Ace felt like a failure.

Not just a failure, a coward. His commander had been attacked and seriously injured by a Steelix. Any moment of it could've been Octavia's last, and yet all he did was stay in his pokeball, petrified. There was little he could've done, a Steelix was more than capable of crushing a mere Pawniard into scrap, but that only added to his feeling of inferiority.

He was weak. There were no two ways about it. And that fact was only confirmed when Octavia was attacked by that man with an Aegislash. Even with a weaker opponent, he was still scared to come out of his pokeball. Because what if he couldn't protect her? What if he had gotten her killed?

He hated those questions. He hated the answers that came with them more. He wanted to be strong, vigilant, and capable. He wanted to be Octavia's protector. He wanted to be a soldier for his commander. But he couldn't do that.

Because he was weak.

That's all he was. Weak.

Ace stirred awake, his mind forcing him from those thoughts. He stood up from the makeshift bed Octavia had made for him out of her clothes and looked to his commander. His head tilted in confusion as he noticed Octavia was missing.

It was unusual for him to be the one who woke up second, and more so that Octavia hadn't been the one to wake him. The environment was new, yes, but that didn't stop her from doing the same thing yesterday.

He walked out of the tent and looked around the large training room. From his small stature, the room stretched out far in all directions. Yet, despite its openness, he couldn't find any sign of Octavia.

Where did she go? he thought, looking over the arena for any hints of his commander's whereabouts. His eyes landed on the slightly open door across from him, the one that led upstairs. She must've gone up.

Ace walked over to the door and pushed it fully open. And there, he encountered a nigh insurmountable obstacle. One that filled him with dread just from the thought of it. One that he knew was unavoidable, but still made him groan at the sight. It was the bane of his existence.

Stairs.

Fuck. Stairs. It seemed their every feature was specifically designed to hinder his movement. And this set of stairs in particular was no exception. They were too high for him to properly walk up, they weren't a material he could stab to get a hold on, and there were far too many. Perhaps if there were ten maximum, it was feasible , but with the seemingly hundreds that he stared up at, it wasn't even worth considering.

But he needed to get to Octavia. Something must have been very wrong for her to leave him in the tent without notice. Was it something to do with the Aegislash man? She didn't quite look herself when they had settled in for an early night. The urgency to find her pulsed in his steel.

He turned back to the training room, eyeing the tent next to Octavia's. That tall man from yesterday. He could help me. Ace started making his way over.

In truth, he wasn't certain what to think of the tall man. He had an odd name… Lemon, wasn't it? Lemon didn't seem like a bad person, at least that's what he came off as. Octavia and him appeared to get along well at the very least. Ace was still skeptical, but at the moment he found he didn't have much choice.

Reaching the tent, Ace looked around for an entrance. He assumed the tent was similar to Octavia's, though that was apparently not the case. Unlike the pitched front that opened into Octavia's tent, there was no obvious entrance on Lemon's. He decided not to waste time and with a swift slash of one of his knives, he cut his own entrance into the tent.

He stepped into the tent and was immediately met by a large futon with a fully-clothed Lemon atop it. His body splayed over it with his right arm and leg hanging over the side and his head completely missing the pillow. Though judging from the calm and content expression on his face, Lemon was having the best sleep of his life.

Ace felt no sympathy in ruining it. He needed to get to his master. He raised his two knives and hit them together, creating loud clicks.

The effect was immediate and Lemon stirred, groaning as he shifted his body back onto the futon. He rubbed his face with his hand and glanced at Ace.

"What the… Oh, it's you," he muttered. He adjusted himself so that he was sitting with his legs over the side. "Octavia's Pawniard right?"

Ace nodded and pointed to the makeshift entrance, chirping as he did.

"What? What're you– Hey, what the fuck?!" Lemon stood and walked over to the cut Ace had made. "Did you do this?"

Again, he nodded and pointed at the cut, trying to gesture for Lemon to follow him outside.

"Not cool, little man. I didn't tear your tent up," Lemon said, giving Ace a tired look.

Ace facepalmed with one of his knives. Octavia always understood him so well. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for strangers. He stepped through the cut, held it open, and tried waving to Lemon.

Something seemed to click in Lemon's eyes. "You want me to follow you?"

He frantically nodded. The situation wasn't lost and he had a chance. He let go of the cut and stepped away from the tent.

From outside, Ace could hear Lemon grunting and the shuffling of whatever other miscellaneous things he had in his tent. Then, the front of his tent opened with a flap and he stepped outside. Ace was surprised, there actually was an entrance?

Lemon shoved his hands in his pockets. "It's velcro, little man. Use it next time."

Ace turned around and ran back to the stairs. He could hear Lemon's footsteps close behind them. Before long, they were at the door.

"The hell are we doing here?" Lemon asked.

Ace pushed the door open and pointed to the top of the stairs, hopping a bit to try and express his need.

"You wanna get up there?"

Ace nodded. He was thankful Lemon was understanding him more now.

"Why don't you just climb up then?"

Ace walked up to the stair, showing that one step came halfway up to his chest. Then he pointed at Lemon.

Lemon sighed, mumbling something under his breath. "Fuck, fine. I'll help you up. But don't wake me up again, got it?"

Ace raised his knife in a promise.

With a shake of his head, Lemon bent down and grabbed between the blades on Ace's small torso. The Pawniard was carried like a Purrloin up the stairs. While Ace felt very content with this, he could tell Lemon was not.

"Time yet?" Octavia asked.

"Sorry, Octy. A couple more minutes on that head of yours," 80 replied, holding an ice pack to Octavia's bruised arm while Octavia held one to her forehead.

They were sitting next to each other at a booth in Joltin' Joe's, a cooler of ice packs beside the table. They had already used five, and Octavia imagined there would be many more to come.

"It's so cold…"

"Better than the heat. You'd just get more bruising." 80 smirked, "And there's not much room left on you as is."

Octavia let out a small laugh, though it was quickly silenced as the bruises on her chest flared up. "Roxy just went all out. If I had known the fight was like that, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad."

"Oh, she didn't go all out. That is something you absolutely do not want to experience."

"If that wasn't all out then what is?"

"Uhh… Well, if I'm being 100% real with you Octopus, we'd be using the ice to keep your organs cold… if they remained intact."

"Oh, is that all?" Octavia laughed, hiding the slight fear she felt.

"I'd rather not give you any more nightmares."

"Thanks." She shivered as a rush of cold ran through her body. It would only be another minute. "But… Roxy really did just start going hard on me. I know I hit her but I didn't expect that…"

80 looked off. "She gets uhh… let's call it passionate. Not your fault, but when she gets going, she really gets going."

Octavia tilted her head at 80, "Have you fought her?"

She looked back with a grin. "Yep! I've gone through the ringer plenty of times. Rusty told me she had a soft spot for newbies. She was, at least until I accidentally broke her nose."

"What happened then?"

"Bit my thumb clean off." 80 flashed her free hand to Octavia. All fingers but her thumb were accounted for, which was absent. Octavia tensed, did she never notice it before? She never really paid attention to 80's hands.

Octavia gulped. "Did… Did she actually..?"

80 slyly moved her thumb back in place from behind her hand, snickering. "Nah, but I gotcha going there, didn't I, Octy?"

She nervously laughed, "Yeah, you did. But what did she actually do?"

"Beat the shit out of me and threw me against the wall. I was like a ragdoll to her." 80 shook her head. "I'll tell you what though, it made me get used to my aura ability real quick."

"I hope it didn't take long."

"Uh… about a month? I think? I don't know. A bunch of hits to the head don't exactly give you the best memory."

A month?! Octavia felt all of her bruises throb at the same time. She groaned, "I don't know if I can put up with this for a whole month…"

"Well not with that attitude, silly!" 80 said, shooting her a smile. "Oh! It's time to lay off the ice."

Octavia breathed a sigh of relief and dropped the ice pack from her head and onto the table. She propped her elbow up on the table and rested her face on her hand.

80 leaned over the table to look at her. "C'mon, Octopus. It'll get better, trust me."

"Yeah, I know… it's just–" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the door to the SDA open. A Pawniard stood in the doorway. "Ace?"

At the mention of his name, the Pawniard ran toward her. Octavia turned to the side and smiled as Ace came up. The moment he stopped, he immediately saluted.

She giggled, "Hey there, soldier."

"You shouldn't have left him all alone, he seemed real worried about you," a voice said, making Octavia look at the door again. Lemon was standing there.

She looked back down to Ace, "Aw, I'm sorry, Ace. How about some extra water fun later, would that make it better?"

Ace cheered and raised his knives into the air. Octavia's smile grew as she watched him.

"I've never seen you smile so brightly before! I guess Ace means that much to you, huh?" 80 said.

Immediately, Octavia dropped her smile and looked at 80. "Oh, um… really? I didn't notice."

"Nah, the shortstack's right," said Lemon, sliding into the booth beside 80 who rolled her eyes. "Granted, I haven't seen much of you, but that was the cheeriest I've seen you."

Octavia reached down from the booth and carefully picked up Ace, weary of the ever-present bruises. Shifting more into her booth seat, she set down Ace beside her who chirped with happiness. "I mean… I guess it just doesn't come to me much so…"

"You should smile more, Octy!" 80 reached over and ruffled Octavia's hair. "Statistically speaking, people that smile more tend to live longer!"

"Pssh, that's a load of nothing," Lemon said, putting his arms behind his head. "I'm gonna outlive you all and not even have to smirk."

80 scoffed at his answer and put on a wide, wicked smile. "Not if I smile hard enough, Sourpuss!"

He shook his head then looked directly at 80, forcing a smile so large that he looked crazy. "Oh yeah?!"

Her smile grew wider, making her seem just as crazy. "Yeah!"

Octavia looked back and forth between the two people across from her. In the midst of her fearing for both of their sanities and her trying not to laugh at the sheer absurdity, there was a third feeling. One that lingered but she could feel. She felt… comfortable. Despite the countless bruises on her body, Ace was by her side and two of the more friendly faces she had met were having fun.

It confused her, but it was something she gave much thought to. She let herself feel it. She let herself be comfortable.

It took her a moment to notice that Lemon and 80 were no longer staring each other down and instead were looking at her.

"You did it again!" 80 cheered.

Octavia hoped she would never get tired of these people.

From shadow to shadow, wall to wall, room to room, Jack encountered no one. Not being detected was an artform, and he was the master of his craft. Without much effort, he snuck through the building and found himself on a balcony that overlooked the main dining room.

He gazed over the room. It was lined with crimson red carpets and dotted with black tables, making it look like the shell of a Ledian. There were many people seated at the tables. Some were eating, others engaging in conversation, and all were very well dressed. Jack smiled at the sight. There would be a sizable audience for his performance after all.

To the left of the dining area, a woman was singing a jazz song with a drummer and a pianist backing her up. He couldn't make out the lyrics from where he was, but the melody was soft and simple and put his mind at ease.

And at the far end of the dining area was what he was looking for. The gem. It was encased in a glass box at the bottom of an imperial staircase and framed against a stained glass art piece. Two guards were stationed on the sides, stoic and vigilant.

Attempting to swoop in and take the gem without preparing was an amateur's way of thinking. Jack was anything but. A man of beauty and integrity was what he was. Simple obstacles were nothing that his performance could not overcome.

He smiled and pulled out a Purrloin mask. After securing in place, he climbed onto the balcony's rail.

"Everyone!" he announced. In an instant, the music stopped, people ceased to talk, and all eyes were on him. He looked over his audience. His heart raced. This was living. "I have come to give you the show of a lifetime! I hope that it will live on in your memories for years to come! Without further ado, let us begin!"

Jack threw two smoke grenades across the room. One landed near the entrance of the dining area and the other next to the gem. Cries of surprise and fear filled his ears. His mind was flushed with dopamine. His smile grew. They were such a receptive audience, and he had only just begun.

He leapt into the air with perfect form and landed in the middle of the dining area. Security guards were running towards him. He laughed under his breath.

One guard came closer than the others, ready to tackle him to the floor. Jack swiftly grabbed the guard's tie and blew him a smoke-filled kiss. As quickly as it happened, the guard collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

"Get him!" another guard yelled, pulling out a taser from his belt. The guard dove at Jack, attempting to shock him.

Nothing he hadn't seen before. He was quick to sidestep the guard and used his body as a stool to get onto the tables.

He ran and jumped across the many tables, giving a sight to the guests who were too scared to leave their seats. He wished he could tear off his mask and show the audience how big of a smile he was wearing. It was all from them. Their reactions were his lifeblood.

Jack danced all the way across the room, right to the entrance of the dining area. The smoke from his grenade he threw earlier still lingered. Just as planned. He stopped in front of the smoke and slowly turned around.

Four guards surrounded him. All of them looked slightly winded from chasing him. Jack focused his gaze past them all and on the smoke that surrounded the gem. He chuckled lightly.

"We have you completely surrounded!" one guard said, drawing his gun. The rest followed suit. "Put your hands in the air!"

Jack slowly put his hands up, a sly smirk behind his mask. "I must thank you for attending my latest performance. You've all been lovely."

"Can it, clown! Get on your knees!" the guard shouted back.

"My, my. Rather impromptu, aren't we? You could at least let me get freshened up first," he said with a sultry undertone.

The guard bared his teeth and stepped forward. "Get down on the ground! I'm not asking again!"

Jack sighed, "It seems the audience doesn't wish for an encore. In that case, I bid you all adieu!" He leaned back and let himself fall into the smoke.

And just like that, he appeared in the other smoke cloud. The one right next to the gem. Simple as can be.

He watched as the grunts fired their guns, ripping apart the cloud he was once next to and dispersing the smoke amongst them. Had they learned their lesson from the first guard he put to sleep with his smoke, maybe they wouldn't have made the same mistake. One by one, they all collapsed to the floor.

Jack turned his attention to the gem. Without another thought, he pushed over the glass case, plucked the gem from its stand, and pocketed his treasure.

He took out a large amount of smoke grenades and tossed them all across the room, causing a cloud of smoke to descend upon the dining area and sparking chaos as people desperately tried to run out of the room. Some managed to, though others simply passed out.

"Exit stage right," he whispered. He darted through the smoke, taking off his mask as he did. In the crowd of panicked people leaving the area, he fit right in.

His performance was concluded, and he couldn't have been more satisfied.

"Yes, I'll be right on it. Have a good day," Rusty spoke to his cell phone. He pressed the 'end call' button and placed it on his desk.

I suppose today was going a little too well , he thought. He stared at the information on his monitor and sighed

"Something wrong, sir?" a voice asked.

Rusty perked up and saw Miles standing in front of his desk, a few papers in his hands.

"You could say that," he replied, turning the monitor around to Miles. "There's been an incident at the Grand Feltorn Casino. A gem was stolen. Details are sparse right now, but it seems likely that someone with an aura ability was responsible."

"And that was enough for them to toss it over to us?"

"Yes, though I suspect we're not going in alone. You're aware of what the Grand Feltorn really is?"

Miles set the papers he was holding on Rusty's desk and took a seat. "Money laundering for Heyline. But if it was just a gem, how would that affect their business?"

"It wouldn't, and that's the reason the higher-ups are in a frenzy right now. Stealing that gem may have been a power play from another group."

"Oh, fuck. If that guy really was backed by another group, it could result in a gang war."

Rusty nodded grimly. "I just got an earful from the attorney general. They want all our resources focused on this case. If we can catch this guy we can douse any worries."

"Maybe if they'd just send us some more resources, we actually could."

"Not my call. All we can do is put all hands on deck."

Miles nodded and readjusted his glasses, "Are we including Octavia with all this? She's already been through so much in just a few days. I definitely didn't get this kind of introduction to the SDA."

Rusty pondered the question for a moment. "She's already trying to get control of her aura ability, which would be a great asset, so pulling double-duty with something as intense as this may be too much. I'll talk with her about it." He turned the monitor back, "You're free to leave, but could you tell me how Octavia's doing in the training room? I'm interested to see how she's progressing."

Miles raised an eyebrow. "The training room? She's just in Joltin' Joe's."

"What?"

"She's with 80, Lemon, and a mountain of ice packs. Can I assume you sent Roxy to train her?"

Rusty rubbed his face in his hands. "Yes. Can I assume Miyu has since healed her?"

"He got right on it."

"Thank you. Let Octavia know she should get back to training as soon as possible. This time with Miyu present."

"Yes, sir." Miles stood up, grabbing the papers as he did, and walked away from Rusty's desk.

Leaning back in his chair, he wondered how badly Roxy had beaten up Octavia, and if it was worse than when she had done the same to him.

Sorry for the late chapter! I've been super busy lately and haven't had the time to upload! The next chapter is on the next Thursday!