"...And that's it. I'm surprised to see you guys again, to be honest, though by far, it's a pleasant one to date."

Jade nodded, sipping his tea thoughtfully as Guy wrapped up his story. Currently, they—Peony, Guy, Ginji, Noelle, and him—were seated around a table at Ginji and Noelle's house, sharing their stories of what happened since the siege at Grand Chokmah.

It was an understatement to say that Peony was not too thrilled about hearing how discrimination of Malkuth citizens seemed to be commonplace. Even Jade himself was half-hearted in his attempts to keep Peony from running out the house to teach those soldiers a lesson, and as such, he was thankful for the self-control Peony managed to exercise at the last minute. According to Guy, they were not the first group of people to be ignored in their time of need. Though there were no casualties reported as a result of such treatment, it was not to say that the other less fortunate citizens did not manage to escape grave injury—a fact that seemed to be bothering Peony greatly.

In fact, they would have been one of those counted among the unfortunate if Guy did not swoop in to save the day. Though Jade could have easily defeated the monsters with his weapon of choice, summoning it in front of the patrol would have drawn unnecessary attention to him. The expandable deck brush inside his pack was stored precisely to mitigate that problem, though it unfortunately took him some time before he could draw it out. Casting fonic artes back then was not a viable solution as well, considering the time it took to cast them nowadays and his lack of cover—what with Peony's artes being ineffective against the enemies which liked to stay out of his reach.

"Ginji, Noelle." The two straightened up in their seats in rapt attention. Though shocked at first to see them alive and well, they both took the news in stride—as well as Jade's new look—and welcomed them with open arms. "Pardon me for cutting to the chase so soon, but we need to borrow the Albiore as well as your abilities. Would that be a problem?"

At his request, Ginji and Noelle exchanged glances, none too reassuring judging by the grim expressions on their faces.

"As much as we could love to help, Jade," Ginji said, an uncertain look about him, "we're currently in a bind."

Alarm bells started to ring inside Jade's head at those words. He was about to grab Peony's wrist and make a run for it, when Guy caught his eye and shook his head, mouthing, "Trust them." Holding back a sigh, Jade leaned back on his seat and allowed himself to listen to Guy. His tense moment seemed to have gone unnoticed by Ginji and Noelle, who still wore perturbed looks on their faces.

"You see..." Noelle bit her lip, unable to meet his eye. "Some men from Baticul told us that if any of the Albiore were to go missing along with one of us... they will kill everyone in the city."

Jade cupped a hand to his chin in response. As much as he wanted to think that the threat was a bluff, it was not one he wanted to put to the test. Well played. Whoever was behind this had a good head on his or her shoulders, and certainly knew of his friends' habits quite well.

"Sorry, Jade," Noelle said, her eyes finally meeting his, "I really wish we could help, but..."

"...Dr. Gneiss might," Ginji said.

"Dr. Who—" Guy cut his own statement short after seeing the darkening look on Jade's face and the bemused one on Peony's, recognition dawning upon him. "...Oh."

"What of Saphir?" Peony asked.

"Dr. Gneiss?" Ginji peered at Peony curiously. "Rumor has it that he's working on some top secret technology at Belkend. Against his will, they say."

"Yeah, actually, he was working here at Sheridan before, but they moved him to Belkend after some of the hover drives were damaged," Noelle said, cupping a hand to her chin in thought. "They say he messed with them on purpose or something..."

Peony heaved a sigh of relief. "It's good that he survived."

"I shouldn't have been surprised," Jade said. "His resilience is his only redeeming feature, if being cockroach-like is something to be proud of."

"Well, there's our answer, Jade!" Peony grinned at him. "Let's get ourselves a Saphir and an Albiore of our own! I wouldn't have put it past him to have learned how to operate the thing given all the time he spends with those machines of his!"

And so, Jade finally let out the sigh he had been holding and set out to plan how to break one of his least favorite people out of prison.

"Jade, are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine," Jade said as they walked down the starlit streets of Sheridan, the source of light stark against the moonless night sky.

"I'm not a moron, Jade," Peony said, squinting as he leaned forward to get a better look at Jade's face. "Something is bothering you."

"You've always had an overactive imagination." Jade pushed up his glasses and quickened his pace. "I assure you that I am perfectly fine."

"Is it about Saphir?"

Saphir? Jade continued to make his way towards the inn. Of course it was. Saphir—or at least Jade's relationship with him—was a complicated matter, to say the least. A few months shy of the invasion, the Malkuth Empire finally succeeded on getting custody of him from Daath, and Jade wasted no time in hauling the other out of jail to ask—nay, demand—his help in reviving the fomicry research he abandoned a long time ago. For the longest time, Saphir represented a past that Jade had long moved on from—buried in the deepest recesses of his mind. Back in the day, every time the other appeared as Dist and started spouting nonsense about bringing back the dead was the equivalent of digging a shovel into that aged dirt, which he coped with by inciting the ire of the other—may it be through ignorance or one of his caustic remarks.

So it was a surprise, really, that the recent months they worked together were surprisingly peaceful. True to this word, Saphir never raised the idea of reviving Professor Nebilim nor gave any indication that he wished to make another human replica. Jade supposed it helped that both of them did not exchange words outside fomicry theories—rather, Jade did not give Saphir much of an opportunity to speak with him outside the laboratory. As much as this change in Saphir was supposed to put him at ease, it instead left him apprehensive and he continued to distance himself from the other.

"It is Saphir." Jade could feel Peony smile ruefully as he took note of his unresponsiveness. "I thought that you had no problems with him since you started working together again?"

"I haven't."

"Then what exactly is your problem?"

Jade did not deign to give the other an answer, choosing instead to open the door into the inn and making his way to the rooms he reserved earlier.

"Fine, I won't pry," Peony said as they stopped outside the doors to their respective rooms. "But promise me that you'll talk to him after we haul him out of Belkend."

Jade sighed in defeat. "...Very well." There was no way out of this when Peony was so dogged about it, and he supposed that he might as well get around to taking care of the said matter instead of skirting around it as he did in the past.

Instead of a grin of triumph as Jade expected, a look of concern crossed Peony's face as he gazed at Jade searchingly. "You look a bit pale."

"I'm naturally so, in case you haven't noticed these past years."

"Jade." Peony narrowed his eyes. "Enough of your sarcasm. You don't look well, though I'm not sure if that's because of what we discussed or something else all together."

"I will concede that I'm feeling somewhat tired." It has been a fairly long day, and getting attacked by Eggrudas and dealing with a bunch of haughty Kimlascan soldiers shortly thereafter certainly gave him a headache.

"Okay..." Peony was still frowning at him, clearly unconvinced. "Should I stay in your room for a while to make sure nothing's wrong?"

"There is no need to do so."

"If you say so. Just give me a call next door if you need anything, okay?"

"I will." Not that he planned to.

"And Jade," Peony lowered his voice. "Don't push yourself too hard during the rescue mission. You can rely on me and Gailardia, you know?"

Jade shrugged noncommittally. "I suppose."

"Good," Peony said, smiling at Jade. "Then rest up, we've got some way to go with the preparations!"

"Indeed." Jade opened the door to his room, tilting his head slightly towards Peony before departing. "Good night, Franz." Amidst Peony's chuckle, he closed the door behind him and sighed once more, an odd sense of deja vu washing over him as he remembered an all-too familiar situation in Chesedonia not too long ago. Long days, indeed.