"No; sorry… Yeah, I'm still not feeling that great – girl problems. No, it is getting better… No, I don't need you to come over and 'make it better'… Sigh… I'll let you know when you can move your things in – might not be for a few days, though… Believe me, this wasn't my first choice… I can't wait, either… I love you, too. Bye."

Aurore let out the breath she had been holding since the phone rang, looking around the simply-furnished apartment cautiously. The sun had only been up for a couple hours, but Aurore herself had been away since before sunrise, sitting on the couch and staring at the windows, the blinds pulled shut. The ringing phone from the bedroom had roused her from a stupor, almost immediately sending her into a panic mode that barely abated when Valèrie brought her phone out to the living room. Only when Valèrie had disconnected the call and put her cellphone back down on the coffee table did Aurore finally allow herself to relax, releasing the tension in her shoulders that she hadn't realized was there. Leaning back on the couch and taking a long drink from her water bottle, resting one hand on her stomach, a wince passed over Valèrie's face, which vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Valèrie fixed her with a concerned look, raising her eyebrows expectantly. Aurore sighed, swallowing anxiously. "Thank you."

Valèrie shrugged, letting out a breath. Smacking her upper chest once, she cleared her throat. "You're welcome." She chuckled wryly. "Technically, I didn't actually lie to him…"

"Really?" Aurore cocked her head to one side, examining Valèrie closely. "Are you really not feeling well?"

Valèrie frowned, pursing her lips. "Not really – mornings have been a bit annoying lately. But that's supposed to go away in a couple weeks. Actually, I was referring to you: it's because of your 'girl problems' – whatever they are – that he can't come over."

"Oh." Her eyes widening, Aurore's shoulders slumped, and she looked away. "I'm sorry."

Valèrie groaned in frustration, sniffling. "No; I didn't mean it like that. I'm happy to help out with this – whatever 'this' is. I wouldn't have agreed to let you stay if I wasn't okay with you staying. Even if it does mean putting certain things on hold." Her face fell, and she muttered under her breath, "Even if some things really can't be put on hold…"

Aurore gulped. "Do you need me to leave?" Her stomach clenched, and she grabbed one of the blankets folded up next to her seat, clutching it in a white-knuckled grip.

"No – I'm not going to throw you out," Valèrie retorted, scoffing. "But I need to know something. Even just how long you'll need to stay here." She burped, smacked her chest, and winced. "Oh… this can't go away soon enough…" she grumbled.

Aurore's eyes widened. "Is there something you need? Toast?"

"At the moment?" Valèrie hummed and shook her head. "Just time – maybe another hour and it will be fine." She made a face. "Even the word 'toast' sounds disgusting right now…"

"Sorry."

Valèrie shrugged. "It's not your fault. And it's not like there's anything I expect you to do about it." She let out a breath. "I just have to live with it, at least for now." Glancing toward the hallway on the far end of the living room, she grimaced, glaring down at the empty water bottle in her hands. "But in the meantime…" She groaned in annoyance and pushed herself up off the couch. "I'll be back."

"Want a refill?" Aurore called after her.

"Always."

Nodding, Aurore stood up, stretching her arms out to either side and rolling her shoulders to relieve the tension from having sat in one place for so long. As Valèrie made her way down the hallway to the bathroom, Aurore picked up Valèrie's large water bottle and walked into the simple kitchenette, pouring the tap water into the water bottle before filling the kettle and placing it on the stove. Finally, she grabbed onto the counter, staring down at her hands and from there down at her feet.

She really was working with borrowed time here, wasn't she?

But what was she supposed to do now? That night after the bachelorette party, she'd known she needed to go somewhere the Heroes of Paris wouldn't think to look for her, and this had been the first place she thought to go. Of course she couldn't stay here – not forever. Valèrie wouldn't want her to stay forever… and the Heroes of Paris were bound to find her if she stayed in one place for too long, especially if Jean said something to anyone about Valèrie's refusal to see him since the bachelorette party. And yet, at the same time, where else could she go? The Heroes of Paris were bound to look for her with any of her friends from school – and they knew exactly who her friends were, since some of them were here friends. Even anyone in their class who had been friendly to her in the past might be watched.

The only thing she could do was finish this. She had to find the man who had done this to her, who had manipulated and weaponized her against the Heroes of Paris.

Unfortunately, after racking her brain for days, she finally had to admit that she knew hardly anything about M. Loubet. Whenever she had asked him about himself in the spring, he had simply shrugged, given a half-answer, and redirected the question back at her. She still didn't know where he really found the lance. She didn't know where he lived or what he did. She couldn't remember the kind of car he used. She groaned softly. Even the few things he had told her… could she trust anything he had said? Aurore squeezed her eyes shut, her mouth clenching and unclenching.

This wasn't going to work.

Should she just go to Berlin, find the Knight, and give him the lance? Before they went to Pamplona, he had been so intent on ensuring that these weapons were not being misused by anyone. He was the one who knew about the history of the Crusader Weapons, who understood their significance. For all she could tell, maybe M. Loubet had stolen the lance from the Knight's family. Over and over, he had said that these were more than just weapons; they were symbols of a set of ideals. "Atavis et Armis": "For Ancestors and for Arms." Those words had meant something to the Lazarist Order, and that was what the lance represented. But if she wasn't worthy to hold the lance anymore, then maybe it would be best for everyone if she gave it to someone who could find a worthy holder.

But the Knight had refused to take el Caballero's mace away from him in Pamplona. Instead, he had told el Caballero that he needed to become worthy of it. So maybe…

Soft footfalls landed on the kitchenette's tiled floor. "Hey, um, are you…" Valèrie swallowed nervously. "The, uh, the water is boiling away."

Aurore shook her head, blinking, and looked down at the screaming kettle for a moment before removing it from the heat. In the sink, Valèrie's water bottle was overflowing, water pouring down the drain. "Sorry," Aurore apologized, turning off the water and handing Valèrie the bottle. Rummaging around in one of the boxes on the counter, she finally found a package of tea.

"Do you need help?" Valèrie asked, finding a teacup for her.

Aurore poured the water and shook her head. "No, I'm okay."

Valèrie downed half her water bottle at once and arched an eyebrow at Aurore. "If you were okay, you wouldn't be here right now," she pointed out. Aurore started to open her mouth but Valèrie cut her off with a raised hand. "Look," she told her, "I wasn't going to say anything when you showed up in the middle of the night last night and asked to sleep on my couch – I was happy to be able to help you out, even without knowing what was going on. I figured that if you were in trouble, it was your problem and you would tell me if I needed to know. But if you're going to be here for a while – if I'm going to have to keep my boyfriend in the dark and not let him even come over when he was supposed to move in this week, I need to know how long this is going to be for and why."

Aurore frowned. "I know – I realize I'm putting you in a difficult position–"

"That's an understatement," Valèrie interrupted wryly.

"And I really appreciate you letting me stay with you," Aurore finished. "You have no idea how grateful I am."

"Of course," Valèrie assured her, nodding. "I'm… happy to be able to help you out. Even if I have absolutely no idea what's going on." She raised an eyebrow meaningfully.

"Okay…" Aurore tensed, her stomach roiling. "It's just… if I share this with you, you can't tell anyone! I mean it! I'm… I'm putting you in danger just by being here," she whispered. She fell silent, watching Valèrie's face and swallowing nervously.

Valèrie blinked dumbly and stared at Aurore for a long moment. "Wait, what? Then why would you come to me?" she demanded, one hand drifting down to her stomach protectively. Her eyes widened, and she glanced to the side toward the apartment door. "Why put me in danger?" She gulped. "Should – should you even be here? I–um–I don't want to put my–" She froze, clamping her mouth shut, and took a hesitant step away from Aurore.

Aurore let out a breath, looking down at the floor. "I didn't want to put you in danger, but I didn't know where else I could go. But I can leave if I need to."

"No – you can stay. Just… why?"

"Because…" Aurore groaned, looking at anything but Valèrie. "Because I'm hoping that people still think I hate you over Jean," she finally admitted. "Hopefully no one will think that I would come to you, so no one will try to look for me here."

"I mean, you're not exactly wrong…" Valèrie frowned, sniffling quietly. "I'm really sorry," she finally whispered, cradling her stomach and blinking back tears. "I never wanted any of this to happen – not over something as silly as a boy."

Aurore shook her head. "No… you don't really have anything to apologize for." She studied her hands for a long minute before swallowing nervously. "I'm the one who was angry and resentful toward you. You never did anything. I knew things weren't exactly going well anymore between me and Jean; I should have just called it off. But I was trying so hard to hold onto him. I thought if I just…" she fell silent "… I could – I could salvage it, but it was too late. And then I got that message from… him, and that was when everything started spiraling out of control." Leaning against the counter, she slid down to the floor, hugging her knees to her chest.

Hesitantly, Valèrie placed a hand on Aurore's shoulder and knelt beside her. "I'm sorry. I had no idea you were going through that – not until it all came out. After the Heroes of Paris put a stop to it."

"Yeah…" Aurore scoffed humorlessly. "The Heroes of Paris… I was so grateful to them when they stopped him, when M–" she coughed "–when Pegasus deleted all those pictures. I thought it was over… but it wasn't. Then there was the trial, then there was Berlin–"

"Don't remind me," Valèrie grumbled, shaking her head.

"Then I thought it really was over, that no one would be able to hurt me anymore." Aurore's hand found the pen in her pocket. "But now the Heroes of Paris are going to be after me."

Valèrie's jaw dropped and she gasped. "What?" she screeched, her eyes bugging out. "Why the hell would the Heroes of Paris be after you?"

Aurore's stomach clenched. Reluctantly she pulled out her pen and focused on it. In a matter of seconds, it lengthened and morphed into her lance, longer than the couch, the tip nearly scraping the ceiling as it reached its full height. "Because of this," she explained, her mouth set in a thin line. "Because I was the Lancer."

Valèrie blinked, staring up at the lance. "And what, suddenly they don't like you anymore?" She cocked her head to the side, fixing Aurore with a penetrating gaze. "Wait, what do you mean 'was'? Aren't you anymore?"

Aurore's shrugged, and her shoulders slumped. At a thought, the lance shrank back into the pen. "Considering that the Lynchpin's people gave it to me so they could get information about the Heroes of Paris? Yes." Valèrie opened her mouth, and Aurore quickly added, "I didn't know it at the time; if I had there's no way I would have done it! But it doesn't change that I told him things: I told him about my watch, that I'd been accepted by the Heroes of Paris, about a few of the missions I went on…"

"So the Heroes of Paris think you betrayed them?"

"I did betray them!" Aurore's fist clenched around the pen, so tightly her knuckled turned white. "I betrayed my friends!"

Valèrie hesitantly put and arm around Aurore's shoulders. "I refuse to believe that you would have done something like that intentionally."

"I didn't!" Aurore frowned. "But does that really matter?"

Valèrie examined Aurore closely. "I think so. But if you're not going to go back to the Heroes of Paris for help, what are you going to do about this?" she asked. "Because as much as I would enjoy rooming with you, I don't think you'll want to stay here long term. And I would prefer for my boyfriend to be able to move in by the end of this year."

Aurore furrowed her brows. "I don't know, but I think that if I can stop the man who gave me the lance, hopefully that will be enough. Then the Heroes of Paris won't be in danger from him anymore."

Valèrie nodded. "Then how can I help?"