Got a new chapter for everyone! And a relatively short one this time around.

To set expectations, this chapter and the next one are gonna be set up for an upcoming arc (aka, first Autobot vs Decepticon encounter of the story) that'll be happening during Spy X Family's Cruise Arc. Like I said, I won't be covering that arc in this story, as it'll be happening in the background.

Now, while nowhere near as dark as the last chapter, I should put a fair warning that there will be some police brutality courtesy of the SSS.

Anyway, special thanks and shout-out to SwapAUAnon, Matrix Dragon, and Quantum01 for Beta Reading this chapter. Hope you all enjoy!

Mission 11: Targets Confirmed

"Okay, this ID will get you into Doust Industries second section," Frankie explained, revealing the portfolio beneath said ID that contained data on the manufacturer's newest fighter jet as he passed it forward along the counter of his tobacco kiosk. Like clockwork, Twilight gave his thanks discretely took the files and stuffed them in the inner pocket of his beige trench coat. Maybe it was because he was in a worried, moderately bad mood lately, but Frankie couldn't help letting out an annoyed huff, "You know, this isn't free."

Twilight glanced at him slightly, raising an eyebrow, "Is something bothering you, Frankie? You've been getting more and more agitated over the last week."

"Can't get anything past you, can I?" Frankie asked, snark in his voice as he was caught off-guard. Normally, when it came to Loid, he'd ask if there was any other information available, which Frankie would give him and be on his merry way. But it seemed Frankie was doing a crap job keeping his concerns in check, so he sighed and answered, "You know about my favorite waitress, Kacey?"

"Problems with your love life as usual, I take it?" Twilight, as always, sounded annoyed at the subject. He looked almost ready to walk off, but was remaining in place, probably to humor him. And any other day, Frankie wouldn't have a problem tormenting his longtime friend/business associate into helping him with his romantic endeavors, if only because of how smoothly the man's own relationship with Yor was going. But this was serious, so Frankie could only shake his head.

"No, it's something else. She's been missing for a while now."

Though Twilight's posture remained the same, he was giving the discussion more attention, "She could just be out on a vacation."

Frankie nodded, "That's what I thought too when I was visiting Ikitsuke, but then I started asking her coworkers. She never told them anything about a vacation, and the amount of time she'd been gone by that point was a bit suspect. According to them, her vacations never last any longer than five days, but she'd been out for a full week. Not to mention her… boyfriend, is missing too." He couldn't help but grumble at the word, but he did what he could to stow any pain he felt away. Missing people were far more important than his (lack of a) love life. "Topping it off, one the first day she'd been gone, one of the cafe workers said they'd found her cat locked in. He ran out the moment they opened the doors and hasn't been seen since."

"I may not be familiar with her, but it's safe to surmise that leaving her pet like that is beyond out of character for her, isn't it?" Twilight asked, giving his full attention, Frankie affirmed the question. Kacey loved Kopi more than almost anything. If she'd actually gone on a (longer than normal) vacation, she'd take him with her, no questions asked.

And then there's all the stuff I'd been learning since then, Frankie had started getting in touch with his contacts to try and find her, her boyfriend, and her cat. While there were one or two sightings of a cat matching Kopi's description, the damn thing was long gone before Frankie could even get there. As for Kacey and Mark, his sources on what happened came up dry, save for Jeffrey, who had some details from his spy work in the SSS. Apparently, there was an arrest of two people either at or around Ikitsuke Café, and while the suspects were never given any description, he was 99% certain on exactly who they were.

Which leads us into… that...

Not wanting to think too much on the nastier details, he shook his head. With them being in a civilian area (anyone who could hear was too far, but best not to chance it) Frankie kept his voice low. His words were vague, but understandable, "You heard anything from Jeff lately? Something he said about the port?"

"… I see," Twilight murmured, Frankie able to see him almost instantly put two-and-two together. He'd likely already gotten Jeffrey's full report from Handler. Having recently read it himself, the informant almost wished he hadn't, what with the highly detailed descriptions of the two SSS officers' gruesome murder. Coupled with the photo copies sent… well, having been both a former soldier for the Ostanian Army and an informant connected to the criminal underworld, he could tell a lot about a killer based off how they left the bodies, and he could tell Twilight was very much the same in that regard.

While he'd never seen them in action, nor seen the aftermath (it was rare of them to ever leave evidence behind), Frankie heard through the grapevine every rumor about Garden and how their assassins operated. Bloody and borderline superhuman as their killings could be, there was a mechanical nature to them. From what he could gather about Garden, it was a job (a dirty one, but still a job) that needed to be done, nothing more and nothing less. Back during the war, he'd worked with (and was) the same, at least until he realized the pointlessness of it all and deserted.

But then there were the other kinds, Frankie mused, having seen them from both Ostania and Westalis back then. The kind of people who stabbed bodies with bayonets long after they'd died, who laughed as the bullet went through someone's heart, and treated war like it was some sick little numbers game. The world of an informant just as much introduced him to those kinds of people outside of war too, always lurking in the shadows for a would-be victim to sink their teeth into. Whoever was responsible for killing those SSS Officers clearly loved what they were doing. And if Kacey and Mark were there, then-

"From the sound of things, it might be too late already," Twilight interjected, as if reading his thoughts, which kinda scared him for a second. Both because of the implications, and because the thought of anyone with telepathy scared the shit out of him.

Good thing we live in reality, where psychic powers don't exist.

"It did cross my mind, but…" Frankie paused. Twilight read the full report already, so he'd know where the informant was going with this.

"… they weren't there," He finished for him.

"Bingo," That last detail definitely kept Frankie up for a couple nights just trying to put together the possibilities. It was impossible to tell if any of the blood at the crime scene was theirs, given how nothing could be gleamed from Jeffrey's report (not to mention the SSS erased all physical evidence of the scene). However, the report did state that the SSS officers had been chasing a truck driven by the likely culprit of the murders, and that it'd vanished into thin air before other officers arrived, with the arrested "spies" nowhere to be found.

"Frankie," Twilight sighed, understanding and reluctance evident in his tone, "Even if they were taken, it doesn't sound like whoever is responsible for that would be the type to let them live."

"I know. Trust me. I know," Frankie sighed in kind, taking note of how the streets were now mostly empty save for the occasionally passing car. Despite what some thought, he wasn't a hapless idiot. The descriptions and images of the scene alone were enough to tell him that Kacey and Mark were likely already dead, yet he still wanted to try and fine them. Could he be accused of being a hopeless romantic doing this more for Kacey's sake? Absolutely. He'd admit that was part of the reason and he deserved a good wallop to the face for it. Though he'd rather avoid that, ugly as he already was.

But being completely honest, Frankie wanted to find both of them because, if they were still alive, someone had to help them. He knew the SSS wouldn't do a thing and were more than likely to bury any evidence that they were missing at all. Unless it was someone important or high up in the political food chain, someone whose disappearance they couldn't hide, they wouldn't care. Plus, the killer was still out there, and odds were that following the trail would help WISE in taking them down. More importantly, if Kacey and Mark were dead, then doing this might lead him to the bodies.

After the war, he'd seen so many families mourn the loss of loved ones, with absolutely nothing, not even a corpse, coming back. Frankie knew what that felt like all too well. While he knew nothing of Kacey and Mark's families, but they deserved better than empty caskets. Nobody deserved to suffer through that.

Hearing Twilight's footsteps, he looked up to see his longtime friend fully turn to face him. His expression was stone, yet the sympathetic look in his eyes was bright as day, "What can I do to help?"

"You're serious?"

Twilight nodded, "There may not be much I can do, and I'm likely to get more incoming work. That's not even getting into what I have this afternoon, so it'll have to be at a later time. But if I can help even in increments-"

"Even that'll be more than enough from you, believe me," Frankie smiled, feeling just a bit easier now. Twilight's work was as Loid Forger in Operation: STRIX, was top priority for him and WISE as a whole. He didn't know how long his request would take, so he understood if his friend couldn't help as much as he'd like. But he'd take what he could get. Although…

"On the subject of this afternoon," Frankie sighed and shook his head.

"You weren't able to get one?" Twilight asked, to which he received another head shake, "That's fine. Compared to Doust, Blackbell Heavy Industries is much more wound tight when it comes to security. Indirectly getting an ID was a long shot."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Frankie huffed, disappointed in himself and his contacts for being unable to get it. After the whole parent/teacher conference, Anya's friend, Becky Blackbell, was able to talk her parents into scheduling a tour for the Forgers in one of their facilities. More specifically, the facility housing and analyzing the pod remnants the Ostanian Military discovered.

While the plan had been for Frankie to snag an ID so he could forge copies for Agents Nightfall, that didn't work as they'd been hoping. Seemed like Twilight would have to add to his reconnaissance mission and sneak an ID out during the upcoming tour. From there, Twilight would forward Nightfall the layout and potential security threats while Frankie worked his patented brand of "forging magic". Then it was a matter of Nightfall infiltrating the factory, learning any new data BHI gathered on the mystery pod (plus any new details on whatever weapons and equipment they were making), and sending said intel back to WISE.

"Well, good luck," Frankie wished him, flashing a thumbs up, "And thanks again for helping."

Giving a smile honestly more fitting of his fatherly Loid Forger identity, Twilight replied, "You're welcome. Though before I forget-"

Yeah right. It'll be a cold day in Hell before you actually forget something, Sometimes, Frankie envied Twilight's ability to memorize countless minute details and retain them seemingly forever. Seemed just as much like a pain in the ass though.

"-did you get the pictures of those group members I asked for?"

Sighing, Frankie replied, "Yeah, that'll take a while. My contact got axed off, unfortunately."

"SSS?"

"No, something far worse: An urban legend," Frankie gave Twilight a serious glance, "What do you know about Garden?"

"-orn… Princess… T-Thorn… Princess…"

Yuri dragged the bloodied terrorist scum by his blonde hair, the First Lieutenant opening the apartment door for them to exit down the halls, considering this case completed.

It'd been a fairly recent one, with them receiving civilian eyewitness reports regarding a waiter, their coworker, at a local restaurant. They said he was acting suspicious one day and seemed suspiciously focused on a lovely couple they'd been serving that evening, spending the whole time monitoring on them. When he'd been given the case and available information from the restaurant, he got to work immediately, wanting to make certain that whoever this guy was had no ill intent. But then, while reading the reservation list and the staff's words on the matter, Yuri learned that the couple in question was the Forgers.

His sister.

For a fleeting moment, he wanted to just rush out and arrest the bastard then and there, but then he remembered Chloe's words. He was an officer of the SSS and had to be above that, so he took a good few minutes to calm himself down and got to work alongside his superior, starting with spying on and monitoring the man. The first couple of days didn't reveal much, him coming off as being a simple civilian with a loving girlfriend named Catherine, whom he lived with. Yet even outside his personal issues, Yuri suspected something was off about the man.

So he did some digging into his personal history from the SSS archives kept regarding civilians who had trouble with the law. Turns out, the man had quite a history going against Ostania's government in his youth, spotted doing everything from minor offenses such as loitering in front of government buildings to acts of vandalism, such as defacing both a police precinct and Minister Windsor's mansion. The latter act got him arrested, after which he did his time and went clean.

Now that would've been enough for Yuri to suggest packing it in and calling a day. Even if the man was being a creep on his sister, he'd done his time years ago and all accounts of his behavior throughout SSS monitoring showed he was genuine in trying to be an honest, law abiding citizen. But then, as he watched taped surveillance of the man's various visitors from his time in prison and considered calling the case a dud, he noticed the final visitor and felt a chill run up his spine. There wasn't any audio and the footage was grainy, but the man's narrow, cold eyes and how he seemed to be assessing the prisoner made Yuri worry. He seemed almost like a recruiter of some kind.

As he watched the two talk in the old footage, Yuri went through every file he could, working into the night to figure out the man's identity. Bastard had one hell of a record, as he'd learned, piecing together who he was.

Red Circus Leader: Billy Squire.

Seen meeting up with the guy after he was let out for parole too, Yuri watched the recordings from outside the prison, where the far off figure he could still identify as Squire shook hands with the newly freed man outside the gate. It all indicated that their suspect's actions drew the attention of Red Circus and their leader went in to recruit him. That was enough for the First Lieutenant to recommend they head in and take him, but Yuri wasn't keen on it, if only because the man's girlfriend was still home with him. She seemed like a sweet woman, unaware of who she was with, so he suggested they wait until their target was alone. Nobody should have to witness their loved ones, even if said loved ones were lying, worthless, no good stains on society, get taken away from them.

When the circumstances lined up and the man was alone, Yuri and his superior went in, knocking on the apartment door. Their target opened up, eyes going wide at the sight as the First Lieutenant asked him to come quietly. His response was an attempt to shut the door, prompting Yuri to kick it down and send him flying back. He ran for the couch and pulled a gun from beneath the cushions, his last coherent words being, "SSS BASTARDS!"

Big mistake.

Yuri was on him before he could pull the trigger, crushing his wrist with ease. He followed that up with hook and backfist to the sides of his face, knocking teeth out of his jaw before grabbing the scuff of his shirt and headbutting the terrorist's own forehead. Trails of blood pour from his swollen mouth, cheeks, and head. His eyes were bruised black and he likely couldn't see, but he was still breathing and could be questioned later. Looking over to his superior, who nodded, the two SSS officers headed out, people coming out of their apartments only to run back inside, terror at the sight of them evident on their faces.

"-ild assassins… orn Princess… all dead..."

And now the terrorist was inanely rambling in his battered, beaten state. It was slurred, muffled, and coming out as gibberish, but Yuri was able to piece together what he'd been muttering about. Something about someone called "Thorn Princess" and how she tore through his terrorist colleagues, saying (or at least Yuri assumed) that she was like a hot knife slicing through butter and operating with surgical precision. There was also mention of a garden of corpses, and something about her employing children as assassins to assist in her attacks.

At first, Yuri wanted to brush all this off as the nonsense of a traitor to this country, but as the First Lieutenant walked beside him, he noticed something out the corner of his eye. With each passing utterance, his superior would glance or flinch ever so slightly, a knowing look in his eyes as his jaw clenched in concern. The micro reactions hinted to Yuri that he knew what the man was talking about, and by extension, that there was more than a bit of truth to the terrorist's ramblings. He wasn't sure if the First Lieutenant had past run-ins with this assassin or if he'd just heard the name, but Yuri was fairly certain of one thing...

Whoever this Thorn Princess is, she sounds like a complete psychopath, Yuri walked out of the building and into the alleyway, the First Lieutenant closing the door behind them. On the one hand, whoever this assassin was, she easily took care of a portion of the Red Circus terrorist group for them. But then there's the fact that doing so actually made their job harder, given they now only had one of said cell's survivors, who could only give so much information. That's without factoring how he had no clue if Thorn Princess was a singular assassin or part of some organization. Then there was the bit about employing children in her dirty work, which was beyond worrying.

For now, I'll focus on finding and capturing Twilight, Yuri reminded himself of his top priority, But after that, I'll bring in this "Thorn Princess" next. I can't let monsters like that threaten innocent people.

As they exited the alleyway, they turned left to where the SSS patrol car was parked. Like within the building, any passerby civilians either turned and power-walked in the opposite direction or actively tried to avert their gaze. Despite understanding the State Security Service's feared reputation, Yuri still didn't get why civilians acted this way when they were seen on the job. So long as they weren't committing crimes against their country, either through spying for Westalis, acts of terrorism, or otherwise, people had no reason to worry. However, he lost that train of thought as the car came into view, "What the-"

"HIIISSS!" Standing on the sidewalk right next to the car was a North Blue cat with a bell around its neck. It was covered in dirt and grime, smelled like shit even from this distance, and looked like it hadn't eaten in days. Not to mention it kept hissing at their SSS car like it was a snake coming out of the grass. Feeling bad for the poor thing, Yuri handed the terrorist scum to his superior and slowly approached the cat in a placating manner. Once close, he recollected on a time when his sister did the same for a starving dog when they were children and reached into his uniform pocket to unwrap a protein bar, good for animals to east just as much as humans.

Here you go little guy. This should be enough for-

"HIIIISSSS!"

The cat's back arched, teeth bared as it glared at him like he was the snake. Yuri leaned up in shock, but before he could process that any further, the cat ran away, already across the street by the time he stood to full height.

What did I do? He wondered, not seeing what he did wrong that could've set the thing off like that.

"At least that took care of itself," the First Lieutenant walked up to him, "Help me get this guy in. We'll take him back to HQ for interrogation."

"Yes sir," Yuri decided to forget about the cat for now and focused on his work. As the scumbag groaned, he opened the door and shoved him into the backseat of the patrol car. Slamming it shut, he went to the shotgun seat while the First Lieutenant took driver's seat, starting the car while Yuri's eyes landed on the steering wheel.

More specifically, the symbol on the steering wheel.

SSS patrol cars weren't exactly owned by any individual officer, so they got cycled between them frequently. It wasn't an issue, since they were all the same in terms of appearance and functionality. Yet every single time Yuri found himself in this specific car, his skin crawled and he felt like bolting for the hills. The symbol always made it clear which car this was, and not only did it remind him of the disturbing scene from that night, but it was just plain creepy to look at. Yuri felt like it, and by extension the car, was an omen of some kind, and he just couldn't explain how or why.

"You're staring at it again," The First Lieutenant grunted, drawing Yuri from his musings as the older man drove.

"Sorry sir."

"Something you want to get off your mind?"

"Well…" Actually, there were a lot of things he wanted to get off his mind, if only to find some way to make sense of them. Ever since he witnessed the aftermath of that bloodbath, he'd been trying to piece together what happened, but to very little avail. "I guess my mind's still on that night at the port," Yuri explained, "For starters, I had the blood we found on this car analyzed."

"What did you find?"

"That the blood around the front of the car was David's, and the blood around the back was a combination of Ada's and deer blood."

His superior stopped at the red light, the only noise present being the mumbling of the terrorist in the back. He shifted his eyes to Yuri and raised an eyebrow, "Deer blood?" Yuri nodded as the light shifted to green, "How and why was a deer that far off from a forest?"

"Yeah, and how did it get to a terrorist attack at the port of all places?" Yuri threw in another question he had no answer for (of which there were too many to count at this point), and glanced at the steering wheel again, "And then there's that symbol…"

"What about it?"

"I've seen it before. It was on the steering wheel of Loid's car."

His superior sighed, "Second Lieutenant…"

"Only it was red, less angular, and looked more like a face than a mask."

"Briar-"

"And sure, they look different enough, but at the same time, they're way too similar to each other. There's gotta be a connection somehow that-"

"Yuri!" The First Lieutenant cut him off, letting there be a brief lull of silence before he sighed again, "Tell me you're not considering the idea that you're brother-in-law had anything to do with that."

"What? No! It's just that the symbols' resemblance doesn't seem coincidental," Yuri chided at the accusation. Yes, he despised Loidy (and his Chihuahua girl of a brat) almost as much as he loved his sweet sister, but there was no way he had any hand in that event. The man was many things (insufferably pleasant, insufferably talented, insufferably sociable, insufferably perfect and not the least bit suspicious and completely undeserving of Yor), but a superhuman sadist wasn't one of them.

Besides, Yuri knew and had confirmation that he'd been at Eden Academy's PTA meeting at the time.

"Either way, don't let your in-law distract you. And much as I'd also like to hunt that bastard down, we have too many cases at the moment. Boss says we can't afford to devote any time to what's currently a dead end. You'll have to wait for something to pop up first."

"Yes sir…"

"As for the symbols, it's probably just decal one of our officers bought at a kiosk," His superior hummed, "Would explain why Loid has a similar one if they got it from the same vendor."

"Right…" Yuri leaned back in his seat, not buying it, but not voicing it either. Even outside the gruesomeness, the nonsensical nature of it just gave him a headache. There was just something about that whole scene that didn't sit right, that he needed to figure out.

"Tell you what," The First Lieutenant's tone became a lot less reserved and gruff, "After we interrogate this Red Circus trash, we'll see about gathering the others to hit the bar. Something to honor David and Ada. If nothing else, we can put their ghosts to rest."

"Sure," He replied neutrally, not exactly in the mood for the bar if he was being honest. He'd feel a lot better putting his nose to the grindstone. If anything, once interrogation was over, he'd get to work on the other cases he needed to take a look at. Gazing into the side view mirror, he tried to clear his… his head and-Wait, huh?

Yuri stared blankly at the mirror, watching as it seemed to almost slowly turn towards him. He opened his mouth and started facing his superior to ask why he shifted it, but then he noticed that even the rear view mirror seemed to be turning all on its own. Knowing that was impossible, he felt a drop of sweat roll down his brow and fully turned to see that the other door's side mirror had also shifted. His eyes focused on each one, noticing how all of them focused solely on him.

It was… it honestly felt like there were countless eyes on him, watching his every move like he was in a sniper's line of sight. The dread from before returned stronger than ever, and the more he stared at his reflection, the more he wanted to shatter it down to the last shard. He barely managed to refrain himself from that, taking a ragged breath as his fist clenched against the leg of his pants. Slowly leaning forward, he tried to relax despite his eyes never leaving any of the mirrors, Calm down Yuri. You're letting yourself get worked up over something silly. You're probably just projecting that night onto the car and your imagination's running wil-

-and then, faster than he could blink, all the mirrors followed him.

Yuri gasped, nearly jumping in his seat, What the-

"Yuri, you alright? You're looking pale," His superior's worried voice snapped him out of it. Blinking, he briefly turned to him before looking around, glancing at all the mirrors to see that they were back in place, almost as if they'd never shifted at all. When his name was called again, he sighed and rubbed at his temples.

"I'm fine sir. Just… i-it's nothing."

Maybe he really did need that drink after all.

Poor Kopi... little guy's now homeless, ownerless, and all alone. Pray for him, everyone. Pray for him.

Like I said, mostly set up and takes place during what would've been "The Informant's Great Romance Plan II", so there isn't a whole lot until near the end. We do get plenty of references to Garden and Yor's Thorn Princess occupation, as well as callbacks to the beginning of Season 2 with her and Loid's restaurant date (the one where she got shot in the ass), as well as the Red Circus Survivor who tried to poison her, only to fail, get scared straight by Anya, and retire from terrorism for good. Alas for him, SSS gonna SSS.

One thing I knew that I wanted to do this chapter was try and delve into Frankie's head, given his own storied history with the previous war and who Loid used to be.

Also yes, I know that his name's usually spelled as "Franky", but I either read or saw a translation for his name as "Frankie" and now my brain can't help but see it as such. Every time I type his name, I reflexively go with the latter, so I'm sticking with it. Trying to break that habit's just too much of a waste of time if you ask me. Plus, is it really even that big a deal?

And on the final part of this chapter... uh... Yuri? I'm uh, sorry, but as a certain fuckmothering vampire once said, "Ya done goofed."

In fairness, he obviously has no idea since... y'know, we're talking about an outside context problem he doesn't even know exists, but Barricade now knows that there's an Autobot on Earth. This will bode poorly.

Next time, we're gonna be touring Blackbell Heavy Industries with the Forgers, Becky, and Martha! Some nice, good ol' Spy X Family antics... and hints of things to come.