Siesta had figured that the helm had not done much for her. She was wrong. As she followed Louise through the nighttime forest she noticed that no matter how fast Louise was going she was able to keep up. She never slipped on anything, her footing was always good, and she never even broke a branch. With the combination of the infusion that gave her magic and the skills and basic training the helm had given her, she felt amazing.
Looking up she could see Louise slow down, and then stop in a small clearing. Quickly catching up Siesta could only wonder what was here. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, just checking something. Legion, what's her position?" Louise whispered to her bracelet.
"Target location is one kilometer north-north-east in a small clearing with a small wooden structure. It is likely that the target has placed the objective item inside the structure and waits nearby."
"Okay good. Let's take a quick rest before we head out again" Louise stated as she and Siesta sat down in the clearing.
Siesta stared up at the clear night sky. "What is the item she stole?"
Louise lay down on the grass, letting it brush the bare skin that was revealed from her outfit. "I'm not entirely sure, I forgot to ask. I'm interested however because of its case."
"Why?"
"It was made of silver metal and had gold edging; it also had the GDI's eagle logo upon it."
Siesta looked down to Louise and lay beside her. "So it's from the other world then?"
"Most likely. I want to know what is so important that she would steal from the school's royal vault. I also want to confront her about her motives."
"As to why she's stealing? Who is she then, do you know?"
"Yeah, Fouquet is Miss Longuevuille, Osmond's assistant."
Siesta was speechless for a moment. "I wonder if Osmond knows about this."
"Good question, but I'll wait to find out. I want to know why she is stealing valuable artifacts. As a magic user, she was probably a noble. I want to find out her reasons."
Siesta stood up and showed Louise her hand, "Then shall we get going?"
Louise smiled, grabbed her hand and let Siesta help her up. It was time for the first real fight since her return, or a chance for Siesta to see what she could do.
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The area where Fouquet was supposed to be was almost exactly like Legion had described it. A large patch of open ground surrounded by forest, with a single small wood shed to the one side. As they stepped toward it, Fouquet herself walked out of the shed holding the case in one hand by it's built in handle. Her dark blue grey cloak swayed like her green hair in the night's light cooling breeze and the light of the moons silhouetted the entire clearing like an arena.
"You look lost, little girls. I doubt that you are with the authorities who hunt me, who are you?" Fouquet said in a loud and domineering tone.
Louise smirked. "You know who I am Fouquet, or shall I call you by your name at the school, Miss Longuevuille?"
Hearing this she seemed to freeze up. "H.. how?"
"It was not difficult to realize. You may have fooled most people but you could not fool me."
"Very well then, Miss Vallière. But what will you do now. Your lack of skill and the assistance of a random plebeian maid cannot account for much; you won't be able to stop me!"
"Actually I think we will be more than enough to make you yield. I suggest you hand over the box."
"What? You think you can beat me! Fine then!" Fouquet yelled as she raised her wand to the heavens and summoned up her earth golem right behind her. "My golem will crush you!"
"I think not. LEGION!" yelled Louise.
"What the hell is –"Fouquet began before being interrupted by a crash of stone from behind her. Turning around all she saw was the crumbling remains of her golem, and a large black golem standing behind where her golem was just standing not a moment before. "What-"
"Meet my familiar, the combat and strategy AI known as Legion. His casing is made of heavy metals that cannot be reproduced by our world's technology or magic. You would not be able to harm him unless you could summon a meteorite to slam down onto him from the heavens themselves." Louise stated as Fouquet fired off bolts of earth at Legion's torso.
"Permission to eradicate enemy combatant?" asked Legion as he took the shots without even budging.
Louise shook her head. "Declined, she cannot harm you, and this is our fight. Just destroy any golems she summons."
Hearing this, Fouquet turned back to Louise in a fit of rage. "You think so little of me. As long as I have this case, I'm the winner." Fouquet stated arrogantly as she held it up.
Seeing this as a chance to prove herself, Siesta stepped forward and in two quick motions shot out a stream of water which flew over, caught the box in its mass, and pulling the box out of Fouquet's hands, dropping it beside herself and Louise.
Fouquet looked at her hand and then at the box, now between the two girls. What just happened? Did the maid just use magic? "So you're like me then huh, a noble who lost their name!"
Siesta almost burst out laughing. "Nope. I'm just plebeian maid who works for the school and with Louise!"
"But that's impossible!"
"Nope it's not impossible. We found a way to give non nobles magic, speaking of which, could you hold her at bay for a moment Siesta, I want to open this bloody case." said Louise as she kicked the huge metal case onto its side and began looking over its lock, which was biometric. Crap.
"All right, I can do that." replied Siesta as she walked forward and held her arms to the sides, creating multiple large globes of water that hung in the air above her arms. "Let's play, Fouquet."
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Siesta knew she would have to be careful with this being her first real fight, but she was not worried. The water globes she created quickly were proving to be very useful, as she shot and controlled their movements as she tried to hit Fouquet, she noticed they would cut into the ground beneath her, or even cut through anything that Fouquet summoned. Fouquet herself seemed to be getting highly aggravated, at both the fact that she was having such a hard time, and that Siesta was dodging her strikes so easily, until she slipped up.
As Siesta prepared to strike her from all points an earthen hand shot up out of the ground and closed itself around her, breaking her concentration. Struggle as she might she could not break free, especially since her hands were also enclosed in stone, making it difficult to use her magic. She looked up to see Fouquet standing before her, as if admiring something about her as she talked.
"I have to say, a plebeian who can use magic is quite something. Especially considering you were casting with no wand. I think once I deal with you and your little friend, I'll have to take you to my boss. Maybe with enough experiments we can discover how you gained magic, or even make you work for us!" Fouquet stated casually.
Hearing this brought nothing but rage to Siestas thoughts. What was she, a tool to be used and replaced! A tool to be experimented on! She had gotten this magic to stop this kind of thing, and she could not allow this to happen. She had too much work to do and would not allow this to happen!
Thinking this the ground beneath her began to violently crack, causing Fouquet herself to jump back in shock as she stared at what was happening before her. The ground cracked even more and a large blue crystal rose up around the earthen hand that held Siesta. As the crystal stopped rising, the full force of water spewed forth, a geyser shot up from under Siesta both covering her and sprinkling the entire clearing in water, moistening the hard earth. Fouquet stepped back even more and covered her eyes with her arm so she could still see. The water was falling everywhere including onto her. It was very warm, but as it hit her skin it began to sting like a bug biting her. Siesta walked out of the geyser and stepped over the now disintegrating blue crystal, the blue streaks in her hair almost glowing their deep blue color. She looked up showing Fouquet her now blazing deep blue eyes and glared at her. Fouquet shuddered as she saw the glare she was being given. No one had ever intimidated her with such a simple act before; it was like she was staring into the deep abyss of the ocean and knowing she was being watched by all its horror. The geyser behind her had slowed to a mere gurgle as she raised her arm to the sky and then right towards Fouquet, who was now visibly trembling against her will.
"DECIMATION!" Siesta called out as a small bolt of water ripped out of the geyser hole and toward Fouquet with deadly precision. With a quick sidestep Fouquet thought she had dodged it, until the spot where it hit seemed to explode, knocking her to the side.
Fouquet looked back to where she was standing not a second before. The explosion had knocked her almost ten feet away, and in its place was a large blue crystal that protruded from the ground. It glowed with a cruel light and only made her more afraid. Looking back at the maid, she could see more of the water globes floating in the air behind her. The water globes glowed the same blue as the crystal and seemed to vibrate every few seconds. Looking back,the crystal in the ground seemed to be cracking and falling to pieces, slowly disappearing from sight, like it could not stay in existence. All the grass in its immediate area had lost its color and even the dirt had become a bleak gray. Whatever that was, she did not want to touch it.
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Louise knew that Siesta was now fighting Fouquet; she could hear the fight after all. She however had to get the lock off of the case. Being made of heavy medals with a biometric lock, made the case quite a hassle and she now had to wedge her tib knife into the edges to try to break the locking mechanism. As she got it about half broken she heard a crash and began feeling warm rain falling onto her back.
"Legion, what's happening?"
"Registering a massive energy spike from Siesta. She is combatting the individual known as Fouquet with globes of H2O that have a quantity of suspended blue liquid Tiberium inside them. The energy readings are almost identical to yours when you detonated the field of Tiberium to save Kane, and when you detonated the M.A.R.V on earth while under effects of resonance. It is highly likely she is under the effects of resonance as well.
Louise stopped stabbing the case, and took the chance to look up at the battle. Siesta's hair was glowing and every shot of water that hit the ground exploded into a large blue Tiberium crystal witch evaporated after a few moments, just enough time to drain the surrounding ground of nutrients. Impressively Siesta seems to be in complete control as well, granted she would need one hell of a rest after words. Having your first resonance was always tiring. Looking back to the case, she realize that the lock actually only took up two thirds of the cases edge, meaning she was almost through. With a quick twist she finished off the lock causing the lid of the case to pop off revealing what was inside. With a grin she quickly took up the large blocky weapon and slung it onto her shoulder, letting it charge up before she aimed at Fouquet and fired.
The Merlin* let loose its azure beam, which slammed into the ground beside Fouquet creating a massive explosion and shockwave. Louise looked at the Merlin and sighed as pieces of it fell off onto the ground. Both Siesta and Louise ran over and stood before Fouquet as she tried to get up.
"The Merlin is useless now. It overheated and destroyed itself and you have no prize. Who were you working for?" asked Louise calmly as Siesta shook her head and quickly leaned over and sat down behind Louise.
"I have no reason to tell you! What makes you think I would anyway?"
Louise dropped the broken remains of the Merlin beside Siesta who was wobbling rather badly. "You saw Siesta's strength. I can create those crystal directly in you with one spell, you will die slowly and painful and there won't be even a corpse left. All I want to know is who you're working for and why you are doing this?"
Fouquet looked away and muttered to herself before sighing. "Fine, you want to know, then fine. I'm originally from a high ranking Albion noble family. We lost our name. I joined an organization in Albion called Reconquista, in order to reclaim my family's name!"
"So it is to reclaim your family's honour then?"
"My family is dead. Our name was unjustly taken, so I aim to destroy Albion's government like they destroyed us!"
Louise shook her head and sighed as she sat down beside the now sleeping Siesta, and across from Fouquet. "Let's have a talk, shall we?"
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Authors notes:
Ah that was fun to write, and now Fouquet Is going to be a continual character as well. Also for those of you that do not know, the weapon in the GDI crate is the Merlin personal ion cannon from C&C Renegade.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, until the next.