sustraiii

[sustraiii]

THE VICTOR | A ZRCN SPECIAL REWRITE

As with the rewrite of arc 1 and the continued rewrite of arc 2, it felt right to update what ended up being the only special of the whole fic.

So enjoy!

Wren

The Vytal Festival was one of the few times Huntsmen and Huntresses in training got to prove themselves at such a grand scale. Wren had waited eagerly for her time to participate, missing her first opportunity two years prior when her team was not selected to attend, before finally getting her chance this year.

Only some teams got to participate in the festival during their school years so when Team WLOW were finally invited to compete for Atlas in Atlas, Wren was determined to make the most of it. She attended as many matches as she could - lessons permitting - watching eagerly to see how the other teams performed, met with contestants from the other academies, and frequented many of the events the academy hosted in tandem with the actual tournament.

Team WLOW had easily moved past the teams round but it would be in the doubles round where they would meet their downfall.

Wren had known they were going to compete against the Valean Team COPR and had rewatched their previous match to prepare. Initially, Wren had wanted to put herself and Stanford forward to compete, but Lorelei had been persistent in asking to accompany Wren. Against her better judgment, Wren eventually relented and agreed to let Lorelei be her partner.

Facing off against Otso Umber and Raleigh Radcliff, Wren initially felt in high spirits and liked the odds that the battle could have gone either way. As it drew to a close, Wren was confident that she and Lorelei might even have been able to win. They had succeeded in chipping away at their two opponents steadily throughout the match, with Wren utilising her clones to deal primarily with Raleigh, whilst she and Lorelei tried to deal with Otso.

As the battle was winding down, Otso had his massive greatsword drawn back ready to attack. Wren motioned to Lorelei to stay back and deal with Raleigh, knowing that she stood a better chance against the ursine man with her weapon. One or two direct blasts with the missiles from her weapon ought to have taken his aura down to a critical level and handed them the win.

Wren was rushing forward when suddenly she collided with Lorelei, who ignored Wren’s instructions and seemed set on dealing with Otso herself and ignoring Wren’s earlier instruction in the middle of battle. The two women stumbled and fell before quickly trying to separate their tangled bodies. Lorelei promptly gave her a mouthful for not looking where she was going as they did so, meanwhile, Wren just stared back unable to believe what she was hearing whilst quietly seething about how Lorelei dared to be angry with her.

Although Lorelei was able to get back onto her feet, neither woman was aptly prepared to deal with the counterstrike from Otso after their accident. Lorelei was only standing upright for a few moments before her legs buckled and she started screaming as she was struck by Otso’s pain-inflicting semblance. Wren could feel it prickling at the edges of her mind too, though shielded her ears to try and nullify the effects as best she could. Left defenceless after this, neither of them could counter the shockwave that came when Otso’s weapon struck the ground near them and dropped both their auras below the critical level.

Despite the pain of losing, Wren tried her best to be gracious about the defeat. She shook hands with both of her opponents - ignoring the smug brag from Raleigh in the process - and bid a humble farewell to the home crowd as they left the arena for the last time as competitors. 

It was only in the wake of their defeat that irritation took root in her heart and began to bloom. 

A day had barely passed before Lorelei began to complain about the defeat speaking in vague terms that hinted about how the loss was Wren’s fault without actually outright blaming her. Looking at her now as she spoke with Stanford, choosing her words carefully so as not to outright blame Wren for the loss, Wren just wanted to hit her.  So much so, in fact, that Wren found her hands clenched into fists. She could not say for certain whether she would have had more luck if she had been allowed to partner with Stanford as she had initially wanted, but they certainly would have fared much better. He probably would have given that irritating Raleigh a harder time at least.

Wren was beginning to wonder how much longer she could listen to Lorelei’s excuses without flying across the room and slapping her. It was a relief when she was aware of Olive’s presence next to her, her green-haired teammate having drifted over from where she had been reading in the corner of their dorm.

A hand rested comfortingly on her shoulder. “You seem a little stressed,” Olive observed, tip-toeing slightly to whisper in Wren’s ear.  “Do you want to get out for a bit? Maybe go to the fair?”

“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Wren responded softly. With Lorelei having corralled Stanford into a forced conversation, the two of them saw their opportunity to sneak out of the room hopefully unnoticed. Unfortunately, they were not so lucky in that regard.

“And where do you two think you’re going?” Lorelei asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Behind her, Stanford shot them a sympathetic glance. Out of WLOW, Stanford seemed to be the only one Lorelei could truly tolerate, which was amusing given how much she could annoy him as well.

“We’re heading out for a little bit,” Olive answered.  “I thought Wren could do with a little cheering up after that defeat.”

Lorelei eyed them carefully for a moment. “I think our time would be better used discussing what went wrong,” Wren noted how the woman’s violet gaze shifted to her momentarily, and she felt the heat rise to her cheeks, “and how we can overcome this.”

Wren felt an angry barb threatening to spill out of her mouth, so it was lucky when Olive intervened for her. 

“Oh fuck off, Lorelei,” Olive said, waving her off. “Don’t act like you care about team tactics after that stunt you played in the last match.”

Following Olive’s remark, Lorelei merely gawked at the two of them. Wren suspected she might have had something to say in response had it not been for Olive promptly pulling Wren out of the dorm with her and hurrying down the corridor. They paused once they were a safe distance away and were certain Lorelei hadn’t followed them. Both Wren and Olive looked at each other awkwardly before bursting out laughing, neither of them seeming to believe what Olive had just said. They let their giggles out before regaining their composure and heading out to the festival grounds in the city. 

***

“I swear that woman is insufferable!”

Next to her, Olive nodded her head in agreement, whilst managing to swallow a mouthful of noodles. After escaping from the room, the pair made their way down to the fairground that had been set up for the festival. It wasn’t as large or as grand as some of the fairgrounds that the other kingdoms put together, but by Atlesian standards, it was fairly decent. After perusing some of the items on offer, Olive had led her to a noodle stall called “Deal or Noo-deal”, and bought them two large bowls, offering to pay for the meal as part of a “cheer up” present for Wren.

“You know I’ll be glad when we graduate and can go our own ways,” Wren admitted, earning a glance from Olive. She knew her friend well enough to know it wasn’t a judgemental look but rather one borne of curiosity.  “You, Stan, and me, we should form a team together, Lorelei be damned. We’ll call ourselves Team WOW.”

Olive laughed, quickly swallowing her mouthful of noodles lest she choke. “The feeling is mutual you know.”

“How so?” Wren quirked a brow. Was Olive referring to herself and Stanford?

“Lorelei has mentioned wanting to form our own ‘mini team’ numerous times before. Without you, of course,” Olive said setting down her chopsticks. Wren rolled her eyes. “She thinks you’re holding us back.”

“Of course she would,” Wren scoffed. “Her head is so far up her own ass I’m surprised she could tell.”

At this, Olive snorted with laughter, and Wren couldn’t help but laugh along with her.

“Whilst that sounds like a nice idea, I thought you’d been offered the chance to become a specialist by the army?” Olive said once they had both calmed down. “Wouldn’t that kinda prevent the three of us from operating as a team?” Olive pointed out.

“Oh, I was offered that, but I’m not sure if it’s what I want right now,” Wren admitted, with an awkward shrug. She had never been opposed to becoming a specialist, seeing it as an opportunity to do some real good in the kingdom, whilst also having a bit more structure and stability than regular Huntsmen had. Time in the academy had made her less keen to join once she graduated and more keen to explore her options as an independent Huntress. 

“What?!” Olive exclaimed. “Why not? You’d make a great specialist!”

“Thanks,” Wren said, smiling at the compliment. “I mean don’t get me wrong, I’d still like to become one, but I’d rather do other things first, and I don’t know, get out there and see the world. Plus, if they want me that bad I’m sure they won’t mind waiting a few years, right?”

Olive shrugged at the last part but offered a sympathetic smile. “Hey, it’s your life, Wren, live it as you see fit,” Olive said. “If you are thinking of holding off for a few years, I hope that means we get to go on a few more adventures together after graduation.”

“Of course we will,” Wren smiled. “You promised me you’d show me Vale, remember?”

The pair continued to eat their meal, mostly talking about the tournament so far, and who they predicted to win. With their team’s defeat, only a handful of competitors were left, though there was still one doubles match to be fought out. Olive seemed to think a young man from Mistral had a good shout. Wren seemed more convinced by the Vacuo team that had far exceeded everyone’s expectations. As Wren launched into a lengthy conversation about why the Vacuo team might be the winner, she noted her partner’s gaze shift to somewhere behind her before suddenly looking forward.

“Don’t turn around.” Olive urged.

“What, why?”

But Wren had her answer when a familiar voice rang in her ears.

“Well, well, if it isn’t little Birdy and Olivine!”

Wren swiftly turned around in her seat, spotting the person the voice belonged to - Raleigh Radcliff. As if the day wasn’t bad enough already, the very man she and Lorelei had lost to, was also approaching - the abnormally tall, Otso Umber. 

“That’s not my name.” Wren snapped, halting them in their tracks. “And that’s not her name either.”

“What?”

“Olive Vines,” Olive clarified, turning around to face the two as Wren was. She flashed them a falsely sweet smile. “It’s two names actually but it's an easy mistake.”

“My name isn’t Birdy,” Wren said soon after, “It is Wren. Wren Honeycutt.”

Raleigh made a shrug, feigning an apologetic look for having gotten her name wrong. “So, what were you two talking about?”

Wren groaned inwardly, wishing that of all the members of Team COPR they hadn’t been stuck with these two. Otso was fine, if a little unnervingly quiet, but Raleigh was far too smug for her tastes. His bravado reminded her of some of the male students at the academy who seemed intent on flirting with her if they were put together in class. What she wouldn’t have done for the company of Priscilla Chiffon from Team COPR, at least she was more polite than her teammates and would have fit in better with Olive and Wren. 

“We were talking about who will win the tournament,” Wren responded, moving to turn away from them.

“Ah, so us then,” Raleigh said gesturing to himself and Otso behind him.

“What, no!” Wren protested, having turned around to face them again. “Him, maybe,” She gestured towards Otso, “but you certainly don’t strike me as winning material.”

Raleigh’s smile faded slightly but he pushed on. “Well you still lost to us didn’t you?”

Wren groaned, rolling her eyes a little. “Don’t remind me.”

“Tell me, Wren, are you a betting woman?” Raleigh suddenly asked.

Wren blinked in surprise, eyeing him suspiciously. “Depends,” She said slowly. “Why do you ask?”

“You seem so determined to believe we won’t win, so let’s have a little fun with it,” He responded. “Fifty Lien sound reasonable to you?”

“What are the terms first?” Wren cut in.

“Well, if you’re right and we do lose, I’ll pay you fifty Lien, and as a bonus, I’ll treat you to a lovely gift from one of these stalls,” Raleigh began, taking a moment to pause so the first of his terms had time to sink in.

Wren made a show of looking as though she were deeply considering his terms. “The Lien would do fine, but if you want to go out of your way to spend more, go ahead,” Wren cut in, with a sweet smile playing on her lips. “I’m in need of a new pair of boots anyway.”

Raleigh studied her carefully for a moment, returning her smile with a dazzlingly charming one, before finishing the terms of his little wager.  “If I’m right, and we win, you owe me fifty Lien, and you have to go on a date with me.”

Wren’s brows raised in surprise, and beside her, she could hear Olive protesting against this. After a moment of thinking this over, she extended a hand for him to shake. “Deal.”

With a small chuckle, Raleigh reached out and shook her hand. He was still holding her hand when he bent his head and kissed her knuckles lightly.  “I look forward to our date.” He said, relinquishing her hand with a wink as he and his friend departed.

Wren watched the two of them leave, suddenly aware of the warmth in her cheeks, though she didn’t know if it was out of anger at his teasing or because she had actually rather enjoyed the little kiss on her knuckles.

Once they were gone, both women turned back to their bowls of noodles.

“I can’t believe you just made a bet with him,” Olive said shaking her head. “You know you really will  have to go on a date with him if he wins.”

“Him, winning?” Wren threw her head back in false laughter. “That won’t happen in a million years, especially not against that Vacuo team.” Or rather that was the hope at least. Team TEAL had gone from rank outsiders to one of the favourites to win. Although she didn’t know which team member would be stepping up, Wren didn’t think Raleigh would be able to compete with the likes of Tequila Alvarado or Bailey Estrada.

Olive shook her head again, this time in a more amused fashion. “If you say so, Wren,” She said, before picking up some more noodles between her chopsticks.  “Just remember that when you come crawling to me complaining about having to go out with him then.”

“Oh, Livvy, you do worry too much sometimes,” Wren said, patting her friend on the shoulder. “Trust me, it’s never going to happen.”

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE EPILOGUE

Here's the epilogue for the first arc rewrite! Slowly working on the arc 2 stuff currently but keep an eye out for when that drops too!

Wisteria

A fresh cup of Friar Tuck’s in her hand, Wisteria moved down the street with ease. To any passersby, she would have just looked like a regular citizen, enjoying a latte on a brisk Atlesian day.

When she reached her destination, Wisteria looked up and down the street, before removing a key card from her bag and letting herself in. On the outside, it looked to be a private, three-storied apartment building, but had long ago been emptied and rebuilt as a place of operations for Farron Hargrave and his people.

Wisteria left her coat and bag downstairs, making note of who was already present, before climbing two flights of stairs to reach Farron’s office within the building. She had barely reached the door when she could hear yelling.

“It isn’t your place to ask questions on production!”

Wisteria winced slightly as she entered the room, Candy’s yelling already beginning to annoy her. The pink-haired woman was speaking down to one of their associates, a faunus named Lunick. Sometimes the two of them had butted heads in the past but never to this extent. More often than not, Candy playfully flirted with him, as she did with Farron too.

“Ladies, ladies, it’s a little early to be yelling don’t you think?” Wisteria said, preventing Candy from saying something else. “What’s the problem?”

“I was telling Candy how the incident at the factory has obviously dropped production values,” Lunick said, shooting Wisteria an appreciative look.

“It isn’t your place to look into that!” Candy snapped. “Just stick to your computers.”

Lunick sighed, rubbing his temple with his hand. “When your antics have an impact on the funds we have then it becomes my place, Candy,” He told her, managing to keep his voice surprisingly even. “If you’d rather work without any money then feel free. We’ll see how long that lasts when you come crawling to me asking for someone to help fix your weapons because you broke them yet again.”

Wisteria smirked. “Does she come crawling there for anything else, Lunick?”

“Wisteria I swear I’ll -”

“Nice to see you’re all getting along,” A fourth voice cut in. Standing in the doorway stood Farron Hargrave, the leader of the group. His green eyes studied them all carefully, before he walked round to his desk, and took a seat.

With Farron now having arrived, Candy was quick to play nice, walking over to his desk and sitting on it. Lunick merely rolled his eyes and sighed softly but seemed quietly relieved not to have Candy snapping at him currently.

“How was your trip, Farron?” Candy asked, using the sugary sweet voice she reserved only for when she was playing nice. 

“Fine,” He grumbled, his neutral expression suddenly shifting to a frown. “Or at least it was until the police started asking questions! Do any of you care to explain what happened?”

“Well as you know, Lunick suggested Verde to us, so any blame for what happened at Verdant Storage goes to him.”

“Thank you for that, Candy,” Farron said with a sarcastic tone. “And whilst I will need to speak with Lunick about Verde, what happened at Verdant Storage was not the problem. I am talking about my factory, my family’s factory. Which I had entrusted to you to take care of whilst I was gone.”

“You’re not blaming me surely!?” Candy said with an incredulous tone jumping off the desk.

“The machines were riddled with mostly your bullet holes were they not? You were also supposed to have moved those additional supplies by the time of the attack.”

“If I may interrupt, sir,” Wisteria said with a cough. Farron and Candy both turned to to look at her, whilst Farron had returned to his neutral expression, Candy’s was nothing but hostile. “Candy is merely angry because she was defeated by a group of children.”

Farron arched a brow. Candy on the other hand was quick to remove herself from the desk and march over to Wisteria.

“I was not the only one ‘defeated’ by them.”

“I was not defeated by them,” Wisteria pointed out. “I was helping get you out of there so you didn’t wind up like our dear friends Merlot and Saika.”

“As if I would fail like-”

“Enough!” Farron snapped, silencing the two women. Whilst Candy turned to him with a pleading glance, Wisteria found herself feeling quite smug.

“What’s done is done,” Farron began, now addressing everyone in the room. “To avoid further questions, I have allowed the police to seize the factory completely, claiming that I have no knowledge of the supplies found there.”

“And that worked?” Lunick asked. “Surely having the supplies found there won’t look good when held up against your existing record and discharge from the army.”

Farron nodded his head, his brow furrowing slightly. “You are right it doesn’t look good. Thankfully my brother still has legal ownership of the factory, and as I was away on business at the time, it should provide us with enough cover to get away.”

“And go where?” Candy asked.

“You and I will be returning to Shizukana,” Farron said, looking at Candy. “That is where we have been funnelling most of our resources, and we already have a base of operations there as you all know.” He paused and now looked at Lunick and Wisteria. “Lunick will stay here and continue to monitor his network. Hopefully, he might even be able to lure Verde out from whatever hole he crawled into. As for Wisteria, she will also be joining us on Shizukana, but not before seizing the asset from Crocus.”

Wisteria seemed a bit surprised by this. She had no idea what the ‘asset’ was, but she knew it had to be something of value, as the man who informed them was an old military contact of Farron. Like Farron, he wasn’t part of the military anymore, though he left on his own volition rather than being discharged, and currently worked at a laboratory in the city. From what little she knew, the laboratory took a lot of contracts from the military, upgrading weapons and armour, and helping with some of the androids they used. However, following the incident at Beacon, she imagined they probably wouldn’t be dealing with robots for a while.

“I thought you wanted me to retrieve the asset?” Candy said, looking surprisingly crestfallen.

Farron’s steely gaze fixed on Candy. “I did initially. However, I require someone with a certain degree of subtlety to retrieve it, and following your antics at the factory I do not think I can trust you to handle it anymore.”

“She almost blew the place up with her little trick with the dust crystal!” Candy protested.

“I’m aware of that, and whilst that wasn’t too wise of our friend, I’m willing to overlook it for the time being due to her previous track record,” He explained. He glanced towards Wisteria. “Whilst I do not doubt your skills, the place is likely to be highly secured, do you have anyone you trust to accompany you?”

Wisteria inclined her head to the side. “I know some people who’ll be willing to help me.” Nieve and Ulysses had been waiting in the wings for an eventuality such as this.

Farron nodded. “Good. Speak to them as soon as you can - today if possible. I would like the asset retrieved as soon as possible. Once you do have it, I would advise you lay low for a few days before joining us on Shizukana, to ensure the police aren’t tracking you.”

“As you wish,” Wisteria said, dipping her head in acknowledgement. With a new task at hand, she was about to leave the room but found herself stopping near the door to respond to the questioning look Candy gave her. “I’ll get in contact with my people and we’ll get on this right away.” She stopped to give a wink to Candy, aiming to further rile her up. “See you soon.”

Wisteria headed back downstairs to retrieve her coat and bag before leaving. She discarded her empty coffee cup in a bin as she left, and then waited a moment to ensure the door was locked behind her. Wisteria made sure she was a safe distance away from the meeting place, before pulling out the modified scroll she carried with her. She clicked it on and scrolled down until she saw the person she needed to call and pressed their name. They answered within a few rings.

“Bianca,” Wisteria greeted.

“How good to hear from you again, Wisteria. We were beginning to think you had forgotten about us.”

“I have news,” Wisteria said coolly, hoping to get straight to the point. “Farron intends to move his operations to Shizukana. I will be joining him there soon, but I will first need Nieve and Ulysses to help retrieve the asset we discussed weeks back.”

“He’s finally decided to go after it then? Excellent. Ensure that you have it delivered to us once you’ve dealt with them. Belle is practically salivating at the chance to get her hands on new Atlesian tech,” Bianca said, with the faintest hint of sarcasm. There was a pause before they spoke again. “How long do you think it will take you to deal with them?”

“Not long I don’t think,” Wisteria began. “They were practically falling apart by the time I arrived two months ago and all these recent setbacks have only added to our advantage.”

“That is pleasing to hear, and I’m sure father will be delighted as well. The sooner Farron has been dealt with, the sooner you can return to us and we can begin phase three. Now get in contact with Nieve and Ulysses and I hope when we next speak you’ll bring me further good news.” There was a small click as Bianca disconnected the call.

“Here’s hoping,” Wisteria mumbled to herself, sliding the scroll back into her back pocket. She scanned the area for a moment, before heading off into the city to reunite with her dear friends Nieve and Ulysses.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 12

After leaving the Sewick's house, the team finally make it to where they need to be.

Neela

Neela had never been so glad to escape an awkward meal in all her life. And as an Oxford, one of the most esteemed families in Highpoint, there had been plenty of awkward dinners or formal occasions. None seemed to quite live up to just how bad that final lunch with the Sewicks had been.

Neela felt bad just leaving things as is but opted not to push things, unlike Xanthos. She knew he didn't mean to be rude by it but she could also see Zelde was in no mood to answer, much less acknowledge what had happened, so had nudged him to be quiet.

When they finally found the address Wren had given them, Neela was quietly relieved that the house was located on a side street and that they were away from the prying eyes of any nosy townsfolk. As they approached the house in question, Neela was surprised at how plain it looked, or at least plain by Apex standards. It was in the same style as most of the other houses in this street, but the door was painted a shade of golden yellow, which made it stand out against the neutral tone of the rest of the building.

Cordovan lightly knocked on the door, and a few moments later, a muffled voice could be heard from inside, shouting that they would be with them in a moment. The man who opened the door was wearing a painter's smock and had a paintbrush tucked behind one ear. His greying brown hair fell just past his shoulders but was held back in a ponytail. He studied them for a moment, golden eyes blinking once, before gesturing for them to come inside.

“Please, come in,” he said as he stepped aside. Once everyone was inside, he quietly shut the door behind them and offered them a warm smile before turning to look at Cordovan. “It’s good to see you again, Cordovan. You’re looking well.” He put an arm on his shoulder for a moment and squeezed.

Cordovan returned the smile. “Thanks, Chen.”

“Liv!” The man suddenly called, shouting down the hallway. “Cordovan's here!”

There was some commotion in the room at the bottom of the hall before a dark-skinned woman with wavy green hair and eyes came striding down the hall, arms outstretched for a hug.

“Cordovan!” She greeted warmly, practically pulling him into her arms herself. “It's so good to see you again.”

Cordovan chuckled nervously, patting the woman fondly on the back. “It's good to see you too, Olive.” He stepped back and then gestured to ZRCN. “These are my teammates - Zelde Sewick, Xanthos Ravindra, and Neela Oxford.”

“Pleasure to meet you all,” Olive smiled, bowing her head in acknowledgement.

“This is Olive Vines and Chen Yeung,” Cordovan continued, introducing the older couple to his teammates. Neela could not say she knew the man very well, but the woman's name was familiar, recalling she had been on a team with Cordovan's mother in her youth.

“Darling, I’d love to stay, but my work calls,” Chen said, somewhat apologetically. He kissed Olive quickly on the cheek. Chen gave them a little wave goodbye, before hurrying upstairs.

“Is Chen working on a new commission?” Cordovan asked.

“Ah, he's an artist then?” Neela prompted. “I did notice the paintbrush.” She made a vague gesture at her own ear, to which Olive chuckled.

“He paints mostly but dabbles in pottery too. Our home is like a regular little art studio!” Olive giggled. As she started to walk back down the hall, the rest of ZRCN followed close behind her. She led them into an expansive, open-plan kitchen and living room. To the left, sat an impressive kitchen with granite countertops, a kitchen island, and a green range cooker. To the right was a cosy living room, or what probably passed as a secondary living room. Adjacent to where two velvet sofas were placed around a small fireplace, were two glass doors that opened out onto a well maintained patio.

“Chen is currently working on a commission for Councilman Miller Wulfric,” Olive explained, gesturing for ZRCN to make themselves comfortable whilst she busied herself in her kitchen making drinks for them. “Do any of you know of him?”

Of the four of them, Neela would have been the most likely to have known him, and ironically she did. Her father and the Mistrali councilman had arranged a deal to build upon Highpoint’s defences.

“I’ve never met him but my father knows of him,” Neela explained.

“You're an Oxford aren't you?” Olive asked, to which Neela quickly reconfirmed with a nod. “Mhm, yes, he's a nice man. Chen visited him a few weeks back to have him sit for some preliminary sketches. One of his sons ordered the commission I believe, but Councilman Wulfric was fully aware of the planned portrait. The final product will be a nice surprise I’m sure though.”

“Dad's very proud of it already.” An amused chuckle sounded from the doorway to the patio. Stood in the doorway was none other than Helia Vines herself. She was wearing casual, civilian clothes, but looked no less radiant than she did in her Huntress gear.

“Nee, Nee!” Xanthos excitedly whispered in her ear. “It's Helia Vines!”

“I know, Ravi, I know,” Neela laughed. “I do have eyes.”

Neela had never met Helia in person before, but had seen some of her interviews, and had obviously seen her Vytal win. She had always thought her to be effortlessly cool, and the way she had dispatched her opponent with ease in her final Vytal match had left a lasting impression on Neela, as it had likely done for many people. However, standing in the comfort of her own home, there was a sort of gentleness to Helia that Neela hadn’t expected. In casual clothes, her hair held up in a matching style to her mother, and lacking her signature katanas, she appeared very soft and gentle, not someone who you would immediately bring to mind when thinking of a huntress.

“It's nice to finally meet you, Team ZRCN,” Helia smiled, stepping further into the house and shaking their hands. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Zelde looked a bit confused by this. “You have?”

“Oh yes, we know a fair bit about you,” Olive confirmed. “Wren often speaks of how well little Cordovan and his team are doing at the academy.”

“Well, I don't think Cordovan is little anymore, mom,” Helia smirked, looking at Cordovan. It was only then that Neela noted that they stood at a similar height. “Gone are the days when you barely came up to my shoulder.”

“Gone are the days when I used to be able to train with him and have the upper hand!” Olive remarked. As she came to stand by them, she took a note of Cordovan's weapon. “That sword form on your weapon puts mine to shame.”

“I doubt my swordsmanship would ever hold a candle to you or Helia though, Olive,” Cordovan smiled. “You were the best sword teacher I ever had.”

“I was your only sword teacher!” Olive corrected, giving him a playful smack on the arm. The green-haired woman excused herself to finish the drinks off at the kitchen island. With her mother busy finishing the drinks, Helia urged the team to sit down on the sofas, smiling when Olive came back with the drinks, and taking a hot chocolate from her mother.

“So…” Helia began, pausing to blow the steam from her drink and take a tentative sip. “What's this mission we'll be working on together?”

“You don't know?” Cordovan asked.

Helia shook her head. “Wren only messaged to say you needed help. I didn't ask much else.”

“I was a little wary of Helia accepting,” Olive explained. “She was supposed to be resting here after some difficult months in Mistral.”

Helia rolled her eyes at her mother's words but it seemed to be in a good natured way. “As I told my mom, you're family, Cordovan. I think I can make one tiny exception to my rule.”

“If you’d rather stay behind that that’s fine,” Cordovan was quick to say. “I know you get a lot of work and mission requests so I understand you wanting to get away from it all. Don’t feel obligated to have to help just because this is my team.”

“Nonsense!” Helia waved him off. “Besides, you're all here now, it would be a waste of a journey if I didn't at least try to help you.”

Neela looked at Zelde quickly after this, thinking it would also be a waste of Zelde enduring her mother.

Zelde was the one who took over explaining for them. Beginning with the Princeton's raid, Zelde then went on to explain how they had been tasked with the mission after it had been brushed aside following the Fall of Beacon. As she continued, explaining the connection with the Mistrali police, their capture of Merlot and Saika, and the failed investigation of Hargrave Manufacturing, Helia and her mother listened intently all the while.

“If these Hargraves are who I think they are, they could prove to be problematic,” Olive said after a moment. Neela noticed she was speaking more to her daughter rather than Team ZRCN as she said this.

“I recognise the name at least,” Helia confessed. “They were suspected to have been involved in a big mining accident a few years back. They practically owned the mine in question beforehand, and after the accident pretty much cut all ties with it, and most of the family fled back to their home in Atlas.”

“They owned a mine?” Xanthos asked. “That never showed up in any searches we did for the name. Where was this mine?”

Helia turned to Xanthos, meeting his gaze for a moment, before looking at each of the team in turn. Strangely, before speaking, she let out a long sigh, as if what she was going to say next weighed heavily upon her.

“It's okay,” Her mother squeezed her hand. “Take your time, Helia.”

Helia returned the squeeze before looking back to ZRCN. “Have you heard of a place called Shizukana before?”

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 11

Dinner with Zelde's parents - it is as bad as you think it will be.

Xanthos

The plan had been to only stay a night whilst the storm passed. However, the storm turned out to be worse than expected and a night became three.

For the first night, Xanthos had been eager to stay in such a large house, and finally learn more about Zelde and her life. By the first morning, Xanthos was eager to leave and could understand why Zelde was so reluctant to speak about her past.

The vast majority of Zelde's family had been welcoming enough, if a little too stiff and formal for Xanthos's tastes. But Oriana Serac had actively gone out of their way to make all of them feel unwelcome, none more so than her daughter. 

Luckily by the third morning, the weather had cleared and Cordovan messaged Olive Vines to inform her they would be with them soon. Before they were to leave they had been invited to lunch.

Zelde had been reluctant to agree but Oriana rather snidely insisted they stay, stating that she did not know when she would ever see her daughter again. Xanthos hoped for Zelde's sake it was never.

After being urged to freshen up again, Guilford had led the four of them upstairs, directing them to two separate rooms to freshen up. Cordovan and Xanthos in one and Neela and Zelde in the other. They had only been left alone for a few minutes when Guilford had returned with a pile of folded clothing, which he proceeded to hand out to Xanthos. He must have made a face, as the older man was quick to explain that it was Oriana’s insistence he ‘dress up’, as his current outfit wasn’t appropriate for her lunch. Xanthos had frowned but he quietly thanked Guilford and took the clothes. Besides, they were guests here, the least he could do was abide by their rules. 

Xanthos nervously adjusted the collar of his shirt, finding that no matter what he did, it didn’t seem to sit comfortably on him. He caught his reflection in the mirror and shook his head. He did not like wearing such formal clothes, he disliked the way they looked on him and found them too constricting.

Xanthos adjusted the shirt collar one more time when Cordovan exited the bathroom. 

Cordovan took one look at him and a small smirk formed on his face.

“I know, I know, I look hideous.” 

“Actually, I was going to say it suits you,” Cordovan said. “That’s probably the smartest thing I’ve seen you wear that wasn't our academy uniform.”

“Oh, uh thanks,” Xanthos responded with a small laugh.

Having now freshened up, the two headed downstairs, where they were told to wait for the girls in the hallway by Guilford. Cordovan waited quietly, eyes focused on the doors, whilst Xanthos found himself looking around the hall some more, taking in the impressive architecture of the home.

Both their attentions were caught when Zelde and Neela descended the stairs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cordovan look away, concealing the blush that had begun to form on his cheeks. Although even if hadn’t tried to hide his blush, Xanthos wasn’t sure Zelde would have noticed, as her gaze was firmly trained on him, more specifically his clothing.

“You didn't have to change,” She said.

“Your mother insisted,” Guilford explained to Zelde for him. Zelde pulled a face but didn't argue and allowed them to be guided into the dining room by Guilford, with a table that was already set with an array of food and drink awaited them. The Sewicks were already picking at some plates of food, so thankfully, the team did not have to wait to be invited to sit.

Xanthos went for some simple food options, filling his plate with rice, some assorted vegetables, and a chicken breast. He was not usually the sort to be so plain with his food choices, but half of what was on offer looked so unappealing, that he had to wonder if it even really was food.

As they ate - or in Xanthos’s case, nibbled - quiet conversation filled the air. It was Callaway who talked the most, asking a vast array about the team’s experiences as huntsmen. Xanthos was more than happy to answer him, even if most of the questions Callaway had asked over the past three days had been much the same. Everyone seemed to be content to answer him, but it was a little difficult to keep up with, what with all the questions. Although he himself did not ask any questions, Albus seemed a little interested in what was being said, and Xanthos noted he listened intently, occasionally saying something to prompt a further response. Unsurprisingly, Oriana seemed disinterested in the conversation, her only response being to glare at her husband or son when began to speak about it.

Xanthos couldn’t help but wonder what her problem was. Sure she was a wealthy, upper-class Atlesian woman, but that was hardly any excuse for her dismissive behaviour. 

“So the Ursa-”

“Callaway,” Oriana cut her son off with a sharp glare. The woman was currently eating a bowl of soup and had set her spoon down briefly to address her son. “Must you insist on speaking about such a gorey subject whilst we’re having lunch? It is putting me off of my soup.”

Callaway lowered his head. “Sorry, mother.”

They ate in silence for a solid ten minutes, before Oriana, now having finished her meal, broke the silence.

“So, tell me a little about yourselves,” Oriana said, her blue eyes glancing around the table. “Zelde hasn’t spoken to us in years, so I know nothing about any of you.” Xanthos was fighting the urge to remind her she had mostly ignored them and spoken derisively towards them over the past three days. “Do any of you have any relatives in your family who trained as huntsmen? Did they approve of your decision to become one?”

Xanthos shifted a little at her last question. He noted Oriana glanced at her daughter for a long moment as she asked it, and he suddenly felt very uncomfortable as if intruding on a private argument. He couldn’t help but wonder if Zelde leaving to train as a huntress drove the wedge between them.

Neela was the first to answer. “Well, I was born and raised in Highpoint, as the youngest of three. I presume you know my family - the Oxfords?” Both Albus and Oriana gave a small nod before Neela continued. “None of my immediate family were huntsmen, though my brother wanted to train as one when he was younger. He didn’t have the stomach for it, so pulled out the month before he was due to leave for school. My parents seemed a little nervous when I expressed a similar interest and tried to talk me out of it for a while until they saw how committed I was!”

“Did you have any prior training before going to Atlas Academy?” Oriana asked.

“Oh yes, I went to a primary training academy first. Pelorus Academy, if you are familiar with it,” Neela responded. She then looked at Cordovan and gave him a nudge. “Cordovan and I were in the same year.” 

The Sewicks turned to look at Cordovan, who had to set down his fork abruptly to speak. “Yes, we both attended the same primary academy. I was born and raised in Atlas, at least for the most part anyway. Both of my parents were huntsmen, so we travelled around a lot.” Cordovan explained. “I suppose having two parents as huntsmen does end up inspiring you quite a bit.”

“Were they well-known at all?” Albus asked, and Xanthos was surprised to see that he looked genuinely interested.

“A little,” Cordovan admitted with a small shrug. “They both enjoyed mildly successful careers at least. My mother joined the Atlesian Army years ago and still works as a specialist for them. As for my father, well...he’s around.”

Oriana sniffed a little at this remark, which finally drew Zelde’s attention to the conversation. Silver eyes snapped to her mother immediately and narrowed them in response. Oriana picked up on this pretty quickly, and although they said nothing, it was clear they both had plenty to say to one another.

Not wanting an argument to break out, Xanthos was quick to jump in with his own response to Oriana’s earlier question. “Unlike the rest of my team here, I was born and raised in Vacuo. My mother is about the furthest thing you can get from a huntress. Not too sure about my dad though, he disappeared shortly before my sister was born.” Xanthos was ten at the time but had never been particularly close with his father. Chrysanthos had always been a mysterious man and left many unanswered questions in his wake when he up and left them.  “I’m not sure where the interest in becoming a huntsman came from, to be honest with you. I was watching coverage of a Vytal festival a few years back and there was this really amazing Vacuo team. They didn’t get very far, but I was so in awe with them and what they could do that I knew I wanted to be a huntsman too.” Xanthos laughed a little as he recounted this tale. “I told my mother that same night I wanted to join an academy. I think she was a little horrified at first because she tried to talk me out of it for days. When she saw how set on it I was she did give in thankfully. I think that as long as I was happy she could accept it.”

“Hmm, typical Vacuo parenting for you there,” Oriana said, looking at her husband as she spoke. Albus Sewick stared at his wife in surprise before looking nervously over at Xanthos. Luckily, Albus seemed to have much more tact than his wife, so for that sake alone he would have spared him from the bitter remark he was cooking up.

Luckily, he did not need to respond, as Zelde had him covered. “Mother, do not speak to my friend like that,” Zelde hissed in a low voice.

“Where have your manners gone, Zelde?” Oriana asked. “You should know better than to speak back to your parents.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, you’re hardly a parent,” Zelde retorted.

From the look that passed between father and son, they clearly had some idea of what was soon to follow, and in truth perhaps the rest of ZRCN had an idea too, based on their earlier interactions with Sewick matriarch. If anything Xanthos was just surprised to see Zelde stirring up trouble rather than trying to avoid it.

What came from Oriana’s mouth was a slew of horrid remarks to her daughter, claiming she was ungrateful for throwing away the life she could have so easily had, selfish for not taking into consideration her family’s feelings, of how she was simply wasting her life. The whole scene was uncomfortable to sit through, and after exchanging a few glances with Cordovan and Neela, Xanthos knew he couldn’t sit quietly any longer.

“You should stop talking to your daughter like that,” Xanthos advised, making her turn to look at him. “Considering how insufferable you have been in the days  since I’ve met you, I’d say it’s a small mercy that Zelde opted to leave and become a huntress, it spared her becoming a heartless bitch like yourself.”

Albus’s mouth formed a small ‘o’ shape, though if he was offended by the slander towards his wife, he didn’t rush to her defence. Surprisingly Zelde mouthed a silent “Thank you” his way for helping her, and he simply nodded. Unsurprisingly, Oriana was not impressed with being called a bitch. She rose from her seat, one hand hitting the table and the other clenching into a tight fist in her rage. 

“How dare you speak to me like that!” She snarled. “You’re nothing but an insignificant street rat from Vacuo, yet you have the audacity to come into my own home and speak down to me.” 

“Oriana, enough!” Albus urged. For once, his voice rose above a quiet whisper.

Oriana paused for a moment, eyes passing over each of the team in question. “I hope it was worth throwing the life we gave you for these people. And when this life inevitably goes wrong, you should know, there will be no place for you in my house anymore.”

With this, Zelde rose from her chair, dabbing at her mouth with a napkin before letting it fall to the table. She proceeded to gesture to her teammates to stand and follow her, before looking off to Guilford who had been stood quietly in the corner this whole time. “Guilford would you be so kind as to gather our things, I think it is time we ought to go.”

He nodded simply and hurried out of the room. If Xanthos had been in his place, he would have been thankful for the excuse to leave.

“Yes, I do believe, you’ve outstayed your welcome wouldn’t you agree, Albus?” Oriana prompted, looking to her husband for support.

“No…” Albus muttered quietly. “It is you who has outstayed your welcome, Oriana.”

Oriana’s confidence seemed to flicker, evidently not used to her husband answering back to her. “Albus?”

“For too long I have stood by and done nothing. Watched as you belittled me, my family, our children,” His voice cracked as he said that. “Enough is enough, Oriana. I’m done with this - our marriage. I’m done with you.”

“Father…?” Zelde blinked.

Xanthos wasn’t sure what to say or do at that moment. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.

“This is your fault!” Oriana yelled, making a move for where Zelde was standing. “You should have never come back here.” Thankfully, Albus caught Oriana by the wrist and kept her in place. 

Albus gave an apologetic glance to Zelde and then the rest of Team ZRCN. “I’m sorry you all had to see this.”

Albus gave his daughter a knowing look and she nodded. With a tilt of the head, Zelde gestured for her team to join her in leaving, which they did so without question. She paused to look at Albus and Callaway.

“Father. Cal…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at her brother. He simply offered her a warm smile and a gentle nod. The group carried on walking, before Zelde stopped by her mother, standing to her side. Neither woman directly looked at each other, with Oriana staring down the table refusing to make eye contact, and Zelde merely glancing at her out of the corner of her eye. “Mother, it has been a pleasure as always.” She leaned forward and gave her mother a peck on the cheek before they walked out of the room.

Guilford was not waiting for them when they entered the hallways, though as requested, he had gathered their clothes, as well as their weapons and the meagre supplies they had bought with them. None of them wanted to linger here for much longer, so they gathered their things and quickly left the house. Once they had passed beyond the metal gates, Zelde’s calm persona cracked, and a few tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Are you alright, Zelde?” Neela asked, tentatively touching her arm.

“I’m fine,” Zelde insisted. She took a deep inhale, as if to steady herself and began moving forward. “Let’s find Helia Vines.”

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 10

Team ZRCN arrives in Apex and receives a frosty reception.

Zelde

The journey to Apex proved to be more complicated than ZRCN had first anticipated. When planning their journey, it became apparent their luck with airships had finally run out, and they were forced to look elsewhere for travel as no airships could take them there soon. As a native of Apex, Zelde knew their best option would be to take a train there.

It should have been a smooth, untroubled journey from Mantle to Apex, but it turned out the Grimm had other ideas. Their journey was almost at an end when a Teryx had launched itself at the train. The train didn't have much in the way of defences, save for a singular huntsman, and two mounted turrets at the front of the train. Although only huntsmen in training, Team ZRCN were asked if they could give some additional backup, and with only an older huntress to help assist the train's sole guard, they felt obligated to help.

The train stopped to allow the six of them to deal with the Grimm. The wind and snow whipped up around them once they stepped out and Zelde found herself wincing feeling the cold air against her skin. It took a moment for the Teryx to get drawn away from the train as the beast was more determined to get at one of the carriages, but a few shots at it seemed to do enough to pull its attention away.

Luckily, this Teryx was of a smaller size, so taking it out did not prove to be overly difficult. The older huntress took out its ability to fly, damaging its left wing with a spray of bullets. Although unable to fly, it was still dangerous, snapping and thrashing in the snow as it tried to get at the three of them. Zelde instructed Neela to use her weapon to create some formations to try and halt the Grimm. With a nod, Neela did as requested using the earth dust in her trident to create some rocky formations to block it in. With the Teryx slowed, the train guard ordered Zelde, Cordovan, and the older huntress to shoot at it with whatever they had.

The Teryx quickly succumbed to the onslaught of bullets, dissipating into black dust once defeated. However, no sooner had the Teryx been defeated, than low growls emerged from the treeline behind them.

Zelde turned to see what had made the noise, unable to discern anything clearly, but seeing some shapes moving through the darkness. It didn't help that the winds from earlier had become stronger now, bringing a fresh flurry of snow with it to obscure their vision.

In the distance, Zelde could hear the train's guard yelling at them, only able to make out a few words over the howling wind. 

“Should we go back?” Xanthos called.

Zelde was about to answer when two Grimm burst out of the treeline, revealing the source of the growling to be two Ursa.

Zelde weighed her options briefly, debating whether they would have time to defeat the Grimm or make it back to the train. Ultimately, Zelde decided they should try and deal with the Ursa, noting that they probably wouldn't have outrun the Ursa with how close they were. That and with the train guard and huntress having begun to move back towards the train, they didn't have much in the way of backup.

The first of the Ursa proved fairly easy to deal with. Cordovan took out one of its legs with his sword before Zelde delivered the finishing blow. The second Ursa was proving to be a little more tricky.

She and Cordovan were once again trying to take it down, though with less luck than last time, since Zelde had narrowly avoided getting punched by it. Xanthos and Neela were also dancing around it, managing a few weak blows, but otherwise causing little damage.

“Anyone got any ideas on how to take this big boy down?” Xanthos asked as he ducked out of the way of a swing from the Ursa.

“I have one,” Zelde responded after a moment. “We need to expose its belly if we can. It doesn't have much in the way of armour on its belly, so if Neela could get a good hit on it we should be able to take it down.”

Xanthos nodded, reaching for his whip. “Alright, I've got this, just line him up for me.”

“Just be careful,” Zelde warned, shooting him a reproachful glance. “We'll only have a narrow window to do this.”

Xanthos didn't verbally respond to this, but she saw him nod his head. As requested, she and Cordovan worked on directing the Ursa away from him. When the creature was a certain distance away, Xanthos lashed out with his weapon, the whip managing to loosely wrap itself around the beast's neck. Had it not been for Xanthos's using his semblance at the same time, the creature would have surely dragged him along with him. Unable to counter the sudden change in Xanthos's weight, the Ursa started to pull back slightly, being forced back onto its hind legs.

Zelde gestured at Neela to be ready, holding a hand up to make her wait for the perfect moment. When the belly was exposed enough, she threw down her hand.

“Now!”

Already poised to throw, Neela clicked a button on the shaft of her weapon, the three prongs of the trident snapping together to form a single spearhead. She threw the spear at Zelde's command, and Zelde watched as the weapon soared through the air, before striking the Ursa in the belly. It staggered momentarily, stopped from falling forward completely due to Xanthos, and then in a poof it ceased to be no more, Neela's spear and Xanthos's whip both falling to the floor where the beast had once stood.

“Excellent work, Neela,” Zelde commended, smiling at her teammate. As Neela went to retrieve her weapon she returned the smile.

“Oh shit the train!” Xanthos blurted out.

Zelde whipped her head around and watched as the train sprung back into life, starting to roll forward as the engine kicked back in. All of ZRCN rushed forward in a panic, yelling and waving their hands to get it to stop. Their efforts were to no avail, as the train pulled away leaving the four of them in the snow.

Xanthos threw his hands out briefly before resting his hands on his hips in a dramatic fashion. “Well, what do we do now?” He said, looking in the direction of where the train had departed.

“We can't stay here,” Cordovan responded quickly. “Our auras won't hold up with the winds growing.”

Zelde nodded, knowing her teammate had a point. The winds had steadily grown to near enough a full storm since they had gotten off the train. 

“How far were we from Apex?” Neela asked, looking between her teammates.

“Two miles or just under,” Zelde answered, taking a moment to note their surroundings and recalling the announcements on the train. 

“That's still quite a journey in this weather,” Cordovan mused. He crossed his arms over his chest trying to keep warm.

Zelde groaned. Not because of her teammates talking but because she knew there was somewhere they could go to avoid the weather. “I know somewhere closer we could stay,” Zelde offered. “Temporarily at least…”

“Where?” Xanthos asked, looking far too eager for his simple question.

“My parents' house,” Zelde answered, somewhat reluctantly.

“I thought you lived in Apex?” Cordovan said, raising a brow.

“Technically our home sits just beyond the town,” Zelde explained. “It's a little closer than Apex proper so I thought it would be a better solution than trekking to our accommodation in town. As I said, it would only have to be temporary.” Which Zelde thought was more for her own sake than her teammates.

Some quick glances were exchanged between the four of them before agreeing to head on. Zelde took the lead naturally and the rest of her teammates followed close behind. Due to the weather, Zelde kept a good pace, eager to get to her family home for the prospect of getting somewhere warm at the very least. 

Ironically, despite heading to Zelde's family home, the lights of the distant town Apex came into view first. And then, out of the gloom, the warmly lit Sewick manor suddenly appeared.

The Sewick’s house was located in the north of the town, with high walls surrounding the property, shielding the building from the outside world. Wrought iron gates marked the entrance of the property. Peering through the bars, it was possible to see the gravel walkway up to the property, illuminated by a number of outdoor lamps. As they approached the gates, Zelde pressed the buzzer to say hello. A small static sound followed before a voice answered.

“May I help you?”

“Yes, we need to speak with-” But before Zelde could finish her statement the voice on the opposite end cut in.

“I'm sorry, Mr and Mrs Sewick are not taking guests right now,” the voice told them. “You'll have to leave or I'm afraid I'll have to call the police.”

Zelde sighed deeply, before pressing the buzzer to speak once more.

“Guilford, it's me, Zelde.”

There was a pause, before another static sound followed, different to the first, and one which Zelde knew to mean the gates would open. As expected, the gates began to shift, and a few moments later swung open, allowing the group to enter the property.

With the gates now open, the group could now follow the winding path up to the house. As they approached the front doors, Zelde spotted the family car parked outside of the house, even in the dark, it was clear it had been recently cleaned by how vibrantly the lights from the house gleamed off the metal exterior. As they approached the doors, Zelde was stopped mid-knock, by Guilford who opened them to let them inside.

He held the doors open as they all stepped inside, and promptly shut them after Xanthos entered.

Xanthos took one look at the interior before blurting out, “Wow, this makes my house look like shit!”

Zelde was mortified to hear his voice echo around the hallway. He seemed amused by this fact as a grin stretched across his lips, but Zelde was more annoyed, shooting him a disapproving glare. He was lucky Guilford suddenly stepped in else she would have reprimanded him for blurting that out loud.

“It is good to see you again, Zelde,” He greeted warmly. The man stepped forward holding his arms out for a hug, which Zelde was quick to do. He may have been the family butler, but Zelde and her brother had always thought of him as a family member, an uncle figure of sorts. As they pulled apart he added, “I’m sure Master Callaway will be thrilled to see you again.”

And almost as if on cue, a figure appeared at the top of the stairs, hanging over the bannister to peer down at the guests. When he spotted his sister, a wide grin took hold of his features. “Zelde!”

Her brother propelled down the stairs, moving with such alarming speed that he jumped over the last three steps, and practically threw himself at his sister. Zelde held onto her brother tightly, before eventually releasing him, and holding him at a distance to get a better look at him. He had grown since she last saw him, now standing at around the same height as she was, despite only being fourteen. Besides inheriting their mother’s blue eyes, he looked like a younger version of their father, especially dressed in his shirt and vest. All he was missing was a tie.

She looked him over briefly, noting he appeared well and in good spirits. His monochromatic grey clothing was broken up by a single pink hair clip in his hair. Zelde studied it for a moment, making a note to ask him about it if she remembered.

Once released from the embrace, she noticed her brother looking at her teammates with a look of curiosity and excitement. Hunstmen were rare in Apex, so even seeing a team like theirs which was still in training, was a cause for interest.

“I can’t believe you’re here. This is such a surprise!” Callaway enthused, moving to go for a hug again.

“Indeed it is.”

Their mother’s voice made him freeze in his tracks and he flinched away from Zelde. Everyone turned to see Zelde’s parents exiting from a door to the left. Her father was dressed in a simple grey single-breasted lounge jacket and matching trousers, whereas her mother wore an expensive looking blue dress with a plunging neckline, and a rather plain teardrop necklace resting against her collarbone. With her arms crossed, her mother gave off something of a hostile air, which knowing her, was probably intentional. Her father seemed more open, even stepping forward to greet his guests.

“A pleasure to meet you all,” He began, as he shook each of their hands in turn. “My name is Albus Sewick, and this is my wife Oriana Serac.”

Rather than greet Team ZRCN, she turned her attention to Callaway. It seemed like Zelde, she had noted the pink hair clip too. 

“Callaway get that ridiculous thing out of your hair,” Oriana snapped.

“Yes, mother,” Callaway mumbled, reaching up to remove it. Although he took it out, Zelde noticed he tucked it into his vest pocket when their mother turned her attention back to Team ZRCN.

“May I ask what you are all doing in our home?” Oriana asked as she stepped back from speaking to Callaway, before linking her arm with her husband.

“We are on a mission,” Zelde began to explain. “There was an issue with some Grimm and our train left us behind whilst we were dealing with them. We were hoping to stay here for the night until this storm passed.”

Oriana sniffed. “That was very presumptuous of you.”

Her father shifted uncomfortably at her side, nervously adjusting his lapel. “Of course, you and your teammates can stay.” He said, offering his daughter a weak smile. Her mother rolled her eyes, pulling her arm free before crossing her arms over her chest. Albus cast a pleading look at his wife, perhaps hoping to get her to see reason. “Ana, we can’t just kick them out….”

“Fine,” She said sharply, giving her husband a cold look. “As you wish, Albus.”

Oriana unfolded her arms and her cold blue gaze fell on the team.”Lucky for you, dinner is almost ready. I’d suggest you freshen up before you join us.” With a small smirk, she turned and reentered the room she had come from, gesturing for her husband and son to follow. As the three of them left, leaving the four of them alone with Guilford, Zelde could feel a small nagging feeling in her stomach beginning to blossom.

“I see mother is as delightful as always,” Zelde remarked, once they were out of earshot. “Has Callaway been alright?”

“As well as can be but you know how your mother is,” Guilford sighed. “Your father does his best but he's been getting more worn down with it as of late.”

Zelde nodded sadly, knowing all too well how her mother could be. She had spent nearly seventeen unhappy years dealing with her mother's mental abuse before finally deciding she needed a change and breaking free.

“Will the four of you be staying for dinner?” Guilford asked.

“I am quite hungry,” Xanthos said, patting his abdomen.

“You're always hungry, Ravi,” Neela teased, elbowing him playfully.

Zelde glanced at Cordovan and he shrugged. “Some food wouldn't hurt,” He said. “It isn't as though we'll be leaving anytime soon with the storm.”

“I suppose we will be joining you then,” Zelde said, looking at Guilford and giving a vague shrug.

Guilford's golden eyes shimmered with warmth. “I will ensure four more plates and some cutlery are prepared for you,” He said, before moving to head towards the room where the rest of the Sewick family had disappeared into. “It really is good to see you again, Zelde.”

Zelde smiled weakly at him as he departed.

Dinner with her parents - how bad could it be?

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 9

Plans go awry and new plans are formed.

Xanthos

As per the suggestions of Cordovan, Team ZRCN currently found themselves waiting to speak with General Ironwood.

Although they had made their plans, it still took another day for a meeting to be arranged. It was a little frustrating having to wait but as the General’s secretary, Miss Santiago, pointed out he was an extremely busy man - even more so following events at Beacon.

In order to try and sway him to their cause, Zelde had insisted they all wear their academy uniforms when they went to speak with General Ironwood. Xanthos agreed but he could not say he was particularly happy about it. Somehow, whoever had designed the uniforms had ensured they were made from the scratchiest, most uncomfortable material ever. Every time he wore it, Xanthos felt as though he was developing hives and could not stop itching around his collar.

When they entered the small waiting area before the General's office, Xanthos had a finger in his collar, scratching idly away. 

“Are you trying to take a layer of skin off there, Ravi?” Neela quipped, speaking softly into his ear. 

Xanthos stopped and caught his reflection in a nearby glass pane, already seeing his neck turning pink from the scratching.

“Oh, Team ZRCN, you're early,” The secretary, Stephanie Santiago, remarked from behind her desk. 

She was a short, bespectacled woman, with brown skin, neatly plaited black hair, and amber eyes. Stephanie didn't wear a modified military uniform like the majority of the faculty or staff in the school, but her outfit was very formal and neat. She wore an orange blazer with a red turtleneck underneath, a darker orange pencil skirt with brogues in a matching colour, and dark tights.

As ZRCN stood there, she looked around for something on her desk, before typing something on her computer. “I’ll let the General know you are here,” She said, briefly looking at ZRCN. “You're early but he should be able to see you in a moment.”

Stephanie flashed them a cheerful smile before looking at her screen again. After reading a message on it, she leaned back in her chair, gesturing to the door to his office. “The General will see you now.”

Xanthos wondered if he had ever seen the man in front of him look so scruffy. Rising from his desk, General Ironwood moved to greet them, shaking their hands in turn. All the times Xanthos had seen him in the past, the man had always looked so neat and polished, but today he seemed rather dishevelled.

Zelde did most of the talking for them, as per her offer the day priorly, giving a brief rundown of their mission. From the plan they had discussed earlier, Xanthos knew it would be long until she broached the topic of what to do with Candy and Wisteria. After confirming what had happened at Hargrave Manufacturing, Zelde paused for a moment before inquiring about Candy and Wisteria. She spoke about how whilst they were aware of Candy, Wisteria was an unknown entity to them.

“Sir, considering what happened at both Verdant Storage and Hargrave Manufacturing, we were wondering if you planned to follow up with them at all?” Zelde inquired.

General Ironwood’s expression shifted. “Unfortunately, at this time, we do not have the resources to investigate this further.” He responded simply. “The four of you have completed your initial mission with the Princeton's there is little need to pursue matters further for now.”

Xanthos couldn’t see her face, but he could tell by her tone that Zelde must have been frowning. “You’re not suggesting we just leave them be? If nothing is done soon, these thefts will continue, and having seen what some of their people are capable of, I don’t think they’re afraid to step up their game either.”

“The military has considered the risk and we have concluded that now is not the appropriate time to continue,” General Ironwood said. “I am sorry, Miss Sewick. We simply do not have the military resources to spare at this time to commit to a full investigation.”

“Well, if the army isn’t willing to help, why can’t we just do it? Put us in contact with a few good huntsmen and we’ll soon have them sorted out!” Xanthos cut in. Zelde turned and narrowed her eyes at him, and Cordovan shifted awkwardly by his side.

“That is a nice thought, Mr Ravindra, however - “

“Cordovan's mother is a specialist! Perhaps she'd be willing to help?” Xanthos prompted, looking between the General and Cordovan.

General Ironwood gave Xanthos a kind smile. “Your spirit is highly commendable, Mr Ravindra. If only more of the new members of our army shared your enthusiasm,” He said with a wistful smile. The General took a step towards them, extending an arm outwards that made it appear as though he were ushering them out of the room already. “Your willingness to help has been noted, I assure you. However, for the time being I ask that you leave things alone and return to your schoolwork. Once matters have resolved in Vale I promise I will put my best people on it.”

With those final words, the General ushered them out of his office, bidding them farewell before closing the doors on them.

“My, that was fast!” Stephanie said, shifting her glasses when she saw ZRCN's sudden return. “Did your meeting go well?”

“Something like that,” Neela answered sarcastically.

Zelde grumbled something under her breath. She fumbled with something on her uniform. “Come on,” she said, turning to the group and gesturing for them to move. “Let’s head back to Cordovan’s place.”

At Zelde’s prompting, the team headed back to Cordovan’s home and were back there within twenty minutes due to an early airship. 

Once they had returned to the home and gotten changed into more casual clothes, Cordovan excused himself into the kitchen, whilst Zelde and Neela slipped into the living room, and Xanthos bounded upstairs to the bathroom. When he returned minutes later, he found Neela sitting on the bottom of the stairs, her scroll held tightly in one hand. She had probably tried to call Tilia again, Xanthos reflected sadly.

Walking down the remainder of the stairs, Xanthos sat on the same step as Neela and wrapped an arm around her. Neela in turn leaned her head into his shoulder a little bit. 

“How are you holding up, Nee?” he asked, as she pulled away a little. 

“I’ll be fine,” she answered. When Xanthos gave her an uncertain look, she flashed a genuine smile his way, and he eased up a little bit. “I’m still a little worried about Tilly and her team. As you know, we practically spoke every day if we could, so it feels weird not to have that option. I feel a little silly worrying though. Knowing Tilly she’s probably off swinging her sword somewhere, saving the masses.”

Xanthos laughed in agreement. “Yeah, from what I’ve seen she’s a strong woman. Remind me to never challenge her to arm wrestle or anything, I fear I’d walk away missing an arm.”

Neela smiled and began to laugh along with him. They were still laughing and talking a few minutes later when Wren returned home, jumping slightly to see the two youths sat there. Cordovan called out a greeting to her from the kitchen and then suggested everyone head back into the sitting room, as he would be bringing in some tea and snacks. At his suggestion, Xanthos and Neela followed his mother into the sitting room, getting comfy on the sofa next to Zelde. The older woman settled herself in an armchair by the window. 

Cordovan appeared a moment later carrying a tray laden with tea and snacks. He sat it down on the coffee table, pouring himself a cup of tea, before taking the armchair adjacent to his mother. Zelde also poured herself some tea, sipping at it gingerly whilst everyone else picked at what was on offer.

“So how did things go with, General Ironwood?” Wren inquired politely.

“About as well as you’d expect,” Cordovan responded grimly.

Wren gave the group a sympathetic glance, clearly sensing that they hadn’t gained Ironwood’s approval to pursue matters further. “He said no then?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Zelde confirmed. “He cited a lack of resources, which is understandable after what happened in Vale.”

“I did suggest we push on ahead ourselves,” Xanthos explained, drawing Wren's attention to him. “Or suggested a few good huntsmen to assist. I even brought up your name too.”

Wren shifted in her seat. “Of course, had circumstances been different, I would have been happy to assist, but unfortunately I am required to help get a handle on things in Essen. Some nasty Grimm issue, I’m afraid.”

Zelde paused to shake her head, emitting a deep sigh. “I just wish Ironwood had at least given us permission to look into matters further.”

“Technically he didn’t say no,” Neela pointed out.

Xanthos paused a minute to think back to the earlier conversation, and sure enough, as Neela had said, he hadn’t technically said no. He had merely advised them to leave things alone for now.

“You’re not suggesting we go after them without any permission are you?” Zelde asked with an incredulous tone, silver eyes shifting between her teammates.

“Again, Ironwood technically didn't say no,” Xanthos pointed out.

Surprisingly, Cordovan seemed shockingly on board with the suggestion. “We do have some old notes from Vernon to go on. It would be a strong start.”

“I can't believe you're all suggesting this,” Zelde raised a hand to her face, continuing to shake her head. “If we get caught we’ll be in so much trouble…”

“Does this mean you’ll be going after them then?” Wren asked with a tilt of the head.

“It would appear that way based on my teammates' enthusiasm,” Zelde responded.

Wren chuckled. “Very well,” Wren said, rising to her feet. Xanthos watched as she moved to a desk on the other side of the room, opened a drawer and proceeded to grab a pen and paper and jot something down. She handed the slip of paper to Zelde. “I dislike the idea of you four going after them alone, so consider this my way of helping. In a non-military capacity at least.”

Zelde glanced down at the note. “Oh, this is an address in Apex,” Zelde said with a hint of surprise in her voice. She handed the note over to Neela to look at. “What is this ‘help’ you’ve provided us with.”

“An old friend,” Wren responded plainly. “Someone who I’m sure will be willing to offer some assistance when going after these women.”

Xanthos wondered who this “old friend” might have been. A huntsman or huntress? Or perhaps another specialist like herself? He felt a growing sense of excitement at the possibility of getting to work with someone famous. 

Cordovan held his hand out for the note and Zelde passed it over to him. “This is Olive's address,” He said. “You don't think…?”

“Well, Helia might still say no Cordovan,” Wren pointed out. “She is very in demand as you well know.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Xanthos snapped his fingers, drawing attention back to him. “Helia wouldn't happen to be Helia Vines would it?”

Cordovan nodded. “The very same.”

“She's my goddaughter,” Wren added, proudly.

Xanthos was practically bouncing with excitement. Helia Vines. The very important, very notable, former Vytal winner, Helia Vines, could be assisting them on a mission. Just the very idea of meeting her would have been enough for Xanthos. Even if she said no, he could boast about having met her in person. 

“Do you think she’ll help?” Neela asked.

Wren shrugged. “Possibly. As I told Cordovan, she’s very in demand for missions, but last I heard she was taking a little break after some incident with her teammates.” The older woman frowned slightly. “I don’t know the whole story, only what Helia’s mother has told me, but I heard there was quite a bit of fallout between the four of them.”

Rather embarrassingly, Xanthos could not recall many of Helia’s teammates, save for perhaps the blonde-haired teammate she had competed in the doubles with. What he did remember is that they seemed to stay out of the limelight a lot, but when they were all shown together, they appeared to be friendly with each other. Something pretty bad must have happened to cause such a breakdown of their team.

Regardless of the state of her team, Xanthos reflected that Team ZRCN now had a metaphorical ace up their sleeve. If Candy or Wisteria tried their luck with them again, they would be ready with their own equally powerful backup.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 8

Following the failed investigation at Hargrave Manufacturing, ZRCN considers the next steps.

Cordovan

It had been just over two weeks since the confrontation at Hargrave Manufacturing. Bruised and worn down, Cordovan had reflected later that same night, just how lucky they had been to escape. There had been a number of difficult enemies the team had faced since they formed, but none had elicited quite the same response as Wisteria had. Their first meeting might have been brief, but it had been enough to leave a lasting impression.

After escaping the factory, it had not taken long for police to arrive, as well as a growing crowd of workers who had come to see what was going on. After clearing up things with the police, they had been passed into the care of what at first appeared to be a more senior officer, although as it turned out she was in fact an Atlesian Specialist - one who just so happened to be his mother.

Wren Honeycutt had greeted them all warmly, despite her surprise at seeing them all here. Apparently, she hadn't been informed of a team - much less a team of students - being present. 

After speaking with the officers present, Wren offered the team the chance to stay at their house, suggesting they take the opportunity to recuperate at home. There was a little discussion on ZRCN's behalf before they all agreed. Satisfied for now, Wren explained she would stay behind a little bit longer to ensure the eventual reports would be completed correctly. With a smile, she sent them on their way, leaving Cordovan to guide them to their home.

When they had first stepped outside, Cordovan had found himself fussed over by Zelde, who worried he might have passed out after the fight inside. Luckily, the fresh air seemed to have done him some good, and he no longer felt as light-headed as he had previously.

Cordovan took it upon himself to charter an airship to take them to his home in Mantle and an hour later, Team ZRCN found themselves in the safety and warmth of his home. Although initially dismissive of his mother's offer to recuperate at home, Cordovan had to admit it felt good being able to recuperate within the comforts of his own home. It was smaller than his childhood home, but after his parents had divorced and his father left, his mother had seen no point in continuing to live in such a large home, so they moved to a smaller house closer to the heart of Atlas. 

Once settled, the team began to get themselves ready to settle down for the night. Zelde and Neela had taken up the small spare room, whilst Cordovan sorted out a makeshift bed for Xanthos in his room.

Cordovan and Xanthos needed a longer time to rest than at first expected but once two days had passed, the team felt they were in a good enough position to wrap up the mission, or at least try to. 

In the days that passed, there seemed to be a consensus among the four of them that their attempted mission had been a complete failure, only serving to provide them with more unanswered questions.

Cordovan had relayed these doubts to his mother, who listened with a sympathetic ear, before offering a potential solution. “You should speak with James as soon as you can,” she had suggested, catching her son by surprise by the casual usage of General Ironwood’s first name. “I suspect he would have wanted to reach out to you soon anyway, regarding what happened at Verdant Storage and Hargrave Manufacturing. You should see if he’s willing to look into Candy and Wisteria for you.”

Cordovan nodded gently. General Ironwood had been a little reluctant to extend their mission according to Zelde, but perhaps, with what had happened at Hargrave Manufacturing, he might have been persuaded to explore things further.

Wren had paused momentarily to look her son straight in the eyes. “I don’t like the idea of you going up against her again, Cor. You were lucky not to have come off any worse than you did in this first fight with her, I hate to imagine how another one would play out.”

With his mother’s suggestion noted, Cordovan decided to broach the topic with his teammates the following morning, asking them to meet him in the sitting room after breakfast. His mother would not be due back till later in the day, so the hours they had to themselves would be perfect to discuss this.

As he came back downstairs from freshening up after breakfast, Cordovan spotted Zelde looking at some of the photographs on display in the hallway. He could hear Xanthos and Neela already talking in the sitting room, so took a moment to look at the photographs with Zelde.

When she sensed his presence, she turned her head and gave him a weak smile, before looking back at the photographs. She seemed particularly focused on one of a much younger Cordovan. “You look very happy here,” she said softly. “I don’t think I ever smiled this much at this age.”

Cordovan raised a brow. Zelde's words were not lost on him and he shifted awkwardly on the spot. Zelde did not often discuss her childhood but from little she had mentioned to the team, Cordovan got the impression that there weren't many fond memories to speak of.

“Don’t be fooled by the smile,” Cordovan said with a slight grin. The younger version of himself in the photo had a large grin on his face. “Just minutes before that was taken I was crying my eyes out because I lost a tooth. My father had to bribe me with the promise of sweets just to get me to smile.” He could still remember that day fondly. At the promise of sweets, he had soon settled down, but his mother had not been impressed when she learnt of the secret deal that had gone down between her husband and son.

Zelde was looking at him as he spoke, smiling softly as he recounted the story. When he finished she looked back at the photograph. “Your father sounds like he was a nice man.”

“Hmm, yeah,” Cordovan responded, voice trailing off. He didn't have the best relationship with his father anymore but as a young boy, he had greatly admired and looked up to him. It was a shame he had thrown it all away for nothing.

Zelde and Cordovan continued to look at the photos on display for a little while longer. Most of them were of him or his mother, those that had his father in had been put away long ago. Zelde picked up one photograph of a group of students around their age.

“Is this your mother's team?” She asked.

“Yep,” he responded, taking time to point out each member of the team in turn and give their name. “There's my mom, Lorelei Edurne, Olive Vines, and Stanford Whittle. They went by WLOW when they were a team.”

The four youths were all smiling in the picture, though the red-haired Lorelei's could be better described as a strained smile. It was strange to think they were around the same age as ZRCN in this picture. His mother looked especially young here, wearing a casual cream-coloured blouse tucked into a brown skirt. Her chestnut hair was worn loose save for a single braid to the side, which differed greatly from her now preferred style of having it in a neat ponytail.

“Hate to interrupt the lovely bonding session going on out here, but I thought we were supposed to be discussing what to do next?” Xanthos's voice sounded from behind them. As Zelde put the photo back down, Cordovan turned to see Xanthos leaning against the doorframe. 

“We were just coming, Ravi,” Cordovan said, following Zelde in brushing past him into the sitting room.

Neela, Xanthos, and Zelde all settled themselves on a sofa, whilst Cordovan seated himself in an armchair adjacent to it.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Xanthos asked drawing up his legs so he sat cross-legged on the sofa.

“Well, it's about what we should do next,” Cordovan started, earning some confused looks from his teammates.

Neela raised a brow. “In regards to the mission?”

“Yes,” Cordovan nodded in confirmation. “I know we all feel as though we did not accomplish as much as we would have liked with our mission, but I do not believe we should give up just yet.”

“I don’t know, Cor,” Xanthos cut in with a frown. 

 “Candy and Wisteria are still out there, and we still don't understand how big a role the Hargraves play in all of this,” Cordovan pushed, undeterred by Xanthos’s doubts.

“So what do you suggest we do? Do an unsanctioned mission to track  them down?” Xanthos paused a moment, before adding in a more enthusiastic voice, “Cause I'd be down for that.”

“Ravi, please,” Zelde warned, shooting him a glance. “We can't just do that. We'd need to tell someone first.”

“That was going to be my plan,” Cordovan confessed. “I spoke to my mother about this yesterday, and suggested we speak to General Ironwood about this, see if he'd be willing to help us look into things further regarding the Hargrave angle, and maybe sanction another mission.”

He did not miss Zelde and Xanthos sharing a glance between themselves. “Well, it’s worth a try,” Zelde said, but Cordovan noted she did not sound entirely convinced.

“You think he’ll say no?”

Zelde hesitated a moment before nodding. “You weren’t there when we spoke to him the last, Cordovan,” She said, looking at Xanthos briefly before continuing. “General Ironwood barely sanctioned the investigation the last time, even with the information we had from Vernon. And now that we did not succeed, I very much doubt he’d be swayed into letting us try again.”

“You were the one who just said it couldn’t hurt to try,” Xanthos pointed out.

“I did but we shouldn’t get our hopes up,” Zelde told him. Her silver eyes then found Cordovan’s and despite her hard tone, her expression softened towards him. “However, if you want to give this a real try, I will do what I can to help sway him to our cause.”

“We’ve got to try, right?” Cordovan gave her an appreciative smile.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 7

Team ZRCN goes in search of a further lead.

Zelde

After successfully taking care of Merlot and Saika, Team ZRCN spent the next few days attempting to resolve their mission. Whilst it could have been resolved sooner, the involvement with the Mistrali Police had slowed the completion down. Luckily, despite the delay, it was eventually resolved without too much issue and ZRCN were permitted to complete their mission.

It was pleasing to return the missing Princeton supplies but in the process of searching the warehouse, they had found clues and more stolen supplies that hinted to a far larger operation, and one that linked with several robberies that had occurred in Mantle.

Vernon had been able to explain some of what they found but there was even more he could not. Although their mission had only been to resolve the Princeton’s case, all of ZRCN had expressed an interest in potentially pursuing things further and trying to expose Farron Hargrave. It seemed like a difficult task, especially given that Vernon himself had struggled to make any real progress on that front, but he was happy to provide them with what information he could so long as they got permission.

Zelde had tasked herself with speaking to General Ironwood on their behalf that morning, with Xanthos accompanying her for, as he put it ‘moral support’. Cordovan would have offered himself but Zelde waved him off, telling him and Neela that they did not need to all be present as she was quite certain she could get the point across well enough.

With little else to do, Corodvan and Neela headed down to the training room for a few hours. As Zelde was unsure of when she would be finished, she thought it was a fine idea to keep themselves occupied.

Once Zelde and Xanthos had finished, they headed to the training room in search of their teammates. Figuring that they would be in the main room already, the two of them headed to the viewing area, where they were met by half of Team ZNIA - Noah Azouf and Ajax Hodios.

Ajax explained that Cordovan and Neela hadn’t been there long when Team ZNIA appeared and suggested the two of them join them for a little spar. Apparently Cordovan would have been happy enough to leave it as just the two of them, but Neela seemed quite keen on the idea. Luckily, Ajax and Noah elected to hold back now for the time being, allowing it to be a fair fight between them.

As Xanthos continued chatting with Noah and Ajax, Zelde stepped closer to the window, peering down below to watch. Cordovan was currently sparring with Zinnia, using his sword to counter and parry the strikes from her weapon in its sickle form. If they had both been using their weapons in their rifle forms, Zelde thought they'd have been fairly evenly matched. In their current state, Zinnia had the upper hand, her lighter weapon granting her more mobility. Cordovan did have a slight advantage in that he could still use his semblance.

Zinnia's semblance required the absorption of natural light, something which she could not tap into in this room of hard light constructs.

As Zinnia took a step back to land a heavy blow, Cordovan threw up a small shield, which her weapon collided with. As she pulled back, Cordovan dropped his shield, drawing back his sword and then swinging it at Zinnia. Her weapon hastily came up to parry it, but not fast enough to avoid the power behind the attack.

Zinnia took a step back, her back hitting against a stack of hard light cubes. Cordovan gripped his weapon tight, stalking towards her, intent on taking her out of combat. However, before he could, Isolde’s throwable shield came out of nowhere and disrupted his walk when it hit him on the shoulder. Cordovan looked around for the other woman and Zelde also looked, half expecting to spot her lingering nearby. Isolde was close enough to see the two of them and to have thrown her shield, but it seemed that once she recalled it to her, Isolde was quick to return her attention to Neela.

The training continued for some time and as Zelde continued to watch, she was joined by the rest of Team ZNIA and Xanthos. She and Ajax enjoyed talking battle strategy together, pointing out ledges or angles their teammates could use against each other. They shared similar strategies but Zelde was also interested to hear how he viewed certain things differently from her. There were some things she agreed with and even found to be quite insightful, but other suggestions she thought were just plain wrong.

Down below, Isolde was taking her chances with both Cordovan and Neela, having backed them into a tight corner. Zelde found it difficult to plan for a fight with the Azouf woman. Like her brother, Isolde could be as unpredictable and lethal in combat as she was when playing Remnant: The Game, which made it difficult to counter.

Isolde neatly deflected shots from Cordovan’s rifle with her shield, barely even breaking a sweat the entire time. Neela managed to get Isolde back by forming some ice crystals with her trident and then using her semblance to give herself and Cordovan an escape.

Although they were able to avoid Isolde, they were not so lucky when it came to Zinnia. From where she waiting on a platform of blocks, Zinnia shot a couple of warning shots at Cordovan and Neela. The first couple of shots caught their aura, but Cordovan was ready with a shield for himself on the last.

Zelde watched as her teammates looked around for Zinnia but she had already gone. From their position below, they could not see her using the platforms of hard light blocks to close in on them, using her weapon as a makeshift grappling hook to swing from one ledge to the other before dropping down between them. Cordovan was caught by surprise and quickly felled by Zinnia. Neela attempted to parry her, blocking a swing from her sickle with her trident, before ultimately falling to a quick shot from Zinnia who had swapped her weapon back to its rifle form.

“The spar is over,” Noah’s voice intoned over the speakers in the training room. “ Cordovan, Neela, both of your auras dropped to a critical level.”

Down below, Zelde could see the four combatants shifting around awkwardly before they shared a few light-hearted words. After holstering their weapons, the four of them took the elevator back up to the viewing platform. Xanthos was quick to rush over and commend Neela, whilst Cordovan, Zinnia, and Isolde came to stand with Zelde, Ajax, and Noah.

"That was impressive, Zinnia," Zelde commended. Neela and Xanthos were lagging behind in catching up, but all of Zinnia's teammates were beginning to crowd around her.

She waved Zelde's comment off playfully. "Oh, it wasn't that impressive. Just luck really. Neela would have had me out otherwise."

"You always impress me, sötnos," Noah Azouf blurted out suddenly. It took him a moment to realise what he had just said before his cheeks began to flush with colour. "I, um…I'm going to see about getting the room set up for me and Ajax."

The two boys quickly departed and Isolde followed close behind, flashing an amused grin at Zinnia before joining her twin and teammate.

“So…” Neela said, her tone innocent but her expression betraying the ribbing she was about to give Zinnia.

Zinnia made a groaning sound, holding a hand out to try to stop her. “Please don’t.”

“You and Noah, huh?” Neela chuckled, raising her brow.

“It's not like that,” Zinnia said before shaking a head. “It's…complicated? No, no, that's the wrong word for it.” Her gaze moved over to her teammates, who were still trying to set up the room. “To be honest, I’m not sure what we are. I mean we've flirted a little and went on one date but we've never given ourselves an official title or anything. I suppose we're still trying to figure it out ourselves.”

Although she had never been in a relationship herself, Zelde nodded in understanding. It must have been hard for the two of them to try and pursue a relationship between all their training and various huntsmen activities. That, and the Atlas dormitories offered little in the way of privacy, so Zelde would have been surprised if they even managed to find any private moments for themselves.

“Do you mind if I steal my team away from you?” Zelde asked, eager to share the news she and Xanthos had received from General Ironwood.

“Sure,” Zinnia smiled. “Thanks for the spar!” She gave Cordovan and Neela and thumbs up before departing to rejoin her teammates.

“How did it go with the General?” Cordovan asked once the other woman was out of earshot.

“He was a little reluctant at first but after explaining the situation to him and how we felt there was something larger at play, the General was willing to consent to a further investigation,” Zelde explained.

Xanthos pushed out his chest. “My charms never fail!” He boasted.

Zelde rolled her eyes but her lips twitched faintly. More so in amusement at the fact that Xanthos had barely said anything during that meeting as opposed to his supposed charming of General Ironwood.

“If you were both willing, I thought we might head out to Hargrave Manufacturing this evening?” Zelde prompted.

Cordovan and Neela shared a glance before Neela shrugged. “Well, we’ll need a little bit to recover after the spar, but I’m open to the idea if you are, Cor?”

“I am also fine with it,” Cordovan nodded. “Once we’ve rested of course.”

**

Three hours later, on the opposite side of the city, the team had finally arrived at Hargrave Manufacturing. From the outside it was not very impressive, being what you’d expect from a manufacturing plant. As it was nearing nighttime now, there were few people around, though even from outside they could still hear the sounds of machines working away from within.

It took some time to get into the place, Xanthos was eventually able to jimmy open a locked back door, and they slipped inside. To Zelde’s surprise, the place didn’t seem particularly secure, and besides one solitary security guard at the entrance, there was little in the way of protection. Avoiding any workers they stumbled across, using a number of concealed spots, they all were able to eventually slip inside the building. The main factory floor had at least four assembly lines, two of which were active. Clearly, these were automatic machines, as no workers were operating them. Dotted around the room were little trolleys carrying various pieces of metal, and some crates lined the back wall. There was a pair of double doors at the rear of the factory floor, leading to what Zelde assumed to be either storage or another production room. A single staircase led up to a balcony and a windowed room which appeared to be an office of sorts.

“Neela and I will investigate the office,” Zelde told her team as they paused for breath behind one of the machines. Looking at Cordovan and Xanthos, she gestured to some of the crates lining the wall. “You two stay down here and see what you can find. Try not to cause any trouble.” She looked pointedly at Xanthos as she said this.

Splitting up, Zelde waited a moment to watch as the boys made their way to the side of the room, before nodding to Neela to carry on their way. They moved up the stairs slowly, careful not to make too much noise, and as soon as they had reached the balcony they kept low and close to the wall. Stopping by the window, Zelde took a small look inside. It turned out to not be an office but rather a security room with one man manning a computer system.

Zelde held up a finger to indicate there was one person to deal with, before gesturing for the two of them to enter. Despite best efforts to enter quietly, the man saw them approaching in the glare of the monitors and turned to stop them. Fortunately, Neela was quicker to react, and a few well-timed kicks sent him to the floor.

Zelde was moved to look at the monitors, whilst Neela searched his body for anything useful. The monitors displayed a number of camera feeds one of which had been focused on where they had entered before. She quietly wondered if he had spotted them at all. As she continued to look at the monitors she was certain she saw a casually dressed figure approaching the building in one of the screens.

“Umm, Zelde?”

The sound of Neela’s voice caught her attention, and before she could get a good look at the screen, she found herself looking back at her teammate. Neela was holding up a tiny earpiece, with a worried expression on her face. And for good reason, it would seem, as Zelde could hear the faint chatter of a woman on the other end.

“He was communicating with someone,” Neela said, confirming Zelde’s growing fear.

No sooner had she said it, did the wail of a siren punctuated the air, followed by the sound of something metallic hitting the floor from down below. Realising either Xanthos or Cordovan had been spooked, both girls went for the door, but practically tumbled backwards into the room, when rapid-fire gunshots could be heard below.

“Get your scroll out,” Zelde instructed, doing her best to keep her voice level and calm. “Call for the police. I’m going to see who is shooting.”

With a nod, Zelde left Neela alone for a moment, slipping out the balcony and peering over. A woman with reddish-pink hair was firing bullets in the direction of where Xanthos and Cordovan were hiding. They seemed cornered which was troubling, but Zelde could see Cordovan managing to fire back a few shots when the woman paused to reload. They had to get down there and help, but there was no way she or Neela would make it down those stairs without some cover or a distraction.

A moment later Neela appeared beside her. Zelde was about to mention they tried catching the attention of one of their teammates when she saw the expression on Neela’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Zelde asked.

“I couldn’t get through!” Neela responded quickly. “The signal was down or something! I can’t get through to anyone.”

“Try mine,” Zelde offered, handing her scroll to Neela to try, before looking over the edge again. She managed to get Xanthos’ attention, who promptly nudged Cordovan to look up as well.

“No good,” Neela suddenly said, passing the scroll back to Zelde. Before she put it away, Zelde could see for herself that she had no signal. “What are we going to do now?”

“We’ve got to get down there somehow,” Zelde said, “I’ll see if Xanthos can give us a distraction, can you maybe use your semblance for a little extra help?”

“I can try.”

“Good. Do it.”

With a little trepidation, Neela stepped forward, and holding her arms over the balcony started to produce her misty semblance. Zelde wasn’t sure how well it would work, but it was something at least. Grabbing Xanthos’ attention, she gestured for him to hit one of the machines with his whip.

With Cordovan’s help, Xanthos was able to inch forward a little, to stand and strike one of the machines. He had infused it with dust, and a crackle of electricity sparked as it hit the machine, which groaned to a halt. This seemed to catch the woman’s attention a little, as she turned her gun in that direction, almost as though expecting someone to be there. With this little error in judgment, Zelde and Neela made for the stairs, not quite reaching the bottom before the woman turned and saw them. Wanting to give Neela more cover, Zelde fired at her, which caught her by surprise. Attempting to shield herself, she had raised her rifle to protect her, only for it to fly out of her hand when struck by some of the bullets. As Zelde raced to join her team, she noticed that the woman’s aura flared in her hands, clearly in response to having the rifle shot away.

“Attack her now!” Zelde cried.

Cordovan and Neela were first to attack, with Cordovan’s Braveheart in its sword form. Neela’s spear struck her in the abdomen and the woman fell backwards, her aura flaring up again. Although her teammates had done well to push her back so far, the last hit had left her in reaching distance for her weapon, and she had managed to grab it and shift it into a sword form, which she was now using to parry Neela’s strikes.

She was certainly not the fastest, but the pink-haired woman was able to keep up with the team and deflect some of their hits - at least for a while. After a solid ten minutes of combat, Zelde noticed something strange - the woman seemed to almost purposely be allowing herself to get hit. She seemed to avoid large blows, but every so often she appeared to almost purposely get in the way of an attack, her aura flaring up in response to the direct blows to her body. Unfortunately for Zelde, she realised that not all was as it seemed a little too late.

The woman dropped to her knee suddenly, after ducking to avoid a swing from Cordovan. Zelde attempted to motion for her team to stop, but Xanthos didn’t see her and was already about to attack again before Zelde could stop him.

“Xanthos, wait!” Zelde cried out, turning around to attempt to stop him. But it was too late. He lashed out with his whip, and in response, the woman had raised one of her arms, the whip curling around it, and allowing her to grip it tightly. She slowly began to stand back up, her body now appearing to give off a reddish-pink glow, not unlike her aura. With a sharp tug, she pulled at the whip, dragging Xanthos forward with alarming strength. He attempted to dodge out of her way but was struck in the shoulder by her other fist, which sent him toppling to the side.

The next few attacks were difficult. The older woman no longer appeared to have much difficulty in deflecting their attacks. And now it appeared as though the tables had switched. She seemed stronger now, quicker as well, managing to knock them aside on some hits. Zelde wondered if this sudden surge in strength was her semblance, and that by allowing the team to deplete her aura, they had unwillingly triggered it.

Cordovan and Neela seemed to suffer the brunt of the woman’s attacks, being pushed back numerous times when they attempted to attack. Xanthos and Zelde had fared a little better, though a sharp kick had knocked Xanthos into one of the other machines, and winded him for the time being.

Just as she began to fear how long she’d be able to keep up, the woman seemed to slow, tiring almost. She parried a few hits from Neela before finally seeming to give up. Winded slightly, she appeared to wobble on the spot, leaning against one of the machines for support.

Hesitantly the team lowered their weapons and Xanthos struggled back to his feet, having remained there since the woman had knocked him down.

“I must admit I expected more,” Cordovan muttered, the blades of his sword retracting into the stock of his gun.

“I agree,” Neela added, “this seemed a little too easy.”

“Well, that’s probably because you didn’t face anyone with any real talent.”

A voice behind them made them all swivel around to look at the door that likely backed into another room. Even the red-haired woman turned, much like the team, seeming rather unimpressed to see the figure standing there.

The voice belonged to another woman. She had lavender hair styled in an inverted bob, and eyes a shade of striking green. She had lightly tanned skin, mostly unblemished save for a healed scar on her chin. Under a thin, dark purple jacket with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows, she wore a high-necked dark grey shirt and an armoured corset over that. She wore trousers the same colour as her jacket and heeled boots that came to just below her knees. Although her weapon wasn’t visible, Zelde could see a holster at her waist, partially concealed by her jacket.

This new woman went to crouch beside the pink-haired woman, inclining her head as though curious. “Having trouble, Candy?” She asked the pink-haired woman in a mocking tone.

Candy grumbled something under her breath and shook her head. “I’m fine, Wisteria.” She responded curtly. As she pulled herself up onto her hands and knees, she gave ZRCN a withering glare.  “Just take care of this.”

With a wicked grin, Wisteria stood up straight and turned her attention to the team. “With pleasure.” She proceeded to bow to them.

It was then that Zelde was struck by a growing sense of unease. It almost felt as though she were afraid, but at the same time, it felt almost unnatural, as though she knew she didn’t have any real reason to be this fearful. Looking at her teammates, she saw that Neela and Cordovan had similar expressions on their faces, and she wondered if they were feeling the same way.

Before any of them had much time to react, Wisteria lunged for them, going straight for Zelde. Initially caught off guard, Zelde narrowly dodged her attack, a hand scrambling for her gun to retaliate. When she had it in her hand she swung out but Wisteria avoided it, practically doing a backflip to get out of the way. She avoided many of Zelde’s attacks with ease, moving with a speed that Zelde couldn’t quite match. Still, despite this, Wisteria had only made one attempt to properly attack.

After dodging a few more of Zelde’s attacks, Wisteria finally responded. After throwing a few punches in Zelde’s direction, she shifted into going for a roundhouse kick to Zelde’s head. Just as Zelde moved to avoid it she heard a noise that sounded like that of a blade sliding out and was alarmed to see what appeared to have been a concealed blade in her heel aiming for her head. Wanting to get out of the way, Zelde forced herself to fall backwards, narrowly avoiding cracking her head on one of the machines as she hit the the floor.

Wisteria stood over, cocking her head in fake sympathy. “What’s the matter? Feeling a little scared are we?”

She began to laugh a little but was cut off as a yellow blur crashed into her. To Zelde’s great relief, Xanthos had come to her rescue. As Neela and Cordovan pulled her to safety, Zelde watched as Xanthos and Wisteria fought on the floor. They seemed evenly matched at first, but Xanthos, still weakened from his earlier bout with Candy, was quickly overpowered. 

Xanthos lay sprawled on his back, with Wisteria straddled over him, pinning his arms to the floor temporarily. Wisteria hissed something into his ear, before releasing his arms, grabbing his head and slamming it into the floor. Once she clambered off of him, she moved towards Candy, who was waiting nearby with a hand over her waist.

“Stop playing, Wisteria!” Candy urged. “We need to go!”

Zelde was close enough to hear Wisteria muttering under her breath. “Playing?”

As Wisteria helped Candy to flee, Cordovan rushed to help Xanthos struggling to get him back to his feet. Meanwhile, Wisteria and Candy reached the door they had likely entered through, but Wisteria stopped when  saw Cordovan helping Xanthos. She gestured for Candy to carry on without her, before reaching for something in a back pocket with one hand, and the other going for the pistol holstered at her waist. Zelde didn’t see what she grabbed at first but felt her heart sink when she saw a bright orange dust crystal thrown at her teammates.

With a smile and a shrug of her shoulders, Wisteria aimed her revolver at the crystal. “There’s nothing personal, it’s just business.”

Zelde was barely able to shout at the two of them to run before Wisteria shot the crystal and it unleashed a fiery explosion.

Sensing there would be little time to move, Cordovan had quickly put up a shield, but it was no match for the force of the explosion, and fell apart easily, sending them both flying backwards. Zelde and Neela avoided the blast for the most part though the force had still knocked them back as well. To her relief, Cordovan and Xanthos looked to have avoided getting majorly hurt, though neither of them was moving much. With the sirens kicking in again, and fire spreading into the machines following the blast, Zelde knew this battle had been lost. There would be no point in chasing after the two women who had since disappeared in the commotion. The most important thing right now was to get her team away from the smoke and fire and outside to safety.

Neela ran towards Xanthos to get him back up, whilst Zelde went for Cordovan, who upon closer inspection seemed on the verge of losing consciousness. Zelde kept speaking to him to keep him alert, but she suspected if he stopped he would likely hit the floor and be impossible to move.

Helping the boys up onto their feet, Zelde urged her team to begin to evacuate the building. A lot of smoke was coming off the machines now, several of them having been heavily damaged by Wisteria’s explosive tactic to flee.

Neela was supporting Xanthos and Zelde had Cordovan’s arm over her shoulder, attempting to keep him upright despite their height difference.

“Come on,” Zelde said, looking between the four of them. “Let’s get out of here before any more of us get hurt.”

[sustraiii]

I know I've seen these before but they're still so cool and I love them so much 🥺

Now that @sustraiii has finished her ZRCN saga, what better time to post this art of Zelde and Cordovan?

Congrats dude!! Really enjoyed following along with the adventures of this part of the RAINverse trifecta (to say nothing of the fact that they’re the first to have their story officially brought to its conclusion).

Also thank you @huyandere for this artwork! …That I commissioned like two years ago and then never posted lol

bonus under the cut

casual outfits ft. the Ben Swollo pants (insert “that’s no moon” jokes here)

[sustraiii]

Drop the lore on the other epilogue (you know the one)!

OKAY here we go...the most important of the additional lore that would have been included in the second epilogue

First and foremost - ZRCN returns to Atlas. The epilogue would have ended after they take an airship out of Highpoint and eventually see the city of Atlas come back into view

Hard confirm of Parson having survived following the explosions at the university. His fate had been left unclear since then but he would have returned to see ZRCN off, albeit wheelchair bound for the time being

It would have been revealed Wren would have been stepping down from the military. Several of the higher ups weren't happy about the Mob Ops taking ZRCN, a civilian, and a wanted criminal up to the O.R.C.A.S to deal with the Rossi Family especially as they had been ordered not to go. Wren offers herself to take the fall having served for many years already and not wanting to see Cherry, Elio, or Morgan lose their jobs over such. Potentially the military might have covered it up as an "honourable discharge" to also deflect attention away from the fact they constantly ignored the threat from the Rossis

Tacking on to the last point - Parson also would have stepped down though his reasons would have been more legitimate. He would have stayed as a temporary interim leader for the Mob Ops though until a new leader was appointed who would have most likely been one of the unseen background members

The fates of the surviving Rossi members would have been revealed. This would have mostly been sentencing for any and all crimes they were charged with.

Would have confirmed Helia and Elio being in a relationship after sharing a kiss back at the O.R.C.A.S. Helia would have wound up staying in Highpoint just a little longer to spend time with Elio and explore their new relationship

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN EPILOGUE (WISTERIA)

Turns out you can't keep this woman down.

Wisteria

The last thing Wisteria could clearly remember was falling.

She could remember charging Miho, forcing herself and the larger woman over the balcony in the Rossi's base, falling in one final grapple before the ground rushed up to meet them. Her memory grew hazy after that, spotty and weakened by the immense pain. Her vision was blurry, the world span, and her body felt as though it were on fire.

Wisteria had never thought much about death before that moment. However, as she lay there, it seemed like an inevitable fate for her. The allies she had came here with were unlikely to come and fuss over her and ensure she wasn’t dying, or if they even considered it, then it would surely be at the bottom of their list of priorities.

Her memories become patchier then, sight and sound distorting, the pain reaching a point where her body starts to feel numb to it. At some point she swears she feels her body being pulled, she swears she sees a hand gripping hers, a voice assuring her that they would get out of this. Wisteria thinks she tries to respond but her tongue is heavy in her mouth and the words don’t seem to form. Slowly but surely the world grows darker and darker until she is engulfed by darkness.

Wisteria does not expect to wake up again. And somehow she does.

When her eyes slowly blink awake, she is startled by the brightness of the room, and it takes a moment for her eyes to full adjust to the light again. When her vision becomes clearer, she looks around, taking note of the room and trying to determine where she was. She finds herself unable to look too far, the movement of her head partly constricted by the neck brace she is wearing, but as far as she can tell she is in a hospital room of sorts. 

It’s a very stark, austere room, coloured in mostly neutral tones save for the teal curtains and some sunflowers sitting at the bottom of her bed. 

Odd, she thinks, but her mind is too hazy to make much sense of it beyond that.

Hers is the only bed in the room, a medical bed with all the fixings but surprisingly comfy. She is not actually lying down but has been propped up in bed, an adjustor sits off to the side which would allow her to recline the bed if she so wished, but is unable to reach it due to the cumbersome sling on her left arm. 

The longer she is awake, unable to determine where she truly is, the more she starts to grow annoyed. Even the machines she’s hooked up to begin to annoy her, their beeps and whirs being of little comfort despite the fact they’ve likely been keeping her alive for goodness knows how long.

Wisteria is determined to get out of bed even though a small part of her begs her not to. Untucking the sheet, she finds one of her legs in a hefty cast but is not dissuaded from getting up. She decides she can just hobble around if needed until she finds the answers she is looking for.

The one thing that does give her pause is the growing aches and pains in her body. Now that she’s awake - or at least more alert - she is all the more aware of how much everything hurts.

She wishes she had something for the pain. Wishing that a doctor or nurse would walk through the doors, answer all her burning questions, and then give her medication for the pain. But nobody does, and she finds her annoyance growing at that. 

What sort of place is this that they don’t have somebody watching me constantly? I’m a criminal - shouldn’t I be cuffed to the bed in case I tried to run away as I am now?

Wisteria’s body seems to cry out in pain when she sits up properly, easing her legs to the edge of the bed. She squashes it down for now still determined to get up and get some answers. Her feet touch the floor first and she shivers at the cold sensation against her bare skin. Wisteria is surprised she’s able to stand upright with no trouble but takes it in stride. In hindsight, she should have grabbed something to support herself before she began to walk in earnest, but emboldened by her ability to stand up straight, she took a step forward only to find her legs bucking beneath her.

She hits the floor hard, unable to catch herself with only one free arm, and lies there splayed on her belly. Something has ripped out of her free hand, making it bleed and also making one of the machines wail in alarm.

“Too…loud,” Wisteria says groggily. She isn’t sure if the sudden grogginess is from the earlier aches and pains or if she had hit her head as she fell.

The door to her room opens and a man steps inside. Somebody else follows though she cannot discern if they are man or woman.

“...pulled out her IV line. I will have to reinsert it. Are you able to get her back onto the bed?”

“Am I…dead?” Wisteria asks, rolling on her side to try and look at the man who had entered. He looks familiar, but she cannot quite put her finger on it.

“I don’t think I can. The last time was a struggle back in -”

Wait. Wisteria blinked. She knew that voice. She moved her head, trying to look for the other figure in the room.

“...Sparrow? Did they…get you too?”

Sparrow looked down at her with an unreadable expression. The man moved past her and called out beyond the door, asking for assistance from another person within this place. Wisteria heard another pair of footsteps approach and turned to try and get in a comfortable position to look.

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw who was stood in the doorway.

“How?” She echoes quietly, looking up at the figure.

He doesn’t answer but she does hear the other man present speak, informing the others that he needed to temporarily sedate her. Wisteria felt a prick in her side and her vision and thoughts started to grow hazy again. The last thing she sees before she blacks out is the face of Ulysses Crest staring down at her sympathetically.

“You’re dead…” Wisteria whispers, before her eyes snap shut.

***

Wisteria wakes up a few hours later and when she does, the man from earlier is standing nearby monitoring one of the machines. She hadn't recognised him fully before but now that she's slightly more alert she can absorb the features of his face. He's a tall, dark-skinned man, with neat dark brown hair, and deep azure blue eyes. His hair and stubble was flecked with grey 

"Oh good, you're awake," He says, turning to look at her. "How are you feeling?

He's older than the last time she'd seen him but the name comes easily now - Giles Crest—the father of the three Crest siblings.

In truth, Wisteria only knew him sparingly, having resided at the O.R.C.A.S with his wife for a few overlapping months when Wisteria had first arrived with Nieve many years ago. Eventually, he and his wife left to return to Atlas, able to escape during a time when Alden was more lucid. Leaving when they did they were able to avoid a potential intervention from Belleza at least, who hated anyone trying to leave the family unless she gave permission which she never did. Wisteria recalled that Giles and his wife had tried to take their children with them, but Ulysses and his sisters had been so ingrained in the group that leaving was not such an easy option for them. Ulysses was close with Wisteria and Nieve, Theodora had taken up a role as the defacto nurse and carer in place of her father, and Euphemia stayed to keep an eye on her younger siblings.

"I've felt better," Wisteria finally responded. "I still feel sore but it's not as bad as before."

"Well, that is to be expected, I did give you some additional pain relief," Giles explained. "Your injuries were quite severe so you should expect the pain to linger for a while. Do you know where you are?”

Wisteria frowned, looking around the room. “A hospital in Atlas I assume?”

“Well, it's a clinic actually, but close enough,” Gile responded in good humour. “You're in my clinic in Argus. Sparrow brought you here.”

“They did?” Wisteria blinked in surprise. Despite her shock, it did line up with some of her hazy memories of an escape. “How?”

“Sparrow told me it had to do with their semblance. In all the commotion that was going on nobody noticed the two of you slipping away on an airship,” Giles answered.

Wisteria had to admit she was impressed and perhaps a little unsettled too. She had known Sparrow’s semblance deflected any attention away from themself, but she would never have suspected it to have been that powerful they eluded a whole base full of people. It made her curious just how long it had been that powerful and why Belleza had never kept Sparrow in her group of allies. But then again, subtlety was never really Belleza's style. 

She continued to mull over this new information before asking another question.

"What's the damage, doc?" Wisteria asked. When he stared at her blankly, not quite understanding her question, she knew she needed to clarify. "My injuries. What are they? I assume they must have been bad due to, you know, the multiple casts on my body."

"Very severe indeed," Giles confirmed with a nod. "The most severe was your leg. You shattered your tibia - hence the cast on your leg - and needed surgery to correct it. You also fractured four ribs and your orbital bone. Your collarbone is broken too, which is why you are wearing a sling. Now that you're more alert though I'll swap it for a figure-of-eight brace. What else…oh yes, you sprained your right wrist but that should be fine now. There were also extensive cuts from the glass you fell through, one was very close to catching an artery in your neck."

Wisteria couldn't help but wince slightly as he listed off all her injuries. “Bit of a miracle I survived then.”

“If not for a bit of remaining aura when you fell, you most likely would be dead right now,” Giles confirmed. 

Wisteria frowned. She knew the fact she had survived and escaped had been a marvel but hearing it out loud was slightly more jarring than she expected. Giles did seem to pick up on it, his features softening in sympathy.

“I understand it's a lot to take in right now,” Giles said. 

“That's an understatement,” Wisteria mumbled.

“When the time comes, Capella is happy to sit and talk things through with you.”

Capella Crest - mother of the Crest siblings, and a noted psychiatric doctor in her own right. Wisteria couldn't help but roll her eyes. “Therapy, really?”

“Yes,” Giles responded flatly, a faint hint of annoyance in his tone, following Wisteria's dismissal of his suggestion of therapy. “You will need physical therapy for your leg alone. But speaking with my wife would do you no harm either. She seems to believe your mental health would benefit from it greatly.”

“I’m sure she would,” Wisteria grumbled. “Maybe she can talk me through how to deal with false grief.”

“Pardon?”

“You know, grief for someone who, as it turns out, had never really died in the first place.”

Giles looked away briefly, realising she was referring to Ulysses with that comment. “Ulysses has been wanting to speak with you but I advised him against it,” Giles explained, meeting her gaze again. “I told him you were not ready to process it.”

“Wise choice,” Wisteria said. “I’d advise you to tell him to continue to stay away. I have no desire to speak with him.”

***

Despite her wishes to have nothing to do with Ulysses, Wisteria found herself forced into spending a considerable amount of time with him, much to her great displeasure. 

Confined to her bed due to her leg, Wisteria had nowhere to escape to when he came to keep her company. Ulysses tried to engage her in conversations but Wisteria held firm, refusing to budge on her wish to not speak with him. At most, they only made small talk, with Ulysses doing most of the talking, and Wisteria grunting or moving her head in response.

Even when not in her bed she finds she cannot escape him. As her physical therapy begins and the arduous task of learning to walk again also begins, Ulysses offers himself to walk with her on occasion. The first few times she outwardly refused, deciding she’d rather wait for her actual therapy session to try walking, rather than walk with him. However, she began to feel slightly stir-crazy either confined to her bed or the room she had her therapy in, so eventually swallowed her pride and allowed him to walk with her. At the very least, he was a sturdy presence, keeping her upright if she stumbled or lost her footing.

In the days she could not abide his company, she had Sparrow to also walk with. Wisteria finds it hard to talk with them initially. They had never been close but Wisteria had always respected and tolerated their presence within the Rossi's group, which was something few else seemed to do. As they took more walks together, they found more to talk about. Sparrow was actually quite talkative when they wanted to be and was happy to answer any and all questions Wisteria had about the daring escape from the Rossi base. It's quite a fascinating story and one which Wisteria listens to with interest.

Alas, the budding friendship between her and Sparrow is cut short, when Sparrow lets slip about their involvement in Nieve's death. It comes out rather unexpectedly, so when Sparrow revealed that they had been responsible for sharing where Nieve had been hiding out, Wisteria was unsure how to process the news at first. When it does sink in, she is greeted by anger. An argument breaks out in the corridor and Giles has to intervene and tell them to step away lest they disturb any more of his patients.

Wisteria refuses to speak with Sparrow for days after that, even actively seeking out Ulysses to walk with rather than speak with Sparrow. Eventually, she calms down slightly, if only to tell Sparrow she needs to think things over in regard to where their friendship stood.

She manages to accept Sparrow's sincere apologies at least. Recognising that Sparrow had never intended for such an outcome to happen, nor had been aware of such a possibility. It spoke of a certain degree of naivety on Sparrow's behalf, but Wisteria could acknowledge that Sparrow’s lack of personal involvement with Belleza played into her belief that Belleza would not have killed Nieve.

It is on one of the days following the argument that Wisteria is unintentionally drawn into conversation with Ulysses. She is resting in the living room of the Crest's house which sat next door to their clinic. It's the only room of the house she is happy to go in, providing a welcome change of scenery from the clinic but also ensuring she didn't overstep into the lives of the Crests.

“Still giving Sparrow the silent treatment?” Ulysses asked, startling her out of the book she was reading.

Wisteria gave him a tired expression before shrugging.

Ulysses hovered nearby and though she was not looking at him, Wisteria could tell he was building up to speak with her again.

“Can we talk?” He asked.

“You're talking now,” Wisteria pointed out, idly turning a page.

“I meant together,” Ulysses said, taking a seat on the adjoining sofa next to her. “We can't keep avoiding each other, Wisteria.”

“Well, that's a you problem. As for myself, I’m perfectly happy to keep ignoring you.”

Ulysses groaned out loud. From the corner of her eye, she could see him pinch the bridge of his nose quickly before releasing it. “Look, I’m not saying we have to be friends again, I just want to explain what happened on Shizukana and how I got here.”

Wisteria closed her book with a satisfying snap. "Quite frankly, Ulysses, I don't want to hear it. I cannot understate how little of a shit I give about how you faked your death all these months.”

“Please just-”

“No!” Wisteria cut him off with a glare. “We mourned for you!”

Ulysses looked down at his knees solemnly. “I know…”

“You don't know anything, Ulysses,” Wisteria sneered. “You've been hiding away like a little coward all this time. You have no idea what we went through.”

“Do you recall those messages from Theodora to Nieve?” He suddenly asked.

Wisteria's anger falters ever so slightly, thrown by the mention of the conversations Nieve had secretly been having. “I - what!?”

“It was never Theodora she was speaking to,” Ulysses explained. He lifted his head and looked her in the eye. “It was me.”

Wisteria sucked in a breath and shook her head. “N-No!” She snapped. “I saw those messages! It clearly said Theodora!”

Ulysses gave her a bitter smile. “Do you have any idea how easy it is to clone someone's scroll if you have the right technology?” As he continued to speak, Wisteria remained quiet, the realisation of what he was saying slowly starting to sink in. “I cloned Theodora’s scroll. She knew, of course, as did Euphemia. It was necessary given the sensitive subject matter we needed to discuss.”

“What like your death?” Wisteria said sarcastically.

“That and other things,” Ulysses responded. Slowly, he got to his feet. “Stay here. It will be easier to explain if I show you.” He leaves the room quickly, shutting the door behind him before heading upstairs, the creak of the floorboards above her alerting her to roughly where he was.

Wisteria does as he requests but the entire time she waits she is of half a mind to run out of the house. If not for her still recovering leg she thinks she might have been able to get pretty far. She can hear footsteps coming down the stairs again and realises he is coming back. When he enters the living room again, she sits straight up, eager to see what he would be bringing with him. 

No amount of preparation would have prepared for what happened next.

Ulysses sat back down where he had before and in his arms was a child. They weren't very old, maybe a year or just under if she had to make an educated guess. Wisteria almost asked whose child it was, but seeing how Ulysses fussed over them, she already knew he must have had a connection to them.

“I’d like you to meet River Crest,” He said, turning the baby so that she was facing Wisteria. “She is mine and Nieve’s daughter.”

Wisteria's eyes merely widen and she looks hard at the child. A small part of her wants to laugh at how ludicrous this all sounds, but the longer she looks, the easier it is to see parts of Nieve looking back at her. Although her hair was a darker grey and her skin a touch darker than Nieve's was, Wisteria could see most of Nieve's colouring in the child. River's eyes were more of a pale periwinkle colour, a mix between Nieve's and Ulysses's eye colours. More interestingly, River's fingertips were slightly grey, much like how Nieve's were indicating to Wisteria that the girl was a spider faunus like her mother.

“How? How is this possible?” Wisteria asked, gesturing to River. She knew there were at least five months where she wasn’t present in Nieve’s life due to working closely with the Rossi’s and wanting to protect Nieve who had fled at that point, but surely if Nieve had been pregnant during that time she would have known about it or seen some sort of sign.

“River was born two months after the events on Shizukana,” Ulysses explained.

“Two months after Shizukana!?” Wisteria echoed, unable to believe what she was hearing. If she were able to, she might have jumped to her feet and started pacing around the room. Unfortunately, such a task was not as easy with her leg still in a cast. “No, you can’t be serious. Nieve would have been showing by then, I would have known!”

Ulysses gave her a sympathetic smile. “It’s not unheard of for some women to not know they are pregnant for some time. Nieve was one of those women.”

Wisteria still couldn’t believe any of what he was saying. Of course, some of it did make sense, but it still seemed unbelievable. 

“We would have told you.”

Wisteria looked up, narrowing her eyes. “Oh yes, I’m sure you would have eventually,” She said. “Tell me Ulysses when exactly when this was going to happen? When you came out of hiding? On the unlikely chance that I somehow managed to escape the Rossi’s on my own?”

“We were thinking of the baby too!” Ulysses protested. “Belleza could not know about her. We needed to keep her safe.”

“I could have helped!” Wisteria retorted, surprised to find just how upset she suddenly found herself. “I would have protected all three of you.”

“What, like you protected Nieve?” Ulysses fired back a little too quickly. He seemed to realise the error of his words quickly at least, blinking rapidly before shooting her an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

Wisteria ignored him and went for her crutches, quickly pulling herself to her feet. She tucked the crutches under her arms to help support herself and began to hobble towards the door.

“Wisteria please don’t go,” Ulysses begged, turning in his seat to follow her as she walked.

“Shut up!” She snapped quickly, speaking with a soft voice so as not to disturb River too much. “I’m done talking, Ulysses. I don't want to talk to you again whilst I’m here. As soon as I've recovered, I’m leaving and you will never see me again.”

Wisteria manages to get outside of the house without any further intervention from Ulysses. As soon as she's outside, she manages a few steps forward before she stops. She tries to keep it together but she can't. Tears stream down her cheeks and she sniffs. She won't stop the tears but that does not mean she wants anyone to see her, so as she begins to walk again, Wisteria makes an effort to keep her face hidden, not wanting anyone to stop her and ask if anything was wrong.

**

It takes eight months for Wisteria to finally feel something like herself again. Eight months of grueling physical and mental therapy. 

In that time, River had her first birthday, which turned out to be a quiet and simple affair. And in that time Wisteria did actually start to talk with both Sparrow and Ulysses. It took a few weeks, but Wisteria had finally swallowed her pride, realising her recovery time would pass quicker if she did not alienate them entirely and actually try to understand what they had both been through. The conversations weren't exactly long - especially those with Ulysses - but it was something at least.

Once she had been given the all clear, Giles and Capella were content to let her go on her way. They were kinda enough to help her out with some supplies for when she eventually set out, but luckily Wisteria had plenty of lien saved up that she wouldn't be struggling for a while. The only thing she was less certain about was where to go. Wisteria had had enough of Atlas for a lifetime, but it had been many years since she had experienced Mistral proper, especially the settlements beyond the main city. Wisteria would love to see Mistral again as an adult. She did not remember much of her childhood, with many memories trapped under years of abuse, but she did recall that she had been raised outside of the city. When she had been sent to live with her caretakers she moved to the lower city and then after her escape had roamed the streets. She often wondered where she truly came from.

On her soon-to-be journey through Mistral, she was not going to be alone. Sparrow had offered themselves to accompany her - for a little while at least - once Wisteria was more amenable to the idea. It had taken some time, and plenty of lengthy conversations, for them to even be on decent terms again. Strangely, Wisteria had found Sparrow's apologies to be easier to accept as they weren't constantly trying to rationalise it.

On the day Wisteria planned to leave, she enjoyed an early breakfast with the Crests and Sparrow, before gathering together her supplies. It wasn't much, as she had only come to this place with her scroll more or less, and what items she did have to take with her had accumulated during her time here. One of the more precious items were two polaroids - one from over a year ago with herself, Nieve, and Ulysses in it, and another of baby River. Wisteria hadn't wanted to accept the latter gift at first, still wary of getting close to the child, but she had secretly kept it.

After gathering most of her things together, Wisteria left a small bag at the bottom of the stairs. Midway through her recovery she had taken one of the remaining spare bedrooms in the Crest's house to complete her recuperation.

She was about to head back upstairs and go in search of Sparrow when she heard a little cough behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Ulysses standing there.

“Today's the day, hmm?”

“Today's the day,” Wisteria repeated in confirmation.

Ulysses briefly looked at her bag and then back up at her. “Are you leaving now?”

“I need to see if Sparrow is ready, but yes, we will be leaving soon,” Wisteria responded.

“I see,” Ulysses nodded. “Well, if you can spare the time, there was something I wished to speak to you about before you left.”

Wisteria raised a brow, curious about what he meant before shrugging. “I think I could spare a moment or two once I’ve found Sparrow. Did you need me to meet you somewhere in the house?”

“Oh no, we don't need to meet anywhere specific,” Ulysses assured her. “Just here is fine. I’ll wait for you.”

Wisteria nodded and then made her way up the stairs. She peeked inside the room Sparrow had been staying in but couldn't see them. Feeling a little emboldened, Wisteria opened the doors of some of the other rooms, peeking inside but still finding no luck.

“Sparrow…?” Wisteria called, genuinely curious where they might have been.

“I’m out here, Wisteria.” A voice called from within Sparrow's room. Wisteria pushed inside again, recalling there was a small balcony in that room as well as one in River’s room. Whilst the balcony in River's room looked down onto a small park beyond the house, the one in Sparrow's room looked out upon the south of the city and the expansive Thalassa Bay. The sea view might have been genuinely pleasant if not for the Atlesian military outpost sticking out like a sore thumb. At least there were nicer beaches tucked away to the immediate west of the town, which were probably much more appealing to spend time at.

“Are you re-Woah!” Wisteria was about to ask if Sparrow was ready to go, but was caught by surprise when Sparrow straightened up from leaning over the balustrade and she saw their hair. As long as she had known Sparrow, she had always known them to wear their hair in a long, elaborate plait down their back. Now, they had gone for a much shorter look, having quite literally chopped off their plait in favour of going for a messy pixie cut. And it was a recent choice too, as Sparrow had worn their hair in a plait at breakfast.

“Did you, uh, do that yourself?” Wisteria asked, gesturing to their hair.

Sparrow chuckled, cheeks flushing in embarrassment. “Yeah. Do you think it suits me?”

Wisteria inclined her head to get a better look. Despite the messiness, it did suit them. It exposed the old burn scars that crept up their neck and accentuated the sharp features of their face. It also drew the eye to the new single earring they wore - a small clear gem, dangling on a gold chain.

“It actually does,” Wisteria told them.

“Maybe I can cut yours for you too?” Sparrow suggested jokingly.

Wisteria smirked. “Actually, Sparrow, I think I might grow mine out.” Wisteria had always kept her hair fairly short, but it had grown a little during her recovery. Whilst she would consider neatening it up at some point, she actually did not mind the length.

“There's one other thing I'd like to change,” Sparrow said.

“Hmm?”

“I think I’d like to go back to being Ximenia again.”

Wisteria turned to look at Sparrow and raised a brow. Ximenia?

“That’s my name,” Sparrow responded. “Or it was before, you know, everything happened.”

“‘Ximenia’, huh?” Wisteria considered the name for a moment. “I always just assumed Sparrow was your actual name.”

“Just a nickname,” Ximenia confirmed. “It was Marcel’s fault. He used to say I was small and flighty like a little sparrow. After a while it just stuck, I guess, and we never saw the point to correct Belleza when we ended up working for the Rossis.”

“Well, I like it,” Wisteria smiled, giving Ximenia a nudge. “It suits you. Like the hair.”

Ximenia smiled, appearing truly grateful for the comment. “I’ve got to meet Ulysses downstairs,” Wisteria explained. “If you’re ready just meet me down there and we’ll go once he’s finished talking.”

“Okay,” Ximenia nodded. “That’ll give me a minute to get my things together.”

Leaving Ximenia on their own, Wisteria headed downstairs where Ulysses was still waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. She tried to look at his body language and gauge how he was feeling to try and determine what he wanted to speak about but had no such luck.

“You wanted to talk?” Wisteria prompted him once she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Yes,” Ulysses said. Wisteria was waiting for him to continue talking when suddenly he handed her a manila folder he had been holding behind his back.

“Oh,” Wisteria said, taking the folder gingerly. “Thank you?”

“Do you remember one of our first missions together, Wisteria?” Ulysses suddenly asked.

Wisteria looked at the folder and then at him again. “The job in Essen?” Wisteria could definitely remember that. Especially the part about nearly freezing in one of the barns, and drinking a bottle of Six Swans vodka between herself, Nieve, and Ulysses.

“Do you remember what you said in the barn?”

Wisteria shook her head. “Not really,” She admitted. “We did get pretty drunk.”

“If I remember rightly, you got pretty drunk,” Ulysses said, the faintest hint of a smirk on his lips. He cleared his throat quickly before continuing. “Well, I remember what you said at least, because it has stuck with me over the years. You mentioned wanting to know where you really came from - your parents, your extended family, if you had any real home so to speak.”

“But I looked!” Wisteria said. “I looked for Bloomes. There were none in Mistral that had a daughter my age.”

“Bloome is a fairly common surname as it turned out, so I am not surprised you had difficulty in finding any matches. However, the reason you likely struggled, was because your birth certificate wasn’t registered under any Mistrali settlements. You might have been raised in Mistral but you were born in Vacuo, Wisteria,” Ulysses explained. “With that in mind, I was able to do some backtracking and trace your parents to gather some more information on them.”

Ulysses stepped forward and opened the folder, showing a small page with two short biographies of a man and a woman. There were two photographs attached too. Even though the photographs were of academy aged students, Wisteria could see that they had details that matched up with the written biographies. More importantly, she could see they had features that matched up with her. She had the same green eyes as the man, and the same purple hair as the woman. Honestly, she could have gotten lost studying those faces, and might easily have done so if not for Ulysses bringing her back to reality.

“Lincoln Bloome and Daphne Holt,” He said.

“What?”

“That’s their names. Your parents,” He said, pointing at their names on the page. Wisteria followed is finger and nodded. Ulysses proceeded to shift uncomfortably on the spot. “Unfortunately, neither of them are no longer with us. Your father went missing in action and was suspected to have died, and your mother died only a few weeks later looking for him.”

Although Wisteria had always suspected that was the case, she felt a pang in her heart to know it was the truth. That they had not abandoned her as her former caretakers had often said but rather had died doing their jobs as huntsmen.

“There isn’t much on their times at their respective academies, especially your mother. You can blame Shade records for being notoriously spotty. However, it seems they lived good, honourable lives as huntsmen. I managed to find a few articles of interest though that you can find in the folder,” Ulysses explained. Wisteria was about to move the pages around to see when Ulysses stopped her. “Oh, there’s actually one more thing I found. It turns out you do have surviving family.”

Wisteria blinked in surprise. “I do? Why did they never come looking for me?”

“Well, to answer the second question, it seems like there was some effort on her behalf, but your former guardians made it difficult to find any leads. They claimed that you ran away and that they already had an investigation open to find you,” Ulysses responded. By the face he pulled afterwards, Wisteria wondered if he was thinking of the stories she had told him about them and the abuse she had suffered at their hands. Wisteria knew all too well there likely had never been an investigation on their end.

“Who is she?” Wisteria asked, wanting to know more about this mysterious relative Ulysses has mentioned.

“Arden Bloome - Lincoln’s mother. Your grandmother.”

A grandmother. Wisteria had a grandmother. Well, of course, she had grandparents, but she had never expected any to still be alive. 

“How did you find all this?” She asked.

“I might have done a little bit of hacking,” Ulysses confessed, with a nervous chuckle. “I promised I wouldn't after River was born but it was for a good cause so I made an exception.”

Suddenly, Wisteria threw herself at Ulysses, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a tight embrace. “Thank you,” She said softly, burying her head into his shoulder slightly so as to stifle her tears.

Ulysses's arms were held out awkwardly by his side for a few moments, caught off guard by the sudden embrace. Wisteria recalled neither him nor her had been much for physical affection and they certainly hadn't shared a hug for a very long time. 

Slowly, his arms wrap around her waist and he squeezes her tight. “You’re very welcome, Wisteria,” He said, pulling away from her with a small smile. “I hope this helps you get to where you need to be.”

Wisteria smiled and held the folder close to her chest. Behind her she could hear Ximenia about to come down the stairs and quickly took a breath in an effort to hide her tears. “I think it will,” Wisteria responded, genuinely meaning what she said.

With Ximenia coming downstairs, their own supplies in tow, it was finally time for the two of them to depart. Giles and Capella had already left to return to their respective jobs, so it only left Ulysses and Ximenia to share a goodbye. There was no hug as there had been with him and Wisteria, but they at least enjoyed a friendly handshake before they departed.

As the two of them stepped out onto the streets of Argus, Wisteria took in a breath of fresh air and smiled to herself. Wisteria could not and would forget her criminal past entirely but she was taking this as the chance to have a fresh start. After all these years, she could finally live the life she wanted to lead. And Wisteria was very much looking forward to that.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 4 CHAPTER 17

Team ZRCN and Helia, team up once more to finish Belleza Rossi once and for all.

Zelde

It was funny how certain circumstances put the unlikeliest of allies together. Looking around the room, Zelde marvelled at the strange group that had come together. She couldn't have imagined that she would find herself in the same room as one of the Rossi sisters, much less in the form of allies.

According to Morgan, Bianca had quickly defected when Calantha had been threatened, even going so far as to threaten Belleza herself when Calantha had been injured.

Poor Calantha was in the worst state of all, currently lying on one of the beds, being checked over by Theodora Crest with Bianca hovering in the background. The Rossi’s father was also nearby but didn’t really seem to have grasped what was going on, humming contentedly as he fiddled with a small device. 

By the sound of it, Calantha was lucky to be alive, with the resuscitation efforts of Morgan and Bianca being the reason she was still breathing. Occasionally, Bianca would tear her eyes away from her sister and look at Uriah, who was sitting on the floor cuffed to one of the beds thrashing about trying to get free. He had been the one to strike Calantha and leave her in that state and Bianca looked like she would not forget anytime soon.

Zelde found herself sitting on another of the spare beds with Cordovan. Opposite them sat Callaway and Rosie who had been rescued from their captivity by the two of them with the help of Euphemia Crest. Neela's sister Mira and a man named Lunick had also been rescued from captivity. Lunick was sat on a bed speaking in hushed voices with Laurel and Biggs - whom Zelde had since been told were actually named Nerine and Jesper.

Mira was currently sitting not far from where Calantha was being treated. Compared to the other former captives, she seemed to be in a sorry state with a black eye, chipped tooth, and various bruises and small cuts lining her arms and shoulders. According to Mira herself, she had taken most of the abuse from their captors, ensuring that Callaway and Rosie were unharmed. Her actions might have been a little foolish on account of her having no aura, but Zelde could not thank her enough for shielding the two of them.

Zelde watched Callaway and Rosie quietly before she felt Cordovan bump her knee with his own. She looked at him briefly before he gestured with his head towards the approaching Euphemia. 

The older woman carried a plastic cup of water with her, handing it to Zelde before continuing on. "For your brother."

Zelde held it in her hands for a moment before turning and extending it to Callaway. He smiled appreciatively but shook his head. "I'm fine," He assured her. Theodora had checked him over along with Rosie and Mira and already confirmed they were alright. Still, that didn't stop Zelde from fussing over him. He had been held longer than Rosie and Mira, and though he carried no bruises or healed injuries like the elder Oxford sibling, he seemed tired.

"Drink," Zelde said, which was less of a question and more of an instruction.

Callaway pulled a face but took the cup without arguing. He finished the water before crinkling it in his hand.

"I cannot tell you how glad we are that you're all alright," Cordovan said, smiling softly at Rosie in particular. Zelde had not forgotten the breakdown he had following the explosion at the university and the truth he had revealed about his and Rosie's relationship. Half-siblings. It was no wonder he had been so affected by her capture. As they sat there, Cordovan's hand found hers. Zelde did not know if it was intentional or not, but she looked down at their hands and then leaned into him.

Callaway and Rosie exchanged a glance. "Are you two a couple now?" Callaway asked.

"Eww, gross," Rosie said in a childlike manner.

At their words, Cordovan looked down and realised his hand was resting atop Zelde's. He stared at their hands for a long moment but did not move it away. 

"We haven't really had time to discuss what we are given everything that has happened," Cordovan confessed. His eyes met hers for a moment and his hard features softened. "I like to think that we are though."

Zelde's cheeks warmed. As he said, they hadn't really discussed where their relationship now stood following their kiss at the dance and confession of feelings for each other. There hadn't been time and with everything that happened afterwards it hadn't seemed appropriate. Even now, in this secure room within the Rossi's base, Cordovan's words seemed a little out of place but Zelde was glad for them. 

"I think the same too," Zelde responded, sharing his sentiment that she thought they were a couple. Cordovan smiled at her. A genuine warm and wide smile that she often did not see from her teammate. 

"You two are so cute!!" Rosie gushed. Her enthusiasm broke the two of them apart and Cordovan looked at his sister with an amused face.

"I thought you said this was 'gross' before?" He pointed out.

"Well, it still would be if you started kissing," Rosie responded very matter-of-factly. "Are you two going to get married and have babies now?"

"Rosie!" Cordovan snapped, blushing fiercely.

Callaway laughed out loud and Zelde couldn't help but emit a small chuckle herself. Their conversation was promptly interrupted by Morgan catching their attention.

"Heads up, Cherry is on the way back with your teammates," Morgan told them.

Cordovan nodded to show they had understood. They were only kept waiting for a minute or two before they heard a knock on the door. Euphemia turned to look at the door, her expression dour, before slowly moving towards it. She opened the door and let three figures in.

Zelde was a bit slow to turn around but hastened her pace when she saw some of the shocked expressions in the room. Cherry stood to the left, sizing up Euphemia, and beside her, bloodied and shell-shocked were Xanthos and Neela.

"What happened?" Morgan asked, approaching swiftly but hanging back when he acknowledged the blood again. Zelde and Cordovan were on their feet now too, mirroring each other's concerned expressions as they came to listen to what had happened.

"It was my fault!" Neela suddenly blurted out. Whatever had happened, she sounded quite distressed. Xanthos touched her arm soothingly.

"We encountered Maia as you know," Cherry explained. "She fought the three of us and we managed to disarm her and break her aura. She was on her knees otherwise defeated when I got through to you, Morgan. Foolishly I let my guard down and looked away. I was distracted and didn't hear anything until it was too late. Maia had managed to grab her weapon and would have likely attacked us if not for Neela. She reacted swiftly to defend herself and us. Unfortunately, the wounds she inflicted on Maia were too severe and she passed." A few gasps echoed in the room, and Zelde looked back to see Elio and Bianca listening with particular interest. "It was an accident," Cherry said in a softer tone.

Zelde was about to say something in response when Uriah's voice pierced the air. 

"What did you say about Maia?" He questioned sharply, looking around for answers. "My sister, is she…?"

"She's dead," Bianca confirmed for him, suddenly appearing near the handcuffed man and looming over him. She had seemed like one of the more reasonable members of the Rossi's group but as she stood over Uriah there was something malicious in her expression, and more chillingly something joyful too. Bianca leaned towards him. "I hope you feel as I felt when I thought you'd killed my sister."

Uriah looked alarmed by her words. Zelde thought he might have fought back and argued, as his earlier behaviour suggested he would, but the news of his sister's death had defeated him. Satisfied her words had cut deep, Bianca walked away to hover near Calantha again.

“Times like this I am reminded of exactly who Bianca is related to,” Euphemia mused, watching the white-haired woman leave. “Behind all her formalities lies a cold heart deep down.”

“Uriah did nearly kill her sister,” Morgan pointed out.

“True,” Euphemia conceded briefly, before continuing, “but she also survived. Maia did not. I’m not excusing his behaviour or that of his sister but as an older sibling myself, I’m not sure I’d have appreciated someone gloating of their possible deaths in my face.” Euphemia looked towards her sister and stiffened slightly, her expression soon shifting into a grimace. “I certainly never Miho get away with talking about Ulysses. Even if I got a broken horn for my troubles.”

With those words lingering in the air, Euphemia moved aside, leaned against a nearby wall and crossed her arms over her broad chest. She didn't linger too far from the door, likely ready to intervene should any of the remaining unaccounted Rossi allies try their luck with the door. They wouldn't have been able to break the lock by conventional methods but Zelde would not have put it past them to try other ways of breaking in.

Although Zelde still found Bianca one of the more tolerable members of the Rossi’s group, Euphemia’s words had certainly given her food for thought. After everything that had happened to Calantha, Zelde couldn’t truly begrudge the woman for being a little cold towards him, if the situations were reversed and it was Callaway instead of Calantha, Zelde knew she'd have had a few choice words for him, but the way Bianca had acted around him was exceedingly harsh. Perhaps it was just the heightened emotions of the situation, or perhaps Euphemia wasn’t too far off the mark when she said Bianca had a cold heart.

 Zelde was pulled from her thoughts by the approach of Theodora Crest. The bespectacled woman stopped before the group and looked at Neela's bloodied hands unflinchingly.

"Come and wash your hands," Theodora said, gesturing for Neela to follow her. The blue-haired woman followed without arguing but Theodora stopped and urged Xanthos to come too, noting the small amount of blood he had on his hands.

As their teammates were led to a small en suite at the back of the room, Zelde found herself moving towards Elio and Helia with the rest of the assembled group, having been waved over by Elio. The only person who didn't come with them was Euphemia who was still leaning against the wall.

Elio had gotten pretty badly beaten when he and Helia had encountered Nerine and Jesper. The assailants had eventually relented and whilst Helia had walked away practically unscathed, Elio barely had any aura left. The blonde man was currently sitting up on another bed in the room, looking quite alert despite how worn down he had been from his previous battle.

“How are you holding up, Cher?” He would ask when the group stopped before him. He extended a hand out for her to hold and she reached out and gave him a reassuring squeeze.

“I’ve been better,” Cherry confessed, releasing his hand. “Took a few nasty hits between both fights and my aura broke so I’m really feeling it. Losing Wisteria and Miho and then Maia on top of that…yeah, I’m not going to lie Elio, it hasn’t been a great day for us.” Cherry shook her head and then looked to the en suite, the door of which was ajar allowing them to see Xanthos and Neela inside. “They’re taking things rough. Especially Neela.”

“Not much we can do now, unfortunately,” Elio said sympathetically. “When this is all over, we’ll ensure they get the support they need to talk things through won’t we?” He looked to his fellow Mob Ops members as he said that, to which they both nodded their heads. “Now, to why I called you all over here. Firstly, let’s start with this.”

The man proceeded to pull his scroll out and showed them what appeared to be a message from Wren. By what was written it seemed she and some “support” were inbound.

“When did that come through?” Cherry asked. “The connection is pretty spotty in here, I’m surprised a message from outside reached you.”

“It was about an hour ago,” Morgan responded. “Bianca has since confirmed that their aerial radar has picked up an incoming Atlesian ship. Based on the speed they were supposedly travelling, they should be here soon probably within the next hour if my estimations are correct.”

“Well that’s good,” Cherry said. “What else did you want to talk about, Elio? You made it seem like there were multiple things.”

Elio and Helia shared a glance. “We still have Belleza and Sparrow unaccounted for. Now, we could wait for Wren and her backup to arrive, but we know from prior experience that Belleza is a wily opponent and will probably try and make a run for it if she can, if she hasn't already.”

“What’s going on?” Xanthos asked, interrupting the flow of conversation as he and Neela returned. Cordovan took it upon himself to catch them up to speed.

“What about Sparrow?” Cherry asked.

“We already know from prior intel that Sparrow tends to more or less disappear into thin air. Given the circumstances, we shouldn’t waste time looking for them and focus on efforts on capturing Belleza,” Elio responded. “Bianca has already agreed to lend us her scroll to track where Belleza is in this place - apparently, they modified their scrolls to have a tracking app that can be activated when necessary - our main issue lies in which of us should apprehend her.”

Zelde realised he was referring to the Mob Ops with that statement, what with all three of them in varying states of health after fighting their way through this place.

“I’ve already agreed to help,” Helia announced. “I’m a trained huntress, not a civilian, I know how to handle myself. Besides, I’m one of the few of us here who has all her aura.”

“What about us?” Xanthos piped up, looking between his teammates. “Could we help?”

Morgan looked uncertain. “I don’t know, that’s a potentially big risk.”

“Morgan,” Elio cut him off. “It was a big risk in them even coming here. Besides, it’s not like some of them haven’t already fought their way through some of the Rossi’s people. And they won’t be alone they’ll have Helia with them too.”

Xanthos had volunteered their team, but ultimately it was Zelde who had the deciding opinion. She already knew Cordovan was keen to fight, and by his quick offer Xanthos was too, but she was uncertain about Neela who was currently looking down at her feet. “I’d certainly be amenable to the idea of helping,” Zelde confirmed with a nod. Her silver eyes looked at Neela. “Perhaps Neela could sit this one out though.”

“What?” Neela’s head shot up swiftly. “I can help!”

“You don’t have to, Neela,” Zelde told her reassuringly. “You’ve already been a great help so far and after everything you’ve been through I’m not forcing you to come.”

“I want to come,” Neela said, lifting her head.

“Only if you are certain,” Zelde said, peering into Neela’s eyes. Despite her posture and words, Neela’s eyes seemed to suggest she was a little more uncertain.

“I’m certain,” Neela responded. “Let’s go get her.”

“Well there you have it,” Elio said, glancing between the group. “Looks like we have a plan.”

Zelde noted that Cherry and Morgan seemed less enthusiastic about this plan, but given where the group stood currently, it was one of the better ones they had. 

The five of them approached Bianca, who was still hovering near Calantha. Theodora was also nearby, monitoring one of the machines that were hooked up to Calantha.

"You're going after, Belle?" Bianca asked, lifting her head to look at the group.

They all nodded and Helia stepped forward. "You mentioned earlier to me and Elio that you'd lend us your scroll to track her."

Bianca looked at Helia's hand and then proceeded to retrieve her scroll. She tapped a few buttons on the screen before handing it over. "Here you go," Bianca said. As the scroll was passed between hands, Zelde noted Bianca frowning slightly as she did, her eyes staring at the screen. "Strange…she doesn't appear to be moving."

Helia held the scroll in her hands and ZRCN all gathered to look around at the screen. "Where is this?" Helia asked.

"The cafeteria on the ground floor," Bianca responded. "Save for the kitchen, it was cleared out years ago, so I'm not sure why she'd be there."

"How do we get to it?"

"Once you leave the medical wing, take two lefts and then follow the corridor until you come out onto the atrium. The cafeteria will be opposite you, beyond a dried-up fountain," Bianca explained.

"Oh." Zelde looked to the left and saw Xanthos pulling a face. "Yeah, me and Neela know the place. Or well, we saw it from above at least. Before Miho and Wisteria, you know…fell."

Zelde grimaced at the choice of words her teammate had used. It was an accurate statement at least but perhaps not wholly appropriate given the seriousness of the situation. 

With information gathered on Belleza, the five of them set out to finally bring Belleza Rossi down, words of luck being offered to them as they left. They followed Bianca’s previous instructions upon leaving the medical wing, taking two lefts, and then following the corridor until they reached the atrium. It was a large open space that Zelde and Cordovan had only recently passed by on a different angle when Euphemia had taken them to retrieve the captives.

In the centre of the vast space, sat a now dried-up water fountain, and sprawled over that fountain with blood, glass, and various other bits of debris scattered on the ground, was the broken and twisted body of Miho Ryuzaki. Zelde had known the woman had died from when Cherry had briefly updated Morgan on the situation before reuniting with the group in the medical wing and then Morgan had in turn relayed it to those present. Regardless of knowing what was waiting for them here, it still didn’t stop Zelde’s stomach from churning, and she bit her lip to stop the bile from rising in her throat.

Zelde was too busy fighting the urge not to vomit that she didn’t notice what - or rather who - wasn’t there. And it was only when Xanthos spoke up that she looked over the scene again.

“Where’s Wisteria?”

Again, Zelde remembered that they had been told Wisteria had shoved Miho over the edge of an above balcony, finishing off the red-haired woman at the cost of her remaining health. From how it had been described, Wisteria’s injuries had been quite severe too. Perhaps not to the extent of what Miho had suffered but enough that she wouldn’t have been able to move. So, that begged the question, where exactly had she gone?

“She can’t have gotten far,” Neela said. “Maybe she’s nearby.”

“Possibly,” Xanthos mused in agreement. “Though I doubt she’d have gotten far with those injuries. Should we look for her?”

He was looking at Helia, Zelde, and Cordovan as he said that. The three of them shared a glance before Helia shook her head. “Belleza is the priority,” Helia told them. “If she’s taken down quickly we can spare some time to look. Or we could try and get through to the others and let them know.”

Xanthos nodded but didn’t say anything else which allowed the group to move onwards to the cafeteria where Belleza Rossi awaited them within. Double metal doors were pushed open and the five of them stepped inside. Bianca had mentioned that much of the room had been cleared out and she wasn’t lying. Only a few plastic chairs remained stacked in a corner and other than the kitchen opposite them, there was nothing to suggest this had once been a cafeteria. It made Zelde question where the group ate but she assumed with how much this building had been repurposed over the years they had probably found another space to serve as a dining room.

They didn’t have to look hard for Belleza at least. The older woman was sitting on the floor with her back leaning against a servery. She had her arms resting on her knees, fiddling with something in her hands that Zelde couldn’t quite see, and her spear sat by the side of her.

When she heard the group enter, she lifted her head, red eyes burning into them. “I knew you’d come eventually,” She said with a smirk. “Who was it who ratted me out?”

“Your sister,” Cordovan responded.

“Bianca? Hmm, figured as much the little traitor,” Belleza huffed. “Happy to play along until it suited her.” The white-haired woman let out a bitter laugh before glaring at the group. “You should have stayed in Highpoint. You should kept your noses out of where they did not belong.”

“You forget yourself, Belleza,” Helia snapped. “You made it personal when you attacked my teammates. When you killed Alcyone. When you sent your robots to attack ZRCN. When you dragged us into this mess.”

Belleza merely blinked at Helia, unfazed by the blame being put on her.“I shouldn’t blame you, really,” Belleza said. “We all know it was Wisteria’s fault. Stupid bitch couldn’t keep her mouth shut and just had to gloat to you and Farron that she never worked for him,” Belleza continued, rolling her eyes. “At least she’s dead now though. Got what she deserved in the end.”

Interesting, Zelde thought, she seems to still think Wisteria is outside.

“Sounds like a lot of bullshit to excuse your actions if you ask me,” Xanthos said, putting a hand on his hip. “Convenient to blame a ‘dead’ woman too.”

Belleza chuckled. “Bullshit? Bullshit!? No, I had a plan!” She leaned forward a bit, suddenly more agitated than before. “When Wisteria joined our group she complicated things to be sure but I adapted. But then in you all come and ruin everything! We were going to make Atlas pay! We were going to hold them accountable! Plans that my family had been building for over ten years and you ruined them all!”

“Well, they can’t have been good plans if we took you down in less than a day,” Xanthos said sarcastically.

Helia took a step forward. “It’s over now, Belleza,” She told her sternly. “Your allies are dead, gone, or saw sense and stood down. There’s nothing left to fight for anymore. You are going to jail and you will pay for what you’ve done.”

If Belleza acknowledged the latter part of Helia’s words, she didn’t let it show. Instead, she seemed fixated on the first half of the words, starting to rant incessantly.

“Cowards the lot of them. After everything I put them through, all the training they undertook, all it took was a little bit of pressure to have them all throwing their hands up and surrendering. I always knew it would be down to me in the end.”Slowly the white-haired woman rose to her feet and removed her jacket, dropping it to the floor where it covered her spear. “After all, if you want a job done right, it’s better to do it yourself.”

 She then held out her left hand, showing the group what she had been fiddling with before. It was a dust crystal and a rather jagged piece too that looked as though it hadn’t even been refined yet.

“A gift from a departed friend,” She smiled, and as she spoke Zelde was sure there was something akin to genuine sadness at the back of her words. Zelde felt her semblance flare into life following her words, though the sensation did not last long thanks to her efforts to focus on it more as of late, but even as her body relaxed she knew danger was imminent.

 Belleza pulled the crystal back towards her, hugging it close to her chest. “If I’m going to down, I’m going to make sure I leave a message and take out as many of you with me as I can.” 

And what happened next, not even Zelde could have predicted. Belleza stabbed the dust crystal into a healing wound on her shoulder. Immediately, her arms started to swell, red-orange vein-like marks running down the lengths of both of them and up the left side of her neck. Belleza was screaming too and Zelde could not tell if it was from the pain or the anger. Injecting raw dust into one’s veins was said to be excruciatingly painful, even with aura, she could only imagine the pain the other woman was in. More alarmingly, the room began to fill with the smell of what Zelde could only assume was burning flesh, which seemed a strong likelihood based on how red Belleza’s arms were going.

When the initial effects of the dust infusion subsided, Belleza straightened, and she looked to be in quite a state. Her face was a paler red from the screaming she had been doing, cheeks streaked with tears, and her eyes were glowing a similar red-orange to the veins on her arms and neck. Zelde noticed that her right arm was awkwardly dangling down as if she could no longer control it fully.

Belleza paused for a moment, teetering on the spot as if she did not want to do, and then screamed at the group. Zelde was struck by how distorted it was to her earlier screams, sounding deeper and more unnatural.

With some effort - mostly on account of the right arm she was struggling to move - Belleza raised her arms and fired a giant fireball in their direction. It was Helia who moved quickly, her katana raised, as she rushed to intercept it and stop ZRCN from getting hit. As soon as the fireball connected, a cloud of smoke engulfed the spot where Helia had been standing, and she came flying back out of it seconds later, with such force that she wound up thrown against the wall and her aura shattered.

Zelde knew Belleza would have been more powerful now due to the dust infusion, but she had underestimated just how strong her hits had become if it had been enough to take out Helia’s aura with one hit. Even Belleza seemed surprised at the raw strength of her attack, but that surprise quickly faded into joy when she realised just how powerful she had become.

Suddenly, the fireballs were coming thick and fast, Belleza doing whatever she could to try and hit them. They were able to dodge the first few without trouble, but as Cordovan threw up a shield to block one, Belleza quickly retaliated by throwing another in quick succession. The shield took the brunt of the blast but it shattered under the strength of the second hit and Xanthos and Zelde tumbled backwards. 

Cordovan and Neela remained close together, with Cordovan on one knee. Neela was trying to pull him up when suddenly she saw Belleza running for them.

“Cordo, look out!” She yelled.

Neela tried to pull him back but he instead shoved her out of the way, throwing up another shield with Belleza practically fell on top of.

“Move!” He yelled, glaring not only at her but Zelde and Xanthos too.

Zelde was loathe to move and leave Cordovan but he seemed to be holding Belleza off well enough. Xanthos and Neela ended up pulling her backwards, running to the now exposed kitchen area where they might have been able to duck into cover.

Belleza thumped on Cordovan’s shield. “I think I’ll enjoy sending you back to your mother,” She snickered, before raising a hand up. 

From where they had briefly ducked into cover, Zelde watched as she raised a hand back, the palm of it starting to glow as she was about to create another fireball, only to get suddenly thrown backwards, as Cordovan used his shield to shove Belleza backwards. It was really a testament to his training that he could even manipulate his shields like that, as Zelde could remember a time when his semblance was static and he could not form it anywhere beyond his person, let alone throw it up away from himself.

As the woman went back, Corodvan quickly darted away to where the rest of his team was, coming to a stop in a hunched over position next to them.

“We need a plan,” He said, a little breathless from his efforts to halt Belleza. “We can’t outrun her fire forever.”

He was right of course but coming up with a plan was going to be difficult. Not just because of the little time they had but because Belleza was quite an unpredictable opponent too. Zelde gave it some thought for a moment before lowering her head.

“We have to kill her,” She said.

“Zelde…” Cordovan didn’t seem particularly alarmed by this, only troubled that the suggestion had come from Zelde’s mouth. Xanthos and Neela looked a little wary of the suggestion, and Zelde noted after their earlier bout with Maia, that they were perhaps not looking forward to the idea of killing someone else, even if that someone was Belleza.

“I know it sounds like an extreme idea, but I think that is the only option we’ve got,” Zelde said, pressing on with her suggestion. “As Cordovan said, we cannot outrun her forever. We won't stand a chance if she hits one of us with one of her fireballs. She will knock us out and kill us have no doubt about that.”

“To be honest, killing her might be a mercy,” Xathos said. “Did you see how she reacted when she injected the dust? The smell too? I think she’s quite literally burning herself alive.”

Zelde grimaced at the thought.

“I don’t know if I can,” Neela said. “I know it seems like our only choice but I’m not sure if I can kill another person. Even if it is her.”

“Just leave it to us, Neela,” Zelde said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Can you give us as much mist as you can though?”

Neela nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“FIREBALL!” Xanthos suddenly yelled, forcing them to duck down a little lower, as one flew over their heads and struck a metal cabinet. Clearly, Belleza had gotten back to her feet.

“Go, go, go!” Zelde urged, instructing Xanthos and Cordovan to follow her out of cover.

“You weren’t trying to hide were you?” Belleza asked, cocking her head to the side. “Where’s the other one?”

Belleza seemed to be preparing another fireball when thick mist suddenly started to roll out over the servery and spill out into the empty room. Zelde thanked her teammate silently. Whilst Belleza was temporarily distracted by the appearance of the mist, Zelde gestured for Xanthos and Cordovan to duck, knowing that the three of them would be a bit more obscured if they crouched and hid in the mist.

Even though the mist was thicker than usual for Neela’s semblance, the fiery outline of Belleza could still be seen in the middle of it, her head snapping from side to side rapidly as she tried to see them in the mist. With the heat she was no doubt generating the mist likely wouldn’t last, and Zelde knew they wouldn’t have long and needed to act fast.

Pulling her gun out of its holster, she aimed in the direction of Belleza, and squeezed the trigger, letting off a short burst of rounds. If one or two of them clipped Belleza then so be it, but it was mostly meant as a distraction tactic.

Sure enough, Belleza’s head whipped around to face her, eyes narrowing.

“You,” She hissed. 

Come on, Zelde urged silently, as she held her ground. Charge at me.

Belleza looked at her momentarily, her left palm starting to glow as if preparing a fireball again. Zelde was about to curse when the other woman started moving towards her, possibly deciding that she’d much rather get up close and personal if she was going to hurl a fireball in her face. To Belleza’s surprise, Zelde rushed forward to greet her, raising her foot to kick her sharply in the abdomen. The first kick caught Belleza by surprise, but she was ready for the second, catching Zelde’s foot with a hand and then swinging her leg down violently causing Zelde’s leg to jolt.

“Pathetic,” Belleza sneered, closing the gap between them and slamming her head forward to headbutt Zelde.

Zelde fell backwards and wound up on the floor. Her aura had held, luckily, but she didn’t like being this close to the other woman, even if it was part of her plan.

As Belleza approached, Zelde shuffled backwards using her hands to move, suddenly yelling at Cordovan when Belleza looked ready to form another fireball.

“Cordovan, shield!”

Belleza did not have time to pull back before her fireball connected with the new shield. And being this close to the barrier, she got hit by the recoil from her own attack. Zelde meanwhile neatly rolled out of the way, feeling a bit of the heat from the blast, but avoiding any lasting damage.

As Belleza stumbled away, shielding her eyes, Zelde quickly jumped to her feet, making a signal to Xanthos nearby. 

“Xanthos, restrain her!” Zelde instructed.

Xanthos lashed out with his whip, letting it curl around the body of Belleza. He quickly began to run around her, ensuring his whip was tightly coiled around the other woman, before activating his semblance to alter his weight to his heaviest state. He leaned back on his heels a little, making his whip go taut.

Although restrained, and unlikely to break out quickly, Belleza was trying to free herself. She was heating her palms and trying to burn away the whip with little effect.

“Cordovan,” Zelde called out again, looking towards her red-haired teammate. She shifted her weapon to its bladed form and looked expectantly at Cordovan, hoping he understood what she meant by the gesture. “Together?”

“Together,” He nodded.

“Xanthos, when Cordovan goes in for his strike, release the whip,” Zelde instructed swiftly.

He nodded and Zelde gave him a swift smile. She took a breath. It was time.

Gripping her weapon tightly, she looked towards Cordovan again, before running forward. Belleza saw her coming and yelled out an expletive at her but Zelde did not stop. She pulled back her weapon and made a strike at the back of Belleza’s knees. Her blade connected and she heard Belleza cry out before dropping to her knees, no longer able to stand. Zelde darted quickly away to let Cordovan land the finishing blow. 

As promised, when Cordovan approached, Xanthos let his weapon slacken, allowing Cordovan to attack unimpeded. His weapon, Braveheart, was in its rarely used sword form. And with a grunt of effort, he pulled back, before stabbing it through Belleza’s chest and out her back.

In the end, Belleza did not go out in a blaze of glory, but rather, a small whimper. 

Cordovan pulled out his blade and stood back allowing Belleza to fall back, her head near enough bouncing off the floor. Her chest gave one final heave and then grew still. Her body was spent. 

Belleza Rossi was dead.

Nobody dared to move for a long time. The air felt heavy with some indescribable emotion. It was over and Belleza was defeated but it didn't feel like a victory truly worth celebrating.

Zelde stood by herself for a moment until Cordovan came near, hooking an arm around her waist and drawing her near to his body. Zelde let her weapon drop to the floor, wrapping her arms around Cordovan's neck in relief, just letting herself be held for the moment.

They pulled apart when Neela approached, having come out of hiding from behind the servery. Cordovan gave a small smile and put a hand on her back.

"We did it," She said, weakly smiling back. Her blue eyes strayed away from him and looked at the dead body on the floor. It was a grim sight to be sure and nobody wanted to linger on Belleza's corpse for too long.

Still lingering close together, they moved towards Xanthos who was trying to rouse an unconscious Helia. She seemed to be stirring back to life when they approached, still dazed but then snapping up, as if suddenly remembering she had been in a fight priorly.

"Where's…" Helia's voice trailed off when she spotted Belleza's body behind them. She gulped slightly. "She's dead then. What happened?"

"We killed her," Cordovan answered swiftly. "We couldn't take the risk. We saw what she did to you and we knew we couldn't outrun her forever. It seemed like our only option given the circumstances."

Helia processed the words carefully before nodding and trying to stand.

Cordovan and Xanthos helped her up and she took a moment to dust herself off, once again looking at Belleza before back at the group. "Let's go meet up with the others," She suggested. "I don't want to linger in here longer than we have to."

It was something all of them could agree on at least. The five of them walked out of the cafeteria, tired, and bruised, but alive. As they headed back to reunite with the rest of those who had come with them to this place, they could rest peacefully knowing that the Rossi threat had finally been dealt with.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 4 CHAPTER 16

Cherry, Neela, and Xanthos get more than they bargained for when encountering Maia Astrella.

Xanthos

Wisteria had fallen from a balcony, pulling Miho with her. In all likelihood, Wisteria was very much dead too. Xanthos didn't say it out loud of course - even he knew that was a bit tasteless - but it was something he believed. Even if by some miracle she had survived there was no way she was walking away injury free. If there were any justice in the world for his teammate, maybe she'd have damaged one of her legs.

Still, despite what issues Xanthos had with her - issues likely shared by his teammates - he would have felt bad if she had truly died. She had been an annoying presence when they first encountered each other, but it was hard to ignore how different she had been in recent weeks, as though her spirit had been dampened. In those final moments, she had not cared what had happened to her, she had just wanted Miho. And she had gotten what she wanted in the end. Even if it had potentially come at the cost of her own life.

"What are we going to do if Wisteria is actually dead?" Neela asked. Xanthos was quietly relieved she had asked the question that had been on his mind.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Cherry responded, sighing as she did. “Regardless of what her fate is, I just know there’s going to be a lot of backlash from the higher-ups in the military about it.” And then, in a softer tone, she added, “As if there wasn’t already enough to begin with.”

With everything that had happened with their arrival in Olympia and then reaching the O.R.C.A.S, Xanthos had almost forgotten that Cherry, Elio, and Morgan had all disobeyed orders in coming here. Not only would they be in big trouble with Wren but the General too. 

The three of them found a set of stairs and Cherry encouraged them to go down. They weren't sure how they had gotten three floors up with how backwards this place was, but they knew they needed to go down if they wanted to reach Wisteria and Miho. They had made it down two flights of stairs when the sound of a nearby voice gave them pause. Cherry held her hand up for them to stop and then raised a finger to her lips urging them to be silent.

It took a moment for Xanthos to pick up on what was being said, the speaker kept going from loud and clear to a lower mumble. 

"Why won't you answer me!?" The speaker suddenly yelled. Whoever the voice belonged to was clearly a woman, and by the tone, she seemed frustrated at something or other.

Xanthos could hear the sound of footsteps but they didn't draw too close. By the repetitive nature of her walking, Xanthos got the impression that she was pacing back and forth.

"Bloody Bianca…couldn't even maintain the connection properly…probably Lunick's fault…useless, useless, USELESS!"

At the woman's growing frustration, Xanthos and Neela shared a worried glance. Xanthos looked at Cherry, trying to see if she had anything to say on the matter, but she only had a furrowed brow and looked deep in thought herself.

The woman stopped pacing and began speaking quietly again. Xanthos had to really focus to hear what she had to say.

"Where are you, Uriah?"

By the mention of the name, Xanthos wondered if the woman they were listening to was his sister, Maia. They knew little about her but Wisteria had at least confirmed that she and Uriah were siblings. 

"Let's take her down," Cherry said, gesturing with a flick of her head. "Quietly."

Xanthos and Neela nodded slowly. Cherry led the way, putting her bhuj in its back holster before approaching. Xanthos and Neela followed suit, their own weapons holstered, cautiously looking ahead.

"Maia Astrella?" Cherry called out quietly, quickly drawing the other woman's attention. Maia was a young woman, in her early twenties from what Xanthos could remember, but with a youthful face that made her seem slightly younger. She had pale skin, wavy brown hair, and teal eyes. Although she seemed a bit startled at the call of her name, Xanthos noticed she seemed more curious than scared. One thin brow arched upwards as she studied the three of them. "It is advisable that you come quietly," Cherry continued, speaking with a calm and controlled voice. She took a step towards Maia but the woman took a step back. "This doesn't have to end in a fight."

The reaction from Maia was almost immediate. The curiosity disappeared in a flash, only to be replaced by red hot anger as she pulled out her weapon - a morningstar - and charged. Cherry hadn't pulled her weapon out yet, so narrowly dodged as Maia swung it at her head. Clearly Maia had put some force behind the swing, as whilst it missed Cherry, it got lodged in a nearby wall and she had to fight to try and pull it out.

"You don't have to do this," Cherry pressed. In response, Maia merely growled, putting both hands on the shaft of her weapon and finally tugging it free. 

"Piss. Off," Maia spat, stalking towards Cherry again. As she did, Xanthos noticed a pink sheen washing over Cherry, an indication that her semblance was kicking in. Xanthos recalled from a sudden training session that Cherry had hosted for him and Neela that her semblance granted her increased strength when people were emotional in her vicinity. He didn't know if it was intentional but Maia was obviously the perfect battery for that semblance.

Cherry and Maia exchanged a few blows, their weapons clanging off each other, but doing no major damage at the moment. As Xanthos watched, waiting for an opening to step in and help, he noted something odd. Whilst Maia was currently grappling with Cherry, her gaze kept drifting elsewhere…to Neela. And by the look on his friend's face, she had noticed it too.

A heavy blow from Maia against Cherry's bhuj, opened up a window for Maia to strike. For one so small, Xanthos was surprised at how vicious she became. Maia did not relent for a moment, kicking, shoving, punching, and swinging her weapon with dangerous intent. Cherry caught a swift blow to her right hand with Maia's weapon, pulling back with a grimace. Her aura flared dramatically which surprised Xanthos as the strike hadn't seemed that bad.

"How?" Cherry questioned, flexing her injured hand.

Maia grinned and dashed forward, about to swing at her with a downward strike, only to be parried by Cherry quickly raising her bhuj to counter. Maia seemed to falter slightly and desperately tried to pull back. However, she was too slow, as Cherry raised a foot and kicked her sharply in the stomach and sending her sprawling on her back.

Maia quickly righted herself, rising to her feet before Cherry or anyone else could get to her. With three people surrounding her, she seemed a bit unsure of what to do herself. Her gaze lingered on Cherry before shaking her head angrily and looking at Neela and Xanthos. Her eyes narrowed and with a small swish of her hand, she shifted her weapon to an alternate form. Xanthos watched as the spiked head dropped on a chain, turning it from a simple morningstar to a ball and chain weapon.

Her gaze followed Xanthos's downwards and when they met, she gave him a smirk before lunging forward again, this time going straight for her real target - Neela.

Neela lifted her weapon ready to intervene, shifting it from its spear form to a trident. Although she was ready, it was Xanthos who got to Maia first, whipping the ground in front of her to try and halt her movements. It did stop her momentarily but she was quick to continue moving, focused and determined to get to Neela.

Behind Maia they could see Cherry working her way up to her again, giving a gesture to Neela to create some sort of distraction. Neela pulled back her weapon suddenly, which Maia saw as an opportunity to move forward, only for Neela to slam the tip of her weapon into the floor, creating an icy formation where it had struck. Maia pulled back sharply to avoid getting skewered, the sleeve of her jacket tearing on the ice as she tried to shield herself.

“Bitch!” Maia hissed, glaring at Neela.

She was so focused on yelling that she didn’t notice Cherry sneak up and grab her from behind. 

Maia genuinely yelped as Cherry got her arm around her and pulled her back. She thrashed around in Cherry’s arms like some sort of wild animal, screaming, kicking, and generally making a lot of noise. Despite Cherry’s best efforts to restrain her, even she could not withstand the wild thrashing. Using her own momentum, Maia managed to plant both of her feet firmly on the ground, leaned forward and then slammed her back into Cherry’s chest. Cherry’s grip slackened as she gasped in surprise and Maia used the opportunity to break free out of her grasp.

Maia would take a few steps forward before turning on her heel and advancing on Cherry again. Although her weapon had fallen to the floor following Cherry’s surprise attack, it didn’t stop the young woman from throwing punch after punch at her. Alarmingly, with every hit Xanthos noted it seemed to be causing more damage, almost as if her attacks were growing in strength.

Cherry eventually got a window to retaliate, throwing up one arm to parry a punch, before using her other hand to land an uppercut against Maia. The other woman staggered back slightly and was then shoved further back by Cherry. Maia yelled something incomprehensible back at Cherry and then tried to punch her again. This time Xanthos noticed that Cherry appeared to almost shrug the hit off. And it seemed by the dawning look of realisation on her face, Cherry realised it too.

“Do not let her grab her weapon!” Cherry ordered, gesturing to Neela who was standing closer to the discarded weapon.

“Oh, you’re sharper than you look,” Maia said mockingly. “Figured it out did you?”

Cherry shrugged. Once again, the two women charged forward, Maia dashing her weapon and Cherry rushing to grab Maia. They got caught in a grapple, Maia fighting hard to break free, and Cherry fighting to keep hold of her. Xanthos could only watch as they grunted and tried to get in small hits against each other. 

Cherry eventually managed to get her arms lowered down on Cherry’s body, trying to twist her slightly and pull her to the ground. As she did so, her foot slipped slightly and Maia sensed this weakness and kicked it out with one of her feet causing Cherry to lose her balance. With Cherry’s balance thrown, it was Maia who managed to get her arms around Cherry’s waist, pulling her forward and then throwing her against the stairs she had come down with Xanthos and Neela.

As she landed against the stairs, Cherry landed awkwardly on her back crying out in pain as she did so. Her aura flared up and then promptly broke. Satisfied her work was done, Maia walked away, once again heading for her weapon. Cherry heaved herself off the stairs gingerly, resting on her knees in a defeated lump.

“You have to…” Cherry’s voice trailed off as she fought to regain her breath. “You have to break her aura!”

Xanthos nodded understanding what he needed to do. His golden eyes travelled over to Neela, who nodded back at him, her grip on her weapons tightening. With Cherry down for the count, it was down to the two of them to deal with Maia. Sure, she might have been able to hit hard, but it didn’t seem like she had much in the way of any sort of tactic. That and her aura was likely very low. One or two strong hits would be enough to break potentially.

Having retrieved her weapon, Maia was back up on the offence, but again she seemed primarily focused on Neela. Ironically, that worked out better in Xanthos and Neela’s favour though. Neela could engage her first and keep her distracted, whilst Xanthos could work around them and try and catch her by surprise. He knew they would need a strong hit to break Maia’s aura, and whilst Xanthos did not doubt Neela’s fighting ability, he knew that they would have better luck with his semblance.

A knowing gaze was aimed towards Neela and she nodded, seemingly understanding he was leaving things to her for a moment.

Neela carried herself well as she defended herself from Maia’s violent strikes. Even when not using her weapon in its trident or spear form, and merely using it to block, Neela moved it with expert precision. Maia did manage to get a few small blows on Neela but was parried more often than she managed to break free and land a hit. Clearly, this was frustrating her quite a bit as she started swinging and hitting out wildly, losing what little technique she had.

Finally, it was Xanthos’s time to strike. A quick strike with his whip, managed to stop Maia in her tracks as she tried to go in for another swing. As she turned, Xanthos rushed suddenly, already having used his semblance to alter his weight, meaning that when his punch caught her in the jaw, it hit hard.

So hard, in fact, that Maia ended up going flying backwards again, landing hard on her back. As hoped, as she attempted to sit back up, her teal aura flickered into life and promptly broke. 

“Stay down,” Xanthos said, uncharacteristically cold.

Turning away from her, he approached Neela and gave her a small smile, trying to gauge how she was feeling. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m alright,” Neela responded. “A bit sore but otherwise okay. We’re lucky Cherry tired her out.”

Xanthos nodded in agreement. She had a point, had Cherry not worn Maia down, he doubted they would have fared well against her had they tried to take her on individually. Speaking of Cherry, the woman was approaching them now, still walking a bit gingerly but looking a bit brighter than she had when instructing the two of them to break Maia’s aura.

“Nice punch, Ravi,” Cherry complimented. “Elio didn’t teach you that did he? I swear I’ve seen him throw a punch like that.”

“Nope all me,” Xanthos grinned.

Cherry chuckled a little but had to forcibly stop laughing as she was in some discomfort doing so. “I’m going to see if I can reach the others,” Cherry explained, gesturing to her earpiece with a finger. “Probably won’t get through but - oh hey, would you look at that it worked!”

Cherry promptly turned her head away, talking into her earpiece to what sounded like Morgan based on her words, explaining what had happened with Wisteria and Miho and that the three of them had then come across Maia. As she was speaking, Xanthos turned to look back at Maia having seen some movement out of the corner of his eye. The woman had managed to pull herself onto her knees and was now sitting there slightly hunched over mumbling away to herself. Xanthos tried to discern what she was saying, but it honestly just sounded like more of the incomprehensible muttering she had been doing earlier. With a small gesture, he made Neela aware of her talking, but like Xanthos she seemed unable to pick up on anything, merely giving him a shrug. Assuming she was just talking away to herself, Xanthos turned away again, instead focusing back on Cherry. Later he would curse himself for looking away.

“I will not lose another home to a fucking Oxford!”

It wasn’t so much the words that caught his attention, but rather the scraping of Maia’s weapon against the floor, as she recollected her weapon which had fallen when he knocked her down. He heard the sound of a weapon connecting with someone, the sound of pierced flesh, and then a startled gasp. Xanthos remembered Maia’s earlier determination to get to Neela and he turned fully expecting to see her with a morningstar lodged in her body.

To Xanthos’s relief, it was not Neela who was the injured party. It was Maia.

Maia was up on one knee, her weapon raised above her head, as though she were trying to stand up and hit Neela. Unfortunately for her, Neela had reacted quickly and had caught her before she could do any damage. The three prongs of Neela’s trident were wedged in her chest - one prong just below the clavicle, and two just below that. Xanthos tensed up as he took in the gory scene before him. Beside him, Cherry cursed, before hastily disconnecting from the call she had made.

Maia let out a horrible gurgling sound before she dropped her weapon and fell to the side, freeing herself from the trident as she did so.

Neela dropped her trident and quickly rushed to the woman’s side, her hands desperately trying to stem the flow of the heavy bleeding from Maia’s chest.

“No, no, no…” She mumbled as shaky hands tried to cover the wounds.

Xanthos’s heart ached to see her so distressed. He knew Neela would not have intended to kill Maia, though in the situation would have only had moments to react and defend herself.

"Neela," Cherry's voice called out softly. "I don't think-"

"NO!" Neela cried out. “I have to help her! I have to stop this! I didn’t mean - I don’t want her to die!”

Maia was continuing to make such horrible sounds. Not only was her blood steadily pooling around her but she was coughing it up too, leaving bloody spittle on her chin. Sudden gasping sounds could be heard coming from her and it didn’t take an expert to know that these were Maia’s final breaths.

As the light started to fade from her eyes, she had time to mutter one final thing to Neela. “Fucking…Oxfords.”

Her words were swiftly replaced by another gargle before her head lolled to the side and all was still.

“No…NO!” Neela yelled. Xanthos was quite taken aback when she suddenly began shaking the other woman quite violently, as though trying to will some life back into her.

Cherry moved to take a step forward but Xanthos held his hand out to stop her. When her pink eyes bore into him questioningly, he merely shook his head hoping that she would understand that he needed to be the one to comfort his friend.

Xanthos knelt beside his teammate, who looked at him wearily with tears in her eyes. “Nee-”

“Get away from me, Xanthos!”

“Neela, stop, look at me!” Xanthos said, forcefully gripping her shoulders so she would look at him. “She’s gone, Neela. You can’t bring her back.”

Neela shook her head a little. Xanthos wasn’t sure if it was denial or a slow acceptance of what she had done. “I didn’t mean to,” Neela choked out, bottom lip quivering.

His blue-haired teammate leaned forward a bit so her forehead was resting against his shoulder, mindful not to touch him with her bloodied hands. Xanthos carefully manoeuvered one arm around so that he could rest a hand on her back, patting comfortingly.

“I know you didn’t mean to,” Xanthos said. “Neela, it was self-defense. If you didn’t retaliate she could have hurt you or attacked me or Cherry.”

Neela sniffed. “I know, I know, I just wonder if it was the right decision?”

“You acted in the moment to defend yourself and the two of us,” Cherry said, quickly joining the conversation. “Maia’s death is unfortunate but do not fault yourself for defending yourself.”

Neela hiccuped awkwardly into Xanthos's shoulder and he felt her head shifting as if nodding again. There was little else said between the three of them after that. As much as Xanthos wished to continue comforting his teammate, he knew that in her present state, his words were likely to fall on deaf ears. No matter how much he and Cherry tried to assure her it was an accident, Xanthos knew the guilt would linger in his friend for a long time. He could only hope that in time she would forgive herself. For now though, he was content to support her and stand by her side. No matter where this went moving forward, he would be with her through all of it.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 6

Team ZRCN, Team PCAN, and Vernon all work together to take down Merlot and Saika.

Xanthos

A stakeout. On paper, it was one of the more interesting missions a huntsman could undertake - at least in Xanthos’s opinion. In reality, it was incredibly, incredibly boring. Most of it involved remaining in one place, watching, making notes, twiddling thumbs, and hoping something exciting was going to happen.

After speaking with Vernon two days prior, ZRCN found themselves holed up in the warehouse of Heath Porphyry, keeping a close eye on the neighbouring Verdant Storage. They were waiting on Vernon to appear, hopefully bringing Merlot and Saika with them. Vernon had helped organise a meeting nearby at least but had remained silent on whether his 'subordinates' would be following him.

Darkness was falling over Atlas as they settled in the warehouse. With a shiver, Xanthos crossed his arms over his chest. Hailing from Vacuo originally the Atlesian weather had been difficult to adjust to, and whilst he had grown used to the colder temperature in the day, he was still yet to get used to the colder temperature at night. It didn't help that the warehouse was positively freezing at that current moment. It was so cold, in fact, that Xanthos could see his breath in certain places.

The stakeout had only really just begun but already Xanthos could feel boredom settling in. Zelde had already designated herself and Cordovan as watchmen for the night, swapping every hour or so to keep things fair. If it had just been the four of them, Xanthos and Neela might have been able to do something helpful in the office, but they had been joined by Team PCAN who had mostly holed themselves up in the security office, preventing ZRCN from doing much else. Xanthos did not have a problem with them being here, especially as Vernon and ZRCN themselves had agreed to let them assist, as they had technically been working on this mission before ZRCN had. 

Zelde and Chester were currently downstairs, keeping a watch on the lower interior of the building. The rest of the two teams were huddled together upstairs. Niall had sequestered himself in the security office monitoring the cameras to the exterior having designated himself the job promptly upon arrival. It seemed he had no desire to do any other tasks that night, as any attempt to swap with him had been dismissed. The quiet Rue had spent most of the night making small talk with Cordovan, Neela, and himself. Although it seemed as though she was doing nothing but waiting like himself, she was actually doing quite an important job and keeping sound levels to a minimum within the warehouse. Xanthos had to give credit where credit was due and admit to it being an impressive feat. The warehouse wasn't exactly small but Rue seemed to be handling things with ease.

Of the three members of PCAN upstairs with them, the only one who seemed to share his apparent boredom was Akari. The girl kept walking between the security room and the warehouse where the rest of them were, usually stopping by Xanthos to share some raucous joke with him before slipping away. 

Unfortunately, she had stopped popping her head out after the last joke, so Xanthos was left to his thoughts again. He tried to entertain himself with a game on his scroll but his battery appeared to be running low. With a huff, he slipped it back into his pocket.

“You’re not going to mope around all night are you?” Neela teased, shooting him a glance from across the room.

"I'm trying not to," Xanthos said. "I might see how Zelde and Chester are doing."

"Don't disturb them too much," Cordovan warned.

Xanthos rolled his eyes. "Yes, sir," He quipped. "Don't worry I won't pester them…not too much at least."

Xanthos was quick to scurry away after that, not wanting to linger lest Cordovan give him another warning. It was quiet in the downstairs portion of the warehouse, the only sounds being the faint buzzing of the lights, and the quiet chatter of Zelde and Chester. They were standing by a window, looking through gaps in the shutter at the street outside.

He didn’t need to call out to them as no sooner did he begin to approach, did Zelde turn on her heel and give him a look.

“What are you doing down here, Xanthos?”

“Can’t a man say hi to his friends?” He asked, holding his hands up in defence.

Chester smirked behind Zelde, whereas Zelde herself merely rolled his eyes. “You were supposed to be helping upstairs.”

“Well, I would love to do that, but it’s a bit hard to do with Niall deciding that he and he alone can monitor the cameras,” Xanthos responded sarcastically. 

“I apologise if he has been rude,” Chester was quick to say, giving both Xanthos and Zelde an apologetic glance. “Even though he was glad to be included, he’s still a little sour about everything.”

Zelde frowned. She had been less vocal than her teammates about Niall taking his frustrations out on ZRCN, but Zelde still seemed displeased by the whole situation that had unfolded since. And her displeasure was plain to see by the deep frown she sported.

“Can I stay here with you two?” Xanthos asked, looking expectantly between the two.

“No,” Zelde answered swiftly. 

“But–”

“Xanthos,” Zelde gave him a stern look. “As much as I love you, we do not need you distracting us.”

Chester gave an apologetic smile to him. “Sorry!”

Despite Zelde’s words, Xanthos was persistent and was determined to try and convince them, or at least pester Zelde until she relented. He really didn’t want to go back upstairs and be left to his thoughts again. He was about to start arguing for him to stay with them but never got the chance. He turned to look at Zelde, readying himself to argue, but he saw her face and stopped short.

To the unknowing eye she would have looked paralysed with fear, her expression largely blank and devoid of emotion, save for what would have looked like a fearful look in her eye. Even her posture was completely rigid, indicating some sort of fear washing over her. In reality, Zelde was not truly afraid but when her semblance flared up like this, it had a tendency to leave her immobilised in such a way. Her semblance allowed her to get a sense or feeling of when something bad was going to happen to her. It would have been a fine semblance to have if it didn't flare up randomly and leave her completely immobilised and unable to do anything when it did strike.

"Is she alright?" Chester asked, looking between him and Zelde. He probably would have known of Zelde's semblance but experiencing it in person was another thing entirely. Xanthos could still remember the first time he had witnessed it, believing his teammate to be having some sort of medical emergency rather than her semblance kicking in. It had been a close call that day too. They had been fighting a horde of Grimm in their first year when it happened, and Zelde had been so shaken by it taking hold of her that she almost didn't react in time and was lucky to walk away unharmed.

"Yeah, she'll be fine," Xanthos assured him. He reached a hand out towards her, putting a hand on her shoulder, which almost instantly seemed to break the stupor she was in. "You still with us, Zee?"

Slowly her face relaxed and she nodded. "I'm fine," She assured the two of them, giving Xanthos a grateful pat on the hand. "They must be on their way, hence my semblance flaring up. You should probably let the others know so they can get ready."

"Got it," Xanthos said, before darting back upstairs.

His remaining teammates were still huddled together with Rue when he found them. When he arrived upstairs he gave them a little wave to catch their attention before informing them that Merlot and Saika were on their way. "You'd best get ready to go," Xanthos told them. "It seems like Merlot and Saika are on their way."

"Has Vernon messaged Chester?" Cordovan asked. It had been the plan that when they were close, Vernon would message them to prepare themselves.

“No,” Xanthos shook his head. “Zelde’s semblance flared up.”

At one point in time, Zelde’s semblance had sometimes flared up so randomly it had often done so several hours or even days in advance of danger. Experience and a little bit of focus had helped her control it a little and ensured it only flared up when the danger was within a few minutes, but it still did little to negate how much control it had over her body.

As Xanthos, Rue, and the rest of ZRCN reunited with Zelde and Chester on the floor below, Chester informed them that Vernon had messaged him.

"Vernon's approaching from the right side of the building and Merlot and Saika are coming from the left," Chester explained, showing his scroll to everyone present so they could read the message. Vernon had informed them that he would pull the pair of them to the side a bit, hopefully allowing ZRCN to approach from the alley between the Porphyry's building and Verdant Storage without being noticed. Rue would also be helping to minimise the sound they made on the approach, though Chester and ZRCN had already been warned that Merlot's semblance gave him a hyper-awareness of his surroundings and could potentially detect them even without Rue's protection.

Back upstairs on the cameras, Niall informed them when Vernon approached and then when he pulled Merlot and Saika aside. 

Team ZRCN slipped outside with Rue close after, taking up the rear so that she could mask their sounds. It was strangely eerie barely hearing his breathing and footsteps and it was something that Xanthos could not imagine that he'd be comfortable with for long. As they approached the end of the alleyway, Zelde brought the group to a halt by raising a palm, ensuring that they had stopped safely within the shadows. Even though their own sounds were nullified they could hear Verde's yelling clearly.

"I knew that you had an ulterior motive!" Vernon seethed. "I should have cut you off the moment you suggested the idea, Saika"

"But I-" A feminine voice began to speak, only to be cut off by Vernon.

"Shut up!" He snapped, making a sound that sounded akin to a growl. Xanthos had to admit it was impressive how realistic his rage sounded, knowing full well Vernon was putting it on to maintain his cover. "I don't think you can even begin to imagine the gravity of how bad this situation is. The military is breathing down my neck, Farron is breathing down my neck, and Crocus is breathing down his neck."

"Well, it can't be that bad," Saika attempted to protest. "They've only started sending people to investigate recently, right? It can't be that important to the military."

"They had higher priorities like evacuating civilians and students out of Vale, Saika," Vernon pointed out."Your little escapade has only just come to light because things have become settled enough for them to start working through their backlog again. Besides, how do you know that? I thought you'd been keeping low, hence the silent treatment."

Saika made a noise, which seemed like an awkward attempt to explain herself.

"She has taken to watching the shop in recent days," A softer male voice finally explained for her.

"Oh god, so not only did you already ruin things, you thought you'd make things even worse by snooping around in the area?" Vernon said sarcastically. He let out a dramatic sigh. 

"I stuck to the side streets and mingled with the crowds," Saika said, trying to cover herself.

Vernon let out a mocking laugh. "You are not subtle, Saika. Merlot is but you are not. You walk around like a petulant child with a chip on your shoulder. That and your hair alone makes you stand out like a sore thumb."

"We'll be better next time!" Saika said loudly, her voice pitching into a whine.

"You'll be lucky if there even will be a next time," Vernon responded. "I'll be lucky if there's a next time for me too. I’m responsible for the pair of you, so when you act out like that, it looks bad on me."

“We didn’t intend for it to go down that way. We just wanted to mess the place up a bit, but we didn’t know she’d be there," Saika said. Xanthos could feel his eyes roll a little at that.

“Save your excuses because I don’t want to hear them.” Vernon huffed. Although his tone was still sharp, he seemed to be calming slightly. “You can explain yourself to Farron. Once he’s back in Atlas he wants to speak with you.”

As Vernon continued to chastise his companions, Zelde turned around and made a gesture to indicate for Rue to ease her semblance a little. Zelde glanced at Neela. “Think you can give us some cover?”

Neela smirked. “I think I could manage that.” Standing a little ways away from her teammates, she outstretched her arms, and focused on her breathing. Moments later the air seemed to change, growing somewhat hazy and misty. Neela’s semblance gave her the ability to generate mist, which she was then able to project in a small field around herself. Although not thick, the mist would give the three of them a small amount of cover; more than usual thanks to the added cover of darkness.

The mist filtered out through the alleyway and outwards to where the three of them were talking. A few confused grumblings could be heard immediately.

"Vernon has stepped back," Niall's monotonous voice relayed through their earpiece. "Engage when you are ready."

And then it was Xanthos's turn to strike. Using Neela's mist to his advantage, he stepped out through the alleyway and in the middle of Merlot, Saika, and Vernon. He faced the direction of Merlot and Saika, uncoiled his whip and lashed out between the two of them, forcing them to stand apart.

"What was that!?" Saika yelled.

"There are multiple people here," Merlot told her, his voice far calmer than hers. "I can't see them but I can sense them."

As the two of them spoke, the rest of ZRCN  stepped out to join Xanthos. Zelde and Cordovan stood either side of him and Neela stood behind the three of them close to Vernon.

"Drop it," Zelde said calmly, an instruction for both Neela and Rue to drop their semblances.

As the mist faded, Saika and Merlot looked around, blinking in confusion before finally settling on the new arrivals.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Saika asked, narrowing her eyes at them.

"We're Team ZRCN," Xanthos said smugly. "Only the best second year team in Atlas Academy."

Saika pulled a face and Merlot merely blinked, his expression unbothered.

"They were in the year below us in the academy," Merlot explained to his companion.

"I thought they were called Team ZNON," She muttered.

Neela sighed. "We get that a lot."

"Saika. Merlot. It's time to end this," Vernon said calmly. His voice had a much softer, much kinder edge to it and Xanthos could tell his earlier persona had been dropped. "Stand down quietly, this doesn't have to end in a fight."

Merlot raised a brow curiously but his teammate looked positively livid.

"Did you rat us out to the military, Verde?" She asked, staring at Vernon with a glare.

Vernon shook his head. "It's Vernon," He corrected. "And I didn't rat anyone out, you brought the attention upon yourself…mostly."

"Mostly?" Saika echoed.

"I was keeping tabs," Vernon confessed. "You see, I don't work for Farron."

"We know that," Merlot said quietly. "You worked with Teak."

"I never worked with Teak," Vernon responded. "I work for the Mistrali police."

The news seemed to hit hard for both Merlot and Saika. Merlot remained fairly composed despite his evident shock, but Saika looked ready to blow up.

"Traitor!" Saika screeched before launching forward.

Xanthos and his teammates braced themselves to attack but Saika swerved around them and went for Vernon instead. When she had almost closed the gap, she pulled out a snub-nosed revolver from a holster and went to strike him with the butt of the weapon. When she was mere inches away, Vernon simply poofed out of existence, reappearing to the left of her and kicking her with his foot.

With Saika and Vernon otherwise engaged, Merlot stepped forward and decided to try his luck with Zelde, Cordovan, and Xanthos. He seemed to bounce between the three of them, almost as though trying to test his luck against all of them one by one. Xanthos was able to dodge around him fairly easily. Although Merlot was tall like him, he didn't really pose much of a threat with the battered baseball bat he carried, and even when he did try to swing at him, it was easy enough to bend back and avoid it.

Merlot only seemed to become more of a threat when he elected to forego his bat in favour of pure hand-to-hand combat. Cordovan started to struggle now, no longer able to parry as easily with his sword and having to rely on simply moving out of the way to avoid him. Zelde fared slightly better, but couldn't quite manage to fend off his quick flurry of jabs. 

Xanthos stepped in to assist his teammate, carefully manoeuvring himself and Zelde so they swapped places and he ended up facing Merlot. Although Xanthos was not as fast as Merlot, he had better luck responding to his punches and even managed to land a few punches of his own on the other man himself. He might have been able to take out Merlot had it not been for Saika striding over and trying to intervene. Luckily, Vernon used his semblance to ‘blink’ into existence next to the three of them, and twisted Saika around so she wound up bumping into Merlot thanks to her momentum. 

Merlot stumbled away for a moment, leaving Saika to continue to be dealt with by Vernon, Zelde, and Cordovan. When Merlot did rise back to his feet, he attempted to make a swing at Xanthos again with his bat, only to be parried by Neela’s trident.

Neela shifted her trident slightly and put both hands on it before using it to shove Merlot backwards. He studied the two of them for a moment, taking a moment to gather himself and decide what to do next. Merlot was about to move forward again but stopped when he heard Saika yelling.

“Give it back!”

As Merlot turned around, Xanthos could see the woman kneeling on the floor, looking up pitifully at Cordovan and Zelde. Cordovan was holding Saika’s revolver from earlier.

“It’s over, Saika, stand down,” Vernon advised as he materialised beside Zelde. Whilst Saika grumbled to herself, Vernon looked in the direction of Merlot, who calmly set his own weapon on the floor and held his palms out indicating his surrender.

“Merlot!” Saika called out.

“Saika,” Merlot responded, speaking her name in a much more normal tone. “I see no point in fighting further. We’re outnumbered and we’ve clearly lost.”

Saika only made another grumbling noise in response. Vernon took a step towards her, pulling out some cuffs from his belt and attempting to put them on Saika. Whilst he did get them on, her constant thrashing about made it a far more difficult task than it needed to be.

“Stop it!” Vernon warned, pulling her to her feet. “You’re acting like a child.”

“You won’t get away with this, Verde!” Saika sneered. “Farron will get us out.”

“No he won’t,” Vernon told her. “What, do you think just because you and Merlot did some jobs for him he’s going to get you out of prison? He won’t. He does not care about you. Teak never cared about you. You were just scapegoats to them, a means to an end.” As he was speaking, he moved over to Merlot and began putting another pair of cuffs on him. “Oh, I won’t deny the two of you probably had some uses to them but ultimately you meant nothing to them. Farron will leave you to take the fall and you will get left with the sole responsibility of all your crimes and potentially more.”

“This is all lies!” Saika protested.

“It’s not lies because it’s happened before. With Ringo? Do you remember?” Vernon said, with a glare. Whoever this Ringo was, it did appear to finally affect Saika, as she finally shut up and she notably seemed to deflate as if all her bravado had been suddenly sucked out of her. Vernon’s expression softened slightly when he saw hers. “I saw the files,” Vernon explained. “The pair of you, Ringo…you weren’t the only ones Teak manipulated for his own gain. All things considered, the three of you got off lucky. There were others who met worse fates than yours.”

Leaving Saika and Merlot with those words, Vernon approached ZRCN and gave them an appreciative smile. “Thank you for all of your help tonight,” He said. His eyes shifted to the alleyway where Rue had now emerged from. “You and your team were a great help too,” He told her.

Rue smiled warmly and Vernon nodded before looking back at ZRCN. “I know this has been a long night already but are you okay to stick around for a little longer?” Vernon asked.

If he was being honest, Xanthos was ready to head to bed by that point, but he had an idea where this was going. Zelde looked between her teammates one by one, getting a quick nod from each of them before giving confirmation to Vernon.

“Good,” He nodded in approval. “I need to call this in at the academy so they can send someone to pick these two up. It’ll be best if we all head back together and then clear up some last details. I know you still have supplies to find for the Princeton’s but hopefully if the general signs off, we can properly investigate Verdant Storage either tomorrow or in the coming days.”

Once again Zelde responded that they were fine with that after a shared consensus from her teammates. Not wanting to wait outside the four of them followed Rue back inside the Porphyry’s building and rejoined Team PCAN, deciding they’d rather do their waiting inside rather than outside in the cooler Atlas air. At least with both teams together again for the moment, they were able to share some light banter with each other.  Xanthos found that the time seemed to fly by this time, as opposed to their earlier waiting around. A transport ship soon arrived, some formalities were discussed between Vernon and one of the soldiers, and then everyone was told to get onto the ship and they were well on their way back to the academy.

As Vernon said, they would return in the coming days, and ensure that their mission was properly completed. But for now, Xanthos was looking forward to some much earned rest.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 4 CHAPTER 15

After a whole year has passed we finally come back to the arc 4 storyline! A short but sweet chapter before all hell breaks loose!

Neela

"Are we sure this place isn't an actual maze?"

From behind her, Xanthos made one of his usual light-hearted quips. Neela had to admit it certainly did feel that way with long corridors that seemed to loop around on each other and big empty rooms that seemed to lead nowhere. They had seen blueprints of this place before coming here but it didn't do justice to how massive it was.

"Can you talk about something else please?" Wisteria grunted.

Although all of ZRCN had been patrolling together with Cherry and Wisteria, they had since split up when encountering Helia by chance. The connection in this building had proven spotty at best so it was been easier to communicate in person. Helia explained everything that happened thus far with Elio and herself facing off against Laurel and Biggs - or Nerine and Jesper as it turned out their names were - and then Morgan and Calantha encountering Bianca and Belleza. Apparently, Nerine, Jesper, and Bianca had all abandoned Belleza and were working to help them. And they weren't the only ones who had defected, as Helia revealed that the Crest sisters had also chosen to work with them.

It was all a little confusing in truth and Neela longed to ask more questions about the situation but recognised they still had a job to do and that now was not really the appropriate time to be asking extensive questions.

Helia had also revealed one of the Crest sisters was willing to take them to where they were holding their hostages. She was going there now and asked if any of ZRCN wanted to accompany them. Zelde and Cordovan had agreed to go, with Neela and Xanthos remaining to patrol with Cherry and Wisteria. They promised to all meet up at the medical bay afterwards, which had apparently become a sort of unofficial meeting point for the group of allies. As they departed, Neela sent her teammates off with a wave and some words they could say to her sister when they found her.

As the smaller group of four continued to patrol, the topic of conversation eventually shifted to who among the Rossi allies remained. Disregarding those who they now knew had defected, the three of them drew up Miho, Maia, Sparrow, and Belleza herself as remaining candidates.

"What about that other guy?" Neela asked, looking at Wisteria. She struggled to recall the name for a moment before snapping her fingers when it came back to her. "Uriah?"

"He would probably still try and initiate a fight but I doubt Belleza would be impressed if he tried to come running back to her," Wisteria answered.

"Would he try something like that?" Cherry asked.

Wisteria gave a noncommittal shrug. "Possibly," She conceded. "For reasons unknown to me, Uriah practically worships the very ground Belleza works on. He'd probably jump at the chance to defend her or give his life for her." Suddenly, Wisteria started to chuckle. A glance passed between Cherry, Neela, and Xanthos, who all seemed confused at the sudden humour of the situation. Perhaps realising that they were all staring at her, Wisteria promptly stopped laughing.

It was Xanthos who asked, "What's so funny?"

"Oh, you wouldn't appreciate it," Wisteria said, giving a dismissive wave. "I was just laughing at the irony that Belleza is now more likely to kill him herself for him abandoning her."

The same confused look passed between Cherry, Neela, and Xanthos before they pressed on. Eventually, they came to a balcony which looked down upon an open atrium. Somehow they had made it up to the third floor, much to Neela's surprise.

“Well, well, well! Would you look what the cat dragged in!” A voice behind them jeered. The four of them turned to see Miho Ryuzaki stepping out of an adjoining room. As the woman made her presence known, Cherry ushered Neela and Xanthos behind her, whilst Wisteria rather confidently stepped forward.

When she saw Wisteria step out from behind them, the other woman’s eyes flashed with delight before she gave Wisteria a menacing smile. “Wisteria,” She said, dragging her name out. “I did wonder if you’d ever crawl your way back to us.” Miho’s eyes glanced towards ZRCN and she smirked. “I’m not sure what surprises me more that you’re working with them, or that they’re working with you.”

Wisteria rolled her shoulders. “Oh you know how the saying goes - the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“If you had any sense you would have run far away from here when you had the chance, Wisteria,” Miho said, idly messing with one of her gauntlets, which Neela noted were already on and looked primed for use. “I shall have fun squashing you just like I did that little bug.”

Before anyone else could react, the red-haired woman raised her left fist and punched the air, firing a blast at Wisteria. Neela and the others were forced to scurry away though as the blast did not land directly by them, it kicked up a fair bit of dust and small bits of debris. Cherry gestured for Neela and Xanthos to stay back, before stepping forward with her bhuj. She didn't directly engage Miho at the moment but the intent was clear. On one side stood Wisteria and Cherry, and on the other side stood Miho.

"Never faced an Atlesian Specialist like this before," Miho mused, that same menacing smile reappearing as she spoke to Cherry. Neela tensed when she saw how she looked over Cherry. "That isn't to say I haven't gone toe to toe with one of your kind before. Although they were incredibly young and inexperienced. Not much of a challenge, you know? Especially when they went down after one hit."

Cherry did not show in her face but Neela could tell she was irritated. She could see her grip tightening on her weapon, her knuckles starting to pale from the strain.

The brief lull in battle did not last long as Miho was quick to charge the two. Even when not using the dust in her gauntlets, she was still a powerful combatant, punching, kicking, and shoving whenever she got an opening. Wisteria was able to fair quite well, but Cherry was having difficulty manoeuvring her weapon to parry and attack Miho.

Miho made a lunge towards Xanthos and Neela but was caught by Cherry and Wisteria who grabbed an arm each and hauled her back.

"Your fight is with us!" Cherry snapped

Miho sneered at her. Rather than give an audible response, she twisted at a right angle, freeing her arm from Wisteria's grasp before aiming a punch at Cherry. Luckily she was quite aware of what was going on, managing to turn her body to avoid a punch to the face but still catching a blow to her shoulder. She managed to avoid the brunt of that hit but was caught by Miho bringing her knee up and catching her in the gut.

Fully free from both women, Miho jumped back a bit, before aiming two shots at the same time as Cherry.  There was nowhere for her to dodge, so she was forced to bear the blast, using her bhuj to take some of the hit. Luckily her aura seemed to be holding, as Neela doubted she'd have still been standing if it had taken too much of a dent.

"Do you not give a shit about your home or something?" Wisteria asked, gesturing to the further damage Miho had caused.

Miho shrugged, rubbing her nose on the back of her hand. "Homes can be rebuilt," Miho responded in a flat tone. "Or you can just buy a new one. I hear there's an open apartment in the Aeris District that's recently come back on the market."

Neela noted there was a slight edge to her voice, though she could not make out if it was a teasing remark or something more dark. It was only when Wisteria lunged forward, making a sound akin to a growl, before practically throwing herself at Miho, that she got her answer. Both women began punching and kicking each other, clearly intent on doing as much damage to the other as they could. Miho was doing more damage but Wisteria's overall nimbleness meant she was able to dodge the worst of the blows - for a while at least.

After some back and forths, Miho seemed to give up on striking and when Wisteria moved in for another jab, Miho wrapped her arms around her.

"Let go of me!" Wisteria yelled, thrashing in Miho's arms.

"As you wish," Miho smirked.

She inched closer to the edge of the walkway. It had been damaged from the earlier blasts from Miho, with some of the glass panels fractured or shattered from the shockwaves of her rounds. And some of it looked bent and warped, with only minimal pressure to break it or further damage it. Miho kept going until pressing Wisteria against the balcony, leaning her backwards.

"Stop!" Cherry called out, rushing to intervene. Miho only relinquished her grasp slightly, freeing an arm to shove Cherry away sharply, where she stumbled and dropped to a knee, her weapon skittering away.

"She said stop!" Neela urged, inching forward with her weapon, snapping it into her more preferred of a single spearhead.

Miho glanced over her shoulder, giving Neela a wry smile. "Is that supposed to frighten me? I could snap your weapon over my knee if I so wanted."

She dipped Wisteria a little further over the balcony before inhaling sharply.

"Actually this isn't really my thing," She said, before hauling Wisteria back, and throwing her on the floor next to Cherry. She was offered a brief moment of respite before Miho was quickly upon her again, hooking an arm around her neck and bringing her back to her feet in a chokehold. Wisteria’s feet kicked out, trying to steady herself but found no such luck. Despite having pulled away from the balcony before, she was moving back to it now. Once she reached it, she turned Wisteria around so she was facing her again, and used one arm to hold one of Wisteria’s arms down before putting her arm against her throat. This time when she leaned her over she was leaning into her as well.

She looked over her shoulder at Neela, Xanthos, and Cherry menacingly. "Wisteria here can confirm that I prefer a more personal touch."

It was then that Miho began to apply pressure as Wisteria began to cough and splutter. Although Miho had restrained one hand, Wisteria was clawing at her with the unbound one, trying to get her fingers in her eyes.

Neela and Xanthos moved to intervene but Cherry held a hand out. Cherry made a gesture to her weapon which she had managed to slide closer to herself. With careful hand movements, she freed the concealed dagger in her bhuj's hollow shaft, a glint of polished steel shimmering in the light.

The three of them exchanged a glance before nodding. To her credit, Cherry moved frighteningly fast and made little noise as she closed the gap between herself and Miho, before plunging her dagger into Miho’s lower back.

Miho screamed out in pain, relinquishing her grip on Wisteria, and backhanding Cherry across the face which sent her sprawling to the floor. Miho turned to face Wisteria again but the purple-haired woman had pulled herself away, punching Miho in the jaw before darting to the side to avoid retaliation. Sensing Miho needed to be pushed further back, Neela bolted forward and jabbed her sharply in the gut, pushing Miho back against the balcony where it accidentally knocked the blade still lodged in her back.

Grunting with effort, Miho carefully moved her arm around to remove the blade, pulling it out of her with gritted teeth. She held the bloodied weapon up by her head, looking at it for a moment and then down at Cherry, who Xanthos was helping to sit up. “Cute,” She said with a sneer, before tossing it over the edge of the balcony.

“You’ve had your fun now-”

Miho appeared to have been attempting to goad them again but something gave her pause. Neela didn’t see any potential cause but after a moment she noticed something strange happening to Miho. The red-haired woman seemed to be trying to say something, but either could not or would not get the words out, and not only that but her chest was rising rapidly as she took big gulping breaths. Miho’s eyes darted around and then landed on Wisteria.

“Wisteria!” She roared. “Stop this!”

“No!” Wisteria responded immediately. “You will feel exactly as she felt when she died!”

Miho grimaced and tried to remain standing. Neela had only experienced Wisteria’s semblance sparingly in the past but it seemed Miho was being treated to the full force of it. Even Wisteria appeared to be straining from the effort it was taking to direct her semblance at Miho.  So much so that blood was starting to drip out of one nostril.

Eventually, Mihp seemed unable to bear it any longer, wincing and gripping onto the balcony for support. It was then that Wisteria let out a mighty screech and lunged at Miho. She managed to hook her arms around Miho’s waist and with the momentum gathered from running at her the two of them went crashing through the balcony and tumbling to the ground below.

A small scream was heard but was snuffed out pretty quickly when a sickening thud indicated that the two women had hit the ground.

Neela was not sure how to react for a moment, wanting to check on the two of them, but also not daring to peer over at what potential gory scene she might find below. Instead, she focused her efforts on helping Cherry back to her feet.

“Are you good?” Neela asked as the woman used Xanthos to help stand up straight.

“I’m good,” Cherry confirmed. “The slap hurt but didn’t do too much damage.” That didn't seem to stop Cherry from massaging her jaw as if it still ached.

Cherry moved towards the edge of the ruined balcony and peered down. Neela and Xanthos followed suit and nervously peered down below.

There was an old dried-up fountain on the ground floor, which Miho was now hanging halfway out of, a shard of glass sticking out of her abdomen. Neela did not even need to query if she was alive or not. The blood pooling out of her, as well as the unnatural way her body now lay told her all she needed to know. On the other hand, it was harder to determine Wisteria's fate. She lay on her back, gazing up at the massive skylight. Other than her left leg and a bloodied gash in her right shoulder, she seemed to have fared better than the red-haired woman, though it was hard to tell if she had survived or not.

"We need to get down there," Cherry said, pulling away from the edge. "We need to check if either of them are alive."

"Looking at Miho's body I would say-" Xanthos began to talk but stopped short by the look Neela shot at him.

Cherry frowned but didn't say anything. "Hopefully Wisteria might have survived," She muttered, already turning to walk away. "If she hasn't Wren will surely have my head. If not Wren then the general certainly will."

Neela imagined Ironwood would have a lot to say to all of them for this little mission. With what had just happened and everything Helia had told them, it was clear that their plans had not gone as well as they thought they would. All their planning had amounted to nought in the face of the Rossi allies' sheer determination not to lose.

Neela was not foolish enough to hope the rest of the Rossi's allies would come quietly but she could hope that she and her friends would make it out of here in one piece.

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 5

Team ZRCN meets with Chester and learns just why he was so interested in their mission.

Neela

After the sudden interruption of Chester some hours ago, Team ZRCN found themselves in an elevator, heading up to meet him in one of many residences owned by his family.

He had been rather cryptic about his interest in their case, stating that he could not say much at the time but implored them to meet with him and a friend later. After a light dinner at the academy, ZRCN took a small tram from the academy into the central part of the city, after which it was only a short trip to the towering, twelve-floor apartment building where Chester was waiting for them.

A doorman let them inside and the four of them headed towards an elevator. Cordovan rang for the elevator and a moment later the doors opened up into a spacious elevator, which could have comfortably carried twelve people with space for more. 

"Which floor are we heading to?" Xanthos asked, finger hovering over the buttons corresponding to the twelve floors in the building.

"Eleventh," Neela answered, gesturing to a button near the top.

Xanthos gave the button a press. "Shame, I was hoping for the penthouse."

Pleasant orchestral music played as the elevator ascended and it took less than a minute before they reached their destination and a loud bing preceded the doors opening. They stepped out into a long corridor with the floor lined with sparkling tiling, black and dark blue wallpaper, and a few pieces of artwork scattered on the wall. They didn't look like any commissioned pieces, rather something that was bought in bulk, but designed in such a way that it appeared to have more value than it actually did.

Chester awaited them in apartment '106'. Like all the apartments, the front door was made from dark wood, with the numbers crafted from silvery metal. Neela rang the doorbell and it was promptly opened by Chester.

"Oh, good you made it!" He greeted enthusiastically. Chester smiled brightly but it seemed rather forced, the smile not quite reaching his eyes. Chester held the door ajar and allowed the four of them to step inside. He had only just shut the door behind them when another cheery voice called out to them from the living room.

"Team ZRCN! Hi!"

A moment later, Akari Himura, one of Chester's teammates rounded the corner. Neela noted she was wearing her combat outfit as opposed to something more casual like Chester was. 

"Don't worry I've already told Chessie he has to be on his best behaviour tonight," She said, giving them a wink. Neela spotted Chester roll his eyes at the playful nickname.

"Akari." A stern voice came from behind her. Neela peered down the hallway to see their other teammates Niall Ruskin and Rue Corcoran waiting there. Rue gave them a shy smile but Niall did not even acknowledge them, instead glaring at Akari with his arms crossed.

"We haven't got time for idle chatter," Niall said, walking to stand by her side. "The walls of Mantle cannot be left defenceless."

Akari rolled her eyes. "I hear you, Niall. I'm just saying hello," She informed him. "Yeesh, you act like the wall is going to collapse just because we're five minutes late."

"Well, considering our appointment to protect the walls was arranged mere hours ago, I believe we should prepare for any eventuality," Niall responded impassively. “Including total structural collapse.”

"He's worse than Zelde and Cordo," Xanthos whispered into Neela's ear.

"Don't let us keep you waiting," Chester said, glancing at his teammates, a weary glance directed towards Niall in particular.

Niall nodded. "Shall we?" He said, looking between Rue and Akari. The two girls made a final goodbye to the group and were followed silently by Niall, who only gave a brief incline of the head as he stepped around the five of them. Once his teammates were gone, Chester seemed to perk up slightly.

“Would anybody like any refreshments?” He asked, looking between the four members of ZRCN. “There isn’t much here but I’m sure I could find something if you were hungry.”

“I’ll pass, but thank you,” Zelde said.

“A glass of water will be enough for me,” Cordovan responded.

“Some coke or lemonade would be great if you have any!” Xanthos responded in a more cheerful tone. “Oh, and some cookies too?”

Chester chuckled slightly. “I’ll see what I can do,” He answered. Chester then urged ZRCN forward into the living room, encouraging them to make themselves comfortable before moving to the kitchen. Neela split up from her team to help him, deftly jumping slightly so she could sit on a cupboard, watching as Chester looked in a cupboard for something.

“Say, do you think Ravi would eat stale cookies?” Chester asked, briefly poking his head out from around the cupboard, an already opened bag of cookies dangling in one hand.

“Yes, he would,” Neela responded with a laugh, which in turn earned another chuckle from Chester. He left the bag of cookies on one of the countertops before moving around and preparing the drinks for everyone. “I thought your family owned an apartment on the other side of Atlas.”

“We do,” Chester said without turning around. “This was my sister Lana’s place when she was studying in the city. However, she's moved back to Highpoint to study at Astrolabe, so she's moved back in with our parents. We were planning on selling this place though, no need to have two apartments here after all."

"I see, I see," Neela muttered. Chester had nearly finished gathering the drinks and cookies together and seemed ready to leave to rejoin the rest of the group when Neela hopped off the counter to intercept him. "Can I ask you a question? Two actually."

Chester looked wary for a moment before nodding. "Sure, go ahead."

"What was all that about with your team?" Neela asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Ches…I know Niall is not the most bubbly of guys but that seemed especially cold before," Neela said. "Has something happened?"

"Oh, that," Chester said with an awkward laugh. "Yeah, Niall wasn't happy about losing our mission to your team. Pretty much chewed my ear off about how I had wanted us to take on a mission and then passed it on as soon as we had one."

Neela considered what he said for a moment. "Did we steal your mission?"

"It wasn't really a mission," Chester explained. "It wasn't even academy sanctioned, it was just an odd job my father asked us to look into. The company my mother works for was robbed recently and my father wanted us to look into it. Maybe do some temporary security or something. We hadn't even properly started when a man contacted my father and asked if he could use one of his warehouses to do some investigating. Apparently it had something to do with a spate of thefts and other criminal activities and he suspected that one of the-" Suddenly Chester paused and pulled a face. "Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. No doubt Vernon will tell you himself when he gets here."

Neela shrugged at his words. She didn't think he was getting ahead of himself but she appreciated his conscious effort not to repeat the information they'd be receiving later.

"You said there were two questions?" Chester prompted, looking expectantly at her. He had gathered the drinks and cookies now, somehow managing to hold three glasses and a bag of cookies in his arms.

"I did," Neela smiled. "It's more of a personal question though."

"Alright…"

"I wanted to ask about Tilia," Neela explained, to which Chester nodded in understanding. At the very least Neela knew her girlfriend was alive, but with the CCT down it was hard for her to know the full extent of how Tilia was. A part of her knew she was likely fine and probably running around the city doing what she could to help with her own team, but when they had called or messaged nearly every day, it felt strange not to have that luxury anymore.

“Tilia was fine the last time I saw her,” Chester responded, kindly. “She seemed a bit exhausted after everything that happened and had followed, but so were we all I suppose.” A dark shadow passed over his expression momentarily, and though he did not say anything, Neela knew his mind was back there. Chester was evidently still haunted by what he had seen there. Neela would have tried asking him more about his feelings on the matter, but she knew her friend to be a private sort of man, even more so when it came to feelings of grief and anger. She knew in time he would tell her, but she would not pry until he was ready.

“I believe I heard talk that her team were thinking of heading to Silbern,” Chester explained.

“Silbern?” Neela said, trying to rack her brain for information on the location. “I think Kieran is from there.”

“Mhm, that would line up with what I had heard. I believe they were going to check in on one of her teammates' family,” Chester nodded in agreement.

“Thanks for answering that for me,” Neela said, giving him a genuine smile. “It’s been hard not knowing what’s going on with her.”

“No need to apologise,” Chester assured her. “I am well aware of how close you and Tilly were, even before you became girlfriends.” And truly, of all the people in the room, Chester really would. He, Neela, and Tilia had all grown up together in Highpoint after all. 

Satisfied that her curiosity had been met, Neela ceased talking for the moment, and followed Chester into the living room. Chester set the drinks on the coffee table and handed Xanthos his bag of stale cookies. If Xanthos noticed he didn’t speak up about, quickly diving in and devouring at least six of them.

The small group engaged in small talk for roughly ten minutes before another knock at the door interrupted, after which Chester promptly jumped to his feet. He announced that it was his friend before quickly hurrying away to answer the door. He returned moments later with a young man following behind him. 

“This is the team?” The man asked, looking to Chester for confirmation. Chester nodded quickly and the young man looked back at ZRCN.

“Pleasure to meet you,” He smiled, offering a hand in greeting to all of them. Once all of them had shook his hand, he took a seat on the sofa opposite them. “I’m Vernon Greenwood.”

He was an average sized man in regard to height and weight. Vernon appeared in his twenties, his hair was dark brown, almost black, wavy in texture and fell to just above his shoulders. His eyes were emerald green in colour and Neela couldn’t help but notice that when he smiled his eyes seemed to twinkle with warmth, giving him an overall kind countenance. He was lightly tanned and possessed a neatly trimmed beard. He wore dark trousers, held up by a darker belt with an elaborate buckle. He was wearing a dark green turtleneck and appeared to have a lighter t-shirt underneath. Vernon also wore a light brown coat on top of this and judging by the wear on the sleeves and collar, it was clearly a much loved item of clothing.

“Did you need a drink?” Chester asked.

“No, no, I’m fine thank you,” Vernon smiled, before gesturing for Chester to retake his own position on the sofa next to him. Once again, Vernon’s attention shifted to ZRCN. “So, you’re handling the Princeton case?”

“We are, yes,” Zelde confirmed. “Chester mentioned it had something to do with his own job he was investigating. And I presume that by his insistence that we meet, you must have some involvement too?”

“Very astute of you,” Vernon complimented. “I suppose it is only fair I explain the situation to you in full. Do you mind if I start from the beginning - or at least as best I can with certain restrictions in mind.”

“Restrictions?”

“Oh, right you wouldn’t know,” Vernon said. He quickly fished around for something in a pocket inside the coat, before placing what Neela initially mistook for a wallet on the table, quickly revealing it to be a police badge and a little ID card. “I’m a member of the Mistrali Police.”

All four members of ZRCN looked down to inspect and admire the badge left on the table. When Vernon was satisfied they had seen enough of it, he placed it back in his pocket. “From the beginning then?” He prompted.

Zelde nodded to show her consent. “From the beginning.”

Vernon settled back on the sofa a little before beginning. “Around two years ago, my superiors became aware of a highly sophisticated black market network operating within Mistal. Regrettably, such networks are not uncommon within Mistral so it could have been operating for far longer than we know of.” Vernon gave a bitter smile. “What was unusual with this network was a very clear connection between a sudden spike of new, unregulated Atlesian tech making its way onto the market. My superiors were quick to begin a proper investigation, trying to establish how the network operated, where it operated from, who worked within it, and what exactly was being distributed. Whilst they were able to gather a substantial amount of leads it proved hard to connect them. What we did discover however was that one name continued to pop up over and over again - Teak. We were able to successfully arrest him in Mistral after a small sting operation. He didn’t seem to talk much at first, but he seemed quite talkative as soon as the promise of a reduced sentence was dangled in front of him,” Vernon smirked a little at that, shaking his head in amusement.

“Teak revealed he had been working as ‘middle man’ for a few criminals in Atlas, helping to distribute their products to buyers in Mistral. He gave us a few names at the time but there wasn’t much evidence beyond that - which is where I came in,” Vernon said, placing a hand on his chest briefly. “My superiors wanted to organise an undercover operation to try and gather information on these individuals Teak worked for. Atlas was informed of our intentions to begin an operation in the hope of organising a sort of joint operation. They didn't particularly want to get their hands involved too much, but were willing to provide us with a few resources if we needed them, so long as we kept them in the loop."

"So you must have been put in as the undercover officer, then?" Xanthos asked.

"Yes," Vernon nodded. "Though I was not the first choice."

"How come?" Xanthos asked.

"I was young and quite inexperienced. I had recently turned twenty-four, and recently joined the force…there was a lot going against me. In fact, I think the only thing I really had in my favour was my semblance," Vernon confessed. "Even then there was still some wariness from my superiors."

"So what changed?" Cordovan asked, leaning forward to grab his water and take a sip.

"Teak apparently worked with a lot of younger and up and coming criminals. Mostly to use them to do the dirty work for him we believed," Vernon explained. "My superiors created a cover story for me that Teak would have taken in a young apprentice of sorts, someone he had worked with and was training behind the scenes should anything happen to him. It was the hope this would have been believable to his associates due to his noted paranoia and eccentricity. I was implanted in Mistral and took up shop in one of his bases, where I was swiftly contacted by one of his associates in Atlas and was swiftly invited here."

"Have you been here since then?" Zelde asked.

"More or less," Vernon answered. "I've only left to conduct 'business' in Mistral. Which mostly involved speaking with my superiors and genuinely seeing my father. Nobody seemed to mind when I left, as much like Teak, I leaned on his subordinates to do my dirty work."

"Merlot and Saika?"

Vernon nodded to Zelde's question. "The very same. They had been recently expelled from the academy so were extra keen for more jobs to do. Saika was initially distrustful of me at the start, not believing I had been working with Teak. She only became convinced when I shared with her information that only he or someone he worked with would know. But I had to be careful with what I said too, after all I couldn’t make it look as though I knew more than I should.”

“Makes sense,” Cordovan mused. “I suppose it would have been easier for them to continue to be suspicious if you had information that hinted at your involvement with the authorities.”

“Eventually, I met a man known as Farron Hargrave here in Atlas,” Vernon continued. “We had spoken via messages but I was keen to meet him in person as we had reason to believe he was one of Teak’s primary suppliers. So, I met him in person and although initially suspicious he accepted my story eventually. I worked closely with him from there on out, taking jobs from him and either doing them myself or sending Merlot and Saika to do them.”

“Wait - you actually stole stuff?” Xanthos said, gawking in surprise.

“I did yes. It’s not something I was particularly pleased about doing but it was necessary to maintain my cover,” Verde explained. “Things were going well until a few weeks ago just before the Vytal tournament started. I was bringing Merlot and Saika to meet Farron and he brought a friend with him. Truthfully, it seemed he hadn’t been expecting him to come either. We discussed some jobs and Farron’s associate mentioned a project that was almost complete and implied that once it was Farron could retrieve it. I was hopeful for more information on said project but Saika pushed to raid the Princeton’s place and they allowed her and Merlot to do so.”

“I recall Miss Princeton mentioning there was another woman involved,” Zelde pointed out. Neela also recalled this, noting that Jasmine had not known her third assailant.

“Candy Cornell,” Vernon revealed. “Not one of Teak’s people but someone who worked under Farron himself. I was not permitted to join Merlot and Saika as the raid was supposed to be a test of their loyalty and worth to Farron. I did unfortunately suspect Saika had her own motives for pointing out the place but they were largely ignored. Farron sent Candy with them to placate my nerves but I fear with her proclivity for violence she only made matters worse. I haven’t seen Merlot and Saika since then though I have managed to send a few messages when I can.”

“You really haven’t seen them since then?” Zelde asked, evidently surprised.

“I have my reasons,” Vernon explained. “The first being Merlot and Saika have never actually told me where they live, or rather hide. Getting them to meet up with me in person was always a little tricky, but in fearing Farron’s ire they’ve been even harder to get in contact with.” Vernon paused after this and Neela noticed his posture seemed to change. Whatever he was about to say next clearly irked him. “My second reason is that I have reasons to suspect my cover has or will be blown. Atlas has suddenly been rather uncooperative as of late, even downright positive about Mr Hargrave despite mounting evidence that points at his criminal activities. My superiors believe they are close to pulling support for this operation.”

“Who would have told them?” Zelde asked. “Farron?”

“No, I think if anyone did it would be his friend - Crocus Navarro. When we met, he mentioned having connections in the military despite being discharged and the entire time we spoke I got the impression he was trying to get a read on me,” Vernon told her. “He was probably suspicious of me and brought it up with his own connections leaning on them to get me to back off. I don’t even know if Farron does know, but my superiors fear it is too risky. We cannot continue to pursue this case on Atlesian soil safely and thus must build our case against him in Mistral alone. We’ve already got Teak and have enough to take down some of his underlings - including Merlot and Saika.”

“If you’re having trouble getting them to come out of hiding, how will you arrest them?” Xanthos asked. 

Vernon smirked slightly. “Oh, I’m sure I can convince them to come out of hiding if I use the right words,” He assured them. “It was my hope that we might work together to take them down. Our goals align perfectly, no?”

Neela looked around at her teammates to see how they were reacting to it. It was hard to get a read on Cordovan and Zelde, but both seemed deep in thought. “If Merlot and Saika were caught by us would they not be tried by Atlesian authorities?” Zelde asked.

“Usually yes, but I have already put in requests that when it does happen they are transferred to Mistrali custody and tried in our kingdom,” Vernon answered concisely. It seemed regardless of what ZRCN chose to do, he had this all planned out quite thoroughly. “Admittedly, I would be content to have them await trial here in normal circumstances. However, after meeting Crocus and seeing how quickly Atlas has changed its tone since our meeting, I have concerns that something could potentially happen to them if left in Atlesian hands.”

The implication of his words left Neela feeling a little uneasy. There had always been tales of corruption within the military but hearing a firsthand account of it from Vernon was quite sobering.

“So how shall we deal with them?”

“Ah, this is where our mutual friend comes in,” Vernon said, glancing towards Chester. Chester had been sitting quietly this entire time, just listening to the tale, but seemed to perk up once he was drawn into the conversation again. “A few days ago, I got in contact with Chester’s father, asking if he knew anything about a Verdant Storage. It was a warehouse located close to one of his own facilities owned by Teak in name and I know Farron had used it in the past. He didn’t know much but did confirm it was still heavily being used. I then requested if he would mind if I used his own facility to help orchestrate an attempted apprehension of Merlot and Saika. The intention was Chester and his own team would help me out if needed, but then we received word that the Princeton’s had put in a mission request some weeks ago and it had finally been picked up.”

“And that’s where we come in!” Xanthos smirked.

Zelde gave him a glance before looking back at Vernon, gesturing for him to continue as he had not yet answered her question fully. 

“My plan was to lure Merlot and Saika to Verdant Storage and reveal the truth about myself to them,” Vernon revealed. “No doubt Saika would then proceed to try and attack me and Merlot would rush to aid her. In the ensuing fight, PCAN - or I guess you four now - would come in and intercept them and engage them in combat. Once defeated, they would be apprehended, and you would be able to close your mission and I can return to Mistral.”

“That seems reasonable,” Zelde said, after considering things for a moment. “It resolves all our missions well enough. I am just sorry you had to lose out on this Chester.”

“It’s fine!” Chester said, waving her off. “As I told Neela, the mission wasn’t even official anyway.”

“Well, if you want, you and the rest of PCAN are welcome to help if you wish,” Vernon offered. “I’d be glad for the extra bodies to secure the area should Merlot or Saika try and slip away.”

Chester smiled appreciatively. “You really don’t have to do that but thank you. I’ll run it by them later.”

Vernon returned his smile and then looked back at ZRCN. “I believe that concludes everything I have to say for now. If you have any more questions feel free to ask, I’m happy to answer what I can.”

[sustraiii]

TEAM ZRCN ARC 1 REWRITE - CHAPTER 4

Beacon Academy has fallen, and lives have changed. Team ZRCN takes on a mission.

PSA: Some content may seem familiar in this chapter as some lines were taken/retweaked from the original arc 1!

Cordovan

It was a cool day as Corodvan readied himself for the return to school. Three weeks had passed since the Fall of Beacon and it was fair to say life had changed for everyone in Remnant.

Vale had suffered the most of course, but many of the other kingdoms were dealing with scores of injured and traumatised students, as well as mourning the losses of some tool. Even Atlas Academy, which the teachers often boasted about as being the finest of the four, had suffered some losses. Lessons had been halted temporarily in the days after the fall and that had been extended once news started to trickle in about all the casualties. The faculty had kept the school closed out of respect so that their students and the faculty themselves had time to process what had happened.

But now the time for mourning was over - or at least Atlas Academy deemed it was over - and classes were to begin again.

For once, all of his team had woken up early. Even Xanthos, a perennial oversleeper, had managed to wake up on time by himself.

All four of them were wearing their combat outfits, having been assigned to an as-of-yet-unknown mission that the academy had sanctioned. Cordovan was quietly glad that they were jumping right back into the action, having not looked forward to a particularly droll Grimm Studies class under Professor Huerta. She was a fine teacher, but Cordovan wasn’t fond of having to sit through one of her classes to ease back into things.

“Is everyone ready?” Zelde asked.

Her question caught his attention and Cordovan looked away from the small mirror in their shared dorm to look back at his leader.

“I’m good to go!” Xanthos said enthusiastically.

“Me too!” Neela responded, standing next to Xanthos.

Realising he was yet to respond, Cordovan gave a quick curt nod. “I’m ready.”

Zelde smiled faintly and led the four of them out of the room, making sure to grab their weapons on the way, before heading to the Huntsman Briefing Room.

As expected, the room was busy, with a number of military personnel and licensed huntsmen milling about. In the wake of what happened at Beacon, many missions had begun to rack up in and around the kingdom, due to many still processing what had happened. Although the students hadn’t been permitted to take missions during the three weeks they had to rest, Cordovan knew of the struggles from his mother. His mother, Wren, had been called back to the city from where she had been stationed in Highpoint to help deal with the overflow of missions and mounting problems facing the Atlesian Army.

Knowing how busy his mother had been, he half expected to see her here today, undertaking another mission or tasking some underlings with one. Cordovan did not spot her today, and strangely, he could not see Professor Velour either. What he could see however was the Aura and Semblance teacher Professor Calero instead.

Professor Calero was a small, stout woman, whose age he could not be certain of but would have put in the early seventies at least. She had curly grey hair tied back in two buns at the back of her head, light brown skin, and brilliant green eyes. She wore a slightly worn military jacket as a coat - now a few sizes too small to fit her comfortably - over a dark green turtleneck, a smart black skirt, thermal tights, and comfortable-looking loafers. Professor Calero had both hands resting on the cane she sometimes used to aid her. It was her weapon but she had gotten it repurposed some years ago to serve a secondary purpose. She lifted one hand off the cane to give a warm wave to ZRCN.

“Team ZRCN!” She greeted warmly, gesturing with her free hand to invite them closer. “You’re very prompt this morning. I’ve barely begun my morning coffee!”

“Good morning, Professor Calero,” Zelde said, returning the warm greeting. “How are you this morning?

“I’m fine, dearie. A little bit chilly but when you get to my age you feel the cold a lot more - aura be damned!” The older woman laughed. “Now, you’re here for a mission, yes? Bounty mission I believe?”

Professor Calero shuffled away to one of the boards, pulling out her scroll, she tapped a few buttons on her scroll and it appeared to sync to the board, briefly showing the mission they would be undertaking. "Here we go! Bounty mission, reported nineteen days ago by Jessamine Princeton, seeking the apprehension of three individuals who broke into her family business, damaged stock, and injured her daughter who was there at the time."

"Nineteen days is a long time to wait," Cordovan mused. He knew there was a backlog of missions but that still seemed like a long time to wait.

"Indeed it is. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you well know given who your mother is, we have quite a backlog of missions gathering. As far as I can tell it was marked as a low priority mission.” Professor Calero shook her head following that last statement, making a tutting noise to further show her disapproval. ”Terrible business all around.” Professor Calero tapped on a few more buttons on her scroll and Cordovan felt his own scroll buzz in his pocket, as did the ones belonging to the rest of his team.

Cordovan pulled it out briefly and could see a smaller version of the details listed on the board in front of them.

“All the details regarding the mission should be showing up on your scrolls now,” Professor Calero informed them. She gestured to Cordovan’s own scroll that he still had out at that moment. "Should you need anything else, don't hesitate to call, dearies!"

With the mission assigned and the details received, ZRCN said a farewell to Professor Calero and proceeded to make their way to the docking bay. From there, they would charter a small air shuttle that would carry them to the city of Mantle down below. 

The city was still fairly quiet today, much like as it had been during the Vytal tournament, but a few more shops appeared busier than they had. Cordovan was just glad it wasn't too busy, he wasn't one for big crowds.

The shop that had been attacked, Princeton's Provence, was located in the trade district. It was a fairly small shop in comparison to some of its neighbouring competitors but clearly appeared to be doing well for themselves - minus some damaged stock and a window. Despite having been attacked only a few nights ago, the shop was already open by the time they arrived, the only sign of the recent attack being the cracked front window covered in police tape. 

Zelde entered first, proceeding to head towards the counter whilst the rest of the team stopped to look at some of the items on sale. Neela and Xanthos seemed to get distracted by the broken window, as Cordovan could hear them debating whether someone had gotten thrown against the window. 

There was no staff visible inside the shop, although chatter could be heard coming from the back. As they presumably never heard them enter, Zelde rang the bell to get the attention of anyone lingering out back. Sure enough moments later, two women appeared from the back of the shop. They both looked fairly similar, with the same pale skintone, and orange hair. The only difference was their eyes, the elder had deep blue eyes, whereas the younger had golden-yellow eyes. Whilst the younger of the two got to work fixing up some of the displays, the elder spoke to Zelde. 

"Can I help you?" She asked, her monotonous voice making her sound rather disinterested. 

"Yes, hello," Zelde responded, offering a hand out in greeting, "we're here about the Bounty mission." 

The woman's brow rose slightly, and she cast a glance at the four of them, a look of uncertainty in her eyes. "You're Team ZRCN? I was expecting someone older..." 

"I'll have you know we're all adults here!" Xanthos said as he and Neela rejoined their teammates at the counter. Cordovan rolled his eyes. "That was a joke by the way." He added swiftly, upon noting the confused look on the woman's face.

"I didn't mean any offence," the woman said, shooting an apologetic smile in Zelde's direction. "We're grateful for your help on this. If there's anything I can do to help your investigation, please let me know." 

"We should be fine," Zelde assured her, "but anything you can tell us about the attackers would be great. Unfortunately there wasn't much to go on in the mission report we received." 

The woman sighed. "If I could I would, but unfortunately I wasn't around when the attack happened. My daughter, Jasmine, was here though." She pointed towards the other woman who had been fixing up the displays and was now looking up, having been named by her mother. "I'm sure she might know something which could help you." 

Turning away from the older woman, they approached Jasmine, who stood away from the shelves. Cordovan noted she gave them a look up and down. "Glad to see they finally sent someone to deal with this," She grumbled, more to herself rather than ZRCN. "Surprised they sent a second year team though. I think I remember you from the academy…Team ZNON, right?"

"ZRCN," Zelde corrected sharply. 

Jasmine shrugged, clearly not too bothered about what the right answer was. "Mother sent you to ask me about who attacked the shop, yes? Save yourself the questions, I can tell you right away who it was. There were three assailants, I didn't recognise the older woman with them, but the remaining two were Saika Fujioka and Merlot Sigal. My former teammates."

From what little notes ZRCN did have, they knew that Jasmine was a former academy student, though the details were vague on why she had been expelled in the file.

Zelde made a 'hmm' sound, and appeared to be pondering the information they had just received. "Could there be a revenge motive behind their actions?" Zelde asked.

Jasmine shrugged again, but Cordovan did not ignore the slightly annoyed huff she gave. "It wouldn't surprise me," Jasmine answered, folding her arms as she spoke. "They never approved of me not supporting them when it was revealed they were involved in criminal activities. As if I would support something like that! We were training to be huntsmen for goodness sake! People who protect and defend the kingdom, not steal from its citizens!"

In her effort to explain the situation, Jasmine appeared to only wind herself up, and no sooner had she finished speaking did she storm away, disappearing into the back of the shop from where she had came. Her mother had a startled expression when Jasmine barreled past her which promptly shifted into more of an apologetic one when she made eye contact with the four of them.

“Please forgive my Jasmine. That subject is quite sensitive for her,” Jessamine explained.

“Apparently so…” Xanthos mumbled under his breath. Cordovan cut him a glance to warn him to be mindful of what he was saying. The last thing they wanted was Mrs Princeton getting annoyed with them too.

"Jasmine was quite distraught when news of Merlot and Saika's activities were brought to light," Jessamine continued, mercifully having not heard Xanthos's comment. "Her feelings only got worse when her team was expelled."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Zelde said politely. "Why exactly was her team expelled?"

"Because of all the thieving Merlot and Saika were doing," Jessamine said, a bitter edge to her voice now. "The General believed she and her other teammate knew more about the situation than they were letting on. But my Jasmine would never do such a thing!"

Cordovan coughed to clear his throat, stepping forward to ask a question. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything further about Saika and Merlot, would you? Anything about where they might hide out or any friends they might seek out?”

Jessamine was quiet for a moment before shaking her head. “Not much I’m afraid. What little I do know I doubt would be of any use to you. Perhaps you would find better luck speaking with Neta?”

“Who’s Neta?” Neela asked.

“Neta Ciervo,” Jessamine answered quickly. “She was their teammate. My husband and I used to host Jasmine and her team for dinner sometimes and she was always the most talkative of the three. She might know something more than I do."

"Thank you," Zelde said. "Hopefully Neta will provide us with some further information and we'll be able to close the case for you shortly."

Jessamine gave a weary smile. "I'm just glad it's finally getting looked at."

With the Princetons giving up very little in the way of substantial information, it was decided promptly among the team that they would speak to Neta Ciervo that very same day. There were no details on her address on the academy's system, so Neela was sent back into the shop to retrieve an address before they headed off properly. 

Half an hour later, ZRCN found themselves walking the streets of the Aeris District in the northern quarter of the city. Cordovan was a native of Mantle, having been born in the city and having spent most of his youth here after his parents had separated. He had tasked himself with leading the team to Neta's address having more of a familiarity with the streets than anyone else on his team.

Neta Ciervo lived in a small but cozy ground floor apartment in the Aeris District of the city. The building has certainly seen better days based on its exterior, but Cordovan could see a few modern repairs had been made at some point, most likely in an effort to further combat the cold.

Walking up the stairs to the front door, ZRCN were confronted by a series of doorbells corresponding to various apartments in the building. They quickly saw a ground floor apartment with the name "Ciervo" in faded ink by the bell. Cordovan rang the doorbell and a moment later it was answered. Crackling static could be heard from a little speaker above the doorbells before a woman's voice spoke.

"Hello?"

"Hello," Cordovan echoed, returning the greeting. "Is this the residence of Neta Ciervo?"

"It is," The voice responded quickly. "My name is Shani Ciervo - I'm her grandmother. May I ask why you wanted to speak with her?"

"It's in regards to a mission myself and my team are undertaking on behalf of the academy," Cordovan responded politely. "I promise we won't take up much of your time."

There was a long pause before Shani responded again. "Neta says she's happy to speak with you. I'll buzz you in momentarily. Our apartment is the first on the left-hand side." Another static crackled followed, and then as promised, the front door of the building made a buzzing sound indicating that it was now unlocked. Cordovan pushed it open and kept his hand on it, allowing his teammates to pass through before he followed them inside. ZRCN hadn't even reached the door Shani had told them about before it swung open and an elderly woman stood there.

"Mrs Ciervo?" Zelde prompted, likely wanting to double check this was indeed the woman they had spoken to before. The woman gave a curt nod and waved them inside.

It was cosy inside, from what Cordovan could see it was decorated in various warmer shades of colour, a stark contrast to the grey exterior of the outside of the building. Some of the wooden furniture looked old and dated but had clearly been well taken care of. 

"This is a nice place," Xanthos mused, and for once there was no joking tone used or playful remark that followed. Xanthos was being genuine.

Shani gave a warm smile. "My husband and I spent many years making this place look nice. We wanted it to be somewhere comfortable to retire in." She shuffled past the group and paused in front of an old, faded photograph in a sterling silver frame. It showed a young couple in their wedding clothes smiling happily at the camera and a little boy stood by their feet. "The handsome fellow in the suit was my husband, Hersh. The little boy was our son, Roscoe."

"Don't worry, gran, I can take over with our guests now!" A high-pitched voice called out from within the apartment. A moment later a younger woman emerged from the kitchen, carrying a tray with a steaming teapot and several precariously balanced teacups. She had light brown skin, bright hazel eyes, and shoulder length grey-brown hair. Neta also had antlers on the top of her head and for a brief moment Cordovan feared she was going to bump them on the door frame, but she ducked down without breaking a sweat, clearly experienced from getting through doorways. "Neta Ciervo," She said, stopping in front of ZRCN to give a little curtsy. "Pleasure."

"You didn't have to make us anything," Zelde told her.

"Oh I don't mind, I was already making a drink anyway. A reward to myself after spending nearly all day packing," Neta said with a giggle.

"If we're intruding-"

Neta cut Zelde off by walking into the space that served as the living room. Shani glanced at ZRCN and gave them an amused shrug.

"Gran! Hurry, hurry! You don't want to keep Mrs Winters waiting!" Neta said, looking back at her grandmother after setting down her tray. "You know she'll only chew your ear off if you do." Despite the speed of her words, there was a light edge to her words, only gently urging her grandmother to leave.

"She's right she would," Shani said with a chuckle. She moved past ZRCN to grab a warm, quilted coat and slipped it on. "I'm heading out now, Neta. Give me a call if you need anything."

Shani gave her granddaughter and then ZRCN a farewell wave before exiting the apartment. Once Shani had left, ZRCN joined Neta in the sitting room. Neta made herself comfortable in a single chair whilst Cordovan, Neela, and Zelde sat on the sofa opposite her. Xanthos elected to sit cross-legged on the floor, declining Neta's offer for her to grab a chair from the dining room.

Neta got to work pouring everyone a cup of tea. She was mid-pour when she looked up to ask, "So I heard you were here on a mission? How can I help you?"

"Have you heard about the robbery at Princeton's Provence three weeks ago?" Zelde asked, jumping right in.

Neta set the teapot down on the tray and took her seat. Cordovan noted the slight uncertainty in her expression before she answered. "I was not aware of any robbery," She answered. 

"Don't worry, we know you weren't involved," Xanthos explained hastily. "Jasmine was very keen to throw your other teammates under the bus."

Neta frowned. "What?"

"Forgive my very forward teammate," Zelde said, without looking at Xanthos. "He is correct though. Jasmine did clearly identify Merlot and Saika as those responsible."

Neta was silent for a moment before grabbing a cup. She didn't drink it straight away but kept it sitting on her lap. "May I ask what happened?" She asked. Zelde was quick to explain what they knew - the details of the robbery itself, the culprits, Jasmine's clear identification of their teammates, and Jessamine's hope that Neta could provide some further information.

"Unfortunately, I don't think I can be much help to you," Neta confessed, looking at her cup. She finally took a sip, savouring the taste before she pressed on. "After our team was expelled we all drifted apart. Saika despised the fact that Jasmine did not make excuses for her or try to defend her. We knew what she and Merlot were doing but we never approved of it or participated in it ourselves."

"Jasmine knew?" Cordovan said aloud, to which Neta nodded.

"Well, we didn't know exactly," Neta amended. "We knew they were doing extra jobs on the side but we didn't know what they were until just before General Ironwood pulled us in to discuss matters and eventually expel us. Saika tried to tell us that we'd hear "lies" and "rumours" and that we should know they were doing these things for a good purpose. Atlas was corrupt, she said. They were just doing what everyone wished they could do and shoving it to the wealthy elite of Atlas." Neta frowned and shook her head. "As a Faunus, I know all too well how corrupt Atlas can be. But what Merlot and Saika were doing was not for a good purpose. Nor were they hurting the elite as they so claimed. They targeted genuine, hardworking people, citizens of Atlas and Mantle both, who would feel the robberies in more ways than just the act itself."

Cordovan listened quietly, absorbing the information carefully. 

"Do you know who they were working for?" Cordovan asked once he had processed the information.

Neta shook her head. "I don't know his full name but I know a man named Teak recruited them. A former military man, if I recall correctly, a little bit eccentric and solitary."

Cordovan frowned at this. It was displeasing to hear someone from the military might have been involved but it wasn't entirely impossible. Cordovan had certainly heard enough stories from his mother about former soldiers who had been discharged or left the military due to their unscrupulous activities and behaviours.

"What about where they might be? Did Merlot or Saika have family in Atlas? Any haunts they might revisit?" Zelde asked.

"Nothing that I'm aware of. Saika was an orphan from Mistral and Merlot has family in Vale," Neta responded to the first half of the question. "They weren't exactly sociable so there aren't any haunts that spring to mind. Saika didn't have much love for the kingdom, so I will admit I was a bit surprised to hear she was still here, much less still committing crimes."

"I notice you keep saying her crimes and not their crimes," Zelde cut in, staring directly at Neta. "Do you believe Merlot was not involved?"

"No, it was an accidental slip of the tongue," Neta assured them. If she seemed annoyed at Zelde's question she didn't show it. "Whilst Merlot was likely present and took part I don't think he was ever as involved as Saika was. I always had the impression that he only joined her on those jobs to keep an eye on her, make sure she wasn't getting too carried away or at risk of hurting herself."

The young woman took another sip of her drink, this time drinking what was remaining with a few hearty gulps. Neta set the cup back down on the coffee table and gave a little sigh. "I'm sorry I don't know more. This must seem like a bit of a wasted journey for you."

“Not at all,” Zelde reassured her. Cordovan, Neela, and Xanthos all nodded in agreement. “You’ve given us a name to look into as well as provided us with some more detailed information on Merlot and Saika. Believe me, you’ve been a great help.”

Satisfied that she had helped the team, Neta and the four of them seemed content to leave the questioning there for now. Zelde did attempt to press Neta for some further information, but after her attempts went nowhere, was content to leave things be. Team ZRCN finished their tea with Neta and engaged in some polite conversation with her unrelated to the case at hand. She was a charming young woman and really endeared herself to them all. In another life, one where she and her team had not been expelled, Cordovan could have seen them all as friends.

Eventually bidding farewell to Neta, the team would once again charter a shuttle to take them back to the academy. It was early in the afternoon by the time they returned, and although they had expended their options on the ground, Zelde was keen to do some research online to see what they could dig up on the man named Teak that Neta had mentioned.

They had barely sat down in the dorm when there was a light knock on the doorframe. In their hurry upon returning, they had neglected to close the door, and now they found themselves about to be interrupted by one of their fellow students.

Leaning against the doorframe, his ginger tail swishing behind him stood none other than Chester Porphyry. Although Cordovan had to admit he was a little annoyed at the intrusion, he hadn’t seen Chester nor the rest of his team since they had finally returned from Vale a few days ago. He looked mostly the same, wearing his familiar knitted mulberry-coloured jumper over a pale shirt paired with cream chinos, and smart black formal shoes. What Cordovan did note was the bags under his eyes, the paleness of his skin, and the way his smile didn’t seem as wide nor as bright as it usually was.

Before anyone had a chance to say anything, Neela was quick to hurry over to Chester, enveloping him in a deep hug that seemed to catch him by surprise. Chester held his hands out to the side, appearing unsure how to react, before finally relaxing and returning the hug.

“I didn’t realise we hugged now,” Chester teased, as they began to step away.

Neela made a scoff. "Shut up, Ches," She said, giving him a light pat on the arm. "I'm glad you're alright."

Chester returned her comment with a genuinely warm smile. "Yeah, so am I."

"Is everything alright, Chester?" Cordovan asked, content to interrupt now that Chester and Neela had broken apart. "Did you need something or were you just saying hello?"

"A little bit of both," Chester confessed with a chuckle. "Tell me, is it true you picked up the Princeton case?"

This earned a few raised eyebrows in the room. "Yes, we have," Zelde confirmed with a nod. Cordovan could see she was staring at Chester intently now, likely curious why he knew about their mission and why he was asking about it.

"I see," Chester murmured. He stepped further into the room, taking a seat on one of the lower bunks. "In that case then, we have some things to discuss."