The White Agent looks through the glass, watching the royal children sleep soundly. Doctors and nurses are going around to treat their wounds and note their readings. Izetta leans forward in her seat as her hands rub against each other. Her gaze starts to float towards Finé more and more but nobody would be able to tell through Izetta's helmet.
'Your Highness… what in the world happened to you…?' Izetta's mind cracks as her worries flood in. She was able to not think about it by focusing on the mission but now that it is calm, she could not help but dwell on things. 'I should have returned earlier. If only I knew you were kidnapped, I would have rushed to save you immediately. But then you would have still suffered even if I did come back immediately. If only I was there when you were kidnapped, I could have saved you immediately. I… I never should have left.'
Tears start to form in Izetta's eyes. 'I am so, so sorry, Your Highness…' She blinks and the tears fall, blurring her vision as well. Izetta instinctively raises her hand to wipe her face, only to rub against her helmet's visor instead. She stares at her hand for a moment as she realizes her silly action. Izetta shuts her eyes for a few seconds to compose herself as well as to squeeze out the tears before standing up and heading to the restroom.
As Izetta nears the restrooms, she looks up at the signs that show that the male restroom is closer to her while the female one is further down the hallway. She takes a step forward before her thoughts kick in, 'Wait, I'm supposed to be a boy now. I should go into the male toilet then. I won't be able to wash my face anyway as somebody else could appear at any time.'
Without skipping a beat, Izetta slightly turns to aim for the male restroom. Despite her initial thought to head into the female restroom, nobody would have noticed that she had changed paths midway even if they were looking closely. While she was advised against showing up as the White Agent so soon after returning, she had convinced the Secret Service that her magic would enhance her thought process as well which would let her compensate for her lack of experience.
Izetta pushes the door open as a patient is about to walk out. They look at each other for a moment before Izetta side steps towards the door to let him pass. The patient looks at Izetta's suit from top to bottom before shaking his head.
"What kind of outfit is that? Some kind of new-fangled hazmat suit?" he grumbles as he walks out.
Izetta makes for a stall, not minding the patient's comment. She is content that he does not question her gender despite having a close look. Izetta locks the door as she gets in and sits on the toilet bowl. She tears off some toilet paper before lowering her head. She then presses a button on her helmet and the visor retracts but her face is still obscured to the outside by her other hand.
Izetta wipes her face with the toilet paper, dabbing her eyes to dry them. Once she finishes cleaning up, she puts the visor back on and flushes the paper away. Letting out a refreshed breath, she heads back to the waiting area.
"Here's the report. This is the last one, right?"
"Yes, all the reports of the children have been compiled and sorted. We should now be prepared to answer to whichever country comes here first." The head doctor stretches his neck to see through the glass as he continues towards the door. "But nobody else is here yet. Only the guy in white is sitting there. You guys go take a break while I talk to him, once the representatives arrive we'll be facing an onslaught of questions."
The door opens as the doctors fan out. The head doctor walks towards Izetta who stands up.
"I never got your name, how do I address you?" the doctor asks.
"I'm the White Agent, but I'll make this fast," Izetta responds. "Is there anybody that will not make a full recovery?"
"No, everybody will be fine. A few may need to rest for weeks until they are healthy enough for the long flight back home, but we didn't see any severe injuries."
Izetta's shoulders visibly lower. She bows to the doctor. "Thank you, I'll take my leave now."
The doctor blinks, taken aback by the abrupt end to their conversation and to Izetta walking towards the exit. "Wait!" he calls to Izetta who turns, "Even if you don't have any other questions, don't you want to stay until the country representatives arrive? I'm sure they'll be immensely grateful to you for saving their children after they were kidnapped for years."
Izetta shakes her head. "Just knowing that everybody will make it back home in one piece is good enough for me. Now if there's nothing else, I have to do something else. Goodbye." With that last word, Izetta walks out of the hospital.
'I actually made it… I wasn't too late to save them… Thank goodness…'
Izetta looks up at the sign. Even reading it causes her insides to tighten. 'Hall of the Fallen…' With a deep breath, she enters the room.
The room is filled with pillars, each of them with a name engraved onto it. There are a few agents paying respects to their treasured ones. Nobody pays attention to the white figure passing through out of courtesy. This is a place to mourn so they do not bother one another. Even so, there are no remains in these pillars. The actual graves of the dead are in the outside world where their family and friends can visit. These pillars are hidden in the Secret Service base so that agents like Izetta can pay their respects while concealing their secret ties to the fallen.
Izetta heads to the Eylstadt section. Since Eylstadt is a small country, there are not many pillars erected for those that were contributing to the Secret Service. Nevertheless, Izetta finds the corner where the three pillars she wanted to visit are placed next to each other. "Mom, Dad, Grandma… At long last, I'm here."
A young girl was sleeping in the back of a car on a woman's lap. The child's eyes fluttered open and she begun to rub them.
The woman strokes the girl's head. "Are you awake, Izetta?" she asked soothingly.
"Mhmm…" Izetta groaned.
The driver, a man, looks at the pair through the rear-view mirror. "It was another tiring day for you huh."
Izetta, in her half-asleep daze, did not answer. She just cuddled up more on the woman's lap as her eyelids drooped.
"Oh, Izetta…" the woman sighed. "This really is too much for her. We should just run away with her to some foreign land."
"I know," the man grunts. "I'll review that plan again. We should be able to do it soon."
"Wait wait wait!" Izetta cried as she jolted up. "Please, don't think that you have to abandon your lives for me! This project is your life's work isn't it? I can do it, I can master using magic, I just… need more time…" Izetta's eyes were downcast as she continued, "I can work harder, so please don't give up everything else just for me…"
"Izetta…" the woman sobbed as she held Izetta tightly. "You shouldn't be the one working so hard. We never wanted to make you into a mindless tool. We just want you to be happy."
"Yes, that's right," the man affirmed. "You may not be our flesh and blood, but we are completely serious about taking you in as our child. There would be no point in going forward like this if we have to force you into a life you don't want. You are our top priority, not some research project."
Izetta covered her eyes with her palms as she tried to stifle the tears. "I promise… I will say it if it's too much for me… So please, let me keep at it…"
Izetta takes a deep breath as she eyes the pillars. "I know that you wanted me to live freely." She smiles to herself, "Grandma, you were especially naggy about that during your last days. But I want to assure all of you that this is what I want to do." Izetta looks down at her hands, clenching them slowly. "I was given all of this power. It wouldn't be right if I let people suffer while I have the power to help them."
She looks back up at the pillars. "I was never supposed to live, so I want to make sure this life that was granted to me has value. I will take on the burdens of the world. When somebody is trapped in a hopeless situation, I want to be there for them. I will be the light that chases away the darkness, just as Her Highness did for me." With a bow, she wraps up, "Thank you for everything. I've made my choice, so you don't have to worry about me anymore. I hope you will rest easy."
Izetta walks to a small solitary apartment, far away from any other facilities. In one hand she has a plastic bag with a container of food. Her other hand goes to the scanner on the door which flashes. The light goes through her glove to examine her fingerprints underneath before beeping and unlocking the door. The movement turns on the lights in the room as well. With half her body through the door, she scans her hand on a box that as a 'new' tag on it. It opens to reveal a bag with a spare White Agent suit which she brings in as well, leaving the door to automatically lock as it closes behind her.
Since the lights only turned on as Izetta opened the door, it meant that nobody else was in the room. Just as a precautionary check, Izetta puts her things down on the table before peeking around the two rooms, the living room and the bathroom. True to the Secret Service's security details, she is assured that nobody is around. She walks back to the table to sit down and finally takes off the helmet, placing it on the table.
Opening the box of food, Izetta begins to munch on her meal. The presentation of the food leaves much to be desired but there is nothing much to be done when it comes from the Secret Service's cafeteria and they have to cater to hundreds of agents at a time. Izetta chews moderately as her brows furrow, trying to acclimate herself to the taste, or lack of it. She was in no way feasting before this, but her previous time on a farm at least had fresh food. 'Maybe I should just stuff it down instead.'
Izetta gulps the rest of her meal down and brings the bag with the spare suit to the bathroom, stopping by a drawer to get a set of underwear as well. Placing the bag on the sink table, she looks at herself in the mirror which shows her from the torso upwards. Now that she is alone, she takes the time to really look at herself. Undoing the zipper on the suit, she sheds it to reveal a thick white undershirt. She takes that off and is left in her underwear. She is now visibly smaller than the figure that she was looking at the mirror moments ago.
'I see, this is how much they actually changed my physique with the suit,' Izetta ponders as she looks over herself. Although her body is chiselled with well-developed muscles, her small chest would still give away that she is a girl. With the voice changer in the helmet and the layers of clothing making her appear bigger to cover those bumps, the illusion that the White Agent is male is complete. Nobody, not even Izetta, knew if or when her magic would run out so they came up with a plan to disguise her identity. When the time comes, Izetta would be able to retire to a normal life and nobody else would know that she was the White Agent.
Izetta pulls the shower curtain as she undresses fully. 'I've wasted enough time. Just because they aren't calling me through the helmet doesn't mean that I can have these idle thoughts.' The sounds of the shower being turned on break the silence as Izetta scrubs herself quickly.
The steam settles as Izetta steps out. She grabs a towel to wipe herself dry before putting on the new outfit that she brought in. She would not have minded using the same outfit for a few days, but the Secret Service asked her to change at least once a day if she had a mission. White clothing gets stained easily and they wanted to do maintenance on the helmet frequently so that it does not break down.
Izetta places the old suit in the bag and goes back to the table to put the helmet in the pile as well. She then unlocks the door with her fingerprints to step outside, the lights turning off automatically as the door closes behind her. Izetta goes to another box, this one with an 'old' tag and unlocks that with her fingerprints as well to put the old suit in. Somebody with a high-level access key card would come by to pick up the old set, send it for treatment, and then put it back into the 'new' box outside the apartment when it is ready again.
Izetta goes back inside to clean up. The container that had her food is tied up in the bag and expelled down a chute, with the disposable cutlery, straight into an incinerator. She then goes back into the bathroom to pick up her underwear from just now, placing them into the washing machine. 'I guess I should put in the clothes I was wearing before the mission as well, so much has happened that I don't remember how long I've been wearing that set already.'
Her hand touches the back of her neck. With a soft, "Thank you," her White Agent outfit is swapped with her normal clothing in the blink of an eye. Her eyelids droop as she slumps slightly. Izetta places a hand on the washing machine for support while the other rubs her face. 'Ugh… did I use that much magic just now? Or have I been awake for too long?' By recalling her magic, her energy and stamina were no longer being enhanced so the wave of tiredness that was creeping up hit her at full force now. 'I'd better brush my teeth and get changed quickly then.'
After a quick brush, change of clothes, putting everything into the washing machine and a few big yawns, Izetta looks at the instructions on top of the machine. 'Put in a soap pellet, press start and wait for the full time before opening. Machine will activate drying function once wash is completed by default. Wow, this is so easy compared to when I was washing my clothes by the river.' Izetta reaches into the box above the machine to grab a pellet, starts the machine and walks to the table.
Izetta takes out the phone in her pocket. The screen shows that it still has ample battery and that there are no notifications. Like her helmet, which is inaccessible now since she swapped outfits with her magic, it is linked to Command so that they can contact her at any time. Izetta fumbles around with the lockscreen, eventually figuring out how to unlock her phone and access the other functions. The alarm app gives her another set of problems before she finally sets an alarm for seven hours later. Letting out a sigh of relief, she plugs the phone into the charger and leaves it on the table.
'They did say that if they wanted to contact me, the sound would get louder and louder so it will wake me up if I was sleeping,' Izetta recalls as she walks to the bed near the table. Letting out another yawn, she tells herself, 'I've always woke up with minimal effort anyway. I'll be ready whenever.' Izetta flops onto the bed and falls asleep, too tired to remember to override the lights to switch off via the fingerprint scanner beside the bed.
Fires were raging throughout the building. Bodies were strewn across the area. A young Izetta lay curled up on the ground, her body bruised. Her eyes slowly opened and as soon as she regained her senses, her hands grabbed her temple while covering her ears. The ringing in her head was still prominent, giving her a massive headache in addition to the pain that littered throughout her body.
"What in blazes is going on?!" the head guard yelled as a group of them burst into the scene. The destruction that unfolded upon them left them speechless. A few were quick to regain their wits and rushed to the bodies, hoping that somebody was alive and could tell them what had happened. The head guard hurried back to where they came from, barking at those who were standing still to check and help the survivors as he alerted the other departments.
The guards eventually see Izetta writhing and approach her cautiously. She looks up at them, reaching out a hand to them.
"You did this didn't you!" one of them accused. Izetta's eyes go wide as her hand shrinks back in fear. "Only you survived, everybody else is dead!"
"N-No!" Izetta shrieked as she clambered backwards. "M-My magic, it protect-"
"Magic this magic that, enough with your bullshit!" another guard cut in, silencing Izetta. "I bet you just couldn't take it anymore and decided to blow everybody up!"
"Or you lost control of this magic and it caused the explosion," a third guard proposed.
"In any case!" the first guard piped back up, "You being the only survivor is way too suspicious." Izetta gasps as he raises his gun and the other two follow. "You're way too dangerous to have around, just die now and put an end to this ridiculous project."
'What do I do? What do I do?!' Izetta's mind raced as her pupils dilated. 'Do I still have enough magic to guard? Even if I do, I can't just stay here if they're out to kill me! Then do I try to get past them? Even so, what then?! Will others suspect me as well and try to put me down?! I don't know what to do! Somebody, please, anybody, help me!'
The guns' safety is flicked off. Izetta's arms instinctively covered her head as her eyes shut. Tears streamed down her face as she is frozen in fear.
A bang is heard. The guards squawked. Izetta did not feel any pain. She lowers her arms timidly to reveal the shock of her life. The young Princess Finé was standing in front of her with her arms spread out. Red starts to soak Finé's clothes but she stands tall.
"You shot the Princess!" a guard yelled.
"You were going to shoot too! It's not my fault she ran in front of us!"
"All of you, shut up!" Finé commanded, lowering her arms. She took a few deep breaths before interrogating, "Why in the world were you going to shoot her?"
"Princess, please understand. It's way too suspicious for her to be the only survivor. She must have rigged something to explode or lost control of her magic."
"Do you have any evidence she caused the explosion?! Did anybody see her do anything suspicious at all?! For god's sake her parents were in there as well, why would she want to kill them?!" The guards are silenced by Finé's outburst. "You may not care about this project at all, but she has been steadily improving day after day, always giving it her all! And not once has she ever lost control of her magic so don't give me that crap!" The two sides remained in silence and eventually the guards lower their weapons.
Finé turned around to face Izetta, wincing at her gunshot wound in her abdomen. "Are you okay?" she asked as she takes out a handkerchief to clean Izetta's face.
"Y-Your H-Highness…" Izetta sputtered out. "You're hurt… you shouldn't care about me now…"
"I'll be fine, it's not that painful."
Izetta completely breaks down, her crying filled with mumbled apologies towards Finé. Finé smiles and kneels in front of her, rubbing Izetta's back to try to calm her down.
"Princess," one of the guards tried, "we should get you to a doctor to be treated immediately…"
Finé glares back at him. "I'm not moving away from her. She's hurt as well so you best get us both treated."
The guards look at each other. After a quick discussion, the one who shot Finé runs off to get the medics while the other two supply first aid to the girls.
As Finé holds Izetta who was still trembling, she made a promise to her, "I will get you released from this officially. Once you're all better, you and your Grandmother can leave and nobody will bat an eyelid. The project will be shut down and you will be free to live as you want. Get away from all this and live your life to the fullest."
Izetta could only nod as she tried to suppress her tears.
The alarm from Izetta's phone goes off. Izetta jumps out of bed and blinks a few times at the phone, taking a bit to figure out how to turn off the sound. Rubbing her eyes, she goes into the bathroom to wash up and brush her teeth. Then she takes the clothes out from the washing machine, which are now dry, and puts the underwear into the drawer and hangs the clothes in the cupboard.
Izetta goes back to the phone only to see that there are still no notifications. She puts it into her pocket with a yawn. Touching the back of her neck, she whispers, "To my side." Her clothes get swapped for her White Agent suit. By locking her powers behind a physical action and a verbal command, Izetta would not trigger the transformation by accident. As magic surges through her again, her vision brightens due to her energy and stamina getting augmented again.
Izetta taps the helmet, opening the communication channel. "White Agent to Command."
"Command here. Go ahead White Agent."
"I'm ready for my next mission."
There is silence for a while. Then the other side crackles, "Are you sure? You can rest or relax more you know. There's nothing that others can't handle now. We'll only call you for huge problems like the previous one so just take it easy."
"Then give me the hardest ongoing one. Other people would also be freed up from that mission if I handle it as well," Izetta answers without hesitation.
"If you really want to… It has only been a short while since you accomplished that massive feat you know. Are you sure that you've rested enough?"
"Yes. I ate, showered and slept which is all I could ask for. Please give me the next mission. I was granted all this, it's only right that I take on more."