Where You Are

Mercury was once again panicking.

It had been only a couple of days since Vandrad had been attacked and the series of events that had stemmed from the incident, including Mercury going rogue from her enslavement, murdering an entire royal line of Midians, confessing the truth of who she was to Vandrad, and subsequently becoming engaged to him. It had been an absolute roller coaster of emotions between rage, fear, sorrow, hope, and joy, and the few days since then had been some of the happiest that Mercury had ever experienced in her life, despite the situation. Vandrad was still without magic and he was definitely struggling to move forward, but he was moving forward bit by bit, refusing to bend the knee to the prognosis the doctors had given him, and so far he had already astonished them tremendously with his progress – despite the insistence of his loved ones that he slow down and take it easy.

Their engagement had been well received by everyone, nearly all of them giving well wishes somewhere in the realm of “It’s about damn time”. The ring that he’d given her so long ago – Yuna’s ring, as it turned out – had been moved over a finger on her hand to the appropriate place that Earthlanders used to indicate their marital status. Even though Mercury had been wearing it for over a year at this point, she had still caught herself looking at the piece of jewelry and smiling at it softly from time to time. In truth, she didn’t really feel free yet. She had removed her tracking device and pledged to fight against what was coming, no matter what it took, but that didn’t change the fact that Khelben and the Nazru were still out there, and someday they would catch up to her. Vandrad had promised she would never be a slave again, had promised that together they would meet the Nazru head on and liberate what was left of her people, but in order to do that they were going to need help from the others around them.

Mercury was extremely nervous about having to go over her history from scratch with nearly everyone and reveal her dirty, shocking secrets. A part of her was convinced that someone was bound to be upset with her and unwilling to tolerate the truth. She knew that Vandrad’s family loved her and already considered her family, but there was no way of knowing if that would last after they learned that her entire purpose for being on the planet to begin with was to get all of them killed. Statistically speaking, someone was going to take serious offense to it, and to her, as much as she tried to let herself be reassured by Vandrad that they would understand. But she was still scared, and for that reason, as well as a few more altruistic ones, she had asked that they wait a few days before gathering everyone just so they would all have the chance to calm down from and cope with one crisis before moving on to another. In fact, that meeting was planned for tomorrow night.

However, something was wrong. The day had started off like any other. Mercury had been staying with Vandrad every night since the start of his recovery, helping him as needed and doing what she could to get him to a point where he could start working out again. Like his family, she had cautioned him not to push himself too hard, but she had not been as firm on the matter as everyone else. She had faith that he knew his limits, even now, and her only request had been that he not push himself to the point of risking reinjury. Today, however, she’d needed to take care of a few things at Silver Wolf so once they were both up and running she’d given him a kiss and teleported over to the Phoenix Mountains, leaving him to his own devices for a time and knowing that she wouldn’t hear from him for at least an hour or two. One of his own proteges, Saffron, had stepped up almost immediately following the news to work out with Vandrad regularly to help get him back in shape. Mercury had only met her a few times, but she was a delightful and sexy young woman whose magic was also tied in with ethernano, so it seemed fitting that she be the one to work with the prince when Mercury wasn’t around.

Since Saffron was going to be spending some time with Vandrad that morning, Mercury didn’t think anything of it until she got a concerning text from the blonde. Hey, did Vandrad have something to take care of before hitting the training room today?

Mercury frowned as she read the message in her internal HUD. No, he went straight there this morning after we woke up. He wanted to get an hour or so in by himself before you got there. Is he not there?

He was at some point. His shirt is here. But I’ve been here for about thirty minutes and there’s no sign of him. I already asked around with Mura and a few others. No one has seen him today, and he didn’t leave a message with anyone.

That was not like Vandrad. Pulling up his contact information, she dialed his number and gave it a call. It rang twice before it answered, but it was not Vandrad on the other line. “It’s Saff. Looks like he left his phone here, too. It was under his shirt along with his wallet and shit.”

“I’ll be right there.” Pulling out her translocation ray, she set the coordinates to the Fairy Tail guildhall and moved swiftly toward the training room where Saffron awaited her near Vandrad’s things. Picking up the items and looking through them, a feeling of dread washed over her. “This isn’t right. He would never leave his stuff here like this.”

“Tell me about it. He’d never be this late, either. He grumbles at me if I’m even two minutes late to training.”

“And no one has seen or heard from him?”

Saffron shook her head. “I asked everyone. A couple people saw him enter the training room, but no one saw him leave. And if I’m being honest, this room is a bit cold. Usually it’s a fucking sauna in here from the sweat he works up, but it doesn’t feel like anyone has been in this room for a while.”

Mercury swapped her eyesight to infrared and did a scan of the room to find that Saffron was right. Once they started working out in there the air became much warmer and a bit more muggy, but the temperature of the room was still pretty cold, and the humidity was low. Her gaze snapped back to Saffron with a concerned expression. “You don’t think anyone could get in here, do you?”

The blonde frowned. “Like, someone that shouldn’t be in here? I seriously doubt it. Mura’s had this place wrapped up tighter than a hooker on the streets ever since that attack from Elysium. There’s no way anyone’s getting in and out of here unnoticed.” That did sound right. After all, Patty had said that not even the Dread Masters had been able to spy on them inside the guild halls, the magics on the buildings far too impenetrable for espionage. “You’re thinking someone got to him..? Like the ones that attacked him last time?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out. Thank you for contacting me, Saff. Can you put his things back in his room, please? And if you find him, let me know right away.”

“Will do. Same to you.”

A few hours later, she found herself at the main lobby of the Rune Knights. So far her search had been fruitless, and the more time that passed the more she was convinced that something treacherous was afoot. Her anxiety was overwhelming, yet still overshadowed by the unbridled fury that was simmering within her. After a quick argument with Valorie at the front desk, she finally got permission to go up to the top floor where Serilda’s office was. The Voidwalker was there to greet her, standing to her feet the moment she felt Mercury approach the door. Victoria sat up in her seat on the couch by the window, closing her book and setting it down.

“Have you found anything?” the voidwalker asked, lines of concerns etched in her face.

Mercury shook her head. “Not yet. You?”

“No. Mythal has the Knights mobilized in Magnolia and they are looking everywhere for clues, but so far no witnesses are stepping up about any strange activity in Magnolia.”

“Tara kambleng..!” Swearing under her breath, Mercury threw herself into one of the armchairs across from Victoria and buried her face in her hands, doing her best to control the torrent of anxiety and rage that was churning within her. Serilda frowned curiously at the odd language that Mercury used but otherwise said nothing as she let her future sister-in-law express herself. “It’s like he just… disappeared into thin air! Maybe if he still had his magic that’d be believable, but..”

Serilda sat down gently in the other armchair. “You think someone got to him. The Dread Masters..?”

“Who else would it be? They already tried to kill him once and nearly succeeded. He’s vulnerable right now, and they know it. It’s the perfect opportunity to finish what they started…” Her hands were clenched into tight fists. All she could think was that she shouldn’t have left him alone. The last time she had left him alone was when the Dread Masters had gotten an opportunity to attack him in the first place, and now she was convinced they had struck again. “I just wish I had more to go off. It’s infuriating that I can’t find next to anything on them, even with all the stuff I’ve gathered so far.”

“Did you tell Themmy..?”

Mercury nodded. “Yes, I messaged her and Gren the same time I messaged you and Mythal, to see if they’d heard from him. They’re both pulling in their own resources to investigate, but we’ve still got nothing.”

There was silence for a long, tense moment, the three women each processing the situation differently in their own minds. Ultimately, it was Victoria who shook her head. “The Midian girl that attacked Vandrad. What happened to her?”

“She became slop for the pigs her family owned.”

Serilda blinked, looking very much like she was hoping she hadn’t heard that sentence correctly, taken back by the visceral admission to the point that she really didn’t know how to react to it. She had always sensed that Mercury had a bit of a dark, sadistic side to her but she hid her thoughts and emotions so well that it wasn’t something she had ever really been exposed to. The first real evidence of it was when Mercury had shown up in that hospital absolutely coated in the shameless evidence of her act of genocide. Victoria, on the other hand, gave a soft sigh of resignation. “That’s a shame.”

The Xocili frowned at her curiously. “Why do you say that?”

“I can do a lot with a person’s blood,” the seal explained. “If there had been anything left of her, I could have used her blood to search through her memories. You said she was taken in and tortured and experimented on by the Dread Masters. Perhaps that could have shown us something, if there had been anything left. But considering the state you were in, I get the feeling it would be nearly impossible to have deciphered her blood from that of the othe–”

Mercury quickly sat forward as Victoria spoke, cutting the woman off. “How fresh would the blood need to be?”

Victoria raised a brow. “It need not be fresh at all. It just needs to be blood.”

“So, theoretically…. If I had, say… kept her head…”

“Mercury..!” Serilda looked utterly aghast by the thought.

“Look, there was tech in it. The Engineer hardwired her brain and I wasn’t going to throw away an opportunity to reverse engineer his work to learn potentially critical details about him and his work. “

The princess shifted uncomfortably in her spot, clearly not a fan of the act but also understanding the logic. “I suppose…” she conceded.

“If you do have her head and there is blood with it, I can work with that.”

Mercury wasted no time. With the wave of her hand, she conjured the metal box that she’d stored with her victim’s cranium. Pulling the lid off, she held it out to the Seal. “How much do you need?”

“Just a drop,” the older woman informed her, dipping her hand inside and swiping a finger’s worth of crimson plasma on the pad of the digit. Serilda grimaced slightly as she watched Victoria put the ichor to her lips and taste it, still very much not a fan of the entire process but unable to deny how handy the ability was. Mercury closed the box back up and dismissed it, watching the Seal eagerly as Victoria closed her eyes and began to search through the dead woman’s most recent memories.

Serilda was able to read alongside the woman too, the two of them sharing one mind. As a result, both women saw the scene of Sabine’s death from her eyes, the setting of carnage that Mercury had set out for the woman. It was a frightening and disturbing image to behold, but for now it was tucked away and ignored as Victoria went back further. All the while, the Xocili sat and tried to be as patient as possible.

“Hm. There’s some sort of bunker underground. Similar to where we were with the Order, but more active. There’s guards on patrol. Lots of labs and technology. I see… a man in a mask, fully covered. Most of her memories are of him standing over her and performing experiments on her, so I presume that’s the Engineer.” She was silent for a long moment sifting through the memories back and forth and looking for any bit of a clue. After several long minutes she sighed and opened her eyes. “I’m sorry, there wasn’t anything that could tell me where it was located. There was nothing distinctive inside the base that she saw, and everything the Engineer spoke of just involved his research. There were no clues that might tell us where they were.”

So she was back to square one. Mercury growled and beat her fist down on the arm of her chair. For a moment she’d had some hope but it had quickly been ripped from her once again and now despair was beginning to settle in. Vandrad needed her, and even with all her skills as a spy she couldn’t even find him! The emotional spiral was quickly gaining speed, her eyes darting frantically around the room as she sought for something, anything.

Finally she stopped, a curious frown touching her face as her gaze flicked back up to the Seal. “How did you know the bunker was underground?”

“There was a brief moment when she was brought to the bunker where I could see the entrance. However, it was just set in the base of a mountain range. There are hundreds of such places on Ishgar, and with no distinctive landmarks in the area it would be almost impossible to narrow down a single such range.”

“I can work with ‘almost’ impossible. What did it look like? Is there anyway you can describe it to me?”

“Well, I…” The Seal stopped and sighed, earnestly wanting to but there really wasn’t any way to describe a mountain that wouldn’t make it sound like every other mountain in existence, particularly when there wasn’t anything immediately distinctive about it. “There was a lot of snow and ice, but that narrows it down very little. That could still be anywhere in Fiore, or Iceberg, Stella… Seven… even Bosco and Pergrande.”

“Hang on.” Sitting forward with an idea in her head, Serilda closed her eyes again and drew the shared memory back up, freezing the image of the bunker’s entrance in her mind. Holding out her hands with one on top of the other, palms facing each other with a bit of space between them, two circular runes of black energy materialized between her hands and began to spin. Ice began to take form between them as she utilized her ice and void magics together to form as close of a replica as she could to the view of the mountain range that they had from what Sabine had seen.

When she finished, Mercury studied the fabrication carefully, analyzing every angle and jut of the mountain’s peaks and throwing out a search through the web, commanding her processors to single out images online that had similar key shapes. It took a minute or two due to how many pictures she had to sift through, but she quickly compiled enough hits on a mountain range in Iceberg that was an exact match. “This actually helped me tremendously,” she told them, the spirit back in her step as the hunt was on once again. “This should point me in the right direction. Thank you so much, both of you.”

Standing to her feet, she turned to leave. “Mercury!” Serilda’s voice caused the lavender haired woman to pause, turning to look back. “You don’t need to do this alone. Please, let us go with you.”

Mercury stood there for a moment, giving serious consideration to the offer. If she gathered a small force of even just Serilda, Mythal, Themmy, and Gren alone, that would be more than enough to send the Dread Masters rocking on their heels. She certainly couldn’t deny that every single one of them had a right to put the malevolent order in its place. Ultimately, she sighed. “I want to, but… no. If we strike in force and overwhelm them, they may do something rash in response to being backed in a corner. If I’m going to get any information at all, I need them to feel comfortable and like they are in charge. As far as I am aware, they should not see me as too much of a threat. They know I’m strong – they’ve watched me keep up with Vandrad and they know my skills in engineering run deep… but outside of a few bits of information here and there, they know next to nothing about me. In comparison to you and Mythal and Themmy… I can’t imagine I’m viewed very seriously as a threat. And that will work to my favor.”

Serilda watched her quietly, clearly unhappy with the situation but ultimately nodding. “I understand. Just…. Please be careful. And don’t go rushing into anything. You won’t help Vandrad that way. Trust me, I know..” The voidwalker hung her head slightly as she referred back to her outburst from when Faera was trying to take over Mythal from the inside, and the way she had tried to jump straight into action without much of a plan. Not one of her finer moments, and while her idea had become a major part of the plan she could have seriously doomed all of them by throwing caution to the wind and not approaching with a level head. She didn’t want Mercury to do the same.

The Xocili nodded her understanding gently. “Thank you. I’ll be as careful as I can. I promise.” With one last glance at both women, she turned back toward the door and left.

It was well past nightfall by the time Mercury had set all the pieces in place. Once she knew where she was going, it had not taken long to get there, but scoping the area out had been another matter entirely. Before she could get anywhere near the entrance she’d had to scan the area for magical wards and other devices that might have been able to detect her before she even could make it to the door. Then she had to find a way to get a rough readout of the structure with her drones so she could get an idea of the bunker’s depth and the bodies within. And while the task had been one she could more than accomplish, it was not done with the same ease as she could do with nearly any other facility on Earthland. In fact, if she hadn’t already gathered so much of the Engineer’s tech to study over the last several weeks, she may not have been able to do it at all. Or at the very least, it would have taken her much longer than it did.

But between her skills in espionage, her stealth suit, her magic and gadgetry, and her insurmountable patience, she had managed to make her way inside the bunker without being detected. Mercury had waited until the end of the day when most of the scientific crew had gone home, leaving only a skeletal group of guards. She had done as thorough a search of the place as she could manage, looking for any clues or signs of Vandrad and finding infuriatingly little about the prince, though there was certainly plenty else around that was worth taking an interest in – particularly things that would give her more insight into the Engineer.

However, all of that paled in comparison to what she truly wanted, and with little to show regarding Vandrad directly, she decided it was time to start some of her more aggressive steps. And so she set herself up in what appeared to be the head office of the building, sitting in the chair behind the large desk there, her legs propped on the table’s surface comfortably as she leaned back very much like she belonged there. Mercury had purposefully set off the silent alarm in the room only moments ago, knowing that someone was bound to respond sooner rather than later. Until then, she lounged lazily and read from one of the ancient looking tomes she had plucked from a shelf, waiting to see what company would arrive to greet her…

While there wasn’t an immediate reaction to the alarm she had tripped, Mercury knew it wouldn’t be long before she had some company. She had activated the alarm and immediately silenced it again, leaving it open just long enough that only the most keen of individuals would have noticed it, while the guards around would not. Afterall, the Xocili was looking for a very specific play date today, and it would be quite the bother to have anyone else interfering.

And luckily, her patience was rewarded. The lighting the room shifted as the wall behind her revealed itself to be a monitor, the device flicking on to reveal the masked form of the very man she’d been hoping to snag. His voice filled the room and she turned slowly on the swivel of the chair with the most self satisfied grin on her face. “Ah, my favorite engineer! How nice to finally have a two way conversation with you,” she interjected politely after his greeting.

He wasted no time in revealing that he knew what she was, referencing the Nazru almost right off the bat and drawing a deeper, more knowing smirk from the woman. Frankly, she’d have been disappointed if he hadn’t managed to put her identity together by now, and she’d known that if anyone was going to suss her out and identify her it would be this mysterious other alien who seemed almost as technologically involved as she was. He admitted his surprise in having found someone that was able to filter through his encryptions so thoroughly, having at first assumed that he had simply been discrediting Patty’s own abilities until he got a closer look at Mercury in Midi and realized the truth.

“Well, to Patty Cake’s credit, she is more brilliant than you gave her credit for. But if it makes you feel any better, I was quite surprised to find that mainframe of yours when I broke into her office. It had been quite some time since I’d been given a real challenge. Took me almost a full twenty minutes to get everything I wanted. You should be proud of yourself.” It was at that moment that the room got a fair bit more noisy, metallic clanks and claps as gears and mechanisms fell into place. Mercury turned her head slightly to observe the room, her sensors indicating that she was travelling downward, as though the room were an elevator.

He spoke up about how he’d expected that she’d find her way there, given her rather lofty connections in Earthland, particularly with Serilda. It wasn’t his remark about Mercury knowing the field marshal that got a reaction out of her, of course. It was only natural that they were aware of Vandrad’s relationship with Mythal and that the four of them spent quite a bit of time together. What did earnestly surprise her was his admission that he knew about Serilda’s blood magic. Mercury’s smirk faded slightly, her eyes narrowing on the faceless figure in the monitor. Well that was troubling. Seeing as how he was more than happy to continue rambling, however, the Xocili simply sat there and let him speak without interruption as he explained that he knew that Serilda would be able to use her blood magic to read Sabine’s memories and help Mercury find this place.

As he went on about magic in general and the phenomenon it was to non Earthlander’s such as themselves, Mercury’s mind was busy reading through the cracks in his words. This man certainly was every bit the egoist that Patricia had claimed, arrogant and believing himself smarter than everyone else around him. So much so, in fact, that he liked to flaunt it. He clearly was the type that enjoyed revealing that he knew things he should not, preferring to rub his genius in others’ faces rather than keeping his hand covered. She calculated that there was a seventy-nine percent chance that the Engineer didn’t know about Victoria’s existence or the Seal’s connection with Serilda.

The alien went on to ponder how interested the Nazru might be in knowing there was a survivor of her race out there, causing Mercury to chuckle lightly. Standing to her feet, she wandered over to one of the walls at a casual gait, rapping on it with the back of her knuckles and giving it a light inspection. “Well, you are more than welcome to try contacting them, if that’s truly how stupid you wish to be. I have no doubts that they would send out a hunting party to locate me. They were rather passionate about destroying Xocil. It wasn’t just our technological affinity that they despised. See, with my people it was personal. Our very existence as beings that were both organic and synthetic was heretical to the point of offense. As soon as they learned about us, they hunted us down with extreme prejudice.”

Swapping her vision to x-ray, she peered beyond the walls to see quite the surprise. There were bodies all around the perimeter of the room. They were propped up and held perfectly still, seemingly inside some kind of pods or laid up against some vertical gurneys of sorts. Her thermal vision and other sensors informed her that the bodies were completely dead, their temperatures cold with no vital signs to speak of. However, there was some strange liquid being fed to them by tubes that were also running through the walls. There was no way to identify the liquid, of course – not without being able to get her hands on some of it. But she could only assume that it wouldn’t be long before the bodies were mobile.

Moving along the room, she turned and wandered toward another wall as she continued talking. “However, you and I both know that the Nazru would hardly let you walk free. You would become just as much of a target. Crafty as you may be, you are no match for them… and I highly doubt you want their attention.” She glanced back at him over her shoulder, giving him another little smirk.

The Engineer spoke up again as though realizing he’d been rambling, acknowledging that she must have come for a reason. He claimed not wanting to be rude to his guest and gave her a moment to ask whatever questions she had. “Ah, intelligent and a gentleman. I am in rare company, indeed.” Clasping her hands behind her back comfortably, she continued to pace leisurely about the room. “So are you ugly, or something? It just seems silly that you persist in wearing that mask of yours at a time like this. It’s not like neither of us don’t know the other isn’t human. You hardly have anything to hide from me, darling. Unless, of course, you’re someone I might recognize.”

Now, there was an idea. Turning to face him fully with the look of a woman that had just put together a few pieces of a puzzle, she sauntered lightly back toward the monitor. “How interesting. You’re hiding out on this planet just as much as I am, but you don’t blend in with the locals as seamlessly as I do. So what kind of people are out there beyond the stars looking for you, then? I can only imagine the types of enemies you’ve made in your line of work.” Her tone conveyed that she didn’t really expect him to answer such questions, the woman more so just speaking and theorizing out loud. Unfortunately, she would not be able to get a read on his vitals without him being physically in front of her, so there was no way to gain some insight on his reactions, but it was still a strong theory nonetheless.

“It's a shame, really. If only you had found me a couple years ago when I was fresh to the planet. I don't think it would have taken much at all to convince me to join your little... oh, what's that religious word I'm looking for... cult? Yes, that's the one. I can only imagine the kind of scientific breakthroughs you and I could achieve if we put our heads together." Moving on, she came back around the desk and rolled the chair out of the way so she could lean up against the lip of the table. “I am genuinely curious about my new friends you’ve got for me back here, though,” Mercury said, nodding toward one of the walls. “Are they here to collect me for you? We both know you’re not going to kill me. Sure, I’d still be valuable as a corpse, but you’d learn far more about me by keeping me alive for whatever exciting little experiments I’m sure you’ve got lined up for me. If you’re expecting me to fight, you needn’t bother. This little video session is pleasant and all, but I’d much rather get to  know you more intimately in person. I’d have come willingly, if you asked. Maybe in more ways than one.”

An impish little smirk spread across her face, the woman truly unable to help herself from being a flirt, even with a man that she very much wanted dead. If anything, that made the banter more fun. “Oh, and I do have one more question…” Mercury informed him, flicking her wrist and conjuring a small knife, twirling it expertly between her fingers as her emerald gaze settled on him with a polite and malicious smile.

“Where are you keeping Vandrad?”

It seemed that he was just as willing to share a few vague details, the two of them far too entranced by their own budding hatred with one another to do anything but be ironically friendly with the other. She surmised aloud her theory that he was in hiding, much like she was, and he indulged her with the truth after complimenting her own keen sense of observation. He hardly considered himself ugly, though that wasn’t really up to him to determine, however he did inform her that he was not the type to fall into the lines of the villains of fantasy that were wont to reveal themselves and assume victory before it was truly won. “I’d be disappointed if you were,” was her only playful interjection before he admitted how much he was looking forward to battling wits and intelligence with someone on par with him.

She spoke up to admit how different things might have been if they had met sooner, and to no surprise the Engineer agreed. He – much like Mercury – viewed the Dread Masters as being a bit dramatic, but they served the purpose for which he needed them and he seemed to be of the same mindset that the two of them would have made quite the dangerous pairing had things turned out differently.

Mercury asked about the bodies behind the walls and he delightfully explained that they were experiments he was hoping she would be willing to lend a hand with. In fact, he’d designed them especially for her, though even he didn’t truly know what they would do or what they were capable of. “Well, those are the best kind of experiments.” The walls dropped to reveal the tanks. They were mostly metal but there was enough glass to show the skeletal frames within that had been picked clean of the muscles and organs that had once clung to their frames. In fact, these particular bodies were the ones belonging to the Hotoi family that Mercury had murdered, along with the guards she had felled. The liquid, he informed her, was made up of their left over flesh and magical sigils of the necromantic and transmutational variety.

“Oooo, that’s the good shit.” Admittedly, she hadn’t done too much with necromantic work with Silver Wolf. They had a few items worth studying, of course, so she had some knowledge, but even on a planet such as this necromancy was not very common, and not very highly viewed, so it was hard to get their hands on such wares for study. Mercury watched as the liquid filled the tanks, knowing that she was probably not in the best of spots but the scientist in her was unable to help herself from studying the process as she watched new flesh begin to form over the bones. “Very pretty,” she admitted, despite herself.

Still, while this was all well and good, Mercury had come here for a reason and she was only willing to entertain a charade of cordiality for so long. Afterall, Vandrad was still missing and who knew what was happening to him while she played rival, so she elected to ignore the bodies as they completed their animation process to look up at him and ask him outright where he was keeping Vandrad. Mercury had been thoroughly convinced that the Dread Masters had been behind his disappearance, as there was no other logical conclusion, so she was caught completely off guard by the little pause that betrayed how he had not been expecting that question. Her expression did not change, but her heart practically felt like it had stopped. He clearly had no idea until she said something that Vandrad was even missing, and if that were the case…

…then who had him?

It was a big red strike on her best running lead, her only running lead, leaving her back in square one. Her mind was racing at a million miles a second and coming up empty. Had she come all this way and willingly sprung a trap for nothing? The Xocili wouldn’t have much time to think about it as she heard the room seal itself tight, trapping her inside. She frowned only slightly, glancing about the room and using her vision settings to note the mechanisms in question, analyzing them from afar to see what it would take to get them open even as the Engineer continued to move forward as if he knew more than he actually did, promising that he’d consider giving her “answers” if she indulged his test. And for now, Mercury was content to let him think he’d pulled a fast one over on her.

“Very well, I’ll play with your dolls,” she informed him, turning to face the lot as they started stepping down from their tanks. “But once I’ve finished popping the heads off of all your Barbies, I expect you to act like a big boy and come play with me yourself.” Mercury waited patiently for the creatures to move first, locking her sensors onto each one so she could keep track of them even if she wasn’t looking directly at them. She could only assume that he was trying to get her to reveal more of her magic, and perhaps he would earn that kind of reward… but it was going to take some effort. Early warning sensors alerted her to one monster that was priming itself to charge her, the Xocili giving it a dark smirk as she twirled the knife between her fingers and reset the weapon in her grip.

Just as it was charging her, however, something else happened. Someone seemed to be materializing out of the air nearby and, with no other assumption except that it was some trick on the Engineer’s part, Mercury swapped tactics on a dime, swinging the knife out and around to where the newcomer stopped almost before he’d even finished manifesting. Yet, with just as much control and flabbergasting reaction time, the knife stopped short of Scourge even as he threw his fist through the corpse that had attempted to charge her, sending it flying into the far wall where it practically became one with the decor. While her attack may have stopped, however, she did not back down from the guarded stance, her emerald eyes locked on the other Dread Master that she had yet to meet.

He chuckled with casual amusement as he chastised the Engineer for not respecting Mercury as a lady, something he claimed his masked buddy should have known how to do given the supposed harems the Engineer had. His own gaze flicked to her with a smirk at the remark, and she only narrowed her own at him slightly, her expression unreadable for the moment. Instead, she listened in as the Engineer spoke up in surprise at Sourge’s appearance, berating him for eavesdropping, to which the Dread Master straight out admitted that the Engineer was also his top suspect as to the one responsible behind Vandrad’s disappearance.

Which meant that not even Sourge knew where Vandrad was, though it was worth noting that he knew Vandrad was missing and had known before listening in on the conversation. He had supposedly come there that night expecting to find the prince as the unfortunate recipient of the Engineer’s testing, only to be surprised by finding Mercury instead. However, it seemed he had also picked up on the man’s failed lie, calling him on it outright and lamenting that he’d overestimated his associate. Apparently, the feeling was mutual. The Engineer informed Scourge that the room was sealed, the implication being that his ethernano magic would not be enough to allow the Master a way out as he was now supposedly stuck in the room with Mercury.

However, seemed Scourge’s main concern was not getting any further on Vandrad’s bad side, and as such that meant he was there to help Mercury – at least, for the moment. And as far as Mercury could tell, he was telling the truth. All that did was make the situation all the more concerning. If neither of these halfwits knew where Vandrad was, then the only thing she was doing here was wasting time. She was on the verge of considering a vanishing act that she’d set up as a failsafe for this mission, but before she could commit herself to it Scourge spoke up with a couple things that caught her attention. The first was the knowledge that the Engineer had apparently gone behind his back about something that Scourge had taken offense to, which meant there was a little trouble in paradise, so to speak. And the other was to reveal that the Engineer’s real name was…

There was only a brief second of processing before Mercury visibly perked up at the sound of Maker’s name, a small smile pulling on her lips as she seemed to reconsider Scourge with her eyes as though suddenly much more receptive to his presence. She even finally lowered the knife a bit. “Oh, now that is just too good!” Looking as pleased as a cat that had just stolen someone’s seat before they’d gotten a chance to sit down, Mercury turned slowly to look at Maker’s masked visage on the monitor with an extremely satisfied expression. “Maker… Yes, I do know that name. You’re a famously wanted man in the black… or at least, you were up until your presumed death. There are outstanding warrants for you on a few dozen planets. Thirty-seven, to be exact.”

Feeling very much back in her element at this delightful little surprise, Mercury treated Scourge to the Vandrad treatment and leaned against him, moving carefully so he would know that at least for the moment she wasn’t planning on attacking him. He was much taller than Vandrad, so she had to stretch a little more to get her arm up on his shoulder, but the effect resulted in her just looking even more lounged out than she did even with the prince. Waving her knife in Maker’s general direction with the arm that she was leaning with, she tilted her head toward the Dread Master. “So how much of his rap sheet did he actually reveal to you? There’s quite a bit there. Illegal experimentation, illegal substances, possession to distribute… murder, theft, assault… Even a few war crimes. Those ones were particularly fun to read about.”

“In fact, he spent many years on the top most wanted lists in the universe by several bounty hunting agencies, and they were offering top dollar to anyone willing to make an attempt at bringing him down because his kill rate of would be assassins was one hundred percent. Hunting this man was considered a suicide run up until someone eventually got lucky. Or at least, everyone thinks they did.” Mercury bit her lip lightly, almost sensually, through her delighted grin as the opportunity presented itself for her to turn the tables on him from their prior topic of conversation. “You’ve been covering up your continued existence for a few years, now. Just think of how annoying I could make your life with little more than a quick message to a few intergalactic law enforcement agencies.”

It seemed that, for now at least, the time for talk was over. Scourge proclaimed his desire to help Mercury, conceding to Maker’s claim that it would take more than the dark haired man’s usual tricks to best these foes. As he made it clear that he was going to shake things up a bit, Mercury detached herself from Scourge and gave him enough space to call upon his own ethernano abilities. Similarly to Vandrad, a golden aura burst to life around him, his hair turning blonde and his eyes teal. It was standard fare to her at that point, and there was no point in acting surprised as they were both likely well aware that she knew about his affinity for Energy Monarch. Though, the whip was a fun new addition. He turned to her and seemed to offer a sort of truce for the moment, admitting to being a stranger but suggesting that their lack of proper interaction with one another would make the tango all the more fun.

She studied him for a moment with an amused but unreadable expression before a gentle snort escaped her nostrils. “Is this really the best cover the two of you could come up with?” Mercury asked, accusing them in not so many words of some half assed plot to get her to drop her guard and distract her from the fact that they were both very much her enemy. “I don’t know if I should be more disappointed or insulted. But fine, if that’s the game you wish to play. I’m nothing if not… accommodating.” Her eyes roamed the taller man briefly before flicking back up to his with a dangerous smirk that promised all sorts of trouble. Without moving to hurt him in any fashion, she raised her knife and set the tip of it gently against his chest, slowly dragging it down his front as though she were envisioning carving him open from collar to navel. Or maybe it was his clothes she was mock cutting. From the look she was giving him, it could have been either. “But you are on my list just as much as he is… and when this is over, I will get answers about where you two have dragged off my fiance, whether you want to give them willingly or not.”

Holding the stare for only a second or two longer, and pressing the tip of her dagger into his stomach just enough to confirm that it was quite sharp, she stepped back once more and waved the weapon out of existence. In exchange, she withdrew Mercy from the holster on her hip and immediately started blasting at the animated corpses.

So that was the play that Maker had done behind Scourge’s back: He was the one who organized the attack against Vandrad, without Scourge’s knowledge. There certainly seemed to be a difference of methodology between the two. While they were part of the same organization, it was starting to become clear that Scourge held himself to a certain standard of operation that Maker did not. Not that such knowledge made Scourge any more trustworthy to her, but there was a chink in the command structure, one that could be a potential weak point to chip away at later down the road.

For now, however, she was still no closer to finding Vandrad. Maker chuckled and chimed in that Mercury was more than welcome to call a few authorities on him, but stated that she would need proof if she wanted to keep them from turning on her later for a fruitless effort. How sure he was that she didn’t have such proof… or that she couldn’t get it. She only smiled back at him, electing to let him live under the fantasy that he was safe from that particular threat. For the moment he was, at least.

For now, there were more immediate matters. Despite knowing that the exchange between the two men was genuine, she played it off as though skeptical that neither of them were involved in Vandrad’s disappearance. The last thing she needed was them knowing that she could usually detect with a great deal of accuracy whether someone was telling the truth. Maker may have been aware of what her race was and heard legends and stories of their mastery of science and technology, but he would hardly have any intimate knowledge of their genetic capabilities. So for now she would keep that close to the chest and continue to act as though they were guilty of the crime of which she had accused them.

Scourge took her chastisement of them in stride, relenting his understanding that she had very good reasons to distrust them while indicating that not everything was as cut and dry as she seemed to be making it. He didn’t pull away as she brandished her dagger upon him, besetting a wicked grin of pleasure in her direction at her words of warning and even voicing that if she wasn’t careful she might get a different reaction out of him than the one she was aiming for. He even teased that he was rethinking his choice of target for the whip he’d conjured, now that she was getting his attention. “It’s a gift,” she remarked with a smirk.

Then, it was time to kill the Hotois a second time. Ripping Mercy out of its holster, she quickly and expertly loosed one shot after another into the bodies of animated corpses, aiming with computerized precision at vital weak spots. The creatures were fast, of course. They had been genetically modified to be super human in speed and strength. However, Mercury had been spending the last near two years playing punching bag to Vandrad. These creatures were adorable, even curious on a scientific level, but not much to scoff at. Her sensors rather easily kept her aware at all times of when another corpse was closing in on her, the woman gracefully ducking and diving out of the way of attacks even when her visual attention was focused elsewhere. She displayed no obvious use of magic, instead showing off her mastery of her weapon and how she seamlessly wove between the pistol and sword settings. In short, nothing the two of them hadn’t already seen from afar while they spied on Vandrad.

It did not take long at all for the creatures to go down. Scourge relinquished his energy scythe and quipped about the zombies not being Maker’s finest accomplishment. “Oh, he’s only just warming up, I’m sure,” Mercury informed him casually after she holstered her weapon. Reaching into the pouch on her hip, she withdrew an enchanted syringe and plunged it into one of the felled corpses, withdrawing a bit of the ichor to study later. “One of us will most certainly kill the other eventually, but for now we just want to have a bit of fun. Isn’t that right, darling?” Giving Maker a flirty smirk, she slipped the syringe back into the pouch where it disappeared.

“Unfortunately, he seems to not want to play with me face to face, if you’ll excuse the pun. So I guess that leaves me with you.” She began to pace the room casually in the slow, circling movement of a predator. With the gentle twist of her wrist, a new weapon materialised itself within her palm, one that both Maker and Scourge would likely recognize as it looked exactly like the sword that Sabine had used to mortally wound Vandrad and cut off his flow of magic. Spinning it slowly in her hand, she turned her gaze over toward him with a calculating expression and a subtle but dark smirk. “You claim to have already known that Vandrad was missing when you came in this room. Which would mean that you’ve found a way to get past the Fairy Tail guild’s defenses without detection. That only incriminates you further, as far as I can tell, since the last place he was seen was inside the guild. Mix that with you also being the last person to speak with him before that Midian waste of space ran him through… Well, you understand why I simply don’t believe that you had nothing to do with this.”

“So I will ask one more time politely… and if I feel like you’re not being honest with me, then maybe I’ll just have to run a little test of my own with this souvenir I picked up in Midi. Where is Vandrad?”

It seemed that Maker didn’t intend on sticking around long enough to see how things would play out with Scourge. He confirmed Mercury’s words that this little game between them was going to be lasting much longer than one round, neither of them particularly keen on putting the other out of their misery too quickly. She revealed her copy of the blade that Maker had created, eliciting a delighted chuckle from the other alien and a considerate glance from Scourge. With a final quip toward them both, the Engineer abandoned the remote call, leaving the remaining pair alone, with Mercury gently pacing the area, eyes laser locked on the man before her.

She brought up her facts and observations, inviting him to give another shot at telling her a truth that she already knew. Scourge acknowledged her penchant for distrust and dropped his empowerment form, even as he raised his hands to concede continuing the temporary truce. Dropping all pretense of teasing and arrogance, he admitted that he had infiltrated the guild, but only the public areas. He knew as well as she did that the main hall was a reliable space to overhear gossip, and claimed that he had simply been trying to make sure nothing further had happened to Vandrad. In fact, he claimed it was him that had been the witness to the attack in the first place, and if he hadn’t stayed behind he would have missed the opportunity to save Vandrad’s life.

Mercury’s eyes narrowed on him further, conveying skepticism over his words but remaining silent as he continued. Scourge informed her that the only thing he had been trying to do all along was work with Vandrad and win him over as a genuine ally. From there, he explained that he had been in the guild hall when Vandrad disappeared, explaining that he had felt some kind of odd phenomenon and then afterward there was nothing. He had gone to the spot in question where he had sensed the prince – presumably the training room – only to find the room empty. His first assumption was that Maker had tried to finish what he’d started, which was why he had taken the time to infiltrate his own base in the hopes of getting the drop on Maker only to find Mercury there instead. He did not wish to fight her. There was no benefit in it, nor was there a benefit in lying. He wanted the same thing she did: to find the prince, alive and in one piece… but for now, there was nothing they could do from here except continue to expose themselves to Maker’s whims.

She continued to glare at him evenly for a beat or two longer in consideration before releasing a soft sigh through her nostrils. “Fine.” With a smooth motion, the blade disappeared from her hand as quickly as it had appeared. “I intend on poking my fingers through every single hole in that story, but for now I’ll double back on my other leads to see what’s cropped up. In the meantime…” Her sober expression sweetened to an impish smirk as a digital clock made out of light appeared before her with a timer counting down from ten. It would quickly become apparent that the woman standing before him was not actually Mercury, nor had she been from the start, and a countdown timer could really only mean one thing. “I suggest you put some distance between yourself and your former base.”

The clone of Mercury blew Scourge a small kiss, and only a couple seconds later her spell detonated. It rocked the entire mountain so hard that the floors of the underground bunker fell in on itself and a large crack split all the way up to the peak of the mountain. A phenomenal sized crater formed where the base had been and beyond for several hundred meters, turning the entire nearby landscape into a pile of rubble. A massive slide of rock and mud slid down from the mountain as it collapsed, permanently marring the profile of the mountain range and leaving a jagged gap between its neighboring peaks to mark the spot where the Dread Masters had once held a base of operations. Anyone that had been left in the bunker had most certainly died before they even realized what was happening, and whatever resources or research had been held there would have been all but atomized by the explosion.

Mercury – the real Mercury – watched from afar as a cloud of dust and debris rose into the sky and began to spread out for miles, much like one would expect from a volcano. Bandit hopped closer to her face from where he sat on her shoulder, pecking his beak lightly in protest at the grim, stony face the Xocili held. She absentmindedly reached up and ran the back of her fingers along the bird’s breast as she pondered the events of the meeting that had just taken place. Not wanting to waste anymore time, she opened a portal and walked through, intent on checking back in with Seri, Mythal, and the du Wolffs, praying that one of them had found something in her stead.

A little more than twenty four hours later, Mercury found herself back at the scene of the crime in Iceberg. She sat upon a slab of concrete in the middle of the rubble, hunched forward with her elbows on her knees and her fingers interlaced in front of her face. To say she was brooding would not do her mood justice. She looked like a woman that was one final straw away from losing touch with all sanity and reason, her emerald gaze staring so hard at a fixed point before her that it was a wonder the earth didn’t bend beneath the pressure of her glare. Bandit was roosted on a nearby bit of rebar that was poking through the debris, the crow’s head cocking with each little noise the night made. The dark bags under her eyes suggested that she had not slept since Vandrad had disappeared the prior morning. She had checked in with every single person that was in on the investigation, even reached out to Hosrius to inform him of Maker’s resurgence and to see if he had anything to offer that he knew of his former quarry that could help her crack anything, but each and every endeavor had resulted in a bit fat wad of nothing.

Desperate had she returned to the place where Scourge had encouraged her to look for him should she desire to swap notes in their search. She waited in complete silence, the air thick with tension and anxiety around her as she waited, waited and hoped that the Dread Master had found something, anything... because if he came to her just as empty handed, she honestly had no idea what she would do.

Her sensors alerted her the moment he appeared in the area, even if she couldn't see him. A few pebbles clattered across the ground to announce his approach as he walked out from behind the rubble. Mercury did not lift her head nor turn her eyes to look at him, knowing she wouldn't have to say a word for him to know why she was there and what she wanted. He spoke up to lament that if she was there then both of them had clearly been unsuccessful in their searches, admitting in not so many words that he too had found nothing. Mercury's only response was to close her eyes, and while her exterior demeanor remained even keel there was a torrent of anxiety and sorrow churning within her.

Maintaining her current posture, she listened in utter silence as Scourge explained how he had checked with all his contacts and pulled out more stops than he usually liked to. He would most certainly have consequences to deal with later as a result but the efforts had been futile in the end. There was absolutely no word to be heard about the lost prince, as though he had quite literally left the planet itself. It was a possibility that Mercury had considered, of course… but the chances of that were so astronomically low that she couldn't fathom a single explanation as to how it could have happened.

Scourge took a moment to make himself more comfortable before gently launching into his recollection of yesterday's events. Apparently he had been close enough to Vandrad to sense the man exerting himself, confident that the Bellum prince had been attempting to access his magic. It was in that moment that Scourge had sensed a foreign power the likes of which he had never felt before, and then Vandrad was just… gone.

She could feel the Dread Master's gaze turn toward her, the man apologizing softly for any emotional wounds he may have opened with his words. The woman continued to sit there with her eyes closed for a beat or two longer before silent tears began to trickle their way down her cheeks, the moist streaks glistening against her skin in the moonlight. Mercury hung her head, fingers untwining from one another so she could wrap them around the back of her neck. “Mythal and Serilda have put every available resource of the Rune Knights into a full blown investigation and haven't turned up a single clue. Themmy and the du Wollfs have done the same and found nothing. Same with Gren. I've even checked all of my vast resources both on this planet and beyond, just to be thorough, and there is just no trace of him. All the information of the universe at my fingertips, and it still amounts to absolutely fucking nothing…"

Mercury had spent her entire life under violent oppression, living as a slave and a tool without a future, and she had never felt more hopeless and helpless than in this moment… and it showed. Even if Scourge wasn't aware of the finer details of her upbringing, he had likely surmised from Maker at that point that she had be forged in the fires of war and genocide, and was thus a woman that had seen harder times than most from a very young age. It had turned her into a strong, calculating, intelligent woman that was constantly in control of everything around her, but that control was gone and she was left grasping at empty straws.

Drawing in a deep breath through her nostrils in an attempt to steady herself, Mercury raised her head and visibly fought to force herself to keep from succumbing to despair. Though her emerald eyes continued to leak heavily, her voice was even and controlled as she opened up to dialogue with him. “Alright. You said that you sensed his blood pressure, then a weird power and then he was gone. I have questions about how and why you can sense him in such detail, but right now I care more about brainstorming theories. Is the Ark magic capable of this? I know his magic is allegedly gone, but there is no way a self entitled coward like Maker has the power to take that from him permanently. Vandrad will find a way, and maybe he already did. So if he managed to tap back into his magic, could it have been the Ark?"


She looked him in the eyes, her expression determined in trying to work out some reasonable explanation for the prince's disappearance, even if it meant she had to hash out ideas with one of Vandrad's biggest enemies. No matter Scourge's personal reasons for wanting to locate Marka's progeny, his efforts were genuine and in that he was being afforded some trust, as slight as it was. So she would sit and listen without interruption to whatever Scourge was willing to tell her about the Ark and any other details he felt moved to relay.


Then, when he finished presenting what he was willing to share, she moved on to the next theory. “What if we aren't thinking high enough?" Mercury offered. “The Ark was created to… to allow humanity to conquer gods and demons, even steal their powers, right? I can't imagine the Sins or Divines would be thrilled to know that magic has returned to the world. So, could one of your gods have done this? It would be the perfect opportunity for them to eliminate a threat while it bore no teeth, especially if they wanted to err on the side of caution and not give him the chance to get his power back."

Whatever Scourge thought of her current emotional state, he was keeping it to himself for the time being rather than using the moment to mock or needle her. Whether that was out of a genuine sense of concern for her stability or just because he was tucking the information away for another time was anyone’s guess, but for now she just decided to be grateful that he was willing to keep pushing forward with her as much as they could. Mercury asked about the Ark, wondering if it was possible that Vandrad had managed to tap into it and inadvertently caused himself to get teleported somewhere.

He didn’t answer right away, likely considering his answer and trying to ascertain how much he could reveal to her without showing too much of his own hand and still being helpful. She waited patiently, or at least as patiently as she could, until he was ready to speak. When he was, Scourge explained to her that theoretically it was entirely possible that the Ark could have caused Vandrad’s disappearance. The magic had been passed down between so many people over the millenia and used to fell countless immortals. With each demon or god or angel killed, Marka’s power had grown stronger and taken on more aspects to the point that by now it was impossible to know what all the magic was truly capable of. Transportation of some kind was entirely feasible, particularly if Vandrad had triggered it without meaning to and without any control over it.

The only problem was that Scourge knew what the magic of the Ark felt like, and what he had sensed from Vandrad that morning was not it. Mercury had more than a number of questions about his claim to be able to sense if Vandrad used the power, no matter if it were on purpose or accident, and no matter how small a spell was cast. However, Mercury knew she would not get those answers out of him. So instead, she moved on to her next theory: That perhaps an immortal was involved somehow. Scourge dismissed the idea at first, stating that the only way that could be a problem was if the beings of the pantheon had somehow found out about his abilities. Given that the Dread Masters only desired to rid the world of the Divines and Sins and to assume their posts, they were very sincere in their efforts to keep their “best weapon” under wraps.

A slight wave of anger rolled through her at his careless words about the prince, talking of him like he were little more than an object to be used… but she managed to brush it aside from the time being, knowing there was no point in causing a fuss over it at the moment. He was wrong to speak of Vandrad that way, and in time he would learn that, probably the hard way. There were more important things to focus on for the time being, such as the fact that his remark about the Sins and Divines needing to know about the power in order to target Vandrad meant that he didn’t know about the events of the graveyard. A part of her – a very large part, in fact – was relieved by that revelation. However, that was quickly swallowed up by the fact that she was now faced with having to tell him about the events of that night, if only because he might be the only one who could help her explore that lead.

As she argued with herself over what to do on that front, Mercury continued to listen as Scourge explained a few more things about the Ark and its origins. The Dread Master informed her that the magic was essentially the antithesis of ethernano, to an extent as such that not even the gods would be able to sense its use, allowing them to wield it without detection and gain the upper hand on their immortal foes. It was a phenomenon they called dreadether; a dark energy that sought to absorb its light variant and thus was perfect for stealing the power of divine and demonic forces.

Yet even as he spoke, a sense of unease seemed to settle about him, his brows furrowing in thought and concern. He told her that there was a theory from a former member of the Dread Masters who had theorized that there were deific paragons of dreadether as much as there was for ethernano. His theory had never been proven, but Scourge couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps a Divine was involved after all. The mention of Ataxia’s name would be more than enough for him to confirm that Mercury knew of whom he spoke, a slight ripple of discomfort and fear forming in the pit of her stomach. He conjectured that if Ataxia had even the slightest opening to impose her influence on the world, it was possible she could have been responsible for Vandrad’s disappearance. After all, she had been betrayed by her brothers and sisters, her kin joining up with their enemies just to seal her away, and the Ark would be the perfect tool for vengeance.

Not just that, but it was entirely possible that someone who had gained access to a shard could have been responsible as well. The Dread Master informed her that he didn’t really have the time to get into detail over it, but if anyone that worshipped Ataxia had gotten to Vandrad it would spell a horror unlike anything the world had known before. And unfortunately, if that were the case, Scourge wouldn’t even know where to being with searching for clues of that variety as both the Dread Masters and the Order of Souls did their best to bury any evidence of Ataxia for fear that knowledge of her would cause others to be drawn to her and thus give her strength. Many even believed that saying her name invoked power enough to weaken the confines of her cell.

“Well that’s stupid,” Mercury retorted irritably under her breath. “Erasing knowledge and history does nothing but weaken yourself, and if Ataxia is involved then both you and the Order have left us all woefully unprepared for no other reason than fear.” The look in her eyes would be more than enough to convey how little she thought of that behavior. “And for the record, I have no ‘side.’ Dread Masters, Order of Souls… you’re both the same. Two separate sides of the same coin, just like the gods and demons you claim to want to protect this world against. Your methods may vary, but from where I stand there is no difference, and I hold no trust or allegiance to either side. My loyalty is to Vandrad and his family. Nowhere else.”

Mercury didn’t give a single shit about either secret organization, and would throw either one under the bus if that was what she needed to do to stand by Vandrad’s side. The only reason she wasn’t revealing things about the Order to Scourge now – aside from not trusting him, either – was because she did not wish to betray Gren, Serilda and Mythal. That being said, she knew she had to tell him at least some of what she knew if they had any hope of finding answers. There was a small pause as she struggled with her own words, much like he had when he had been trying to decide how much was too much to tell her.

“We fought Faera.”

Her gaze flicked back up to him, meeting his eyes evenly even as her voice quieted with dejection. “Or at least, an iteration of her. It was almost a year ago. I don’t think she knew what it was… but who knows what she’s managed to work out since then.” If Scourge knew as much about the Ark as he did, then she wouldn’t need to explain how the prince would have had to fight to keep the magic from manifesting itself in the presence of any relatively strong immortal, let alone a Divine. It was entirely probable that the immortals had, in fact, caught wind of the Ark’s resurgence. Just because Faera was stuck in Kingdom Darkness didn’t mean her followers were. Surely if she wanted to speak to other immortals to let them know, she would have found a way.

She finally looked away from him, her eyes drifting slowly away as sorrow and resignation one more over took her. Mercury was quiet for several long seconds before she found herself talking softly again, so moved by her unrelenting, physical heartache that she didn’t even care that it was Scourge, of all people, that she was speaking to. “Before I met Vandrad, I had nothing. No home, no family, no future. I was nothing but a tool, a byproduct of war and survival… unfeeling and uncaring, reckless about even my own life and health. I can’t count the number of times I’ve thrown myself into trouble, expecting not to make it out the other side… sometimes even hoping I wouldn’t.”

It was the first time Mercury had ever admitted to anyone that she had spent a large portion of her life contemplating suicide, actively flirting with that line without ever managing to fully cross it. “After all this time of just existing, I finally found something to fight for… someone who makes me want to actually live... and he’s gone, and I have no idea how to find or help him… or what I’ll do if he never comes back.”

Mercury wouldn’t need to be an empath to feel the ire Scourge expressed over the way that the Dread Masters had dealt with knowledge regarding Ataxia. He didn’t hesitate to confirm that he agreed with her whole heartedly, even admitting to being embarrassed over the lack of spine that came from a group of individuals supposedly dedicated to fighting the very beings they tried to cover up. It was an interesting revelation to behold. Scourge didn’t quite seem to be as married to the Dread Masters as his behaviors would otherwise suggest. First his clear problems with Maker, and now this… It was something to ponder, at least.

She went on to make it clear to him that she held no love for either the Masters or the Order, her only concern being loyalty to the du Wolffs. The two held one another’s gazes for several long seconds in consideration, with Scourge processing her words internally, weighing them as a checks and balances to his own biases. Ultimately, he could only acknowledge her stance for what it was, offering no further comment.

Her words about Faera hit hard, as she’d thought it might. The master turned to look at her with a shaken expression as she explained only the broader strokes of the encounter. There was quite a deal more that Mercury was keeping from him, but she had no desire to hang the people she cared about out to dry. He didn’t need to know what had happened or how they had reached that point. The only thing he needed to know, the only thing that was important, was that the battle had occurred… and Vandrad had utilized the Ark while fighting her. A grimace covered the man’s face as he took in the knowledge that at least with one Divine the cat was most likely out of the bag. But after a moment he relaxed, shaking off his frustration in light of keeping a cool head.

As far as he was concerned there was at least one silver lining in that Faera was incapable of conversing with the other Divines, so hopefully that meant that she would be unable to warn the others. A silly curse, as he put it, for it meant that even the other Divines would be caught with their pants down should Faera ever manage to successfully break free from Kingdom Darkness. Of course, Ruzatz also knew… but the last Mercury had heard from Patricia, the Masters were only suspicious of the Lusty Titan guildmaster’s position as a Prime Sin and had not yet confirmed it. Mercury wasn’t about to sell the demon out as he had done more than enough to earn her trust and then some. Plus, she knew that Ruzatz would do everything in his power to keep that secret from his brethren.

Still, the probability that Faera had pieced the truth together was concerning to say the least, and Scourge admitted as much. Both of them turned toward their own inner thoughts, content to ponder their positions in silence until Mercury found herself needing to get some rather personal feelings off of her chest. She opened up only slightly about what her life had been like growing up and the kind of mindset it had shaped her to have. Her own life had meant very little to her up until very recently, and it was only even more recently that she had learned to take the chance to embrace the opportunity for change. But in the blink of an eye everything had gone to shit, and the one person she loved and cared about so much that she had challenged herself to face every fear and insecurity she had was gone, and so far she had been failing utterly to help him.

He didn’t say anything for a while. Frankly, Mercury didn’t think he would say anything at all. She really didn’t need him to. All she’d needed, apparently, was to just get the thoughts out of her head and out into the open where they felt more concrete, more clear. She certainly didn’t expect him to care, and it was fair to say that he really didn’t. But to his credit he did speak up, encouraging her not to let go just yet. As he turned to face her fully, her eyes flicked up to look at him with the full extent of the emotional anguish she felt, the green irises still glistening with moisture in the faint glow of the night. Scourge told her to take the energy she’d once felt for testing fate in regard to her own demise and apply it instead toward finding Vandrad.

The two of them had a great deal in common, or so he seemed to believe. They both were used to getting what they wanted, finding answers, and maintaining a certain level of control. At the moment, neither of them had any of that stability, and it was both infuriating and disorienting. However, he insisted that there was an answer somewhere, they just had to be patient enough to keep looking for it. Yes it was a practical stance, but Mercury was a practical woman, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it it was clear that she and Scourge understood one another on a level that neither of them had expected to.

Pulling back only slightly into a realm that was more human, so to speak, he reminded her that wherever Vandrad was, the prince was not giving up. As such, that meant that the two of them shouldn’t either, not until they had definitive proof of something, anything, one way or another. And if her worst fears were realized and Vandrad was well and truly gone, then he fully believed that both of them would be united in their efforts to do whatever it took to rob Vandrad of his eternal peace and drag him back to suffering with the rest of the mortals.

Mercury held her even facade for a beat or two before the tiniest of smirks tugged on her lips. She let out a soft snort at the imagery he’d put in her head. “I’m fairly certain Hell would thank us for the effort,” she managed to tease back gently, not fully rid of the emotional fog but lifted enough for her to do more than just sit there and feel sorry for herself. Once the tension had settled a bit, she once more looked up at him with a sober expression. “I trust you realize that Maker made that sword as a failsafe against you as much as against Vandrad. Whatever steps he has made to further the goals of the Dread Masters, he cares only for himself… and he is dangerous. The kind of dangerous that the Masters should be vanquishing, not enlisting.”

Maker was a threat to all of Earthland, and while Mercury didn’t personally care about the Masters or anyone within their ranks, if their purpose was as altruistic as Scourge seemed to believe then she could only hope that they would do something about him now that Scourge had more information on who Maker truly was. “I plan on digging up as much more about him as I can. Everything I know about him at the moment is just from basic news outlets. I never really looked into him in detail because I never had a reason to… but whatever it is you are looking to accomplish here, he is not the answer. He will only take the Master’s resources and use it to subjugate and destroy humanity the same way your gods once did.”

She would give him a moment to speak on that front, should he choose, and then with a small sigh she decided it was probably time to return to Bellum. Reaching into the pouch on her hip, she withdrew a basic burner iLac of her own design and tossed it to him. Though it was simple in structure, there was no denying that it was of advanced alien make, the item glowing briefly with a soft blue light in reaction to his touch. “It will only ever contact me, and I am the only one who can call it. It also will respond to your biological signature alone; no one else will be able to use it.” There was no explanation needed as to why she was giving him the device, trusting him enough to let her handle some of her own technology despite the fact that he was allied to a crazed scientist that would very much love to get his hands on even a small piece of her work for study. As of this moment, the two of them were leading the charge on both fronts to find the prince, and it was going to have to be up to them to pool their resources and stay in communication to get results.

“Just remember it’s not for booty calls.”

With a small but deep smirk at the man, Mercury stretched where she sat, her muscles stiff and weary from being in one spot for so long. “I should head back before anyone starts a search party for me, as well. If you find anything at all, or need me to help follow up on any leads, please let me…”

As Mercury stood to her feet, she felt a very sudden and intense vertigo. With a frown she stumbled slightly to stay on her feet, shaking her head to try and clear it. She felt sluggish and disoriented, the world around her blurred as she struggled to focus on it, much like one might experience while dreaming. Bandit began to shriek from his perch, clearly agitated over something. “Scourge..?” the Xocili managed to slur out, a very real panic and confusion rushing through her as her body slumped, only to find herself caught by someone standing behind her, someone that her sensors had not alerted her to.

Before she could even attempt to fight it, Mercury found her wrists bound by enchanted cuffs that had cut her off totally and completely from her magic. And while she couldn’t see the woman that held her up, she could hear her voice almost directly in her ear as she spoke. “Unfortunately for you, my pet, your part in all this is over.” Thana smiled darkly at Scourge over Mercury’s shoulder, holding the lavender haired woman up before her with one arm wrapped around her waist from behind, and the other up across Mercury’s chest and shoulders. “Good evening, Dread Master Scourge… Sorry to cut in on this delightful little bonding session of yours, but I’m afraid I need to whisk this exquisite beauty away to another engagement. I do hope you don’t mind…”

Against all odds, the two of them had managed to form some kind of alliance, as temporary and narrow focused as it was. They had little to nothing to go on, but if Vandrad was going to be found it would be thanks to them working together, not against one another. Thankfully, both of them were more than used to having to work with enemies from time to time, so it wasn’t like it was going to be new territory for either. Mercury tossed him the phone so that he could have a more direct way of contacting her, Scourge playfully lamenting that he didn’t have any gift to provide in return. She grinned at him lightly as he teased her about spoiling the fun of using the device for more lewd purposes. Then, with a quick comment about needing to leave before anyone started worrying about her, she stood to her feet.

And in an instant, everything came crashing down. Mercury’s vision had greyed and tunnelled out of nowhere, not just her physical eyesight but even her radars were scrambled and unclear as some kind of intense illness swept her up. Normally she might have been able to fight it off with her magic, but the deliriousness and temporary loss of equilibrium was all the opportunity Thana needed to get the drop on her and slap the magic dampening shackles on before Mercury could find the strength to retaliate in self defense. Mercury couldn’t turn her head enough to see her captor, nor did she recognize the woman’s voice, but she could see the genuine expression of apprehension and recognition on Scourge’s face as he tried to process how this woman had gotten the drop on them both. And then, he spoke her name.

Thana’s smile grew into something more sweet, though there was no looking past the fact that she was a psychopath. “Well, if you feel that strongly about it, I could always sign on something more permanent…” Her amber eyes drifted up and down his body briefly, eyeing it more like a piece of meat than anything else. His own light demeanor was back in place as he remarked about how normally he would be perfectly fine with having another woman around that was pleasing to the eye, but lamentably this was a closed curtain affair and she had not gotten an invitation. Mix that with the fact that Mercury was of far greater importance to him at the moment, and it supposedly would leave the Warlord in some kind of implied conundrum.

As Mercury visibly struggled to stay conscious, her body fighting back the effects of the spell even without access to her magic, Scourge summoned forth the energy scythe from his palm and once more cloaked himself in his empowerment. He demanded that Thana uncuff Mercury, and as long as Trinity complied with the request he would consider persuading the Xocili not to treat her captor to the same treatment that Sabine had received. At least, not before they got a few answers.

The Warlord of Madness giggled, an airy but unnerving sound. “Yes, I was rather impressed with that bit of carnage. She’s got a deliciously spiteful spirit, this one.” She turned her head enough to look down at the woman in her arms with a look of intimate hunger that would give even the most desensitized of people all sorts of red flags and heebie jeebies. Then, her gaze flicked back to Scourge. “But if answers are what you are looking for, you don’t need to fight me to get them. Besides, she already knows who is looking for her… she just thought she would have more time to prepare.”

A very real sense of dread rippled through every fiber of Mercury’s being, a feeling of fear so intense that it would far overshadow every other emotion she’d felt in the last twenty four hours. How… how had Khelban managed to do this? There was no way he had any connection to someone like Trinity. She would have slaughtered him without lifting a finger, and he would not have had the power to stop her.

“At… Ata…”

Mercury grit her teeth and put every ounce of determination and willpower she had into fighting the Warlord’s spell, causing Thana to look down at her in pleasant surprise. “Well, well… even without your magic, you seem to be quite the spirited fighter. I’m impressed you’re still awake.”

The Xocili ignored the woman, her focus on Scourge and Scourge alone. She had to warn him. “Ataxia…” she managed to eek out, stopping for only a moment to build up enough strength to force out a second word. “...Av… Avatar…”

Thana’s grin split across her face. “Oh, but you all have been doing your research. So is that what we’re doing, now? Spilling one another’s secrets… little slave?” The words practically purred out of Thana’s throat as she spoke directly into Mercury’s ear, her lips brushing against the woman’s skin, even giving her lobe a slight tug with her teeth. “You poor dear. You’ve overcome so much, run away from your oppressors that isolated you and molded you into the perfect weapon… the perfect spy… all for a chance at freedom and love… but now the fairy tail is over. Your masters have called you home.”

Another dark chuckle bubbled from her throat as she eyed Scourge once more. “Thirty one billion, six hundred twelve million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, eight hundred thirty-seven,” she told the man slowly, enunciating each number with a careful emphasis. “That’s how many people this one has killed. Not all of them directly, of course… But if we’re going to talk about the kind of people that the Dread Masters and Order of Souls should be hunting for the protection of Earthland, I think it’s only fair that we leave no threat undiscussed. She’s an even bigger danger to humanity than even Maker himself. But she didn’t tell you that part, did she? She’s not hiding from the Nazru. They already know she is here. They’re the ones who sent her, after all.”

Pain unlike any other turmoil ripped through Mercury’s core as she processed Thana’s words, a palpable guilt and regret and sorrow that was indescribable. Mercury had always assumed that the Nazru had gone back to at least some of the other worlds she’d infiltrated and destroyed them, but she had always been too afraid to check. It was easier to just move forward without knowing, so she could remain the emotionless tool they had crafted her to be. Of course she had no reason to take this woman’s words as fact, but Trinity already knew far more than she should about who Mercury was, and it was highly probable that she was telling the truth… and even just the thought that it could be true was breaking Mercury down from the inside.

And it didn’t help that Trinity was getting quite physical at the moment. The Warlord’s hands moved slowly as she talked, continuing to hold her captive in front of her to stave off an attack, the digits caressing Mercury almost lovingly in ways and places that she had no consent to do so. “So you see, dear Scourge, I can’t remove those cuffs as you’ve asked. She is simply far too dangerous, and that was before she gained access to an ancient and powerful magic that not even she has been able to identify or fully understand. One that rivals even the Ark.”

“But the truth is, she’s not the one that’s truly important to you, is she? No, you are only interested in solving the riddle of where your Prince of Bellum has run off to… He is alive, and I could tell you where to find him, how he got there… In fact, I could tell you just about anything you wanted to know: Every sordid detail about Maker’s history and identity… What steps to take that would guarantee your rulership over the Dread Masters, so you could get rid of the cowards that currently run it and mold it how you see fit… All the information about Ataxia that has been lost and buried by each generation over the millenia…”

Her words were built up in such a way as to suggest that either she – or perhaps, more frighteningly, Ataxia – truly did have something to do with Vandrad’s disappearance. It would be the only explanation as to how she knew so much about things she would otherwise have no right to know. But then, Mercury’s dead weighted form would sink just enough in Trinity’s grip to reveal the necklace dangling around the Warlord’s neck: the small amethyst crystal fixed to a simple chain, a jewel that was otherwise unremarkable except to those who might have knowledge enough to recognize it.

“If you ask real nicely, maybe... just maybe... I'll give you some of the information you seek. But by the time Vandrad returns, Mercury will be long, long gone."

The Dread Master was utterly silent through what had turned into quite the soliloquy on Thana’s part. He absorbed it all with an even facade, and while many other villains like Thana might be disappointed by not getting a visible rise out of their prey, the Avatar of Ataxia was more than content with the way things were playing out. She didn’t need to see the fear and rage and frustration in the eyes of her enemies to know it was there.

Scourge lowered his weapon slowly as he considered her words, admitting that he wasn’t very good at playing nice with others. Yet he claimed he couldn’t resist the offer being given to him, apologizing to Mercury even as he dismissed his scythe and dropped his state of empowerment. Whether or not the Xocili actually heard the apology was another matter entirely. She had been fading fast from the start, finding the strength of will to hold on for as long as she could, and oddly enough it was only after it seemed that Scourge was betraying her that she seemed to finally let go, succumbing to the power of the spell that was afflicting her and slipping into a deep coma in Trinity’s arms.

Meanwhile, the Warlord smiled sweetly at Scourge’s willingness to take her up on her offer of information. He inquired as to where Vandrad was, as well as the identity and plans of the one that had sought Mercury’s capture. His reasons, he claimed, were because the Dread Masters would want to know what to prepare for. Whether or not Trinity believed his reasons were immaterial as she truly didn’t care why he wanted the information he asked for nor what he planned on doing with it afterward.

“Vandrad is no longer on Earthland. In fact, he isn’t even in our universe. As you surmised, he was attempting to tap into his magic yesterday morning, and what he found certainly belongs to him… but it is something he was unaware that he had. It swallowed him up before he could stop it, and unfortunately the only one who can bring him back is himself. He will return, eventually, but there is nothing you can do except wait.”

If she knew more details than that she wasn’t offering them, though considering the amulet around her neck and the soul of the founding Dread Master that lived within it, it was entirely reasonable to assume that she was purposefully leaving out a few key bits of information. Still, what she did elect to share was more or less what he needed to know: that the prince was alive, that he had not been kidnapped or attacked by any outside source, and that he would make his own way home once he was able to use his new power again. There was nothing Scourge would be able to do to push that along or help Vandrad from afar.

Trinity looked down at the unconscious form of Mercury again, the extraterrestrial fully limp in her grasp. “As for this one… the one that hired me was another Xocili by the name of Khelben. The two of them are both slaves to the Nazru, and if they don’t comply with their missions then what little remains of their people will suffer. Khelben came because they suspected that little Mercury here was rebelling, and now he has hired me, not knowing who I truly am, to capture her alive on his behalf because he knows that he does not have the power to take her down himself. He is going to take her home and hope that turning her in will be enough to keep what remains of his loved ones alive.”

“As far as preparations go…” She paused in thought, clearly debating just how much she wanted to reveal of what she knew. Afterall, what fun would it be to give him everything and lose the mystery of what was to come? “After the two of them are gone, there will be no one left to watch, nothing left to study, and Mercury never got the chance to tell Vandrad or his family what she knew. So I’m afraid you will just have to be surprised.”

With a self satisfied smirk, she effortlessly scooped Mercury up in her arms. Bandit, who had been fidgeting on his perch anxiously, his black feathers puffed in fear, once more began to shriek and hop around in anger as he watched his companion get manhandled by the Warlord. “Until next time, Dread Master.” And then she was simply gone, as was Mercury. Bandit launched himself into the air where he flew tight circles around the spot that the woman had just stood, as though trying to summon them back. But in the end, it was just him and Scourge that remained, and Mercury wasn’t coming back.

Elsewhere in the world, Khelben was waiting anxiously at the place where his bounty hunter had agreed to meet him. The nameless woman had reached out to let him know that she had Mercury, and he had wasted no time in beseeching her to transfer the prisoner to him right away so he could get his journey started.

He was completely caught off guard by the woman when she appeared, however, as she looked completely different from the one he had spoken with. She was much younger, with fire for eyes and a cruel smirk that sent shivers down his spine. His trepidation only grew when he realized he recognized her: Trinity. Thana. The Warlord that Mercury had informed him about when she was going down the list of notable threats in the world. This woman had been up near the top, and he knew that she was dangerous. Standing to his feet, his hand hovered over the hilt of his blade, despite knowing that he would not be able to stand against her. “Let her go,” he demanded, doing his best to sound more confident than he was.

Thana snorted. “Relax, would you? We had an arrangement, you and I… and I intend on seeing it through.” Walking up to him, she set Mercury down on the ground where she continued to lay unconscious. “Alive and in one piece, as promised. And you need not worry about her magic… the cuffs are preventing her from using it.”

Khelben gulped slightly, his gaze glancing down at Mercury and checking her vitals. She did seem to be okay, just knocked out. “Well, uh… T-thank you.” Reaching for his tablet, he forwarded her the remainder of the money he owed her. “There. Our business with one another is concluded.”[/color]

She looked at him with a smile that nearly caused his lungs to stop functioning, the man all but frozen in fear as he wondered if she would turn on him. Instead, she told him, “So it is. For now, at least. You and I will surely see one another again… but for now, you have much bigger problems ahead of you.” Turning, Thana began to saunter away, but not without calling back to him with an ominous farewell. “Enjoy these moments of peace while you still have them, Khelben… because by the time you realize what you have truly done, it will be far, far too late to fix it.”

Khelben watched her go, completely and utterly spooked by the fact that she knew his name and seemed to have some kind of premonition as to what his actions would cause. It took him several long seconds to find the strength to move after she was gone, and finally he looked back down at Mercury. Steeling himself, he picked her up and made a hasty retreat toward his ship.

It was time to get as far from Earthland – and Vandrad – as possible.