Chapter 10: I Want To Know

"So you have classes?" Bryan asked as he laid upon one of the many common room couches. As the school didn't want anyone to be able to immediately identify their guests, Eveline and her friends were given their own UA uniforms, which Bryan had thrown on before coming down for breakfast. He didn't like the uniform all that much; it didn't quite fit him and he found it irritating on his many scars. Eveline's fit just fine but she had to request tights as she felt a little exposed in it.

"Yes." Midoriya nodded, his large yellow backpack was pressed into his back as he gripped the straps. He had spent the past twenty minutes gently explaining what the school's schedule was and what they, as guests, were allowed to do during the school's academic half of the day.

"And we can't do anything until when?"

"Training is right after lunch," Midoriya answered rather nervously, "I or one of the teachers will come to get you guys so you can join us. Okay?"

Eveline was perfectly fine with this arrangement, as it was more freedom than she was used to, but Bryan and Zelda weren't too keen on it. They were used to being able to go wherever they pleased and any restrictions were typically ignored by them. After all, they were technically royalty back in their world.

"Alright," Bryan groaned as he stretched out, some of the buttons on his shirt popped off as he did so. "I'll give you an hour's leeway and after that, I'm hunting you down myself."

Midoriya visibly relaxed as he no longer feared that Bryan might go against the school's rules. Eveline was happy too, but for a different reason. As she had spent so long in mostly solitary confinement, she needed someone to update her on certain things and Bryan was the right person to hound with questions.

"I promise I'll be back!" Midoriya hurried off to class; he was the last of 1-A to leave their dorm which was due to him needing to deal with them.

Eveline watched the young man leave, smiling as she heard him run toward the large glass building where the classrooms resided. A small part of her wanted to invade his thoughts while he was in class just as she used to but she shook that selfish desire out of her mind. There were far more important things to do than spy on Midoriya.

"You know," Eveline, who had been standing beside Midoriya until he left, turned to stare down at the half-fairy man. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you kinda like Deku."

Eveline smiled slightly and rolled her eyes. "I hope you do know better." When Bryan wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, Eveline shook her head and added, " Besides, we've got more important things to talk about."

"Do we?" He asked as he sat up; at this point, he tore off the last few buttons he had, leaving his chest completely bare for all to see. The sight was nothing Eveline hadn't seen before, though she noted a few more scars scattered along both his chest and belly. "And what's that?"

Eveline took a seat on the arm of the couch Bryan was on; the look of her face didn't fit the Princess' normal array of expressions. She seemed perplexed yet angered. She seemed to struggle as to what topic she should begin with, leading Bryan to wonder what was going through that pretty little head of hers. "To start," She said finally, "Kasdeya's appearance."

A sneer was quickly drawn upon Bryan's mouth. "What about her?"

"Why did she look so different?" Eveline asked softly, unwilling to avoid the sore topic. "She used to be a redhead, bright apple-red hair, with fiery eyes and slit pupils."

"Yeah…?" Bryan begrudgingly nodded, "She started looking different about a year ago."

"Well," Eveline continued, somehow a little hesitant but equally determined to speak her mind. "It's just that...I'm not saying that isn't a perfectly normal and logical excuse for the drastic change in her appearance, but she seemed so different. And not just in looks but in strength as well."

Bryan absentmindedly nodded though he was internally going through his memories trying to recollect the moment he had first seen the new version of the succubus. As he said earlier, he saw this newly blue demon a year ago when Merlin and Zelda first told him about their plan to get Eveline. She had only shown up because it was suspicious for the princes and princesses of the fairy kingdom to leave the forest while their parents were MIA. He had spoken to her that time, but he couldn't remember what he had said; he did remember that she kept messing with her blue locks, almost as if she were trying to convince herself that they weren't blue by not looking at it and then getting annoyed when they entered her line of sight.

He had thought that it was strange back then; everyone recognized her as a redhead so she wouldn't have changed her appearance herself. Not only that but what benefit came from that?

"I know we used to joke that she was like some lab rat for Guinevere," Eveline continued, "and now I'm beginning to think we weren't far off with that…"

Bryan nodded, "It would make sense," he paused and took a moment to fully consider the possibility that she was physically altered by the second-born Liones. It wasn't impossible as everyone knew Guinevere had interests in science, which they could thank Merlin for. "But now that you mention it, she was thicker too. The Kasdeya we saw was almost sickly looking."

"But still powerful."

"Not by her normal standards though." Bryan added in a thoughtful tone, "Don't you remember when Uncle Meliodas had that tournament? We were all about six or so when it happened."

Eveline smiled slightly; she did remember that tournament, she remembered it very well. It was one of her father's and Uncle Ban's grand schemes to see who had the stronger knights (their mothers refused to let them duke it out themselves because of the severe damage they caused); it was all in good fun and she enjoyed watching her father and uncle get worked up over every round. Kasdeya was a meager knight back then, hardly viewed as anything beyond ordinary in comparison to the other contestants. She only got in at Guinevere's insistence and she had completely astounded the audience with her speed and strategic attacks, winning until Gilthunder beat her in the semi-finals.

Thinking back to the other night, she could say that the demon's speed was less than it used to be and in retrospect, while her weakness was the same, it did strike Eveline as odd that Kasdeya would recklessly use her familiar in the cell. Because of the huge disadvantage, the snake creature caused by their separation, her reliance on it was typically reserved for last resort kinds of situations. Why did she use it then?

"Something's not right," Bryan sighed and he finally removed himself from the couch. "Guinevere's a devious person, and I'm not gonna lie, us saving you hardly seems like it matters much because it was too easy to get you."

Eveline had to agree. "Security had always been pretty lax around my cell…" she lowered her head slightly, "I was constantly moved deeper into the prison but I rarely had guards."

"Would it even be beneficial to her to have someone watch you?" The question took Eveline by surprise. "I mean, you're not only a half-goddess, but you're Elizabeth's daughter. You can talk to people's hearts just like she could. You could have easily swayed anyone to help you, even if they were a demon."

Eveline, again, agreed, "I suppose that's true, but that still answers nothing really."

"Answers aren't gonna come easy." He stated, crossing his arms behind his head as he headed off to the kitchen. He hadn't eaten yet and Midoriya had mentioned how there should be snacks there. "Zelda would be the best person to ask."

Eveline watched as Bryan left her, feeling as if she had only gone in circles with their conversation. She still only had suspicions, nothing was concrete and the only definitive answer was to ask Zelda. "I tried already…" she said under her breath.

She did try, just before bed, she had snuck out to Zelda's room at the teacher's dorms and tried to talk to her. Zelda only gave vague answers or insisted that they wait until the next day to talk. The blonde left without anything useful to think about.

Though she told herself that it was too soon to tell for sure, Eveline noticed that Zelda was distant. Of course, the vampire princess had always been that way since their childhood and Guinevere's reign had only worsened her social anxiety, however, she was never that way with Eveline. They had been close from infancy, so why did Eveline feel a sudden wall between them?

Maybe it's just me… Eveline wasn't sure if she should be making assumptions about her old friends and family after all these years. They've changed during her imprisonment, living their own lives, and she didn't because she couldn't. It's all in my head, that's all it is…

Midoriya quickly changed into his hero costume, much to the amusement of the other boys. Once they had been left alone by the teachers, Kaminari started teasing Midoriya about Eveline. It wasn't anything like before, no one brought up Eveline being his girlfriend, instead, he went on about how pretty she was and how he was amazed that Midoriya was into those kinds of girls.

Midoriya paused, his left glove remained half-limp on his arm as he struggled to not sound so innocent. "Those kinds…?"

"Blonde, green-eyed!" Kaminari swooned as he dreamily waltzed around the locker room. "And she's so pretty!"

Mineta tried to join, "With great big-" but Bakugo stomped his foot into the head of UA's pervert. "Gah!"

"Woah there," Kirishima reached out to Bakugo and tried to pull him off the squirt, to little avail. "You don't need to stomp his brains out."

Bakugo didn't respond, though Midoriya could see that there was something in his eyes that seemed like a sort of non-verbal response. Was he jealous? Offended? Disgusted? All three? He wanted to ask but knew better; if Bakugo was willing to nearly obliterate Mineta, he didn't want to be the next target.

"You shouldn't talk that way about her…" Midoriya said as he eyed Bakugo, "She's a princess after all and her parents are supposed to be the gods of her world…"

All the boys (minus Bakugo) stared at Midoriya, their eyes wide with shock. That little blonde was the daughter of gods?

"It's true…" Midoriya tried to not let the stares get to him as he spoke, "her cousin Zelda is a princess too. Only her dad is Eveline's uncle and her mom is a vampire princess."

"A vampire!" Mineta's head shot up, actually knocked Bakugo's foot back, "How exotic!"

His excitement was quickly squashed as the explosive blonde harshly gripped the top of his head and lifted his small body to Bakugo's eye level. "LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE FREAK!" Bakugo would have killed the pervert at that moment, but Iida quickly separated the two, urging Bakugo to save his rage for training. Kirishima also butted in, telling the blonde that he could fight Mineta later.

It came as a genuine surprise to all of the boys how quickly Bakugo had gone from murderous to defensive; he quickly insisted that it was nothing and stomped out of the room. His temper may naturally quick, but never quite like that and no one knew if they should be alarmed by it. Either way, his reaction killed Kaminari's playful teasing and everyone silently agreed to not bring up any more suggestive thoughts aimed at Eveline.

"Woah," Midoriya heard Sero mutter under his breath as they all began to exit the locker room. "What sparked that kind of rage out of him?"

Kaminari nodded, eyeing Midoriya as he whispered, "Both had a history with her, remember? At least that's what Bakugo said…"

"Still," Sero replied, "he said they only knew each other for, what, a couple of days…?"

"Who knows, Bakugo's a strange guy." The conversation died as they came out into the sunlight. It seemed that they wanted the incident to remain within the walls of the locker room though Midoriya knew that it wouldn't stay there for long.

Kacchan...I thought maybe you told me everything, Midoriya lowered his head slightly, half aware of what was going on around him. Aizawa and All Might were explaining the course which he managed to get the gist of through the few points he overheard. It was a simple exercise, similar to what he had done with Bryan before the rescue. The only difference was that it required chasing a villain, a single person for the moment.

Two major groups were divided, one for the heroes and the other for the villains. The students assigned the villain roles were chosen based on their speed and destructive capabilities; of that group, there was Iida, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Bakugo, Sato, and Midoriya. For heroes, they were paired without quirk compatibility in mind. As Aizawa put it, "compatibility of quirks could be learned regardless of who they were partnered with,". The arrangement looked like this.

Bakugo vs. Sero, Asido, and Ojiro

Sato vs. Tsuyu and Jiro

Uraraka vs. Todoroki and Hagakure

Tokoyami vs. Shoji, Ayoyama, and Mineta

Iida vs. Kirishima and Koda

Midoriya vs. Yaoyorozu and Kaminari

"This exercise requires a great deal of strategy," Aizawa stated as he finished separating the groups. "Just because you know each other's quirks doesn't mean you know everything about them. Be smart, be quick, and don't get distracted."

"Is there a time limit?" Iida asked, "or is it until the villains are caught?"

"We're timing you for the moment," All Might held up his smartphone, showing that he had the stopwatch ready. "Once we've gotten the first run dealt with, we'll time the match based on that."

"So this is about being quick?" Hagakure mused softly.

"Crime happens all the time and you need to be able to move from one chase to another or end a pursuit to minimize damage and amount of people who will be affected by it." All Might moved his gaze toward the group of villains and added that they needed to avoid capture by any means necessary. "Technically you have two ways of going about this, I'll leave it to you to figure out which one you should follow."

With that dealt with, the simulation began with Bakugo, giving Midoriya plenty of time to muse over his plan for helping Eveline and his strategy for the exercise.

Eveline, Zelda, and Bryan made their way to where I-A was training, following the lead of Midnight who Eveline immediately liked though Zelda and Bryan seemed to have taken an instant dislike toward her. Though the blonde didn't know for sure, she suspected that the duo associated the mature hero with Merlin. Physically, she could see similarities; both had black hair, angular features, and natural sex appeal though Merlin never cared much about those sorts of things. Also, some of their mannerisms were similar in action though not in meaning.

It was a pity to judge her based on a preconceived association with another woman, but Eveline was just as guilty of that as the other two. From the moment she laid eyes on Midnight, she felt comfortable with the hero because she reminded her of Merlin. There were other reasons beyond that, such as how knowledgeable Midnight was and how easy it was for Eveline to approach her.

"They should be training at the moment," Midnight hummed, speaking mainly to Eveline as she figured out that the other two weren't keen on her. "It's a cat and mouse pursuit, we do those a lot as heroes."

Eveline hummed in acknowledgment, she understood the coded exercise as Midoriya had explained it to her once when she interrupted his training some time ago. "Must be exhausting to do that…"

Midnight laughed, "it's a labor of love for some of us; I always loved a good chase but I'm sure there are others who aren't fond of it."

Eveline gave the pro-hero a slight smile; Midoriya's fight with Gentle came to mind and she wondered what Midoriya felt toward pursuits. She knew what he had felt in the moment (anger, desperation, determination were what she could immediately recall) but she wondered if he found it to be exhausting or thrilling.

"What exactly are you chasing?" Zelda asked, Eveline, looked over her shoulder to see a strange look on her cousin's face. It took a minute for her to realize that Zelda might not fully understand what they were talking about.

"Typically lower class villains like to run," Midnight smiled, it was a look of pride and maybe a twinge of arrogance, "sometimes a few of the big guys like make a break but that's usually when they know they're outnumbered or when they're faced with a hero who's stronger than them."

The conversation seemed to fade after that. Eveline had more questions to ask but she sensed that no one was eager to be pestered by her. It could have been her imagination as Midnight was very keen on sharing knowledge, but the other two didn't seem open to learning anything about this world. She should have guessed that; this wasn't just some escape. It was a means to an end; they needed to figure what to do to deal with Guinevere, or, at least, that's all she could think of them doing without their parents' help.

Realistically, we should be looking for them...and Lunete...The tomb that Guinevere told her about had been a mystery; she was only told that it existed and that their parents were sealed within it. But she did know from context that Lunete wasn't sealed in it. In fact, Lunete visited her once after Guinevere bragged about it; there was no way Guinevere could have put their eldest sister in it afterward, the seal would have broken. Not only that, but Lunete was strong enough to resist.

But her body is weak. That was right; Lunete, for as strong as her powers were, her body was weak which was why she was the diplomat of the Liones children. Fighting exhausted her, even healing herself could tire her out if she's injured beyond superficial cuts, so there was no concern toward Lunete going against Guinevere. But she still disappeared.

Lunete… Eveline had so many questions, and it seemed nobody wanted to answer her. She thought of that bottle Midoriya had; supposedly it had answers but to what questions? She only knew that it had to do with their link and Midoriya seemed to know something that she didn't.

Everyone knows something that I don't and I hate it…

"Here we are," Midnight extended her arm outward toward the arena. The group could see Uraraka escaping from Todoroki from a distance; the brunette girl was narrowingly dodging the boy's ice which was interesting to Eveline at least. Just by their powers, she knew who was who and it helped that everyone looked distinctly different from one another. "All Might and Aizawa have the kids under control, so I'll just drop you guys off with them and be on my way."

The group of three was taken straight to the teachers, who were pleased that they made it in a timely fashion. All Might greet them while Aizawa kept his eye on the simulation, informing them of what was happening and offering to let them join if they felt inclined to do so.

Bryan was the first to express curiosity toward the offer. "It's just running away?" He looked over the rails, watching as Uraraka was finally caught by the pair.

"More like a race," All Might pointed to the end of the arena where a pair of sleek metal doors were. "If the villain makes it there, they've successfully evaded the hero team. Otherwise, if the team gets them, they lose. It's about catching or evading as quickly as possible."

"Sounds like fun!" Eveline glanced toward her cousin, putting on her best puppy eyes. "Please, Zelda?"

"We're not on holiday…" Zelda looked away from the blonde in an attempt to avoid caving in to the blonde's wishes. Eveline gasped and tried to force the black-haired vampire to look at her, to little success. "Besides, I doubt-"

Bryan slung his arm around Eveline's shoulders and grinned cheekily, "C'mon, they're literally training for battle. Shouldn't we be doing the same?" He cupped the vampire's chin and turned her head toward them, much to her offense. She jerked her head out of his grip, which only amused Bryan. "Don't be like that, sugar bat."

Eveline's pleading expression quickly changes to one of confusion, glancing between the two. "Sugar bat?"

"Because she's a vampire who likes sweets!" Bryan squished Eveline closer to him, "So, sugar bat, what's the verdict?"

"Don't call me that!" Zelda glared at the tall man and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms in front of her chest rather indignantly. "I'm not participating."

"Please!" Eveline forced her way into Zelda's face, crocodile tears forming under her green eyes. It surprised Zelda that Eveline was capable of quickly moving from confusion to pleading again. "I'll do anything! Please!"

"Uh…" Zelda tried to look away again, but Bryan put himself into her field of view, grinning like the ass he was. "I-I...fine…"

"Yay!" Eveline and Bryan cheered, earning a dark scowl from Zelda and a humored smile from All Might.

When the first runs were through, Aizawa announced a slight change to their session. The villains in this simulation were allowed to take a partner of their choosing ad, with their help, try to improve their escape time. The class was mostly excited about this; except for Midoriya (to an extent), nobody had a clue of the powers of the three strangers, and the idea of fighting against someone they weren't familiar with excited them.

Since there were only three guests, it was decided that they could help one student which, while others found to be slightly unfair, others like Iida and Tsuyu found that it worked more to the other students' favor to watch as they were positive the guests would be joining other exercises and simulations.

Aizawa urged the villain group to make their choices, "The sooner you pick, the more you can train."

The first to pick was Bakugo who, unsurprisingly, refused the aid. His rejection, while short and to the point, relieved the trio; none of them wanted to work with someone so short-tempered at the moment.

Sato was next and he eagerly took Bryan as he admitted that his quirk only gave him so much to work with against his opponents. As he put it, he needed a partner who could watch his back, especially against Tsuyu.

Uraraka was about to reject the guests' help but the idea of talking with Eveline gave a moment of reconsideration. She ended up passing though, mostly because she remembered the embarrassing moment with Ayoyama during their exams. She had plenty of opportunities to talk with the half-goddess anyways.

Tokoyami also was about to decline but quickly changed his mind, taking Zelda as his partner. There was no real reason behind his choice, he just figured that she might have an easier time dealing with him than with the last two. That, of course, left Iida and Midoriya to pick Eveline and to the class' surprise, Iida asked if he might work with her.

"Really, Iida?" Kirishima asked from the crowd, "What's sparking the interest, bro?"

Iida offered a smile and said, "If Midoriya picks her, you guys will be focused on teasing him rather than giving her a chance to prove her strength." he turned toward Midoriya, offering a friendly grin, which was appreciated by the shorter teen. "Besides, it's not fair to keep her grouped with him."

The class seemed slightly taken aback by that but their spirits returned to them as Aizawa declared for the next rounds to begin. With their guests playing a role, things should certainly get interesting this time around.

A/N: I am SO sorry for the long as fuck delay for this chapter. A lot of shit started to happen after school started and I had to attend my older brother's wedding last week. Some good came from this delay though, I got ahead two extra chapters. However, I doubt that I'll get to post the next chapter in November unless I get lucky with my homework.