Reviews :

Snake557 : Yeahhh... Vye's definitely not one to explode into like joyous emotion, it's something that's a genuine struggle of hers in the 6th story, but it's information that Gideon definitely uses to his advantage, later on.

Burgie : Well, they don't know very much about Vye, I'd dare to say Gideon actually knows more about her than Albar and Jukkit. Ora's a different story... You'll see, Ora's probably my fave of the winners, she's fragile goil that needs to be protected at all costs lol


Song Listened To :

Lucy Meets Mr. Tumnus by Harry Gregson-Williams, the Chronicles of Narnia Soundtrack


*Chapter 157*

Internally freaking out to the max, Lash's dimly glowing, golden eyes held fervently pin-pointed to Mr. Favor's hefty, golden desk name plate. It confidently read 'Sezeke K. Favor', two names of which were included in Kepa's name. Him, Tessa and Zed silently waited in Mr. Favor's lovely office before Academy hours. They awaited Mr. Favor's arrival in the hopes of getting him into his office, cloaking the coding of this room in sound-proofing, inescapable coding, due to Lash's powers, and worming every single last byte of information out of him, information that he surely had about Flint, Game Over and everything that entailed. Lash bit his lip and felt his phone nearly burn a hole through his pocket, how desperately he wanted to call Kepa up and proudly proclaim that he had potentially found her father, he hesitated with the haunting doubts that this could all be one massive coincidence. He knew he needed to at least see this guy first, and if upon getting all the information out of him and recognizing that he looked absolutely nothing like Kepa, then he'd keep this little get-together to himself. Eager to also keep Kepa's secrets just that, he finally exhaled a trembling breath and wondered how the hell he'd balance all of this.

"Y'okay, Lash?" Zed whispered, no one knew they had arrived, no other office staff saw them sneak in, due to them arriving so early in the morning and also due to Lash's ability to teleport about.

"I-I'm fine," Lash muttered, he shrugged and sauntered away from Sezeke's desk, "Just nervous, I hope a fight doesn't break out, I know how exhausted we all are."

"He's a pretty reasonable guy," Tessa murmured nervously as she rubbed her cheek, she sorrowfully glanced into Zed's eyes and shrugged, "I-I'm sure he'll be willing to talk to us..."

"Associated with someone from the dark web?" Zed muttered in dreadful doubt with a shrug, "I don't know, I think we should be prepared for anything... I thought we could trust Rancis, but... Here we are, y'know?"

"I can't believe him," Tessa hissed in nasally exhaustion as she sagged her face into both of her bigger hands, she shook her head and slumped in on herself in rising despair, "I'm so exhausted by all of this... Why can't everyone just act right."

"Oh, y'all are NOT ones to even talk," Lash firmly defended in a spike of rising, frustrated urgency, the desire to have Gideon's back, no matter what, reigned supreme. Zed stiffened and now shot Lash a darkened look of authority, to which Lash cheekily challenged it and clenched his fists, "Gideon's my best friend, if you guys would've just acted right to begin with, none of this bullshit would be happening."

"Whiplash," Tessa stabbed in dire, exhausted frustration, "Sure, you can hand us our asses, but can you at least give us a grace period to get this sorted and properly grieve? We're ALL aware we fucked up, in one way or another, you don't need to rub our faces in it."

"Yes I do," Lash returned sharply, though before anyone could continue arguing, Sezeke's office door croaked open, to which Zed, Tessa and Lash urgently stiffened.

Due to Sezeke's door swinging wide into the gape of the corner of his room, he didn't properly register that there were other beings present until he was fully inside the room with the door shut. The second the door clacked, Lash sprawled his hands to his sides, cued his coral-colored honeycombs of fantastical User coding and cloaked the room in a sound and escape-proof grid lock, though in the split seconds Lash had to toss his eyes about Sezeke's figure, hair, face, features, everything, Lash sucked in a hearty gasp of rocked surprise, grappled the sides of his head and began to now urgently pace away from everyone.

"Hoooooly shit, holy shit," Lash yelled with almost maniacal laughter, though Tessa and Zed grit their teeth in terrified confusion as Sezeke stiffened and eyed the three in bewildered terror.

"T-Tessa, Zed," Sezeke muttered in a swing of dreaded, though forcibly delighted surprise, "Y-You guys, uh... You guys okay?"

"Lash, what the hell is it! What are you doing!" Zed urgently demanded as he pointed his finger to the ground, and though Zed figured he and Tessa would be the ones to be suddenly diving all over Sezeke, they were shocked to see Lash strangely take up the reins and act as if it was a party.

"You're, holy shit... You're Mr. Favor, you're THE Mr. Favor, oh my god, I cannot even believe this is happening," Lash ogled, his voice whined into high pitched almost delusional surprise, Sezeke sagged back on the flat of his incredible, pawed and clawed feet, slithered his lovely dragon tail about him in a gentle circle of lowered protection and warily took note that the room gently glowed with the dim flicker of Lash's coding. Lash grappled his hair and pressed across the room so to be in Sezeke's presence, "Look, we ALL got a bone to pick with you, but I'm about to drop a bomb on you, my guy."

"What the hell is going on, here?" Sezeke demanded, though this time his gentle demeanor rose to a tepid show of nervousness; never one to get riled or angry, this was likely as animated as Tessa had ever seen Mr. Favor.

"You know, I THOUGHT I knew, and now I'm not even sure," Tessa barked in Lash's direction as she put her hands on her hips, though Lash choked elated laughter out to her and gestured his hands in her directions.

"Y'know what? No, I guess you guys should go first, you guys drop the first bomb, I'll come in and finish it off, it'll be GREAT," Lash looked to be totally enjoying himself, something Zed was now becoming angry with.

"Whiplash, why don't you come sit over here and literally do ANYTHING but talk," Zed stabbed as he gestured to a few of the chairs hovered before the face of Sezeke's front desk, though what he thought would be Lash complying with his tail tucked, Lash inhaled a deep breath, grinned and almost proudly marched his happy ass to one of said chairs with a satisfying plop.

"GOOD idea, I'll watch," Lash almost giggled, he clapped his hands and looked up at Zed before peering to Sezeke in almost adoring delight.

In the swoops of eye contact Lash had of Sezeke, he was bursting at the seams with the blatant obvious right in front of him. Stance, feet, facial features and mannerisms all matched up, every single little thing about Sezeke was a very obvious paternal blueprint to having produced a self-programmed gamer like Kepa. Although Kepa's features were obviously softer and a lot more cat like, the blatancy of it all was beaming neon lights with the rock-solid proof that this was Vye's and Kepa's father. Eager to get all the information out of him first so that Lash could pull the confetti and surprise Sezeke that Kepa was still alive, he grinned and looked up at Zed in giddy, anticipatory wait.

"Mr. Favor, surely you know why we're here," Tessa started as she stepped around Lash and Zed, and urgently stepped closer to Sezeke. He sagged his strong, broad shoulders, his docile, bright yellow eyes peered to Tessa in a roll of surprised dread, and though Tessa wanted to climb all over Sezeke and demand for answers, she desperately tried to play her cards right, "I need you to tell me everything you can about Flint... He's done some pretty awful things, and... Long story short, he helped manipulate Gideon into-"

"Applying to Game Over, I know," Sezeke almost whispered in apologetic dread, he clasped his hands together and looked down to the ground for a moment before he narrowed his gaze and gently peered deep into Tessa's eyes, "I know why you're here... I know you want answers."

"Y-Yeah, this is for the sake of my baby brother, Mr. Favor," Tessa came into this feeling the rage and frustration surely due to overriding all of this, though due to Sezeke's delicate, honest nature, she found herself sagging in on herself in teary desperation. She inhaled a trembling gasp of a breath, shook her head and felt tears sting her already puffy eyes. She clutched the chest of her shirt and urgently grimaced him a squeak of desperation, "We're desperate for information... We're desperate to get to the bottom of this... We're BEGGING for your cooperation."

"I'll cooperate," Sezeke gingerly promised, though he cocked an eyebrow and looked over to his closed office door. He took note that a gird lock of coding hovered a few inches in a lift off of every surface of this room, he gestured to it and eyed Lash and Zed for clarity, "Under the condition that you promise me no one can hear this conversation..."

"Oh, no, I'm a User. This conversation is only for us," Lash assured, he still acted lifted and uppity in excitement, and though Sezeke sagged and eased his gentle, sorrowful eye contact into Tessa's crumpling face, he breathed a huge sigh of regret and opened his mouth to comply.

"Flint and I are from Castle Run, we were best friends," Sezeke began carefully.

"Flint's coded from Castle Run? H-He's a fox though, right?" Tessa whimpered, to which Sezeke narrowed his gaze in harrowing desperation and began to saunter over to his desk. He kindly gestured for everyone to follow suit, excluding Lash, who already was sat and prepared for the show. Sezeke grunted to a sit at his main, swiveling office chair, to which Tessa took the seat next to Lash and was glad Zed came and stood behind her, so to have his supportive hands rested to the tops of her shoulders. She pressed on through her tears, "You fired Flint from Academy, but... How could you even think to hire him if you knew he was conspiring with the dark web?"

"HE hired me, I know it sounds backwards... He's got me in a headlock," Sezeke muttered nervously as he looked about his tidy, lovely, dark wooden den desk, "Flint is a hawk gargoyle from Castle Run... If it's not obvious, I'm a dragon gargoyle."

"Ohh I am about to pee my pants," Lash whined cutely as he swiftly rubbed his antsy hands together and sucked an excited hiss of an inhale through the grit of his grinning teeth.

"When we lived in Castle Run, I fell in love with and was involved with a lion gargoyle that had escaped the game-day castle, a huge act of defiance that flew in the face of everything those cats stood for, but," Sezeke sighed in nostalgic, bittersweet smiling as he aimlessly glossed his eyes to his desk, "Ohh, I adored Elkuorra... Adored her. We had two beautiful baby girls together, I swore there was nothing that would tear us four apart. The only issue is, whenever Flint would come around and visit us, I would notice that he had eyes for Elkuorra, and she picked up on it too. It made her wildly uncomfortable, she only liked Flint as a friend, and... I guess he took it really hard."

"Rejection's never easy," Lash hissed quietly, he acted as if this was likely the best tale he had ever heard in his whole life.

"He band together with a group of other birds he was friends with, and although he never admitted it, I think he ran and told the castle of Elkuorra's whereabouts... They broke into our home, ransacked everything, I was warned that if I fought back, Elkuorra and my two children would be taken into the game station and killed immediately," Sezeke croaked nervously, "I... I had no choice but to comply. Since my eldest was of age, Elkuorra took our youngest and returned to the castle, against her will."

"Did they survive the unplug?" Zed asked, his tone was stern, and though he seemed desperate to get to the hitting points that involved Gideon, his loving, tender-natured soul shown through, the desire to show sympathy where it was due was prominent in everything he did.

"Well... Elkuorra did, but our youngest unfortunately escaped the castle a few months before the game got unplugged and was never seen again, Flint tried to warn everyone at the castle, but... The majority of everyone inside the game thought he was just spouting doomsday rhetoric, so the majority went with the unplug," Sezeke's deep voice muttered, he rested his arms on his desk and grunted to get comfortable, "Flint had been back and forth between here and the internet, he was so dug-in with other gamers in the dark web, as well as the band of hawk gargoyles he was previously involved with, that he had just gone mad with power. He took Elkuorra and our eldest, and... Secured them away in The Block, the city where the Game Over Arena now stands, but previously didn't exist."

"He wanted Elkuorra for himself," Tessa recalled nervously, Sezeke shrugged and inhaled a trembling breath.

"He wanted every little thing for himself... He knew I had charm, was good with kids and with people, the prospect of Litwak's Arcade being so filled to the brim with fresh souls, on top of being so close to a portal that Users could happen upon... He told me to set up camp inside Litwak's Game Station Academies and begin scouting for the hugest thing to hit the dark web, a new game concept he was positive was going to make him millions of dollars," Sezeke muttered as he opened his hands and peered into them with full remorse, "Which... Definitely has proven its worth, Game Over pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars each season. He lives like a King, and has promised absolutely no harm would come to Elkuorra and our eldest if I just... Continue to scout for fresh souls to sign up."

"Is he building an army, or something?" Zed worried.

"You've had your eye on Gideon this whole time," Tessa muttered darkly, now arriving to the fresh revisit of anger, though Sezeke's face slopped in dreaded surprise.

"N-No, not at all, it was Flint's idea to start opening enrollment to much younger kids, for Pre-Academy, he felt it was necessary to groom them earlier than later, when they're incredibly impressionable," Sezeke mumbled in pure regret, he squeezed his eyes shut and heaved a trembling breath, "I wouldn't be doing any of this if it weren't for the promised safety of the love of my life, and my eldest child... I hate every second of this. I HATE that I'm even having this conversation with you. The second I heard that Gideon won was the second I-"

"Wai-wait, Gideon WON?" Tessa suddenly erupted from her chair with a fervent stand, she grappled the edge of Sezeke's desk, which caused everyone to jolt in full shock, "Gideon WON Game Over? Gideon's ALIVE?"

"Y-Yeah, Gideon won, I was nearby the Game Over Arena last night," Sezeke muttered in nervous sorrow, "I was... Trying to see if I could somehow sneak my way to Elkuorra's house, inside The Block's city, but... It was too risky. I was there when the final canons flared, the arena announced Gideon Fox Von Schweetz the winner."

"Gideon WON," Tessa cried out to the room as she gripped the side of her head, took a swooping turn about Zed's figure and began to haphazardly pace the room in whimpering, teary, bittersweet distraught. She hiccuped a few wailing cries out to the room and continued to look as if she had no clue what to do with herself. All three men sat in poised, understood, knowing silence as Tessa desperately tried to collect herself, "I-I can't believe he won..."

"We absolutely cannot tell your mother," Zed muttered with a tremble in his tone, and though none of this was news to Lash, he still held quiet and observed just how they'd deduce this all on their own, "Vanellope will dive out into the internet and attempt to claw those walls down."

"She'd be shot on sight," Sezeke fervently warned, "You so much as get fifty feet from The Block's city walls, during Game Over season, and you're shot without question... She absolutely will not win, she will lose her life if she leaves."

"She wouldn't listen to reason," Zed's voice shook, he cocked an eyebrow and bobbed a nod, "As a parent... You understand."

"No, you're right," Sezeke's voice also shook, he looked down to his hands, once more, and proved he was due to coming unglued shortly, "I-I'd... I'd do ANYTHING to have Elkuorra in my arms, to hold my babies once more... I haven't seen them in almost seven years... Kepa for almost ten."

Tessa furrowed her brow amidst her crying, softened her aimless gaze across Sezeke's office and allowed the name to roll through her head in a gentle embrace of full understanding. Tessa narrowed her wet gaze, dragged it across the room and straight into Sezeke's with hot, shocked fervor. She could see Zed brighten as the word hit him as well, though as Tessa stabbed her eyes to Lash, she now fully understood just why he was acting so squirrelly. Lash cocked an eyebrow, side-eyed Tessa in grinning understanding and then bobbed a fervent few nods, to adamantly affirm every single last thing that was going through her head. Tessa sucked in a trembling breath and stepped closer to Sezeke's desk.

"I-I'm sorry... What name did you just say?" Tessa ushered above a delighted whisper, Sezeke's eye contact just barely sagged to hers in a droop of defeat.

"Kepa," Sezeke couldn't keep composed, he grit his teeth with the show of his bigger, prominent canines a bit deeper into his grimace, and fervently rubbed his forehead in depressed agitation, "My sweet... Kiprinka... She was so little, they both were innocently ripped from everything they knew and loved."

"Kepa," Tessa hotly repeated, though she now uttered the same cackling laughter that Lash was previously on about.

"Yeah! That's the spirit," Lash and Tessa firmly erupted into almost delusional laughter, though Tessa held her forehead and sat back down, due to feeling dizzy.

"If there's one good thing to come from this HUGE mess, it's the good news I'm now about to drop on you, that bomb I promised earlier, remember?" Lash instructed cutely as he sat up and took the floor, he gave Sezeke's wet eyes a kind, loving smile and humbled himself down, so to reveal such precious news, "Your daughter is alive... Kepa is one of my best friends. She was Gideon's girlfriend."

Sezeke furrowed his brow, he shook his head and looked as if he was en-route to not believing a single word that was being said, though his hopeful, glassy gaze peered into Lash's with the promise of being swayed.

"Impossible," Sezeke mumbled nervously, he dart his eyes between Tessa's, Zed's and back to Lash's, "What universe is that even possible in? That Gideon just so happened to be Kepa's boyfriend and is now yucking it up with Kepa's older sister inside the Game Over Arena?"

"... Vye Ketton is Kepa's sister?!" Tessa erupted with outrage, she stabbed her eyes tight to Lash as he jolted in the shock of her outburst, though he grit his teeth and shook his head.

"Look, Kepa ONLY just told me this yesterday and Mara and I swore to keep it a secret, so now you and Zed are apart of that mess," Lash shushed, Zed and Tessa huffed trembling breaths and peered to Sezeke in a roll of dire understanding.

"Y-Your oldest daughter is THE Vye Ketton," Zed huffed nervously, to which Sezeke nodded in shame and looked off.

"Enduring Game Over wasn't her idea, the whole of it was Flint's obligation to garner power, he has an INCREDIBLE presence on the dark web and has eyes and ears all about Litwak's," Sezeke muttered, "I know he recently lost one of his best friends, a few years ago... Aroq was a defender of Tron, which... Is just a shitty title that means they skulked around Tron's portal in search for Users."

"Yeah, I was almost sucked into that mess, once upon a time," Zed muttered in cold dread.

"THAT'S why Vye texted you that ominous text message, that one time, saying she knew about Ace, Libby, Beaux, Mara and now you," Tessa snapped her fingers to Lash, though Sezeke furrowed his brow and dart his gaze between the few.

"I guarantee it wasn't Vye, I can almost promise it wasn't," Sezeke muttered nervously, "Both Elkuorra and Vye were robbed of communicating with anyone outside of The Block. I promise you that was Flint messaging you, but I wonder why he did... Is it because he knew you're a User?"

"Yeah, there are only five of us," Lash muttered, Sezeke nodded and looked to be keeping a level head through this conversation, though the raw idea that Kepa was alive and well, and within his grasp, was something he couldn't ignore for much longer, "I messaged what I thought was her, wanting to get a leg up on getting them to quit their deleter attacks, but... It backfired."

"The deleters," Sezeke staggered in remembered dread, "That was another tactic Flint used to get the promise of young, strong gamers to come to Game Over. The lure was to scare the kids already attending Academy into rushing away to the internet to fight back."

"So, EVERY hardship we've been dealing with is rooted in Flint," Tessa muttered, "All the way back to YOUR issues with keeping Turbo hidden away from Aroq and his huge band of deleters inside Tron?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right, Flint was all over the place, he wants power from each and every single source he can get it from. Any shred of promised power he can use to his advantage, the promise of Turbo going mad and taking over games, the promise of Lash having access to Users, and now... The promise of Gideon having abilities FAR beyond even silly Sims players with the motherload cheat," Sezeke chuckled in a nasally bout of grimacing, "I don't want to be his puppet anymore, but... The second I stop doing his dirty work is the second I run the risk of him killing Elkuorra, or... Doing other dastardly things to her. I don't even want to begin thinking about it..."

"How tight of a leash does he have on you?" Lash mused as he rubbed his chin, "Does he know where you are at all times? How long have you been under his thumb?"

"Uh, about seven years now... He leaves me well enough alone after each filming of Game Over," Sezeke stated in a prickle of honest pondering, "He usually is on top of me right as applying comes to a close, but now that Gideon's been crowned victor and the dust is settling, he then spends his time in the dark web, soaking up every last cent he's made. He comes to Litwak's and pretends he's this poor, lazy fox. It's a disguise he dons, he's made some pretty nasty deals, where he's from."

"So, him and Gideon are friends, then? Have you SEEN Gideon since?" Tessa urged nervously.

"No, I didn't watch the game, I just heard that he won, I haven't seen him... I'm not allowed in The Block, it's even pulling teeth to get Flint to allow me into the city walls," Sezeke mumbled, "That's why I was trying to find a way to find Elkuorra while I was there... Each year is a little looser, he's so used to me rolling over and doing his dirty work that I don't think he's worried about anything being switched up. I quite literally can't afford it, I refuse to act out and have my reasons... I run the risk of me, or my family being deleted, or tortured, or... Any other heinous act Flint definitely has resources for."

"Valid," Zed bobbed a nod and looked off in contemplation, though he cocked an eyebrow and smiled in Lash's direction, "How safe is Sezeke at the Thunderbird Arena, Lash?"

"Was just gunna say, your daughter thinks you and her mother are dead," Lash scoffed a trembling, happy laugh of floored excitement, he shrugged as all three individuals peered to Sezeke with promise, "Resign from here... I'll cloak the game, you won't be discoverable, why don't you come take refuge with us and rebuild your relationship with Kepa? I don't think much can be done in the way of getting Gideon back, but... I don't know, Kepa has some sort of spiritual mumbo jumbo she likes to rely on, to get the universe to work in her favor."

"Ohh, Kepa," Sezeka's deep voice crackled with the onset of tears, he grimaced a knowing little smile and bobbed a nod as tears finally escaped his incredibly striking yellow eyes. He peered to Lash, Zed and Tessa in a rile of fateful nervousness, "I'm desperate to see her again, to hold her, I'm sure losing Gideon was incredibly difficult for her... I just don't think I can risk Flint's wrath. If I vanish, then..."

"He wouldn't have the means of killing Elkuorra and Vye, and having you suffer by watching or knowing," Lash shrugged, "For all HE knows, you died! That's not anything you can help. We can stage your death somehow, I don't know, right?"

"Yeah, I mean... If you go unmarked inside Turbotime, as well as Kepa, there's no way he wouldn't believe that you just died," Zed agreed, "Stranger things have happened. Your best bet is to vanish from Academy, leave everything as if you genuinely did die. No more of this grooming bullshit, no more doing Flint's dirty work. They can come for Sugar Rush if they want, we've already been through hell and back, and have conquered."

"Y-You guys REALLY think this is a good idea?" Sezeke worried, though his hands shook, as if to prove this was him accepting his new fate, Tessa bobbed a nod and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Rebuild with Kepa, fly under the radar... PRAY that Gideon somehow, by some stroke of a miracle, can somehow return to us," Tessa whimpered, and though Sezeke grimaced and acted as if that was potentially a long shot, he shrugged and smiled down to his hands.

"Kepa gets that manifesting mumbo-jumbo from her father," He soothed in rekindled, teary excitement, "The universe works in mysterious ways..."

"You've also been trapped with Elkuorra's coding, I know Beaux and Ace are really good about either reversals, or... Code soothing, whichever you'd rather," Lash cautioned, though just as he suspected, Sezeke stiffened and shook his head.

"N-no, no, I wouldn't dare rid myself of Elkuorra's coding... It's been hell, but..." Sezeke mumbled and looked down in defeated sorrow, "It's all I have left of her... Besides Kepa, now."

"Kepa could definitely use you to lean on, the spine of this operation," Lash's voice was kind, he gave Sezeke an endearing smile and bobbed a nod, "She told me all about you, last night. She told me all about how she was forced to take back the Ketton name, but wanted to keep Favor. We just switched it over, in my code room, last night. She adores you, it's obvious... I think it's time to reunite, and I don't think there's a moment to waste."

"Finish out this final work day," Tessa soothed with a nod as her and Lash gently gathered to a stand, her voice shook, it was nasally and promised more tears, though she strongly pressed on, "Upon Academy's end, today, meet up with Lash inside Turbotime... Don't take anything, leave EVERYTHING in this office as if you're going to be back tomorrow. I'll have the Users palace side cover your tracks... It'll be as if you didn't exist."

"I just hope Flint doesn't get wise to all of this," Sezeke mumbled as he, too, took a stand and almost looked desperate to follow the three, to rush to his youngest daughter, to reunite with at least one of his kin, "The gamble I'm taking, here, is... The lives of my eldest, and my lover."

"I know this is all a toss of which is the lesser of two evils, but..." Tessa grit her teeth and held her hands out, as if to balance a scale and show proof that even she was stumped, though Lash chimed in with a shrug.

"I hate to say this, but... If the unfortunate happens, at LEAST you'll have Kepa, a tangible being you can hold onto," Lash stated as eloquently as he could, "You haven't seen Elkuorra or Vye for over five years, Kepa for almost a decade... It'd be better to have at least ONE member of your family back, as opposed to nothing."

"...Touché," Sezeke whimpered as he looked down and furrowed his brow in a grimace, though he peered to the three in a swing of gratitude he wasn't sure how to even begin properly expressing, "Please don't forget about our plan... I-I'll be in Turbotime the second Academy lets out."

"Hooo, trust me, I will not forget," Lash staggered a laugh, to which Tessa gently brightened.

"Y'think Kepa would be okay if I came and helped with the transition?" Tessa politely wondered, though Lash felt a protective, brotherly urge wash over him.

"Hooo, no, she's really pissed at palace side, right now," Lash cautioned, to which Sezeke furrowed his brow in smiling confusion, "Hate to say it, but even if Callum and Flint had a heavy hand into Gideon's demise, y'all played a part in it. You said you wanted a grace period before I handed the lot of you your asses, you can't have your cake and eat it, too."

"... Well, damn," Sezeke muttered cutely as he erupted into nasally laughter, laughter in which Lash joined in on, which then Zed and Tessa slumped in dreaded, irritated, though understanding defeat.

"Quittin' time, can't come faster," Lash cued in a sing-song nature, and as he skillfully let down the cloak that hovered about the room and prepared to leave with Tessa and Zed, Sezeke watched in renewed, trembling excitement, the raw fact that he now had to sit in his office and run over just the things he wanted to say to Kepa was something he was sure was the only work he'd be getting done today.