machine that took up a quarter of the small room.

The room was filled with mostly machines; 3 computer screens that showed the next room over which could be seen through what Marisa would assume, the one way mirror. She looked over and was able to see a slumped figure sitting at the table.

"Please step out and I will signal you when you are able to enter the room," Lars said as Andy abruptly brushed her out of the room.

"Do not worry about the man, he is constrained. As long as you do not get too close to him, you will be fine," Lars' voice sounded.

Not knowing how to respond, she nodded her head, looking up and down the hall to her right and left.

It was more than likely behind every door of this hallway was an interrogation room. She tried to put together the denotation of all of it: the middle hallway was the entrance from the first floor. First hallway are interrogation rooms. Third is the tunnel to the harbor, along with what?

"Please proceed in," Lars interrupted her train of thought.

She reached for the silver colored doorknob and turned it, opening the door into the room.

The room was small like the previous one, albeit a little bigger.

Though, it could've been because there was only a table and two chairs in this room, giving it more free space.

The man sat across from her at the door. He was wearing what appeared to be a gray jumpsuit with gray sneakers. His legs were constrained with chains that tied his legs to the leg of the chair that was screwed permanently to the ground. His arms were handcuffed by a long chain enough so that he could stretch his arms, but were tied around his chair.

He sat with his body slumped over the small wooden table, his head resting lazily on one fist but his face was to the ground so all Marisa could see was a tussle of navy blue hair.

Navy blue hair that looked eerily familiar.

Eerily familiar in the sense that she had not heard from Gerik and the others for a while, familiar in the sense that she had come to a frightening discovery a week ago.

The door shut behind her with a clack and the man looked up at her.

He looked at her with the very same eyes as someone she knew. Squinted, but widen in curiosity, just like his nature to know everything that's going on around him. A pointed nose pointed in her direction and his usual devious smirk split by his lips in slightly open gape.

She had no doubt it was him, she had wished it wasn't.

She shared the same expression but with more suppression of her surprise.

Taking in a deep breath, she softly spoke his name.

"Colm."


A/N:

Ahh! I really wanted to continue on but for the sake of keeping this chapter short, I stopped (also because I like leaving cliff hangers. Tee hee).

I hope you've enjoyed the read.