Narrator pow:
"Have Maken and Blake been informed yet?" Shun asked, jumping off of Skyress and landing right in front of Volt.
"Not yet..." Volt said, pausing to look down at the scroll. "Actually, Maken said that instead of him and Blake it is you and me who should go forward and attack Salem."
"He didn't opted for personal command? That's weird."
"Blake's ingerention in planning phase isn't, does it explain enough?"
"You know what? It actually does." Shun responded, catching returning Skyress into his hand. "But now we need to plan it all over again given that they will stay behind and protect Menagerie as backup."
"Sounds reasonable, let's go meet with the others and discuss the terms." Volt nodded before the two began their walk back to the meeting room. "Now that we have time to talk in person, how did mine obvious excuse explained everything?"
"It's kind of obvious Blake has at least some effect on Maken, right?"
"Yes, he's less up front in... Anything I guess and doesn't seem to keep up his original ideals of tough, mysterious hard-worker who wants to dominate everyone for their own sake."
"Exacly, and what tone of voice he had when telling you that we can act on our own with the Salem's issue?"
"Relaxed and positive."
"Yes. He actually wants us to handle it in the way we like."
"Now that I think about it, we may not even have to go after Salem." Volt smiled with sudden turn of his tone as he took out what seemed to be a custom-made command gate card.
"And that is?" Skyress asked, being first to show intrest in it.
"I tell all of you at the meeting. You May find it offensive but it can save us a lot of trouble if given full trust and backing from all participants..."
"Any ideas on why Weiss bother to tag alongside her old team?" Lync asked, sitting in the cafeteria with Emerald while trying to enjoy his glass of water.
"Team loyalty. You might be suprised on how much Blake's old team has bounded without her." She responded, flicking her fingers before moving the screen of her scroll down onto the section of world news.
"Weren't they the baddies just now?"
"No, just people acting in the way that fitted their plan, personality and ideals. Kinda like us."
"Fair enough... I heard they are going to join Atlas now." Lync added, slightly diverging the discussion towards more practical topic.
"Yup, the passenger lists on the train headed for Argus say so." Emerald responded, sending him her confident glare. "But I'm sure that they won't allow them to direct their cautious policy, relics are a magnet for Grimm after all."
"Then why Maken took it with himself back to Kuo Kuana?"
"Because he wanted to thin the enemies lines. In case you didn't know, during the Fall of Beacon Grimm actually recognised Cinder as one on their side. I have a footage." Emerald responsed with decisive tone, turning her scroll around and showing Lync video footage of Cinder petting a dragon-like Grimm on it's nose.
"So with Grimm pulling towards Menagerie... Mistral has only to deal with other Old Kingdoms?" Lync asked again, slowly but steadly understanding what she meant.
"Precisely. Contrary to popular belief, Salem isn't the highest majesty for Grimm who will bow down to her at will." Emerald paused, giving Lync enough time to take another sip of water and nod for her to continue. "They are supposingly mindless, soulless beings who only seek to destroy humanity and get attracted by negative emotions. Salem isn't something special, she's just half-Grimm, half-human hybrid seeking her own goals with Grimm being her best tools."
"So you're suggesting that Salem doesn't have full control over her Grimm armies?"
"Exacly. They are not her solely commamded contraptions, they are her ally. And regardless of how much Grimm she has in herself, she is still a human. If not at the core, then by heritage."
"Well, it seems to be working like that. Not that I have better explaination." Lync finally concluded, seeing that Volt and Shun entered the room with Adam, who waved his hand for them to join them.
"Now then, are you actually sure about it?" Griffon asked, as he and Maken came up to the lone hill in a middle of a deserted plane with no civilization in the sight.
"Sure? Absolutely not." Maken responded stiffly, looking up and seeing Ravenoid descending towards them with Blake crouching on his back. "But these powers aren't meant to be left aside and kept for our enemies to be taken."
"I didn't expected you to care about the lamp." Blake interrupted him, jumping from her bakugan and landing next to him while Ravenoid landed to the left of Griffon and crossed his arms.
"Me neither my dear, believe me." Maken sighed, looking down at the relic. "You see, I feel like we have to destroy it."
"Have, you say?" Blake asked him, recieving a silent nod and his free hand taking the mace out of his back as a response. "It is an option, but why?"
"This thing is too dangerous to exist. Especially since it brings danger to the owners." Maken explained, placing the lamp on the ground between them. "Given what I managed to learn in my free time, this so called Relic of Knowledge contains magical being that can answer to absolutely anythnig the questioner desires and vocalizes to it. However, the ammount of uses the lamp has and our capability to keep it with us safe is more than limited given that Salem and Old Kingdoms are ganging up on us."
"So you want to destroy the lamp?" Ravenoid asked him from behind, being slapped on the leg by Griffon afterwards for interrupting.
"That too, but you're missing the point." Maken responded, allowing himself to correct him. "I want to ask the thing inside eof the lamp all the questions we need to defeat Salem, Grimm, everyone who will and might try to oppose us and then we allow it to go out and exist as a free magical spirit just like the Gods intended."
"You know it sounds risky, right?" Blake asked him, giving him a worried look on her face.
"That's why I don't do it alone." Maken responded, placing his free hand on her shoulder. "We will do it, together. Just as you insisted back then."