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I had some real choices ahead of me. I could leave the things I had built up here behind and face my responsibilities. Or I could stay here and wait for the next threat to come for me and my family and react to it.
It worked the first time. I was one for one on reacting to bad situations. I saved my son from whatever his fate with Emerald would have been. I reacted well enough to that. But there was no way I'd react well to every type of situation which could come my way. I could easily continue to live my life and wait and react. Or I could go on the offensive. And that's what I decided to do by taking off and flying for Vacuo. I left my family behind. Not for the last time. I was sure. I left those responsibilities behind to face what my father had been up to all these years. I wasn't sure what would await me in Vacuo but I needed to be pretty on point. So I left my family behind to face my family. My other family. The family I didn't choose vs the one that I did. So I took off soaring through the sky. I had to be proactive when it came to handling my forbidden family. I couldn't just quit and wait for them to come to me. I wasn't going to be ready that way. I could and would be ready for the horrors of my father's laboratory when I went and confronted it. Not when it came looking for me in whatever form it happened to take. I should cut the head off the snake and go on the hunt. I should meet up with RYPP and see if they had made any progress. I still had Rosé's number. I shot her a message regarding her current status and the status of finding my father. It would be better than starting from scratch which was my alternative. So I reached out and so sue me for it. So set me the fuck on fire. I needed a hand and the sooner I dealt with this the sooner I'd be back in Patch with my real family and helping look after my goddamn kids. I couldn't believe what I was leaving behind on this little vendetta.
My family, my real family. And I'd leave them behind again when I went to face my Mother. I'd have to. And that time it would be pretty permanent. I didn't believe for a second that my Mother would roll over and show me her belly. She'd put up one final fight against me and rage at me with all her power. It might be a mostly mental confrontation rather than a physical one where she dropped a comet on me or some other sick bullshit that I was sure she was capable of. She had magic and millennia to master it. She wasn't going to just keel over because I asked her nicely and that was assuming my plan to chop off her head would even work. Who was to say it would even work at all? She was immortal and not invincible according to the lamp but what did that really mean? Did it make my plan viable? Or did it make my hopes a final fatal flaw? I couldn't be sure. And even if I took her down my sisters would be out there on the prowl unless I destroyed them as well.
So far I'd been ignoring my problems like they couldn't hurt me and my family when they got tired of me waiting around and sitting on my hands. My problems were real and they could reach out and touch me and not just me. I could live with it if they could just hurt me. But my family was on the line. My kids are being risked and I was gambling with my wives every day that I did nothing about my problems.
So I pretty much had to do something. About at least some of my problems. I couldn't afford to do nothing for any longer. I had to take some of my problems head on and finally sort them out. My sisters. My father. And lastly Salem herself. I had to start somewhere so I may as well begin with the smallest fish I could find out of that net. Which just so happened to be my father. Not that he was a small fish. Smallest was a relative term. My sisters and Mother were big problems. My father was potentially the smallest. And I had heard of neither hide nor hair of my sisters with my criminal contacts all over the world. But Vacuo was my blind spot. I suppose I could set some seeds while I was there. Open up some fresh eyes. I had vision in Atlas, Mistral, and Vale but I was blind for the world in Vacuo. I should do something about that if I wanted to track down the next biggest fish. That being my sisters.
Because I hadn't seen any sign of them in years and I was watching all the kingdoms but Vacuo then odds were they were in Vacuo. Maybe doing something with my dad which was a scary thought but last time I checked my Mom wanted my dad put to a permanent end. Could have just been mind games. But maybe she really did want him to end. So my sisters could be doing that now that I'd made Vale a no fly zone for them and my Mom probably gave up on me doing something about him.
So that could be what was happening. I could always reach out to Salem and try to make arrangements regarding him. But that seemed more than a touch risky. It would be working with the biggest enemy.
It was time to get serious. I landed in the sandstone streets of Vacuo. I just gently set down from above like a demigod touching this plane for the first time. I checked my scroll.
"Everything is fine. There's no need for you to get involved. Leave it to us." That was Rosé's reply.
"Not a choice. My family was attacked in Vale. I need to get involved. Share your notes," I wrote back.
Thank the gods for Atlas communications. Back up and running the world was my oyster again. I could talk to my contacts in Mistral and Atlas easily.
"Your family?" Rosé texted back.
"By an old enemy. It got me thinking. I need to cross these bad boys off the list. Share what you know and I'll let you help. Where are you?"
"We're in the Veranda. I'll wait for you on one of the balconies."
The Veranda was a wonder of the world. A giant arching series of balconies that overlooked the great lakes Vacuo was built on the shores of. I took off towards the balconies where the sun shades off the lake and into the filters of the great arches.
I spotted Rosé on one of the outstretched sandstone terraces. I set down on top of the railing above her with the sunlight over my shoulders. She and I both looked away quickly.
"It's beautiful. The view from up here- I mean," she stuttered in.
I glanced back over the lake. The sun was setting with reds and oranges painting the clear blue water and soft barely cloudy sky. I turned back towards her and stepped off the balcony railing gently. I was nearly floating still. Dirt from the ground hovered away from my feet like a gentle breeze was flowing off of my body.
"You need to get involved? For real?" She asked when I said nothing.
"I do. I've left these problems alone for too long. You can still help. You're a grown woman. But I need to bring justice to my father. My sisters and my mother are next but I don't expect you to be involved in that."
"And you mentioned an attack?"
"My son. My eldest was nearly kidnapped by an illusionist. An old enemy. It made me think twice. About my old enemies. My father is one of the few that remains. I should do something about him while I have the free time off of work for the summer."
Rosé sighed. She was wearing satin clothes and a silk skirt.
I knew what she was thinking.
I listened to the water.
What if. Splash. What if. Splash. What if. Splash. What if.
"If you don't have any information for me I'll start digging my way. If it comes down to it. I have to start eliminating these old names."
"Tell me for real about your sisters." Rosé ordered. "You want my leads. I want to help."
I shrugged. "They are my Mother's daughters. They are unbelievably loyal to her. They are the terrorists you ran into out in Vale when you were in your first year. Three of them at least. There's seven total. They're all dangerous and well equipped. They are next in my list to take down after my father. I can't let them run around free and doing my Mother's bidding."
"I'm starting to get a better picture of your family life," Rosé shrugged.
"I told you that it was bad. I've been pretty upfront about that. Don't try and spin it on me," I shot back.
"Why is all this your responsibility? Why can't you just go home to your family and rest?"
"What with one eye constantly open and on the cage door. Just waiting for the next attack on my family? Could you really rest like that? Fork over what you have on Merlot. I'll let you help me take him down."
"You still haven't told me about your sisters," Rosé denied. "You flirted with it but I want details."
"I don't know where they are or what they are up to. Haven't for years. Saphron is probably the most powerful. She's only a little weaker than me. Meaning she could probably tear you up. Aside from that you'll have to be more specific about what you are asking."
"Okay. Do they know you have kids?"
"Probably. It's pretty much a matter of public record." Though that wasn't how they knew. They knew because we shared a connection between our minds. I could feel them in part. Not nearly as strong as I felt with Salem but it was there.
"So that's why they are on your list. You want to drop them before they come for your children when you're not ready."
"Same with my father to be completely honest. The last thing I need is for him to come springing out of the shadows at me."
"And that comes to why you need my help…" Rosé put a hand on her hips and cocked them.
"I can dig up my own leads. I'd like your help. But it's a stretch to say that I need it."
"You can never let me have anything," she laughed. I granted her a low chuckle.
"Sure I can. Just not this. I'll find my father with or without you. How involved you want to be in that is up to you."
"Asshole," she called me out. I gave her an honest smirk. "We haven't had much luck in months. You think you'll roll in and get better results in a couple of days?"
I grilled my titanic sword over my shoulder. I squeezed the handle. "I'm willing to do things you just aren't. That's not a bad thing. I just am this… thing. I'll take what I need from those too weak to stop me."
"You'll just bully your way through. That's what you mean."
"Yeah. That's what I mean. I'm too old to play nice."
"You're what? Twenty six?"
"In hunter years. Though. I've been at this relatively speaking longer than anyone."
"How long? When did you start?"
"From the cradle. I was meant to be some kind of hit man slash lab assistant for my father. I've been doing this for a long time and I got to tell you Rosé that I am exhausted. I'm tired of sleeping with one eye open. I have to start somewhere and this is it. So care to share?"
"Your father has been laying low. Perhaps you scared him last time?"
"Possible. I was trying to be scary," I agreed. "I wasn't sure that it got through to him. He's a mad man. They aren't the easiest to scare."
"But we might have a location. Out near Dubmar. A little town closer to the shore. We were going to head out to investigate."
"I could get there faster…" I trailed.
"You promised to let us stay involved," she reminded me.
"Involved can mean multiple things. But I've waited this long. I suppose I can wait while you commission an airship out there."
"We were going to drive."
"That's too slow," I shot back. "You're on an accelerated time table now. Like it or not. You want to stay involved, you had better keep up."
She sighed and looked out over the Veranda. "We'll get an airship. You have such a way with words. You know that. Don't you?"
"I have been told. Not always a good way with words. I've been told that."
"By who?"
"Weiss. Mostly."
"I never liked her. She always rubbed me the wrong way," Rosé confessed. "Hard to blame her etiquette. I was raised with the same silver spoon in my mouth. Just something about how she talked and held herself slapped me. She also treated you like, I don't know, the way she made you chase her was like you were an animal."
"I hate to break it to you but I am an animal. I have this shape just to hide amongst you but I'm still an animal," I raised. "I was born a monster. And I'm lucky I'm as human as I am. Everyone always forgets that when they look at me. But I'm pretty inhuman. On a scale from one to ten I'm like a solid seven on the inhumanity."
"Hard to argue with that with the way you floated down on me. You could try and act Cetra."
"It's a waste of time a little. Isn't it? Humanity?"
"Yeah well most of us do it anyways. Because it's a part of being Cetra."
"I'm too busy. I'm trying to handle my family matters."
"By family matters do you mean raising kids? Or hunting your immediate family?"
"Both. And I realize most people don't have to make that distinction. But I do. It's a part of my monstrosity."
"But you feel like you have to."
"I do have to. We've been over this. Not you too. You sound like Ruby and Weiss." She made a brief face at that. "I have serious responsibilities to the world. It's what makes me a person. If I don't face them am I even a person? Or do I belong in the dark? You want to talk about the things which make us Cetra. That."
"Okay, okay," she tried to wave me off a little. "You have to do something. I hear you."
"Glad to be heard."
"Where are you staying the night? You do need sleep don't you?"
"Har har. Yeah I still sleep. That hasn't changed. I'll rent out a hotel in the middle of town."
"Good because you're not staying here with me and my team."
"Harsh but fair," I agreed. "I'm not sharking your team. You just happened to have information I needed."
"I wonder what things would be like if you hadn't needed me," Rosé mumbled.
"Well I wouldn't be here on your balcony. You might still just be princess of Vale and dreaming of being a huntress. Who could say. Do you regret it?"
"I could ask you the same thing," she leveled.
"No. I don't regret teaching you. I have a lot of regrets but that's not one of them. And you?"
"I'm not sure. I've been through so much since I was a little girl in Winhild."
"You're still a little girl," I pointed out. She glowered at that.
"A little girl who's help you need. Maybe be a touch more polite."
"Don't pout over that. I'm still a kid."
"You have kids. You're not a kid. You're not allowed to still be a kid when you have kids."
"Well then I am fucked. Good night Rosé."
"Good night Cloud."
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-WG