Sam shrugged as he walked down the road, Steve and Bucky were on either side of him and they had all picked up some kind of candy like concoction from one of the vendors that was selling them outside of the shops, though now that he could smell it clearly he wasn't sure that he wanted to put it in his mouth.

Holding it up near his face to test the scent again, Sam took another whiff before pulling his face away.

Bucky chuckled. "Maybe after the battle over you can ask her out on a little date somewhere in town—I just think it's weird is all."

Steve shrugged. "They're people, just with animal ears. Is it really that weird?"

"It really ain't that weird," Sam said. "Like look, I grew up with Lola Bunny and Gadget was my favorite Rescue Ranger—it isn't like when you two were kids up with the soda jerks and the men singing in barbershops dressed like monorail salesmen," Sam said. "There was sexy animal girls all over our TVs in the eighties and nineties!"

Bucky laughed harder, before pushing another stick of the candy into his mouth.

"How can you eat that shit?" Sam asked.

"You've never had Eastern Bloc candy," Bucky said.

Sam shook his head as they walked along. "You can have mine then, for sure," Sam said handing them over.

"I'm only taking that if you tell us what you said to that Chloe girl," Bucky asked.

"Look, I'm not trying to say I'm one of those weird guys who uses Hentai Body Pillow, but the idea of cat girls is attractive if you think about a cat girl in real life. And we met an attractive, warrior cat girl—she was even muscular," Sam said as he pushed his candy sticks into Bucky's hands, forcing him to take them.

"We're not doing this," Bucky said.

"Bucky likes them muscular girls," Sam said. "I think those Dora Milaje put a little somethin-somethin' on him."

Bucky was shaking his head, he picked up his pace just enough to pull out in front o them. "We're not doing this."

"Oh come on, I'm sure we can find someone around here for you," Sam said.

"What is Hentai?" Bucky asked ignoring Sam.

Steve was content to trail behind both of them, laughing quietly to himself until he heard the question. "Oh, I asked, um Banner about this one time. I think he said it's like a kind of sexual expression artistic movement?"

"That's what Banner said, huh?" Sam asked. Then he leaned closer to Steve. "It's big tiddy Japanese cartoon porn."

"And people put this on pillows? Bucky asked.

Sam held a hand up. "You really don't want to know," he said. "Besides, I saw what you did there and I'm not letting you distract us from your Amazonian woman…thing."

"I've told you, it's not the muscle—it's the dedication it takes to get it. A woman who—" Bucky stopped to turn around and face them, taking another bite of the bitter candy before he spoke. "A woman who will put in the time and work to get toned is attractive," Bucky said. He was obviously trying to still his voice and make himself calmer.

Some of the people around them on the streets were turning to look, though they were an odd trio. Steve looked the most normal for Lugnica; light hair, light eyes, light skin—those were the things the norm here. Sam was dark skinned which, while it existed here and there in the Kingdom was rather rare. And rarer than that were people who were light skinned and had dark hair like Bucky.

At least he had cared enough to cover up the metallic arm.

Sam continued to laugh as the three of them walked in silence after Bucky's miniature rant. They neared a bridge that passed over a small canal far below as they headed into the district where the businesses went from being shops and artisans to being inns and taverns and brothels. Sometimes all three at once.

"Speaking of women, when are you going to tell us about the blue haired servant girl?" Sam asked.

Steve had to know that he was the one being talked to this time, still he kept his eyes locked on what was ahead and continued to walk into this new district of town.

"I think it's your turn, Steve," Bucky said.

"Nah, I don't think so," he said.

"Well, that was unusually cruel. We're about to fight a bunch of devil worshipers and their giant whale pet," Sam started, but then he paused to glance around and see if anyone was looking at them. "And you won't even tell us about your friend back there before we go off to die or get erased from history or whatever."

"Rem?" Asked Steve.

"Yeah Rem, I saw you two chatting away and I also went to your room the other night and knocked and you weren't in there," Sam said.

"Wait, what are we implying?" Asked Bucky.

Sam smiled. "I think Steve found himself a secret girlfriend," Sam said as he came around next to Bucky and began nudging him in the side.

"It's been a long time Steve!"

"Yeah, hope you didn't forget us!"

A dark skinned cat girl Demi-human and a blonde woman, both wearing revealing dresses that had a slit running up to the thigh and exposing most of their leg came bounding over to them. Kaylis and Lily, the two women that Steve had met the first day he arrived.

Steve laughed and Sam and Bucky looked to each other and then at him. "You've been pretty busy in a month," Bucky said.

"Guys, this is Lily and Kaylis—they helped me find my way around the first day that I was here and treated me to an amazing sandwich made by someone called Dez." Steve pointed his hand at them in turn as he introduced them. "Ladies, these are my friends Sam Wilson and James Barnes," he said.

"Everyone calls me Bucky," he said offering out his hand.

Sam said nothing but shook their hands in turn.

"We had heard there was trouble on the other side of the slums, the whole Loot House got destroyed," Lily said.

"They was saying that someone who looked like you was involved," Kaylis said.

Steve nodded. "Word travels fast, that was me," he admitted though he seemed a little upset at the ruckus that he had caused. Steve was always trying to do things the diplomatic way, but things tended to end up going south real fast.

"It's good to see that you're okay," said Lily.

"Yeah," Kaylis said and then she looked at Bucky and Sam. "Your friends got someone back home—I'm not into home wreckin or…"

Sam cut her off. "You're both lovely, but we're actually doing work for someone who would literally kill us if she found out we were having any fun. Like any at all."

Steve folded his arms. "You two know about the Royal Selection, right?"

"Yeah," Kaylis said slapping Steve's bicep playfully. "Everyone in the whole Kingdom, even beyond, knows about that."

"Two of the candidates Emilia and Crusch Karsten dispatched us here to pick up someone that is somewhat of an asset," Steve said.

"Who uses the word asset like that?" Asked Kaylis, visibly confused. The women were both fairly beautiful, Kaylis and it seemed to be no secret what their profession was. Sam had never realized it or even thought about it before, but sex work must have been legal in Lugnica or at least more legal than it was in the United States. He had noticed the brothels, but they had been too noticeable. There were a variety of them with some obviously catering to certain clientele.

"Are the two of you from…oh, what was it again?" Lily asked snapping her fingers. "Are y'all from Brookland too?"

Bucky smiled and glanced over at Steve. "Something like that."

"Oh dammit," Kaylis glanced back as two men walked past the unoccupied door of one of the brothels, the one that the two of them must have come from, and went to the next door down. "We've got to get back," she said.

Lily waved as she went to walk off. "It was nice seeing you again Steve. Nice meeting your friends too," she gave a little bow. "And tell your important friends about us, they may have need for a couple of working ladies," Lily said.

The three men stood there waving after them until they broke through the crowd and began to jog back to their brothel. Steve was looking around now, but mostly glancing in the direction of one of the paths between the buildings.

"For a moment I thought we were down here to see them," Bucky said.

"No, but who we want is around here," Steve said. He pointed to an alleyway a little further up. It was like he had seen something that they hadn't. Silently, Steve led them toward the darkened opening between the two buildings. Sam could tell by his posture that his guard was up now. He moved like he was approaching a dangerous, wild animal. The mood spread to Bucky and Sam as they reached the alley.

The lamp light from the streets barely reached into the damp alley and the sun had already set below the buildings on all sides of it. For the first few seconds his eyes had to adjust to the darkness. Then Sam saw her.

The woman with hair so dark that it melded into the shadows of alleyway was standing over two people with her hands and blade soaked in blood so thick that it was glistening in the dim lamplight even this far from the street. She wore a low cut dress, very elegant style, especially for someone who seemed to be gutting people.

On the ground in front of her the two people were in very different states. The woman sat up on her knees with grime caked on her dress. She was crying and looked rattled, but otherwise okay. The man however was face down with his entrails spilling out on either side of him.

"I suppose you've caught me at a bad time," the woman with the knife said.

Steve went the woman on the ground without hesitation and even bothered to turn his side toward the knife wielding woman. The moment Steve was near enough to her lunged into his arms.

"He came out of nowhere…attacked me." She was trembling to the point that Steve had to wrap his arms around her to try and hold her still. "Then she—she—"

The dark haired woman sighed absently and then knelt down next to the man's body to towel her hands off on his cloak with the same kind of reverence that one would dry their hands in the bathroom at a house party.

"The chill started to come back," she said. "And then I saw him follow her in here,. Any excuse to find a bit of warmth."

"You actually did a good thing, Elsa," Steve said.

"I can control myself to a degree," she said in a tone that almost sounded like she was hurt, but she wasn't. And it wasn't a joke either. It wasn't good to go around trying to diagnose people, but he had seen enough variations of post-traumatic stress disorder to tell that this woman probably had some form of it along with other things.

"Miss, are you okay to walk?" Steve asked the woman. She was nodding her head as he helped her get onto her feet.

"I'll be okay. I just have to get to the Inn, right there," she said.

Steve walked her to the corner and watched her go inside before coming back. Sam didn't dare take his eyes off Elsa and he could see that Bucky was doing the same. She looked at the two of them, a big close lipped smile on her face before she spoke. "He never touches me that way," she said pointing to Steve.

"Most of the time when we've touched I was trying to keep you from stabbing me," Steve said.

"And yet you came looking for me," she said. "Who are your friends?"

Steve pointed at them. "Bucky and Sam," he said. "But we're not doing this, you're soaked in blood still and we're standing over a dead body."

Elsa brushed the hair back away from her face with her crimson stained knife hand. "…of a would be rapist or murderer or some such." Elsa was jittery, practically dancing on her feet as she spoke. Her cheeks had reddened considerably, what had embarrassed her or gotten her this way was hard for Sam to tell though.

Even in the moment, he wasn't sure why Bucky did it, but he reached his hand out toward Elsa. It probably wasn't meant to make contact and was more of a gesture, but she read its he wrong way and in a flash she dodged to one side. She tossed her knife up, catching it between her lips, and then moved for Bucky.

Sam could barely keep up with her motion. Once she really got going it was mostly a vague dark streak that blurred through the air. But Bucky and Steve were not normal humans—Steve was too far away to get to her before Bucky grabbed her by the neck. His vibranium enhanced grip easily holding her at bay.

"Let's calm down," Bucky said, his head tilted to the side and his voice deeper than it had been previously.

Elsa's face had gone bright pink and dropped the knife from between her teeth.

"Buck, I think you're squeezing too hard," Sam said.

"I'm not squeezing at all, I've had this arm for seventy years—I think I know when I'm squeezing—"

Steve cut him off. "You might want to know that hurting Elsa isn't really a deterrent."

Bucky quickly lowered her to the ground and it was clear to Sam now that she was blushing, swooning even.

"The whole reason she became obsessed with me was because I punched right through her with those Vibranium gauntlets," Steve said to Bucky in a low voice.

"Wait, you said that you punched right through her?" Sam asked.

Steve sighed, lowering his head. "She has an ability to heal. I've never seen anything like it, frankly it might even surpass Doctor Banner's," he said. "It also seems like she can pause it if she's conscious to do so."

"You really should be more careful with where you're waving that hand," said Elsa. She was holding her neck with both hands, her eyes sparkling and alight and her face still very red.

"You don't have to worry about any of the three of us randomly attacking you, we're not the type to do that," Bucky said raising his voice to drive the point home.

Sam pressed a hand to his chest. "Yeah, but she doesn't understand that," he said looking into Elsa's dark eyes. "I would imagine someone like her doesn't understand a lot about human behavior."

Elsa was smiling as she bent down to retrieve her knife and stowed it away.

"Sure, you can imitate it or predict what someone else might feel when you do something, but you're not sure of why it happens," Sam continued.

"We really ought to find a better place to discuss all of this," Elsa said.

There were people passing on the street that had begun to peer down into the darkness of the alley. An on the opposite side of the main thoroughfare a man who had been sweeping the area in front of his shop had stopped and was pointing into the alley where they were talking. She had the right idea of it, they weren't safe hanging around in here.

The four of them made their way deeper into the alley, following Steve toward the dim light through the fog at the other end.

Rem didn't think that she would violate the trust of a guest in the Roswaal manor in such a way, but they were not currently in the the manor where she was Head Maid. Moreover, Peter was no longer a guest in that household as he had become a permanent fixture.

As such, se saw no reason that she shouldn't at least take the precaution of searching his room. If she were caught she could attempt to lie about how se was just cleaning. Peter more than likely wouldn't question it. He also had been working on something for the White Whale Subjugation and had been at it for the past several hours.

She checked under the bed, pillows, and even inside of the pillow cases. There was nowhere that she could see a secret compartment where he could have squirreled something away. Supposing that he could have hidden it in folded up clothes or behind something she went through and checked under all of the clothes that he owned and folded them back into a neat and proper fashion before putting them away.

A panic washed over her, not just because she knew what she smelled and what it meant, but because she knew what it meant she would have to do. Though she had to tell Steve first, he would listen to her.

"Hey Rem," Peter said from the doorway. He was striding in with webbing splattered all over his shirt. "Just testing a kind of web harpoon—things got a little, uh, messy."

Rem turned and just as she did the smell flooded over her, the scent of the Witch's Miasma. It wasn't as thick as before but was still very apparent.

Peter froze. "You okay, Rem? I hope you're not coming down with something. Uh, look, you don't have to clean in here. If my Aunt May saw me letting a girl pick up after me she'd—"

"Why are you covered in the Witch's Scent?" Rem asked. "Did you join their ranks?" She stalked toward him, feeling the cold sweat that covered her body now, it was no wonder he had judged her as being ill.

"What? No, I lo—I could never betray Emilia like that. Or any of you," Peter said. "Is that why you were in here? You were waiting to talk to me?"

Rem kept her eyes on him, but circled around the room to sit on the bed corner. "All Witch Cultists are said to carry a copy of the Gospel with them—I was looking for yours."

"I don't have one of—whatever those are!" Peter protested.

Rem stared him down, she wanted to believe that he was telling the truth and there had been no evidence pointing towards him acting any differently or doing anything out of the ordinary.

"When did you first detect this scent on me?" Asked Peter.

"It started earlier today after Miss Emilia and Lord Roswaal left," Rem explained.

A sudden realization washed over Peter's face. "Of course, that's it." Peter started to speak as if he was going to tell her the whole thing, but then he stopped, thinking something over.

"What?"

"This is going to sound crazy, but I have a connection of some kind to the—" Peter froze for a split second. It looked as if the words had caught in his throat and he couldn't speak them. Then there was a burst of the miasma emanating from him.

"What I mean to say, Rem is that, I've been looping—" Peter caught his chest, grasping at his heart frantically.

"Peter? Peter, what's the matter?" Rem asked. By the time she had risen from the bed and gotten to him he was on his hands and knees with a string of spit dangling from his mouth. He looked weaker, his face was red, and the veins at his temples had bulged.

"Can you trust that I mean no harm to you or anyone else—most of all can you trust my—my love for Emilia?" Peter asked.

Did the Witch's Scent coming out of him get stronger because he tried to tell me whatever this was? If so, what was it?

Rem nodded. "I can trust that," she didn't think that she had heard him talk about Miss Emilia like that before and she had to question him about it. "Have you told Miss Emilia this yet?"

"No, I can't really—I—well, it's only been a month and girls tend to get kind of scared when you come on too strong and all that," Peter said. His words were still spaced out and his breath was short.

"I'm a girl and I could think of nothing better than to hear that from a person you like, than to know that someone desires you and only you," Rem said as she helped Peter get to his feet. The scent was still strong, but she would have to endure and help her friend. Peter had saved her when she lost control during the fight with the mabeasts. He had always been polite and checked in on her, sometimes even bothering to help in his own clumsy way.

She couldn't believe that her rage at the Witch's Cult had made her forget everything else that had happened up until that point.

"You should tell Miss Emilia how you feel," Rem said.

"Kind of hard now, she's gone back to the manor," Peter replied.

"Then you tell her when you see her again—"

"That's the thing Rem," Peter said. "I'm kind of worried that I won't." He lowered his head, averting his eyes from hers before he looked back up to face her.

"Why's that?" Rem asked.

"I can't say, but could you just use that Wonder Twins Mind Link thing you have with Ram—"

Rem cut him off. "—you mean our Synesthesia? How did you know about that?"

"Ram told me about it," Peter explained hurriedly. "When you were in your angry demon form that time she said she was able to feel it."

Rem couldn't remember Ram mentioning this, but it also didn't mean that she hadn't. For the last month especially they had spent more time doing things separately, this was partly due to her involvement with Steve.

"What do you think I will find if I check with Sister?" Rem asked.

"Right, you weren't in the meeting for the White Whale planning," Peter said. "Did anyone tell you where we realized the White Whale will appear?"

Rem shook her head.

"It's right along the route to the Mathers Domain, the one that we took to get here. If there were trouble there then we would be unable to go the quick way with the Whale blocking our path," Peter explained.

"And the Whale would be attracted to you for sure," Rem said.

"Huh?"

"Mabeasts are attracted to the Witch's Scent or enraged by it—either way you would draw the attention of a very dangerous mabeast," Rem said.

Another look of realization passed over Peter's face and it was as if he was putting together a mystery all his own inside his head. "Right," Peter said. "That makes sense. So the thing is that if they're going to move the White Whale in place tomorrow night then they're probably going to attack after that, right? Ram is pretty perceptive—she would be the first to realize what's happening."

"And she could warn me," Rem said. "Even if she doesn't mean to."

"Exactly," Peter said.

"I didn't know all of this about you," said Rem.

"What?"

"You're quite the strategist is all I mean."

Peter shook his head. "Didn't seem to help me the last times," he muttered.

Rem figured that he had to be talking about whatever had happened to him in the world that he called home before this. From what she had seen his plans had been rather trustworthy. She didn't speak on it though as it probably wasn't her place.

"We just need to cover everything at once, make sure that the people on the White Whale hunt and at the manor and in Irlam Village are safe."

Rem nodded. "Right." Somehow Peter had thought ahead ten steps.

Though Steve had led them away from the spot where they had found Elsa, it had been her that directed them to the place she thought to be the safest. Since her hands and arms were still stained red it would have been a bad idea to go into one of the establishments on the street. Instead she lead them up a series of low A frame roofs and boards that she laid out leading into the attic area of one of the buildings.

Inside was a small lantern, the mana burning kind not fire, that she had covered with a cloth to keep dimmed when she wasn't around. She had set up a small cot of pillows and straw and other little necessities were pressed against the wall in the small space.

There was barely room for Steve to stand up with how low the ceilings were toward the edges. He held a hand above his head as an insurance against walking into the ceiling. "Have you been living here?" He asked glancing around.

"I tend to not live anywhere permanently, this is a place I can come if things get…messy, but I rent rooms at various inns around the city normally," Elsa explained.

Steve figured that she worked for some kind of organization or there were at least partners that she could go to from time to time. He really hadn't gleamed all that much from her when it came to her situation and he didn't get the idea that Elsa was into sharing all that much or that she would even know how to.

Bucky and Sam were standing near the entrance in, what he could tell, was an effort to make sure that Elsa couldn't escape if she felt the need to run. He didn't want her to feel like a caged animal or to give her any reason to get irrational, so he gestured toward the two of them slowly.

"Guys, let's give the lady space to leave if she wants to," Steve said.

They moved away from the entrance, at least as much as the small space would allow.

"So you wanted to talk to me about something—a job perhaps? Well, this has me very interested," Elsa moved over to one corner of the room where there was a basin sat atop a little crate. She began to wash and scrub her arms and hands in it.

"Something like that," Steve said with a sigh.

Elsa giggled a seductive little giggle and Steve wondered if she even knew how to turn off what she was doing or if this was just her way of toying with him. "I knew I detected a little extra jingle in your step," Elsa said.

"Not so fast, I have a couple of questions. I assume you're part of some assassin guild, right?"

Elsa nodded her head as she dried her hands on a small towel that was hanging from a rafter.

"So you're well traveled," Sam added.

"That probably means she knows about our friend the White Whale," Steve said.

Elsa blinked back her confusion, trying to keep a straight face. "Everyone knows of the White Whale. Though I've never had the displeasure of seeing it up close."

"Well, how would you like the chance?" Bucky asked.

Elsa looked at Steve, then Sam, and then to Bucky in turn. "You're all serious."

"Absolutely," Steve said. "We would like to hire you to help with our effort to defeat the White Whale."

"I've done some insane things, but this is really something else," she said.

"One hundred blessed coins, how does that sound? Do we pay you are is there some kind of assassin organization that you belong to? asked Steve.

Elsa shook her head. "I'll refrain from saying too much about the organization, since I don't want to spend the rest of my life as a sack of appas, but the amount of coin that you're promising is hard to turn down."

"This isn't going to just be a you job, it's a real group effort to make sure that this damn thing never bothers anyone again," Sam said.

Steve gestured with his head toward Elsa. "I'm pretty sure she is going to do it," he said. "The thing is that the White Whale is a one of a kind of mabeast and that means no he's ever gotten a proper look at its insides."

"Oh, Steve Rogers— you know me so well," Elsa said.

"But are you sure that you want to be seen with me?" Elsa asked as she sauntered across the room with her thin red lips puckered into a pout. "You've got the funk of that little demon all over you and we wouldn't want to make her jealous."

A smooth sigh escaped Steve. "I figured that you were aware of that."

"Don't get me wrong, I think it's a fine match," Elsa said. "I might even be persuaded to share you if Rem, wasn't that her name, would allow."

"I'm a bit of an old fashioned guy," Steve started. "Not even sure what that exactly means to a world that hasn't undergone industrialization yet, but I tend to like to take things slow. And this isn't really a personal call."

Elsa's smile deepened. "Where am I supposed to be for this job, the problem with the White Whale is that no one ever knows where it is going to turn up," she said.

"Usually, but we've figured something out—the job starts tomorrow night—we'll all head out together," Steve said.

"I'll be there," Elsa said.

"Maybe you could wear something a little more inconspicuous if you don't want to arouse suspicions, we're not going to go into the full explanation about who you are to everyone who doesn't know already," Steve said.

When Steve moved for the door Bucky and Sam started that way too. Elsa it seemed wasn't done with them yet. "Won't you treat a girl to your company for one drink?"

"You're might calm about fighting a monster that that's been supposedly unkillable for like four centuries," Sam said.

Elsa shrugged. "Didn't you hear? I'm extremely hard to kill too."

Bucky stopped to stare at Sam. "It sounds like she's another proponent of your power of positive thinking mindset," he said before he bent down and walked through the small doorway that they had come through.