Humans should not challenge or question their goddess. You will obey.

-Blue Heart

The first time IF met the researchers was in the evening, though that was mostly to clear the schedule. Everyone stayed respectful and kept their distance to not bother her, which she did not feel like correcting.

The first time the whole expedition met up, however, was the following morning. As usual, IF appeared at meeting point first; next were the scientists and archeologists moving up to Laya's gate with their bulky trucks. Regular trucks, she saw; hover technology was still quite inefficient on energy consumption and thus restricted to military affairs.

"Will you really be able to drive to the mountains?" She had to ask just in case, though she felt she could trust them.

The expedition leader whose name she already forgot offered her a winning smile. "Of course, Lady IF. We are bringing a handful of building drones along to create a path where the cars could not pass." He appeared quite content with the solution, though IF wondered.

Building drones were mainly used to flatten the terrain and create even fields, not to build anything. That was what construction drones were made for. "What if we come across a cliff?"

The man blinked at her and his eyes rose skyward as he thought. "Hm, cliffs. There aren't supposed to be any on our route, but if a monster rampaged that might... ah, yes; Planeptower gave us permission to install hover-modules in all vehicles." IF's eyebrows rose, though he did not seem to notice as he continued: "It was really quite the lucky development. We are only supposed to use them in emergencies, but that should trivialise any such problem we come across."

He went to explain further, but was cut off by a pair of minivans driving up; these two held Guild-insignia and one of them honked at them, revealing Gabriel next to the annoyed driver. IF just huffed and shook her head while nine Guild people stepped out of the two vehicles; five from one, four out of the other. The latter one consisted of her old teammates sans Alexis and two teenagers younger than herself. The former group was all new faces and styles, though.

"Let me guess," Gabriel started with a glance toward the scientist IF had been talking to before, "she was here first."

The man frowned a little, unsure what to make of it, but nodded. "That is correct."

In turn, Gabriel rolled his eyes and offered her a fist. "Some things really never change." IF snorted and bumped hers against his, much to the other group's and the teenagers' bafflement.

"You complaining hasn't changed either," she returned before greeting André the same way. Both men chuckled, but stopped when she continued: "Just so we're clear, I am not turning this into a paid vacation for you. Unless it's bigger than any of us or there are more than a dozen of it, I'm not going to interfere." Which led to some confused faces, though IF did not notice the indignation of some.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at her over that, though. "Oh? Do I hear someone being bratty?" His grin made it clear he was joking. IF sighed.

"No, you hear someone being under orders not to take your work away. I just wanted to make that clear before someone starts to expect me to join against a bunch of Wolves or something like that." The men nodded understandingly and those around them began to be mostly confused by the scene.

Their conversation was interrupted by a cough, though. The expedition's leader motioned for the arrayed vehicles. "Perhaps you could continued this at a later time? We have a long journey ahead of us."

Both of them complied at that. Gabriel grinned at the young Maker winningly. "Unless you prefer to heroically ride on top of a truck, there's a free spot in our van." IF snorted and went with him.

. .

. .

It was a relaxing journey for all of three hours or so. A few handfuls of monsters appeared, but the agents took care of them without trouble. IF had time to watch the drones work, curious about the widespread fields that simply pushed the ground flat. She always thought they would burn the earth away.

When speaking to André about the matter, her old teammate explained that they used to, but technology marched on and now they no longer needed to burn away fertile soil whenever someone wanted to explore the wilderness.

IF's relaxing time ended about five minutes after the seventeen-year-old girl in Gabriel's group found the courage to talk to her. At first she was rather shy about it, but quickly warmed up to the Maker's presence and began to ask her question; how it was being a Maker, whether IF met the Lady before, the kind of questions she was used to by this point. She indulged her anyway.

With the next gaggle of Dogoos however...

"Okay." Gabriel's voice was carefully measured, though his disapproval was plain for all to hear. In front of him and the girl was a patch of scorched earth several metres wide, still steaming from the flames that had engulfed it. "Would you care to explain why using that much juice sounded like a good idea? How often did I tell you that Dogoos are not worth the effort?"

Whether it was because he chewed her out in plain sight of everyone else or simply because she was used to it, his charge merely had her arms crossed and refused to meet his eyes.

Against the next lone Wolf that came, the circus repeated itself when the boy charged in; the defenders only barely managed to hold their fire.

IF had to admit that he was good with his scythe, but the novelty of it vanished after the third such occurence; on the fourth, he received a nasty peck by a Boxbird, then a slap with its paper wing, before André clubbed the monster away.

She did not want to discourage either of them, seeing that a Maker's words would be more devastating than getting chided by the men they already knew, but those incidents just kept happening. By the time they made camp for the night, a bit more than a third of the way there, she sat down next to her old teammates. "Bad day?"

"Really bad day," the grumbled response came. "At least Miranda got better recently, but now she's back to throwing as much juice as I have in total at Dogoos." IF nodded slowly; if she remembered correctly, her friend was already a little above average at around four hundred SP.

"How much does she have?"

"One seven, roughly." IF blinked at the prodigious amount, then remembered that they were talking about someone approved for a special license. She cast a glance over at where both teens had been given punishment duty, which entailed cleaning the synthesizers and doing the dishes in general. Neither of them seemed happy.

"Is it always that bad with them?" The leader of the other Guild team asked Gabriel, who threw the woman a suffering look.

"If it wasn't, I wouldn't be complaining every other day. They were getting better, but now, for some reason..." His gaze fell on IF and he deflated. "Oh. Of course."

The brunette tilted her head slightly, unsure what he meant. "What?"

Understanding what he was going on about, the female agent began to laugh. "Ohahaha, seriously? You think they're trying to impress her?" And there it clicked for IF as well, the younger woman groaning as she leaned back. At least the fact there were four camp fires, half of their tents, and most of the team between them and the teens meant they were unlikely to be heard.

"Are you serious?" she could not help but ask as well; this was probably the last thing she needed here.

Gabriel just shrugged, though. "Beats me, but Miranda suddenly started being dumb right after meeting you. I'd say that's a strong indicator right there." He had a point and neither of those around them saw a reason to argue.

IF mulled it over for a long moment, absent-mindedly throwing a twig into the flames for the fun of it. "Should I talk to her?" She did not want to make life harder on her friends without at least trying to do something, but she also did not know that girl. They would know better.

This time however, it was André who snorted. "The general problem with both of them is that they are better than us and know it. That's why they both do things they think are best and ignore our advice; Miranda just started to understand that being better does not equal knowing better, but you know how it is." He winked at her. "Most kids that age don't like to admit they were wrong. Give her another day before kicking her ass about it."

His phrasing drew a snort out of IF, but she also nodded her agreement. "Okay, fair."

Some of the others laughed as well and the other team leader clapped her shoulder. "I'll admit, I imagined you to be a little different. You're a good kid, Lady IF." The brunette's raised eyebrow only brought another laugh out of her. "Anyway, now I can tell my son that I've been on a mission with you. He will love that."

She received a slow nod from IF, the younger woman unsure what to make of the new information. Thankfully, one of the other Guild agents came to her rescue: "Don't ask, she starts talking about him at the slightest prod and just won't stop."

"Come on, I'm not that bad."

"Of course you are, it's been like that since he was born!"

And on they went with their bickering; IF slowly shook her head while others snickered at the sight. She could not help but smile as well, though.

"Anyway, how is Nepgear doing?" Gabriel's question garnered her attention and made IF consider what to tell them.

They were around many unaware people, meaning she had to be careful. It had been a while since they last spoke, so they were probably out of the loop. "She is going at life with a lot more vigor than back in the day. Why don't you call her yourselves from time to time, anyway?"

Both men shrugged at that. André got to answer her first: "She's busy and I don't want to bother her." Gabriel just pointed to his companion, indicating that he had similar thoughts.

Their reasoning made IF roll her eyes. "She can spare five minutes to talk to old friends. Trust me, it's not that pressing. Anyway, she started dating a girl from Lastation a few months back." Starting with the biggest news first, IF knew she had their full attention with that. Though they might not yet have gotten the meaning behind her phrasing, so she repeated herself: "A girl from Lastation."

"Ah."

"Oh."

There it was; they both appeared surprised about the revelation, but also quite happy to hear it. "That's good news," André noted with a smile. "And surprising, to be honest. She never really appeared like the dating kind."

"Pretty much," IF agreed with a grin. "Except that they were after each other for years and it just took them that long to get there." Her comment brought a chuckle out of Gabriel.

"So the same girl she was dancing with last year?"

André's question gave IF pause; she completely forgot she watched the CPUs dance. In fact, Day of Unity was approaching once again and she had not even noticed how fast time passed. The young woman nodded slowly. "Yeah; they make quite the cute couple, unless Nep decides to tease them to the Graveyard and back."

"Well, now I need to call her either way," Gabriel told them with a grin. "I went and gave RED a call after hearing she got herself a girl, so Nepgear won't be spared either." IF snorted at that.

"Remind me not to let you know if I ever find a boyfriend. Or girlfriend, at that." She actually grinned back at her old friend, who merely winked at her.

"Not a chance, young lady. I will know, sooner or later."

They all laughed at that, the fire warming them in the falling night; their conversation would last for a while as the old teammates caught up with each other.

. .

. .

The next day started early... for most. By the time Gabriel and André left the communal tent together with one female member of the second Guild team, IF was already outside and currently busy jogging around the camp; it was not her usual route, but it would have to do.

A pair of Dogoos that curiously hopped closer was engulfed by a small gout of flame as she passed by again while the agents watched; the woman turned a searching look toward Gabriel, who shrugged. "First time I actually see it, but that's apparently normal for her. How long have you been up?" he asked the young Maker right after.

IF slowed down and came to stand; she was only clad in her shorts and shirt, the coat waiting for her inside. She shrugged weakly. "Since around six? Good morning, guys."

A series of "'Morning'"'s answered her immediately after, though only André appeared to actually have a good morning. The other two much rather would have slept another two hours.

IF paid them no mind and flicked herself onto her hands in one fluid motion, pushing her feet up in the air as straight as one could. Brown hair covered her face, but was ultimately too short to reach the ground despite being unbound. "So, how long do I have until breakfast?"

Her question prompted shrugs she did not see, though the lack of a verbal response told her as much. She was left to her own devices after that, though some of the agents snuck glances at her exercises once in a while.

By the time the research team had arisen from their slumber and food was served, IF was drenched in sweat and ultimately content. She ate with gusto, though nobody wondered where all of it went; everyone had seen her rigorous training regimen at least once.

One woman from the research team asked her about a related matter, though: "Say, Lady IF, why is it that you practice so much and so easily? My boyfriend never works out longer than half an hour and he is always winded afterward." Though most did not appear obviously interested in the answer, everyone was listening curiously.

IF shrugged in turn and finished chewing a bite, then paused her meal to answer. "I got used to it and I can't afford getting rusty." She shrugged before going back to eating.

At the side, Gabriel gave his charges a nudge and motioned for the young Maker. "And that, kids," he told them quietly, "is why she is where she is." Both boy and girl would need some time to truly understand what he meant.

Once everyone had eaten and the camp guards been shifted so those on duty could also sate their hunger, everyone got going. As this was a planeptunian expedition, sensor arrays had removed the need to post anything beyond a single guard at night; yet they were in luck and nothing had interrupted them this time. Luck which, unfortunately, was not to hold much longer.

By noon, howls could be heard in the distance. All vehicles immediately stopped on the slightly uneven terrain and the agents filed out of their cars to survey the situation; IF followed them, but stayed behind for the time being. The howls got louder and more numerous.

"Great, that's at least two whole packs." Gabriel muttered under his breath and went to discuss with his fellow team leader; nine agents in total were not enough to cover all angles, which meant they had to improvise.

"All mages, on the trucks." "Try to keep them from breaking through!" Their joint order was followed and three agents quickly climbed onto the larger vehicles. Moments later, the scientists left the same with resigned expressions; most of them carried metal handles that everyone knew were beamsabers, but one man and two women actually wore more 'proper' weapons.

"We take care of any stragglers," the expedition's leader told them with a grin. "Just make sure you don't let too many through." As he spoke, two of his underlings joined the mages already on top of the centermost truck.

The Wolves broke out of the underbrush before Gabriel could respond, half a dozen being felled by the immediate response. IF quickly climbed onto the truck as well to see if she would be needed anywhere, but found that everyone had the matter in hand at first. Though the fact this pack had only Wolves confused her a little.

It was true that most monsters tended to prefer the company of their own kind, naturally staying together if they met in the wilds, but they rarely minded other species joining them. Few groups were truly homogenous like that.

At that point, IF spied it by chance. The very trees of a near forest were rustling, the same direction this pack had come from. Her eyes widened and she moved, barely done strapping on her katars.

. .

. .

As before, Gabriel's problem child had jumped right at a pair of Wolves and beheaded them; it was easy with his handling of the scythe, despite the fact this weapon was generally difficult to use in battle. He made it work through both nimble movements and great strength.

As he turned to the rustling ahead however, not a Wolf came at him next. It was of the same type, covered in purplish blue fur and obviously a canine, but as tall and long as one of the trucks they traveled with. The Fenrir's red eyes were locked on the boy, its fast approach deathly quiet for a beast of its size; only a moment passed until it broke out of the treeline a few dozen metres ahead, to shouts from behind him.

He managed to take two steps back before the beast reached; half a second more and he would have been either crushed by the charge or swiped away. Were it not for IF to crash into it at ludicrous speed; she was tiny in comparison, throwing her own weight and momentum against the monster's charge. And she won.

The Fenrir was thrown back, its charge broken. IF herself took position in front of the young man she just saved. "Get back to the rest," she told him curtly before focussing on her opponent. A few Wolves tried to encircle the Maker, but were held back by flames and light and ice and wind, courtesy of the mages.

Despite the fact they were busy with their own monsters to fight, near everyone kept an eye on the standoff between IF and the pack leader; monsters usually stayed homogenous when a much larger variant of one species took the lead, often intimidating other species away. This Fenrir, vicious as it looked, carefully eyed IF and scraped arm-long claws across the dirt.

The Maker, in turn, stayed where she was; her back was hunched the slightest bit, muscles tense as she waited for her opponent to approach; both katars formed a defensive front, though that was not their intention.

Ultimately, the urge to kill all humans won over the desire to end the fight. The Fenrir charged first, assured in its victory. It would not have changed much even if the creature had been more cautious. IF once more activated her Awakening and hopped to the side, even the large maw's quick turn not being enough to still catch her. One hand clamped down on her enemy's fur and held on as all the force wound into IF's frame was turned into a single, full-bodied slash.

The reinforced and Awakening-boosted katar hit home, sliding into her opponent's neck in a single fluid motion. Then the blue-tinged shroud exploded outward where steel could not reach, completely bisecting the monster's head.

Its body fell forward due to the momentum already gathered, stumbling over the severed head before dispersing in an explosion of silvery particles. IF allowed herself a sigh and carefully observed the surroundings for a potential friend of that Fenrir, but none appeared; her allies were still fighting the remaining Wolves as well, though she could already see several being injured.

The young Maker quickly drew her sidearm and opened fire to assist them, eight bullets killing four Wolves with two shots each. With the mages starting another attack run and everyone else focussed, the attackers' numerical advantage finally ceased.

Once humans outnumbered monsters, mopping up the rest became nearly trivial. Instead of joining them, IF hurried over to the injured and saw to the lighter injuries; she still lacked an actual medical license, but those were only required to treat broken bones and similarly bothersome things. Any flesh wounds could be treated by basically anyone with healing powers.

"Well, good thing we have you here," Gabriel told IF with a grin as he wandered over, sheathing his sword. "No casualties and almost all injuries treated before the fight is even over, despite the Fenrir. I'll say that fight was not as impressive as people make it sound, though." When IF threw him a curious look, the older man elaborated while punching his fist in his flat palm: "I mean, they always tell us those are epic battles; from what it looked like, you just did the same thing you'd do with a normal Wolf. Five seconds tops, done."

He had a point there; then again, he also did not notice the whole matter. The brunette finished with her current patient and found the remaining two already seen to by other mages, so she let off. "It's not as easy as it looks; I'm pretty sure the only one beside me who can hit them this precisely is Falcom; most others don't have the right weapons to aim for the neck like I do, either, so they need longer. The big ones are also faster than the smaller monsters, at least most of them." Ancient Dragons were quite a bit slower, but they really did not need speed with their bulk and sturdiness.

Gabriel grinned at that and clapped her shoulder. "Makes sense. So it's just you who makes it look easy?" He laughed when IF rolled her eyes.

The adrenaline slowly faded from all of their bloodstreams, though the fact everyone was still alive after such a fierce attack created a certain kind of camaraderie between the different teams and professions.

It was decided that they would take a short break to catch their breath and see to their weapons; fifteen minutes later, everyone returned to the cars and their journey to the now looming mountains continued.

They did not reach their destination before nightfall, which meant that camp was made once more; at this point however, everyone could see the mountains even under the full moon's glow; they blotted out between a fourth and a third of the visible sky, a silent behemoth that held the answers they sought.

Once IF actually considered the scale at which this area stood, she began to feel the slightest bit intimidated by the task at hand. "It's impressive," she told Gabriel and André that evening as they ate. "This place is big enough to fill a third of Paneptune, but they still found those ruins despite having basically no coverage of it."

Gabriel nodded at her, busy eating as he was. André had an understanding grin to offer instead. "Sometimes, you just need a little bit of luck. Our scientists aren't going as fast as they probably could, but I heard that most of the mountain's foot is actually mapped. It was there, so this had to happen eventually."

IF nodded understandingly and turned to look at the mountains. "I see." They sat quietly, hiding away all that they knew. "What do you think we will find?"

The men both shrugged at first, making it clear that such questions may better be left to the people who worked in the field. Gabriel took another bite from his pizza and mulled her question over for the few seconds it took to chew and swallow. "Hard to say; a few ruins at least, but I heard people talking that the lost capital is supposed to have been around these parts. Who knows, maybe we stumble over that?"

The other two took to the news with little enthusiasm; though all of them were curious about old Tari, none of them had chosen archeology as their field for a reason. Nonetheless, all of them would agree that finding the seat of the preceeding nation's ruler, Blue Heart, would be a great success.

. .

. .

Their luck for the night held, requiring only a single guard and no interruptions to anyone's sleep. In difference to the previous day however, everyone was in high spirits and they got back on the way much earlier.

An hour and a few small monster groups later, the expedition reached the mountain's foot.

IF had to admit that the sight was familiar yet overall different; stone practically grew out of the ground in a friendly slope that quickly turned almost vertically for a few dozen metres, continuing almost until the horizon. Much of the veritable wall was overgrown by various plants and she could even see a few nests where birds made their home in the vegetation.

There were some Dogoos hopping around the higher levels even here, but no visible threats; the mountains continued to grow into the sky at various angles, hiding whatever may lie behind or beneath their stony front.

And several dozen metres off the straight path the expedition had been taking was a hole opening into a cave, large enough for all of their vehicles to fit through.

They had arrived at their destination.

It took little time to flatten the ground and adjust the path they were taking, but no further complications stopped them. Before the clock struck ten, the expedition had fit all vehicles into the first larger cavern; all kinds of machinery were brought out of the trucks while Guild agents placed remote-controlled turrets on the six entrances.

IF watched the proceedings as she patrolled from one tunnel to the other, making sure no monsters made it into their temporary headquarters before the defenses were up. The command console for those turrets would be sitting in the center of this cavern.

Light sources and terminals were put up around her and several small generators had been put together already to provide the power for their endeavors.

When IF passed by the darkest tunnel, courtesy of being furthest from the opening to the outside, she heard a wet sound that was characteristic for Dogoos. Her eyes narrowed and she took a careful step back, then searched the ground with her flashlight.

The beam only covered the retreating form of a single slime however, dark grey instead of the usual bright blue. That and the fact it actually fled gave IF pause, long enough for it to pass around the next corner; she considered following it, but decided against splitting off from her group.

Instead, she walked over to Gabriel; he quickly finished setting up a turret at the next nearest tunnel and turned his attention to her, then cursed when she told him: "Just found a Metal Dogoo over there. It retreated deeper inside."

Metal Dogoos were a subspecies and incredibly rare. This was the first IF herself had ever seen; they were supposed to be nimble and fast, overall being a lot more dangerous than most Dogoos. Also more cowardly as long as they were not fused into a Giant version, which made exterminating them difficult because they tended to flee.

"Wow, great." Gabriel sighed and shook his head. "Because of course that's the first thing we find in here. Thanks for telling me, I pass that on once we're done setting up shop."

IF left him to his own devices and returned to her patrol, finding nothing of interest. She swept over a few hand-sized Pixelvaders with fire, uncaring for the fact this was the first time she ever saw any; this particular type rarely left the caves and other dark places of the world. They were mostly ambush predators, though not by choice; without knowing they were in the area, most people tended to overlook them due to their size.

Noon and most of the afternoon passed before everything was set up, though the amount of material to unload made it clear no one had been idle. Most of the walls were no longer visible as various instruments and screens had been put in place, point defenses and plasteel-stoppers had been installed at every entrance to their cavern, and one corner had actually been given a proper floor and bunks for the entire team.

The remainder of the day was spent with the Guild agents scouting the nearby tunnels in groups of three and the archeologists setting up their equipment properly. IF went around the stony pathways with her flashlight, half as fast as anyone else but one of two who did not get slapped in the back by a stray Pixelvader. Their dark green complexion made finding them difficult in the surrounding darkness.

"They are weird," she heard the girl -Miranda- complain later; the fact she was lounging on her side instead of sitting normally implied where she had been tackled. "I mean come on, those things look like someone made them in lower resolution than the rest of the world!" She was not wrong either, as Pixelvaders had been given their name for a reason; they appeared like a set of similarly coloured blocks put together into a blob-shaped form, with a bent stick figure's arms and legs.

In exchange for their small stature though, Pixelvaders were far less dangerous than most monsters. Even a good tackle from them would merely leave bruises. Being caught by a whole group of them however, IF knew, could quickly become a painful and potentially deadly experience.

Once she had wandered off to do her weapon maintenance in peace however, Miranda motioned at the young Maker with a curious look to her older teammates. "How long have you known her?"

The men followed her pointing and André took to answering: "Since she was sixteen. Has it really only been three years?"

"Almost four," Gabriel added. "Her twentieth is in a few months. Not that it will change anything, she has been like that since back then." He paused and threw another glance toward IF on the other side of the cavern. "Used to smile less, though." André chuckled, but their younger companions found nothing funny in the statement.

Like that, the evening soon came to an end and near everyone turned in for the night. In difference to before, there were now two agents on watch just in case. Aside from the occasional Pixelvader however, everything remained quiet.

The next day would bring new experiences.