Chapter 31: Ruecian
You will always be a danger to those you love. He had said those exact words to Rue, but it was Valen who told it to Ruecian first.
It was late in the evening, about half past six in a small home laboratory that years later would become the Aeon Industries compound known as Undercity. His best friend in those days was a handsome, dark-haired man named Jonathan Kincaid. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" Jon asked, concerned. "Last time we had to tranquilize you twice before you calmed down." Jonathan had always been there for Ruecian. Their friendship had been indispensable when the voices and the black dreams had started, and he had held Ruecian's hand when they discovered that his condition would eventually drive him insane. It was Jonathan who (through Duke, then eventually Belle and Lucine) had learned of Dr. Terry Valen's experimental research on the chroma strain, and it was Jonathan who had first taken him to Undercity.
"At least I don't faint anymore," Ruecian answered jokingly. He clenched one fist in emphasis, "I've got more control now. I can really feel the power, Jon. I get better each time I try it."
"You get worse each time too," Jon pointed out, referring to the black dreams. "You scream like a girl even when awake now."
"Ha ha ha." Ruecian crossed his arms in front of himself while trying to think up of a wittier retort, but Valen entered the room then, with Lucine in tow. Ruecian's eyes followed the woman as she walked with the doctor towards a row of computer consoles on the far side of the room.
Lucine. Lucine was an enigma. Raven hair darker than midnight, and wine-red eyes whose like he had never seen on any human. Rumors were that she was the true mind behind Valen's breakthroughs with psyche-amplifiers and memory circuits, but she would deny this every time when asked. There was no denying her talent, however. Off-hand, he remembered she had a younger half-sister that followed in her sibling's footsteps—they had two mechatronic geniuses in the family. But Belle's skills could never compare to Lucine's.
As he studied the raven-haired woman, Ruecian couldn't keep a slight blush from turning up on his cheeks and nose. That was, until Jon elbowed him—hard.
Frantic whispers through gritted teeth. "You fool, she's already engaged!" "Shut up! I just like her, okay? It's not like I wanna marry her or anything! Just because you've got Elaine—" "Don't change the subject!" "Shh! She might hear you—oof!" Jon elbowed him again—harder.
"It's time," Lucine told them. "George, you'll be trying out the new prototype today?"
"Yes," Valen answered for him. Lucine nodded. She looked about the room, and noticed a pair of guards beside the transparent holding cylinder that they used in earlier experiments with the previous Aeon Shard prototypes. The guards finished their last-minute preparations, and with an acknowledgement from the doctor, they left to position themselves outside the room.
"We'll be using restraints?" Lucine frowned as she turned to Valen. "I thought this prototype wasn't supposed to be as …unpredictable?"
Valen merely shrugged. "Better safe than sorry." He took out two more prototypes and placed it on the desk beside the computers.
"It's alright," Ruecian said as Lucine handed him a blue plastic gem with a white cloth bandage. "I'd feel better if I was restrained in any case." There was just a touch of tenderness in his tone that Lucine couldn't help but notice. Jon nodded at them, and he helped Ruecian tie the prototype Aeon Shard around his head. When everything was set up to Valen and Lucine's satisfaction, he locked Ruecian inside the holding cage. Ruecian placed the restraining manacles on his own wrists.
He closed his eyes as he waited for the inevitable rush of magick. "Power, on." Lucine's voice. He inhaled sharply as magick coursed through his body, his mind. The power. The blackness and the power.
"Can you feel us, Ruecian?" Valen's voice. Ruecian reached out with his senses, his eyes still closed, trying to feel the room outside, as he had done before in past experiments. His enhanced psyche felt first the chains on his manacles, then the transparisteel of the holding cage, and then the row of computers beyond. He reached with his senses further, and finally found the extra Aeon Shard prototypes. He nodded. It was hard to concentrate.
"Good. You know the drill. Turn them on." He tried. He stretched his will outward, and Valen commended him when the doctor sensed heat emanate from one powered-on Shard. "Maintain the connection," Valen commanded. Ruecian tried that too. But it was hard to will anything as unbuffered magick saturated his mind like a drug. The magickal currents were stronger now, with the new prototype.
Eventually he succumbed to the euphoria. The power was wonderful, it was exhilarating, it was numbing, bringing about a certain ecstasy that could easily be addicting. And it was always at the zenith when the voices came. Suddenly Ruecian screamed. "It hurts!" he grabbed his head, involuntarily doubling over. "Make the voices stop, Valen!"
But Valen refused. "No. The pain only gets worse later on. You must learn to control it, Ruecian."
He screamed. "No more!"
"Get him out of there!" It was Lucine who shouted. "Turn it off, now, blast it!!"
He screamed again. The pain, the psychic screams were unbearable. The previous tests were nothing compared to this. He couldn't take it anymore. Get out, all he wanted was to get out! Without thinking, he broke his restraints. The magick seemed to give him superhuman strength, and even the transparisteel cage was unable to hold him. He ran, almost aimlessly, and eventually he made it out to the corridor.
The small part of him that could still think remembered the guards outside, whom he was certain would try to capture him again. But he was ready to fight, to kill if necessary… even to break the walls with his bare hands… just as long as it made the voices stop. A girl soldier bade him halt, brandishing a tranquilizer gun… he made to strike her aside… there was a hard grasp on his shoulder, and swiftly he turned…
"No, George—don't do it—it's not your place to—!!" Jonathan's voice. But he didn't hear it. He didn't hear anything. The blackness came like an onslaught, and he was helpless against it. And he knew no more.
When he regained awareness, he was lying face-down on the dirty floor of the compound. Dirty floor? Scrap metal lay everywhere—broken shards of the walls and door. The guards were either gone or unconscious. Lucine and young Duke were tending to the fallen. When did Duke arrive? How long had I been asleep? Belle wasn't there.
He saw Lucine somewhere off to the side, and gingerly standing up, he slowly made his way towards her to ask if she was alright. As he moved closer, he saw that she knelt over a dead or unconscious body—the only casualty. There was blood on the floor beside her. A sudden dread crept over him, and on impulse he looked down. There was blood on his hands.
He stopped in mid-step, petrified, stunned. The man was Jonathan. Lucine was crying. He weakly called her name, but she didn't respond. She didn't—wouldn't or couldn't—look at him.
Realization was slow in coming, but come it did. He had fallen into the madness. Now his friend's spilt lifeblood stained his hands.
Although the blood might wash off, the pain and the guilt never, ever would.
Redhead and redhead were stopped by Ruecian's Masters right inside the inner doors of the old Tower of Maya. The Masters apparently knew of another way inside the Tower, and the Masters apparently had known they were coming. Karwyn shouted the formal challenge. Two seconds for Mint to jump down the Pinto, another half-second for Rod to follow, and then all five were engaged in heated battle.
"[Expletive], we don't have time for this!!" Mint shouted as she wielded her rings against Mode Master at the same time the Blade Star and his Silver Breeze weapons kept the boys busy. "We're here for the Cannon Orbs, not for pointless fights!"
"You don't understand," Karwyn said in a calm voice, even as he kept dodging Rod's slashing pair of short swords. "We answer to Ruecian, and we are loyal to him. And you happen to be his enemies."
Mint gritted her teeth in frustration. "I don't care about Ruecian! I don't care about Valen! We answer to no one, but we care for our friends! And your precious Valen has my friend. He is going down, by my hands, and You. Are. Not. Stopping. Me!!" Kirielle fell, clutching a badly bruised arm, and Mint threw one Halo towards Trap Master's head. Distracted by Rod's strikes, it hit him solidly with a loud klonk and he dropped as well. In the next instant, Rod managed to corner Psycho Master against a wall. Mint took a step towards them. "We're all fighting for something important."
"You've lost. There's no point in keeping loyalty to them. And we really don't have to resort to threats and blackmail to get you to cooperate, right?" Rod brandished the Silver Breeze, pointing them at each of the threesome's necks in turn.
"Ruecian…" Kirielle said weakly, "Ruecian took us in. When no one else would." She hung her head in defeat.
"Ruecian is not our enemy," Mint said softly in answer, at the same time Rod exclaimed, "All we want is to save Rue and Claire, and Valen has Ruecian under his thumb. Will you go along with them, even though you know they're wrong?"
Karwyn spoke, his tone a mixture of resignation and relief. "You're right, Rod. You're right. Heaven knows we've been too long under the shadow," Karwyn meant it in a metaphoric way. Rod lowered his weapons. "Narcius and I are more familiar with the equipment. We can help you install the Cannon Orbs."
"You know where we can get them?" Rod asked. Karwyn nodded in answer. "Thank you."
Karwyn shook his head. "Not for you or your battle. When you get up there, do what you can for the chroma children." Rod nodded, although he didn't fully understand. Without further ado, they set to work, Narcius running off to fetch the wanted Orbs at a signal from Karwyn. Rod estimated that the job would take no more than twenty minutes.
Sulking at their loss, Kirielle took a seat on a toppled-over file cabinet on the opposite side of the room. Finding nothing to do since the boys seemed to have everything well in hand, Mint casually approached her long-time rival and former teammate. Kirielle pretended not to notice, until Mint whispered in a low voice, "You were the one who gave Elena and me the antidote, weren't you?"
The strawberry blonde kept her face impassive. "If you're fishing for an apology, you're not getting anything from me."
"Hmph," Mint sniffed, glaring all the while. "Let's just say we're even and leave it at that."
She held out her hand in a gesture. Kirielle appraised the younger girl with a raised eyebrow. "Deal," she said finally, slapping Mint's palm. "I never want to see you again."
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Mint replied dryly.
One more floor to go. Maya and Ruenis were almost to the lower hangars when the alarms sounded.
Maya almost dropped Ruenis in shock. Valen must have raised the alarm! Quickly, she strained her neck to look back, and was grateful when the corridor behind remained empty. She knew it wouldn't last, though. She had no choice but to simply go on, and she redoubled her efforts. She was very tired, but she gritted her teeth against the fatigue that threatened to pull them both under.
She was too exhausted to notice it immediately, but when she did, her walk slowed. There was something very wrong about the alarms. The sounds blaring out of the corridor speakers weren't the wails of intruder warning, but the siren calling for complete and immediate evacuation of the entire facility. She heard approaching footsteps. A lot of them.
No, they mustn't find us here! In her condition, there was no way she could make it to the end of the corridor in time to escape. Maya had no choice but to take for cover. She found a small passageway between rooms, just wide enough for a person to move through, and she hastily pulled Ruenis in with her. It wasn't a very good hiding place—anybody walking through the hallway beyond would see them if they only turned their head slightly—but none of the people who passed did so. Maya stopped counting after the thirty-seventh person going to the hangars had briskly walked on by.
She sighed in relief, even as the other half of her mind filled with dread. Everyone who passed was surely heading out of the tower and back to earth. She wondered if there would be any other ships left for her to commandeer. What am I gonna do now? She closed her eyes, her head downcast, and she held the unconscious Ruenis just a little bit tighter.
The sound of heavy boots on broken glass echoed in the small room that was once the prison of Ruenis Gallagher. "Wine-red orbs framed with exotic lashes, and irises so bright you'd swear it was impossible. Eyes that could kill your soul with a single glance, or make you believe that you were the world. Eyes that made you want to believe it. Eyes imbibed with the magick their possessors wield. Eyes of East Heaven blood. Are we the children of the chroma strain all such fools for eyes of burgundy?"
Rue spoke without turning away from the console he was looking at. "You loved Lucine, didn't you? The power to this area was shut manually, and that's why the alarms didn't go off when I broke the capsule holding Ruenis. I had wondered about that."
"A pity you didn't leave with them."
Rue kept his face impassive. They both did. "Someone had to remain to keep you busy."
"Then you really are a fool." Ruecian huffed as he adjusted the brass knuckles on his right hand. Something was different about him that Rue couldn't quite put his finger on—until he realized that the older man's Aeon Shard lacked its living gleam. But there was no mistaking the challenge in the way he held himself.
Slowly, deliberately, Rue straightened. One hand tightly gripped the Arc Edge's handle, and he was very careful not to let his anger and frustration show. "If we must fight, then we must." He took a deep breath, and slowly released it with obvious effort. "I thought Valen wanted me alive?"
"This isn't about Valen, boy. This is about me."
Do you really know what happened that night, on the twenty-third of December eight years ago? It was the night Lucine died…
It took time before Ruecian had learned their history. Lucine and Valen had been colleagues for years, always in zealous competition, first at Ephlesia University where Lucine had been Valen's student, and afterwards when they worked together at the then-newly founded Aeon Industries, young rival of Cosmos Corporation. Klaus never even came close to reaching their level. But while Valen had become prominent, Lucine had been content to remain in the background unsung, working in silence and letting Valen take the glory. She didn't mind, but in fact encouraged it, because it only furthered their cause as it enticed more people to support the doctor.
Valen was a chroma child, destined to go mad. Lucine's eldest brother had died horribly from it, and she found Valen a kindred spirit in finding a cure for the chroma strain. Valen had the particular psychic signature of chroma, while Lucine herself was psyche-strong, a lost child of East Heaven descent although far removed from the pure bloodline of the Royal Mages and Guardians. As chance would have it, they were both gifted with an uncanny affinity for mechatronics, and Lucine had the added ability of being able to meld magick with the physical. They worked extremely well together, for a time. Until Valen realized the chroma strain's true potential, and everything changed.
The raven-haired woman lay on her bed, in her room that doubled as a private workshop in Undercity. Lucine's eyes were glazed over as she gazed at empty air. Her psychic 'visions' came often now, and for her, the line between dreamscape and reality had more and more become blurred. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, her recent progress with psyche amplifiers and mechavehicle circuits was nothing short of astounding. She had designed as many schematics in six months than she had in the past six years combined. Valen took them all and took credit for some, as he had always done to Ruecian's eternal loathing.
But, like Lucine, Ruecian was but one of the many bound by fate to the noble doctor. Like the many who remained alive, he had been resigned to his helplessness, and in fact, a part of him recognized Valen's need, for not everything had changed completely. Aeon Industries was still unparalleled when it came to mechatronics breakthroughs, bringing naught but progress to the world. And in Valen's quest for power, he would necessarily come up with the sought-after cure for chroma poisoning. In this, Ruecian was a willing puppet. Not Lucine, though. Never Lucine.
Ruecian kept her company, as he did almost every day now. He had brought a fresh bouquet of chrysanthemums—her favorite flowers. Lucine smiled whenever she saw them, but in spite of this there was no hiding her unhappiness. She had battled wills with Valen far too often, for far too long—she didn't have the strength anymore to battle with Valen and choma poisoning both. Her face was wrought with pain, grief, and tempered with the magick—it gave her an almost ageless look, belying her young years. And now on that night, her face—no, her entire being, as Ruecian could sense—was set with a grim determination that he had never seen in her before.
"Rue," Lucine whispered the name fondly. It was she who had named the young chroma child after George Ruecian, as the father's best friend, and the mother had not objected. It was almost seven years ago that night when Rue was born, and only a couple of weeks more before the boy's birth celebration. Lucine wasn't sure anymore if she would last until then—her body was already severely ravaged by the chroma strain, which she had gotten from bearing her own son. Another chroma child, Ruenis. She had her reasons—she wanted his name to have 'Rue' in it as well.
"Rue's growing up so fast. Jon would've been happy to know…" Jon never even knew he had a son, Ruecian couldn't help but think. Jon had died before Rue was born, and when Elaine disappeared a few years after, Valen had adopted the boy. It was a dull ache now, but the memory still haunted him. Lucine continued, "There's a favor I must ask you." She turned squarely towards him. "You have to make sure Rue escapes from here. As soon as possible. Tonight, if you can. The timing is perfect, with Valen on a trip to Carona."
"What?" The suddenness of the request caught Ruecian by surprise. "But, Lucine, Wh—" Lucine put a finger on his lips to silence him.
"It doesn't matter where he goes. I trust the fates, Ruecian. Just make sure he gets out of this place. I can cause a distraction using the rigged memory circuits I've been working on. Tut," she clamped her hand over his mouth, "I know, I know, my body is weak, the effort could kill me, blah blah. I understand the risks, George—all of it. I know what I have to do. This is really important—I value it above my own life or yours. Even, even Tiger's…" she trailed off. "I don't know how long this body of mine can still last, so I'll do it tonight. With Valen gone, no one else will suspect it was me until it's too late. I can override security and turn off all the working power in the compound. But that's all I can do. You have to help me," her eyes were pleading. One final act of rebellion, against the man who took my life, her eyes seemed to say. "Please, George. For Elaine. For Jon's memory. If not, then do it for me."
Ruecian shook his head, frustrated at the woman's stubbornness. "Why are you so concerned for the boy? What about your own son? What about Tiger—Ruenis?"
"I've been dreaming for a long time now, ever since Elaine disappeared. Every day the premonitions get stronger. This time I'm sure, absolutely certain of these feelings. Rue is marked, George. Neither you nor Valen can even begin to understand what he has been destined for." She paused and took breath. "As for Ruenis, my son is twice gifted. Bahala na ang kinabukasan sa kanya, the future will take care of him."
It was some time before Ruecian would agree. Reluctantly, and his eyes were bright. "Alright."
"Good. Thank you," Lucine was all business again, and from the way she took it, it seemed as if she had already known what he would answer beforehand. She weakly held her hand to him. "Help me up. Just to the other side of the room." With Ruecian supporting her, she managed to make it to her work desk. "Now, please go. I'm counting on you." She managed a weak smile.
"Valen killed her. He killed her, and when the spirit link was lost… they, both of them… died…"
"What?" Rod frowned at her, confused. In the darkness of deep space that was visible through the Pinto's transparent convertible dome, his emerald eyes glittered. They were already near enough to see the orbiting Tower of Maya. "What are you talking about?"
"I…" Mint shook her head, quickly wiping at suddenly blurry eyes and banging her fist on the backseat in frustration. She didn't realize that she had spoken aloud. "I picked up on something… someone's stray memory." Not just a memory, and it was linked to mine, she didn't add. She shook her head dismissively at her companion. "Nevermind. Just drive. We mustn't keep them waiting."
The lights blinked thrice, and then the power went out completely. Lucine had done her job. And now it's my turn.
It was fairly easy for Ruecian to find and open Rue's door from the main control room of Undercity's detention levels. He looked over the array of security camera screens, and found a couple where a white-haired boy moved alone in the corridors. He's out, Ruecian noted. Rue's made it out. Thank the heavens Valen is still on his excursion to Carona tonight. When he saw Rue exit the building into the parking lot, he made to leave.
All of a sudden, he paused, noticing something odd. A bulky shape flashed in one of the security cameras, causing Ruecian's breath to catch in his throat. One of Valen's failed machines, modified from its original purpose, and now set as some sort of guard dog around Undercity. Rue was running straight for it.
Ruecian headed outside the compound and past the parking lot, not slowing until he saw the child with the telltale white hair. The child was already nearing the trees of the surrounding forest.
"Stop!" Rue turned at the sound of the voice, his eyes mirroring his surprise and confusion as he raised his too-big sword. In spite of the immediate danger, Ruecian's heart went out to the boy. So young. Too young to be like this. Fear was evident in the innocent wide-set eyes. Fear. Resolve. Need. …and …not quite despair.
The creature was moving behind Rue, but the boy was too concentrated on Ruecian to notice. It raised one arm to strike. "NO!"
Too late did Ruecian act—the child fell unconscious, dark blood spouting from a fresh gash on the left side of his head—but it was a simple matter of willing the creature to turn off. He rushed toward Rue, pulling the creature's dead arm off the child and bodily picked him up. Ruecian would have to carry him all the way outside to safety, as far away from the compound as he could. He didn't stop until he reached a highway.
Someone was coming. Gently, he put the boy down on the cold asphalt and made for the cover of the nearby trees. There was the sharp gasp of a female voice, and a quick rustling of skirts. Ruecian let out a quiet sigh of relief. He took a good long look at the brown-haired girl as she bent over the unconscious chroma child, making sure he could recognize her again should the need ever arise, before turning back towards the compound.
It's over. For that night, at least, he could do no more.
When he came back to Lucine's room to tell her it was done, he was met with silence. Lucine's body was by her desk. Burgundy eyes were closed and her ageless face serene, finally free from pain. It would be years before Ruecian would realize that she had died facing East, towards the homeland she had never known. Her hand still grasped tightly to the magick-sensitive mechavehicle circuits that in the end she had given her entire life over to.
Ruecian didn't fight him that night. Ruecian had saved him.
Ruecian gasped, painfully. He weakly fell on bent knee, one fist holding onto the floor for support. There was blood on his lips. "It's over, boy." And then his body gave completely, and he dropped prone. Rue ran towards his fallen opponent. He knelt beside the downed man and, at a motion from Ruecian, he leaned his head close. "Valen isn't your father, Rue."
"You shouldn't talk now," Rue told him softly. If Ruecian heard him, he didn't show it.
"Your father was my friend—a very good friend. He died in an accident before you were born. He—he died because of me. Not a day passes when I don't regret what happened," he coughed, pausing to catch his breath. "I served Valen too long to even try to free myself. All I want in the end is to die honorably. Don't blame yourself, boy. I wouldn't die now if—" he coughed again, more violently, a small trickle of blood trailing down his chin, "—if Valen hadn't already turned off my Aeon Shard. In fact, you might have just saved me from becoming mad.
"You've turned out well, Rue. If he had known you, if he had seen you grow up, as I have watched you… Your father would have been proud." He managed a crooked smile. "I am." His strength failed then, and he could no longer hold his head up.
"It was a good fight," The smile faded, and his voice lowered to a whisper. "It was a good fight."
Mint noticed something very strange as she and Rod approached the space station. Several drop ships had suddenly ejected from the lower floors, quickly heading away from the orbiting Tower and straight towards them. But their pilots paid the Pinto no mind as they headed back to earth.
"Rod," Mint called, once the drop ships were away, "We're near enough. Remember what Psycho Master said? The main hangar should be east, underneath the red stripe with the blue-and-white sunbursts." Rod nodded, indicating with a vague head movement that he saw it. "I'll start transmitting the passcodes he gave us for the airlock."
It took them only a few minutes. Rod carefully maneuvered the Pinto into the small airlock. When they could finally open its inner doors, they were met with blaring alarms and an empty hangar. Empty, except for a pair of bedraggled teenagers who painstakingly emerged from the elevator on the far end of the room.
"Holy—!!" Rod's eyes widened when he saw Maya dragging a half-naked chroma child with a dark red blotch bleeding through the makeshift bandage on his forehead, and he immediately jumped down from the Pinto at a run. The moment that Rod took over carrying the unconscious boy, Maya's entire body sagged from exhaustion, but she managed to hold up while clutching Rod's arm. Mint had jumped off the Pinto as well, and she crossed her arms in front of herself, two expressions seeming to alternate on her face—anger at her sister and sympathy for her and the chroma child both. Sympathy won. She walked over to put an arm around her younger sibling's waist and helped her towards the Pinto.
"He's not Rue," Rod confirmed, looking down at the boy he carried. "Ruenis, isn't it?" Maya nodded an affirmative. There would be time for questions later, when they were safe. "You'll have to hold him on the way back." Again Maya nodded, to show her assent. She managed to climb up the back passenger seat on her own. Rod placed Ruenis on her lap, and she carefully cradled her arms around the boy's upper body.
Rod turned towards the older princess, who had already started towards the other end of the room. "The Pinto's a two-seater. Mint, you'll have to ride with me. Let's get out of here."
Not looking back, Mint shook her head irritably. "I'm not leaving without Rue."
"We don't have time to argue, your highness—!" Mint cut him off with an annoyed wave.
"Get them out of here," she told him firmly. Her chin was set determinedly, and an air of command could be heard in her tone even amidst the wail of sirens. "That way you don't risk anyone. I'm going up to try to knock sense into Mr. Obstinate I'm-an-Idiot Doll-Boy," that last was almost a curse. "Hurry back for us."
Rod's face contorted in a flash of anger, and he was about ready to knock her unconscious if that was what it took to take her home safely. He opened his mouth to protest, ignoring Mint's killer glare, but something made him stop. He grudgingly had to admit she made sense. That, and there was something else, something that weighed as much as the world he had built his life around. His face softened, and he nodded. "Be careful," he said at last. Mint sniffed arrogantly.
"Wait, Mint." Maya spoke up. She untied Rue's cap from her belt and held it towards her sister. "Rue wanted you to have this."
Mint narrowed her eyes lividly. "Whatever gave him the demented idea that I'd ever want his cap?!" Without waiting for an answer, she turned tail and headed towards the opposite end of the hangar and the open elevator.
"What am I gonna do with this, then?" Maya called.
"Keep it," Mint answered. "Return it to him when we get back." And then the elevator doors closed, concealing behind them the sunset red hair tied up in twin ponytails.
Author's Notes
21 August 2003. Sigh, Lucine's death scene was pretty boring. Anyway, more plotholes have been forced closed. ^_^. I will sweep as many as I can clean under the proverbial carpet, I assure you. Coming up is Dual Haloes, the promised second Rue/Mint battle.