The next day found Tina, Graves with Newt and some another Aurors were around a table watching the new photos from today's corpses as Graves was trying to hold back his wrath because somebody makes his job worse because he cannot catch him and every time he was ready to catch him, he disappears with the result the anger of Percival Graves to grow up day by day and everyone they were hoping that Newt would have managed to change the opinion of his friend to help them or they should start looking for another job.
''Mr. Scamander' 'said the president as entered the hall wishing to see a hunter but she was faced with some scary Auros, Tina with Newt staring at the floor and a very angry Percival Graves. ''Where is Miss Castello?''
Newt sighed and did not know how to say that the woman who could help was gone because this morning when he got up and went to the hunter's room to wake her up the room was empty and it seemed like no one had ever slept in the room. Newt was ready to say something when the room door opened and Nemesis walked in saying.
''Sorry for being late. I got caught up enjoying my last few minutes of not being here''
Nemesis Castello walked into the room wearing black leather clothes and her white hair was on a ponytail with no trace of make-up, she sat in a chair and put her legs on the desk grabbing the envelope by Graves's hand ignoring the other presentations.
''Where have you been? 'Asked Newt with relief as he thought she was gone after the conversation he had taken last night in his living room.
''What the fuck are birds so excited about at 5 AM?''Growls Nemesis throwing the envelope on the table as Newt laughing as he knows that the hunter is mourning the morning wake up. ''I miss Romania's cold and the wake after 12 noon''
Newt quickly gave her a cup of coffee as he knows a lot of bad and even more sarcastic can be without coffee, the others watched the interaction between them and it is very weird about Newt to see him talking to someone and looking at him at the same time but the weirdest at all is that Newt touched his hand on the woman's shoulder and vice versa without Newt to be disturbed as everyone knows he did not like physical contact.
''Newt says that you were skilled at discreetly burying dead bodies' 'said Tina trying to draw the magicology's attention away from the woman and to hide jealousy from her voice with great success but why the hunter keep staring at her as if she knew something Tina did not know.
''You say that like it's a bad thing' 'said Nemesis as if it were the most normal thing in the world. 'I want syringes from the poison''
''Nausea, fever and severe inflammation of arms and legs. Like something meant to incapacitate if taken in small doses. 'Said Graves as understand that you can return to work without interruption.
"It has to be Acromantula," said Nemesis and Graves at the same time as they looked at each other and then at the file because there is also red in their cheeks and they try to hide it but it did not go unnoticed by the President and Newt.
Nemesis with Seraphine and Graves talked about the previous murders and elements, for the strategy and the possible next victims but they had to go for lunch but Nemesis will not leave without creating chaos.
''I'm returning your nose. I found it in my business'' said the woman trowing a blue file over the desk
''Why-what-t''
They all watched is a shock as their boss stumbling over his own words but he cannot say anything as the woman left the room with Percival Graves after her.
''Oh,'' Newt thought.
Graves immediately fires three fast traveling spells towards his opponent - but Nemesis disapparates with a faint pop, reappears 5 feet behind Graves and hits him with a disarming spell before the man has a chance to react. An almost lazy 'Petrificus Totalus' immobilizes Graves and Nemesis catches the wand that arcs towards him with enviable ease.
There is a moment of stunned silence.
"Careful what you do to a good woman..you have to deal with the monster you created, "Newt says smugly, as mutterings break out amongst the spectators.
Tina can almost feel the exasperation rolling off of the hunter as he cancels the spells on Graves. Graves sits up and snatches his wand back off Nemesis, agreeing to a second match with a short, jerky nod of his head. Newt expression as his friend and Graves return to their starting positions can only be described as gleeful.
The disarming spell which successfully relieves Nemesis of her wand hits him with enough force to knock him backward off of his feet - Graves has a habit of overpowering his spells and the result is akin to being kicked in the chest. She turns him momentum into an awkward roll back onto his feet and promptly apparates out of the way of a stunner, taking temporary refuge behind a piece of rubble. The shelter will only last as long as it takes for Graves to apparate around the obstacle himself, or cast a wide-range spell.
As she expects, the crack of an apparition from behind her heralds the arrival of the man with a clear line of sight towards him. The gleeful expression on his Graves' face has Nemesis diving in the opposite direction, barely avoiding the object Graves conjured to drop on him.
For an instant, the only thing that can be heard is a tortured shriek as a grand piano smashes where Nemesis was standing scant seconds earlier. The noise is impressive enough that Theseus temporarily halts his spell casting to look at the wreck of what had previously been a functioning musical instrument.
Nemesis stares in disbelief because honestly Graves -
'"Did you just try to drop a piano on me?'
Graves actually looks somewhat perturbed. 'Not on purpose.' He glances down at the wand in hand. 'I'm not sure what went wrong there.'
'Dude, conjuring a grand piano is a fairly significant thing to go wrong.'
Nemesis can see the irritation building on Graves' face as the jinxes and curses aimed at him are either blocked or fail to find their target in the first place and he keeps watching for an opening to end the match.
Before the opportunity arises, Graves temper snaps.
'Will you STAND STILL so I can hit you!' he roars.
Nemesis fires off a spell and promptly disparates from her starting position. Graves calls up a shield spell and the stunning curse rebounds off of it, but the conjured brick Nemesis sends flying Graves' way from his new position sails right through, forcing Graves to duck. Nemesis blocks a returning curse dematerializes out of the way of a second and sends a trip jinx towards the auror from behind him. Graves barely avoids it, and Nemesis has already gone by the time the next spell is thrown in her direction.
And so the duel goes - Nemesis dodges the spells sent her way with alarming ease and responds with charms and jinxes aimed to distract and annoy - one to coat the floor beneath Graves' feet in ice, another to try to knock his legs out from under him. There's a close call when Nemesis conjures a bedsheet to block the author's view of the arena, and Grapes only just succeeds in raising a shield charm to block the bludgeoning hex aimed at his knees.
Above them, Nemesis can hear Newt lose his composure entirely and start laughing. Graves can clearly hear it too because his face turns even redder than previously, which Nemesis honestly hadn't thought was possible. Nemesis wonders if he ought to suggest that the man get his heart checked by a woman- he looks awfully stressed.
'Fine. You enjoy dodging so much - I'll make sure you've got nowhere to dodge too!'
Graves drops his shield charm and sends a jet of white-hot flame spurting out of the end of his wand towards Nemesis. Nemesis hastily relocates herself to the other side of the room, but Graves simply turns and the flames turn with him, setting three-quarters of the arena on fire in one sweeping motion. Nemesis can't see Graves try to hit her with a spell - the flames are cutting off any direct line of sight. Graves shouts something that Nemesis doesn't quite catch over the crackle of the fire and the flames surge towards Nemesis, rapidly consuming the safe ground.
'Asshole.' Nemesis mutters.
She'd somewhat hoped she wasn't going to have to resort to this. She's not entirely sure where in the arena Graves was last standing, but Nemesis is fairly confident that the man isn't daft enough to set the ground immediately around him alight. Luckily for her, Nemesis is very good at the apparating blind.
Nemesis tucks her wand back into its holster and takes half a step forward, pushing off her right leg. She disapparates mid-step and reappears just to the side of Graves, driving a roundhouse kick directly into the man's chest and catches him around his waist, apparates both of them slightly into the air and twists Graves towards the ground. Nemesis can't see man's face, but she's not imagining the panicked spike of Graves' magic as he hastily casts a wandless cushioning charm. It's likely the only thing that stops Grapes from breaking part of his spine when they impact the floor.
Nemesis attempts to pin the man down, but in addition to being older than him, Graves also has the advantage of bulk. Graves gets a knee between them and pushes Nemesis off. Nemesis rolls away, takes a glancing blow to her ribs before finding her feet. She just about brings her hands up into a guard position to stop a series of mid-level punches as the man falls back on her boxing training. The impacts send him reeling. For a split second her guard slips. Graves takes full advantage, driving a punch into Nemesis' throat.
The woman staggers backward, tries to take a breath in - fails and chokes. She slams both of the heels of her boots into the auror's back, who pitches face-first into the wooden floor. The woman turns her downwards momentum into forwards roll and comes to her feet in a smooth motion, then endlessly summons Graves' wand to his hand for the second time that day. Around them, the magical fire sputters out.
She waits to see if Graves attempts to get up, but the man appears content to lie face down on the floor of the arena, groaning slightly.
'Yield?' Nemesis asks, her voice echoing slightly due to the amplifying charms spelled into the ring.
It takes Graves a few attempts to form the words, but eventually, he manages to croak out 'Yield.'
She sighs in relief, then startles as cheering erupts from above him. She'd somewhat forgotten that they'd had an audience. She glances up briefly and gives a small smile to Newt, who's waving enthusiastically. Then she turns back to Graves, who is in the process of gingerly attempting to sit up.
There's quite a lot of blood on the man's face, where his nose had smashed into the ground. Probably a broken nose.
Nemesis ignores him and strides towards the exit.
Seraphine managed to make it all the way to the top floor of the MACUSA building simply by glowering at anyone who tried to get in her way. The woman slammed the door of Graves' office open so hard it knocked a very lovely framed watercolor from her all with a crash. Percival's head snapped up at the noise, but when he saw who.
"Can I help you?"
The door swung closed behind her, and Graves was alone with the President, who was fairly vibrating with suppressed emotion.
"You know perfectly well why I'm here. How dare you!"
There were only a few people alive who could've caught the self-satisfied twitch of Graves' mouth, but unfortunately, Seraphine was one of them.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. If you're just here to bait me, I have more pressing things that need my attention."
"I told you to play nice with her."
Graves rolled his eyes, finally deigning to stop his work and turn to face Seraphine.
"You're joking."
"No" She smiles sweetly.
"She is here only for four days and she drives me insane I swear. She won't comply with the dress code, half the time she's falling asleep in meetings. Somehow she always makes things work out. It's unconventional, against all protocols and rules. She's a menace and it is only by the grace of fate that she's working for us rather than rotting in a cell. "Percival ranted.
"Sounds bothersome." There was a smile in her voice, a warmth that almost spilled into laughter barely held in.
"And don't get me started on her behavior. She is sarcastic with no respect for her superior."
"She has captured your special attention," it was a statement since the evidence was clearly written on the man's face.
Graves looked at his friend hoping to mask the truth behind Seraphine's words. "She is murderer," he replied trying to convince himself.
And it was true. He didn't want her to come after him. He asks his friends about her and they told him that she is worse than Gellert when it comes to killing people. He heard that she actually make their lives a living hell. He was told that Ursula will stalk them and let herself being seen. Then she would capture them torture them for a few years and then she will drain them of wetter and by putting salt in their wounds so their wound won't heal as fast and then she would let them go and repeat the cycle till the person go crazy commits suicide.
"You will work with her"
Graves stared at the woman for a moment, his face strangely tight, as though he were trying very hard to hide some kind of violent internal struggle.
"No."
" What? "
"You heard me.
"For Merlin`s pants, Percival. Just make peace with her and let her help us because as faster we finish with the case, she will be out of your life."With that, the woman went back to glaring at the man before her. Graves raised a brow at her in confusion.
"Fine"
"Be careful," she warned.
"It's me," Graves gave her a cheerful smile before taking off.
Seraphine sighed, watching him go. "That's part of what I'm worried about."
Another, quieter clang and two small thuds lead Graves further into the lockers of Aurors and toward a side room. And then he rounds a corner and is met with—Nemesis's back.
Nemesis's bareback.
When he does that, his every move is a casual invitation to look, and they're all equally easy for Graves to ignore.
'I've been in far more than my share of bar fights and I've never had that many scars!' He thinks to himself as he analyzes every scar from the woman's body.
There were several cuts-whip cuts- zigzagging across Nemesis' back. He saw the mark of hands and chains around her neck.
The scars get concealed, the old wounds hidden away, everything carefully prepared to be seen. But this Nemesis isn't like that at all—this Nemesis is Nemesis, uncovered; and Graves's raised a hand unthinkingly to touch even before he glances down Nemesis' side—
"Miss Castello?"
Nemesis doesn't startle, exactly. She turns sharply, and for the first time Nemesis met his eyes and stared into him. If he wasn't so sure it wasn't possible, he would have sworn that she was picking apart every thought and memory that made up his life.
But he was sure that she was assessing whether or not he was a threat. He'd seen that look in the eyes of some of the bruisers and hardcore scrappers in a cell. Everyone else might've had said they were crazy, but Graves was sure that if he could stare down a cornered lion, its eyes would set perfectly into Nemesis's face and everyone one of those prison rats'.
"Graves," she says.
Graves frowned but kept quiet, memorizing the tattoos covering Nemesis' arms and torso. Playing cards, skulls, cursive script, roses, hell he could even see an eagle in the overlapping collage of black and white images that seemed to mesh together into one cohesive picture on Nemesis' pale flesh.
"Take a picture." Nemesis grumbled darkly, narrowing her eyes at Graves as if daring him to keep staring without permission.
The man scowled back for a few seconds before brazenly pulling out his cell and snapping a photo as instructed. The flabbergasted look on Nemesis' face was completely worth the effort.
"Hilarious." She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms defiantly as she glared at Graves. "Delete it."
"No. It's mine." Graves retorted flatly, not sure why he was being contrary simply for the sake of being contrary.
Nemesis made a stifled grunt of incredulity before lunging at Graves to grab the cell by force. A few seconds later the phone was knocked to the floor in the scuffle and Nemesis was pinned against the wall by Graves.
They both stilled for a moment, breathing heavily and startled by their suddenly intimate proximity. Unable to help himself when faced with the all too familiar sensation of restraining Ursula, Graves leaned in.
"I'm sorry about the file but I don't trust people very easy," Graves assured her, the depth and gravel of his voice both surprised her and soothed her. As he spoke she could feel her eyelids slowing surrendering to sleep under the influence.
"I know the feeling."She smiled slowly.
Graves looked at her like she was an enigma. Nemesis Castello appeared to be a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. In a word, she was just the sort of challenge that appealed to Graves.
A challenge that saw fit to face him directly.
"You tried to kill me," Graves said as a way of answer." Back there"
"Try being the operative word," she answered just as casually. Even from the corner of his eye, he could see that her expression gave nothing away.
"You missed."
She shrugged one shoulder. "It happens," she said with an air of indifference.
"Not to you, Miss Castello," Graves countered.
Nemesis turned his eyes her way. "Look, I am here just for a job and I want to finish and leave. So please can we start from the beginning?"
The corner on his mouth twitched upward. "Percival Graves"
"Nemesis Castello."Nemesis said, resuming her typical Irish accent.
Graves' gaze flashed in her direction, amusement wrote all over his usually stoic face. "A pleasure, I'm sure."
"Likewise."
The President cleared her throat from the doorway and both Graves and Nemesis straightened in their chairs like they'd been caught conspiring.
"Everyone is waiting for both of you" Seraphine's face was grim.
The older woman left the room leaving Graves and Nemesis alone, and soon the air grew thick with a tension that could be cut through with a knife.
"I am so sorry about Grindelwald."
The name that came from Nemesis` mouth made him freeze. Memories from that monster came in his head while his hands start trembling.
After saying that, it took Nemesis only a minute until she face-palmed herself for saying something like that out loud.
Graves frowned and turned around to face her."Why? Why are you saying that?"
"You will find out very soon."
Upon the observation deck, Newt watches his boss depart the ring then ran after Nemesis. The memory of their expressions during the duel is going to remain one of the highlights of this entire trip.
'Nice to know your friend is as terrifying as ever.' Abernathy remarks.
Newt beams. 'You should have seen her when we sparred last Christmas. She'd just gotten back from a trip in Asia. "
Any nebulous plans regarding that scenario are put on hold as Nemesis finally appears on the observation deck. Immediately a loud chorus of applause, along with a few whistles, breaks out.
'Sorry for the delay.' Nemesis says." "Percival Graves is an asshole with the narcissistic issue. I spent a little while trying to convince Graves to go to the medic's wing.'
Newt watches in amusement as Tina struggles for a moment and then seems to find his voice. 'For his broken nose? Surely he could have fixed that himself?'
Nemesi shakes her head. 'I was more concerned about his ribs, to be honest. The last time you pulled that last move on me, I fractured three of them.'
All heads snap around to Newt, who shrugs. It's the truth, after all.
Tina and Queenie look fairly stunned.
'You broke three of your friend's ribs?'
Newt and Nemesis don't seem to quite comprehend the reason for everyone's disbelief and Newt replies, 'I'd already dislocated my shoulder at that point - I couldn't quite use my wand properly and that was the first thing I thought of.'
Ah, classic Newt. Attempting to explain only to make matters worse.