Hello everyone and welcome back to HellFall!

I've been doing a lot more writing lately, and I've decided that I'm going to focus more attention on writing until I finish this part, just so that I'll have more time to think about and develop the plot of part 3, and also because I'm getting pretty close.

Anyways, the last chapter ended with a cliffhanger, so let's get on with it!

I froze, watching with curiosity and fear. Abel's squealing slowly began to subside, just as two men walked out from the elevator door. I recognized Gazini and Lleu immediately. They turned, gasped when they saw us.

"What the he-?" Lleu started, stopping in place.

"Octavia?" Gazini asked, "What the bloody hell is going on?"

Abel had long since ceased movement. I loosened my grip on the blade shard and stepped off his corpse.

"Your guard was working for Rain." I replied, hoping that he wouldn't ask why I was here, "So I stopped him before he could let him escape"

"Okay," Gazini said, "but why are you here?"

Darn, he's smarter than he looks, I thought. "That's not important!" I said quickly.

"Yes," he replied, "it kind of is"

"Uh," I stammered, trying to make something up, "hmm"

I had to get out of here. I knew that. But how, I wasn't entirely sure.

I pointed to the prison area, "Look, a naked man!" I cried, then charged towards the elevator.

Lleu turned, but Gazini struck out his fist, hitting me hard in the gut. I coughed, saliva flying from my mouth as his fist made contact. I fell hard on my back, hitting my head against the cold floor.

"Lucky for you." Gazini said, standing over me, "I was just about to call you. I need you for something"

I laughed, "Good luck making me do anything for you, red-head!"

"If you do, I'll excuse you for breaking into the base"

"Okay, well I didn't break in." I pointed out, "Your secretary let me in"

"You're not supposed to be here." He said, "I could lock you up. So I'll say this again. I'll excuse this if you and your team help me"

I sighed, "What happens if I don't?"

"Like I said, I'll lock you up"

"For how long?"

"Long enough"

"How long is that?"

"As long as it takes"

As much as I tried to play this off as a joke, I knew that there was no way I was getting out of this unless I took the offer.

"Fine." I finally replied, "What do you want me to do?"

"Well," he started, "first of all, gather your team here. We'll need all of you"

I paused to think, trying to remember where they all were. Xeyrus was dead, Azure was at home, and Nello…

My eyes shot to the prison entrance, "Nello!" I called, running towards the door. Once I was inside I saw him, lying still on the ground.

I fell to my knees by his body and flipped him over. His face was frozen in shock, eyes wide, mouth slightly open.

"Nello?" I asked, leaning my ear against his chest, "Nello!" There was no sound. No heartbeat. Nothing.

I felt tears come to my eyes, and suddenly felt terrible. Not only terrible that he'd died, but terrible at the favoritism I showed in my team. I didn't mourn for Xeyrus, but I mourned for Nello. Not only that, but two of my own team members had died under me in the past few days. I'm a horrible leader, I thought.

Fighting the tears back, I faced Nello again. I reached out and gently closed his eyes, then kissed his forehead.

"I'm so sorry." Gazini said from behind me, "Was he a teammate?"

I nodded, standing. Turning around, I faced him and said, "It's only Azure and I now, so what will you have us do?"

I called in Azure and she arrived shortly. She reacted similarly to how I did. She cried for a while, longer than I did, but eventually did recompose herself.

Gazini sat us down around the massive wooden table at one end so that we were close enough to hear each other speak.

"As you know I'm building a team to combat a major potential threat to Atlas. I think that at this point we can be certain that it is a threat, however, not just potientially. Recently we came across some leads, specifically locations."

He paused, "I'm taking a couple teams to Cor Village in a few days. Apparently they have a powerful weapon there." At this point he turned to me, "One that can supposedly remove another person's semblance"

I recognized the name of the village, but the weapon just further clarified it. I'd never gone there afterwards because I thought it'd been abandoned.

"I thought that place was abandoned" I said, speaking my thoughts aloud.

He turned to me and held my gaze for a moment, "Better safe than sorry" He said simply.

I leaned back in my chair.

"If it is empty," He continued, "we're going to another location. Simple as that. Thunder will take a couple teams up to Aldbay, where the Plan H file was originally found. Any questions?"

"Who else is coming with us?" Azure asked.

"I will," I said, "and so will my team. Team WRGE will be joining us as well. And Cerberus Witch and Dennis Soldier. Witch and Soldier will be assigned to you guys, to make a four-man team. Sound good?"

Azure nodded.

Gazini turned to me, "Octavia?" He asked.

I looked up from the table, trying to think of something to say. "Hmm?" I asked, "Oh. Quick unrelated question. Who was that guard? Abel?"

I pointed to the dead snake man lying on the ground behind us. Gazini turned, "Abel?" He asked, "That was Scitalis Abel. According to Rain he was Rocco's personal minion"

"Scitalis?" Azure asked, "I know him. I fought him." She held out her hand, revealing a clean hole through her palm, "He gave me this"

"I thought I did that" Gazini said.

"Wait, what?" I asked, suddenly angry at the red head.

"Scitalis did it originally." Azure replied, "You just reopened it"

"Oh, right" He said, "Sorry about that"

Lleu cleared his throat, "Can we get back to business?" He asked.

"I think we're pretty much done." Gazini replied, "I'll tell the other members. We'll leave for Cor Village in two days. I'll give you all more details if I can then"

"Why two days?" I asked.

"My team and I are fighting in the tournament tomorrow." He replied, "We made it to semi-finals"

"Congrats" I said.

"Thanks" He said.

There was a brief pause.

"Well," Gazini finally said, "I guess that's that. Meeting adjourned, or whatever."

So there you have it. A little short I know, but important nonetheless. Nello's dead, it's official. Honestly this wasn't part of my original plan. I liked Nello quite a bit, and I did actually plan on keeping him until the final part of the story. But I didn't really want to go back and change things, and I thought it'd be too predictable and unrealistic if he took a shotgun through the gut and survived after bleeding out for several minutes while Octavia fought Abel. But oh well, such is life. Let that be a lesson to all you aspiring writers, though: things aren't always going to go the way you want with your stories, trust me. Unless I'm just lazy, I don't know.

So we'll be returning to Cor Village soon. Exciting eh? I know I am.

Also, I know I said 'no Crimson chapters for a while', but the next will be just that. I made it longer though, so that this'll be the last one for a while (hopefully).

Anyways, that's about it. As usual, favorite, follow, review, tell your friends, tell your enemies, or don't if you don't want to, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!