Beatrix stood upon the wooden decking still clad in nothing but her quilts. The floor creaked from her steps and the invisible figure moved closer. She closed her eyes to feel the wind. Long ago she had lost her powers and for this reason without the Beacon's support she'd be long dead normally. However the Beacon itself had nourished her body over the years and now, just barely, she could feel that power inside of her again, albeit just a little.

She perceived all of her surroundings with an unseen force, her invisible assailant was laid bare before her. This force expanded outwards like a membrane until it came into contact with the assailant, at which point it pressed against their body and in so doing reported the exact dimensions of the assailant back towards its master. This was naturally not something the assailant themselves would fail to notice, they leapt forward, knowing they'd been spotted.

The assailant struck forward but the blow was not a lethal one. Beatrix herself had long known the assailant's intent was to greet her, they had no plans to kill her. Even so however she still raised her trident overhead as she evaded that strike and then she swung its solid metal body down upon the assailant's head with the full force of her superhuman might. The night silence was parted by the sound of metal striking metal, or rather a human skull so sturdy as to be compared to metal, and then the sound of something crashing loudly into the water followed. The birds in the trees woke from their slumber and scattered, the fish in the lake did the same, the assailant resurfaced moments later and coughed as she swam forward and clung unto the wooden decking.

Meanwhile the boy, Rapture, opened his eyes only once, and briefly at that, throughout this whole exchange. He quickly realised what was going on, he was in fact used to it by now, and then he went right back to sleep with only an annoyed groan to show his displeasure.

The assailant coughed and embraced the wooden decking desperately. She clenched her hurting head in one hand and then opened her eyes full of protest. What greeted her beyond the wooden beams before her were a pair of bare feet. She raised her head upwards to see Beatrix clad in quilts looming over her with her body leaning over the wooden railing. The assailant then climbed out of the water and leapt up onto the decking.

"Merciless as always, Mistress Beatrix," Said the assailant with an aching head. Beatrix ignored her grievances and instead turned to walk towards the front door of her floating home. The assailant felt frustrated at that for but a moment, but as she recalled the sensation she had felt earlier, the sensation when her Mistress located her, it subsided. Such a telling sensation could not be mistaken. "Have your powers returned?" She asked and finally her mentor responded.

"Only enough to barely regain access to the Basic form of Manifestation, if I want to regain my full power...it's going to take at least sixty more years," Said Beatrix as she turned with crossed arms to again face her assailant. "So, Amelia, what brings you to my abode at such an ungodly hour...not that it's anything new for you to show up unannounced in someone else's house at the most inappropriate times." The assailant, the woman named Amelia, bowed before her mentor. She, Amelia, was Venus City's enforcer, which was basically a nice way of saying assassin and "problem solver", and so she did indeed find herself an uninvited and very "final" guest in many a household. She was also one of Beatrix' three students from her days living in that city all those years ago.

"It has been a while, Mistress Beatrix, I am pleased to see you are in good health."

"Cut the formalities, do you think it's a good idea to try and sneak up on me?" Beatrix said as she pointed her trident towards Amelia's chest, "Skilled as you've become, I'd have likely killed you had I not noticed you soon enough to realise it was you. Lest you forget, it was I who taught you how to kill as you do."

"Easy there, easy Mistress," Amelia said, raising her arms, "Look I just wanted to try and see how far my Chameleon Technique has come in recent years, I'm sorry I alarmed you." She raised her right arm and then everything including the sleeve covering it began to fade into the background, it became invisible just as the name Chameleon implied. Beatrix observed that with cold eyes and then retracted her trident. She let out a tired exhale and then began to lecture her, just like the old days.

"I already told you that that's a useless skill. What good is invisibility when any soldier with Manifestation can outright feel your presence on the wind?"

"You say that but I have managed to make it work, regardless, Mistress." Amelia replied, feeling a little hurt. For all her master deemed it a useless skill, she had pride in it, even if it had its flaws it was something she made herself, she could not just discard it, regardless of what others said about it. Beatrix could not help but scoff at her student's so called "pride". Regardless of the wisdom she could bestow, she knew well that a stubborn person's mind could not be changed, she knew that to learn her lesson Amelia must be let to do so on her own. She could do nothing more for this matter, thus she chose to pull back her trident and move the subject along instead.

"I trust this is not the only reason for you to come bothering me, is it?" Beatrix coldly inquired. Amelia could not help but feel awkward, her master's impatience was nearly palpable to her eyes. She could tell that while Beatrix did not much want to return to sleep anymore, thanks likely to the nightmares, she did want to go back inside the house at least.

"Fine, I'll cut to the chase," She relented and replied, "It seems that Lord Avance's...no, it's General Avance now, isn't it? Nevermind. Basically your old lover's first wife's kid learned about your possession of the Beacon somehow and he's told the Sovereign of Jupiter about it, now an army is on its way here."

"You didn't think to tell me this first thing?" Beatrix said, her face and tone full of criticism.

"Relax, Mistress, given the distance Jupiter's army still will not get here for quite some time. What has us more concerned, however, is where that brat must've heard about your Beacon from. None of us five would've mentioned it so that only leaves those knights you told us about fifteen years ago." Beatrix' heart skipped a beat. She had always dreaded the possibility, she had always feared this day might come.

"You're sure it's them?" She glared at her student and then asked her so in a stern voice that permitted nothing but a straight answer. The pressure of that cold gaze did indeed bring some shiver to Amelia's spine.

"We have no proof," She said seriously without any of the casualness she'd displayed until now, "but it's a possibility we cannot ignore." The wind passed them by, the hem of Beatrix quilt and Amelia's sleeves strongly waved through the gale yet they did not even notice the chill. Beatrix stared silently towards Amelia and only after a while did she speak any words at all.

"It's come to this at last," Beatrix said as she reached for the Beacon that lay buried between her breasts. She gazed into the gemstone's shining form and fell into a long period of silent contemplation. Amelia stood beside her silent as a mouse until her mentor made up her mind. "Amy, stay here a day or two." Amelia's heart clenched as she heard those somberly spoken words, she had a bad premonition and a certain possibility came to mind.

"Mistress, what are you planning on doing? If it's what I think it is, please reconsider, we can simply relocate you if we must."

"That won't work," Beatrix said, shaking her head, "if it's them then they'll find a way to track me down eventually...this is my only option. I just have to hope that they don't yet know about my son." She turned her head to face the window leading into the bedroom. She could not save herself but she could save him, provided those people didn't know he existed to begin with.

"Mistress, does it really have to be this way?" Amelia said with a tone full of dread. One glance upon her face showed a desperate and pleading look far, far more real than the ones that had come before it, she looked not like a hardened executioner but a girl about to lose her mother.

"They're after me..." Beatrix replied, then she stared into her palm where the Beacon still shone bright as day, "...and this thing." Beatrix said only that much, nothing more came from her lips, nothing more really needed to be said. Amelia felt like someone had pierced her heart with anchors and was now pulling it apart in two directions. She kept as straight a face as she could but still her unrest shone through.

"Surely there must be another option," She pleaded, she couldn't stop hoping there was something they had missed, a method they'd simply overlooked. Beatrix however dashed those hopes herself, she cut them off before they had a chance to dig their roots in too firmly.

"There isn't and you know there isn't," She said, "When all is said and done, I'll entrust you with my son."

"You want me to take him to Venus City?"

"It's safest there, after all, everything's already long been in place. Take good care of him for me."

"If that is your will then...I shall follow it." Amelia's tone could not help but betray her inner heartbreak. She too had long known this day might come, the day her beloved mentor was going to give up her life...