Chapter 80: Trouble

Roy sighed deeply as he looked at his children. "So the reason why you left so suddenly, Nick, was that you wanted to cheer for your sister, right? I have to admit, you did nothing wrong – but the next time it would be great if you could tell me beforehand that you are leaving. I was worried."

"I am sorry," the boy muttered but it was obvious to everyone that he was still happy that he had done it, "but I knew that Vicky needed the support! And look at her new trophies!"

Their father patted the redhead's shoulder. "You won the National Master's, Vicky?" he asked while he hugged her tightly. "That is really, really great! I am proud of you!"

"Doesn't that mean that you need a new shelf for your trophies?" Bendix asked while he handed glasses of orange juice to the children. "Well, you make us all very proud, Victoria."

"Thank you, Uncle Ben," she chirped. "And yes, I think I need more place for my trophies now."

"Maybe you should consider a second sport," Olivier stated thoughtfully. "You could play volleyball or something like that. It has no sense for you to play the little hamster that runs and runs in circles when you already got the highest title a runner can get … National Master's…"

"We never got that far, huh?" her husband smiled lovingly at her. "Coach said we lacked the ambition."

"Exactly!" she laughed. "I can see him in front of me … with his red jacket and his blue pants … oh, and I will never forget the antennas on his head! He always looked like he just got up!"

"Since we are speaking of antennas…" Roy sighed. "Did anyone hear something from Edward? I spoke with him for some moments at your wedding but that was more than a month ago…"

"I heard from Phil who heard it from his dearest mother that Fullmetal found a way to use alchemy again when he was in Creta," Bendix replied casually as always. "It's a complete new theory…"

"That would mean that Creta has an alchemistic genius…" Olivier muttered while she scratched her ear. "I don't know if that couldn't be a problem sooner or later…"

"Creta never broke a peace contract with us before," Nick stated. "They are too honest."

"That's true," the blond woman agreed, "but even if the Cretan government would be insane if they would betray us … there are always some anti-governmental organisations that would kill for such a secret … This alchemy has to be completely different from anything else, you know?"

"But that would mean that Edward and his teacher are both in danger!" Cai exclaimed.

"Especially his teacher, yes," Victoria agreed. "No one would go for a pupil when he can get the teacher who knows everything about the technique."

Lutetia was the proud and unbowed capital of Creta. It was the most beautiful and richest city in the whole country and many enterprises were to find there. Usually, the city was exceptionally peaceful and especially around the old and deferential university reigned silence on every day. But not today … because today, people were fighting in the building and they were causing noise.

There was a red-haired woman with green eyes who looked like thirty-six while she was already forty and most attacks were directed at her. She was a skilled fighter but even with all the power she had, she wasn't able to defend the university alone against twenty men dressed in black who had come to attack them. The redhead resembled an angry lioness as she dodged a bullet before she attacked the gunman with a blue lightening.

"Surrender, Professor D'Artagan!" one of the men said. "We don't want to hurt you, madame!"

"You will have to hurt me because I will never hand over the secrets I vowed to protect, scum!"

"Professor, you are all alone. You will get terribly hurt if you keep this up," the man tried again. "It is in your best interest to surrender now before we have to take the secrets by force, do you understand?"

"I just understand that you have to be an idiot if you really think that I, Catherina D'Artagan, would ever surrender to an enemy who plots the destruction of everything everyone in Creta is working for!" she hissed at them while she raised her hands again. "You can try again – but as you could see, they never called me the Blue Flash for nothing!"

"You wanted to see me?" Jun Li asked as she entered the study.

"Yes," her old master said with his usual serious face. "Please, take place, lily." He watched her serenely as she followed his order without any hesitation. "We have another problem, Jun Li."

"I feared so, Ma- Teacher," she corrected herself hastily.

"Qiang Fei left Xing in order to murder you," Jun Yao said, "and I heard from our informants in Xing that she still believes that you prevented her aunt so many years ago from becoming empress after me. From our sources in the East I heard that she already passed EastCity."

"Thank you for the warning, Teacher. I should have seen it coming."

"Aren't you, well, supposed to be a little bit worried, Jun-Jun?"

"I am too surprised that she has still the nerve to go after me to worry right now."

"She will find you here for you never changed your name, Jun Li."

"It's hard to change my name now without breaking the law. Charlotte Llewellyn reformed to laws regarding this aspect too. Nowadays, you need a really good reason to."

"There has to be a way. We need to confuse her … to make it impossible for her to track you down." He sighed deeply while he looked at her peaceful face. "I would die without you."

"I agree," she said. "Well, Ma- Teacher, I listen to whatever you say."

"It would be helpful if you would marry and … change your hairstyle a little bit. Win this game by confusing her. She hasn't seen you in a very long time. She needs to rely on her memory of you."

"I have to refuse, Teacher," she said. "I can't fail my duty. Would I marry, I could hardly serve you like I want to. I vowed absolute dedication!"

"Jun Li … as much as I hate to face the facts: I am an old man and you shouldn't go down with me."

"I followed you through the years, Master," she said, slipping back into her old dutiful behaviour once more. "I refuse to let down my emperor!"

He took her fragile little hand and kissed her fingertips. "My Lily," he said. "I know that you are too loyal to leave me behind but it is time for you to blossom. I want you to become happy."

"Master, I promised you my service until the day one of us dies." Jun Li lowered her gaze. "And I break no promises. I am not that kind of woman."

She was twenty-eight and had served him for twenty-two years by now. She looked, however, a little bit older since all the stress of the years as captain of the imperial guards had make her grow old before her time. Usually the people guessed that she was thirty-two while her emperor was easily mistaken for fifty on a good day and for sixty on a bad one.

"Jun Li…" he said with a pained voice. "Please … it hurts me too…"

"No, Master, please, let me stay…" she whispered. "I beg you…"

"You will get hurt if you stay and I don't want you to get hurt."

"I am the last pillar of your strength," she said while she grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "And I just cannot leave you in the dust…"

"And I don't want you to die because of me."

"Master, please…" she begged.

He grabbed both of her hands as he walked around his desk to hug her tightly. She was so fragile to him and he knew that he would have run away with her to marry her if he had been in her age – or at least sixty years younger. "Don't cry, lily," he whispered into her ear. "Please…"

"Bu…but…" She hiccupped. "Ma…ma…master…"

"Pssch…" he rocked her gently back and forth. "My lily … please…"

"I … I do … don't want to leave you!"

"For Truth's sake!" Cai exclaimed. "If you don't want to let go of each other – marry each other! Honestly, it would solve the whole problem!" He exhaled. "Good night!"

Catherina D'Artagan awoke in a dark room and rubbed the back of her head. Her throat was dry and her head hurt for someone had knocked her out somehow. She wasn't tied up, fortunately, but her gloves with her arrays were missing. She cursed under her breath as she searched for another option to escape this prison. Her pride didn't allow her to stay captured for a long time.

She somehow suspected that the people who had captured her were other alchemists who researched the option to use the power of the planets and if her suspicion was right, she was in trouble.