It was time to disappear into the world of a mob. The streets bustling around him as he made his way home present and yet invisible amidst the mundanity of it. For he was truly like every other passerby as one more face on the road of life.

The same path he'd always walked and a role he fell into easily just like any other day.

Like a vice the hand clamped down on his shoulder, unrelenting in its strength as it took hold of his person and began dragging him down the street. "The whole city is in uproar and now is the time you choose to disappear, after refusing to watch the tournament with me and running off on your own."

As a normal person he was helpless in front of his sister. "Yes Claire I should have told you I'm sure." Letting his own listless gait get dragged along behind her was easy enough.

"Yes you should have." She yanked his arm harder even as she tore through the crowd with all the force of will of a main character. "Shadow Garden is tearing up half of the noble families in the capitol and I need you here so I know you haven't been dragged off to some torture chamber again. Who knows what will happen to you if I leave you alone right now."

"I'll probably be fine." For a start his own people were behind all the disappearances, so it wasn't like he was in any danger in the first place. "I'm beneath notice so I'll be fine."

Claire glared back at him without breaking stride. "You used to date Princess Alexia so if they start rounding up loyalist sympathisers isn't your name going to be first on the list? The fact that you can't even think of that is why you need your big sister to protect you right now."

Did his sister actually have a good point? But he knew the truth, so it didn't matter and he let himself get dragged along with a simple platitude. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Sometimes Cid it seems like you don't even care about your future." They passed through the door and into his room. "You need to start putting in effort if you want to actually make something of yourself, opportunity isn't just waiting for you to come and find…"

Claire trailed off, a pause as she stared at the occupant of his room sitting calmly on his bed and sipping some tea. Staring back as she looked between the two of them curiously. "Claire it is good to see you again."

He was dragged back out into the daylight in a rush even as Claire slammed the door behind them and began looking at it to make sure it was really his room. "Why is Princess Rose sitting in your room Cid?"

He considered the question thoroughly for a grand total of two whole seconds before giving the first answer to come to mind. "We met during the Bushin Festival and are kind of friends right now because of it."

Claire looked him deep in the eyes as though searching for something, and he gave a listless gaze in return. It really wasn't such a big deal I mean she already knew he'd spoken to Alexia so what was one more princess? Then he considered that thought again and despaired, he was failing at being a mob so badly that it was becoming just one more princess to him.

"Cid she stabbed you fourteen times you shouldn't date girls that stab you. Or ones that put you into torture chambers even if they're princesses. If she's threatening you because she wants to keep stabbing you I'll protect you okay. We're going to go back into that room and kick the princess out you understand." He didn't understand at all, it had been a fun and exciting practice tournament and people kept on getting worked up over it for no reason.

So even as he wilted he gave out an excuse. "She's a nice enough person once you get to know her I'm sure it will be fine."

Claire did not relent. "She has a guard who's supposed to have touched upon the blood of demons and there are rumours the church itself is going to look into Orianna going forward, you shouldn't trust her."

He was that guard and the whole thing was a laugh, so he'd trust her as much as he wanted. "I'll take your worries under advisement." Then with his greater knowledge he'd toss them away without a second thought.

But from the way Claire continued glaring at him she was too used to his words and hadn't considered them for even a moment. "What would she even be doing in your room. People will talk."

The door opened from the other side as Rose looked out at the two of them. "I've invited Cid to come to Orianna with me and we were going to discuss the trip there."

Claire bristled with rage as she turned on him. "Absolutely not, you're not absconding to some other country right in the middle of a coup. People will talk and wonder whether you're defecting what were you thinking?"

He paused lightly and then threw her own words back at her. "I guess I was getting my name out there and looking into my opportunities." They were her own words and yet they did nothing to calm her down.

Rose cocked her head even as she smiled politely. "But this is the second time we've gone on a trip together we also went to Lindwurm together. And my father has already approved it and is expecting to meet Cid while we're there."

The glare turned on him as Claire spoke. "All alone in a foreign country, knights get treated incredibly badly in Orianna I won't let you take my brother anywhere he won't get any respect."

It was the country of arts and culture, so he didn't need to show off his strength to get respect there. "I'll just play a few things on the piano it's fine."

Both girls turned to look at him, Rose with a smile and Claire with a dismissive glance even as she gave her retort. "You don't know how to play the piano."

"While you trained with the sword I learned to play the piano, perhaps you never noticed but there are many such songs, from the Moonlight Sonata to the Turkish March and the Minute Waltz that I can play with ease." Well, all of those songs came from Earth so it wasn't like she could have heard of them.

Yes by day he would be Cid Kagenou the effete up and coming musician only competing due to strings pulled by the princess. But by night he would return as Azrael the invincible guardian of the throne of Orianna and no one would ever suspect they were the same person.

"It's only natural that both of us are Shiron fans, because we were brought together by fate." Rose gushed out a response filled with sparkles that only a princess could produce.

His sister looked at him much more accusingly. "You've never mentioned being a Shiron fan to me, I could have listened to it alongside you if I'd known that I can get you an audience you know."

He didn't know. Was Shiron an actual person then? Or was the name of the music just the same by chance as he pondered it in his head.

Shiron fan? He rolled the name on his tongue and plucked the obvious answer of Epsilon from his mind, who had learned all those songs from him. Which meant that she'd already sold off all the songs he'd taught her as her own creation. But that was fine as long as it meant he had an excuse. He could give her the glory as long as it meant he had all the time in the world to run his schemes.

Now just to find out how much of his music she'd used so he could know what he could still play. If he walked in and proclaimed his own song and then they said it belonged to Shiron, wouldn't he just die inside.

He appeared at the window having seen Epsilon returning to her abode. The moment she moved to open the door he began clapping, a slow rhythmic thing as he stepped forth from the darkness. "A most splendid performance no wonder the nobles of Orianna are so interested in hearing it."

Epsilon bowed without hesitation, and by the time she rose again her arms were folded under the slime on her chest as though to emphasise it. "It is merely a reflection of your glory that you have given me such wonderful songs to show to them.

He preened at the truth, and then apologised to all the composers who he'd stolen it from originally. "You have learned them well and have the talent to make them your own. But while I may have taught you everything you know, do you really think it is everything I know? I intend to impart to you one more piece before you go that it might inspire you." With a wave of his hand he gestured across the room, "Can it be said that you do not need even one more song? So, show me which ones you can play well that I might decide what best to add to your repertoire."

Her eyes lit up in response as she practically flew across the room to her desk, sheets piling up on the table in moments as she gathered something closer to one hundred different songs rather than the four or five he'd been planning for. "These three are my most popular ones at the moment so if you have anything like that."

She was expectant as though he could pull works like the minute waltz out of his hat at a moments notice. And in a way he had promised that he could so there was no choice but to go along with it.

"It is a most impressive array of music you have shown to the world, that you can play all of them is no small feat." It seemed as though he was doomed that no matter what he played of classical music he would find it being compared to her. His aspiring young musician out of his depth plan was crashing down around him before it had even begun.

Not a hint of it showed on his face, a smile carved into the stone that was his visage, unbowed before this world even in the face of a crisis. Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin were no small shoes to fill. But then reminiscent of the style was easy because he still had a little bit of fun left to play.

Or more precisely un poco divertimento by Haydn, who had mentored both Beethoven and Mozart was by far the best choice to go with. "I've thought of a piece so let us find a piano, for the night is still long and there is time enough to hear it."

Epsilon nodded happily enough even as she scrambled for pen and paper. "We have a room at Mitsugoshi just in case I need it. It would be an event for anyone nearby that they could hear it."

"Then we'll be off." He threw himself out of the window Epsilon easily keeping pace across the rooftops as he thought.

The only problem with Haydn he'd ever had was the tragic truth that he hadn't had magic at the time he'd learned and so had no need to learn the three piano variations or even his two four hands pieces. He could play a four hands work all by himself now if he managed to learn one. "Does Orianna have a history of four hands piano do you think?"

"Four hands?"

He nodded, "Yes it is a style of playing originally designed for two people playing on the same piano, but I lack any works for it here in Midgar so I haven't had the chance to try it."

By the time he turned back to her she had stars in her eyes and a heartfelt smile. "I will make sure to look for it in Orianna for you, it will be my greatest task and I will move mountains to make it so."

Well, he supposed it interested her too, for she had the control to use her slime suit to emulate the four handed style with only one person too. It would be a shared learning experience for the both of them then, although he would have to work hard to stay one step ahead of her throughout the process.

It had been a good day, even if he had lost all his ability to touch upon the works of the renaissance and classical periods for which would be so appropriate for an eminence in shadow. But in a way that was fine, because Cid the musician wasn't supposed to be an eminence in shadow, he was the least suspected person.

He had been a Japanese piano student. If not the era of classical work then all he had to do was pull Toru Takemitsu and through him Debussey and Messaien as his inspiration for a thoroughly divergent music tradition and he was all set. Maybe he could even find some four hand works to inspire something for Azrael to play as well.

He sat on the back of the train feeling the wind flowing through his hair. They'd had a tipoff that a large number of dissidents from an illegal arena were taking their leave to the lawless city, and it would have been child's play to intercept them before they ever got on the train.

But with Delta and Zeta beside him a hunt would be more fun. Let them on, let it run and then a game, for who would survive until the end of this hell train.

By the time it reached the lawless city it would only be corpses.

Three cars and he would take the middle. The trace of magic he'd felt left on their tip standing quietly in the centre, a man standing apart from the rest. "I think I'll start with this car have the two of you chosen."

"Delta will take the front, the strongest leader always leads from the front." She bounded off down to the front without waiting for Zeta's answer and sat on her own car.

"Zeta are you fine with that?" She was getting the last car, but then Delta's assessment was wrong in the first place.

"They have no strong members, and only cowards remain. The strongest will throw their chaff to the front and treat them like the wastrels they are, I shall see if there is anyone worth killing in the rear."

He grinned at her in response and she took it well. Her own smile widening even as she strode calmly to the last train car. "Then I shall see you both on the other side, let the hunt begin."

He swung down and through the window, glass shattering as his own blade scythed through the occupants in seconds. A single moment where half the room died before they even realised what had happened. His own figure dripping with the blood around him. "Death has come for you, do not keep me waiting now."

They responded by struggling in their seats, swords banging into the chairs and falling over each other in their haste to stand up in the crowded space. After a moment he ended it rather than let the farce continue and turned to the one man who stood alone.

"Willow." The old man rose his sword effortlessly leaving its sheathe in a fluid motion. "I guess you could say I am one of the last of the old guard, although Gettan is already gone having left the city as soon as Fenrir fell."

He let his own sword rest easily on his shoulder, eyeing the man calmly with absolute confidence. "You are the one who gave us the tip, betraying your own men without a second thought aren't you?"

"I am." Willow stared back across the divide. "I hated them, all of them I think. Fenrir more than anyone but even these pathetic dregs who barely knew anything deserved my hatred."

He let his sword tap on his shoulder as he met the other mans gaze. "Then you would like to switch sides, and these fools are your offering to show your sincerity." He let the humour of it come full force into his voice.

"Of course not." The old man kept his stance and hardened his gaze. "You were still criminals before and all that's changed is you have the strength to enforce it. Still the same bloodshed and violence that changes nothing. That's how the game is played, and I know it well."

"You've given up then on even dreaming of getting better." He sheathed his sword and made his way back to the window. It seems this had been a waste of a trip, and he wasn't going to get another worthy opponent out of it. "How boring."

Confusion appeared on the man's face, and suspicion. Willow's eyes never leaving his own cloak of slime darting in the wind. "What after all this you won't even kill me?"

"Kill you. Aren't you already dead?" He flickered back out into the night air blasting away from the train even as Delta and Zeta joined up with him outside racing away. "It seems I picked the wrong car, and now it's only filled with corpses."

Delta nodded and smiled. "Delta only killed weaklings as well."

Zeta had clearly looked back and seen the survivor left behind. Still, she played along, "They're getting scarcer around here soon there won't be any members left in Midgar at all."

"Then we'll just have to move on further afield." The games and hunts they went on were fun, so there was no need for this night to end. "I could do this forever."

Zeta smiled at that. "Should we press on to the lawless city as well."

He gazed off into the distance. The city on the border, nested between Orianna, Midgar and Vegalta. All three had a claim to it, and yet with the power it had amassed only an army could ever press those claims.

To carry an army to its doorstep would be seen by the other two as a declaration of war, and so it had remained free of any real authority. "The time has not yet come." He would deal with it after Orianna was stable again, they could make a nice fun hunting trip out of it together.

It was rare to see the insides of Eta's laboratory. The very depths of her research was generally much more trial and error than the showmanship he preferred.

But he'd promised and so here he was in front of a blackboard scratching onto it's surface some notes about his attempts for immortality. They even already had a sketch by Eta showing what hir organs looked like compared to a humans as she pointed in question at everything he'd removed.

His kidneys well that was easy. "It filters waste products out of your bloodstream but I built a better one out of slime and magic so I didn't need it anymore. It would be one of the first organs that tends to fail in humans so there was no way I could keep it."

She nodded and put down a note next to it. "So that's why plan poison hasn't been going as well as I'd hoped." She pointed to his massively enlarged lungs compared to a normal human.

He nodded with full confidence. "Everything comes from the breath, from swordsmanship to music you need that extra bit of oomph that lets you take in more air and keep going for longer. So of course I made my lungs bigger and reinforced all the muscles pulling then open so I can fight harder. I'd recommend it for everyone and can even give you my notes if you want to do it too. I mean I had to use all that space I'd freed up for something and heart and lungs are just the obvious choice."

She pointed to another organ he'd taken out.

The appendix. What did the appendix actually do? He didn't know anything except that you could take it out without any consequences, so he'd gotten rid of it. "It is a holdover from the time before humanity was humans, an atrophied organ that no longer has a purpose to serve so I just removed it and moved on with things."

She stared the first time her expression wavered even if only for a moment. "You tested it on someone else and not yourself first right?"

She hadn't accepted his silence. "Then why don't you know what it does?" The question hung in the air, not as a challenge but as concern.

She was worried he'd taken it out without thinking, because she couldn't see the hundreds of years of medical knowledge from which he'd plucked the answer from without seeing the work. "If I really need it I have a concoction of stem cells in a culture contained within my slime, if it ever becomes a problem I can regrow it from scratch."

Curiosity warred with her concern. But it was Eta and curiosity would always win as she asked. "Stem cells? I haven't heard the term ever before."

That's because it was from a culture she had never had the chance to observe. "The heart is the heart, the lungs are the lungs each is specialised for its own purpose." He pointed to the diagram with carefree ease. "But you cannot turn heart muscle into lungs nor vice versa, for they are already specialised. Stem cells are unspecialised, they are the source of all other cells and by growing them in culture I can use them to revitalise any other organ or even grow them anew as the need arises. It is one of my five grand secrets to immortality that I have combined that should extend my life forever."

Eta stared deep into his eyes. "Lots of my own experiments fail the first time I try them. You've always said that success doesn't come the first time and that you have to try and try again until something works."

They were in the process of being tested in truth. He said as much because it wasn't like he'd had time to run through a full human lifespan to see how it turned out. "But I'm confident in the mechanism behind them all, and what's more if there are problems I can adapt and overcome them." It was the best truth he could admit because only time would give the final answer.

She tapped her fingers on the table where she'd been taking notes thinking. "If you had a proven method to make yourself immortal would you use that instead?"

He blinked at the obvious question. Wouldn't everyone want their own guaranteed path to immortality right from the beginning, but right now he was working with what he had. "All men would like to find such a guide to immortality, but in the absence of one I shall carve a path to the heavens with my own hands."

"I could give you a body that lives longer than a human to examine." Eta's words struck a chord in him, and he turned letting his curiosity get the better of him.

It quickly turned to dismay because that wasn't quite what he'd meant. "As much as an elvish body is longer lived than a humans, I'm afraid the mechanism is different. I'm pretty sure it's a genetic thing on your part and I haven't done all that much work on that side and lack the tools to do so. You can put your shirt back on Eta please."

"You don't want to look at it?" The same monotone request as before but even if it was for the game there were things he couldn't do to her.

Without looking back he answered. "I cherish you Eta, for you brilliant mind and for your intellect. We've had a lot of fun exploring the world and pulling back the curtains on the myriad wonders within. You don't need to show me your body." She was his precious friend.

And she was getting to the age where she might start getting interested in such things. It would be wrong to have her expose herself for his game on a laugh, when she might well want someone to see her that way properly in the near future.

"The second grand secret is of course."

He'd asked for a lot of mannequins because he wasn't sure how many times Azrael would have to replace his limbs in the field. Had convinced Rose to hire an entire train car to stash them all in for the trip there in a way that would look insane to anyone who bothered to look into it.

When he'd suggested the need Gamma had merely smiled indulgently and lent him as many as she had. "We won't be needing to advertise a large number of designs at the moment anyway."

She wouldn't? Wasn't that business going well it at least seemed that people constantly wanted to be associated with Mitsugoshi. Well in the worst case scenario he'd ask Beta to knock over some noble families and hand over their assets to keep Mitsugoshi afloat. "It troubles you that they have other fixations?"

She hesitated caught clearly between what she knew and felt were the right choices. But he was patient enough to wait calmly holding his place as a mountain unmoved by the world.

"The nobility has been asking after new clothes, they want to know if Mitsugoshi will create garments in Shadow Gardens colours. It would be good branding to have them wear an imitation of our uniform and help in bringing them closer." Gamma said the words without any of her usual warmth.

And the idea didn't resonate with him at all. Shadow Garden was his dream, the game he played with his friends and not something to sell out for commercial profit. "Let them wear the silver and blue of the dragon but my colours are off limits."

"My black, purple and gold should remain only for you who have chosen to follow me. Those elites I have chosen to place close to my heart and those you have allowed to wear it as well. It is not something they can demand to wear." For they were a breed apart from normal people, mired in the shadows themselves as elites who could stand taller than any other.

Gamma clearly felt the same because she lit up at the words, a step forward and a firm slam headfirst into the ground in her excitement.

Could fall further as well it seemed sometimes. Still, that too was fine as he reached down to pull her back up, it wasn't like he'd ever demanded perfection from them in the first place. They'd just managed to find it all on their own.

He let his cloak roll out over the severed limb waiting in his shadow. It was Surtr's but before that once it had belonged to Violet herself and between moments he felt the control of his cloak pulled away from him as she manifested through it.

The elegant body half formed stepped through onto the roof beside him, looking down at the streets below. "You wanted to speak to me I hear."

She looked down at him the picture of elegance. "And I heard that you were playing a game with your friends to hunt down Diabolos and the cult behind it." She let the silence drag on for a moment longer. "None of them are playing along with you."

But the answer to that was too easy. "They are all having fun and I think that's the most important thing. As long as the game is fun I don't really care about anything else."

She swallowed at the answer. "I mean that they're fighting for real."

That had always been true from the first days they were hunting bandits in the wilds all the way to his current game against team evil in the present. "Every battle is for real. People die when they are killed, and everyone is betting their lives on the game. That's what happens when you play a game with people's lives isn't it obvious?"

She settled down on the side of the roof herself. "They're probably wrong to think of you as a hero if you put it like that. I think they'd be disappointed to hear it."

He tapped his fingers lightly on the roof next to him. "As long as they're having fun alongside me I don't think it matters. The fact that I pull the strings and manipulate people isn't something I have ever hid from them. They know I want them to enjoy themselves playing along just as much as I do."

"You don't think you should respond to them more seriously?"

He laughed at the idea. "If I didn't play a game I wouldn't stop manipulating people or killing. Those are too deep within me to ever let go of, for I want to pull the strings and see them run before me. Life is a game I let other people enjoy alongside me, and without the game I'd just be a monster."

Mordred opened the door to the modest building. A cover like many entrances in the Capitol to his secret laboratories hidden beneath the city. It was not a place to relax as unwelcoming and boring without becoming macabre as they could make it.

Because the effort to remove an entrance required filling in entire tunnels with dirt, and to do so after it had been found would invite ever more enquiries wondering what lay beneath. The best secrecy was the simple anonymity of a building so mundane as to never be looked at twice even after hundreds of years.

It was for that reason that the sound upon his entrance was so unnerving.

Two violins were playing a duet just inside the reaches of his base. In the deeper reaches it would be allowed, or outside the front entrance of course. One place was hidden from view while the other was as much a spectacle that covered for the buildings true function.

But just inside would invite questions, people might hear it outside and want to come in. All his subordinates knew there was a proper time and a place for all things, and here in the heart of his domain there should be no one who would dare.

Were they so lax because they thought he was gone? Or a deliberate disobedience that they thought his grip was wavering? Either way it was easy to solve, because whenever they forgot he would merely find a new example to express his displeasure. It was time to burn another fool.

Without fear he pushed open the door to enter himself the very image of respect and authority. With great calm and considerably more fear he sat down at a seat left out for him and politely waited for the song to finish. The haunting melody ringing out as the two young teens continued their song without a care in the world.

Not long afterwards they reached an end, the two of them bowing with smiles and returning to pick up the actual tools of their trade now that the farce was over. He clapped as was only polite in respect of their skill yes but just as much a confirmation of the message behind it.

Next to him a young man barely past twenty and full of vigour rested in his own seat. "A beautiful eulogy to our departed, and don't worry Mordred it's not for you but Fenrir instead."

He hadn't actually stayed long enough to see the end, the tiny demon he'd left had banished itself when the sky darkened, and no will could have kept it there. He knew it was the right choice anyway because an effect like that could only belong to a dragon on the same scale as Jorumgandr and that made his choice to leave the right one. Excuses were meaningless at times like this, and knowledge never was. "Shadow Garden seem to have access to a gate, and at least three members capable of fighting a Rounds in addition to a dragon."

The man hummed lightly. "Not just one but three, Albion has outdone himself this time it seems how troublesome. But at the end it seems he inspired Fenrir into showing me something interesting, so it wasn't all a failure. I would have never thought that old monster would consort with a demon in any way shape or form. It seems he has become desperate in his despair."

"Albion?" He hadn't heard the name before.

Vrafthrudnir paused to take in his confusion and then rose from his seat a single motion bidding him to follow. "Ah you are not familiar with the dragon of Midgar by that name. Albion, Dollanar, he who obscures the Sun, the wretched traitor if you would hear Jorumgandr speak of him. But come tell me of these new Alexanders he has picked up."

He related what he knew, and the suppositions as well.

"A demon from when the first gate was opened. The theory exists but we could never prove nor disprove it. A natural problem with survivorship bias is that we can only look at the corpses of those that failed." Vrafthrudnir hummed to himself. "But still that one of them would dare claim it means we may as well treat it as true, it matters not either way. And at least one of the ones that fought alongside Albion sprouted worms from his flesh that writhed outwards, so it seems we do have one demon amongst them."

He stalled in his step, because he has read that document and it suggested no such thing. "I thought our work suggested that all who were at the first gate died when it opened?"

Two voices chorused an answer. "Perhaps you have an older version, the revised one acknowledges it as a possibility." The two secretaries following behind them both, each flanking him on a different side. Closer to marching him to the gallows than a polite conversation.

"Isn't that good Mordred, one of my secretaries will look into it for you and make sure to get you a copy of the updated document. I'm sure you can trust we'll get to the bottom of it." The tone was light, in the way that meant he had no intention of correcting the record and knew it was a lie. But also that he knew it wasn't worth picking a fight over.

It wasn't of course because he would die if he tried it. "It is only something minor, the kind of mistake that always happens. Nothing worth bringing up of course."

With a gesture the wall opened beside them. But not the one that lead to his own labs, a secret passage that even he hadn't known about in the very midst of his abode. "Glad that you think so, because so many things get forgotten so easily when we don't try to remember them."

The darkness led to an endless staircase leading down into a void so deep that if you fell no one would hear you scream. But even if he wanted to Vrafthrudnir hated hesitation. This was his chance to make a good impression, to elevate his image beyond the failure of yesterday.

It wasn't like there could be anything down there more dangerous than the three standing beside him anyway. He stepped down into the darkness, the question coming after his descent. "There was no record of these from when I killed Morgan, may I know what we're going to see."

"Uther's lab of course there are still a few things that have been left down here in case I ever needed them." Vrafthrudnir was grinning like a maniac as they descended, even as the light faded away his confidence only growing. "Your upcoming attempt to fuse with Ragnarok has inspired me so of course I came to give you a boon."

He shifted in his step because the plan was a failure at the moment. He didn't have the key itself, or the assistance of the royal family and who knew how long that might put him back with Azrael on the field.

But the man before him only grinned as his stride lengthened and even more enthusiasm filled him. "But even if you lost Uther's key, it matters not. For as much as Uther wanted the key bound only to himself, he needed my help and I made another that has been building dust down his for a millennia."

Vrafthrudnir gestured to the side and his two secretaries stepped off into another hallway. "They will know what to look for and will bring it here just as I also came to gift you an early bead of Diabolos. It wouldn't do if you lacked strength at the final moment and so you should face it at your best."

He took the proffered offering, couldn't refuse it because of course it would be helpful even as it contained a question. A spare because he had more than he claimed, stolen from someone else, it wasn't like the pill of immortality grew on trees. He ignored the question for a more prudent one, that wouldn't be considered a challenge. "And the third reason we're down here is?"

Because he could have given him the bead upstairs if he wanted to. If he'd wanted to show him the labs he would have led him in.

Vrafthrudnir let off a casual laugh and continued on his way down. "The third reason is simple, we're going to meet someone of course."

Halfway down he was proven right, because this far in he could finally hear her screams. The thrashing helpless psychotic moans of someone trapped deep within the pit of despair. He continued on regardless for the screams of the vanquished were just another day for one as far into the abyss as he was. "May I know who it was."

"Freya, one of the three heroes who defeated Diablos of course." No hesitation just a statement of fact. "The original attempt to form a sanctum was perhaps not the most successful and so it was quite painful for her in the end. But times have changed and with Surtr's freedom has come knowledge, I suppose we have a method to set her free now."

Zeta had remained in the room after the others left. They were not the closest, because Gamma had always been Alpha's closest confidante, but she was the one she could rely on the most to act in her stead. The one who could take over any other role and do it well.

Still, they'd both been surprised when Eta had said she was going to Orianna, and while dumping that responsibility on Zeta wasn't fair, there was no way Epsilon could restrain her and carry out her espionage duties at the same time.

"Eta is still a good girl even if she can be a handful at times. I don't know why she's being so insistent but watch over her."

Zeta was calm and considerate even after having been gone for so long. "You think I can set her on the right path where you failed? I thought you were on better terms with her than that."

Alpha sat pensively in her seat. "Eta sometimes feels like she never forgives me every time I have to cut her budget. She still tends to push the boundaries I set for her, and she will push against you. All I can do is tell you to be ready for it."

Zeta nodded calmly in her seat a thoughtful expression on her face. "I will be mindful of it, but you can believe in all of us to see things through. We are united against the cult in the end."

They were like family. Even if Zeta had often been away that would never change. "Do you need help picking dependable subordinates I know you haven't been as present to get to know the newer members."

Zeta held up a hand. "I've already picked a good team for the mission ahead."

It was good that her friend was still fitting in.

Frustration, indignation perhaps even anger.

Two days ago the cells set aside for the Crimson Order had been empty without a single lead on who among their number could have betrayed the kingdom. Today they were overfilled and as a lesson in how much more effective the new management was they'd let her go over the full length of documentation describing it.

Hubb one of her trusted subordinates. White a respected member of the government, countless others as people who she'd known and trusted. Or had thought her father trusted were shown to be flouting everything she had thought Midgar stood for.

She almost wanted to crawl back into the days when it hadn't been like that. But those days had never existed because looking over it wasn't even just something like her father having presided over the greatest failure the nation had ever seen. The traces lead back ever further, the underground arena had been built centuries ago and there was always more.

She hadn't decided to become a knight because she hid from the things that discomforted her. But therein lay the problem because she had become a knight because she wanted to fight back against them. "And right now all I'm doing is looking at paperwork. How long am I going to be reading through it."

It had been the worst part of her duties as a princess.

"It is a waste of your talents to go through it like this isn't it?" The person at the door was not Alpha, but wore a uniform with a similar level of ornamentation. The blonde haired beastkin leaning back calmly watching her was probably also her superior now which was a long way down from her previous role as a princess.

Still, she'd learned much of the way in being polite to people she didn't like. "Have you brought in another group to deal with?"

"It is a waste to keep you here like this." It was her own thoughts said out loud by the woman across from her. "We both know you were better suited as a knight than a princess. I am Zeta." The blonde beastkin smiled at her. "Another of Shadow's direct subordinates and so I answer only to him. Come I have a mission for you, to take the fight to the enemy."

She hadn't even started on training with her slime weapon. Was still working on the new swordsmanship refinements that she'd been taught by Victoria. "It seems like you already know how to do that yourself."

"I do, and you are like me, you have the instincts and will to be strong. All you lack is the training, and I will give it to you." She extended her hand a smile on her face. "Come with me and I will show you how to burn away all your enemies beneath your blade,"

"You can make me as strong as Shadow?" Because compared to the demon that had overrun the stadium at full power she was still far too weak.

Zeta paused her confidence turning to shock and disbelief at the words. "Strong like me and Alpha not Shadow… I don't know how to get that strong either right now."

It was still a step forward though, as she took the hand offered and stepped up.

She'd selected her team, and it was her team regardless of what anyone else would say. Built from those members willing to follow her orders above and beyond what Alpha had said. Epsilon would have some degree of control, but the very nature of her work in Orianna meant she wouldn't be with them in the shadows, and so she would be free to act as she pleased.

But there was still one thing she hadn't expected as she rested on the windowsill looking into the half-awake form of there last member. "Normally you'd stay away from the field missions, are you sure you'll be able to keep up."

Eta nodded from the bed she'd returned to. "Need to go though and it's not like we're not on the same side here."

She hesitated at the possible answers. "The two of us are both Shadow Garden I don't doubt that at all. Just that normally you can get carried away and avoid missions like this so its been a long time since we went out together."

The blank stare Eta gave her back could be from sleep, or it could be from disdain as well. "Yes, and you haven't picked Victoria and only members of your own faction to go along with us, because as we both know you are obedient under Alpha's rule."

She was loyal, just not to Alpha but to the mission itself. "The mission is just to help Epsilon look into the situation in Orianna while being backup whenever our lord might need it, is there anything else you see to it." Beyond the promise that they might find something worth secreting away.

"Shadow wants to be immortal." The statement hung in the air a truth both of them knew. That the end goal of her faction was to use the power of a demon to grant him that immortality that he could guide Shadow Garden forever. Eta did not stop there though. "Azrael has a method of becoming a demon, a path to immortality that we know works. I want to obtain his corpse and study it as a present for our lord."

"You have a plan?" Because if Eta didn't she would have to make one herself. Anything for her Lord was acceptable and while Alpha had wanted them to work with Azrael if possible. It was not possible for her to give up on a chance to help Shadow. "A sample of blood or even the whole corpse, if it can help our lord there is no price too high to pay."

Eta nodded calmly enough. "And finally my lab will have something Shadow wants to see in it."

"The three of you are watching me right now to make sure I stay out of trouble?" But he was leaving anyway without saying because goodbyes were awkward.

Nu followed in his shadow and nodded in assent. "Anything you need I will arrange for it."

"Alpha said to keep an eye on you while you're still healing and she's in a meeting." Delta and Pi chorused together, the two beastkin remaining all smiles as they acknowledged their goal.

But it was fine because he knew how to deal with them. "But you know what the first rule of Shadow Garden is don't you?"

The two of them only looked confused in response. But Nu was competent and at least remembered the lore he'd given as she answered. "Any order from Shadow overrides all other orders."

He grinned as his stride lengthened. "And that's why the three of you will watch as I get on the train to Orianna, leaving Midgar behind for the intrigue that lies beneath the placid façade that wraps itself around its tranquil visage for the darker intrigues hidden within."

He would not say goodbye, for he was mysterious and elusive and could only disappear into the night. His steps taking him over the threshold to the journey ahead.

Without a second thought, like the little ducklings they were the three of them casually followed him onto the train, never once letting him out of their sight.

Which is why he was here now sitting in front of Rose. "These three are the newest members of the Order of the Black Rose, my most trusted subordinates to fight back against the rot lurking within."

She marshalled herself in moments and accepted it for what it was. "My father did say you had ten members, so at least like this we don't have to fake as many of them as we thought."

Ten members. Ten current members sounded better a lie in itself as he took it and made it his own. "Eleven, no more and no less will I have come to his aid."

There were only four of them in the room. Five if you included Beatrix but when had he ever let something as small as reality get in the way. He smiled mysteriously even as Rose looked at him in doubt.

"The boss has said eleven, so you only get that many people." Delta and Pi both chorused it together as they leaned in. Happy and cheerful in their ignorance.

Nu cleared her throat and clarified for them. "Eleven is more than ten."

Delta paused and started counting on her fingers all the while Pi watched intently as though in doubt to the answer. Finally, she reached ten and nodded her head firmly in response once she reached it. "The boss is giving you more than ten so be grateful."

Rose eyed the two of them carefully. "Are they really going to be okay being part of something like this."

Nu rested her hand on Rose's shoulder. "Our lord has chosen them for it, so they are the best help you could ever receive."

He'd find a way through it, at least this way they didn't need to know enough about the plan to ruin it. "It will be fine, so your father can keep going on about ten, I'll bring eleven and everything will work out."

He could work with this. Maybe even turn it into the true secret ending and bring out a final twelfth member of his own at the final hour.

AN: A day later than I planned but had some last minute work to be done on it.

Lots of fun set up for the next arc in this chapter, some of it tended towards less fluffy because Cid ignores Etas feelings and Zeta and Eta are heading for important character development for Orianna and Earth.

Well they're both getting interactions with Cid in the arc so they can get more fluff there too, while Gamma always needs lots of fluff in epilogues because its hard to involve her in main arcs.

Anisomeone: I promise I'm not going to be too harsh on Zeta this arc for you, she will get fluff.

Borregodillon9: Next chapter arrives

A-Yellow-Lizard: Well have been putting a lot of planning into next arc so let's hope it comes out just as well.