Fallout

Xander asks Irina to come by, and Irina breaks the question of what's been going on. The two have a heart-to-heart, and Irina slips that she likes Xander—much to his fortune. He confesses the same, and they end up kissing. The Philanthropy group plans their event, focusing on Unrest veterans, and Irina and Xander discuss his next date, the girls in it and politics. Irina grows a bit jealous.

Chapter 37

» A bomb?!«

Los Angeles Laser Tag Arena, Los Angeles, Angeles
Crown Prince Xander of Illéa

Was Xander nervous? Yes.

Did he wonder whenever today was going to go well, when there was Irina and he already felt concerned regarding Zarah? Yes, he did.

He had been forced to meet the girls at the laser tag place, due to work requiring him elsewhere. Not that he minded—he really wasn't fond of car rides and being put together with the girls in such tiny spaces.

Now arriving at the place, noticing the four girls standing with the camera crew and talking to them, he couldn't help but feel tense. One will be your wife. One, even if he had one he liked. What if he was approaching this all wrong now?

"Good day, ladies," he spoke, with a smile made for cameras, not family.

"Hello!" Ami piped, having been speaking to Alex. "I'm going to beat you."

"No, you're not," Alex replied with a proud grin. "I'm sorry, Lady Ami, but I'm a master at laser tag." Xander chuckled at that rivalry. At least, it was good to know that Alex wasn't one of Sophia's stuck up superstar friend.s "I'll let you know that I have the high score in laser tag at home."

"Well… I…" Ami hesitated. "I'm going to win either way. I'm a professional athlete, you know!"

Zarah crossed her arms. "Fight me—I'm going to win," she declared.

"Fuck you, no? I'm winning!" Alex joked.

"Wait for me," Sawyer huffed. "I can assure you, I got my experience with shooting."

"Do you now?" Ami dared. "Then we'll see."

The arena employee had been watching the girls quietly—and awkwardly. "Excuse me, uhm…" he begun. The palace had contacted them before, so he should have been warning, Xander thought. "This is a team game. Given the numbers, we're—"

"Eh, I can join," someone—Tori Belasko who had insisted on watching this particular date the instant she heard of it—noted. "I got some experience with that."

The few members of the royal guard that knew Tori's identity didn't seem all too happy with that, but Xander knew—Tori had long moved to distrusting the rebellion.

"I'm Tori Belasko, in case you forgot," the brunette added on, directing her words at the four girls. "Xander and I are friends. Just friends, promise."

It took all self-control of Xander not to turn into a red tomato. "Right."

"We've got six people then," the employee nodded, dodging Xander's eyes. Nothing special. People tended to be odd around royalty. "Then we can do either two teams of three, or three teams of two."

"Can't we do battle royal?" Ami suggested.

"You'd lose in that," Alex hummed. "There's no way you'd win in that."

"We could do that last," Sawyer, more pacifistic, suggested.

"Uhm… yeah…" the employee nodded. "That's doable."

"And you guys can switch through with the teams, so everyone gets a moment with Xander. Do two-people teams, then," Tori suggested. She grinned—awfully amused. "I'm sure you'll enjoy his lovely presence."

"Tori—" Xander spoke up. "Please stop? I already have Evan doing that."

She shrugged. "Nah. Too much fun."

Xander sighed—and did not miss Zarah's laughter. "Alright…"

"Great?" The employee glanced at Xander and Tori, confused. "Shall we get started then?"

Gearing up, with the odd wests and glowing lights was quite easy—at least to Xander who had gone playing laser tag with Ernest and his mother when he had been younger. Each team wore wests that glowed in a unique colour—Xander's team was blue—and they had to aim at them to 'hit'. The area was a glorified, decorated obstacle colours with limited black light and fog machines. Nothing had changed since Xander had been here last—which meant he had an advantage. Unfair, but at least it'd look better on the cameras. Especially after League of Legends. The arena employee announced the teams—Sawyer and Tori, Zarah and Alex, and Xander and Ami.

Once they had taken positions and the machine lit up, Xander turned to Ami—to discuss strategies, just like everyone would. "We should start with—"

"I'm gonna win!" Ami called out and rushed into the dark.

"So much about strategies," Xander muttered to himself, but followed. In his own experience, you always did better when you had team mates to watch your back. He followed down to the darker allies. Given that he didn't like the fog machines, Xander didn't mind.

"Oh, hi," Ami muttered, as she was—very quietly—sneaking down the alley.

"How are we going to handle this?"

"By… shooting people? Isn't that the goal?" Ami blinked.

"Yes but—" Xander paused. "It's a very bad strategy."

"Does that matter?" she asked. "I just need to shoot more people than Alex, Zare and Sawyer."

"This isn't how you—" win, Xander wanted to finish, but Ami was already gone. He followed, but at the next crossroad, he couldn't tell which path she had taken. Her sneaking skills were definitely good, he noted.

He heard the sci-fi-like sound of the guns firing to his left. Ami had, maybe, gone that way. Maybe she had found one of the other girls, and was trying to get her. When they got shot too much, erased all 'health' you had left, you 'died'. Hopefully, that wasn't going to happen to Ami… He followed.

In what was almost a valley, Xander found Ami shooting at Sawyer—and Sawyer shooting back. Ami wasn't very preoccupied with hiding, but that didn't mean that Xander couldn't also aim at Sawyer, take her out and get out of here, to find a better place to work from. He aimed at Sawyer and pulled the laser tag trigger.

Unfortunately, that took a moment, and by the time he realised that his gun wasn't working anymore, Tori was already laughing. The brunette had taken position on a higher point, and while Xander had been waiting for Sawyer's vest to stop glowing—which with Sawyer regularly hiding behind a wall—it took a while.

"Wait—what?!" Xander looked up, and found Tori, amused, aiming at Ami.

"Hey! That's unfair!" Ami called out. She turned around, aiming at Tori—but no, her 'health' was going to be higher than Sawyers.

"Aim at Sawyer," Xander called out. "Her health bar—"

Ami's vest beeped. She was out too. Xander sighed—definitely disappointed. Tori waved to Sawyer; they were probably going after Alex and Zarah now. Ami groaned angry. "We lost! Impossible!"

Xander sighed. "That's what happens if you don't plan ahead—or run into battle." They could have expected Tori to pop up somewhere.

"But I wanted to get most points! I just need to shoot people for that, right?" Ami complained.

"You also need to stay alive," Xander explained, amused. It wasn't like he hadn't done exactly the same thing when he had been younger. "You make sure that you have someone to rely on. Your health recharges if you aren't being targeted for a while. You team up with someone to keep that going, to watch your back and still shoot."

"Like in video games?" Ami asked.

Except that he sucked at video games. "Yes," Xander nodded.

"Sawyer acted as bait, and Tori was waiting, just to take us out." Xander paused. "To be fair, I didn't pay attention to her either." He should have known. He knew Tori—it was inevitable that she was going to focus merely on targeting him.

"What do we do now, then?" Ami asked.

"I suppose, wait until the others are done with that round."

"Oh." Ami nodded. "Next round, I'm going to beat Sawyer!"

Xander chuckled amused. "Good luck with that." Not beating Sawyer, beating Tori, but details. "I'm not so sure if Tori is going to make that easy for you, though. Knowing her."

Ami froze for a moment. "Oh. Yes. Of course. I'm going to beat her too. I'll be better than her, for sure. Definitely."

"Do you have a strategy for next time?"

"Hmm…" Ami paused. "No, I'll need to come up with one."

Was it a bad idea to give Ami some advice on a strategy when he was going to be in a different team next? Yes.

Was he going to do it either way, because he felt bad for Ami? Yes.

"First of all, you can't just rush ahead."

"But that's the fun!" she hummed. "You just go in, take the adrenaline rush—it's like going down the mountain with a snowboard. Fun!"

"You're an athlete, right. I remember."

Ami, although hesitant, nodded. "I do snowboarding. Yes. And I'm going to beat Angel."

"Angel?" Xander repeated. "Who is that?"

Ami titled her head. "My sister. She started skiing professionally recently. She's really good. But I'm not going to let her win! I'll be better than her!"

"That's the spirit," Xander nodded.

Was Ami the type he would be interested in? He liked her spirit for sure, but if even, he could see the young athlete get along very well with Ernest. After all, Ernest Illéa had done exactly the same as Ami—he always rushed ahead in laser tag games. Maybe even Louis—he could use someone to push him out of the library.

Xander paused. He hadn't considered his brothers until now—not since the last elimination, at least. Had they even spoken to the girls? Ernest had, for the Report, but had Louis? He didn't exactly have time to check on them…

"How have you been finding the life in Angeles?" he asked Ami.

"Oh, it's so hot. I can't believe you can cope with this heat." Ami shook her head. "And it's only April; impossible."

"Angeles is indeed rather warm," Xander nodded. "It does have its advantages though."

"Such as? Dying of heat?"

"I was going to suggest 'you need less clothes', but I suppose heat shocks are more likely here than in Baffin."

"I lived in Tammins for a while," Ami recalled. "That was a nightmare."

"You lived in Tammins?" Xander asked surprised. Did he know that, and has just forgotten? Had that been a result of the Unrest? Had Baffins ever dealt with the rebels at all? Tammins had been among the red provinces so…

"Oh! Look! The others are done! I'm getting my revenge!"

Xander wasn't going to get an answer out of Ami today.

On the screen of the arena—currently empty, given that they rented it—Xander saw that Tori and Sawyer had, in fact, won. Both by points and kills, they had both stayed alive and taken out most. He glanced to the camera team; they had previously installed cameras in the arena, so they wouldn't need to bother with following them around. They were going through footage.

"Good job," he told the two winners. Though, and maybe that wasn't good; his next partner wasn't Sawyer but Alex.

They readied for the game, and unlike with Ami, Alex waited. She motioned, quiet—and that alone was a good sign—for Xander to follow her up to a higher spot. From there, they could see Tori and Zarah, talking and walking from their starting point.

"It's always better to get a view from above," Alex remarked. "Zare was a bit too loud for that, so I didn't risk it. Kind of weird to need to think of new strategies, because she now knows what I did last time." She paused. "To be fair, that one failed—but Tori and Sawyer were savage."

Xander nodded. "Do you have a plan for now?"

If he could, he'd suggest sharpshooting from here; they even had a chance to take out Tori and Zarah now, but Xander wasn't sure if the laser tag guns had enough range for that, so he chose not to worry too much.

"I'd say hope to hide and wait for the others to confront another. Surely, Sawyer and Ami will run into Belasko and Zare first."

Xander nodded, and watched Alex plump on the ground. Not very ladylike, he thought. "So, what's the tea?"

"… Excuse me?" Xander asked, confused.

"What's…" Alex shrugged. "Going on? Anything fun? I don't know how royals start conversation."

"Ah." Xander nodded. "I am quite busy, but given the nature of politics, that's quite inevitable. There's always something that needs to be fixed, and unfortunately, there is no direct handbook for it."

"Ah, yeah, sad life." Alex said.

"How about you?"

Alex groaned. "I hate it."

"Why is that?"

"Oh, just your typical 'your mother forcing you to fulfil her childhood desires' story. I fucking hate modelling. It's ridiculous, and the industry is a nightmare. Constant judgement, creepy old dudes and pushy agents. Or mums. Zero out of ten, would not recommend."

"… How come you are still doing it, then?"

Alex shrugged. "What else should I do?"

"What are you interested in?" Xander, by no means qualified as career advisor, asked.

"Ice skating, pranks, dancing, kids?" Alex shrugged. "I guess I could try and be a figure skater, but, you know, that's pretty damn difficult without thousands of years of practise and pushy parents."

"I—alright?"

"And talent. And luck, I guess. I mean, look at Ami. She's definitely the sportiest out of everyone around, and all, but is she going anywhere with it? No. She's using the Selection to gain some form of momentum, but ten out of ten, she's gonna end up as influencer or what not. What did other Selected do, after the Selection?"

Xander hesitated. The only Selected of his father he knew well enough were his mother and Abby Moon. Abby had been a singer before, but there was no denying that the Selection boosted her momentum. "I suppose, it varies?"

"Any examples?"

He should have done more research. "Abby Moon continued with what she enjoyed—music. She moved to Los Angeles and went from there."

"Anything else? Anything specifically around 'pushy parents and yay, now you're famous'?"

Xander hesitated. "I must admit, I've not heard a lot about my father's Selection—besides him and my mother, at least."

"Ah." Alex nodded. "Yikes… Well, okay, I guess I wouldn't talk about my ex-girlfriends to my son either. Makes sense. I suppose, Lady Abby joined the Selection to boost her career. Why'd your mum join?"

There were enough rumours about it. Lysandre Illéa had always claimed that the idea of a fairy tale romance just appealed to her; Xander had seen videos of his mother joking about it. Enough people believed that she merely wanted the crown or the money—but she had a stable, good acting career before that, so the latter had never been it.

"She genuinely believed into the love she'd find," Xander said.

"You want to believe that." She tilted her head.

"I've seen my parents. They loved another," Xander insisted.

Alex frowned. "You sure it's not just not, like, a sad dating website on drugs?"

"… Pardon me?" Xander paused.

"I mean, that's how it sounds to me. Mum wanted me to join because… god knows why, really. Exposure or some shit. I hate being put on the pedestal, but since when do we ask Alex for her opinion, right?"

"Hmhm…"

Alessandra Valentino had joined, because her mother had told her to, Xander concluded. She wasn't here for love, or even for making an impact on Illéa. Another one of these that he had missed—assuming Zarah was one of them. He should have focused more onto the interviews, he realised. If he was considering eliminating Zarah, then he should do the same with Alex. It was only fair—and she served no purpose in the Selection, neither for Xander, nor for his brothers.

"I suppose it's a nice break. I get to be myself, not mummy's dress up doll." Alex nodded. "Having a pause from being at home, and you know, without your narcissist mum beating you down every step of the way."

Xander gulped. If that was the reason why she had applied to the Selection, then had he any right to let her go just yet? He could, for sure, wait until the official elimination round—he should do the same with Zarah, he told himself. Maybe even longer—after all, he had heard enough about controlling parents from his own parents…

"Ah, Zarah and Ami are out," Alex noted. "Let's go at Tori first. I feel like she's a larger threat than Sawyer."

"Agreed." Very much agreed.

"The range from here isn't good enough," Alex noted. "We'll need to get closer."

"We could also wait until Tori has taken Lady Sawyer out, or vice-versa," Xander suggested. "They're in opposite teams, aren't they?" And he could contemplate this a little longer.

"True." Alex nodded. "But that's boring." She jumped up. "Let's go."

Xander followed—at least, this time, his team ended up winning. The two headed towards Tori first, reaching here only moments after Ami and Zarah had left—he could still hear them chatting—and two against one led to Xander and Alex winning. Sawyer was soon out too.

"Did you wait out the whole game?" Sawyer asked with a frown. "Up on the tower? Isn't that a tad boring?"

"Why is the tower even there?" Zarah wondered.

"There's a game mode that just goes with 'who makes most points'," Xander explained. "We can do that too, if you guys want."

"It'd mean people are less likely to be waiting until the game is over, so that'd be cool," Sawyer replied with a nod.

The employee spoke up, "Just a fair warning—people tend to just shoot at another despite dying in that game mode. That's why it's not the first. It gets much more boring."

"Oh, yeah," Alex nodded. "That makes sense."

"Yeah." Zarah nodded. "Let's just continue like this. Maybe leave the towers as a 'do not enter' zone? Or, like, you can only stay there for a moment?"

"I agree," Xander nodded.

And so, another round of laser tag started. This was, by far, not as exhausting as playing with his friends was—not when they rushed around and were part of top army units either way. This time, though, Xander found himself teamed up with Zarah, and that meant that the part that he dreaded would come. He needed to figure out, why she was here.

"Oh, you're with me now," Zarah muttered when seeing the new teams.

The game begun, and soon, Xander found himself busy hunting down Tori, whom everyone but Alex—her team mate this round—seemed to consider to be the biggest threat. Xander wondered if that was merely related to her skills, or more, but pushed that aside.

"Good work," Zarah muttered, and headed on when they had taken her out—with the help of all others. They were around corners, looking for a spot to shoot the next team from. Zarah was much less talkative than Ami and Alex. Maybe getting eliminated would make that easier…

"How do you like this?" he asked, trying to sprint up a conversation.

"It's okay," Zarah replied. She motioned for him to follow, to where Xander saw Ami and Sawyer talking to another. She motioned for him to aim at Sawyer. "Be ready to run, though."

Xander nodded, and the two started shooting at Sawyer. The guns made sounds, though, and that meant that they soon head the other two's attention. Zarah started shooting as they ran, but from the corner of his vision, it almost looked like she was trying to get hit. He turned around the corner, eventually pausing. Zarah wasn't coming. From the corridor he had come from, he heard a half-hearted, "Oh, you got me. Guess I'm out." Definitely Zarah.

He hesitated, and with a hand on the cold, black wall and the nasty fog, he paused. He gripped the gun in his hand. One conversation with each girl, right? One will be your wife. It'd probably be better for him to get out of the game now too.

"Ha! Got you!" Ami called out, pointed her gun at the prince, who definitely took more time on purpose to respond. A few clicks later, and while Ami was down in health, he was out too. The lights on his own vest blinked red.

"Good work," he told the Selected. At least Ami definitely enjoyed this. Maybe, he told himself, laser tag just wasn't Zarah's taste—but then again, what about her enthusiasm when they were starting? Just competitive spirit? He didn't think that to be true. Not given what he had heard.

Certainly, he was prejudiced now.

He headed through the dark, foggy—gosh he hated that smell; up with Alex, it had been much better—and around the corners, reaching the outside. The lights were still dim, and Xander was grateful for that.

"Oh, hi, you out too?" Zarah, leaning against the wall, waved. Tori was sitting with one of the guards, reading a book, and Sawyer, Xander assumed, had gone to the bathroom. Typical. Never bother socialising. She, at least, could have tried to get some information out of the girls. Why they had come here, maybe, or their opinions on his, and his father's politics. That would have been good to know.

He made the mental note to talk to Tori about trying a bit more. Irina, maybe, could be of help too. Evan probably would be considered too prejudiced, when most of the palace knew him to be Xander's best friend.

"Yes," Xander replied, and he thanked his media training for his lying abilities. He wasn't lying per se, of course—he was merely avoiding the full truth. "Did Lady Ami catch you?" he asked.

"I mean, yeah, that's kinda' obvious'," she replied.

"Of course," Xander nodded.

"Hmhm." Zarah glanced at her nails. They had been neatly done, Xander assumed—not that he had any idea of any nails at all—by one of the hired stylists for the girls. Another cost he needed to go down. Less girls, less money, he thought. Maybe, with Alex' attitude, she had to move for that…

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

"Uh," Zarah paused. "Okay, so, Xander," she started and already, Xander didn't like where this was heading. Titles were there for a reason. Irina may have dropped the 'Your Royal Highness' ages ago, but she was a special case. "I have a question."

"Go… ahead?"

"How do you decide who to eliminate?"

Xander cringed. He had no idea himself—besides trying to not take in his family's biased opinion, he didn't have much of a plan. He hadn't even considered that he was trying to get his brothers married too—he should have thought about that before the first cut!

"Uh, why?"

"There's someone I need out."

That was petty, Xander thought bitter. "Who, if I may ask?"

"Me."

"Pardon me?" Xander paused looking out for a hideout, and turned to the lady, confused.

"I mean, I came here for the caste upgrade. I didn't expect to stay past elimination one. How do you get eliminated quickly? I've tried being as salty and rude in class, but that didn't do the job. You know, I just wanna go home—not get arrested for insulting the Crown."

Oh.

Well, at least, she was direct.

"You…" Xander paused. What was he going to say to that? "You could have asked?"

"You aren't exactly around a lot."

"I—you could have told someone. Sophia."

"Eh," Zarah shrugged. "Too much work."

"… Alright? You're—" he paused. "You are free to leave, if you want. If you want to stay past the Italian's visit, that's fine but…"

"Nah. I'm sure the Selection wastes enough money. I got what I need, already. I'm more than done."

"I see," Xander nodded. "Thank you for your honesty, Lady Zarah."

"No worries, bro." She nodded to Tori. "If I'm officially out now, is she really 'just a friend', or more?" Zarah asked, raising her eyebrows. Just as bad as Evan.

"Yes," Xander insisted. Tori had made that clear long ago. Anything they had had been a lie—a lie Xander hadn't seen through and that may have cost his mother's life. At least, he liked to tell himself, it hadn't been Tori who had revealed the safehouse location. It had been Jack, and only he was at fault. Only Jack.

"How do you know another?"

"We met during the war," Xander replied.

"How?"

"Nothing particular," Xander replied.

"That sounds particular," Zarah huffed.

"It is all." She was eliminated—no need to dig into his past and private relationships.

"Ah," Zarah nodded.

Xander chose to take the pause in the conversation as a reason to head to the local production head, and inform them of his decision. Not that they hadn't heard it, although Xander most certainly wouldn't allow that conversation to be aired, but formalities were such. Zarah would leave tomorrow, and be, with a palace aide, begin her life as former Selected and Three. She, of course, would be helped adjusting. A Six becoming a Three—even Xander understood the difficulties.

History had shown them.

Ami and Alex followed them out eventually. Sawyer returned—Xander had been right. Thank god, he realised—he didn't need to eliminate Zarah in front of another girl. He'd like to avoid that drama.

"Shall we take a break?" Alex suggested. "There's a mall nearby. We could get food?"

Before Xander could use the camera crew as an excuse to not go, one of the members already rose with a portable one. Always prepared—of course. Xander quietly cursed. He wouldn't voice that though, and so, the four made their way to the local mall, where Alex, before anyone else, declared they were going to get avocado toasts and fries. An odd combination, but it wasn't like Xander knew a lot about fast food.

"Why that?"

"It smells good, and I want it now," Alex declared. "If it makes you sad, I'll pay."

That, Xander "Scrooge McDuck" Illéa, did not oppose at all. While Alex, with Zarah and Ami as company head on—because Ami and Zarah both insisted on inspecting the menu first—Xander was glad to see that he had one more girl to go through. Given the time of the day, he liked to think they could end the date soon.

He also needed to make a decision on Alex, but he could do that when they were at the palace.

"Too bad, I didn't get to play with you," Sawyer remarked.

"It's quite late, I'm afraid. I wouldn't want to make the employees stay longer than they have to."

"That's fair. People dragging out their stay is a nightmare. I've seen it at the club."

"You work as a DJ, if I remember correctly?"

"Yeah. It's not as bad as the stuff during the occupation though," Sawyer paused, as if waiting for the go-ahead sign. "They used to linger around everywhere, including my father's restaurant. Demand free meal, because they were the new military and we do veteran discounts. Whenever the waiters or chefs disobeyed, we'd find a broken window, threat or outright beat up employees on the next day! They claim to be the 'heroes' of Illéa, and then go around, beating people to death! It's ridiculous! You couldn't even walk through the streets in the afternoon, because they'd just randomly pick on someone, call them casteist and lash out!"

"That's terrible," Xander replied, and he meant it. That was why they went against them, after all.

"I have friends in the upper castes, and seriously—they go and beat up every girl that wears little more expensive clothes. My best friend, a Six, got beaten up when she borrowed a dress to meet a guy!" Sawyer punched the wall of the small restaurant they entered. She rose her voice already. If this went further, he'd need her to calm down. "Then they just target people—my family!—just because they can. Seriously, I swear, if I can, I'm going to beat all of them up. All of them. Every single one."

"Lady Sawyer," Xander begun.

"Huh?"

"Would you mind lowering your voice? I would prefer not to attract attention."

"But have you seen what they were doing?!"

"Yes, one of my closest friends were stationed in—"

"My whole hometown was destroyed!"

"That's terrible, but—"

This time, it wasn't Sawyer to interrupt him, but Tori. "Xander, can I have you for a second?" She waves, with a tablet in her hand.

"What's up?" Sawyer asked, curious. "We were in the middle of a conversation."

"Uh, politics," Tori replied. "Nothing Code Black or anything," she added on before Xander could even start worrying. Code Black meant anything related to the rebels or his family's safety. "Just some foreign politics that require the Prince Regent's immediate attention. Nothing special."

"If it's not special, then you can tell me too, right?"

Normally, anyone would wait for Xander's confirmation, but it was all too well established that Tori had terrible abilities when it came to following the rules. "There was an incident in Italy, and a bunch of advisors focusing on foreign relations, particularly Europe, want to see if we even want the Italians here now. They view Italy as too unstable."

"By all means, we can't claim anyone else to be unstable," Xander remarked dry. Not after six years of civil war.

"What happened?" Sawyer inquired.

"There is a group that doesn't want the Italian heir on the throne; they prefer his younger brother, or a new one entirely. It's a group consisting of predominantly left-leaning activists," Tori summarises from the tablet. "They think that Carlos is too easily influenced—by local and foreigners."

Knowing his cousin, that is true. "What did they do?"

"A rumour, false, appeared that he was in Milan before heading here next week. Not true, because he chose not to go last second, but the location he was meant to stay at had previously had a bomb planted there. It went off, injuring at least twenty people, and killing three—the search is ongoing."

"A bomb?!" Sawyer called out—loud enough that Xander worried for the people present. Thankfully, the population of Angeles was desensitised to war threats by now. "How—how could they allow that to happen? That's terrible! They are terrible!"

"It happened around ten minutes ago. Our contacts in Italy informed us immediately, given the Savoy's upcoming visit."

"What exactly are the councilmen saying?" Xander asked.

"This isn't about people coming here; we need to help them! People were killed!"

"The advisors say that we should cut off the Italian's visit, or at least ask them to leave Carl in Italy. They are concerned about attacks; the Italian intelligence had warnings beforehand, but evidently didn't take them seriously enough."

"Then we should."

"That's not worth risking our relationship with them. I know my uncle; he could be insulted. Plus, with the increased airport security, and the military still on alert, we'll be fine over here. We won't cancel it, but send them our condolences; tell the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Have our ambassador to Italy visit the site."

"I'll forward that," Tori nodded. "Good to know that everyone's got their problems, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Sawyer frowned.

"I meant," and Tori was as blunt as always, "that every country as people trying to blow up stuff."

"Are you normalising war?"

"It's pretty damn normal."

"Tori—"

Before he could tell her to drop the topic, Tori already shrugged, pulled out her phone and was on her way out. "See you, I got work to do," she said, when noticing the slight confusion on Sawyer's face. Of course—Tori wasn't part of the date.

Sawyer frowned. "I'm not sure if I like Irina's distance-to-victims-and-emotions attitude or her i-don't-care one less."

"Pardon me?"

"Irina Cavanah. She's your typical 'emotions are weakness' archetype. Sorry—but it's pretty obvious." Yes, he knew that, and he admired Irina for her abilities to not lead herself by them.

"I see," Xander nodded.

"It's, just, inevitable that she'll make someone feel bad for having them."

Xander vaguely nodded again. "Going back to your work—how did you start DJing?" A topic change, he thought, was definitely more welcome.

Whenever Sawyer realised that he had tried to change it or not, he listened to the story that led to Sawyer become a DJ, and they joined the other girls for an early dinner. Soon, though, and part of the reason was Xander's work already looming over him, they headed back to the palace. Only when they reached the Grand Staircase, Xander found the courage to do what he needed to.

Decrease the financial burden called 'Selection'.

Lower the numbers, find the ladies that were genuine competition.

"Lady Alessandra," he spoke up, just as she headed up the staircase. "Would you mind sparring me a moment?"

"Hmm?" Alex paused. "Sure. You guys go ahead, don't wait for me."

"Oh, I'll wait for you. I have news," Zarah hummed. Yes, and Alex had too.

Once the other girls were gone—out of reach—Xander cleared his throat. "I have decided to eliminate you from the Selection," he announced, as formal as he could. This had to be done with respect, not with the casualness that Zarah's elimination had.

"Ah," Alex said, "I guess my reason to be here isn't one to stay."

"Exactly," Xander nodded. "As much as I would like to aid you in avoiding your work's pressure, the Selection costs the country too much money for me to allow that. That being said, I would recommend you to take it as a change and change your career path."

"Yeah," Alex nodded. "I'll try to do that. How does this work from now on?"

"Lady Abby will be in contact with you shortly; she will set up contact to one of the specialised aides that will help you readjust after your stay at the palace." Xander's words couldn't have been less 'read from transcript'. "You will head home as soon as possible."

"Ah, cool. Do you mind if I go and tell my friends then?" Alex asked.

"You're free to go," Xander dismissed her.

He watched Alex walk up the stairs, looking a bit more heavy-hearted than he liked her to. No, he reminded himself, we need the money elsewhere. Sumner. Schools. Helping the people. It was inevitable either way, and probably better to make the cut now, than later on. It was almost a month, after all. Almost a month into the Selection. A strange thought.

/ / /

Author's Note

(Hi I'm sorry, I forgot, I was out all day.)

Ah, yes, airport security. We all know how effective it is.

The first two eliminations are Zarah Baine by Tis I, The Most Frenchiest Fry and Alessandra "Alex" Valentino, by Jcuret48. Both are lovely characters, but someone has to go, and both Zarah, especially with her relationship to Xaviour, and Alex, with the reason she is here, didn't have a reason story-wise/from Xander's POV to stay; their personalities just don't match enough. That being said, I really enjoyed writing them—more in this chapter than anytime else, and I'll miss them.

I can, however, announce that I intend to start a small series of short (like, really short, don't expect chapter length) OneShots, one for each of the Selected, when they are eliminated or otherwise 'leave' the plot. Instead of the next chapter, the first two shots, featuring Zarah and Alex, will go up.! :) Depending on the Selected, they may also feature other girls (Alex' will!), so definitely check them out. The collection will be named Ground Zero and be up soon! (That being said, who knows if the eliminated girls won't reappear… :eyes:)

I was going to add another scene, but French told me to cut it, so I'm cutting it. French helped a lot this chapter, so thanks! 3