The days went on in Port Cyrreine. The Red Claw, again, fell quiet after the FPMC takeover. But if their prior patterns were any indication, they were only biding their time. Waiting for the next moment to strike. Talking to Lazula only further convinced Caspian it was the case. It felt as though she knew something big was on the horizon. And, as the most powerful huntress of their generation, she'd be the one to stop it. So Caspian kept training. In part because he enjoyed it, in part so he could hope to survive when 'something big' came to pass. He started to win more sparring matches than he lost, and those he didn't win, he put up a better fight. He was lighter on his feet, hit harder, and, when he looked in the mirror at the end of a workout, started to feel a hint of pride for who looked back at him.
And, in a stroke of pure meaningless coincidence, Caspian decided on a haircut on the exact same day as Noxis. The back and sides were trimmed to an inch or so long, so that his deep blue roots only started to fade to silver. In front, a coarse bundle of swoops and curls fell down toward his left eye. Moka had made it abundantly clear how much she liked the cut. A few others, too. But he found himself dwelling most on her compliments.
There were times, too, when everyone was together and someone would make them all laugh, or he'd notice the subtle dance she'd do after the first sip from a particularly good cup of coffee. She'd catch him looking and return his smile before he even knew he had it, and he'd wonder if they had just shared some kind of moment, or if she showed the same smile to everyone else, or if he'd creeped her out and the whole time she was wondering why he kept staring at her. But she probably wouldn't smile back if that were the case, right? And she wouldn't keep coming back to spend time with him, specifically?
Then, one unusually warm day in the middle of April, he realized in a panic he didn't think nearly as much about anyone else.
The next morning, Headmaster Skye called everyone to a room on the first floor of Skye Hall. Noxis had returned to Sentinel. Apparently, the Headmaster trusted him enough to return to Team CRLN, but kept him on a short enough leash that their reunion would be under supervision. As Caspian sat in the meeting room, distracting himself with the birds flitting about in the tree past the window, he felt his heart beating in his throat. He had to swallow it. It was his teammate, after all. And if he wanted to see how much progress he'd made in the months since Noxis was shipped off to Mistral, he needed to face him.
He turned from the window, and tried to read the other feelings in the room. Moka sat beside him, and though she was a bit quieter than normal, didn't seem too far out of sorts. Rowan had already made his feelings clear, that he'd rather Noxis stayed on another continent. He backed his chair against the wall, with crossed arms and a scowl. Lazula did nearly the same, but stood close to the door. So when Noxis entered, she was the first thing he saw.
He kept his head down. Avoided eye contact. He did manage to meet Snow's gaze, and bid her a quick nod before settling down across from Caspian.
The Headmaster strolled in behind him, and closed the door. He clasped his hands and stood to address the group. "Right, thank you all for coming," he began. "I wanted to supervise Noxis' return to Sentinel, as I'm sure there are some complicated feelings among you. This is understandable, but I assure you, Noxis has the full confidence of Sentinel Academy's higher staff. I think, if you put in the effort to work together, he will be a valuable asset to all of us."
Noxis kept his head down, and only nodded slightly at the Headmaster's words.
"Noxis has requested to henceforth go by his mother's maiden name, Ezokami," Headmaster Skye continued. "I do ask that you respect his choice. As well as his choice to return to Sentinel, and fight, genuinely, by our side. It isn't easy to recover from such a devastating injury, and it's even harder to come back and face the one who did it to you."
Caspian swallowed a response. He thought he came up with a second, but bit it back at the tip of his tongue. He had months to work out his feelings, and work out how he'd make them known. But in that second nothing seemed just right. Judging by the silence of the room, he wasn't the only one.
"I like your haircut," Moka finally spoke.
A furrowed brow was his only response.
"Honestly? Wasn't feeling the rat-tail thing you had going on before. But this suits you."
"Thanks."
Caspian searched for the words he tried to tell Noxis before, just after Condor's attack left him in the hospital. They were hard enough to come by then. "Look," he started, before he could doubt himself again. "It's going to be hard to forgive everything you did. But if you demonstrate that you actually want to change, and you want to help us, I'll trust you. And, after everything, I'll work with you."
"Thanks," Noxis mumbled again.
"You should know, though, you're not in the clear yet," Lazula asserted. She stepped over to his chair and made the most of her modest height to loom over him. His head sunk lower, so it must have worked. "Do anything stupid, and I'll hear about it. I want to know that you understand."
"I do," Noxis replied. He nodded at Caspian. "And for you, I'll be... tolerable. Easier to work with."
"That sounds good to me," Caspian affirmed. He nodded back. "Yeah. I think this can work."
"Speak for yourself," Rowan muttered. "Are you all forgetting October 1st? How many people died that day, something like fifteen hundred?"
"That's when I knew I needed to get out," Noxis returned. "I was following orders, but that's no excuse."
"You tried to kill us. You would have, if Snow didn't step in."
"I lost control of my semblance."
"And how do we know it won't happen again?"
"You don't. I don't. You'll just have to trust me."
"Trust you? Like the Headmaster trusted Python? Bullshit."
Headmaster Skye stepped toward the table. "I take full responsibility for the decision to move Python from solitary confinement. But I fully trust the same won't occur with Mr. Ezokami. If you need another reason to trust him, he has given us advance warning of Condor's next move. As you're all here now, I figure this would be a good time to introduce your next mission."
He tapped his wrist twice. The window shades and lights came down, and the room bathed in the blue light of the map of Vale that spread across the table. A six-inch model of Empyrean tower marked Port Cyrreine, and the City of Vale was a beacon of light.
"This attack will occur within the next couple of months, likely just before the next Vytal Tournament. We believe this to be their largest-scale attack yet– and very possibly their last. The offensive will be split between Empyrean Tower in Port Cyrreine, and a currently undisclosed location in the City of Vale. Team CRLN will take Vale. Ms. Chino can accompany you. That leaves Port Cyrreine to LSLI."
"Alright. What makes you say it's their last attack?" Caspian prodded.
"According to Mr. Ezokami, Condor has no further plans. Everything has been leading to this."
"Is this it, then? What you've been planning for too?" Lazula questioned. "And once this is done, I'm done being your weapon?"
"...This is likely our final obstacle. And an essential step in our plan."
Lazula fell into the chair behind her, and it creaked and bowed on impact.
"Hm."
On the way back to the dorms, all were quiet still. A few had fractured from the group, with Rowan disappearing at the doors to Skye Hall and Laurel not long after. The rest of the reunited Team CRLN walked as a group, with Moka beside them and Lazula, Snow, and Ichigo a couple of steps behind. Again, it was Moka who broke the silence.
"Y'know, I heard the Vytal Tournament's in Atlas this year. I might finally get to see the Northern Lights!"
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Caspian replied. "If they come out, I want to see them too." He managed a nervous chuckle. "Guess we'll have to survive until then, right?"
"Careful," Noxis warned. "Hope that joke doesn't age poorly." Before Caspian could decide if it was a threat or Noxis's attempt at making conversation, he continued. "It's weird, though. The Headmaster said one of the targets is an 'undisclosed location' in Vale. But I know where, and I told him."
Lazula appeared at Noxis's side suddenly enough to make him flinch.
"Where?"
"The CCTS Tower. He told me I'd know more closer to the attack, but I jumped ship before that."
"CCTS Tower…" Caspian reflected. "Think he's trying to take it out? That one group tried that in the past, right?"
Lazula stared dead ahead. "No. I think he's going to use it."
It made sense, after all. All that time, the Red Claw– Condor, rather– was working toward something. The Red Claw as his soldiers, the Grimm as his weapons. He spilt some blood, and now she wondered what he would say with every microphone in Remnant lifted to his lips.
She still mulled it over as they arrived at Madrona Hall. Snow sped up, and only when she bounced to the balls of her feet to hug Aunt Holly did she realize why. Yet Snow's mother looked subdued somehow as she welcomed her daughter into her arms. She nodded at Caspian, then Lazula, and leaned into Snow.
"Hi, honey. Can we talk for a little bit?"
"I'm not busy. Should we go inside?"
Aunt Holly glanced again at the rest, shuffling in through the automatic doors. "Actually, let's walk for a bit. We should find somewhere private."
They made their way away from Madrona hall, down the hill and onto the trail where only the occasional bicyclist would pass them by. One just passed the opposite direction, when Snow asked what bothered her mother.
Holly sighed. "I wanted to ask if you've heard from your dad recently?"
"No. No, I haven't. He's not at home?"
Holly wrung her hands together, and her left came up to rub her chin."No. I haven't seen him since Thursday. He went to work, but... he never came back."
"And you've called him?"
"Of course. I must have tried a dozen times by now."
"Can you locate his Holoband?"
"I tried that, too. It pinged at his work, at first. Then it was just gone."
Snow opened her own Holoband. She swiped through her contacts until she found her father, greyed out and marked "unavailable." She scrolled up, tapped the "ping" button, and waited.
Her map remained blank.
Her hand came up slowly to close her Holoband, as if she waited for his dot to appear.
"I'm so worried about him," Holly said. "Would you please come home? Just for a day or two?"
A breeze rustled the branches above. Snow looked out to her right and downhill, where the tips of the Cyrreine Mall storefronts broke out above the trees.
"Yes. We should go home."
Just in case I'm worse at describing hair, Caspian's new cut was inspired by Newt Scamander from the Fantastic Beasts series. Say what you will about the films, that nerd has some style
