Chapter 49
"Official Order…"
There was only sand as far the eyes could see, with valleys of dunes and hills below the blanket of clouds. Rough winds stirred up the sand and threw it into the eyes of the four figures as if to give them an unfriendly greeting. Normally, they would answer it by raising up a hand to shield themselves from the twirling sand.
But that´s how humans greeted it.
These four weren´t bothered by the winds or the sand.
In fact, two of them held their heads up at the wind while they tried to find some improvised shelter.
A pretty tall rock formation appeared nearby and one of them pointed towards it.
"There!"
She had to yell to get herself heard above the increasing winds. The others followed her lead and walked towards it.
The sand didn´t bother those who weren't human in flesh and infested with yoki.
…but they could still be buried in it.
The two awakened and claymores headed towards their improvised shelter.
The southern lands that´s called Mucha could be described as a complete opposite from the northern lands of Alphonse. It had a grand desert covering one third of it and blazing temperatures along with furious sandstorms which made survival a battle. There were marvelous rock formations that posed as a reliable shelter from these storms for nomads and travelers. Towns and villages had adapted to the hot climate by building fortified structures and steady hatches for every window. The people who lived here had hardened from the constant challenges and learned to use the environment to survive there.
As with Alphonse and the rest of the Tolaine, the fauna and flora had adapted to the hot climate that ruled there.
The flora had adapted and could grow even in the desert sand, cactuses, palm trees, resistant wheat and other vegetables. The reason wheat could grow there was that it been a crossbreed with the cactus plants to survive the desert heat. Minimum water and harvest options no matter the season had supplied the population there for centuries.
The fauna in question consisted of various kinds of snakes, spiders, scorpions, lizards, vultures and something that lived beneath the sands in the desert.
It was a nearly horrifying creature that was part of the natural fauna and could still inflict great fear in humans.
Despite the presence of both yoma and awakened ones that also hid there.
The Apex predator of the south before the awakened beings took the title from it.
The Gut-Worm.
A very nasty creature and the largest species of earthworm in Tolaine, the only predatory worm that solely lived in the desert area of Mucha.
It measured roughly up to one and a half meters in length, but could grow to two meters if it lived long enough. The fleshy and organic body had a dark pink color along with visible veins bulging out from its skin. One could easily see where the head was, considering that it´s larger than the other end and had four pitch black eyes surrounding a retractable maw. The maw in question had an interesting structure if one survived long enough to see it: five yoma-like fangs in the upper part, four in the lower, two to the right and two to the left, all pointing inwards. It also had a dark purple tongue in the middle of this with characteristics of a snake. The Gut-Worm was poisonous, just like nearly everything else in Mucha, and could spit its own stomach acid into the faces of unfortunate prey.
Some wonder if it should even be called a worm; it resembled more of a scale-less snake instead.
That could very well be true if it wasn´t for one significant thing.
A snake doesn´t become two new snakes if it´s cut in half.
The Gut-Worm lived entirely submerged beneath the sands and only breached the surface to eat. Its diet consisted of any large prey it could find, mostly humans or horses, even yoma if it´s desperate and starving.
Children were an easy prey as well.
It hunted by using receptors spread across its naked body, tracing electrical signals like a shark does with blood in the water. Humans who needed to rest during night times either had to sleep on rocks or simply remain still.
Humans should thank the Goddesses that the gut-worm couldn´t track "heartbeats".
But since the Awakened entered the lands of the south, the Gut-Worm had become prey to them. This had also leaded to a withdrawal of the population and a drop in Gut-Worm attacks.
Comforting enough since these things possessed a very horrifying way to feed.
After a Gut-Worm had spit its stomach acid into the prey to get it down on ground level, it homed onto it. Rushed forward in a high speed and straight into the weakest part of the prey…
The abdomen…
It burrowed itself deep into the prey and began to devour the organs while the prey still lived. It squirmed around and devoured everything there very slowly, leaving the victim in great pain until the point it devoured the heart.
Sufficient to say. It was worse than a yoma attack.
The human population had built in floors in their houses to prevent accidents as a home invasion in the middle of the night. It had happened after all, even if the GutWorm preferred to attack single victims.
It´s not pleasant and would be avoided entirely if it hadn´t been for one single thing.
…Its meat is delicious, a delicacy in fact.
Despite the danger they posed, people could venture out in the desert for the sole purpose of hunting the gut-worms down and sell their meat on Tolaine´s markets for a high price. Either as food or as ingredient for various purposes.
But as mentioned, it had been put down from its apex role once the Awakened had stepped into its territory.
In short, if caravans traveled into Mucha, they had to make certain to have an alchemist with them to prepare antidotes for the countless different toxins Mucha´s wildlife possessed.
The cliffs reached five meters up and created a natural cave and shelter in this raging sandstorm. Victoria headed into it while brushing sand off her arms.
"Finally!"
Victoria remarked with a relieved voice as she didn´t have to outshout the elements any longer. She quickly shook her head to get rid of the sand that got caught in her hair during their trip there. She also seized the moment to cleanse her tunic from uncomfortable amounts of sand as well.
"I don´t get it… how can this much sand fit in this tunic?"
It wasn´t a joke either. There must have been a gallon of sand pouring out from her clothes.
Victoria turned towards the others.
"Don´t you think so too?"
Grace didn´t have to ask since she just poured half a gallon of sand from her left wrist protector. She didn´t seem to be in the mood for any jokes either, judging by her sulking face.
"Oh, sorry I forgot…" Victoria apologized and pointed at the entrance. "I have never seen a sandstorm before… are they always that vicious?"
Nobody answered as the tensed silence remained like a blanket within the shelter. Victoria looked a little sad as it had been this way for a good while now.
"Come on… can´t anyone say something?"
Victoria got a little hurt over the lack of answer from either of them; it felt sad like she had been stung by a hornet, but she also knew that it wasn´t her that was the target to this sad and heavy aggression. An aggression that mostly lingered between Grace and Faith.
Faith stood in the other end of the cave and refused to look at Grace at all.
The tension between her and Grace could be considered as a hostile and thick mist. It had remained that way for two weeks now after Grace found out the reason to Gloria´s current mindset. Faith had taken full responsibility for the use of sensory control on Gloria, and removed Victoria from any blame. But after that, both Grace and Faith had been arguing with serious and angry voices at each other. Victoria hadn´t liked how it had turned out, not at all.
They didn´t even talk with each other due to this disagreement and it had lasted for weeks by now.
Victoria felt so bad with herself, since she had allowed herself to give in to Faith´s encouragement. She felt that she had had been responsible for this quarrel and it slowly gnawed her from within.
Faith had told her back then to believe in Grace, that she would be able to get out unharmed from the Empress and to wait for her to find them and not the other way around.
But Victoria had been the one that insisted for them to go back and help her. She had even boosted Gloria´s confidence to do so. So to think about it, it really had been Victoria´s fault that they had to travel to Mucha now.
And that guilt burdened her down in anguish.
Grace had after all, just as Faith said, got out from it unharmed, and Victoria had made things worse by using her sensory control completely in vain.
Grace refused to look at Faith as she turned her attention to Gloria instead.
Victoria also gave her a concerned look.
It had been weeks since Faith convinced her to use sensory control on Gloria. It had forced out the other side of Gloria´s personality that lacked her insecurity and fear, but the effects had several other effects that neither of them could have guessed.
Gloria had still not snapped out from her "Official" mood, and it was starting to become unbearable now. "Official Gloria" had taken control and behaved nothing like the shy insecure girl they knew she was. She never apologized, kept a falcon´s relentless eye on both Faith and Grace, limiting their freedom like a jailor. She had forbidden them to engage in sparring duels and also forbid any other detour from her mission. She had said something about, "Grace has to catch up with missions from the Organization". It seemed like there was still a part of Gloria´s ego in "Official" that knew better than to call Grace by her number within earshot. She had lead them straight towards the southern lands where the next "briefing point" would occur.
She was like a jailor for them all with the exception of Victoria, who wasn´t a part of her surveillance mission of Grace and Faith. Victoria had free hands and also had become the one who had to bring supplies to the group. Gloria refused to let either Grace or Faith out of her sight, even if it was to get some animal guts or water.
"Official Gloria" had a dead serious attitude while on a missions, but this version of her didn´t even resemble Gloria.
More like a different individual.
But to put Victoria in charge for the supplies was a doubtful decision.
Victoria had spent the last decade trapped inside a Corrupt Being, born from her own blood. It had devoured humans in her place and due to the blood bond supplied her with nourishment indirectly, a symbiotic relationship in essence, rendered any need to find food on her own obsolete. It had devoured all the hormones first and just delivered half of the total amount of nutrition, but it had kept her alive. She had been in that state for so long that she had forgotten how to hunt in the wild. She wouldn´t even been able to fight with those rusty skills if Grace hadn´t encouraged her to practice nonlethal combat.
It had been difficult to hunt again, considering that the only help she had available were simple advices. Neither of them could show her how to hunt since "Official Gloria" refused to leave them out of sight.
…and it was quite difficult to hunt deer if there was four people stalking it in a gathered group.
Victoria left to refill the gut supplies with whatever wildlife that roamed the area. She also tried to figure out a way to get Grace back in her good mood again in the meantime.
Grace noticed how Victoria still seemed a little sad at heart after the lack of response from them. Grace just wanted to tell her that she was sorry, but she couldn´t leave Gloria´s line of sight for any longer periods of time. Much to her frustration.
"Sorry, Victoria..."
She felt so uncomfortable with the forced silence that been forced upon them all. But it didn´t change the fact of her situation as she moved back in her mind and searched for the moment everything gone wrong.
Her disposal of Trish was supposed to be a short detour. Go in, find out what she knew, kill her if things went bad and get out. But now Gloria had taken control over their group while in her "Official" mindset. Grace had been forced to take an even longer detour to the south, where her next briefing awaited. She felt bad because it was like she betrayed Eliah by doing so and the thought of leaving her in the north longer made it worse.
Sure, Grace had managed to save everyone that been imprisoned by Alice, but at the cost of her own quest. Faith had taken full responsibility for this action and they had entered a heated argument about the reasons for it.
Grace and Faith stood in an isolated meadow two hours after making sure they had got enough distance from Alice´s mansion. Both of them argued about Gloria.
"Claymore, I did what I thought was necessary to help Glory!"
"You broke her!"
"We don´t know that yet."
"I have known Gloria far longer then you have and I can tell that´s not her!"
"It´s just temporary, you will see…"
"That´s still not an acceptable reason to mess with people´s heads!"
"It was either that or a mental breakdown! I picked the most merciful choice!"
"But you didn´t have to do THAT! You should have headed towards that town and waited for me there!"
"…"
Faith held back her argument as she thought over something to defend herself with.
Grace sighed in frustration as she hit a clenched fist into a rough tree trunk. Faith stood with her arms crossed and displayed her displeasure for this argument. Both of them refused to listen to the other.
"How would I know that you managed to get lost back there? While running straight forward? For the Goddesses sake, you´re hopeless!"
Faith waved up with her hands in frustration and would turn at least one arm into semi-awakened form to be intimidating, but she had been restricted from doing so since "Official" forbid anything that could be taken as a sign of insubordination. Grace yelled back at Faith after inhaling.
"For the last time… I TRIPPED!"
The levels of anger began to increase as they began to throw the blame between each other.
"That´s not an excuse! You should have just cut them down like I did…"
"YOU DID WHAT!"
The argument slowly headed away from the reason and got fueled on by anger instead.
Faith defended herself verbally while throwing angry shouts in return.
"Oh for the love of… There´s nothing I could have done to prevent that! In that speed anything would be crushed immediately by us! I just made sure it wouldn´t slow us down…"
"That´s not an excuse! We are NOT killing people! Not even those bandits!"
"They were bandits? Then who cares if two or three of them die! "
"They are still people!"
"Come on!"
Faith moved closer and stood right in front of Grace while turning her eyes gold as a threat. The argument began to derail.
"If you don´t want to kill people then that´s your problem. I don´t have a problem with it since they are all wicked! What are you going to do up there in the north if you don´t cut some edges?"
"I never compromise with that rule, not even if it´s the foulest scum of humanity, I! Will! NEVER! Kill! Humans! That´s wrong!"
"Claymore! GET BACK TO REALITY! These bandits have done far worse things than the yoma ever had. They have even begun to HUNT your kind for gold!"
"…"My kind"? "My kind"?... "
Grace opened and clenched her fist over the bark, ripping shards out from the tree trunk. This conversation had abandoned reason and only had become an excuse to shout and yell.
"…Oh, if we are going to play it that way then fine! What about your kind! The ones that the humans BEG us claymores to slay!"
"That has NOTHING to do with this!"
"Don´t start draw lines in the ground then! And don´t you dare try to define us warriors as a different kind! That´s just degrading!"
"We are not like them! And you started this fight!"
"If that´s how you want it then FINE! The prize on an awakened one´s head is a thousand pieces of gold! That´s how much they think your life is worth! But I don´t think you are worth that sum…"
"EXCUSE ME! WHO are you to talk! Do you know how much the bandits get for one of your kind nowadays!"
"Don´t interrupt me…"
"THREE THOUSAND PIECES! That´s what I heard back when we first attacked them! I thought it was a large sum at first, but you are clearly not worth that much either…"
"That´s not what this is about!"
Grace managed to get the topic back on track again, even if it now had turned into a relentless bickering.
"You broke Gloria!"
"If you hadn´t got lost, then she wouldn´t have broke in the first place!"
"For. The. Last. Time…..I TRIPPED!"
Grace raised her voice and raised her hands with clenched fists in front of her chest. Faith had either got smitten by the thick fury that now surrounded them or simply began to get emotional. Either way, the air around them felt charged up of energy and unvented frustrations.
Faith stood now a little closer to Grace and felt very tempted to turn one arm into a blade. Grace didn´t bother with her sword now, she would begin to fight Faith with her own hands when her anger erupted.
Faith pointed something out.
"SEE! You are so lost that you can´t even stay on track in an argument!"
"It´s your fault that we won´t head to Alphonse now!"
"It wasn´t I who decided to take a detour! You did!"
They now stood right in front of each other, staring in each other's eyes with an intimidating and furious stare. It had reached the boiling point and it wouldn´t take much for it to boil over.
"You broke her!"
"You got lost!"
A third voice intercepted the quarrel, one with heavy authority.
"STOP it both of you! Or I will put you both down where you stand!"
"Official" Gloria has had enough of their bickering and since she´s not the shy insecure warrior now, she could very well kill them both. Grace and Faith, who now stood so close that they could headbutt each other if they wanted to do so, seemed to ignore her for a minute or several. Their agitated frustration fumed with such vigor that it threatened to ignite from the slightest spark and start an emotional arson. Both refused to budge, not Grace´s silver eyes or Faith´s golden eyes, both challenging each other on a subtle level.
Clirr…
The sound of Gloria´s claymore going out from her sheath forced them to quit it.
"Fine! Have it your way then! You´re both blind and deaf for what I know!"
Faith remarked while she turned her eyes back to their normal eye color. Grace shouted back at her.
"Fine! Come back whenever you´re ready to apologize for that!"
That had been the last thing she said to Faith. After that, they had to be under surveillance of "Official" Gloria.
"Now, It´s time to get you back to your work, Grace…"
Grace knew that things had gone out of control back then, now that she got a chance to think about it, but Faith had refused to apologize, accept that what she did was wrong or even talk to her after that.
Grace believed that she´s just being stubborn and had played along with it.
She also knew that Faith sat a good bit from her, even without perception or looking back over her shoulder, but she couldn´t allow herself to look, not after how their disagreement had ended. It would be like she had been wrong. And Gloria was broken after all.
Grace looked back at Gloria again.
She had known Gloria for nearly four years now. She had only seen that insecure little girl who always said "I´m sorry" to everyone and everything. Gloria had been one of the warriors who had to provide Grace with missions while Apsley recovered from his…"accident". But the lack of confidence in Gloria had got her into those assignments since her handler found them, "less risky" than others. She had been convinced that she would never be allowed to hunt anything but single yoma. Grace actually felt sorry for her.
But she had also never met "Official" Gloria for longer periods of time back then.
…and "official" couldn´t be more inconvenient now.
First of all, Gloria had restricted her privileges of freedom, with immediate effect. That involved following things.
No talk, no protests, no complaints, no objections and no angry outbursts.
Grace had immediately wanted to protest but this new wicked, "Official" Gloria had immediately threatened to bring out her claymore. Grace disliked it but hid it well when she withheld to ask.
Things really had turned grim lately since neither Grace nor Faith were allowed to talk with anyone.
Complete silence ruled the place as Gloria simply ordered them to follow her around without objections.
It was incredibly frustrating, but Grace couldn´t be angry at Gloria for it either. She just followed orders.
But even this was a cruel punishment, isolated from the others like a prisoner of war. Even if they were in the same room, it felt like a cell, built with walls of frustration, anger that needed to get out somehow.
Who knew when Gloria would turn back to normal again, but until that happened Grace didn´t had much choice but to endure the situation…
Even if it meant that she had another, probably suicidal, mission from the Organization.
She looked outside the cliff entrance and wondered how Victoria had it out there.
"Come on… there must be something edible out here."
The sandstorm hadn´t subdued one single bit. In fact Victoria stood with her face towards the wind in her hunt. But the sand didn´t bother her one bit. The reason for that lay in a biological factor that was common among her kind.
Neither claymore, yoma nor awakened needed to turn their heads away from the elements. No matter if it´s snows, rain, hail or sand whirling up. It´s another benefit with yoki that had been infused in their bodies.
All yoma had a third, transparent eyelid, similar to eagles and birds of prey.
A nictitating membrane.
It shielded their eyes from hard weather and allowed them to hunt during those conditions. It was common fact that humans once possessed a third eyelid before it was deemed unnecessary and degenerated. But yoma possessed them, and since Claymores are made from yoma material transplanted into human bodies, so did they. A part of the pain that comes after the hybridization process comes from the eyes, when this devolved third eyelid grows back again.
It worked just like breathing did, naturally and without any thought. It closed once the mind registered the rough weather conditions and simultaneously with an ordinary blink. Even the warriors themselves never noticed its existence, since their vision didn´t change at all, but onlookers could notice a slightly paler and really thin membrane covering the eye if they looked close enough.
But since warriors always traveled the road alone, nobody ever decided to pay notice about it.
Since awakened beings had been claymores once, it was only natural that they all would have this feature too. There was still certain differences that altered it further after the transformation. For one instance, if it was an aquatic awakened then the third eyelid would replace the original ones. Its further evolution allowed the Awakened to see better in their new environments. Sometimes the third eyelid covered the eyes completely, granting the illusion of compact glowing eyes of the awakened. The eye still had all its features, but the power that glowed out from it radiated out from the membrane and the color it possessed. There was all varieties, just as many as there were colors in the rainbow, red, blue, purple, yellow, white etc. These membranes served only as intimidation, since their opponents used huge broadswords that couldn´t be blocked by them. But they could block animal claws at least while they fought over prey.
Another benefit with yoki that they enjoyed.
There´s nothing around her, only more sand as far as her eye could see. The idea if she should give up in this quest since she didn´t have as much hunting experience as Faith had, surfaced.
Victoria had to hunt small fry, rabbits and such since it´s what she could pin down by force.
But there´s no trails to follow in the middle of a sandstorm.
She had only heard stories of Mucha and read reports while she still had been a Claymore so her knowledge about what´s edible could be called doubtful at best.
She looked down and noticed something on the ground.
A single brown scorpion burrowed itself up from below by her feet, believing that she was cover or a rock. It was just an ordinary scorpion, and could fit in her palm with ease. Victoria reached down and simply picked it up by its tail, faster than it could have reacted to her.
She held it in front of her face, with its tail in a pinch between her thumb and index fingers. It pinched with its claws in the air and tried to get away from her as soon as possible.
Victoria provided one long and wondering glimpse as she thought.
Is this thing really edible? She shrugged. Only one way to find that out…
She allowed the little scorpion to get its little pinchers around two of her fingers. A small sting of pain went through her fingertips, but she had been used to far worse while in prison. The scorpion refused to let go of her fingers and she then straightened it out. It was unable to attack her now. She held it up horizontally in front of her face.
…and then bit down into its body.
The scorpion twitched and managed to get its tail out from her pinch. It stung her above the lip. She didn´t pay much attention towards this and thought.
It´s crunchy… but not that satisfying…
She opened her mouth a little and got the entire little creature in between her jaws. The only thing that she didn´t get inside was the tail which still hung out from a corner of her mouth. It stung her again while she chewed on it. One more bite and the tail followed its owner down her throat.
A little spicy, but not near enough…
Something in the wind reached her nose, a scent, and her eyes turned gold in an instant.
There was blood in the air.
She began to sniff as her awakened senses began to locate the source. A quick turn to the left and three hundred meters straight forward. As she approached the source of the blood scent, the cry of a terrified horse could be distinguished among the winds. She quickly enough reached a conclusion that there was no horse without a human to ride it.
Her theory proved to be correct once she reached the source.
It was a much smaller set of cliffs than the ones Grace and the others had found, but enough to provide shelter for a single human at least. The human in question lay down on his back at the ground without any response to her presence. His abdomen bled vigorously and his guts hung out from a gaping hole in the stomach. There was also scratch marks from claws across the cliff wall.
A Yoma attack? But why did it leave him like this?
She moved closer and noticed the terrified horse standing a bit from its unfortunate rider. It tried to get loose from its holding and neighed with eyes wide open. Victoria headed towards it to at least calm it down.
Then the gut coming out from the man moved, inwards.
Victoria stopped, disgusted and shocked at the same time. She kept the eyes on it and could see that that it was a little too big to be a human´s innards after all. It was thick like a human arm and continued to burrow itself into the poor man's body.
Wait… that must be one of those… worms that Vanessa mentioned back then…
As her name got mentioned, Victoria sat down and watched the worm eat with a slightly interested expression.
After all, it´s the first time she had ever seen one. She had only heard tales about them from Vanessa.
Vanessa…
Her name brought Victoria back into her memories, right after a second thought.
I wonder if it´s edible?
Faith stood turned with her face towards the walls with and pretended to study them, but it was just a weak excuse that she used for herself. She couldn't do much else, since "Official" Gloria had restricted her freedom to a minimum.
Gloria in fact had gotten worse than before.
The first impression back at the first meeting with Gloria, or Glory, as Faith preferred to call her, had been that of a meek little girl who pretended to be tough. That had been her initial impression, despite the thick level of hostility that their differences caused.
The "official" Gloria, on other hand, could be described as a very strict jailor.
No sparring, no fighting, no disturbance, no transformation into awakened form…
Faith counted up a list of things she wasn´t allowed to do now that "Official" had taken command.
No running, no violence, stay in sight…No… Faith stopped as she remembered that she wasn´t the only one affected by this. That´s right… Claymore is in a worse pinch then I am…
"Official" Gloria also saw Grace´s absence as a direct violation against her own mission, and after Grace managed to get back to them, Gloria had invoked even stricter rules for her.
Grace was forbidden from leaving Gloria´s sight, due to her untraceable nature. Faith didn´t need to follow this rule since Gloria always could use her perception to track Faith down. But that advantage couldn´t be used on Grace, so therefore the strict surveillance. There´s also another rule that applied on both of them to make things even worse.
No talk…
Apparently "official" Gloria believed they would be easier to handle if she treated them like a house pet. Or like a couple of houseplants.
Faith sighed in frustration as she began to get bored and allow her thoughts to wander off.
How frustrating, I know that Claymore is right there, but I can´t do anything about it…
She knew that Gloria did allowed eye contact, but Faith had refused to look at Grace after their argument that gone sour. It had been so frustrating since she and Grace had walked side by side to avoid seeing the other´s back. That was how bad their unresolved argument had affected both of them.
To make things even worse, Faith knew that she hadn´t been able to tell Grace about the circumstances either.
The reason that heading south was the right decision.
Claymore, you don´t have perception skills, and if you do, then they are worthless. Everyone could feel the large exodus of Awakened ones heading north and there´s no way that the Organization could have missed it either. If I remember correctly, then the only countermeasure would be to reinforce the North West border with an awakened extermination team, and the only ones allowed to participate in those would be the current Top Five…
Faith had already realized how dire the situation became by thinking about the numbers.
…In other words, Glory just saved us all from a massacre, since I doubt they would let us slip by that easily.
She took another moment to let that thought sink in.
Oh come on… do I have to thank "Official" for this? That´s just a big mockery… She prevents me from interacting with anyone now, and I have to thank her for saving our lives?
She chuckled a little and got Gloria´s attention for a second. Faith kept the mocking laughter in as she didn´t want any trouble with her.
Faith knew something about "Official" that Grace didn´t.
"Official" radiated more yoki then Glory did and the other difference could be distinguished while using perception. Glory had been like a flickering little candle. "Official" radiated like a beacon like she wanted to be found.
Another reason to why we couldn´t travel through the north border…
Faith could handle the fact that they traveled south, she had been fine with that.
But there´s something with this situation that she found it difficult to handle...
… It was the bad feeling in her chest after her and Grace´s argument that made it difficult.
Faith had voluntarily taken the entire blame for the incident for several reasons, the first one to protect Victory from Grace´s wrath, since she had been forbidden to use her little mind trick earlier. Faith had known Grace for longer so she could handle that anger, as she thought.
The second was that she knew how difficult it would be to travel pass the northern border now. She had planned to tell Grace about it, but since that conversation escalated into an irrational quarrel, and any chance of discussing paths to the north had been put on hold indefinitely.
The third reason, and also the main reason, was that Faith knew how much it would hurt Grace. She knew all too well how much she cared about Eliah and to learn that they had to head in the opposite direction would anger Grace. Faith felt that only she could handle Grace´s anger, no matter how much it was or how badly she got injured. She knew that Grace didn´t think logically while she was angry, even if she had those breathing exercises. Sometimes it was just better to let it all out instead of holding it back inside oneself, like in a sparring duel. Faith could handle those anger sessions, since she could heal from them.
But it still made her feel bad with herself… to see Grace so angry at her and also hurt over the lack of trust from her.
Faith hadn´t told her that it had been Victoria´s idea.
Now she had to sit in a corner and remain silent, something that was even worse than execution for a certain reason.
Faith used her perception to tell that Victoria hadn´t returned yet from her hunting trip.
Victory, I hope you managed to learn something the last weeks by now…
Victoria lacked hunting skills and couldn´t hunt prey at all. It would be considered a surprise if she managed to catch anything while out.
She didn´t look out through the raging sandstorm and instead tried to figure out what to say to Grace instead. She didn´t want to feel this bad anymore…
Hunting was the last thing that went through Victoria´s mind now. She relived the past…
It was dusk and Victoria once again stood in her window, the only view of the outside world she had. She had seen the usual events during the day, warriors going out on their assignments and trainees practicing with their dull swords. It had been in other words, a completely ordinary day for her as a number 10.
But she didn´t felt the usual dull boredom today…
…In fact, she was excited with a newfound happiness and wished that the sun would go down soon enough.
The reason for this eager excitement could be defined in a single name.
Vanessa.
It had been a week since the time they met, but Victoria remembered it like it been yesterday.
They had talked for hours, about simple things that Vanessa took for granted, things that Victoria never had experienced herself. She asked about such simple things as yoma hunts, how to slay them, flowers, towns and the humans within them. Vanessa was happy to share this with her, even if she found her strange for asking. She had also asked Victoria about her day and talked about trivial topics, such as techniques and favorite things.
They had to depart much later due to a mission Vanessa had to carry out the next day. But before they departed for the night, she had suggested to Victoria if they could meet again once she returned from her mission, all while promising that she would have more stories to tell if she was interested. Victoria had barely been able to contain her excitement as she agreed on it. She felt so alive.
Now, she had felt Vanessa´s yoki aura return to Staff, and she waited for the sun to go down. It was the only way that she would be able to get outside without acquiring unnecessary attention diverted to her, but it didn´t burden her as much now when she had something to look forward to.
She had never been this excited before.
The night arrived and after a double check that nobody would notice her, Victoria jumped out through the window. The seconds she spent in midair actually felt good along with the breeze running over her face.
It must be what freedom feels like.
She landed on her feet and quickly leapt into the forest to get out of sight from any Black cloaks. She didn´t have to see where she headed, she just had to follow Vanessa´s yoki aura to find the right place.
After a couple of seconds, she returned to normal speed and she met a friendly face once again. Vanessa sat on a large boulder with her sword behind her back, like she just returned from the mission. Her hair was set up in her usual three ponytails but in a different arrangement this time, one in the back and two by the side of her head.
It looked good on her.
"Hey Victoria!"
Victoria felt how a pleased and warm smile appeared in her face. She had never heard another warrior call her name before.
It felt good…
"Hey Vanessa…"
Victoria remained uncertain how she would proceed, since she had barely talked to anyone like this before.
She didn´t have to worry about it, since Vanessa took over the conversation from here.
"Have you managed to get a mission yet?"
Victoria looked down a little as she had told Vanessa earlier that she wasn´t a strong warrior, that her handler was lazy and that she had bad luck with receiving missions.
All to protect her secret life after all.
"Noooo…"
Vanessa didn´t sound so disappointed or worried for that matter, even if she could see Victoria´s shyness here. She got an idea of how to cheer Victoria up.
She jumped down from the rock, quickly approached her and put one arm loosely around Victoria´s neck.
There was no lack of confidence there.
"Don´t sound so disappointed! It´s not your fault that your handler is a sloth. Remember this…"
Vanessa pointed towards the moon with a smile on her lips.
"…The moon will be there tomorrow too!"
Victoria had no clue what that meant, but Vanessa sounded so confident that she felt a little better now.
Vanessa stopped pointing and instead provided a pat on her shoulder.
"So what if you didn´t manage to get any missions today, who knows, you can still get one tomorrow!"
Unless one of the Top Five loses her mind tomorrow then I will stand in my window as usual.
Victoria thought for herself.
She was also accurate, since number 10 existed to subdue any crazed top five warriors who posed a threat towards the organization. That was the main purpose for her existence along with confirming the deaths of the Retrieval squad´s specimens, since everybody wanted to avoid a crazed humanoid abomination running amok in Staff.
She couldn´t tell Vanessa this thought…instead she just uttered.
"If you say so…"
She don´t feel so comfortable either, being this close to someone. She didn´t dislike her close presence, but she´s just not used to it.
Vanessa noticed how insecure Victoria was and asked.
"What´s wrong? I´m not holding your neck to tight am I?"
Victoria just shook her head as she tried to let this friendly feeling sink in. She thought to herself.
She´s so confident… she must have a lot of friends to be this experienced. I have a lot to learn about people…
Vanessa still waited for an answer and Victoria spoke with a struggling voice.
"It´s just… so good to see you again…"
Vanessa smiled a little as she remarked.
"Well, lucky me then that the Awakened being I fought with lost, otherwise, I wouldn´t have the pleasure to meet you again…"
Victoria opened her eyes wide as she heard that…
"You fought an awakened one?"
"Oh yes…"
Vanessa began to walk while she kept her arm around Victoria´s shoulder.
"Want to hear about it?"
Victoria smiled and Vanessa took that for an answer. She let go of her shoulders and sat down with her back against the rock.
"I take it that you never saw one yourself, considering your response and all…"
Victoria had to agree, since the only awakened she had seen had been in reports and the dead, lifeless corpses that the Retrieval squad brought back after the other´s successful missions. She had never seen a living one at all and only had to resort to imagination to picture them from the reports.
"Tell me about it…"
Vanessa shined up and began her latest story…
"It was in Mucha, some people had complained about a huge yoma that terrorized them… and of course they called the Organization for help… they sent…number 9, number 14 and number 18 and me of course, to deal with it… but we never knew what to expect…"
"What did you see?"
Victoria had sat down on the opposite side of Vanessa and listened like a little child to a fairytale.
Vanessa found that a little odd and a little amusing as she began to tell…
"We found a really, big, ugly thing that munched on a couple of worms in the desert. And believe me when I say this… I will never ever look at an ant the same way again after that…"
Vanessa told her stories nearly all night long and Victoria listened to her with eager eyes.
She also enjoyed every moment she spent with Vanessa who just smiled the whole time.
It had been a good night.
Victoria sat and went through another memory as her perception picked something up, slowly approaching from below the sands. It had also panicked the horse, which by now had calmed down from Victoria´s presence. It just didn´t want to be alone with that worm after all.
The Gut-Worm had panicked from the incoming creature and retreated back into the sands again, leaving the body half finished.
What´s that?
Something big rose up from the sands and created a small hump in it. Victoria could track it down with her eyes as it created a small ditch in the sands as it approached her.
She could see a female figure that sat in the sand all the way over her waistline. Victoria couldn´t see the face, but could tell that she had long hair. It remained hidden with a mantle over her body. Behind it, two humps of sand began to rise up at its sides with the figure in between.
She could feel it with yoki perception, so it must have been an awakened being.
Victoria didn´t ease up thought, since it could be one of those awakened that lost their sense of selves. It could also be something far worse as well.
Her instincts urged her to leave the ground immediately.
Victoria immediately slipped out from her tunic and assumed her semi-awakened form at once. She leapt up in the air while flapping her wings rapidly to get higher up.
The figure, with the two humps behind her moved right below her feet, just like a lizard beneath the sand and towards the horse. It let out a single neigh from its throat before it got pulled under by something. Two jerks downwards and the horse submerged below the surface, and then sand squirted up around the body as it got pulled under in one move.
Victoria observed it from above, slowly flapping her wings to maintain altitude.
The mysterious creature remained on the spot as it tried to find more food. It encircled a small area before it moved on again, going deeper into the sand to hide the two humps.
Once Victoria couldn´t feel its presence any longer, she landed near her tunic and resumed a human form again. Once dressed, she remarked with a concerned voice.
That wasn´t a lowlife awakened…
She had not recognized the yoki aura coming from it, even if she only had one other example to go after.
…but it wasn´t a corrupt being either; I can tell that from firsthand experience… what on earth was that?
She looked into the direction that it had headed and exhaled in relief.
"It´s not heading towards our shelter…"
Another look at the spot where the horse had stood.
Another meal lost…
She sighed as the search for guts lead her further away from their shelter. She stopped once she realized that she could cover a larger area from above instead.
"This would be a lot easier with Faith here instead of me …"
She stopped, as she had been reminded of her guilt in this tensed situation once more.
It doesn´t matter what Faith said… it´s still my fault that Gloria became like this. I insisted to go back, I insisted to move forward and I was the one who used sensory control on her. And yet, I´m the only one who didn´t get punished for any of it… Faith was, and Grace too. Gloria certainly didn´t choose this either… Now everybody is angry on each other and Gloria refuses to let anyone talk but me… Grace must be angry with me… Faith took the blame so she wouldn´t… but now things are worse than before… they aren´t even smiling anymore…
She sat down on a rock as her guilt burdened every step she took. It felt so bad and wrong at the same time.
This injustice.
She was right… and I was too stubborn to listen…
Victoria looked down at the ground as the winds slowly mellowed out. She tried to think about a way to solve this.
Come on Victoria! You caused this mess… now solve it!
She thought back to her warrior days, at the endless boredom and daily visits to the archives.
A light of insight shone up in Victoria´s eyes.
She began to think about if the idea in her mind would be possible and realized that she had the means to do it, all around her.
Yes… THAT`S IT!
She smiled a happy smile as she now knew what to do.
But she had to wait until the sandstorm settled down first.
Grace had begun to get worried for Victoria´s sake; she had been gone for quite some time now and the sandstorm had eased just a little bit.
She will be fine, she can always track Gloria´s yoki back here, but I wonder…
She turned her head towards Gloria, who hadn´t moved a single bit from her spot. She also stared at both Grace and Faith with tireless eyes and relentless determination.
Please, go back to normal… we don´t deserve this treatment…
Grace tried to catch a glimpse of Faith in the corner of her eyes, but her stubbornness refused to give in. Since Gloria had forbid them to talk, both small talk in general or towards each other or to themselves, Grace couldn´t do her breathing exercises, at least not out loud.
She felt bad over how things ended in her and Faith´s last conversation. She also felt a several unresolved tensions going through her. It was like she wanted to tear down the invisible walls around her with her bare hands.
…and several other things.
Gloria stopped in her head movements for a short moment, just like a drowsy cat from a shallow slumber, alert and ready while sleeping with an eye half-open.
After a minute or two, Gloria rose up from her spot and approached Grace.
"They are here now; I will escort you to them…"
Grace didn´t have much choice or even a opinion in this. "Official" could be described as relentless.
No wonder why Gloria only used "her" in battles.
Faith stayed on her spot, as "Official" could track her position and "state" from a distance. She didn´t have to tag along this time.
Gloria and Grace headed towards the exit and Grace stopped to wait for the sandstorm to subdue entirely.
A thought went through her mind and showed itself as a slightly sad look.
She turned her head to the left and caught Faith in the corner of her left eye.
Faith still sat with her back turned at them, to her.
Grace looked downwards as the thought in her head turned into a sad disappointment.
Then both she and Gloria left the shelter from the now subdued storm.
Faith slowly turned around and provided a sad, troubled, expression at desert outside.
She inhaled and then smashed the cliff wall while clenching her teeth in a hurt expression. The punch created small cracks that went outwards from where her fist had hit it, along with pain going through her human arm.
But it´s nothing when compared to how much it hurt to betray someone.
If only we hadn´t been interrupted back there… if only…
Her thoughts got interrupted as Victoria´s aura approached in high speed towards the shelter. Seconds later, her semi-awakened appearance showed up at the entrance with her tunic in her arms.
It was strange how this form appeared to provide more clothing then her tunic did.
Victoria didn´t seem to mind as she spoke up.
"I´m back!"
The tunic in her arms moved and pulsated from its contents. Faith could have sworn that she heard a rattle coming from within it.
Victoria looked around and seemed a little disappointed.
"Where´s Grace?"
Faith showed slight displeasure at the mentioning of that name and waved a hand towards the entrance.
"She and Glory left for some Claymore business… you should have seen them on the way here…"
Victoria didn´t like the sound of her voice. It contained an irritated and tense tone that seemed misdirected.
She knew what was going on.
Usually Grace and Faith sparred in a duel every once in a while. From Victoria´s perspective, it was for training purposes solely as she seen it when she first joined up with the group.
But after witnessing two weeks without this habit, she now knew that it had been more than that.
Apparently, these sparring duels had been a way to let out aggression that built up during the days. Both of the combatants always appeared tense before the duels and so relaxed afterwards that it must have had a deeper meaning, a sort of anger management that worked better than those odd breathing exercises Grace had.
Now when she thought about it.
She hadn´t seen Grace do these at all, instead she had been fighting with Faith before Gloria broke into "Official" and forbid any sparring. Now, Gloria had stopped both of them and even Victoria could feel the increasing tension build up in her.
Faith hadn´t got much better either and she didn´t have those anger problems Grace possessed.
Victoria had reached a conclusion in that very moment.
She needed to get Gloria back to normal, and then let the other two have some action to get things back to normal.
And she knew how to do so.
Victoria opened her tunic and displayed what she had found in the desert.
It consisted of twenty scorpions, five rattlesnakes, two vipers, six different cactus flowers and even a small Gut-Worm in the mix. She also had a hollowed out cactus along with some bones and rocks.
There were also a couple of small desert lizards in her arms as well, small snacks considering that she already had eaten two of them.
Faith looked down at the findings and displayed a displeased and slightly distained look towards the scorpions.
"I don´t think I´m hungry anymore…"
Victoria looked up in slight surprise and replied.
"These aren´t snacks, Faith…"
"Then why did you bring them here…"
"Because I think I know a way to get Gloria back to normal…"
Faith gave Victoria an interested look while she cautiously asked.
"I´m listening…"
Victoria had to kill a couple of the animals to prevent them from escaping, and then she went serious.
"Okay, you have noticed that Gloria has a higher yoki concentration when she´s "Official", haven´t you?"
A nod from Faith. She was still in a bad mood.
" …Okay, I take that as a yes. So what´s the most reasonable solution then?"
Faith didn´t remain silent as Victoria spoke.
"… To simply lower the concentration levels of course… and to do so, we need yoki suppressants…"
"But we don´t have any…"
"That´s why…"
Victoria crushed a cactus flower and began to tear a couple of pieces from it, extracting a little sap from within its center.
"…I will make them myself."
Faith frowned her eyebrows in confusion. She had never considered that option before.
"Victory, if you don´t mind me asking, but how on earth would you be able to know that?"
Victoria didn´t seem to listen as she pointed towards one of the vipers. She had created an improvised bowl from a hollow cactus shell and put a scorpion stinger and the torn cactus flowers in it.
"Can you split its head open? I´m busy here…"
The viper in question had been killed earlier and Faith semi-transformed one arm to split its head in half. Victoria immediately grabbed it and dug out the small poison glands within to add to her mixture. She spoke with an informative voice while using her thumbs to squish it.
"Do you know… what a yoki suppressant is made of?"
Faith actually managed to get surprised since she, like everyone else, didn´t know the composure of the Organization´s yoki suppressants. In fact, only the Organization´s Retrieval squad knew the precise recipe.
"Enlighten me…"
"Thirty six different types of toxins and eleven kinds of poisonous herbs are used to create them. It´s a delicate process and everything has to be right to achieve the desired effect."
"Wait… it´s a toxin?"
"Yes and a very lethal one… give one pill to a human and it will be dead the moment it swallows. We are immune to toxins so the only natural solution is to create an even stronger toxin to dampen our yoki."
Victoria picked up one of the living rattlesnakes. It tried to bite her but she moved faster than it. She held it in her right hand and mumbled.
"Fresh poison of a Mucha rattler…"
She inhaled sharply as to steel herself for what would come. Faith asked.
"What are you doing?"
Victoria just provided a short look and smiled.
"This is going to hurt…"
She then put the head of the rattlesnake at her left hand. It opened its mouth widely and bit straight through it. Two long fangs broke out from her left palm and Victoria let out a short gasp as the pain struck her. The snake bit with its jaws and snake venom squirted out from the fangs on the other side and into the mixture.
It´s fangs squirted three times before Victoria pulled the snake away as it ran out of poison. She also ate its guts and bit down on its body several times to recover. The two puncture wounds closed together and she seemed a little better now.
"That hurt more than I thought it would… Now, to the scorpion tails…"
Victoria tried to remember what she had read in the archive so long ago. She had read the documents so many times that she had managed to memorize nearly all of them. It had been something to do while she spent her time in solitude.
But she doesn´t have the skills of an alchemist.
Victoria crushed a scorpion stinger with a rock and she used her finger to extract a yellow poison from it. She put it along with the rest of the mixture and began to mix it with a small bone as a pestle.
Faith just remained in silence, as she didn´t knew anything about how yoki suppressants where made. She did made an accurate observation while counting the number of animals and plants on the ground for later use.
"This can´t be enough to make a suppressant…"
"That´s true… I only have a quarter of the ingredients… but the purpose isn´t to suppress Gloria´s yoki… I want to just subdue it a little bit…"
Faith considered her statement and realized that she was on the right track.
Since she was the only one who didn´t have her freedom restricted, it was quite possible that she could solve it.
But there was one thing Faith had to make certain.
"Then why don´t you just use that mind trick of yours again…?"
"No!" Victoria shook her head as she killed a small scorpion in her hand. Faith seemed surprised as Victoria talked away with a determined voice. "It has only caused problems for us all… I don´t want to risk her mental health just because it´s the easy way… I can´t afford to be reckless with my ability, since it has caused so much trouble for you all. I might break her completely next time if I´m not careful. I won´t stand for that, I refuse to manipulate her now when I know the consequences… I will take responsibility for my actions, no matter what you said…"
Faith stood there a little shocked over the determination that Victoria displayed here.
One of the desert lizards managed to crawl away from them even if others weren´t so lucky. Faith snatched one and swallowed it in one chew while Victoria prepared the suppressant. She also devoured the gut worm she brought along whole.
It took ten minutes and the end result could be described as close to toxic in appearance: a pitch black liquid that appeared poisonous by a mere look at it. To believe that it was just a quarter of what the claymores used to suppress their yoki was unimaginable.
"Of course, it´s not the complete recipe, and it´s supposed to dry out first before it´s compressed into pill form. But considering that we can´t afford more detours, it will be a gamble…"
Victoria closed the hollow cactus together and made it appear intact, like she just plucked it from the plant.
She made up a plan while gathering the ingredients together.
…Just let´s hope it will work…
Faith crossed her fingers behind her back as she just prayed that this "suppressant" wouldn´t kill Gloria. "Official" might be a pain but she had saved them from a bloodbath at the northern border.
Victoria stood up with the cactus in her hand and prepared to intercept Gloria´s path. It was not difficult either since her yoki appears like a beacon in perception mode.
She turned her head back to Faith who didn´t look so happy about it.
"Don´t you want to come to see the results?"
Faith thought about it for a little while, before she just replied with a short and defying.
"No… she would probably see it as disobedience before she would try to kill me… and…"
She silenced herself as the last part drowned out the real reason to why she didn´t wanted to go. A shameful stubbornness. Victoria turned towards the entrance once more and followed the trail. "Official" has been out for too long now and it´s time to get Gloria back to normal.
…or it might get even worse.
Please let this work…
Grace and Gloria headed in high speed through the calm sands. Grace still thought for herself as she followed Gloria´s trail.
Maybe… maybe she will go back to normal if she gets relieved from duty?
She entertained that thought and found it much plausible; "Official" just followed orders after all. If she were relieved of them, then Gloria might be able to turn back to her shy self once more.
Grace thought about the mood that had built up between her and Faith. She was still angry with her, and plenty of more things that had been building up over the weeks.
Sufficient to say, if they got a chance to spar again, it wouldn´t be pretty…
She could see a barren tree with white dead branches further ahead of them. Gloria pointed towards it and noted…
"There, the meeting point."
They slowed down until they reached normal walking speed and slowly approached it now. The tree fit in these deserts, a barren skeleton which reached up towards the dark sky with its bone white fingers, a proof that there was no water in the area and of the fate for those that got lost in Mucha´s deserts.
A lonely death in a barren wasteland.
It reminded Grace of a dream she once had.
Once they got closer, she could see the reason to why they had traveled there.
A warrior stood by the tree, large eyes, and with her pale hair in a number of short braids on the left side. Grace could identify her by one look at the symbol, Rika, number 31.
There was also another figure standing with its back towards the dead tree and Grace hid her displeasure from it.
Apsley.
Apsley didn´t seem to have improved one bit since last time as he coughed loudly when he greeted her.
"Well, It has been a…"cough"… while. Or don´t you agree? Grace?"
Gloria stepped back as she decided to monitor this briefing from the sidelines. Rika also stepped back and Grace stood in front of her handler, alone.
Apsley coughed as he remarked. "Well, it´s good to see you come back to your…"weez"… senses. But I don´t see your…pet… around…"
He had Faith in mind and Grace, who had two weeks of built up frustrations worth within her mind, reacted in a violent outburst.
CLONG!
She aimed to deliver a punch in Apsley´s chest, but got blocked by Rika´s blade instead. Her punch stopped at the broadside of her claymore and sent a weak humming through the blade.
Grace didn´t flinch one bit from the pain in her hand though.
Apsley chuckled as he waved his hand at Rika. "I thought you would try something like that… So are you going to listen?"
Grace held back her built up aggression and kept her stoic face up.
She didn´t want to waste even more time on someone like Apsley, at least not for long.
"Just skip the formalities… what´s this about?"
Apsley seemed pleased and stood up from the tree trunk now.
"Good, eager to fight and eager to get through with it… That´s what you are after all."
Apsley pulled out a scroll with the mission details from his inner pocket and handed it over to Grace.
He also provided the details by allowing Rika to read them out loud.
"It has come to our attention that one of our warriors has disappeared in an area four days from here. The surviving humans speak of a "Voracious Eater" that had been sighted in the same area at the time of her disappearance. We have received a request to hunt this Awakened down according to the usual procedures…"
Grace sighed with frustration as she realized where this was going.
"Okay… I get it. I´m a part of this hunting party too and I have to slay this being..."
Grace actually found herself uncomfortable with it, as she had encountered a lot of awakened recently. She actually didn´t want to slay them since Faith had changed her view of the awakened by now.
Faith…
She sighed in slight frustration as she had begun to picture Faith in her mind every time the words "Awakened being" were mentioned.
Right now, it was quite frustrating when considering the current situation between them.
Apsley just displayed a tricky grin as he signaled Rika to continue.
"…Number…"
Rika held back the next word by force, as she knew far too well how much Grace disliked it.
A really smart move, considering that angering her now would have the same effect as shoving a torch into a keg of gunpowder.
Rika added her own word as a replacement for the number instead.
"…Grace… will not participate in the awakened hunt team. It has already been assembled by the numbers of 8, 12, 20 and 24. They will engage the awakened being two weeks from now…"
Grace took a moment to remember the names that belonged to these numbers.
That´s… Julia "The Hollow Heart", Corinne, Gretel and Moore…
She looked up at Apsley.
"But if the hunting party has been assembled, then why-?"
Rika provided the answer.
"…Grace´s mission will take place before the hunting team takes action. Due to your preferences, you have been assigned to rescue the warrior that has been captured by the Awakened being…"
Grace´s anger got muffled by her surprise as this was a mission in her taste. She actually felt a little excited over it.
A "Search-and-rescue" mission? For real?
Her mindset slowly became happier but it got shot down when Rika provided the details.
"…You won´t get any support from other warriors…"
I knew it…
Sarcasm, it had been a while since she used it in her thoughts.
Rika stopped and handed over the details to Grace while she remained silent about it.
Grace on other hand really didn´t have much choice but to accept the conditions. She couldn´t just abandon a warrior in need of assistance. She couldn´t, in fact, abandon anyone as she had made it one of her goals to help anyone in need of it.
That was why she was a proud member of the Organization, because they did their best to help humanity.
They had, after all, provided her the means to help others.
Grace sighed as she made a small request.
"Okay… but can you please bring Gloria back to the headquarters?"
Apsley just provided one look and shrugged his shoulders.
"No. She´s doing an excellent job so far… I think it´s better that she stays with you…"
Grace held back a long groan that pierced in her mind.
"I see… but is there really nobody else who could supervise me instead?"
"There´s none…"
"How about Rae?"
"Not available…"
"How about Hannah?"
"Unavailable…"
"How about…"
Grace thought about more names and realized that she didn´t have that many friendly warriors on her side.
One name showed up.
"…Renee?"
"Unavailable."
Grace had to accept the harsh reality for now. She sighed as she headed back to the shelter once more.
Apsley said one last thing.
"Have a nice day…"
She just wanted to punch him for the mockery in that comment. Gloria took the lead and they both left Apsley behind.
Rika asked a careful question once they got out of range.
"Um… If I´m allowed speaking now…"
"Go ahead…"Cough"!"
"Isn´t a Rescue mission lead by a number 42 plain suicidal? I mean… there´s no way she could handle something like that on her own…"
Apsley took a moment to consider this.
"Don´t worry… she´s used to those conditions…"
They then headed back towards Staff, slowly since Apsley had to limp forward through the soft sand.
A little bit later Grace and Gloria came across Victoria, seemingly by accident, as she looked surprised to see them.
She also carried a small number of cactus plants in her arms.
"Oh, Hey there! I wondered where you were…"
"Official" just provided a nod as she replied.
"Organization business."
Grace was still forbidden to chat of course; it had taken effect the moment they left Apsley.
Victoria appeared to be a little nervous, but she hid it with a friendly smile.
"Okay… anyway! I found some edible plants out here and I´m certain that they are edible. At least, I´m almost certain…"
That didn´t made it sound so reassuring at all.
Victoria picked one of these cactuses to Gloria. "Want to try one?"
Gloria provided a long look at the cactus piece, oval shaped with a red little flower at the top. It sounded hollow when shaken. Grace didn´t know what it was.
And neither did Gloria.
Victoria showed how to get to the fluids within it, simply by removing the flower from the piece. It was connected to a short stalk that followed it when unplugged. Grace picks one from Victoria´s grip and tried it herself, finding it refreshing. Gloria followed her example and Grace noticed how Victoria kept her eyes on Gloria.
One look at Grace, followed by a wink.
Grace seemed oblivious at first, but began to suspect something.
Oh no… what did you do!?
She quickly turns to Gloria as she got a bad feeling about this.
Gloria had already finished and held out the empty shell to Victoria.
"Thanks, you can now…"
She stops in midsentence as she frowned her eyebrows in confusion. Her eyes flickered to the sides as numbness began to spread from within her body. Her limbs shivered for a moment before they hanged limb by her body. Her head tilted forward a little bit. Her breathing slowed down a little bit as her eyes seemed to lose the light in them. It was like she slowly went to sleep.
She remained silent as a statue as her mind began to get affected by the incomplete suppressant.
Victoria spoke with an eased tone.
"There… I think she will not be so mean now…"
"What did you give her!"
Grace waved with a hand in front of Gloria´s face without any response in return. Gloria just dazed out in the empty air with a frozen face of disbelief.
Victoria tried to calm her down.
"A suppressant that I made from materials here… and don´t worry, the effect should be far weaker than the pills the Organization has…"
"A suppressant? What for?"
Victoria kept a little distance from Gloria has her yoki aura slowly decreased in intensity. The effect took longer to work and wouldn´t last for long, but hopefully Gloria would get into her proper mindset afterwards.
She looked down with sad eyes.
"I´m so sorry… but I didn´t had much of a choice in this... I just couldn´t allow this injustice to continue…"
"What are you talking about?"Grace asked with some uncertainty.
She had only heard Faith´s version of what had happened after all.
Victoria didn´t face Grace, instead she looked into the dull eyes of Gloria.
"It´s my fault… it wasn´t Faith who broke Gloria…It was me…"
Grace didn´t say anything and Victoria talked away, slowly and regretfully.
"It was I who insisted to go after you… it was I who used Sensory control on Gloria to convince Faith… and when we got too close to the Empress… I realized my error as I saw the fear in Gloria´s eyes… Faith didn´t have a choice… she had me perform sensory control one more time… to make Gloria forget what fear was… but it seems that I was a little too successful…"
She sounded sad as she stroked a strand of Gloria´s hair and tucked it behind an ear.
Grace didn´t said anything yet… Victoria pictured that she must be so disappointed right now at her.
"…She even forgot who she was… this "Official"… she forgot who we were… I made her into that monster and you both had to suffer because of my mistake… those feelings of anger between you and Faith… the disappointment… I couldn´t handle that… so I tried to make things right again."
She lowered her hand away from Gloria and looked down at the dusty ground below.
Grace hadn´t said anything yet…
Victoria spoke with a guilty voice and sad mood.
"So if you´re going to be angry at someone… then be angry at me. I failed to trust you and messed up with your quest…"
There´s still no answer and Victoria felt how the burden she had carried for two weeks reached its climax…
She apologized with sincere tears in her eyes, as she knew how furious Grace could be.
"There… I said it. And now "Official" won´t stop you from doing anything, so you can shout at me and scold me for this…"
Grace didn´t say anything.
Victoria expected that Grace would be disappointed and shout or something. She had heard her fight with Faith and it hadn´t been pretty, but at least she had been honest now.
"Victoria…"
Grace spoke with a slightly sad voice, and something else that could be forgiveness.
She raised her head to look at Grace.
"Whim…"
A small noise reached Victoria´s ears and a raising concentration of yoki spiked up right in front of her.
SLASH!
A sudden sharp pain erupted in her left shoulder and she could feel warm blood coming out from the wound.
What…?
She felt how her legs gave in from the force and she hit the ground.
What just…?
She looked up at the source of yoki and her eyes widened in unpleasant surprise.
Grace stood in slight shock over what just had happened.
Victoria had just told her what had happened and even Grace could hear how difficult it must have been to do so, but before Grace could say anything to make it feel better, several things happened in an instant.
Blood squirted out from Victoria´s shoulder and legs followed by her fall down towards the ground.
Neither had seen the sword that cut her down.
The sword in Gloria´s left hand.
Gloria looked down at Victoria who met her eyes from below, realizing how the situation turned out. A threatening aura began to rise from her along with a sharp headache that split her mind in two.
Gloria spoke with calm and logical voice. One that was so different from the one she usually had that it became frightening.
"…Volation… threat towards the surveillance supervisor… murder attempt… all violations towards the objective… guilty and charged… there´s only one way to deal with those who are guilty…"
Gloria´s sword reappeared in her hand as it stopped vibrating out of sight. Her voice sounded wrongand like the voice of an executioner instead.
"…Authorization of Awakened disposal… permission granted… guilty… death penalty invoked… guilty… no remorse…guilty... restriction undone… charge up yoki… ten percent…guilty…fifteen percent…guilty…"
She held up the sword in front of her face as she charged up her yoki to ten percent. She continued to increase it to deliver more force to her blade.
She stopped at twenty five percent and spoke with lethal intentions.
"Organization´s…Official Order… You are found..."
Her golden slit eyes glowed in the dark as her yoki concentrated itself in an incoming attack.
Her face just emitted a feeling of a cold blooded killer. It was so jarring to her usual shy appearance that it clashed with the image of her in their heads. It was like she didn´t even recognize Victoria anymore.
The final outcome of multiple circumstances and reasons that rammed together to the mental mess that now appeared.
Fear, repeated exposure to Sensory control, an unstable personality type, exposure to the Empress´s yoki and a suppressed trauma from the past.
The suppressant had been the tipping point. It had not subdued "Official". It had just made her strong enough to be independent.
Victoria´s effort to help Gloria had backfired completely.
Gloria, no, Official shouted with an authorizing voice as she delivers a killing blow.
"…GUILTY!"
She had been pushed in a corner and lost her mind.
CLANG!
Official looked down at the blade which had stopped her from deliver a killing strike down towards Victoria.
Grace stood to the right of her and blocked Gloria´s blade from below. Edges clashed against each other and sparks flew. Official appeared to be surprised as she hadn´t noticed Grace´s presence with them or expected a witness to the execution.
She had even forgotten about Grace´s special "circumstances".
Grace displayed a determined face as she charged up her yoki to seven percent and pushed Official back from the wounded Victoria.
Grace now stood between them both as she tried to stop Gloria.
"Keep her out from this Gloria! She has nothing to do with your mission!"
Official ignored it and began to rant again.
"Mission objective has intervened with execution of a criminal… invoking countermeasure all according to mission details… 42 has gone up against me and therefore acted on her own… that makes her…GUILTY!"
Gloria twitched in the corner of her eye, just one of them, as she pointed her sword towards Grace.
"Official order… Execution of number 42 with immediate effect… judge… guilty and charged… no remorse…guilty… no pity…guilty… restriction undone…guilty… ten percent… guilty... fifteen percent…"
"42…"
The ultimate proof that it was not Gloria that now stood in front of Grace.
Grace felt how all that aggression from the last two weeks finally get a chance to come out with full fury. Her desire to head north, a desire to get Eliah back to her arms, a desire that had been denied for too long had to be postponed. The reason for this, the reason to why it was unfulfilled, had delivered a strike towards one of the few real friends Grace had.
That was the final drop.
She assumed a defensive stance as she prepared for any possible attacks just as her basic training had taught her.
Official kept ranting like a maniac before her charged up yoki had reached wanted results. It was jarring how much the shy Gloria had been broken by the latest events.
It was almost sad.
Her face distorted as she crossed the thirty percent line and onwards.
"…thirty five percent…guilty…guilty…"
She raised her sword straight up in the air and disappeared as she went "invisible". Grace´s instincts alerted her to the incoming attack and she raised her sword.
CLING!
A sudden blur and her sword clashed against Gloria´s own blade. Official reappeared for an instant and stared straight into Grace´s eyes while she shouted in irrational self-righteous logic.
"…GUILTY!"
Grace had mixed emotions of both anger and regret, raging within like a whirlpool.
Anger because Gloria had dared to harm Victoria.
Regret because Gloria was one of those few friends Grace had.
These reasons created two opposing wills that clashed within Grace´s soul.
The desire to kill "Official" for what she had done to them.
…And the desire to save Gloria from herself.
Grace truly regretted that it had to come to this, but the charged up anger within her refused to just give in.
She had a feeling that she was about to discover, how dangerous a number 13 really could become.
And it wouldn´t be pretty.
(Authors Note: Cliffhanger, a small one, but to be fair this was bound to happen. Had some difficulties to get it right, mostly with interactions. Hopefully they turned out fine.
Hope you all enjoy it.
Please review your opinions of this chapter.
Next chapter in progress...
Note: updated)
