Operation Strix was no more. Practically speaking that is. Sitting on his couch in utter defeat, Loid felt himself grow weak. This was all his fault. If he hasn't tried so hard to get Anya and Damian to be friends then none of this would have happened.
Sniffling to herself, Anya grabbed her dad's pant leg and whispered,
"Anya's sorry… for inviting Sy-on boy over…"
"No no, Anya I'm really proud of you for putting yourself out there and trying to make new friends." Loid consoled despite being distraught himself. He put a hand on her head and gently brushed the hair out of her eyes. Why was he doing this? If everything fell through like he expected it to, then Anya would no longer be his daughter. And yet, he felt the desire to be there for her.
He really hated to see her cry like that.
As Yor came around the bend with a variety of comforting drinks, she smiled woefully at the sight. If Anya did get expelled, then there wouldn't be a need for Loid to keep her around. That would be inconvenient for her job; Yuri would be sad to see his sister as a divorced woman. No, it was more than that. Even though this was just for the convenience of being an assassin, Yor felt a struggle in her heart.
She didn't want to leave this life.
As the three sat in their depression circle, Bond joined them, a vision of loneliness fluttering through his doggy mind. Whining, he pressed his jaw against Loid's other leg, looking up at him.
Suddenly, a wave of determination stuck Twilight!
"No. I won't let something like this tare this family apart! It isn't right!" He stood abruptly, fist in the air.
"Yeah! It's no fair!" Anya wiped her tears away.
"That's right! Loid, I'll do anything to help fulfill my roll as Anya's mother for as long as possible!" Exclaimed Yor, energy filling her bones!
"Woof!" Bond was there too.
"Okay, we'll need to devise a strategy. I'll try and get ahold of Demetrius and get him to change his mind before he makes the call. Yor!" Loid pointed at his wife.
"Yes!"
"As a social worker for the mayor you know anything about phone lines and phone operators?"
"A great deal, actually!"
"Great! See if you can distract the phone operators at Eden Academy so that no phone calls are made in case I fail! I know that's a hefty request-"
"Consider it done!" Yor exclaimed. She had no doubts in her ability to perform such a task.
"And Anya!" Loid turned to his adorable daughter. "I'll need you to to be very careful in your interactions with Damian. Try your best not to interact with him. At least, not until Yor and I get things situated. We cannot have any more trouble between you two. Do you understand?"
"Uhuh!" Nodded Anya. Her task might be the most difficult one, but she was prepared to pull off the job!
"Great! I have my full faith in you two." Softly, Loid put a hand on both of their shoulders. He wasn't prepared to get rid of these two quite yet! "For the Forgers!"
"For the Forgers!"
Operation Strix wasn't over yet. Not while Loid had his family in tact and Anya enrolled in Eden. It was his fault for putting Plan B on Anya's shoulders in the first place; Twilight shouldn't have trusted Damian so quickly.
The boy was still the son of a villain.
While the Forger family spent their evening refining their plans over and over, mulling the exact details of their scheme, Damian and Demetrius found themselves back at Eden Academy. The limo pulled to a stop outside the gate where the street lamps illuminated the entrance. Slowly, Damian slinked out of the car following his brother.
He felt sick.
Glancing back at his baby brother, Demetrius scoffed,
"You're not going to cry, are you?"
"No." Damian swallowed the sick feeling in his chest down further.
"Listen, getting liars like them out of this school is what's best for Eden." Explained Demetrius, walking a little to fast for Damian. "Commoners would do things like that for our wealth. Don't pity them."
"…It's not Anya's fault."
"Children always turn into their parents. You should focus on becoming more like father, and worrying less about lying commoners."
"…" Damian knew Anya wasn't a liar. Well, at least not in this situation. No. He was the liar. "Demetrius? I don't feel very good, can I stay with you tonight?"
"No. You know the rules."
"But I really don't—"
"Plus, I don't want you staying in my room."
"…Okay."
Pausing a moment before departing from his baby brother, Demetrius sighed a long, aggravated sigh.
"I'll walk you back to your room. But you're not holding my hand."
In the lonely first-year dormitories, Damian creaked the door open to his room. He didn't have any roommates, so it didn't matter that he was back late. Not even bothering to turn the light on, Damian slipped out of his shoes and sat on his bed in the dark. He didn't feel like getting in his pajamas.
Everything was going to be fine. He was going to go to school, become an Imperial Scholar, and make his father proud! And if Anya got expelled, it didn't affect him!
"Puh! She's more of a distraction if anything!" He commented on his own thought process.
And she would disappear, and he'd never see her… again.
Ever.
"…But it's not like I care." He mumbled to himself, crossing his arms. "Besides it's not entirely my fault. It was her dumb idea to invite me over in the first place!" Proclaimed Damian, with a fist in the air. "Why did she do that? Probably for my money. Or social standing maybe? I mean, there's no way she… really…"
A flash of a memory struck Damian's mind like a lightning strike. All he saw were two glistening emerald eyes overflow with tears, as the crying girl declared,
"I just wanna be friends with you!"
He could hear it playing back like a broken record over and over. Slumping to the side, Damian let his head hit a pillow, grabbing another and holding it close to his chest.
"…Anya just wanted to be friends with me." He said aloud into the pillow he hugged. "All she ever did was invite me over, buy me snacks, and watch TV. She didn't ask me to get her anything or to introduce her to someone famous."
Slowly, Damian was starting to get it. Yet, he wanted to be in denial.
"But her family was crazy. Her parents spoiled her! They were crazy! They were ridiculous! They were…" A thousand words flashed through his mind to describe them: kind, silly, warm. But he could only croak,
"…there."
If all she wanted was to be friends, then that meant… Damian was a jerk. No- it was worse than that!
Squeezing the pillow as hard as he could, Damian coughed,
"All she wanted was to be friends, and I get her expelled!" The boy curled around the pillow as tightly as he could. "I'm… I'm…! I'm a—!"
Stuffing his teary face into the pillow, he wept out,
"Villain!"
Damian hiccuped, leaving snot on his pillow. No, he was worse than a villain- the villains in Spy Wars do their crimes to help their loved ones, like the guy with a sick wife! But no…
Damian was a selfish, lying, no good excuse for a man. And he knew it.
"I-I don't want to be the bad guy!" He sniffled.
Wait- he promised Demetrius he wasn't going to cry!
Trying to pull himself together, Damian sat upright and punched his leg.
"Stop it! Stop it! Grrr!" Aggressively wiping all his tears and snot on his pillow cover, he ground his teeth. "I'm not going to cry! I'm going to fix this!"
He was going to fix this. He had to! Even if it meant being expelled! Even if it meant father would hate him! Even if Anya never forgave him.
Damian refused to be the villain.
