Following the attack in which Sayo ended up punching the former commander so hard he had to be hospitalized, Stefan took control of the soldiers at the palace. He put more patrols to keep the princess safe while Sayo's team rotated out more often. They wanted to keep them all ready for a fight, and John had heard the report of Aston's actions. 

He told them that the next day he would send a second team to guard princess Elize as things were no longer safe. Aston had one of the biggest bounties as many countries were hunting him down. Either way, Sayo was not in a good mood as both she and Maximus had gotten injured earlier. 

She was about to take her night shift to be next to the princess while she slept, but Stefan and her team had voted to make her rest for the night. They did not care that she had shown them all her wounds were healed.  She decided not to argue and she took her sleep shift that day. One thing that was making her extra annoyed is that she missed Nyx, Koba, and Maximus. 

She sighed as she looked at the ceiling. 

"It is lonely to sleep alone after all this time." 

"Is it?" 

Sayo glanced next to her on the bed where Anastacia was laying down. It was decided that Dimitri and Anastacia would be given the sleep shift today. Dimitri like the rest of the team had not slept in over 5 days, but Stefan chose him and Anastacia to be given the first chance to rest. He was sleeping in another room as this one had two beds one for Sayo and the other for Anastacia. 

"Yeah, since I was a young girl I have had my pets at my side when I sleep. So now that they are not with me it just feels weird." 

When she was at the lab Anastacia slept on the cold floor so she got used to sleeping alone. The other children were kept away from each other so they would not make attachments. 

"How long have you had your pets?" 

Sayo looked to the ceiling with a small smile. 

"I have had Maximus for 10 years, Nyx and Koba around 7. Maximus was the offspring of my uncle's dog Pumpkin. He was the runt of the litter, but he grew to have a quirk. Nyx and Koba were the offspring of my grandfather's exotic pets and luck would have it, also have quirks." 

Anastacia felt that Sayo was rather lucky. 

"You won out in the luck I will give you that." 

Sayo knew that she had gotten quite lucky in life. She was born rich, with a powerful quirk, with parents who helped her greatly and her grandparents. Before she said anything the phone rang which made Anastacia look over. 

"You going to take that?" 

Sayo nodded as she saw it was her mom. 

"It is my mother." 

She answered the video call and saw her entire family looking quite happy to see her. Michael, Nejire, and Akimitsu were trying to get to see her as they hadn't seen her in a few days. Both of her parents were also there so it was the full family. The first to speak up was Akimitsu as the oldest. 

"SIS! How is D.C? It has been a few days already. We miss you."

She just smiled. 

"I am actually not in D.C anymore. I am in London as grandfather had some business."

Akinari facepalmed. 

"Of course, he took you somewhere cool. Did you tell him what we discussed?" 

Sayo paused which made her dad shake his head. 

"Did you forget?" 

"Sorry, dad."

He shook his head. 

"It's fine, just don't forget to let him know what is up. However, I think Michael wants to s-" 

Just then Akinari ripped the phone out of Akio's hands. She brought the phone up to her face as she was starring at Sayo's right arm. More importantly, the giant dragon tattoo that was on her arm. Sayo followed her mother's line of sight to her right arm which was exposed. She forgot that she was wearing a tank top so her tattoo was in full. view. 

"Mom, before you-" 

"SAYO HADO MACKENZEE! YOU GOT A TATTOO?!"

Anastacia was laughing a bit as Sayo messed up. Sayo was now looking for a way to explain this. 

"No." 

Akinari squinted her eyes. 

"No? So that big tattoo is just fake? Take it off then." 

Sayo looked at her tattoo and had an idea. 

"Dad let me." 

She threw her dad under the bus which now made Akinari look at him. 

"You what?" 

He shook his head. 

"She is lying. I had no idea she got it until a few days ago." 

He messed up even more as he admitted to knowing. Michael, Nejire, and Akimitsu ran away while Sayo hung up. She apologized to her dad as she threw him under the bus. Anastacia smiled at Sayo. 

"Your family loves you a lot." 

Sayo laid down and nodded. 

"Yeah, but I guess I messed up this time around." 

Anastacia got up and walked to Sayo's bedside. 

"Can I touch your tattoo?" 

Sayo nodded. 

"Sure." 

Anastacia reached down and ran her hand from the start of the tattoo to the end. 

"Did it hurt?" 

"No, the training I underwent as a kid hurt more than this. It felt more ticklish than painful, but I do not recommend doing it how I did it." 

Anastacia stopped as she was curious. 

"What did you do?" 

"I paid a guy to do it all at once. This is only good if you have a healing factor as a tattoo is a needle going under your skin to deposit ink." 

Anastacia nodded as she walked back to her bed. 

"Sorry to bother you. I wanted to ask if I should get one myself, but that can wait." 

Sayo did not bother her longer so she just closed her eyes and fell asleep. 

--

A couple of hours earlier when the teleporter had gotten himself and the survivors out of the failed mission he had returned to the base. A giant portal opened in the ceiling from where the 6 survivors emerged. The last one to emerge was the teleporter who already began to look weak and sick. All those pills he used to boost his quirk for a quick escape were now eating his body up. 

He began to puke blood while the injured part of his face began to boil. The survivors rushed to his side as he was their most important asset. A young woman with red hair shook him a bit. 

"Keep it together Raymond. Come on."

Raymond was the name of the teleporter, but he was as good as dead. 

"Oh, it is too late for that." 

They all froze as they looked at where the voice came from. More importantly, they remembered where they were at the moment. Around them were several grotesque creations of Aston who had used the bodies of many people to make his special zombies. To make his creations Aston was known to steal bodies from graves, morgues, or better yet second his special zombies to hunt down a hero or villain he wanted. 

The woman held Raymond up as she looked at the cloaked figure of their hirer. Aston was dressed in a thick black cloak and he was standing over a large corpse with 4 arms, 3 heads, and many extra appendages. He ran his gloves hand down its chest as if he was admiring his work. 

"The dead are so beautiful. They are so unlike the living who will betray you when they want. My special children will always serve." 

The woman gulped. 

"Sir, the mission went wrong. We lost 4 of our members." 

Aston did not turn around as he could feel who was there.

"Such a shame. You should have recovered their bodies for me. I could have at least made use of them." 

One of the survivors stood up quite angry. They were a mercenary group that Aston had hired because he planned to turn them all into his zombies. 

"You fucking bastard. You knew we would fail." 

He began to walk toward the cloaked Aston who did not even bother to turn around. He simply let his children do it for him. Just as the angry mercenary reached Aston he went limp and fell to the ground dead. Aston looked up next to him where the zombie he was working on was now holding the head of the mercenary. 

The rest of his team got up ready for a fight as Aston proved to not be trustworthy. The red-haired woman took a deep breath. She screamed at the top of her lungs toward Aston. He did not bother to react as one of his zombies moved to defend him. It had 1 head, but all over it was many pairs of eyes. 

They began to glow as a barrier was formed to stop her attack. Aston waved his hand which caused the rest of his creations that were in the room to spring to action. They were just like the zombie Sayo and her team took down deadly monsters. Each one was handcrafted as Aston had not yet developed a self-replicating zombie virus. 

Viruses in general were rare these days as anyone with a quirk could resist most of them. Just possessing quirk genes in your body made everything about you better. So he was still hard at work and had to just make do with a virus he had to manually harvest and use. 

"Kill them all children, but leave their bodies intact. I will be adding them to our family when you are done.." 

The zombies rushed toward the mercenary team which fought tooth and nail to stay alive. However, dealing with Asdton's zombies which had multiple quirks was not a simple thing. They were slaughtered, harvested, and already being turned into the next of Aston's creations. He hummed as he worked in a frankly disturbing tone. 

His whole goal was simple. He wanted the princess' body the British royal family's quirk was just so enticing. A dragon zombie of his own was motivating him to accept this job. He hired disposable mercs and villains expecting it to end badly. He even expected them to bring more back up which was fine with him. 

In the long run, they would just join the ranks of his children which reminded him that he needed to hire more mercs. He reached for his face and scratched his face. Blood, pus, and bile leaked from under his hood. 

--

The next morning Sayo and Anastacia woke up early and got dressed. When they were dressed they looked at each other and nodded. They went together to meet up with the rest of the team as today was when they would be getting back up. 

"Who do you think they will send?" 

Sayo thought about it as her grandfather needed to ensure this mission wen well. 

"I am not sure, but if they are being called out back up they must be quite strong." 

Anastacia rested her hand on her katana. 

"They better be." 

Both of them walked into the meeting room where princess Elize was sitting. At the 4 corners of the room were some soldiers along with the entire team. Koba and Maximus both rushed to Sayo's side as they were happy to see her. She hugged both of them as she looked at Stefan. 

"Do you have any idea who is going to be sent here?" 

Stefan lit his first cigar of the day and nodded. 

"Your grandfather said you had met them before."

Sayo thought back to her first mission where she met Joseph and Serah. 

"Oh, I think I know who. A team named Defiant Wings was led by a man named Joseph. They helped me out on my first mission." 

Dimitri who had a well-deserved rest looked refreshed. 

"So, they strong?" 

Sayo nodded. 

"I just met two of them, but yes. They will be more than enough from what I saw." 

Dimitri accepted that. 

"I will trust your word." 

Sophi ran up to Sayo and hugged her. 

"Yay, how are you doing?" 

Sayo smiled and hugged her back. 

"I was fine, and could have kept going." 

Jenny waved her off. 

"You needed a break as you got hurt. Even if you can regenerate it is only fair." 

Baek Yooho agreed. 

"She is right. You took a nasty blow to the head so letting you regenerate in your sleep is for the best." 

The rest of the team nodded which made her sigh. 

"Thank you for letting me sleep. Now, princess Elize, you are in more danger than expected." 

The young girl nodded. 

"Sir Stefan let me know who Aston is. My father will pay you very well if you manage to end his life. Many countries including my own have added up to a very substatial bounty." 

Money was one way to convince them to hunt down Aston. Stefan as the team leader looked at all of them and saw them nod. 

"We will be sticking around until either your father returns, or we find that son of a bitch and kill him." 

In the end, they just had to wait for Joseph and his team to arrive. They would have to share the bounty, but it was massive so it would be enough.