A/N: What to say that won't spoil the chapter...meh. Just read.

A little investigation around the shadier parts of Zaphias quickly bore fruit. The group was 'The Strikers', formed several years ago but not really put into effect until a few weeks back; around the same time people and knights began to get attacked.

Although it pained Lily to do so, she knew she had to disappear; she could be neither Lily nor Yuri for this job. It meant cutting off all contact with everyone, but if it meant protecting Flynn, she would do it.

She quickly changed her looks; made her hair black instead of purple, and her eyes purple instead of black. Although it may not be the greatest disguise, it had two purposes; it was good enough that most people would not recognise her, but was also done so that Flynn would.

With that done, she began to spread rumours around that a young girl called Lily had been found dead on the streets. After passing it around to the most gossiping people she knew and making sure it was loud enough for everyone else to hear, it quickly spread like wildfire. She sent a silent apology to everyone else up at the castle, then went deeper under, properly cutting herself off from everyone.

There was a knock on the tavern, and the owner looked up as a young female entered. She cast her gaze around at the various male warriors and female mages as she walked confidentally to the counter, leaning against it.

"What business do you have here, traveller?" asked the bartender, eyeing her.

"That's for select ears alone," she replied, passing over a few Gald.

The bartender took them, pocketing them. "This way," he said, stepping from behind the counter and leading her to the back.

He pushed the door open, showing a rich looking office. The man behind it was well dressed and clean shaven, though his blue eyes were cold even though he seemed so relaxed.

"A visitor?" he asked as she entered.

"Wants a word," the bartender replied, bowing and quickly leaving again, closing the door behind him.

The man looked up at the woman. "And who are you?" he asked.

"Melantha," the woman replied, gazing at him levelly.

"And what business do you have here?"

"Well, I heard rumours that you guys were looking to get rid of the new pesky Commandant. I thought I'd join in the fun."

"Can you fight?" he asked, motioning to the sword on her back.

Melantha considered. "Do you mind a couple of things breaking?" she asked.

He motioned for her to go ahead and she smirked, slowly pulling the sword out of it's sheath. Almost as soon as it left it flashed, and then the chair infront of her fell to bits, crashing to the ground.

The man eyed her, then nodded. "Alright. I suppose we may be able to sign you up." He stood, coming round the desk to her, and she sheathed the sword again. "My name is Rothum, and I'm the head. Do a good job, and we won't kill you," he said.

"A pleasure to work for you, sir," she replied, bowing.

"Let's make sure it remains a pleasure," he said, raising an eyebrow before turning away from her. "I'll have some people show you around, and then you can go out on your first mission tomorrow."

"What did you say your name was? Melantha?"

She giggled, running a hand down his cheek. "Just call me Mel," she replied with a husky smile.

Her guide gave a goofy grin, following after her. "Well, hey, I'll bet you'll be a great help to our operations. But, y'know, if you even need help, don't hesitate to call me. I'm highly regarded as one of the top fighters," he said, puffing up his chest.

"Ha! You're weaker than a rat's tail, Gregor!" shouted someone from a different part of the room.

"Aw shut up!" he snapped back, before turning back to Mel, the goofy smile back in place.

"I'll be sure to ask for help if I need it," she replied, smiling. Gregor's goofy grin grew wider, and he turned red, rubbing the back of his head.

"Anyway, this here is the main eat place. We all hang around here, and only members of our group are allowed to stay here. Everyone else gets kicked out," Gregor explained. Several people greeted her, and she smiled back at everyone, ignoring the few jealous glares from other women.

They went upstairs, entering a room. "This'll be your room. You're sharing with a few other women, but we don't have many in our group, so there shouldn't be many."

"Should I put my stuff in here then?" asked Mel, motioning to the bag she was carrying around.

"I wouldn't. People'll steal your stuff if you don't carry it around," Gregor replied.

Mel nodded, motioning for him to continue. He gave a wide grin then led her further down.

"This here's the toilet. We only have a couple, so you have to get up early when you wanna get a wash and stuff, or there's no hot water left. And down those stairs is the meeting room. That's where Leader gives us our missions and jobs for the day," Gregor finished.

"Wow~, thanks Gregor! This place sure is big," Mel mused.

"Yup! I know this place the best, so if you ever get lost, just tell me!"

"Thank you so much," she gushed, pressing a finger against his lips and giggling before heading back to her room, leaving Gregor melting into a pile of goo.

'I'm so glad I let Judy do all that weird seduction stuff on me now...' she thought to herself, shuddering slightly.

"Alright, Melantha. You'll be assigned to Castiel's group. You're job is to attack Mr Dover - he secretly smuggles young abducted children to slave traders. The knights know this, but aren't doing anything about it, which is why we're going to do something about it for them."

Mel nodded, then frowned as she turned away. Flynn already knew about this..? Then why wasn't he stopping it? Did the technicalities really drag him down that much?

They headed out, reaching the area that their job was in. They waited in the dark alleys for a while, gazing at the house Dover lived at.

Eventually the door opened and a pudgy man stepped out, wiping a cloth over his brow as he started walking down the street.

"As soon as he gets level with us, we attack, got it?" Castiel, the group leader, whispered. The others nodded, raising their weapons.

As Dover came level with them, they suddenly burst out, swiftly attacking. He barely got out a cry before he was cut to ribbons. Mel scowled as she plunged his sword into her heart, vaguely remembering when he killed Ragou in the same way around two years ago.

Weird how many corrupted people lived in the world.

A/N: So...I know this is completely out of character for her, but, well, she's a woman now. She's going to use different tactics to when she was a man.

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