Lying on the floor, electricity arcing over his skin and a few open wounds seeping blood, Helios had to wonder how he got to this point.
"Get up."
Right. It was his idea.
Helios tried to shake the pain away, but just as you couldn't shake the holes off of a leaky tub of water, the pain simply continued to burn, draining all of the energy from the spar. He'd been at this for an hour now, surely Culus would let him relax a little.
He smelled ozone. Without pause, he rolled to the left, and in doing so, bumped into one of the earthen dumbbells. Still, the pain from that was meager compared to another electrocution.
"We didn't come here for naptime, Helios." He pulled himself to his feet as Culus approached to help pick him up. He didn't need his pity.
At his words, Culus snorted. "If that's what you want." He took one of the dumbbells and put it on its rack.
For the last hour, they'd been in the middle of this stupid training session. For some insane reason, Culus decided that they'd train in the cramped space of the weight-training room, where you could only stop seeing weights if you closed your eyes. Helios took a deep breath, letting some of the fire of combat leave him so he could help Culus pick the place up.
Once they had finished, Culus turned back to him. "Think you're up for another round, prince?"
The pain from his wounds sapped what remained of his energy, but Helios had trained with Slate. This still came nowhere close to last month's frozen hell. "One more," he said. "And then I'm out for the day."
"No, you still have a match with Sable." Was this Culus's game plan? To demoralize him enough that he couldn't put up a fight during the spar? "You'll feel good enough to fight by then."
Helios didn't need nor want empty platitudes. He would show Culus how strong he was now.
Culus's mouth twisted into a smirk. "I'm starting to think that your little 'ego' doesn't have a strong grip on reality."
Helios snarled, lighting his fists without a second's hesitation. "I'll show you who doesn't have a grip on reali-"
Helios ducked as a crackling claw swiped at where his head was and twisted out of the way as electricity arced from Culus's tail. He brought his fists around in a hammer blow, only to meet nothing but air.
Where was he?
A second later, Helios met with the taste of a dumbbell as Culus swept away his legs. Helios tried to push himself up, but a single, soft paw forced him back down.
"Faster, prince." Helios struggled to push Culus off of him, but Culus pushed back effortlessly every single time. "You can't let a single move take you down."
Was that all that was-
Helios snapped himself out of it as Culus's claws raked furrows across his scales. He spat out the dumbbell, flinging it to where Culus's shadow towered. He wasted no time in pulling Culus closer. He wouldn't let the damned Shinx escape now-
...
"You know, I've never seen a mid-battle tactic fail so utterly."
Culus would pay dearly for this. He would make him suffer a million deaths for the-
Helios winced as another surge of pain lanced through his mangled foot — he forgot that it could twist and dent like that. Culus just handed him an Oran Berry, before sitting on the other side of their little closet.
"So, Helios, what lessons did we learn from that spar?" Culus asked while passing Helios a small bandage.
Helios began wrapping his foot as he muttered, "Don't go around throwing weights."
"No, that was a good idea."
Helios paused. "Do you have eyes?" he asked, twitching his injury for emphasis. "How the hell could that have been a good idea?"
"If you had aimed, obviously, instead of throwing it in the air and hoping for the best. Using your environment is great during an actual fight"
"But I did aim! At you!"
"Then you needed to be stronger." Culus picked up a dumbbell and twirled it around a little, before throwing it at a wall and cracking it. "You needed to be stronger in general. I wasn't even putting all of my weight into the submission hold."
Helios squeezed the Oran Berry, puncturing it with a claw. "If I wanted this advice, I could have gone to Slate or Mica."
"And shouldn't that tell you something? You need to get up close and personal with slashes and punches, so if those don't have any weight behind them, you're dead."
"Yeah, but I didn't even get as far as throwing a punch!"
"Exactly!" Helios flushed as he realized that he just fed the lecture. "Your speed needs work too, and you're still telegraphing your attacks!"
None of this was fair, none of this-
Helios caught himself as he saw Culus's expression sour again. "Forget about it," Helios said. "Culus, how long did it take for you to get as good in battle as you are now?"
Culus's expression soured in turn. "I have no idea." He tapped his head. "Amnesia. Everything past a month and a half ago is gone."
"Then how long will it take for me to get good at battling?" Even as he asked that question, Helios knew the answer. He had tried to improve for a week now, but nothing was improving. It would be far longer than he'd like.
Culus's smile thinned. "Don't count on getting sent into the field any time soon."
"I thought you were supposed to be training me." Helios's acid words caused no visible reaction in Culus, so he continued. "I thought you were here to help me improve. If you're like everyone else, just telling me to go exercise and do nothing else, then you're a terrible teacher."
Oh, it felt good to say all of that. Helios's chest lightened as he said that - and yet, he saw Culus's face finally darken.
"And here I was thinking that you were ready to improve."
"I am-"
"No, you're not. You're not ready to improve, prince. You want me to fix you without you putting any work into it. I told you that you had to improve, didn't I? Well, you haven't."
Helios stood up, the pain in his foot fading away with the rage. "You told me to get faster and stronger! I'm not a miracle worker, I can't just do that!"
"That's not what I'm talking about!" Culus stood up as well. "There was no chance you'd 'improve' the way that you thought that you would. Do you remember anything we talked about yesterday?!"
"Of course I do! Do you?"
Culus smiled. "I do, and better than you, it seems. Would you like me to repeat our little conversation?"
"Go ahead. I'll correct you."
Culus cleared his throat. "'Weakness, panic, all of these things can be mitigated and reduced with time. But if you're not going to fight to improve yourself, then you can't be a good leader. Not one I'll ever approve of, at any rate. In Dragnis, you must have had, what, hundreds of tutors at your beck and call? And you're still like this?'" Culus's eyes steeled over. "Am I wrong, prince?"
Helios's rebuke fell off the tip of his tongue. As Culus spoke, he had begun to remember what he had promised. "No, but-"
"But nothing. Weakness and panic, you can deal with in a controlled situation. Anyone can. But if you aren't willing to put forward the effort to improve, you won't." Culus sat back down. "Do you know why I was willing to give you a chance, Helios?"
Helios paused. "Because you believed in me?"
"Right. Maybe it was because of desperation, but I saw what a determined, hard-working Helios could do. Do you know where I've seen one? Do you, Helios?"
"...where?"
"Fylak, Helios. Fylak. Everything was at its worst, any sane person would have given up, and you didn't."
… right, he hadn't. "But that's different, I was able to improve quickly."
"And maybe that's talent - but you still had no idea what you were doing. You were trying your hardest to resist, to push yourself harder than you'd ever had before. That's not the Helios that wants a fast track to strength."
Culus walked over to a dumbbell, before passing it over to Helios. "As I said, I want to see improvement. I know that you won't be able to be significantly stronger within a week. It might be months before you can compete with me." His eyes glittered. "But that's just it. Months - that's what you need. The Aspects are easy. Actual growth is harder."
Helios stared at the dumbbell in his claws. The pain in his foot came back with a vengeance, and the weight in his hands burned. Culus had no idea what he was talking about.
Still, Helios curled the dumbbell once. It didn't particularly hurt. Drudgery, but he could deal with it.
Twice. Thrice.
Slowly, his arms began to burn - and yet, he didn't stop. Culus was still looking at him, and he was still smiling. Culus grabbed a weight of his own and began to press it, with far more ease than Helios.
This was it, then. This was where he was weak.
Then, he had to do it again. Again, until he was on Culus's level.
This was his improvement.
...
"Everything hurts."
Since he couldn't feel his arms and legs, Slate was busy feeding his berry mush to him. Better than he was used to, the cooks had to be improving. About time.
"You've finally been weight training," Slate said approvingly. "About time."
"Just feed me," Helios snapped. "Actually, no, give me that." He snatched the utensils from Slate and started to shovel food into his mouth. "Oh, oh that's good."
"How long?"
"Today."
"So you've just started, then."
"It's hell." Speaking with Slate was just as easy as he remembered it being. "Training with Culus is like training with you. I thought your weight training with me was to make me give up."
"It was - but then, I did that by making it way too hard on you."
Helios thought about the 'training' that Slate had given him. Part of it had been Slate sitting on top of Helios while he did pushups, or at least, tried to do a single pushup. "So if you were actually training me, it would have been easier?"
"Absolutely. It still would have been difficult, but it would have also been doable." Slate offered him an odd look as well. "You did surprisingly well with what little time you had, though."
Of course he did, he was the illustrious Prince Helios. He did well with everything, just as true as the rise and fall of the sun in the sky.
Helios flushed and just chewed on the mush once he realized what he had inadvertently said. Slate just grinned and continued feeding him.
Slowly, everyone but Culus and Brylle came into the cafeteria. It was 8, so the two of them might have been doing that leadership training together. Kapun and Sable entered last, with Kapun looking strangely thoughtful - but whatever it was, it wasn't Helios's business.
Soon enough, with a bit of healing from Thilia, Helios was able to feed himself once again. With less pain eating at his ability to concentrate, he managed to pay attention to the conversation around him.
"... the meeting today!" Thilia said to Rowan, who was only offering her half of his attention. "Lady Angira said that we're moving on to the final stage!"
Helios focused more. "The final stage of what?"
"Our training - we're finally going to go on spy missions! Can you believe it!"
Helios stared. "We - we're going on missions?" he asked faintly. "Why? We've barely begun training!"
"I don't know, Lady Angira said that she'd tell us after breakfast!" Thilia scarfed down more of her food. "I can't wait!"
"We can't go on missions," Rowan countered. "From what I've seen, they're still above our skill level."
"We handled Fylak, didn't we?" Even as he said that, Helios couldn't help but remember how down-to-the-wire that 'mission' was. "We can handle a few spy missions!"
Sable yawned, before pushing her bowl toward Thilia. "It's Lady Angira's decision, not ours. Thilia, can you make some berry cakes for my breakfast? This is too sweet."
"On it!"
"And don't eat them!"
"No promises!"
...
"In two weeks, the eight of you will begin your first long-term mission." Lady Angira stamped her foot on the ground, and a large slab with many symbols etched on it rose from the ground next to her. "We have an unprecedented advantage, but time is pressing, so we must use it now."
Helios looked over his shoulder at a still Slate. He had asked Kair a few minutes ago why they were being sent on a mission, and it essentially boiled down to two factors: Culus and Slate.
Culus was the first Collared they had ever captured. Slate had confirmed that Culus wasn't a Shadow Worker, and that no other Collared gave the same 'feel' as Shadow Workers either. There was also a chance that learning how Collared works would allow them to free Shadow Workers as well.
While the eight of them had trained, Kair worked overtime to sleuth out as much information as he could from other Shadow Worker sites he had marked on the map near Logain. Kair said that the target of his reconnaissance was 'the Collared-production facility' - or, as Slate had heard it called from a Shadow Worker in the Illicity, the 'Cognes Research Facility'.
Kair had looked to find the location of the facility since finding where Collareds were created might help them find a way to cure them and the Shadow Workers. All they knew was that it was hidden somewhere in Hovete. Except, last night…
Landy Angira drew a map of Lition. "Seven hours ago, Kair reported that several Shadow Workers and new Collared appeared at a site in Lition." She drew a circle at the location of the site in Lition. "Those new Collared match missing Pokemon reports in Pinnaleis and Logain. We have reason to believe that there are Shadow Worker personnel on-site that are aware of the location of the Cognes Research Facility and can teleport there and back. Team A will be in Lition, performing long-term reconnaissance to obtain the precise coordinates of the facility, as well as its defenses."
Then it wasn't as big as something like Fylak. Looking at everyone's reactions, though, Helios was the only one who thought so.
"The main subject of your mission, children, will mainly be supplemental. We've already sent a team to Lition to perform reconnaissance, and the four I sent there will act as backup and support in case something goes wrong."
Defnitely wasn't as big. A lot of his interest simmered down as well.
Lady Angira stamped the ground again, and the map of Lition disappeared. "The second mission," she continued. "Takes place in Nucifera. With the aid of Slate's talent, we can root out all of the Shadow Workers there - with it, we can find the exact location of Chain's base in the Citadel."
Angira stamped the ground again, and a set of portraits of different Pokemon appeared. The first was a strange abomination of a Pokemon, all tentacles and legs and… eughh. The other, though, was Selene.
"These two are what we can tentatively call Epsilon Fusions: at least, Phosophor claims that they are fusions. Due to his deceptive nature, we have no guaranteed way of knowing whether he speaks the truth or not. Team B will find the location of Chain's base and extract the second one, 'Selene', to determine possible weaknesses."
Helios's throat stuck. He tried to say something to stop her — this couldn't be right…
"Again, the four of you on Team B won't directly act in favor of the mission — we have already sent a team to prop up a temporary base in the Moat for our use. Rather, you will be there for support, in case of something unexpected."
"Q-Question!" Helios's hand shot up in the air. The meeting's pause brought down pressure on him, and almost unconsciously, Helios began to lightly Stifle.
Angira's eyes narrowed. "Yes, Prince Helios?" Despite her politeness, Helios knew she couldn't be happy.
"H-How do we know that S-Selene is there?"
Angira nodded. "An agent has sighted Princess Eve within the walls of the Citadel, with an unidentified companion. Since Selene was last sighted with Eve near Logain by our sources, the likeliest location for her is in Nucifera as well."
"But she wouldn't join Chain!" Helios protested. Brylle kicked the back of his leg, and he winced, but he continued. "She's a bit odd, but it isn't her fault! You can't say she's evil because she's an Epsilon Fusion!"
"Shut up!" Brylle hissed - but strangely, Lady Angira nodded.
"Correct, Prince. That sort of instant estimation would be foolish in the extreme. That's why this mission can double as a rescue mission, depending on how cooperative Selene is. If she is willing to work with us to uncover Phosophor's weaknesses and defeat him, we'll gladly welcome her-"
"Lady Angira," Slate interrupted. "I've confirmed, on my own time, that Selene is a Shadow Worker. It was on her that I first discovered my sensing talent."
"Slate, I swear…" Helios whispered harshly.
Angira nodded. "Then you must take the utmost care in doing this. Ekib promises a breakthrough soon, but until it is complete and Selene shows signs of being a Shadow Worker, show no trust whatsoever."
Slate nodded obediently, but Helios's stomach still turned. He opened his mouth to continue the protest, but Brylle kicked the back of his legs again, and he promptly decided that he probably wasn't going to get anything done here.
"Of the predetermined members of the team, Culus and Kapun will be in Team A, and Slate, Brylle, and Rowan will be in Team B. The final members of the teams will be announced in three days, post promotion exams." Angira swept her gaze over Sable, Thilia, and him. "If the three of you wish to influence your position in this mission, perform well."
After that, the meeting was quick to end, and they were dismissed to usual training duties. But, as he trained, Helios mulled over an idea.
Rowan and Brylle wouldn't be sympathetic to Selene - they had no reason to hate her, but they had all the reasons to suspect her. And, even if he asked Slate otherwise, Slate would be completely against Selene. That's just how he was toward her, especially with him thinking that Selene was a Shadow Worker.
Brylle and Rowan would probably only protest for Selene's safety out of formality, and they might let Slate have full control over the matter if push came to shove. Helios probably couldn't count on the senior members to be helpful either - they might be as suspicious as Slate was.
That meant that if Helios wanted to help Selene, he had to go to Nucifera. He couldn't go to Lition, there would be no chance whatsoever.
"Prince Helios?" Helios was snapped out of his thoughts by Pandora's call, who was standing near the door. While the rest of his friends continued watching the spar between Brylle and Slate, Helios walked over to her.
"Yes, Mrs. Pandora?"
"Can you please lend me a minute of your time?" she requested.
"Uh… sure." He looked over at Mica, who nodded.
Pandora led him away from the training room to a private corner of the base. "You seemed to be troubled earlier today."
"... you noticed, didn't you?"
Pandora nodded. "You seemed very attached to 'Selene'. This is a breach of privacy, but if you would be kind enough to tell me why?"
Helios flushed. "I… uh…"
"You don't have to tell me, Prince. I'm fully satisfied as I am now, I-"
"N-No!" Helios stammered. "It's just, Selene is… well, when I first met her, she was so nice, and kind," and a little pretty…. "And when everyone in the castle started attacking her for no reason - which I know now is completely fake - I knew that I had to help her by taking Kite - sorry, Culus - down. Then she got sick, and I got worried for her, and she started dying - is she even okay now?!"
"Most likely," Pandora affirmed. "Though we have no solid confirmation. If Selene were to have died, it would probably be an issue."
It would be way more than an issue to him. "Do you get what I mean? She's done nothing wrong, but everyone seems to hate her! I can't just let her suffer like that."
Pandora hummed. "I see. I suppose you want to advocate for her, then."
"Yes!"
"Then you might want to exceed in the promotion exam if you want Lady Angira to listen to your wish of being on the mission. Brylle has already been assigned leader of the mission, Slate is required to root out Shadow Workers, and Rowan is there for stealth and obfuscatory purposes." The words just washed over him. "Thilia and my Sable will have a voice in their placement as well, prince. If you want to place yourself on the Nucifera team, then you will need to excel."
"Can you… help me, ma'am?" Helios asked after a few seconds. "I need to train in real scenarios, and I don't think we'll have another dream session until after the exams."
Pandora's eyes sparkled. "Of course, prince. I'll be happy to help — and I know a perfect way to expedite your training."
"Courage isn't something I'll be able to teach you," Culus started. "As far as I know, the best way to get over fear is exposure. You need to be put in that kind of situation often enough that you're used to it."
For some reason, Culus had been busy this morning, so they had delayed the morning session for the night instead. It was 8 at night and Brylle probably needed to get to bed soon for tomorrow's early training session, so hopefully, this wouldn't take a long amount of time.
Of course, she might want to go early, if this was the sort of advice she was getting. "You want me to get used to bad situations?"
"The absolute worst, because the world is too complicated for everything to always go to plan or better. The faster you're able to adapt to the worst-case scenario, the more prepared you'll be if things go wrong." Culus paused. "But you can't let the fear of the worst-case scenario paralyze you either. Like your mother showed us earlier today, risks are sometimes necessary."
Mother's criticisms echoed in her mind. 'Weapons', 'dangerously reckless'... but then, he had made a point. This was the biggest operation Mother had started since - well, Brylle didn't know, since it was also the biggest she was ever involved in. "What are 'necessary risks', then?"
Culus walked in figure-eights in front of Brylle, almost in his own little world. "The risks and rewards involved are different for each scenario. Tell me, would you cross a rickety bridge over a bottomless pit for a jar of jam?"
What kind of question was that? Brylle raised an eyebrow. "Of course not."
"Would you do it if Sable was dying of poison on the other side of the bridge, the antidote just out of her reach?"
"Of course I would!"
"Then let's describe the bridge. If the bridge had lots of its boards missing or cracked? If there was a ten-foot-long missing section of the bridge near the end, the ropes keeping it steady fraying?"
"I… what kind of question is this?"
"Now, get rid of Sable. Imagine Groudon and Entei snapping at your heels, the only way to avoid them being the bridge. Would you risk the fight?"
"I…" Brylle's eyes clouded over as she stood there in thought. "No," she decided. "I'd never be able to win against a legendary, and I might survive if I jump far enough."
"Right. Now, Brylle, what changed across these situations? Did crossing the bridge, what you had to do, change?"
"No…?"
"Right. Your task, what you had to do, didn't change in the least. In all three scenarios, you had to cross the bridge. What had changed was the context - and, in that context, was the crux of your decision making, the weighing of risks and rewards. What, in the first scenario, was the risk of crossing the bridge?"
That was the one with the jar of jam, wasn't it? "Falling into a bottomless pit and dying. The bridge was rickety, so it was likely to happen."
"Right. And the reward?"
Brylle crossed her arms, feeling rather patronized. "A jar of jam."
"Would the reward be worth the risk?"
"Of course not."
"Great. What about the second scenario? What were the risks and rewards then?"
To speed things up, Brylle was going to answer what were probably going to be the next three questions as well. "The risk for the second scenario was the same - falling into a bottomless pit and dying. Same for the third. The reward for the second was being able to save Sable, and the reward for the third was escaping certain death at the hands of legendaries."
Culus hummed. "So you considered fleeing the battle with the legendaries as a reward, rather than avoiding a risk?"
Brylle paused. "No, actually," she admitted. "But I thought that perilously close to death was better than certain death, so that's the choice that I took."
"That's fine," Culus assured. "Now, the thing that changed across these three scenarios was the risk and the reward involved for crossing the bridge. The action you decided to take was undoubtedly influenced by the risk and the reward of the situation. Why is that?"
"Well…" Brylle began, a little unsure of what to say. "If a situation - I mean, an objective - is high risk and low reward, then it's just not worth fulfilling. If it's low risk and high reward, then sure, go ahead."
"And high risk, high reward?"
Brylle paused. "It's…. It's as clear cut as the others," she admitted. "You'd be losing a lot if you failed and would be winning a lot if you succeed, so it… depends on the situation?" she tried.
"That's about as good an answer as I could hope for," Culus nodded. Brylle almost breathed a sigh of relief but stopped herself. It probably wouldn't look too good. "Once you get to high risk, high reward, things become much more complicated, and you'll have to look at the complexities of the situation. We'll go deeper into decision-making later in our sessions."
Brylle nodded. Then something niggled at her. "You make really risky decisions all the time, Culus, and those decisions aren't usually for high rewards. Why is that?"
Culus paused. Did she say something wrong?
Then he smirked. "Because we viewed the risk and reward of my situations differently. Tell me, Brylle; what are some examples of those situations where I make really risky decisions?"
Brylle paused. "In Pinnaleis," she began. "You had this big, convoluted plan to escape, and it could have gone a lot smoother. Setting off bombs, courting the anger of Kenki, all so you could get on a boat… it feels excessive."
"Not my best group of decisions," he admitted. "But, to be sure we're on the same page. What were the risks and rewards in that real-life situation?"
A real-life situation, not some hackneyed hypothetical. "The risks involved were dying a gruesome death and killing innocent people, and the rewards were just getting on a boat."
"And here is our point of contention, Brylle," Culus said. "To me, you've both overstated the risks and understated the rewards."
A scoff escaped her before she could stop it. "Really?" she asked semi-sarcastically.
"The risks you've described: dying, and killing innocents. For starters, that second one wasn't an issue, since I made sure that my bombs were low-powered enough to rival an Electrode explosion. Strong enough to break through the building, weak enough so that you'd have to be as frail as a twig to die from it. Kenki didn't keep twigs on his crew, so that kind of injury wasn't a concern. The residential district was far enough from the blasts that it wouldn't hurt anyone I wouldn't want it to hurt."
Brylle took it in. Despite Culus's smooth words, she couldn't help but disagree. Blowing up bombs was a recipe for disaster no matter how she looked at it.
"But let's ignore that and look into the other risks. Dying - that's not a terrible risk for me."
You could hear a pin drop in the room.
Culus stopped walking around and turned to face her. "Dying is painful, yes, and intrinsically scary, but for me, it isn't too big of a debilitator. At least, not compared to the other fates I've been subjected to."
Brylle's mouth parted slightly as she remembered precisely what Culus had gone through recently. "I'm… sorry."
"Don't be. It had nothing to do with you. Hell, you came to help me." Culus looked at his tail - still attached to it was the slavery band. They didn't have the mechanisms to take it off available to them, and Ekib was busy with his more pressing projects. "Once you go through hell, it's not too scary anymore to go to a lite version of it."
"The lite version you're referring to is…"
"The hell people usually think of isn't the one I think of. I've walked into it and back, and now that I have, the fear of death isn't a giant mental hindrance anymore. I risked my life, in the dream, because I thought you were going to die in real life, Brylle. If I had been sure that you would be alright, then I would have probably not gone out of my way to save you. But since I wasn't sure, saving you was your life against my death."
A burning heat crawled into her chest, and Brylle looked away.
"That's probably why your mother doesn't trust me, since I don't have the 'right mindset' towards these sorts of things. I'm willing to risk much more than most people.."
"But why take that risk at all?"
"Because the things I get if I take that risk are far greater than the fear of death. Freedom, revenge, people I care about - my life is far less important than any of them."
Culus then paused. "That isn't to say I'm willing to throw away my life haphazardly, especially now that I'm aligned with Key. Revenge, to me, would be throwing this collar off and spitting in that damn Zoroark's face.
"So, Brylle, when you make a decision, keep in the back of your mind what you want, what you're willing to do to get it, and whether the people around you want the same thing."
"What did you say about people?"
Culus snorted. "Leadership isn't just being able to make snap decisions confidently and correctly, it's getting other people to go along with it as well. That's a lot harder, though, I should know."
"Really?"
"Yeah, back when I… I…" Culus paused. "I don't… god damn it, it was on the tip of my tongue!" Genuine irritation crossed Culus's face.
Brylle quickly filled in the blanks. "You were a leader back before you were a Collared, weren't you?"
"Probably?" Culus admitted. "Except, that doesn't feel quite right either…" He shook his head. "That's not important right now. Now, let's go into general motivations people have for what they do…"
...
"Thanks for helping, Kapun, but I think that's enough for today." Brylle stretched her arms. "We made a lot of progress!"
It had been a couple of days since Mother told them about their new mission, and everyone had spent most of their time either training, as was the case with her, Kapun, Culus, and Helios, or helping the others train, such as Thilia, Sable, Rowan, and Slate.
She must have gone through at least five different dream sessions with Pandora, whose schedule management was a mystery to anyone who thought about it for a few seconds. Implementing Culus's advice wasn't something she could pull off easily, though, and she still found it hard to coax the others to follow her lead.
It wasn't impossible, though. Maybe Culus said something to his friends, or maybe her leadership skills were developing better than she thought, but Rowan and Kapun would listen to her now (though, Rowan still often subsequently ignored her to do whatever he wanted).
Right now, she and Kapun were trying to develop their Aspects. Kapun had gotten a strong handle on Stifling and the resistance to it, but he had yet to develop a 'talent' like the others had. Brylle wasn't sure if talents were guaranteed when developing the Aspects, but Kapun seemed certain they were.
Brylle, meanwhile, had fallen into a stumbling block. Even after the two weeks she had spent working with the Aspect, she was incredibly shaky. Her Stifling barely inconvenienced people used to the ability. Even those who hadn't practiced it much, like Mother, could push through it with some effort.
It wasn't strong enough, and no matter how hard Brylle pushed, no matter how hard she pressed against the power she could at least feel within her, it wouldn't apply itself the way she wanted. It was ridiculous how Helios was more capable with it than she was — though, with how driven he was with his training for the last few days, it wasn't as embarrassing as she had initially thought.
Her resistance to Stifling was even worse. It wasn't as bad as Slate, as he still couldn't develop his Aspects beyond detecting Shadow Workers, still locked into place when someone stifled him, but besides him and Thilia (who'd also stagnated), Brylle was one of the worst.
Kapun shook his head. "I refuse. The promotion exam is tomorrow, I need to develop my talent!
"No one else was able to force their talent to develop, right?" Brylle reasoned. "Culus's talent was the first of his Aspects to appear, and Helios didn't even know talents exist when he created his. And Rowan just stumbled onto his, so there's no precedent for what you're trying."
Kapun stilled. "... yeah," he admitted, voice a little flat. She messed up, didn't she? What had Culus said about… Right, don't bring attention to failures without incredibly positive context behind them, and never try to make your subordinates give up.
Great, she had slipped. Fan-flipping-tastic.
Okay, okay, Culus had said that situations were seldom unsalvageable, so…
"But even though there's no precedent," Brylle tried to rectify, putting one of her hands on Kapun's back. "You'll be able to do it! I know you can!"
The words were high-pitched, and Brylle did her best to hide her cringe. What she said, compared to what she was saying before, was incredibly unrealistic. Kapun would be able to tell that she was faking it.
Why was this so difficult for her? Why was everything so difficult for her? Kellior and Hedvis, her older brothers, had been leading the sons and daughters of other members of Key at her age. Mother never had a problem with their leadership. They would never have as much trouble as she would have!
She wasn't ready for this, not in the least.
"Brylle, can we talk for a minute?" Kapun asked, pushing Brylle's hand off of him. "No training or anything like that. Just talking?" There was a waver in his voice.
Before she had fully thought things through, Brylle began to nod. "O-Of course, Kapun. Feel free to say whatever you want."
They walked over to where they would normally sit while watching spars and sat in their usual spots. Once they did, Kapun began to speak. "Brylle, do you know who my mother is? What her name was?"
"What?" Brylle blinked. "How would I know that? Why don't you ask your Dad?"
"Dad doesn't say anything when I ask." Kapun frowned. "I'd thought you would know. You know everything about every member."
She had spent a lot of time studying other members to see their strengths and what she could adopt, but had she missed anyone? Had she messed up? "If you want, I can ask my mother-"
"Her name was Fedina," came Kair's voice from the doorway. The two of them turned to see him silently fly into the room, his face set into a strange position. "And she was the prettiest Hydreigon ever to exist." Kair flapped to sit in front of them, a somber look on his face.
Shock shone on Kapun's face. Brylle got a strong impression that she wasn't supposed to be here right now. "I should leave," she said. This was something that was supposed to be squarely between these two, so she had no business being anywhere here.
As she walked out, though, she felt a strange sense of reluctance as well. It's not that she didn't want to leave, but there was a small bit of curiosity she couldn't let go of. Fedina was a name that she thought she'd heard before - somewhere in the manual?
Once she got to her room, she opened the manual and looked at the case studies - if Fedina was notable enough for her to hear about her, one of their few scribes probably wrote it down. If not, then she could ask someone. Not her mother, she was busy, but maybe someone like Ekib or Pandora.
After a minute, though, she found the name under 'Agents to Remember' - a Hydreigon, deceased for nine years. She had been searching for missing people and possible Shadow Worker bases in Lition but was captured by a splinter rebel group from the large Naixe-Eilkan war. Fedina had cozied up to the government in her other alias to get better data, but in the process of doing so, put herself in the rebel's sights.
They killed her in her sleep to send a message.
Brylle stared at the words on the page. Fedina, Kapun's mother, was killed when he was only a baby. She was killed, not by Chain, but by people completely unrelated to their conflict. A casualty of circumstance.
She closed the book. By all accounts, Fedina hadn't done anything wrong. Agents like Genevieve were nowadays using the same tactics, getting into high places to comb through data quickly. Other 'Agents to Remember' had warnings attached to them, so that new members would know what to do and what not to do when in trouble, but Fedina didn't have any. She did everything right but failed anyway.
Brylle slowly put the manual away, before walking out of the room. What was she supposed to do now?
Maybe she could go and try training some more, or learn from Culus — but then, even if she did, she would just fail again. Even if she didn't fail, she would probably lose in the end anyway.
Thilia's voice rang from outside the door. "Brylle? Are you feeling okay?"
"No." A second later, she realized her mistake. "You don't need to come in, though, I'm fine-"
The opening of the door interrupted Brylle, as Thilia walked in with a pensive expression on her face. "Brylle, what's wrong?" she pressed, before hopping up to her bed.
Brylle grimaced. "It's nothing, Thilia. You can just go."
Thilia sat down. "I'm not going to leave until I can help you, Brylle," she declared. "Tell me what's wrong."
Brylle clenched her hands and her jaw, before slowly relaxing them. She was talking to Thilia, not Rowan or Helios. Thilia was always there for her when needed. "It's… it's Fedina."
"Fedina?"
Brylle showed her the page on Fedina in the manual. Thilia looked through it slowly, before turning to Brylle. There was a deep look of empathy on her face.
"Stop it." Thilia recoiled. "Stop it, Thilia."
The look on Thlilia's face was one Brylle despised, a look of pity and condolence and-
"It's okay, Brylle. No one's perfect."
The words struck Brylle like steel. "Mother's perfect!" she instinctively denied. "Kellior and Hedvis are perfect! Fedina was perfect!"
Thilia shook her head. "No, they aren't. They have their moments of weakness like we all do. Fedina did her best, but she couldn't know who was after her and who wasn't."
Brylle growled. "Then what's the point!" she challenged - and yet, the sound of her voice was much weaker than she'd have liked. "What's the point of any of this? K-Key will only survive if we all play our parts correctly, b-but if we can't do that, then what are we-"
"Key will survive," Thilia promised. "Even if we all fall, someone will continue the fight against Phosophor. You'll be okay, Brylle."
Brylle tried to wipe away her tears. "Y-You don't get it," Brylle continued. "You can't get it, Thilia. You don't have to be Kellior, Hedvis, or Mom. You can just be… and I have to be better than me."
"You don't have to be better than yourself, Brylle. It'll be okay even if you don't-"
"HA!" Brylle clenched her hands. "You'd think that, but I can see the disappointment in their faces! I'm - I need to be better! For Key, for you, for everyone!"
But Fedina was better than-
-NO! Fedina - Fedina had to have failed in something! Maybe it was howshe viewed that secret organization - yeah, that's it, she, she just-
Thilia hugged Brylle with the flaps of her hat. "It's okay, Brylle. You're doing fine."
Brylle pushed Thilia off of her. "I - I'm not doing fine! Never! I'm never- this is all your fault!"
For a brief second, a look of hurt flashed across Thilia's face. Had she not trained with Culus earlier, who had taught her to look for microexpressions, she would have missed it, but… "I-I mean…"
"... it's alright, Brylle. I understand."
Thilia tried hugging Brylle again - and this time, Brylle just let her do what she wanted.
Another mistake, another failure. Instead of growing closer to Thilia, she had just alienated her even more. What - what was the point of all this? If she was just going to become a failure, a failing failure who failed failingly, then why? Why?
Tears began to fall down her face, before she screamed gutturally, pushing Thilia away again. She smashed his fist into the ground, again and again. Try to break it, try to do anything, you can't do anything, you're positively worthless!
She cracked the ground, but she had to keep going. She was bound to fail, Mother would hate her no matter what she did, so she had to break everything!
She felt Thilia wrap around her again. "Do you want me to bring Sable?"
"No!" But Brylle found herself stymied when she attempted to push Thilia off. "I - I have to do something!"
Thilia was silent. Brylle ground her fist into the cracks, breaking them open and exposing more things for her to break.
The grinding slowed down. Thilia didn't say anything, and Brylle couldn't push her off. Brylle neither couldn't nor wouldn't hurt her, but she had to break more. She had to show that she could do something, that her improvement wasn't worthless!
…
Oh, who was she kidding? She was doomed to this.
She slowed down to a stop, and just sat there. She'd get into trouble for this as well, and then she'd be banned from going on the mission, and then Mother wouldn't let her be a squad captain anymore, and then she'd just wait while everyone saved the world while she just sat the wasting food and time and make everyone around her miserable and maybe she should just k-
"You'll fail, Brylle." Thilia's words snapped her out of her stupor. "You'll fail, and that's fine."
"It's not fine. It can't be fine. If you fail, you're done. You're worthless." The poisoned words were acid on her tongue, a painful burn. "Failure can never be good, and it can never be fine either."
"But it's not always the end, Brylle. You're alive, aren't you? You can fail, survive, and get back on your feet."
"Fedina - Fedina didn't! She died for her failure, and her perfection was-"
"There's no such thing as perfection, and you can't avoid failure forever. Fedina - she was a failure for everyone."
"E-Everyone?"
"Nobody knew that she was being targeted, so your mother failed in rescuing her. We failed to stay secret during the prison break on Fylak, but we stayed alive, we got back on our feet, and now we can fight against Chain better!" Thilia smiled. "Failure is bad sometimes, but it's never the end!"
Brylle's arms just hung there, limp. "Not the end…"
It was the end for Fedina, but people still cared about her. Kapun and Kair loved her, she was immortalized in the manual, and while she was alive, she was… happy.
Failure… wasn't the end, then.
…
"We should probably get this cleaned up," Brylle said after a few seconds. At Thilia's enthusiastic nods, she placed her hands on the large cracks in the ground, before commanding the broken earth to congeal and merge into a smooth plane.
And she failed. The earth was too broken for her to manipulate properly, and it just fell flat. She was able to close the smaller cracks without too much trouble, but the large crack was a void she couldn't exercise her control over.
"You can do it, Brylle!" Thilia hopped up and down. "Keep trying!"
"Thanks, I guess," she muttered but did as Thilia requested. One by one, all of the smaller cracks in the room were covered and sealed, but the large crack in the room remained beyond her grasp. She tried for a few more minutes, trying as hard as she could, but it wasn't within her ability.
"Thilia, you can stop cheering for me," Brylle said. Just like that, the cheers died off. Brylle looked back at the problem. No matter how she flexed her innate geokinetic abilities, there simply wasn't enough earth for her to work with, not nearly as much as she had with the smaller cracks. At most, the probability of her being able to close the crack right now was only 4% or so.
"4%?", Brylle then muttered to herself. The number popped into her head in a way that didn't feel like guessing, or even estimation.
"What's 4%?"
"The chance that I'll be able to fix the crack like this, as it is," Brylle elaborated, the words springing to her mouth with ease. "Very little, almost no chance whatsoever. I'm just not strong enough."
Thilia tilted her head. "O…kay? Can we increase the chances?"
Brylle opened her mouth to say, 'Of course not', but then closed it. It did feel possible, and the percentage wasn't 0%, so there was a way. Could she make the task easier, in some way?
Brylle dragged her hands across the surface of the ground, and with geokinetic prowess, dragged earth to the crack. The more she did so, the higher her 'estimation' jumped. 10%, 19%, 32%, 57%...
Once she had gathered enough dirt that the percentage she was estimating had peaked (at around 78% probability), she flexed her power one more time. Immediately, she could tell the difference - once she stopped trying to push large portions of the earth, too big and compact for her to manipulate as she was, and instead tried to fill it with other earth, the task grew monumentally easier. The percentage continued to climb until it capped off precisely at 100% - at the exact moment she filled the last crack.
"What happened?" Thilia asked. "You were in this weird trance state, and…" Thilia gasped. "Your talent!"
She shook her head. "We can't be completely sure-"
"I'll go get Rowan, he'll know what to do!" With that, Thilia quickly scurried out of the room.
Brylle watched her leave, a small sense of resignation in her bones. This wasn't a talent, not at all. It couldn't be.
Thilia quickly returned with Rowan, who looked more than affronted. "I was in the middle of eating dinner, you know," he snarked. Then, though, he looked at Brylle. "But, is it true that you've developed your talent?"
Brylle shook her head. "I don't think so," she answered.
"No, no, she has developed her talent!" Thilia insisted. "Do what you did again, with the cracks?"
"I can't," Brylle answered, annoyed. "There's less than a 1% chance that I'll be able to do that thing again with the cracks, considering how I've already covered them up!"
Upon seeing Thilia's jubilance, Brylle realized what she just said. Why was she still using percentages to describe probabilities…
She noticed Rowan's eyes glow slightly for a second before he turned to Thilia. "That's a talent, alright. She can perfectly judge her chances of success and failure at any task."
"You-you're joking." That was a talent? That was her talent?
"I told you, Brylle, I told you! You've developed your talent!"
Brylle gulped. "T-That's great. Why don't you go and tell everyone? I'll be right with you, really soon."
A flash of concern and understanding crossed Thilia's gaze, before it was replaced with her normal chipper and cheery attitude. "Sure thing! Don't be slow!" Thilia then zipped out of the room surprisingly quickly, considering her stubby legs.
Brylle turned to Rowan. "Did you lie for her sake, or…"
"It's real," Rowan answered. "As real as my, Culus's, Sable's, or Helios's talents."
"And Slate's?"
Rowan frowned. "Honestly… Slate's ability is weird. His soul doesn't 'flare' when he uses it like ours do. I don't think he's lying, but there's something weird about it nonetheless. He's completely useless at the other Aspects, too."
The kindling of hope burned brighter. "You know when people are using their talents?"
He nodded. "It's easy to sense. Everyone's soul 'flares' when they use their power, and I can tell every time. I saw your soul flare for a brief second before you made that accurate guess - and once I realized that, I also figured out what you were doing, as I had with Sable earlier today. She's unlocked her talent, by the way."
Sable had unlocked it, huh… "What happened?"
"She just got annoyed at me during a spar, since I kept on using illusions and taunting her with her insecurities, and so she just sort of… stopped time?"
Brylle's mind went blank. "What?"
"That's what I thought, too. It's something like that. She went to tell her mother." Rowan's brow furrowed.
"You don't like Lady Pandora, do you?"
"... no. Something about her rubs my talent and me the wrong way. She doesn't trigger anything special, but I…" Rowan growled. "Enough heart-to-hearts, let's just go!"
Rowan stormed out of the room, leaving Brylle alone in the room to think. She'd go to dinner and explain her new talent to everyone soon enough - for now, though, she needed a minute to think.
After everything that happened, with Fedina and her room, and Kapun and Thilia and Rowan… what was she supposed to do? Mother would probably be happy that she managed to unlock her talent after weeks of developing the Aspects, but… no.
There was no point dwelling on it anymore. Failure was just something that could happen. She'd do her best to prepare to help with the cause.
So what was it that kept gnawing at her?
Slate's eyes opened, and he growled. Even though he was nigh-guaranteed a promotion tomorrow, he still needed sleep.
He looked to his side and saw Helios snoring peacefully. Slate sat up before stretching. If he was going to stay awake, he'd spend the time doing something. Maybe he'd visit Pandora since she had monopolized a lot of Helios's time for the past few days.
It had been irritating for the last few days. His prince was spending most of his free time with Lady Pandora, going over training simulations and battling imaginary opponents, and when Slate could see and talk to him, he instead spent time studying the manuals.
On one hand, Helios took fervent steps to overcome his weaknesses and grow into a leadership position, but on the other, it was through unorthodox, potentially dangerous methods. Dream training had to have some sort of side-effect; it was too convenient not to use otherwise. If he was in Dragnis, he could have learned what those side effects were, but here in the isolated Key base, he had no such materials to work with.
And that wasn't even talking about the battles with Culus. Weight training, lessons, semi-legitimate methods aside, Helios was dealing with a Collared. Emotionless and robotic, Slate knew that Culus was waiting to show his true colors and go in for the kill.
Slate sighed. Maybe that was just paranoia talking, but he couldn't help it. This was just how he had to think, considering how utterly brazen his prince could be.
As he walked through the halls, he found himself hearing a strangely nice tune. It resonated with him in a way that he swore he had seen before. Though, why he had 'seen' it instead of 'heard' it, he didn't understand.
Almost unconsciously, his steps directed him toward the source. He didn't have to change course much since the source of the noise was in the direction of Pandora's room. Which was strange, since it didn't sound like her at all - much more melodious than anything he had ever heard from her - or elsewhere - before.
As he walked, his thoughts grew foggier, dimmer. His legs walked independently of his will now. Step by step, the song drew him closer and closer to its source - Pandora's room. He walked inside.
Within was the most beautiful being he had ever laid his eyes on. Obsidian scales, butterfly wings, and thin legs, the sound was nothing more than a hum, a hum that Slate had nonetheless heard through the ground. As he opened the door to enter, the being noticed his presence. Yet, there was no concern or surprise in its - no, her - gaze, and she beheld him as though a goddess would behold a mortal.
"Your name is Slate, correct?" Her voice came to a stop, but she began to flap her wings instead. It was slow, incredibly slow, drawing his eyes to their majesty.
"Yes, your Majesty." The honorific slipped out of his mouth, which he didn't control anymore - she had full control over him, but he couldn't care less. Her regal nature demanded nothing less than her full dominion over the world.
"You are the one responsible for turning Key against Selene?"
"Yes, your Majesty." Strangely, now that Selene had floated to the front of his mind, he could see the resemblance between her and the goddess in front of him. It wasn't such that you could notice it at first, but with the image of the traitor lodged in his mind, it became apparent.
"I see." The goddess walked forward, the rhythm of the steps multiplying her beauty. "Do you know who I am?"
"No, your Majesty." A deep fear started running through him. What if, through his ignorance of divinity, he had offended her? How could he deal with his utter arrogance?!
"My name, Slate, is Diane." The name branded itself into his brain. Diane, his goddess. "And from now on, whatever I say is the absolute truth. No longer will anything I say be a lie, and your senses will lie before I do."
"Of course, your Majesty." Someone such as her couldn't lie, and Slate could only be thankful that she was doing her best to make sure someone as low as him knew that.
"My daughter, Selene, has suffered greatly because of you, Slate. Because of your actions, someone who I love, my family, has fallen into danger."
Slate felt himself crying. How could he have… "My apologies, your Majesty. I have sinned in the most grievous of ways. Let me take my life so that-"
"No." Diane's soft demand cut through him. "I have decided that you will live, Slate. That means, however, that you must obey what I say from now on, precisely."
"Of course, your Majesty!" He had been spared by his goddess's magnanimity, it would be sinning to the highest order to disobey whatever she said.
"First of all, Slate, you must correct your beliefs." Slate began to listen attentively. "Selene is not your enemy. Selene is not someone who you can ever wish harm on. She, like me, holds utter Majesty. Repeat what I said, Slate."
"Selene is not my enemy. Selene is not someone I can ever wish harm on. Selene holds utter Majesty." The words began to brand themselves into his brain, cutting through his previous misconceptions, his utterly foolish, sinful ones. His old memories of Selene began to reveal the lies, reveal his brain tricking him into thinking that she was less than she had been. How could he have been so foolish?
"Selene's protection is your utmost priority. To make Selene happy and healthy is a goal you would sacrifice your life infinitely for. Every action you do is to help Selene, and everything else is a waste of time."
"Selene's protection is my utmost priority. To make Selene happy and healthy is a goal I will sacrifice my life infinitely for. Every action I do is to help Selene, and everything else is a waste of time." His old worldview had now completely faded away, and all that was left was Selene.
But… no… Lord Helios…
"I see your face is troubled, Slate. Speak."
"My goddess, my duty is to my prince." The words felt like lies on his tongue, and yet, they were an irrefutable truth that he could not ignore. She could tell him he was a Ducklett, and he'd believe her, but that was the one truth that would remain.
"But you see, Slate, the priority of your prince is to Selene as well. Haven't you noticed how hard he has been working to save her?"
Slate's mouth opened. He had been so foolish! His duty, all along, had been to aid them both! Prince Helios had been infinitely wiser than he had been, and Slate had thought himself smarter! How arrogant he had been!
"So, Slate, what is your duty in life?"
"To aid and help Prince Helios and Selene in whatever way I can." The words nestled themselves deep within him, an irrefutable truth. "I will do my best to help her, my goddess!"
"Excellent. To do this, you will go on the mission to Nucifera. When you do, sabotage it in whatever ways you can, while remaining unsuspicious. If you don't avoid suspicion, they will send someone to stop you, and you will no longer be able to do anything to save her or aid your prince."
"Right." He would have to act the same fool as before, a shame that burned at him. But, for her sake, he would do anything.
"I must leave now. If you fail, Slate, pain will be the only thing you will ever know." With that final statement, Diane left him in a swirl of rainbow light. A part of him wished that she could have stayed forever, so that he may bask in her glory, but that was her decision to make, and hers alone. He had to fulfill his duty now.
In the swirl of light appeared Pandora. "Slate, what are you doing here?" she asked urgently.
"I was… sleepy," he claimed, desperately trying to remember what he had been doing before all of this? Hadn't he wanted to ask Pandora something about Helios? It couldn't have been important.
Pandora looked at him for a minute. "Diane is my sister," she slowly said. "If you obey her, you must obey me."
Slate's mouth opened. "My deepest apologies!" he begged. "I thought you weren't a Shadow Worker!" She certainly didn't feel like one.
Pandora put her hand to her face. "That's because I'm not," she corrected. "And Diane brainwashed you, the idio… ugh, I switched out for ten minutes! Does she have no idea of how complicated this makes things?! And I have to deal with Thilia and Sable too, what a nightmare…"
"Lady Pandora?"
She sighed. "Never mind, what has she told you to do?"
"I must sabotage the mission to Nucifera, to protect Selene from Key!"
Pandora tiredly groaned. "That's about what I thought. Not as bad as it could have been, better than assassinating Angira or just plain old suicide. Slate, wait here for a few seconds." Pandora disappeared for a few seconds, before appearing with a strange sort of double rod, a tuning fork if Slate remembered correctly. "Slate, what is the biggest obstacle in your mission?"
"Other members of Key, my lady."
"Right, and you have no defenses against empaths like Thilia. You will be found out instantly." Slate nodded. The fog had finally cleared from his mind - Pandora wouldn't have said anything. "This, Slate, will be your mask."
"I understand. What will you need me to do, my lady?"
"Stay still."
And before Slate could ask another question, Pandora stabbed him with the tuning fork.
...
"Slate? Slate, are you okay?"
Slate's eyes cracked open. "W-what happened?"
Helios and Sable were looking over him. "You were slumped over in Mom's room," Sable surmised. "She says that you came to ask her a few things about the test tomorrow."
"Yeah, that's what happened." Strangely enough, Slate couldn't remember it, or anything else that happened last night. He needed to shape up, or he wouldn't be able to go on the mission to capture Selene-
Selene.
The name resonated with him in a way it hadn't before. The concern quickly left him, though, and Slate dismissed it as they all walked to the testing hall.
After all, it couldn't mean anything significant, could it?
The guards neither would nor could notice him. A poor job overall, but the gate guarding the Moat against the rest of the world was pathetic at best. Honestly, they didn't need it, since the Moat had nothing of value anyways.
As Zennitas walked through the sludge and trudge of the Moat, he wrinkled his nose. He'd visited here a few times before, the place always unpleasant. He only came to pass through to the place that held everything of worth in Nucifera, the Citadel.
He felt something slide around his shoe and looked down. A Mudkip, wallowing in a pool of filth, looked up at him pleadingly. Despite the species' usual abundance of fat, he could see its bones through its skin.
A pathetic existence. Zennitas slit its throat, taking care not to stain his fur, and moved on.
He wasn't here for fun, anyway. He was here on a mission to steal away Princess Eve, and in a way that wouldn't draw attention to the Blacks. That meant no flagrant kidnappings, no setup that would alert the thousands of eyes Chain had, and nothing that he would honestly like to do. It would probably take a while, too.
Any planning, though, would have to come after he assessed the situation. The security of Chain and the vulnerabilities within, motivations of the major players (the most major of which he could guess but should probably double-check regardless), and most importantly, where he could stay that wasn't a filthy hole.
Zennitas walked up to the gate, inspecting it. There was only one pair of guards, thankfully, so nothing too much more difficult than before. Footholds on the wall were regularly scrubbed away with geokinesis, however, and the wall was probably harder than what fingers could scrape through, so climbing was out.
He considered his options. The gate itself was closed, so he'd need to wait for it to open, and while he could maybe fabricate an illusory messenger to force the guards to open it, he also recognized that he had no idea what they looked like. His safest chance, as annoying as it was, was to just wait for the gate to open when someone decided to get into the Moat.
He grimaced. He'd have to wait in the Moat for longer than he'd like.
One by one, he went to each of the guard stations separating the Moat from the Citadel. Each one was perfectly secure, and the guards were all attentive - whether Shadow Workers or just brainwashed into perfection, Zennitas couldn't tell.
The longer he looked, the more his annoyance grew, and the shorter his fuse became. Good security was annoying, especially when it was boring security. Nothing he could exploit, nothing he could properly manipulate, just blandness.
"Oh god, it hurts," someone moaned.
Zennitas scoffed and turned around, his claw flashing to kill whoever was complaining louder than his thoughts - and then froze.
A pair of female Eevee, one with normal eyes and the other with prescient lavender. The Princess, and a friend.
He was in a small mind to just take her and make a break for it but stopped himself. This was just the sort of thing that could raise alarm bells for Chain to learn about. Instead, he watched, waited, observed.
The one that wasn't the Princess, the injured one - who he soon learned was called 'Anna' - seemed to be a close friend of the Princess. They were bickering about medical patients and 'moss', whatever that meant. Since it was getting late, the Princess brought Anna back home - a location he quickly memorized - before departing for the Citadel.
Zennitas followed invisibly but made sure to memorize Anna's overall look and face as well. As he slipped into the gate and beelined it for a hotel, an elementary plan began to form in his mind.
First: to find if Anna was a Shadow Worker - and if she wasn't, then second, mimic her personality to perfection.
The trust between friends was always something to exploit.
Wow, I am slow. Please, forgive me for my tardiness.
Hope you enjoy the chapter anyway!
