Thanks so much to: laceyowens50, Colin Creevey, Guest, John P and Uzami Kisaragi for reviewing!
Author's Note: Well Happy New Year everyone. Now I don't usually like doing this because I feel it comes across as just making excuses but I feel like I owe an explanation for the lack of updates, they were sporadic last year and non-existent the past few months. The thing is last year was a very bad year for me, among other things all of my surviving grandparents died and just when you thought this year would be better, among other things we get a notice our landlord is selling the house so we're being kicked out. And you may be thinking 'well, so what if your life sucks?' and unfortunately sometimes it just bleeds into my writing, not only have I just not felt much like writing but I haven't even been thinking about because I've had so much other stuff on my mind. That doesn't mean I'm giving up, in fact if I was going to give up on this series then I'd post a final author's note with information on what would happen so at least people would have closure, but it's why updates have been sporadic and will probably continue to be for the foreseeable future so you have fair warning. I sincerely am sorry for the inconvenience, am incredibly thankful to anyone still reading this and I hope you're all having a better life then I am right now
Questions:
Does she (Sal) still love him (Brutus) or is she just pissed off at him?
Both
Will they (the Malfoys) ever know the truth about Lyra?
Maybe
What happened to Daphney?
She fled the country when the war heated up in hopes of staying out of it
Will we see her (Daphne) again or is she just gone out the series?
Possibly but probably not, I wrote myself into a weird corner with her because I give my characters a lot of backstory and if she shows up again I can't really not address it without it seeming weird but she's so minor that I also can't really address it without it seeming weird so... yeah, she's not likely to appear unless I figure out a way around it all
How long is it likely to take (to arrest Arnett)?
Not that long
Why is Scorpius still looking into shelters for his parents?
Because he wants his family to be safe
Does he (Scorpius) really think he can convince them (his family)?
He isn't certain whether he can convince them but he's hopeful enough he try
Scorpius felt uneasy after hearing Calderon's voice and being reminded of his cousin's penchant for helping people, just how much influence did he have on him? He knew he'd called Varanian 'Pippy' that one time and Calderon's unease had bled into him when he'd spoken to Brutus but… well, he didn't not feel like himself right now. Maybe he was just overthinking it, he'd just add it to the ever-growing list of things he really needed to speak to Rojer about. Hermione didn't seem concerned about it – not that she'd have any reason to, he was quite sure she had plenty of other things on her mind – and made to continue showing him around, leading on through the remnants of St Mungo's where they were occasionally passed by others.
"Right, so w- Oh, hey Bill!" Hermione changed her tune med-sentence as she spotted the familiar scarred face of Bill Weasley, carrying around his year-old recently orphaned grandson, Cres Ashain. The older man stopped at the sound of his name and changed trajectory to move over to them, "How's Teddy doing?"
"Thankfully he's been stabilized," Bill said with a look of relief and Scorpius blinked in surprise, he hadn't heard anything about Teddy – presumably they were speaking of Teddy Lupin after all – being injured. He hoped he'd be okay, they were cousins after all, "That and the promise to stay with him was the only reason I could convince Vic to get some rest, she's been beside herself. I'm just on my way back actually if you want to check in on him, someone just needed a quick diaper change."
"Maybe later, I'm kind of in the middle of showing Scorpius around right now," Hermione explained with a gesture towards him and Bill spared him a glance, "He wanted to see what it was like to convince his family to come here."
"Good luck with that," Bill offered, heaving a sigh and shifting the cranky-looking Cres to his other hip, the boy already had a mop of extremely dark auburn hair and the dark chestnut eyes common to his bloodline, "I've been trying to convince my family to join me here for weeks, they all – or at least the ones who aren't Gray or Ministry - feel safer in the Burrow."
"I can relate to that," Scorpius agreed dispiritedly.
"Well I best be getting back to Teddy," Bill continued as he made to leave, "Hope it goes well with your family, Scorpius, and I'll see you later, Hermione."
"Give Victoire our best!" Hermione called after him and he raised his free arm to indicate he'd heard.
"So what happened to Teddy? Caught up in the attack yesterday?" Scorpius guessed as they started walking again, Teddy and Victoire were both Aurors after all and Hermione nodded in confirmation, "Well at least he's stable and metamorphmagi are pretty resilient, hopefully he pulls through."
"Hopefully. His injuries weren't as severe as some of the others so I think he has a good chance, not that a good chance guarantees anything."
They continued onward and Hermione went back to showing him around the rest of the shelter, it was no Hogwarts and all rather basic but it wasn't bad. It was clean and the florescent lighting strips were surprisingly – and possibly magically – bright, they also had charms on some of walls to provide 'windows' to outside or rather the sky in a way akin to the Great Hall's ceiling to make the underground more comfortable. It was strange to see muggles and wizards walking openly in the same hallways together, he felt like his family would find it even stranger though.
Hermione explained to him a bit about how the shelters were run by the SI - Shelter Initiative - comprising both ministry personnel and muggles as she showed him around, showing him one of the dining halls - which had numerous tables like a restaurant rather than long tables like in Hogwarts – and one of the communal rooms which currently had some kind of arts and crafts class going for kids as an example. She then took him down to the sleeping quarters to show off what the private rooms were like, these corridors were narrower and nothing but closed doors all marked with an assortment of letters and numbers. She stopped at '12-A' and opened it with a key after no one responded when she knocked.
"This is my parents' room," she explained as she led him inside, "Apparently they're not in right now but they wouldn't mind."
The room had a neatly made double bed with a chest of drawers at the end of it for storage, beyond that was a colorful rug and a small couch seating area. There was also a bedside table on either side which the Grangers had seemingly taken to personalizing, he saw a plaque for some dentistry award and several photographs including one of a couple he didn't recognize on their wedding day, several of a much younger Hermione as well as a few of Rose and Hugo. He saw Hermione sadly turn the photo of Rose away from her before heading over to a door, quickly showing him the bathroom which included a shower. It was all perfectly serviceable, of course it was still a far cry from the family mansion so he wasn't sure how his family would feel about it.
"And that's about it really," Hermione said as they exited the room, locking the door behind them, "Unless you really need to see more but I think you get the gist."
"I think I did, thank you," Scorpius offered, grateful even if he wasn't sure how much it'd help.
"Then I'll grab that man's address for you and we'll go see if the convict is awake yet."
"Sounds good."
"Sly! Time to get up!" Milton's voice called out, snapping Sly from his uneasy slumber.
"Why?" Sly sighed into his pillow, not making an effort to nor having any desire to move.
"Because if we don't leave soon we'll miss breakfast."
"I'm not hungry."
"You need to eat, Sly," Milton insisted and Sly felt cold wash over him as the covers were pulled back, "Whether you're hungry or not, come on."
"Have I ever told you I hate you?" Sly grumbled unhappily but decided to oblige lest Milton try stripping him next.
"Yes, repeatedly," Milton confirmed without a hint of concern as Sly preceded to get dressed and allowed himself to be dragged down to the dining hall, wanting nothing more than to crawl back into bed and try to sleep. He had a newfound appreciation for sleep, you didn't have to think, "You have Potions first today, don't you like Potions?"
"No."
"Oh, I thought you did," Milton muttered, looking incredibly put out by this as they reached their destination, "Well personal enjoyment is irrelevant anyway, it could come in useful for the Soul Eaters so that's the important thing. Anyway I'll get the food, you find a table."
Milton wandered off to do just that and as tempted as Sly suddenly found himself to just ditch Milton, he knew the idiot would just come get him so he slumped down at the nearest table instead. He sighed, burying his head in his arms as the buzz of the crowded room's assorted conversations washed over his ear drums. He wished this was dinner so at least he could go back to bed after instead of having to face a whole day, he just wanted to be alone.
"Here we go!" Milton announced as he returned with the bowls of porridge, dropping it down with a loud clatter. Sly looked at the unappetizing slop that had been plopped down in front of him, it did nothing to invigorate his hunger, "Yum, it tastes really delicious."
"No, it doesn't," Sly stated factually, idly pushing it around the bowl with his spoon which made Milton look disheartened again.
"Look, your not-friends are there if you want to go sit with them. Don't you like bothering them?"
"No, I don't," Sly answered shortly with a spark of anger, he didn't want to anywhere near those people ever again. Milton sighed and it occurred to him that the older boy might have been trying to cheer him up by suggesting things he thought he liked, "Milton, are… are you trying to make me feel better?"
"Well, yes," Milton admitted as if it were obvious.
"Haven't we discussed enough about how you're not people? Because this is something only people can do and even people can't fix the fact my parents are dead, you're not even people and you suck so bad and are just so irritating I didn't even notice," Sly complained at him, jabbing his spoon at him before taking his first and probably last mouthful of porridge. He hadn't been kidding about not being hungry, "Why are you trying to cheer me up anyway? Doesn't that go against the Soul Eater code that seeks the zombification of all its members?"
"Because I need to be a good mentor and even a not-people can see you're not yourself lately, you were better when you were yourself," Milton explained pitifully, pushing his own spoon around the porridge, "My mentor wasn't very good so I'm trying to do better, Soul Eaters should always strive to do better."
"Let me guess, your mentor used to touch you in a bad place?"
"Erm no, he just liked to practice torturing me."
"Oh Milton," Sly sighed, dropping his spoon to pinch the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
"I mean it worked out," Milton said quickly, "He went on to be a torturer so I'm sure the extra practice helped make him successful so he could best serve but… well, he was still pretty terrible."
"You know if you looked up 'sad sack' in the dictionary it would just say 'Milton' and there'd be a picture of your face."
"Really? That seems kind of unlikely."
"Well dictionaries are weird, did you know 'naïve' isn't in the dictionary?" Sly quipped sarcastically, picking his spoon back up so he could pretend he was eating.
"Is it because of the weird dots over the 'I'?" Milton wondered so genuinely Sly wanted to slap himself in more exasperation but he couldn't be bothered.
"Probably," Sly said instead to end the conversation, pushing the porridge around his bowl and idly wishing it would suddenly suck him in and drown him somehow. Being nowhere was better than being anywhere.
"So I've been thinking," Milton spoke up again and Sly sighed, missing when Milton would just shut up, "About the whole favorite color thing and I believe I've come to a conclusion on which I like most."
"Don't strain yourself."
"Pink is my favorite color."
"Milton, no," Sly told him, dropping his spoon and actually looking up at him, "Pink isn't allowed to be your favorite color."
"What? Why not?" Milton wondered in confusion.
"Because only girls are allowed to like pink, everyone knows that."
"Well I didn't! Choosing a favorite color is such a complex process," Milton sighed in exasperation, "How many more arbitrary rules are there?"
"None, you just can't pick pink if you're a boy," Sly insisted, picking up his spoon again and settling back into his bowl-gazing position, "There's nothing complex about it, long as you're a real person."
"Hey Sly," a familiar voice greeted him pleasantly.
"Fuck off," Sly complained as Davin approached alone, he wasn't in the mood for these people, "Quick, Milton, say something insulting so he'll go away."
"You're a disgrace to the Soul Eaters and you should leave," Milton offered and Sly gave him an exasperated look as Davin continued to approach unfazed, "What?"
"That's your idea of an insult? Really?"
"What's more of an insult then accusing someone of failing to be a good Soul Eater?" Milton wondered with irritating sincerity, Sly sighed as Davin reached them. He just could not be bothered right now.
"Fuck off, Davin," Sly reiterated, realizing his own hypocrisy with how they frequently shooed him but hoping Davin was too stupid to call him out for it, "I'm leaving you alone like you always wanted, what more do you people want?"
"Look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about your parents," Davin offered gently, though Sly still felt as if he'd had cold water slung into his face for how unexpected that was.
"As if," Sly snarled nastily, knowing that Davin hated him and oh yeah, his brother was one of the highest ranking Shadows. For all he knew, Stephan could've been the one who killed his parents. He and Cyrus had probably celebrated and laughed and joked, Cyrus had never sounded happier. Stupid sadistic douchebags.
"I mean it," Davin insisted, forceful despite his delicate voice that was in dire need of a dose of puberty, "I know we've had our differences but I'm an orphan too-"
"So are most people here!"
"Yeah but I actually knew my parents, and I know how much it hurts to lose them," Davin continued softly, his eyes sad, "I wouldn't wish that pain on you, Sly, even you don't deserve that and I'm sure your parents didn't deserve to die."
"They didn't. My father was the best, do you hear me? He was the very best…" Sly told him fiercely, trailing off as he felt his voice cracking and had to take second to swallow that lump while his eyes batted off tears. Never let anyone see you're weak, "The Shadows were fools to kill him, I'm just saying."
"They were fools to kill a lot of people," Davin muttered almost to himself before speaking up again.
"You can't call the Soul Eaters fools!" Milton spluttered out in shock, "If the Masters hear you talk that way…"
"Then don't tell them," Davin told him dismissively before turning back to Sly, "Anyway, if you need to talk or there's anything I can do to help then just let me know, okay?"
"Oh please," Sly scoffed bitterly, "You couldn't even get me a fucking newspaper, let alone make up for the fact that everyone I ever cared about is dead! Leave me alone, Davin."
"As you wish."
They did just as Hermione said, returning back to the Ministry section where she took him to some kind of record room and retrieved the address for him. Scorpius felt rather relieved to have it as Hermione led him back the way they'd came, now the option was at least open to him whenever he – and probably Lamb, Scorpius would need someone to apparate him there – had some free time. He felt a bit nervous too, he was sure whatever Rojer had to say would be useful but that didn't mean it would be exactly what he wanted to hear.
After that, they left the same way they'd arrived and she apparated them back to the Embrys. They headed inside and Scorpius was pleased to see that Lawson was indeed awake, sitting up and seemed to be talking to Albus and Abby. He was not so pleased however to see the sorrowful look on Antonius' face, his shoulders were slumped and whatever Sebastian was saying to him didn't seem to be doing anything to improve his mood.
"Hey Anton," Scorpius offered as he approached the boy, giving him what he hoped was an encouraging smile which had his massive dog wag her tail anyway, "What's up?"
"I'm going to have to use a cane to walk," Antonius said sadly, not even trying to look at him.
"Oh… Well there's nothing wrong with using a cane, my grandfather used to have one with his wand build into it and he didn't even need a cane!" Scorpius told him brightly, trying to cheer him up though Sebastian made frantic hand moves suggesting that had been a bad idea.
"I'm not a grandfather, Scorpius! I'm only almost twelve."
"Sometimes when I was younger then twelve he would let me play with it, I always thought it was cool," Scorpius offered desperately, realizing how pathetic that sounded and feeling rather like he was just making it worse, "My point is that it's not the end of the world, you can still walk and it's not like anyone's going to think less of you. In fact, canes look pretty sophisticated so I'm sure lots of girls would like that. It'll be fine, just takes some getting used to because it'll feel weird at first but everything's weird at first."
"Thanks," Antonius muttered, not looking the slightest bit cheered up and Sebastian was rubbing his forehead.
"I ran into your grandfather, by the way," Scorpius said to Sebastian, deciding he should let him know about Abel and the boy's head perked up though his expression was worried.
"Does he have a cane?"
"Erm… no. He is being treated by muggle doctors though who are trained at dealing with people like him, and they're making sure he can't hurt himself."
"Well that's good," Sebastian gave a relieved sigh, "Even though I bet he hates it."
"He does but maybe that'll change," Scorpius offered optimistically, "And you should be allowed to visit him at some point if you'd like."
"That'd be nice."
"Here, Anton, your potion," Michael interjected as he walked over with a tray of multi-colored vials, handing one to the despondent child who drank it obediently.
"How's Latimer?" Scorpius asked in concern and was given a fierce glare.
"He's stable, I've been giving him the right potions!"
"I erm… never thought you didn't?" Scorpius pointed out, a little confused by Michael's reaction and even Michael looked like he regretted snapping, he also looked tired.
"Sorry."
"Are you doing okay?"
"I'm fine!" Michael barked, jolting back to anger again.
"Do you have Al's potion there?" Abby inquired, peering around the tray and picking up a thin vial of pinkish liquid, "This one, right?"
"Right."
"You're rucky your financee cares so much," Lawson commented from the next bed over to Albus as Abby brought the potion over, Scorpius couldn't see Abby's face from his current angle but Albus' face went beetroot red.
"Abby's not my fiancée," Albus said quickly.
"Oh."
"Yeah, we're just friends," Abby agreed as she handed Albus the potion, her face was also flushed, "I don't know why you'd think that."
"Well-"
"How is Sequoia doing anyway?" Albus cut him off quickly to ask Abby.
"I don't know, I still haven't seen him," Abby admitted, looking even more embarrassed while Albus' eyes bulged.
"How can you not have seen him yet? He must be worried sick!"
"Yeah well, I'm just busy."
"With what?!"
"Hey Scorpius, we're going to question Lawson now," Hermione told him and Scorpius looked away from his friends to see she'd approached, he also noticed Michael had moved too and was now giving potions to Professor Koray.
"We are?" Lawson wondered in surprise.
"I'll catch up with you later, okay?" Scorpius offered to Antonius.
"Okay," he said disinterestedly while Scorpius joined Hermione and apparently Hogan at Lawson's bedside, Hermione flicked her wand with what he recognized as an anti-eavesdropping charm. He also noticed she'd picked up a quill and parchment in his absence, parchment secured by a clipboard that already had official looking writing on it.
"Sit back, it's bad for your injury," Hogan barked at the convict who had been trying to sit up straighter, Lawson jolted fearfully and lay back fidgeting instead. He glanced at Lawson's wrist shackled to the bed while Hermione looked through her papers briefly, Scorpius noticed his wrist was bruised, "Do we have permission to remove this yet?"
"Hm. I suppose," Hermione agreed as she scribbled something down, Hogan mouthed something that looked like 'about time' before tapping his wand to unlock the shackle and promptly heal Lawson's wrist. She conjured a chair for herself and unsure whether he should do the same, Scorpius decided to follow her example and do the same. Hogan continued to stand with his arms folded and his expression as grumpy as ever, Hermione cleared her throat and addressed Lawson, "So we're here to take preliminary statement from you, currently in the custody of Gray which is why Scorpius H Malfoy, a senior member of Gray, is here to oversee. Due to the convict's state of poor health, Healer Hogan Leebin is here to ensure his health for this interview, if at any time you feel the questioning is interfering with the convict's well-being then say so. I, Hermione J Weasley, Head of the Department of Law Enforcement, will be taking the statement. Do you understand?"
"Umm… Yes?" Lawson confirmed, looking rather nervous as Hermione scribbled something down.
"Can you give me your full name and date of birth?"
"Lawson Atoll, August 20th 1994."
"And can you confirm you are currently eighteen months into a twenty-five year sentence for production and distribution of illegal substances, and negligent homicide in the death of your daughter Whitney L Atoll?"
"Yes," Lawson affirmed again though his expression saddened, his one good slate gray eye also glanced off to one side briefly as if reacting to something but there was nothing there.
"And you have a younger child, a son, Sylvester S Atoll?"
"Yes."
"Okay, that's enough control questions, you seem cognizant," Hermione decided, turning the parchment to a fresh one that seemed to have a lot more space on it, "Recently you claimed – and that claim was corroborated by trained Healers – that you suffered torture of the Cruciatus Curse at the hands of the Aurors guarding New Azkaban prison, is that correct?"
"Y- Yes," Lawson said for the fourth time though looked visibly more uncomfortable, to the point of actually shuddering and looking anywhere but at her.
"Could you tell us about this incident? And give any names or identifying descriptions of any of the Aurors involved."
"Will lhey be in trouble?" Lawson wondered, causing Hermione to look taken aback but she recovered quickly.
"If convicted, yes. Why?"
"I don't know," Lawson shrugged – earning a disapproving growl from Hogan – and ran a hand through his hair, his mismatched eyes shifting to the empty space again, "I neam, it's just weird. They're the goot guys not me- and they said I desderved it and-"
"You were already serving the sentence you deserved, torture on top of that is just an unnecessary cruelty which goes against the justice we believe in. They stopped being the good guys when they crossed that line," Hermione told him, her tone still firm like usual but he could hear the compassion bleeding through, "Furthermore, you're the only prisoner who survived the destruction of New Azkaban so you're the only voice any of the dead have to speak out against any atrocities committed against them. Now isn't the time to be silent, Lawson."
Lawson's eyes shot back to her at the sound of the mention of his name, he heaved a heavy sigh.
"Yokay. So I guess it started when I had a mightnare…"
"Fuck!" Varanian swore as the bracelet he'd been trying to turn into a portkey blew up on him. Again.
He gave a cry of rage and threw the remnant as far as he could, feeling more magic surge out of him and hearing it clatter across the warehouse ground. He buried his face in his hands, full of a frustration and anger at his failure. Why couldn't he get the stupid thing to work?!
Well actually he knew very well why, it was incredibly intricate not to mention difficult and he was currently lacking the focus required. That didn't make him any less mad at himself however, and if he couldn't even do this then how did he did he expect to do any of the other eighty zillion things he needed to accomplish? He was only trying to recreate something he'd already done before!
"I heard another explosion, does that mean everything's going well?" One offered tauntingly and Varanian glanced up to see them bending down to pick up the half-exploded twist of metal that had been a bracelet, they have Phased – the term coined for Specter travel – in.
"Leave me alone, your interruptions don't help," Varanian growled and twirled his wand to summon the bracelet to him as he didn't like One to see what he was working on, if he was smart he wouldn't even be hanging out with them but there was no space, like anywhere, just people asking him for answers he didn't have because it was well established that he was not smart and- Bang! "Oh for fuck's sake!"
"Did you intend to blow that up?"
"I just said your interruptions don't help!" Varanian yelled at them in frustration and let his head fall back into his hands again, he could still hear their footsteps approaching as he tried to take breath to calm down.
"Like that was our fault," One chuckled and Varanian lowered his hands again, seeing they were now leaning back against his work table and forced himself to look at what would've been his brother-in-law.
For an abomination of life and nature, they looked surprisingly normal. In terms of build he was very much like his son, Michael, tall and muscled with a square jaw though the resemblance ended there was Jack/One's hair was far shorter and much darker than his son. He had different eyes though, of course, the one visual trait he shared with his sister would be those striking sapphiric orbs except shadows flickered in his. He hated it but in some way it was fitting, darkness dancing in the dead eyes the Thorne siblings had shared because neither was alive now, not really. He wondered if their baby would have had those eyes too, he'd never know now.
"You could always take a break from failing and do, you know, the thing you're supposed to be doing for your end of the bargain," Jack's low voice rumbled as they folded their arms, his expression souring, "We've been holding up our end and then some."
"I told you already, we're waiting on the address from the ministry to speak to Scorpius' professor," Varanian stated dismissively as he reached for another twist of metal to try again, he felt like he'd been at it forever, "He's much more of an expert then I am and he isn't always busy losing the war."
"You always say that."
"It's not my fault the Ministry's slow at everything."
"Or you're lying," One shot out as he took back over the body they shared, switching to his higher voice, "If you're not going to help us, why shouldn't we just devour your sweet, agonized soul?"
"Go ahead," Varanian challenged unafraid, dropping the metal immediately to lock eyes with One who stepped back in surprise, "I can't stop you, tear the damn thing to pieces for all I care. But then Scorpius will never help you, nor will the Ministry, nor will anyone. And then you'll be just like you are, just like you've always been, just a shadow even in your own 'skin.' Is that what you want?"
Varanian didn't look away, daring him to it and was almost terrified to realize how much he wanted One to do it. He really didn't care, not having to think anymore would be a relief and not having to feel would be a blessing, he would love to not have to exist anymore. The rational part of his brain knew One wouldn't though, the non-rational part of his brain wanted it be wrong so badly.
"It was just a suggestion," One stated airily as they paced idly away, predictably dropping it much Varanian's disappointment. Disappointment? It was strange to realize he was more disturbed by his own thoughts right now then the soul-destroying shadow being, "It's not like we're getting much out of these arrangement as of late, maybe refusal to aid you until you make some progress would be the better course of action in this scenario."
"Really?" Varanian wondered disbelieving, "You think not helping us is going to make us better able to help us separate you? You realize the war's what's in the way, right? The faster we end the more time we'd have for you."
"We realize but I don't have a lot of faith in your ability to defeat the Shadow Master and you're one of the most powerful wizards I've met, yet you've got nothing on her. No one does, the only person who stood a chance is dead so you guys are screwed seven ways from Sunday."
"Well if you have any suggestions then I'm all ears-" Varanian started before changing more irate mid-sentence as something re-occurred to him, "In fact, you can destroy souls! Why can't you just beat her again?"
"Because unlike you, I don't have a death wish."
"Do you not have a life wish either or did you just give up on that? Give me a good reason why you can't."
"Because you need more than the ability to destroy her soul, genius," One snorted irritably as they crossed their arms, "She's not just going to stand around and let us destroy her, nor are the rest of the Soul Eaters or the Specters. We have the power to destroy souls but our victims still have the power to fight back, for most it amounts to nothing but she's not most people. We wouldn't stand a chance and then she'd obliterate us. As much as we want to see her gone, I don't want to die."
"What if we could incapacitate her first?" Varanian wondered curiously to which One gave a derisive snort.
"As if you could do that."
"It happened before!"
"It happened because of Brutus, her lover and second-in-command. He then betrayed her, and then Ministry fucked up, and now she's not going to make the mistake twice."
"But what if there was some way to incapacitate her?"
"How?"
"I don't know, it's a theoretical fucking question, One!" Varanian snapped and heard something shattering, One's eyes shifted in the direction of the sound's origin but he ignored it, "If there was some way to incapacitate her, would you be willing to destroy her soul then?"
"Yes- Maybe, it's still a big risk," One answered over Jack's agreement, stroking their chin thoughtfully, "We'd still be dead if it failed, what's in it for me?"
"You mean aside from the death of the one person who could easily obliterate you?" Varanian half-asked, half-complained and One sighed.
"Well when you put it like that it makes me sound petty. We'd think about it. We'd think more positively if you made any progress towards helping us, you know instead of failing horribly at whatever junk you're working at here."
"Well I'll think about it, won't I?" Varanian told them icily, catching their eyes once more before they Phased out of the room leaving him alone once more. He sighed and let his head fall back into his hands, he was just tired.