Y Rank
Confidence Int.
Solemn Park
Of course he knew that she would already understand where she stood with Seberg. If nothing else, the psychopath was very straightforward and easy to figure out, at least in terms of his mannerisms. But she wasn’t planning on hiding, if only so Seberg didn’t go hunting for her family. He nodded softly in understanding before she continued, stating that she probably had more to give him than he had for her. She reiterated the information that she had told him when they’d reciprocated after the fight, though she went into far greater details than she had before. Apparently Seberg had absorbed the weapon they’d attempted to use on him, the one that had made Vandrad so weak when they’d first met. And there was no telling what kind of damage he could do now that he’d made it his own. That wasn’t even including the fact that he could apparently halt time on a whim, making him a truly terrifying force to be reckoned with. Cyrene had mentioned that he may have had an awakening, which caused Xavier to close his eyes and sigh softly. He knew very well what that meant, though he’d never dared dread what would happen if Seberg had achieved it. It was a rare occurrence outside of highly stressful situations and the rogue Rhaegarian had caused several awakenings himself during his hunts, though they had all ended in death and failure.
Though all was not lost. Seberg didn’t know where the rest of the Rhaegarians were at the moment, though once they became an official nation, that advantage was out the window. And based on Saffron’s tone, it sounded like it was coming sooner rather than later. She’d prefer to be done with him before then but given how lucky she’d been so far, she doubted her luck ran that deep. Her and Cedric had just barely escaped death, if only due to the timely intervention of Seberg’s ally, Maker. And the second time, Saffron had pulled out her own miracle in time to save them all, though it seemed she had little to no control of her newfound powers. If she had the time, maybe she could work on mastering it but given how she had embarrassed him, Seberg was probably already on her trail.
He hated that he couldn’t provide her with more information, his shoulders drooping slightly. "Sorry,” he said again, even as she looked up at him. There was the briefest of moments where he thought he saw something outside of anger and hatred, something he didn’t dare even hope to think about. But just as quickly as he’d considered it, she gave a shake of her head and instructed him to leave her out of anything he decided to do, as she didn’t care. And without as much as a goodbye, she turned and walked away, leaving him to stare at her retreating back. Of course instinct screamed in his ears to call out to her, to say… something.
But there was nothing to say. He’d said everything he could and she had said everything she needed to. He watched her for several moments longer before he turned and walked in the opposite direction. He paused just long enough to look back at her before he gave a small shake of his head and continued on.
Two shadows moved nearly at the same time, perched on different buildings on opposite sides of the park and unaware of the other. The one closest to Saffron rose up slightly, still out of view of her and watched as she left. Its head shifted to look back in the direction of Xavier and let out a noise akin to a scoff, as if it was dryly amused or putting pieces together. Without any other noise or indication, it turned and disappeared into the night.
The other was far more bold, stepping partially into the light, though he was still high enough up that Xavier couldn’t see him. The grim facade of Cedric stared hard at the former God-King as he turned out of park and made his way towards the public transit. Cedric walked parallel to him on the buildings, bounding from rooftop to rooftop to stay nearly in stride with him. He wasn’t sure where the guildmaster was going but, wherever it was, he knew how it was coming to an end.
New Rhaegar wanted him brought in alive, so that he could be held accountable for his crimes. On some level, the former Dread Master understood that and knew he should honor it. But Xavier had hurt Saffron, hurt Vandrad and betrayed Mercury’s trust. That wasn’t even including the list of atrocities he allowed or put forth on his home planet. However repentant he was, and based on what he could sense from him during his conversation with Saffron, he was, Cedric frankly didn’t care. Xavier deserved to die for his actions and Cedric had taken it upon himself to act as judge, jury and executioner.
He just needed him out of the city and away from Saffron, in case the Fairy Tail mage came running with some reminded comment she’d wanted to throw at him. Xavier boarded the bus and as it headed out, Cedric teleported himself on top of it. He expected the guildmaster to get out somewhere along the way, heading back to whatever place he’d opted to use for the night. Cedric had zero faith in Xavier going to turn himself in; he’d crawl back into his hole and, after his emotions simmered down, he would realize he didn’t want to be incarcerated and probably judged for execution. Cowards were all the same. The bus carried them out of the city and along the main road, with the former Dread Master sitting on the top of it and waiting.
Nearly an hour and a half later, he was surprised to find that Xavier had rode the bus all the way to Crocus. As his quiet fury turned to confusion, they came to a stop not two blocks from his own apartment. His eyes snapped to the sight of Xavier walking away from the vehicle, specifically in the direction of his home. Was he… going to his place? Or maybe Cillian’s? The latter seemed unlikely; he’d gotten along with Cillian but not really enough to warrant a night visit after such an emotionally driven encounter. Cedric frowned as he focused on his apartment and teleported inside. All the lights were out, just as he’d left it. He turned one light off in the kitchen, enough to show the slight hue of illumination from the window in the main room. He stepped into his bedroom and parked himself by the window and… waited.
It wasn’t a few moments later that Xavier appeared from around the corner, heading in his direction. He was coming to the apartment and Cedric could only reasonably deduce that he was coming to his apartment. Saffron had said that he knew where Cedric lived, offering him up as an option for surrender. But of all of the choices, that should have been the most unreasonable. It wasn’t like the Saffron had pretended they hadn’t had a physical relationship and however casual that had seemed or not, they were certainly still friends. Was he hoping for some kind of pity? He should have gone to Mythal and Serilda’s for that. They would, at least, follow the law.
He hissed in annoyance; he was technically a Rune Knight informant as well. Murdering an unarmed man, however guilty of crimes or not, would look bad if it was discovered. He could just grab Xavier and teleport him somewhere into the stratosphere and drop him. Hadn’t he flown when he fought Vandrad? At the bottom of the ocean then. Who knew what that armored suit he had was capable of withstanding though.
He got up from the window as he heard a knock on his door. His hand twitched furiously as his heart pounded in his ears. No, he’d own up to what he did then. One swift strike and Xavier would be no more. It would bury whatever hope he had of being with Saffron for good but better to punish the man that had broken her heart. He reached for the door and swung it open, finding Xavier standing there before him. His eyes flared with anger, his lip twitching even before the former God-King could speak.
"Hi… Cedric…” Xavier said softly. "Listen-”
Cedric’s fist launched forward and slammed into Xavier’s face. It knocked him back into the wall, though not hard enough to put him through it. Clearly the guildmaster wasn’t prepared for it because he slumped to the floor, knocked out after the one hard blow to the cranium. Cedric scowled at himself, reaching up to scratch the back of his head.
Damn these people he’d grown close to. All of their soft emotions were getting the best of him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, speed dialing Mercury. “Merc, I’ve got Xavier. Bastard came to my door to give himself up. I… may have punched him. But he’s still living. You better send Vandrad here quickly before I decide to amend that.”
