Fifteen minutes after Julian leads Hanna to a different section of the former HQ, Rob and Milla finally gain entry through one of the few secret access tunnels that haven't collapsed during a century of no maintenance. However, as neither know the way around the disused facility, they have no idea which way to proceed.

"How good are you at tracking scents?" Rob asks.

"Never tracked before, but I can try it," Milla answers.

"Can you recognise Hanna's scent?"

"I think so." Milla drops onto all‑fours and sniffs around, trying to pick up the vixen's distinctive scent pattern. "I can smell something… It's very faint… Wait: it gets stronger over here… This way!"

Rob follows Milla as she follows the scent trail, eventually finding the room where Hanna found Julian.

"They were definitely in here," Milla informs Rob, sniffing one of the two chairs. "Hanna's scent is all over this."

"We must have just missed them," Rob realises.

"There's another scent on this chair," Milla adds after sniffing the second chair. "I can't be sure, but I think I've detected it before."

"Leader Julian," Rob replies. "We need to track them down and find out what he's intending to do with my wife."

"On it." Milla resumes tracking the scent trails, increasing in speed as the trail gets stronger… and running straight into the legs of Leader Julian.

"Ah, Milla, how unexpected," Julian greets. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Milla looks up in surprise. "Oh… Uh… Hi?" she replies nervously, backing away from the wyvern.

"And you've brought Rob along too, I see," Julian observes as Rob catches up to Milla.

"Whatever you're planning, we're here to stop it," Rob declares.

"And what exactly am I meant to be planning?" Julian asks, keeping his tone soft. "And remember that, as a Red Scarves Leader, I hold ultimate authority over you."

"Only if the other Leaders allow it," Rob reminds.

"I see little chance of them interfering," Julian replies. "I ask again: what exactly am I meant to be planning?"

"I know it has something to do with the Fire Crystal," Rob answers. "I also know it has something to do with why the defending B‑MAC champion was murdered."

Julian shakes his head in disappointment. "A tragic loss of an innocent life and the theft of a precious artefact, and you think I'm the mastermind behind it all? Why is that, exactly?"

"You're planning to… um…" Rob tails off. Shit: I have no idea how to explain.

"As I thought: you have no idea," Julian sighs in disappointment. "It's a very serious charge, accusing a Leader of conspiracy with zero evidence. Such a charge carries a very hefty penalty, one I'm sure your wife would prefer you didn't suffer. And since I have no reason to upset Hanna, I offer you one chance: leave now, and I will forget this ever happened."

Rob hesitates. I have nothing to go on, but I can't just let this go… but I have no choice: I must retreat. "Very well. But before I go, I will say this: when I find out what you're doing, I will put an end to it. Come on Milla."

"I only told you to go," Julian corrects. "As I have no authority over Milla, I cannot order her to leave, nor can I threaten a Hero of Avalice."

"Don't worry about me: I'll be fine," Milla assures.

"Then I'll see you back at the Battlesphere," Rob replies, then turns back to Julian. "You've not heard the last from me."

Julian waits until Rob's out of sight and earshot. "I'm curious: why did you accompany Rob?"

"Because I've seen this before," Milla begins, her tone firm and her expression accusing. "I've seen first‑hand just how corrupt someone in power can be. I've seen just how far some are willing to go to achieve their goals. I saw it in Lord Brevon, I saw it in Huxian Dolma, and I see it in you."

"My dear Milla, that is quite the accusation," Julian replies, chuckling softly. "But there's one key difference between myself and the others."

"And what's that?"

"I won't fail."

Milla blinks in surprise. I wasn't expecting him to confess…

"What's the matter?" Julian asks. "Carol got your tongue?"

"I wasn't expecting you to admit it so readily," Milla explains. "I'm also surprised you're risking Hanna overhearing you."

"There's no risk," Julian informs. "Hanna's working with me."

"She's wild, but she wouldn't agree to help you," Milla argues.

"You're right," Julian admits. "That's why she didn't get a choice."

"You're a monster," Milla growls.

"My dear Měi Lán, it is you who is the monster," Julian replies. "Do not deny that you are a Bái Shén and a direct descendant of the 'yuánshǐ tiāngǒu'."

Milla is almost stunned silent by Julian using her original name. "H… How do you know that name?"

"The Leaders approved your access to the most restricted section of our library," Julian reminds.

"Oh… Heh, I guess I forgot," Milla blushes, a little embarrassed.

"Indeed. Regardless, correctly guessing you're a descendant of Tiāngǒu isn't exactly a challenging endeavour," Julian continues. "The truth is everyone on Avalice is his descendant in some way, just as they're also all descended from dragons. What marks you out is your direct descendancy in contrast to the indirect descendancy shared by the rest of the population."

"I don't follow," Milla replies, confused.

"A millennium is easily enough time for Bái Shén and draconic genetics to spread around the entire population," Julian explains. "The dragons gave Avalicians elemental affinities, but the Bái Shén gave them something even more powerful."

"What could the Bái Shén give everyone?"

"Think about what makes you unique."

"I don't‑" The realisation hits Milla like a semi‑truck at highway speed. "…Shade Forms."

"Correct," Julian confirms. "However, without a method to unlock them, they're worthless."

"What do you need Hanna for?" Milla asks, fearing the response.

"I have the key and I need to test that it works," Julian answers.

By the Ancients: he's using Hanna as a lab animal! "I won't let you get away with this!" Milla snarls, drawing her piandao and energising it.

"You don't have a choice."

"There's always a choice!" Milla charges at Julian… and passes straight through the spot where he stood, the wyvern having teleported away at the last second. "What on Avalice‽"

Her question is met with only silence.

Milla deactivates her blade, sheathes it, and begins the walk back to the secret entrance she used to get in. He told me everything… Why? He knows I'll tell Lilac and Carol everything he told me. He knows that as soon as they find out, we'll all come down here and stop him. Why would he‑ Again, realisation hits Milla like a semi‑truck at highway speed. He's making me choose between two terrible options. If I tell Lilac and Carol, then we'll foil his plans, only for the public to turn against us because we put them in unnecessary danger by inciting panic. But if I don't tell them, then if his plans succeed, the public will turn against us anyway because we let it happen… and it'll all be my fault.

Milla continues in silence, hoping that by the time she gets back to the B‑MAC, she's figured out what she needs to do.


A little deeper into the facility, Julian appears in a small side room, where he leans back against the wall while he waits for the mild teleportation‑triggered nausea to subside. How Team Lilac handled teleporting on the Dreadnought, I'll never know. Thankfully, the nausea passes in seconds, and he exits the small side room into a much larger laboratory that is empty except for a single steel chair in the exact centre currently occupied by the unconscious Hanna Skarlett.

Julian walks up to Hanna and crouches in front of her. "Time to wake up, my pawn," he informs, waving a small open vial of pungent smelling salts under her nose.

It only takes a few seconds for the salts to have an effect. "Hnngh… What happened?" Hanna asks as consciousness returns to her.

"I sedated you to stop you fighting back," Julian answers.

"Huh?" Hanna tries to get up, and that's when she discovers she's so firmly strapped to the chair, she can barely move. "What the fuck‽ Get me the fuck outta this right fucking now!"

"If I did that, then I wouldn't be able to unlock your full potential," Julian explains.

Hanna's about to snap back but stops herself as curiosity takes hold. "Wait… Did you strap me down for my own safety? Because if so, you only had to ask."

"I strapped you down so I could administer this," Julian corrects, holding up a vial filled with a scarlet liquid.

Hanna's eyes widen in fear the instant she sees the liquid. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Depends what you think it is."

Hanna doesn't want to say the next words, but she forces them out anyway: "The Shade Virus."

"Correct."

Hanna switches her focus from the vial to Julian. "Look, I've been thinking: I'm OK with Lilac beating the shit outta me again."

"I don't believe you."

"…OK, you got me there," Hanna admits. "But I don't want to do it this way. I don't what that shit in me. I've seen what it can do, and… it scares the shit outta me."

"You don't have a choice."

"Please, don't inject that stuff into me," Hanna pleads. "I promise I won't tell anyone what happened down here. I'll keep the whole thing secret. I won't even tell Rob."

"We both know that's a lie, and that's why I'm not giving you a choice," Julian informs. "Besides, I'm not injecting you with it, as I have a much better idea."

"And what is‑" Hanna stops when she realises she can sense a familiar call. The Fire Crystal. "You sick bastard," she growls, baring her teeth. "You know what that thing turns me into!"

"Don't worry, you won't turn into that," Julian assures. Not yet, anyway. "I'm simply using it to help unlock your true potential."

"When I get out of this, you better fucking run and never stop, because I will hunt you down and tear you apart so completely, there'll be nothing left to fucking bury!" Hanna barks.

"Threatening a Leader is an extremely serious offence," Julian replies. "Luckily, I didn't hear it."

Before Hanna can reply, Julian quickly stuffs a cloth in her mouth and secures it place with a tight cleave gag, leaving her unable to do anything but growl impotently.

"Ah, that's better," Julian sighs in relief as he fits Hanna with the Inhibitor Headband. "Now, just relax, and this will all be over before you know it."

Hanna can only watch helplessly as Julian begins to assemble the needed equipment.

"Y'know, it's a shame Lilac left the Scarves when she did," Julian sighs, recalling his emotions the day it happened. "This whole process would have been so much easier if she was still a member. Did you know those chargers are key to her abilities? You would have had a pair just like them, and together, you would have been unstoppable. Of course, I'd have to convince you two to get along first, but that's academic now. Without access to the technology that gives Lilac her powers, I've had to find an alternative."

With his equipment assembled, Julian starts preparing a compact device small enough to be implanted inside a person. "A year later, after the whole Brevon Crisis had blown over, I got my hands on some Brevontech. Of course, the tech by itself wasn't enough: I needed the right energy source, and that's where your little adventures with the Fire Crystal gave me an idea."

Julian finishes preparing the compact device and holds it up for Hanna to see. "This is what I've come up with. There are a few ways of triggering it to release the Shade Virus directly into your bloodstream. The first is I send a signal to the device. The second is my death. And most importantly, any attempt to remove it will also trigger it. Now, all I need to do is implant it, and that's where the Fire Crystal comes in: it'll heal you so completely there won't even be a scar."

Hanna redoubles her efforts to break free, licks of flame flickering all over her body as she tries to tap into her Fire affinity, but the straps holding her stationary are just too strong for her to break, and the flames too weak to cause any damage.

"The more you struggle, the more it'll hurt," Julian advises.

Hanna attempts to yell an extremely explicit and violent reply, only for her words to be rendered utterly unintelligible by the gag.

Unfazed, Julian presses a button on the side of the chair. "Just lie back and accept your fate."

The chair reclines as Hanna continues her futile struggles.

When the chair is almost flat, Julian extends a single claw, makes a small incision in Hanna's abdomen, and pushes the compact device through it. Once inside her body, the device crawls deeper until it finds a suitable vein to latch onto. The pain of the incision and the discomfort of the device moving through her would be enough to cause anyone else to scream loud and long, but Hanna refuses to give Julian the satisfaction, simply glaring at him with murderous intent as she fights back the tears.

Julian wipes the blood off his hands with a small towel. "And now to finish the job."

Breathing heavily as her body's healing mechanisms swing into action, Hanna can do nothing but watch helplessly as Julian produces the Fire Crystal and inserts it through the incision, the cut closing and healing without a trace moments later.

"The Headband suits you," Julian comments before leaving Hanna alone in the laboratory.

Feeling the power of the Fire Crystal flowing through her body and the Inhibitor Headband limiting its strength, Hanna takes a deep breath, focusses her mind, and concentrates on freeing herself. It takes several seconds to burn through the straps holding her arms in place, but once they're free, her claws make short work of the rest of the straps and the cleave gag, the cloth stuffing her mouth landing on the floor soon after.

For a moment, Hanna considers pursuing Julian, but she knows doing so would be a mistake. Fucker knows what he's doing alright: he's got me totally stitched up. Then again, the Fire Crystal is inside me. Can it disable that device with the Shade Virus in it?

Julian appears in the exit door. "Oh, almost forgot: if you try to use the Fire Crystal to disable the Shade Virus device, it'll trigger. And no, the Crystal won't stop the Virus spreading."

"One way or another, you'll fucking pay for this," Hanna growls.

"Not even you are reckless enough to take the risk."

Hanna simply growls in response, her teeth bared.

"You better get back before your husband decides to come down here again," Julian advises before departing once more. "And don't quit the B‑MAC!"

Hanna inspects where the incision was to find zero sign it was ever made. Looks like I have no choice: I must stay in control… It's going to be the hardest thing I've ever had to do.