September 1

Pegasus Wing Airport

11:45 AM

Neptune Mercure

When we finally found the right plane, X and I stood outside of it silently. There was dull light inside the plane. We peered in through the window and managed to avoid being spotted by the people within it. Murdayre seemed too focused on monologuing to the camera to notice me. O was on the verge of passing out. She looked sick and ready to collapse. If she wasn't being held in place, I suspected she would have fallen to the floor already. I felt a pang of pity for her before pulling out my phone. I shot Mr. Morix a quick text telling him that we would be finished in a matter of minutes. We would be bursting inside in two minutes or so. I didn't wait for a reply, instead shoving my phone back into my pocket and turning to X.

"We should be ready," X told me with a nod. "Let's do this."

"There's no time to lose," I murmured, turning to the people around me. "Don't put your guns away until we have all five of them in handcuffs. They could have something up their sleeves. Don't do anything reckless."

I didn't hear anybody openly object to my words, so I took that as a sign we were ready to go. I closed my eyes for a moment, doing my best to visualize how we would come out of this fine. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. There was so much on the line here. Lives were at stake. If we messed this up, people could die. It was nerve-wracking. I just wanted to skip ahead to after the successful rescue when we were taking people back home.

Unfortunately, that wasn't an option, so I reached out for the door of the plane. Luckily for me, it was lower down than most doors were. It was easily accessible with a small ramp. I grabbed the knob and roughly yanked it before throwing the door wide open.

Light instantly spilled into the cabin of the plane. O was tied up at the center. There weren't many seats in sight since this was a luxury plane meant for a small group traveling specially. Murdayre, who had initially been facing the camera, whirled around to look at me.

"You... You aren't supposed to be here!" she roared at me. She reached for a knife sitting on a nearby table a few feet from O. "You should have died a long time ago!"

I let out a bark of laughter. "Life doesn't always turn out how you expect it to," I told her. I held up one hand to signal the officers behind me to raise their guns.

Murdayre froze. She stared for a moment, a frown painting her features. She had brought a knife to a gun fight, so she was at a serious disadvantage. Her fingers twitched towards the knife, but she didn't say anything.

I wasn't having any of it. I pulled out a small sphere from my pocket alongside a lighter. I messed with the device until a flame flickered from it. The wick of the sphere waited for the fire to consume it. I tossed it onto the ground a few seconds later and watched as smoke enveloped the room.

I instantly ran for O, who had been watching us in silent shock up until this point. I pulled a pocket knife from my pocket after dropping the lighter inside and began to cut at her bonds.

O tried to say something, but she could only whine in pain. Once I had cut the ropes on her, I picked her up. She didn't even try to struggle. A few seconds later, she slumped into my grasp. I gave her a quick glance and saw she had fallen unconscious.

I heard a few gasps of shock. A gunshot rang out. I ran from the plane and to the outside away from the smoke. X was sitting just outside, messing around with his computer wildly.

"You're a babysitter now," I told him. Before he had a chance to object, I dropped O in front of him. He sputtered a response as I dashed back towards the plane.

The smoke was starting to clear when I returned. I could see a few police officers were holding onto a woman with red hair. I smirked to myself. It seems our surprise gambit had worked out perfectly.

"Your dramatics couldn't save you in the end," I remarked as I approached Murdayre, who glared at me with the force of seven suns. I saw blood staining her shoulder. While there was no bullet in it, I could see a patch of red on top of her shoulder, like the bullet from earlier had grazed her.

"You won't get away with this," she told me with venom in her voice. "The others will—"

"Be caught in a matter of minutes. It won't take long for us to get our hands on them too," I assured her, placing one hand on her uninjured shoulder. "For now, I want you to relax. You shouldn't waste your energy before your inevitable trial in a few days."

"You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't even be alive," snapped Murdayre. She struggled against the officers holding her, but it only took me touching her bloodied shoulder for her to hiss in pain and stop.

"Life is full of surprises," I said bluntly. "A few of you should stay here. The rest of us are going to move out to the cargo hold. I assume that's where you're keeping our other hostages, yes?"

Murdayre didn't answer. I didn't need her to say anything anyways. I already knew well what she would have said, so I ignored her. We had a few other criminals to take down anyways. I didn't have time for her. She could wait until after I had saved the hostages.

Luckily, it seemed as if our jobs were being made much easier. Asasm came walking out of the cargo hold alongside Kyllar. "What's going on out here?" Asasm asked. He froze on the spot when he saw we had Murdayre.

"We're taking all of you to prison, in case it isn't already obvious," I explained. "If you want to keep your lives, you'll hand yourselves over now. We have been authorized to use deadly force should you struggle."

Asasm reached for something at his hip, but he was ultimately cut off by a warning gunshot that whizzed by his head. He froze on the spot despite his best efforts to hide it.

"You heard me," I said with a shrug. "I don't care what happens to you. Dead or alive, I will be getting what I want today."

"You look familiar," remarked Kyllar. He held his hands in the air as he walked closer. I heard an agent behind me fiddle with his gun, preparing to strike should he try anything.

"Oh?" I prompted, raising one eyebrow.

Kyllar suddenly lunged at me, but I reacted too quickly for him. I stepped to one side and dealt a swift kick to his abdomen. I punched his throat shortly thereafter, leaving him coughing and sputtering for breath. He fell to the ground, clutching at his throat.

I signaled for a pair of agents to go forward and arrest him. Asasm was the only one left, at least out of the three in our sight. He seemed to understand I wasn't someone to mess with. He stepped forwards with his hands in the air, a sign of surrender. He looked dejected, but I didn't bother commenting on it. Things were going rather well as it was. I didn't want to waste my time and squander the rest of the rescue.

A few agents cuffed him as I stepped closer to the cargo hold. I didn't raise the gun at my hip. I had never been the type to shoot a gun. In fact, they terrified me. I barely knew how to shoot one. I was going to leave the threatening and warning shots to the others. I was here to scare them into submission, maybe glare a little bit, and most importantly, save the hostages.

The remaining agents followed me into the cargo hold. Ghunshotte and Stabbin were the only ones left. Ghunshotte was crouched over a girl with white hair who was crying violently. Stabbin was standing near the door, watching them silently.

When Stabbin noticed us, his shoulders went rigid with tension. He turned to face us slowly. He reached for his gun, but he was ultimately cut off when I scoffed. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," I told him with a smile.

Stabbin glared intensely. He looked ready to bolt. I forecasted his actions before he made them, so by the time he was trying to run past us and make a run for it, I was standing in the perfect position to swiftly punch him in the throat. A warning gunshot had him pausing. He coughed in pain as he was handcuffed.

Four down, one to go. I turned to Ghunshotte, who was stroking the white-haired girl almost feverishly. The girl was sobbing openly. She looked up and met my eyes as Ghunshotte pulled out a gun to hold it to the girl's temple. The girl's pleading eyes shocked me immensely.

No... That couldn't be, right? There was no way I could possibly know this girl... That's just not possible. It doesn't make any sense. It's not possible.

Then again, life does have a way of surprising you.

"If you shoot, the girl gets it," Ghunshotte said harshly.

"We have all four of your coworkers right here. If you make any moves against the hostages, we won't hesitate," I told her with a frown. There were other figures hunched in various places in the room. I couldn't make any of them out clearly. I heard a small boy whimpering as an older woman tried to comfort him, but I couldn't see them.

Ghunshotte didn't say anything. She pressed the gun closer to the girl's temple. She looked at me with wide and fearful eyes, pleading with me to do something.

I had to save her somehow. I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I had to. If I really did know her, I just had to get here out of there. I wouldn't let her die, not on my watch.

"It seems we're at a stalemate," I murmured under my breath. I took a small step closer, making Ghunshotte hold the girl tighter. She whined wordlessly, practically begging me to help her. I resisted the urge to bolt forwards and kill Ghunshotte myself for making such a cowardly move.

I heard the echoing sound of a gunshot a few seconds later. I couldn't help but flinch at the sound. I glanced around the room, trying to figure out where it had come from, but Ghunshotte keeled forwards a few seconds later. There was a bullet lodged in her shoulder. She wasn't moving or making a sound, so I assumed she had passed out from the shock.

I left the others to tend to her as I rushed towards the girl with white hair. The poor girl was crying wildly. I reached out to her and pulled her in close, stroking her hair as I rocked her gently. "It's okay. You're safe now," I cooed as her sobs began to quiet. She relaxed into my grasp as I led her out of the plane. The other officers were behind me with the five assassins in handcuffs, though Ghunshotte had to be carried out due to her unconscious state.

I dropped the crying girl off outside with X before returning to the inside of the plane. I looked at the camera perched atop the TV and stared at the courtroom detailed on the screen.

It was filled with surprised faces. They all looked like they had never seen anything like that, and to be fair, they probably hadn't. I smiled lightly and placed one hand up by the camera, ready to turn it off after I had finished speaking. "We're in the clear. The assassins have been taken in by the police and the hostages are safe," I said to the camera. I turned it off a few seconds later and watched as the screen went black.

I let out a heavy sigh and left the plane. X had shut his laptop and placed it into his messenger bag to calm the white-haired girl. I could see her features clearly now. I definitely recognized her, even if I didn't think it was possible.

However, I didn't comment on it. I would need the area to clear out before I could ask her who she really was. I didn't want anybody overhearing. That would be bad for all of us. Instead, I focused on O, who was still unconscious at X's feet. I couldn't imagine the ground was very comfortable, but at the same time, I doubted she really minded. After being tied to a chair for a day, the floor would be fine to most people.

I picked her up bridal style and started for the car. We didn't have any medical personnel with us, so we would have to take them off ourselves. A few squad cars nearby were being driven by some of the officers I had worked with. They roughly shoved the five assassins inside, one per car. I felt a triumphant smile appear on my face. Finally, they were gone and out of our hair. It had taken a kidnapping an attempt at blackmail, but we had won. It didn't even feel real.

The girl with white hair leaned on X as we made our way back to the car. I glanced back over my shoulder. The rest of the officers were too busy to notice that we were sneaking O out. I could always come up with an explanation later if they asked what happened to her. I couldn't leave her for the police to find. She would end up being arrested, and that was the last thing I wanted. She was working to weed out corruption in the legal system, and she couldn't exactly do that behind prison bars.

I hopped into the driver's seat after placing O in the passenger's seat. I tore away her wig and snatched a blanket I had been keeping in the back seat to drape over her body until she could change clothes. I hid the wig under her seat and buckled her in before looking back at X and the girl with white hair.

The both managed to climb into the back seat, though the white-haired girl was still crying lightly. X looked clueless as to what to do. I let out a sigh and shook my head. He was hopeless.

I started up the car and took a deep breath. Finally, it was all over.

September 2

Courtroom No. 6

12:00 PM

Deirdre Brigit

Silence covered the courtroom after the rescue operation had finished. Nobody had spoken much during Ms. Mercure's endeavors, instead watching on attentively. I turned to Lily and Yuri after the fact with wide eyes. Both of them seemed just as surprised as I was. Somehow, we had managed to get out of this without anybody getting hurt. Okay, I know that technically Detective Ghunshotte was hit in the shoulder by a bullet, and the same applied to Ms. Murdayre, but I mean the hostages. None of them had been hurt during the rescue operation. I had been hoping that would be the case this whole time, but I had my doubts about it actually coming to fruition.

"It appears that we're at the end of this trial," Judge Diaphan suddenly said, picking up her gavel. "Yesterday, we got a confession from Occisor stating they had committed this crime. I believe that's enough reason to close this case. Their trials will be soon, but for now, the innocence of the defendant is certain."

"I must agree, Your Honor," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke nodded. "Let's get the verdict over with. I'm sure everybody has other business to attend to now that the trial's over."

Judge Diaphan nodded. "I assume there are no objections from the defense." She turned to us with a waiting gaze.

I didn't even have to glance to my coworkers to know what their answer was. "The defense has no objections," I assured her.

"In that case, this court hereby finds the defendant, M, not guilty. Court is adjourned!" Judge DIaphan lifted her gavel and slammed it down on the podium before her.

Finally, it was all over.

September 2

Defendant Lobby No. 6

12:05 PM

Deirdre Brigit

When we arrived out in the defendant lobby, Yuri instantly began to squeal. "We did it!" she exclaimed. "We were able to hold off for long enough! The hostages were rescued, and Occisor is in handcuffs to top it all off! It's a perfect end to a perfect day!"

"Don't forget that we still have business to attend to," I reminded her. "We have to get back to the agency to talk to a certain hostage friend of ours. I have a few questions for her at the very least."

"Then let's get to it!" Yuri chirped. She grabbed my hand and Lily's before attempting to drag us towards the door.

"You aren't leaving without me, are you?"

Yuri paused and turned to check out who had spoken. I did the same. Mr. Morix was standing behind us, his hands stuffed into his pockets. There was a bittersweet smile on his face. His eyes were puffy, so I assumed he had been crying.

"Hey, Mr. Morix!" Yuri exclaimed, dashing up to greet him. "You look a lot better than you did yesterday. I'm guessing that the hostages being saved really helped to lift your spirits."

"You could say that," Mr. Morix shrugged. "I was pretty stressed that whole time, but... I see Neptune succeeded, so there's no reason to panic anymore. We're in the clear now."

"If I'm being perfectly honest, I was nervous about that trial," Lily admitted, rubbing at the back of her head. "I was terrified something was going to go wrong, like we wouldn't be able to hold off the trial for long enough, or that somebody would get hurt in the rescue, or that Neptune would wind up in danger for all she did..."

"We owe everything to her and the people helping her to rescue the hostages," Yuri said. "We should try to thank her if we can get the chance. Perhaps we should call her and see where's she's at."

"I'm sure Neptune will turn up soon enough," Mr. Morix assured her. "She told me she was going to bring Chrysalis home after the rescue. The operation was rather messy, according to Neptune, because there wasn't any official support behind the local precinct or Interpol. I'm sure you already heard about Interpol's policy regarding what happened..."

"Yeah. If it would endanger the company, don't do it," Yuri recalled. "And come to think of it, I didn't see any detectives from the local precinct helping her out either..."

"The police officers she did pull together were all volunteers who wanted to help her free the hostages. She mentioned that much earlier when I called her for the first time today," Mr. Morix explained. "They probably weren't used to being led by a private investigator instead of an official officer from the precinct. I can imagine that would be a bit unsettling for some of them..."

"Still, they managed to get the job done, which is all we can really ask for, right?" Lily asked.

Mr. Morix nodded. "There are a lot of other things that still need to be settled, but this is a good start. I want to talk to Chrysalis about what happened as soon as possible. I'm sure you have a few questions for her too," he said.

"Yeah. I want to know more about everything she's been up to since we last saw her," I confirmed with a nod.

"I want to know who that boy in her locket was," Lily remarked. "I'm sure you two remember that, right?"

"Yeah, I do... He looked to be about my age, actually," Yuri commented, placing one finger on her chin.

"If he's who I think he is, good luck getting her to tell you. Chrysalis doesn't really talk about him much," Mr. Morix told us with a frown. "It's not my place to explain his relation to her. If you want to know, you'll have to find a way to press it out of her, and good luck with that. When she wants to keep a secret, she's stubborn and won't tell you until the bitter end."

"I never would have expected a fragile-looking girl like her to be that way," Lily admitted. "But at the same time, it makes a lot of sense... After all she must have gone through up to this point, it makes sense as to why she would be so secretive..."

"We should probably head back to the agency soon," I said next. "We want to be there when Ms. Mercure arrives back there with Chrysalis."

"First, I want to talk to Ghastly. I have a few questions for him too," Mr. Morix commented.

"What? Why would you have something to ask him about?" Lily asked with a frown.

"Well, in all truth, it's more to do with his adoptive daughter than him. She seemed pretty bothered when Occisor brought up that virtual reality. I'm curious as to why she was so upset by it. Their mentioning of that school, Ashbrooke, I think it was, seemed to make her blood boil. Call it pure curiosity, but I want to know why it freaked her out so much," Mr. Morix explained.

"Speaking of Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, you were communicating with him that whole time, weren't you?" Yuri questioned with a small smile.

Mr. Morix nodded. "I was, as a matter of fact. Before the trial, I went to him and asked that he help the three of you hold off the trial as long as possible. He didn't want anything bad to happen should Occisor decide to begin the execution before Neptune got there, so he played along. The whole trial, I was getting calls from Neptune giving me updates on where she was in the search. She was doing rather well. She last texted me two minutes before bursting into the plane, saying she was about to take care of things once and for all. I haven't heard from her since, but as you saw on the TV, the rescue was successful. I guess she didn't feel the need to tell me that much since we all saw it ourselves," he explained.

"We owe a lot to her after all she did today," Yuri murmured. "I wouldn't have expected her to be so selfless."

"Well, from what I can tell, Chrysalis was her good friend. She didn't want to leave her to die at the hands of Occisor," Lily pointed out.

"We should try and talk to her a little bit about what happened yesterday when we get back to the agency. She must have something to say on her outburst at Interpol," I said.

"Outburst?" Mr. Morix asked.

"She got all snappy with us when we started asking her questions about Oracle. Plus, it was like she was speaking in riddles. I don't have the slightest idea what she meant during that conversation. She seemed to be getting angry at something, but it wasn't us, from what I could tell," I told him. "I don't know what came over her, but I'd like to ask. Maybe she'll be more willing to talk now that Chrysalis and the other hostages are safe."

"If I'm being perfectly honest, I don't even know how you would ask her about what happened... She was acting so strangely. She was definitely mad, that much is certain, but at the same time, what got her so fired up? I didn't understand half of what she was saying. I mean, I heard the words and knew what they meant by definition, but whatever she meant escaped me. I guess it wasn't really meant for our ears. Perhaps she was just saying that to get it off her chest. I can't say for sure," Lily said with a shake of her head.

"We can try to ask her about it. Whatever it was that was bugging her, it made her act pretty irrationally. If we calm her down and talk to her back at the agency, maybe we can get the truth out of her," Yuri suggested with an optimistic smile. "Of course, that requires us to get back to the agency first..."

"Are you heading out already?"

Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, Prosecutor Lin, and Prosecutor Wood all appeared in the doorway. Prosecutor Wood was avoiding our eyes, instead gazing desperately at the floor. I assumed she was still flustered at her outburst during the trial.

"It's good to see you, Ghastly," Mr. Morix smiled before turning to Prosecutor Lin. "I didn't realize you had come today, Sora."

"I couldn't help it. I wanted to make sure Chrysalis was safe," she explained. She cast Lily, Yuri, and I a sideways glance. I got the feeling she knew we were aware of her involvement with Oracle, but she wasn't saying anything, maybe for Prosecutor Wood's sake. She seemed blissfully unaware of her adoptive family's ties to the spy, after all.

"Are you feeling alright?" Yuri asked, scuttling over to Prosecutor Wood. "You weren't looking too good during the trial."

"I-I'm fine," Prosecutor Wood assured her, but it seemed obvious to everybody present that she was lying.

"Did you know what they were talking about when the virtual reality came up?" Prosecutor Lin questioned, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Prosecutor Lin's motherly aura seemed to calm the younger girl slightly, but she was still tense when she spoke. "N-No, not at all," Prosecutor Wood stuttered, starting to pull on the braids hanging over her shoulders.

"You can talk to us. We won't tell anybody if you'd rather we keep it on the down low," Prosecutor Lin assured her with a smile. "You know how we are."

Prosecutor Wood shook her head. "No, I'm alright..."

Prosecutor Lin didn't seem convinced, but she didn't press it further. Instead, she focused on me. "Thank you, all of you, for what you did today. I really appreciate your efforts to help Chrysalis to safety. It scared me half to death when I heard she was being held captive by a dangerous group of assassins. I'm glad you were able to rescue her," she told us with another smile. "It means a lot."

"No problem. We're just glad we could help," Lily said with a grin.

"It was good talking to you," Mr. Morix told Prosecutor Lin. "We have to get back to the agency. Neptune is going to be dropping Chrysalis off soon. We should make sure that she gets some sleep. I imagine she's exhausted after all this."

"Tell her I can come over anytime to look after her. I know how she likes to hide stuff like this, but I'm perfectly happy to baby her until she's feeling better," Prosecutor Lin said. "We should head back too. I bet you two are tired after what you've done today."

"Yeah. I could use a good three-day nap," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke admitted.

"Um... I'm pretty sure that's just a coma," Prosecutor Wood told him, cringing.

"Sounds amazing," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke muttered.

"Well, I should take them back and make sure my beefy boyfriend doesn't pass out for three days straight," Prosecutor Lin laughed. "I'll see you later. Have a nice day."

I waved lightly as Prosecutor Lin walked away with Chief Prosecutor Bespoke and Prosecutor Wood. The latter two yawned in sync, making Prosecutor Lin laugh to herself as they left the defendant lobby behind.

"They have the right idea on getting back home," Mr. Morix remarked. "I don't know how far away the airport Neptune was at is, so we should head back ourselves. I don't have a clue when she'll be arriving, and we want to be prepared."

"In that case, I guess we should be on our way," Yuri nodded. "Even if a coma is sort of an exaggeration, I really need a nap after this too. I don't know about you guys, but I've been stressing nonstop about how this would turn out. At first, it was worrying about M and N, and then it was the kidnapping..."

"Speaking of M and N..." Lily whispered, pointing behind Yuri.

M and N came walking into view. The latter was clinging to M's arm with a relieved smile. "Thanks again for everything," N told us.

"I'm afraid we don't have much time to talk. We have to get back to Interpol to clean this mess up," M frowned. "But we both appreciate all you've done for Interpol these past few days. Thanks again."

"No problem," Lily grinned. "We'll leave you to the rest of your day. We have somewhere to be anyways."

M nodded curtly in our direction and turned to leave, N at his side. I heard Yuri whisper something to Lily. While I didn't catch the exact phrase, I got the feeling it was something along the lines of "they're totally dating" knowing how Yuri can be.

"It's time to head out," Mr. Morix said. "I'll see you all back at the agency. Try and stay out of trouble until then, alright?"

"I can't make any promises!" Lily joked as Mr. Morix left the room with a small chuckle.

"Well, I guess it's time," I murmured. "Let's go talk to the one true Oracle."

I finished this book on my own time. It's 1008 pages and 307364 words. I may have a problem.

Updates should be on time from here on out thanks to everything being done. It's going to be fun.

-Digital