The man was whistling what appeared to be a sea shanty. He looked to be in his thirties and wore a long black coat with a white shirt underneath which had the top three buttons undone. His baggy, white trousers reached his shins before being ripped off, but his long black socks kept said shins from being visible. Finally, he had a pair of thick, black boots on his feet, complete with a gold buckle rather than laces.

He was a lot taller than Umidori and had black hair that reached the back of his neck. His long beard was the same colour as his hair and reached his chest.

Umidori looked him up and down before asking,

"Who the hell are you?"

"Ha haaa!" he bellowed in a loud, booming voice. "The name's Edward, young lass. Pleased to meet you."

"Lass?"

The man named Edward sprang to his feet and held out his hand to offer a handshake. Umidori stared at it, unsure whether to take it or not. She decided not to touch it and instead turned round and walked out the cell.

"Hey, there's some crazy guy in here." she said as she regrouped with the others. "What should I do with him? Kill him?"

"Hey now. That's no way to treat a man you just saved, is it?"

"We haven't saved you and we're not here to save you. You just happened to be in one of the cells we opened. Now get lost or I'll cut you in two."

"Oh my, someone's gotten rather brave. Perhaps she's brave enough to try this new tail I brought with me." Worst commented.

Umidori's eyes went wide when Worst pulled out a cat tail from seemingly nowhere. She jumped back about a metre and actually hissed, which gave Worst more ammunition.

Edward, meanwhile, continued on as if nothing happened.

"I'm afraid I can't leave yet. I need to find my beloved, you see they've taken her from me. Who are you children anyway? And why are you here?"

"We're from Academy City. We're here to free a few of our residents who were kidnapped." Etzali explained.

"Very well, I shall accompany you until I find my beloved." Edward announced before walking purposefully past the group and through the door at the end of the corridor.

"What should we do?" Musujime asked, looking at the door he just left through.

Before she got an answer, the man poked his head through the open door.

"Ehm, do you guys have a map of this place? Otherwise, I'm going to end up lost."

Etzali sighed.

Meanwhile, Luna and Touma sat in their cell, still looking for a way to escape. The group had been given food about half an hour ago, but it was through a gap in the door that opened up, so Touma's plan of jumping them when they came to deliver food was a bust.

Each of the five prisoners were eating their meals, trying to keep their strength as much as possible. No point in trying to escape with an empty stomach, even if they could come up with a plan.

"Is our only option to wait and hope someone comes for us?" Touma asked as he stared at the door once again, silently wishing Othinus was here. She may have been able to use her small size to escape when they took the empty trays and plates away.

"Maybe not. They'll have to take us out of this cell at some point. We might be able to find an opening then." Luna replied.

"How do you know that?" Haru asked, tears in his eyes.

"Huh?"

"How do you know they'll have to open the cell at some point? We've been here for a few days already"

"They kidnapped us for a reason. I doubt it's just to keep us in this cell. They'll take us out at some point."

"And if they take us when we're asleep?" asked Touma.

"Then we'll just have to take shifts sleeping, always making sure at least one person is awake."

At that moment, they heard footsteps approaching from the corridor and then stopping just outside of their door. Everyone looked towards it, waiting for whoever it was to reveal themselves. After a small metallic sound, the small, metal flap opened up to reveal a woman's face. It was the same woman that had beaten Luna and Touma in Academy City.

What was her name again? Skye?

She shut the metal flap again and more metallic sounds could be heard from the door. Luna crouched low and waited for the door to open. When it did, she pounced, sprinting towards her captor in an attempt to tackle her and give them all an opportunity to escape.

However, Skye saw it coming and sunk her toes into Luna's stomach, bringing her down instantly. Luna fell to the ground and started coughing and holding her stomach. Touma was about to follow her, but he knew that fighting now would accomplish nothing, so he had no choice but to glare at Skye.

"Time for you to meet the bosses, young lady. They seem quite happy to get you." she said, picking Luna up by her hair.

Luna's eyes widened in fear as she heard what the woman said.

"They're here?" she asked, her voice trembling. Touma knew that she knew she had to be strong in front of the others, otherwise, they'd start panicking, but she clearly couldn't hold back her fear. Whoever these bosses were, they were clearly powerful enough to make her drop her brave act.

"No, it's just a video call for now." Luna nearly breathed a sigh of relief, before Sky continued. "But don't worry, I hear they'll be coming here personally to pick you all up. So, let's go say hello, shall we?"

Skye dragged Luna out of the cell using her hair, and when Touma tried to follow out of desperation, she kicked him back and slammed the door shut. The metallic sounds returned, notifying the occupants that the door was being locked, and that they were, once again, trapped in that small cell, but this time without the red-haired girl that they were relying on.

Luna was dragged through the clean, white, metal corridors, kicking and screaming through the pain that came with being dragged along the floor by your hair. Her hands pulling on the hand causing her so much pain, trying to get it to stop, or at least slow down enough for her to regain her footing. When that didn't work, she started trying to punch the wrist to see if she could loosen the grip, but she couldn't get enough force behind her fists to do anything meaningful.

"That's not going to work, so I suggest you stop." Skye warned in English, seeming to prefer it.

"Then let me stand up, you fucking bitch." Luna seethed, glaring up at her kidnapper, deciding to stick to Japanese out of spite. She didn't care how petty it seemed. The conversation sounded very odd with both sides speaking different languages yet understanding each other perfectly.

Surprisingly, Skye stopped, letting Luna get to her feet. She then took Luna's wrists, forced them behind her back and restrained them with a pair of handcuffs that Luna hadn't noticed until they were clamped around her wrists.

"Impressive. You've gone from shitting yourself to talking back to me in about a minute." Skye observed.

"Well, I'm not scared of you." Luna said matter-of-factly. "But, if half the things Dad told me about those monsters are true, then I have every right to be scared."

Skye grabbed Luna's arm and continued to lead her through the corridors. This time with Luna walking on her own two feet rather than being dragged along the floor.

"Interesting. I didn't expect you to admit you were scared. A little bit of advice, kid? If you ever see the light of day again, never let your enemy know when you're scared."

"I don't need advice from some psycho who works for them."

Sky grinned as she pulled Luna into a large, dark room with a massive LED screen taking up one of the walls. There were about a dozen men and women in the room with them, each of them at a computer console, working. Luna tried to peek at the screens to see what they were working on, but before she could make it out, she got her answer.

"Ma'am, we've nearly finished the preparations. We should be ready to destroy this facility as soon as we leave." one of the men informed Skye when he noticed her walk into the room with Luna in tow.

"Good. How far away are they?"

"They're about an hour out, ma'am and they're ready to contact us now. They wish to see the girl as soon as possible."

"And they will. But first, how are our uninvited guests?"

"We believe they're approaching those Academy City brats. That Edward freak is also missing, so we have to assume they've freed him as well."

"'We believe'? Why haven't you confirmed any of this?"

The man flinched at the question and the raised eyebrow, as cold sweat started to appear on his forehead.

"Having troubles, are we?" Luna taunted, listening into the conversation. She received an elbow to the stomach for her troubles.

"Well?" Skye beckoned for him to continued.

"W-well, you see. The cameras go dark before any of them come into shot, so we don't even know how many of them there are. We're tracking them by keeping an eye on which cameras are taken offline and when."

Skye glared at the man for what felt like an eternity, but eventually her face dropped as she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Fine, as soon as the cameras outside of the cell go dark, then unveil our little surprise." she ordered before turning to Luna. "Ready to say hello?"

Just as she said that, the screen on the wall changed to show the face of an old man with heavily wrinkled skin and thinning, white hair that still managed to cover the majority of his head. His face took up the majority of the screen, making it look about twice the size of Luna from head to toe.

He must have been looking into a small screen or his eyesight was terrible, something Luna couldn't discount due to how old he looked, because he was straining his eyes as he looked from one side of the room to the other as he tried to pick someone out from the crowd.

Finally, his eyes settled on Luna and he started chuckling to himself.

"Well, I'll be. That really is a fascinating prize you have there, young Skye." he said, his voice strained as if he were trying to push out his last words.

Skye's grin grew and Luna, disgusted by it, really wanted to punch it off.

"One Arikimo, as ordered. I'm sorry we couldn't catch the bigger fish."

"Not to worry, he'll make his way to us on his own. Kahaku could never abandon his own blood, even when it was clearly a trap."

"You honestly think you're a match for him? After all the times he's kicked your ass?" Luna spoke up, pushing her fear back as far as she could and tried to look confident.

"I do wish you would stick to English, it's annoying when people speak different languages when I'm talking to them. And you can put that brave face on all you like, but the fact is, we know about your father's weakened state."

Luna narrowed her eyes.

"Yes, he may have been powerful once, but now that he's lost his powers and that pain in the ass Aleister is no longer in charge of Academy City, he finally has nowhere left to hide. I'm sure he's in a panic right about now after we invaded his safe space."

The man grinned a disgusting, evil grin. Luna felt a chill go down her spine just seeing it, but she tried her hardest not to show her fear and disgust.

"I suggest you not underestimate him or Academy City. We're a lot more powerful than you realise." she said, once again glaring at the old man.

"Oh, don't worry. We'll soon have more than enough to crush any resistance that pathetic city of yours can muster."

Once he finished his piece, the screen turned black. Luna watched it for a few seconds before finally letting out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. She started breathing heavily as what had just happened caught up to her. She had been terrified throughout the entire conversation and now it was starting to show. She didn't even care that she was in the middle of that man's subordinates.

Eventually she was brought back to her senses when she heard someone call out to Skye.

"Ma'am, the camera's gone dark. Should we spring the trap?"

"Yes. Let's get this little after party started, and we can end it with a fireworks display."

She walked towards the door that she had taken Luna through, but before she went through, she picked up a hat that was on a table next to the door. It was a hat that was instantly recognisable to movie lovers.

She put the hat on and turned to Luna.

"How do I look?" she asked, striking what Luna assumed was meant to be a sexy pose.

"Like a fucking psycho." Luna spat.

Sky laughed and turned towards the door.

"I'll take that as a compliment." she said, waving her hand as she walked out the door.

A/N And there we have it. What did you guys think? This chapter introduced the leaders of one of the main antagonists for this story as well as the new character, Edward. I honestly can't wait to write more about Edward in future arcs as he is a lot of fun and a little bit bonkers at times, so I hope you like him.

As for the leaders, I can't really say too much about them right now, so I'm afraid you'll have to wait to see what happens with them.

Thanks for reading everyone. I hope you all have a good week and I'll have the next chapter up next week. Bye.