Chapter 39

Rean nodded, busy fixing himself a cup. "She said that other people are going to be able see a warehouse and it'll still be abandoned, but they can't see us, or our stuff. She said it would be weird if a building people had seen suddenly 'disappeared'." Magic was very useful, though he had also seen firsthand how scary and dangerous it could be when used by the wrong person for the wrong reasons. "I asked her," He turned back to Melyssa, leaning against the counter with the mug between his palms. "What keeps people from coming inside and she said they feel sick when they try and a disgusting odor wafts to them." He wrinkled his nose.

"Interesting. Definitely useful though, can't deny it." Melyssa figured now would be the best time to tell him what Celine did earlier before she came back inside. "Emma's cat, Celine, did a patrol run and…you were right." Rean raised a brow, wondering what she was referring to. "Someone ransacked my house last night/this morning and Celine said things were destroyed. I'm surprised they didn't just burn the house down, honestly." She looked back into her coffee cup, drawing her brows together. "Also, Celine went to the location of where my father is being held and said they're still there and he's okay for now." That could change in the blink of an eye, however. "Oh, one more thing, I don't know if Crow told you or not, but…we linked up last night. We can Combat Link now, so we won't be holding the class back anymore." There, he knew everything now.

First thing in the morning, he had just started sipping his coffee, and now Rean was simply staring at her with his mouth slightly open while his mind played catch up. That was a lot of information to lay out on a person in one breath. "You and Crow went out last night?" He knew there was a ward in place to protect them, but pushing their luck like that seemed foolish, like they were testing it and daring fate to come slap them down for their hubris. Evidently, Emma's spell had worked above and beyond what he had anticipated since everyone was all right. "Melyssa," He said softly, not surprised by the other news, it wasn't information he hadn't already counted on, drawing closer to her. "You're going to give me gray hairs, you know that?"

The barest hint of a smile tilted her lips as she stared back at him and took a slow sip of her coffee. "Oh I am, huh? I don't think you're THAT old yet." They were only a few years apart in age, but it didn't seem that way. "We knew how far we could go. Emma said the spell went 500 arges all the way around the warehouse and that included the back gate of Jurai." Surprisingly, there were no soldiers at the gate, but then again, this was the 'lower class' part of the city. "I felt something change yesterday with Crow when some of his memories were restored. Something clicked, so I asked him if we could go practice Combat Linking, like I did with Ash on the outskirts of Leeves. I just didn't want anything holding us back, no weaknesses. Besides, that's why we came here in the first place, right, Instructor?" Standing, she went to go refill her cup and stifled a yawn.

"You know the situation, the parameters of the mission have changed." Rean said in response, his tone patient as he watched her.

How late was she out last night? Better question, why did it bother him on some level he shouldn't acknowledge that she was out late with his best friend? Obviously there was something there between the two and they had made amends after the disastrous first kiss incident back at the 4th Armored Division. He wondered if they had made more than amends and instantly squished that down, it was none of his business unless she or Crow wanted to tell him. Besides that, he was her Instructor and had no business prying in her personal life when he couldn't do anything about it, about them.

Goddess, where did that come from? He blinked, turning away from Melyssa to clear his throat.

"I know that, but now everything is solved with the Combat Linking and we can move on."

They were out late and Ash had been too when she joined and then left him on the docks. It wasn't anyone's business what her and Crow were doing, but she felt the need to inform Rean. He was their Instructor and since he was worried about their lack of linking, she wanted to ease his mind about that at least. It was obvious Crow hadn't discussed anything with him, or told him what transpired between them. A sister…she was a sister to Crow and she had to accept it and move on. She sat back down at the table and began sipping her second cup of coffee that morning.

Crow had come back from their practice at linking and short lived kissing session, hung out until Ash had come back and talked to him for a few moments before heading right to bed. He hadn't had time to talk to anyone since Rean had been in the land of the dreamers by the time he had gotten inside. Rean left her to her thoughts, busy scrounging up something for breakfast. Today they were going to try to liberate her father as well as bring down the Ouroboros connections that were fueling the nobility in Jurai.

It was time to set Jurai free.

"Now, now Mr. Schwarzer, out of the kitchen and let me cook. You all need a hearty breakfast to get your strength and stamina up." Today was the day they would hopefully bring her beloved Robert home. "Shoo, you're not needed in here."

Melyssa chuckled as Rean bolted out of the kitchen, knowing better than to try to make food with her mother around. "Mom is a bit of a kitchen hog, if you haven't noticed. She loves to cook, the more people the better. It also keeps her mind off what's going on with Dad."

"Melyssa dear, will you come here a moment?"

"Coming, Mom!" She walked past Rean to go see what her mother wanted.

Rean had learned really quick not to get underfoot with Miranda unless she needed help. Her idea of a man helping in the kitchen was basically taking orders and holding towels for her to use to dry her hands. He shook his head when he spotted Crow was up, sort of, looking like he hadn't slept a wink.

He had, just badly. Crow had some weird dreams and most of them revolved around Melyssa. "Do I smell coffee?" He asked with a yawn, swinging his legs out of the bed.

"You do, it's in the kitchen area, with Miranda and Melyssa." He sipped his own, slowly raising an eyebrow as Crow considered it. "Something wrong?"

"Nope."

"Why don't I believe you?" Rean remarked, refilling his cup and could already smell whatever Miranda was cooking for them in the kitchen. "Come outside with me for a minute." Crow followed him reluctantly with his own cup of coffee and they went to the docks, where Ash had spent most of his night, stewing. "I told you not to bottle your emotions up. That gets you into trouble, so what's going on?" This was his best friend and former rival, they knew each other inside and out. "I need you focused today because we're going to liberate Mr. Brackett. I need your mind clear and Melyssa already told me what happened between you two last night. For the record, not smart to sneak out, but I'll save the lecture for another time. She told me you guys linked, which is good, but…something else happened, didn't it?"

Crow sometimes hated Rean and it had nothing to do with their former rivalry. He hated that Rean was so perceptive. He hated that Rean had a mother-henning streak a mile wide that made him prone to butting into other people's business.

"Rean, it's really none of your business and it won't affect today's mission. Melyssa and I are good." And they were, she had said as much last night. He knew she probably said it to spare hurting his feelings as well as eliminating any awkwardness between them, but he felt like most of it had been resolved.

Eyeballing his friend for a minute, Rean finally decided to back off and trust Crow was telling him the truth. However, 'good' implied they weren't together as a couple…and WHY was he thinking along those lines in the first place?! "All right, fine, new topic. Celine told Melyssa this morning about her patrol last night and apparently, Ouroboros struck the house. So either they were looking to take more hostages, kill us or…"

"Send a message." Crow finished, his tone even and crimson eyes narrowed.

"They're still keeping Mr. Brackett in the same location, but if we don't liberate him today, they could move him since they're on the hunt for us." Rean was thankful to have friends like Emma, Sara and Fie. "Emma already told me she's coming with to cloak us with a spell, so we can get in and, hopefully, get out unscathed. I also called Machias and he's doing research and investigating in the other cities to see if the same thing is happening to them that's happening here."

"Do you really think that's a possibility?"

"I think Jurai was the test subject, test zone, to see if it COULD be implemented." Rean said thoughtfully. "Jurai is small enough that it wouldn't be overly hard to start infiltrating the higher levels and wiggling in, and it's isolated enough that not many people outside of the gates would realize what was going on, even when passing through."

"And obviously it's been working here. If Aurelia hadn't tipped us off, we wouldn't have ever known." Crow said dryly, wondering WHY she had tipped them off. She had to be very confident in Ouroboros' ability to take them all out.

Joke was on her.

"When we liberate Mr. Brackett, he'll have the answers to the questions we have. Melyssa said he knows everything about Jurai, inside and out. He'll know what is actually going on and what Ouroboros' main goal is. It's more than just making Heidel Rogner the new mayor." Rean didn't believe Ouroboros would do all of this just to make one man have power in a city. There had to be an ulterior motive somewhere hidden beneath the surface. "We need to do this at night, so we'll rest up during the day and strike once nightfall hits. It'll be easier and we won't be detected. We can use the darkness to our advantage."

"And what do you plan on doing about Heidel Rogner himself?"

Rean smiled wickedly, which was very out of character for him and his fuchsia eyes twinkled. "Don't worry, I already have that covered."

Crow smirked as well. "Angie?"

"Bingo."

Angelica Rogner, the niece of Heidel Rogner, would be taking care of her DEAR Uncle for them once Mr. Brackett was rescued. "She'll be here by nightfall."

Rean personally thought that if they were able to put one man in charge here in Jurai, Ouroboros would try doing the same elsewhere. It was like a controlled experiment and in one of the most prominent areas of trade and commerce as well. Regardless, whatever their plans were, they had to be stopped here and anywhere else they may have already been put into action. He hoped Brackett would be able to clear this up for them as well as point them in their next direction. First they had to rescue him and then they had to run Ouroboros out of Jurai.

"All right, let's head in. Miranda should have worked her magic by now and everyone else needs to hear Celine's news."

"Leave it to the kitty cat to help us with this." Ash snorted, after listening to everything Rean reiterated to everyone at the table.

Miranda had made pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon with coffee, milk and juice. Emma had managed to bring her kitchen with her in the transportation spell since the food would go bad if not cooked/eaten. Miranda had requested it and Emma made it happen with her magical abilities. They were a lot stronger and precise these days compared to when she first met Rean and the rest of Class VII.

Celine hissed, baring her teeth at him. "Do NOT call me that! My name is Celine, get it right!"

"Whatever, kitty cat." Ash winked at the familiar and rolled his eyes. "So, what's the plan then? And what in Gehenna are we gonna do about Le Guin?" He did NOT like being betrayed and wanted to rip the Principal's head off her shoulders.

"One thing at a time, Ash." Rean didn't blame the man for being angry at the betrayal, but they had to prioritize saving Mr. Brackett first. "We're relaxing for the day and when I say relaxing, I MEAN relaxing. No sparring, no exercises, nothing. Tonight, we will liberate Mr. Brackett and use the darkness to our advantage." Just like he'd told Crow earlier. "And we're all not going because Emma's magic won't be able to keep up. Sara and Fie, I only need one of you to come with us, the other can stay here to watch over everything, so let me know which one of you will come with us. As far as the main team, it will be myself, Crow, Ash, Fie or Sara, Altina and Melyssa, along with Emma. I'm counting on Juna and Kurt to keep an eye on things here with either Sara or Fie until we return with Mr. Brackett."

"Yes, Instructor." Kurt did not mind being left behind and he understood why Melyssa was going. This was her father and she would no doubt fight if Rean didn't choose her to go.

"Do you REALLY think that's a good idea, Rean?" Juna couldn't keep her mouth shut any longer and shook her head, folding her arms in front of her chest. "Melyssa is a first year, inexperienced and this is a very dangerous place you're going. Don't you think either Kurt or I would be better suited to deal with this?"

Juna had a point.

"I really don't care if this is her father we're liberating or not. You shouldn't put her in harm's way AGAIN."

Now Melyssa's dander was up and her eyes narrowed across the table at Juna. "I appreciate your concern, Juna, but I'm fully capable of handling myself and I'm not as weak as you think, even if I AM a first year." Technically, she should have been a second year, but she had joined Thors a year late than the others.

"You're still inexperienced and it's stupid for the Instructor to add you to the mix when you're just a liability." Juna ignored Kurt's warning look and pursed her lips tightly together. "You and Crow can't even LINK together, how are you NOT a weak link in Class VII?"

Now Melyssa was smiling coldly as she set her fork down on her plate and stood up. "Not that it's any of YOUR business, but Crow and I took care of that problem last night. We linked up, we're good to go. And I don't think Instructor Rean appreciates you, his student, dictating what he should or should not do. He did not put me in harm's way yesterday. It was his plan, yes, but I could have said no and I didn't. Why? Because I believed I could keep Shirley occupied and I DID IT."