After dinner, Kronya set to work on luring Solon into a trap. Naturally, she kept both Monica and the Archbishop in the loop; they didn't trust her and she couldn't blame them. Zelda was part of the plan, so she was included, as was Hubert. Rhea had also insisted on having a pair of mercenaries join in, a father-daughter duo named Jeralt and Byleth.
"Solon! I was worried I wouldn't be able to contact you," Kronya said into the transmitter that had been hidden in Abyss. "I have bad news."
"Of course you do," Tomas's voice crackled out from the communicator. "The heirs have returned, have they not?"
"Yes, but not just that," Kronya said. "They returned in the company of an avatar of a Goddess."
"A...no, it can't...the Fell Star?" Tomas sputtered.
"I don't think so, but I can confirm she is the real thing," Kronya said. "We need to act fast. I will bring the Avatar to the location. You prepare the Forbidden Spell of Zaharas."
"I will," Tomas said. "For all Agarthans, see that you do not fail."
"I won't," Kronya assured him. Turning off the communicator, she addressed the others. "Everyone clear on the plan?"
"Simply play your part, Kronya, and I shall play mine," Hubert assured her.
At the Sealing Grounds, Solon saw Kronya waiting for him. She was still wearing her Monica disguise, though he had heard the real Monica von Ochs had been found.
"It's about time you showed up, Solon," Kronya said.
"Is the Avatar here?" Solon asked.
"Not yet. She should be arriving...there she is now."
"Monica?" the Avatar asked. "Who is this?" Solon could tell Kronya had been right. He could sense the power radiating from the girl before him.
"Your doom," he said as shadowy tendrils grabbed the Avatar's hands. Not wasting a moment, he plunged his hand into Kronya's chest and ripped out the artificial Crest Stone that acted as a heart for all Agarthans. It was a crude approximation of the real thing, but it would serve to power the spell.
"Solon, why?" Kronya gasped as she crumpled over.
"Do not worry, my dear. Your sacrifice shall be our salvation," Solon assured the dying assassin. He then prepared to cast the spell, and then...nothing? "What?"
"Sheikah illusions are great, aren't they?" Kronya's voice came from behind him. He turned to see Kronya in her true form, along with Monica, the beast who called herself Rhea, and two knights, one male and one female.
The shadowy tendrils suddenly unlatched from the Avatar and wrapped around him. "Apologies. I defeated you as soon as you appeared in this place." The Hegemon's hound! He was working with the beasts?
"You betrayed your people?" Solon spat at Kronya.
"You and Thales are leading the Agarthans down a path that leads to their doom," Kronya replied. "If there's going to be a future for the Agarthans, you have to die. Along with the rest of Thames's inner circle."
"Traitor!" Solon spat.
"Enough," the beast said.
"May I have the pleasure of helping to interrogate him?" the hound asked.
"You may," the beast answered him. "Lady Ochs, you may also take part. Let us see what other secrets this monster is hiding."
Solon told them nothing. He went to his death without telling them a thing.
Death didn't make the pain stop.
"Well, that interrogation was a bust," Jeralt said, looking at the corpse.
"It's okay. His information would have been useful, but we can do without," Kronya assured him.
"So, the Agarthans," Jeralt said. "If half of what you told me about them is true, you made the right choice, walking away from them."
"It's not my entire people," Kronya defended. "Our leadership twisted the Agarthans into something rotten. I want to change my people, not destroy them."
"A noble goal, if it can be done," Rhea commented.
"And this monster killed the Ordelia and Hresvelg children?" Byleth asked.
"I think so," Kronya said.
"Jeralt, will you help us break the Agarthans' power?" Rhea asked
Jeralt looked at Byleth. She had a fury in her eyes, like he had never seen from her before. It was clear what she wanted.
"Under one condition," Jeralt said. "No more secrets and half-truths. I want you to be honest with me, Rhea."
"I suppose I do owe you that much," Rhea agreed. "I will be honest with you, Jeralt. And I know what you want me to tell you. But the matter of the returned students is more urgent at the moment."
"Fine. We'll hear them out first," Jeralt agreed.
Rhea hung her head. "I didn't want this, Jeralt. You were my dearest friend. I didn't want us to become little better that strangers."
Jeralt sighed. "Neither did I."
Claude had suggested that certain parts of their tale would be best told by their peers, so the discussion had been moved to the meeting room. Jeralt and Byleth had been caught up on events so far, and they were ready to begin the story once more.
"Now, where were we?" Claude asked.
"Astor's backup plan," Edelgard informed him.
"Yes, I was wondering about that," Seteth mused. "Who is this Astor?"
"The vilest man we've ever met," Felix answered. "A madman who foresaw the Great Calamity and did everything in his power to make his vision come true."
"What kind of monster would do such a thing?" Seteth asked.
"Monster is an apt word to describe Astor," Dimitri said. "As for what kind, well, we got our first taste of his evil quickly enough."
Maybe it seems like I'm teasing a war phase against the Agarthans in the present. I'm not. I mean, there will be a war, obviously, but it's going to be a one-sided affair. After all, the students did learn in Hyrule, and while they're not quite on Link's level in the present, and certainly not on Zelda's, they're still one-man meat grinders in their own right. Hubert is basically the Shade, for instance, and Kronya has mastered the dirty tricks of the Sheikah and Yiga clans. They're basically Warriors protagonists now. The only people in Fódlan who could conceivably go up against one of them and win are Rhea, Jeralt, and Byleth. And as good of a fight scene as that would make, thanks to Flayn the students with less favorable outlooks on the Church are more willing to pursue a diplomatic solution, so it's not going to happen.
The real point here is threefold. One, making it clear that the students are not wasting their time in Fódlan. Two, showing where characters' head spaces are at. And three, adding Jeralt and Byleth to the reaction squad. There are quite a few things I would like to write their input on.