"No! My parents... I-" It was Professor Layton's distressed voice. He sounded uncharacteristically defeated."What do you intend to do to them?" The professor pleaded.
It was then that Aurora noticed the torture on Professor Sycamore's face. The man's gaze became distant, his pupils dilating, and the knuckles of his clenched fists were visibly sweating. It was if he was watching a horror film unravel before him, unable to tear his eyes away.
"P-professor?" The Azran girl whispered, still quite a distance from him as a precautionary measure - part of her wanted to go over to see what was wrong, but the other half of her was too frightened to approach.
Descole took a sharp intake of breath - it sounded as if he was almost as if he was about to start sobbing. He heard the shouting of Targent members running down the corridor, all oblivious to the fast that they had just ran past the intruder. At that very moment, his eyes flickered back into focus.
What do you intend to do to them? They were the very words that he had uttered on that day - the words that he shouldn't have dared ask. Now his brother was about to repeat the same mistake. Descole couldn't stay silent long enough to wait for Bronev's response.
"Aurora, stay out of sight. If people come in, you run to me. Yes?" He stated, trying to put a hand on her shoulder. She recoiled immediately but nodded - she was evidently petrified of him but he knew that soon she'd realise that it was in her best interests to listen to and follow what he told her.
Giving no time for the Azran girl to question him, Descole burst into Bronev's office and strolled leisurely around the staircase towards the desk, his eyes narrowed but expression neutral. He wondered what Layton would think about him turning up again - he needed to realise that working with him was the lesser of two evils.
In this time, Aurora scurried to hide behind the stairs that ran through the middle of the room. As she did, she thought about what he had told her: If people come in, you run to me. If he'd have said that a day ago she would have done so without question - now she wasn't so sure. She still couldn't quite grasp what was going on.
Emmy was the first to spot Descole. "Professor Sycamore...?" she whispered, and gave Layton a look of concern. The professor looked up but didn't do or say anything - he was still dazed from Bronev threatening his parents. Descole had most likely come for the final egg - the one that they had already taken back.
Bronev let out a quiet huff of annoyance. "Well, well, well, what have we here? Come to join the party?" The bearded man mocked, shrugging his shoulders and plastering a wide grin across his face.
"Bronev you soulless monster!" Descole spat, snapping straight out of the calm demeanour he had approached with. He pushed up the glasses that had slipped off his nose. "I'll make you pay for what you've done!" The very sight of the man's face was enough to sicken him.
"Now, now." The man in blue dismissed lightly, then leaned on his desk. "What difference is there really between you and me?"
Descole glared at him.
From behind the staircase, Aurora observed anxiously - if she had been created with a heart, she was sure that right now it would be pounding inside of her, wild from her unease.
As she watched, the Azran girl's eyes met with another inquisitive pair. She moved back quickly - she wasn't meant to have been spotted - but then carefully took another peek.
Descole was just about to make his own cutting retort when Layton spoke up.
"What are you planning to do to my parents?" He asked in an unwavering voice, clutching his hat in his left hand.
Bronev unfolded his arms and turned back to Layton - he had no reason to listen to Sycamore's maunder, anyway - he had been finished with that man some years ago. "Nothing at all." He said, pausing for effect to see the reaction of the professor.
Layton inhaled slowly. This was like one big game for Bronev - he knew that Layton wouldn't want his parents to come to any harm.
"If you accept my invitation, that is."
This fired up Descole. "Don't pay him any attention!" He yelled with indignance. Layton was too kind-hearted, he would agree just to see that his parents were safe - he couldn't let his brother give in to the threat. "It's a trick!"
"Oh how pathetically tiresome you are!" Bronev said, grinding his teeth before giving a warning: "If you listen to his drivel, Layton, I'll have no more mercy for you than I had for him."
Both Layton and Emmy looked at Sycamore - so the reason why he detested Targent so much was because they threatened someone close to him, too. From the sound of it, it hadn't ended well for him.
Descole grimaced. He didn't contemplate the return of all of the tormenting memories that would be dug up just from revisiting the headquarters again.
"Now then, the choice is-"
Bronev was interrupted by Swift barging into the office. "Boss, we've checked everywhere - the emissary has been taken." The man said sounding rather out of breath.
"What?" Bronev barked. "I thought that room was being monitored?"
"It was, we don't know how she escaped but the glass had been broken from the outside. The officer standing guard claim to have not known about anything until he heard the glass smash." The light-haired man recalled.
Descole grinned to himself - the officer had covered for him while trying to stay out of trouble himself.
Knowing that nobody would notice her with the action going on in the room, Aurora looked back through the railings on the stairway to see who that person looking back at her was - it was Luke, and the boy's eyes were still fixated on her.
Aurora put a finger over her lip, hoping for the boy to remain silent for everyone's sake, but the boy's expression had already shifted. She could try to make a run for it, but would it be too risky?
Luke closed his open mouth and gave a slight nod - a big mistake.
"What is it, boy?" Bronev demanded, noticing that he was looking at someone. He followed Luke's gaze to see the Azran girl hiding at the back of the room. The man growled.
Luke glanced at Layton, his eyes begging for the professor to do something to help her. First he had given the girl a false sense of security, now he was about to be the cause of her getting caught again.
"Swift." Bronev called whipping around to face the man at the doorway. Aurora jumped back. The second-in-command seemed to automatically know Bronevs intentions as he dashed out of the office.
You run to me. Yes? The words repeated in Aurora's mind. There was little else that she could do which gave her a chance of not being captured, and so, while Bronev's back was turned, she ran towards Professor Sycamore.
While Descole remembered what he had instructed Aurora to do, he also found himself being given an opportunity that he was sure would never arise again - Bronev had no backup.
For a breif moment, the air stood still.
And then, the image of his wife's lifeless body flashed through his mind; whose death had been caused by the ravages of the man who stood before him. Descole snarled loudly. This wasn't the act of revenge that he was after, but it was an opportunity that he couldn't pass up on.
He leapt towards Bronev, brandishing his sword. He had no intention of killing his biological father, but the need to better him after being humiliated in Monte D'Or was all too compelling.
The other man only had a moment to sidestep out of the way, but did so successfully, sending Descole stumbling into the desk.
Wherever you go, I'll just be one step ahead. Bronev's infamous phrase was what stuck in Descole's mind.
He whipped back around, holding the sword up to Bronev's neck. "You're not mistreating her like that again. She's coming with us. " He hissed, but the bushy-haired man didn't even flinch.
There was a click, as Bronev pushed a new magazine into his handgun, before pointing it at the spectacled man's head.
"Or what?"
