"You can't be serious?!" The Professor shouted at the former Duchess of Milan.
She replied solemnly, "But I am."
Zelda shoved open the large, thunderous doors and ran into the sanctuary. Caterina was standing below a large statue of the Mother Mary near the front while William and Leon were back a few pews, arguing from the aisle.
Dandelion's mouth gritted, "The Empress!"
"She's obviously stronger than you think; otherwise your plans would have worked a long time ago. Do you really believe that she is so easy to kill?" The Professor asked, eyes hard.
She tossed a lone, thick ringlet behind her, "Do you think that our leader, Kain-sama, is weak as well? Isn't that why you came here today? To kill him?"
Leon cursed.
"Besides, to kill a Crusnik… you'll need an even stronger Crusnik to tell you how to do it."
"Kain's going to let you go up against her?! He wants his puppets to die for this??!"
Her eyebrows twitched at the word 'puppet' and she turned away from them. "This conversation is over." She held her hand up to her ear, "Tres. …Tres, respond. ….Tres where are you??"
Zelda's hand gripped and she stared down at the floor, "Tres will not be coming."
Caterina twisted around, "What?"
"He's dead."
The Orden member's eyes narrowed and she backed away. "Now that you all know our plans, you cannot be allowed to leave. The building will be destroyed in two minutes… with you three still inside. Goodbye." She continued to step back until the smirking, mocking shadows swallowed her in a Kämpher-like style.
Leon ran for the doors but found they were barred from the outside. "What are we gonna do?"
The black eyed girl whispered harshly, "Don't worry." A dark gray mass appeared from under her skin, covering her body in a full armor. She grabbed them by the collars and lunged at the door. Every time her foot hit the ground, the concrete would break and shatter into pieces resembling a spider's web. She put all of her force into her head and chest as to keep the others from becoming injured.
On contact, the thick oak splintered into a million pieces, littering the air with shards of wood. Zelda ran through them quickly, unaffected. Through the courtyard, she went. Tres' body was gone but she couldn't think about that now.
When she arrived at the hatch, instead of shoving them through, she kicked the bricks that were still left from William's shot. Behind her, an explosion rocked the ground. Instinctly, she threw them on the ground and used herself as a shield from flying debris until the dust had settled.
---
"I remember when I had convinced nearly all the nuns at the Vatican that the reason Gunslinger was so stiff was because he had never been hugged as a child," Leon reminisced back in the laboratory. "They would bake him cookies and give him hugs whenever they saw him. Some even sent care packages. Poor Guns had no clue what was going on."
"Didn't you eat all the food he had received?"
"Yeah, but I was in jail and didn't get nice things like that. Besides, he wasn't going to eat them."
"I remember when I had built that state-of-the-art training room and I had all the AX members test it out like Guinea pigs," the Professor took out his pipe.
"Tres humiliated us thoroughly," Dandelion nodded.
Zelda remembered that. That had been one of the last great days when everyone was together.
"Welcome everyone! You all will be testing out my new training facility in a rousing game of tag! You will each take one of these special guns and special vests that I'm handing out. The object of the game is to shoot anyone else you meet, but aim for their vest. After they have been 'shot' they cannot fire upon anyone else for two minutes, nor are they a target during that time frame. The person with the most 'kills' wins, understand?" William explained.
Abel raised his hand. "Isn't that like that pre-Armageddon game… 'Laser Tag'?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
As they strapped on their vests, Zelda stopped and pondered out loud to the others. "Why do I have this justified feeling that Tres will shame us with flying colors?"
Everyone looked over to see him cock the special gun like it was one of his regulars. They gulped loudly and the Professor smiled, "Okay, it's time to start!"
Sitting off in a dark corner, Zelda of the present wanted to run out of the room but because of all the energy she had used earlier, she couldn't. Trying not to break down in front of them, she began, "I… I remember when you two and Abel were making fun of… his jargon."
"Tres, are you going on duty now?" Zelda smiled up at him.
"Positive."
Leon laughed as they passed and mimicked Tres, "Pozitive!"
Abel smiled, "Pozitive!"
Professor shook his head and corrected them, "He says it 'Poi-zee-tive'."
"Poi-zee-tive!"
"Poi-zee-tive!"
"Poi-zee-tive!" They repeated it again, enjoying it immensely.
She made a face and consoled Tres. "Don't worry, they do it because their just jealous. They wish they had your voice."
He ignored them all but asked her, "Are you going to run the errands Caterina-sama gave you?"
A dark shadow shielded her downcast eyes, a wicked grin spread across the lower half of her face. "…Poi-zee-tive."
"Mmm," they nodded. Minutes passed before anyone spoke again, lost in their memories. Finally-
"While we were searching for Kain today, I found the location of another base. We attack in two days," the Professor stated firmly and quietly.
The others cried, "What?!"
"This is the best time to strike, they either think we're dead or they think that we haven't recovered yet."
"We haven't recovered yet! I don't think I can take it if I have to go through another friend's death! I can't handle it if I have to relive Tres' de-" Zelda bit down on her tongue and wobbly ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her.