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Monarchber 1st, 2077

The Vixen was lurking in a back alley in Prosper, the capital city of Horage. It had another name before the war that she couldn’t remember, but it had been redubbed Prosper in the hope that it would be the beacon in a new world as the very first hub city. Prosper was the city of peace and humanity. While other cities specialized in something unique, Prosper had a little bit of everything. There were a few museums, a large sporting arena, and a couple pretty renowned universities for its citizens to attend.

It was also the second most technologically developed city in the world. There were large screens in places where traditional billboards would be. A few years ago, a monorail had been built around the entire city, allowing free and easy public transportation. After the internet had been re-established, the city provided wireless hotspots free of charge that covered the entire area.

The reason so much focus had been put on Prosper’s development was primarily because of its vast population. After the war, most of the refugees who didn’t return to their original homes had decided to stay there and build new lives. A few more had come even after the war had concluded when they heard about the living conditions. The number of citizens in Prosper utterly eclipsed that of the next several largest cities combined.

Even with its enormous population, Prosper had one of the lowest crime rates. Because of this, The Vixen hadn’t had too many reasons to visit Prosper in the past, aside from a few high profile criminals she’d hunted here. This wasn’t just because of the diligent police force, even though they did a great job of upholding the law. It was largely due to the fact that the Central Peace had made it their base of operations.

The Central Peace was a conglomerate of most of the world's nations. It was formed almost exactly two years after the Cosmic Boon, in the hopes that a cooperation between all, or what ended up being the majority of nations, would prevent something like the Drazah empire from ever happening again.

The CP was mostly in charge of making laws that all member nations followed. The reason not every nation had joined was because they didn’t want to be controlled by someone else’s laws and govern their land in their own way. Since no country was forced to join, the Central Peace would respect their decision. However, some countries in the CP would refuse to have any relations with those who weren’t part of it.

Lawmaking wasn’t the only thing on the Central Peace’s agenda, however. They would provide aid for any nations that were struggling and help with redevelopment where needed. They were also in charge of overseeing Cotagerie.

The city itself ran fine on its own for the most part, but they would step in when necessary. They were ready to take full control over the city because of the rapid increase in crime, but wanted to try every other option first to not take away the city’s feeling of freedom. Being able to rub it in their faces that she’d single-handedly defused the situation was an added bonus to The Vixen clearing out that crime infested cesspool.

The CP also had its own military that was not pledged to any one nation. They were the first ones sent to aid a country if it was attacked by another country outside of the alliance. They were also sent to any member nations that would step too far out of line, in order to bring them back to their senses. The CP military was a small but elite force of seasoned veterans from almost every nation that could afford to spare them.

Delegates from each country would meet at the Central Peace headquarters on a near daily basis. The headquarters wasn’t actually in Prosper City proper, but in an undisclosed location. Only members of the CP and a few consultants knew the actual whereabouts, but everyone knew that it must be somewhere near the city.

The headquarters was rumored to be an impenetrable fortress that even the most skilled thief couldn’t infiltrate. However, it was almost impossible to get clear information about it since it was assumed that anyone who had attempted to get close was ‘dealt with’. The Vixen would love to set her eyes on it at some point, and it was certainly more possible for her than others. Perhaps she’d even be the one to expose it to the world one day, a thought which delighted her.

While the delegates felt completely safe inside the headquarters, they were often seen wandering around Prosper for business and personal affairs. This is what caused the influx of security in the city. There were cameras on every street corner, and the streets were regularly patrolled by private security that belonged to the delegates. Crime could be more regularly found in specific parts of the city, but overall it was usually quite peaceful.

Today was another peaceful day in Prosper, but a bit more rowdy than usual. It was early in the morning, around [300], but the citizens were bustling around in preparation for the celebration later that day. The celebration was for two things: to celebrate the new year as this was the first day, and to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the forming of the Central Peace, which occurred exactly 10 years ago in this very city. The Vixen wasn’t a fan of how much positive CP propaganda was floating around, but wasn’t going to let it ruin her mood. Today was going to be a great day.

Police were currently blocking off certain streets that led into the central area of the city. The massive central square was the site of the celebration. There were plans for live performances, free food and drinks for all attendees, and speeches from the city's mayor and a few of the top representatives of the CP. Several thousand people were expected to attend.

The event wasn’t scheduled to start until later that evening at [700], but a few of the more enthusiastic participants had already arrived to claim their spots. Stemming out from the circle of barricades and throughout the rest of the city, vendors had begun setting up outdoor stalls to sell goods. Many stalls had limited-time promotional items for the celebration, but others would simply hold discounted sales of their usual wares.

It was near one of these vendors that The Vixen was currently resting up against a wall, judging the pure audacity of the shoddy knicknacks they were trying to peddle. She was playing with her yo-yo as usual while she spaced out, basking in the warm light of the morning sun. She couldn’t feel it all that well, but had fond memories of enjoying it long ago, so she still felt the impulse to seek out sunny areas.

It was one of the few times that The Vixen actually had her eyes open. The bright sunlight outshone the glow of her eyes so the glow couldn’t really be seen through her mask. When she pressed the button on her mask it would cover her eyes in complete darkness and no one could see the glow then either, but that was only for special occasions.

The Vixen stared at the bright light that pierced a little through the mask’s fake eyes then closed her own. Unlike a normal person, when she closed her eyes, her vision wasn’t impaired; rather it was the exact opposite. With her direct sight closed off she could see everything around her in her mind. It was a sort of omnividence but limited to a range around her.

When she used this vision, the world looked a little different than normal. Everything around her would become monochrome and semi-transparent, but still retained a basic outline. Only what she wanted to see would be solid or colored. Such as if she wanted to read something on a piece of paper, either the paper would return entirely to its normal visual state, or if it was hard to read, the words would begin to glow a color of her choosing.

How far her visual range extended depended on how hard she closed her eyes. The tighter she closed them, the farther she could see in every direction, but the contents would get blurrier with each new thing that appeared. She wasn’t closing them very hard at the moment since what she wanted to see was very close. She had pulled her no-name device out of her pocket to check the time; [320].

After putting the device away, The Vixen relaxed for a few more minutes before closing her eyes hard so that she could see the entire city around her. Everything was quite blurry, but that didn’t matter because what she was looking for was a specific person’s aura. For her, every living creature emitted a unique aura. The aura would vary in size, brightness, and color, and every one of them had their own special feeling of presence that she couldn’t confuse for anyone else's.

The Vixen had extended her visual range so far that the only thing she could see now were auras filling the blank space around her in every direction. In the sea of glowing lights, there were a few that were noticeably much smaller than the rest, most likely belonging to small children or animals. She let her mind wander around the area, scanning each aura. It only took a few seconds to sort through them all until she found the one she was looking for.

This specific aura was green and extremely radiant. The presence of it was one that The Vixen had never felt before, but at the same time it felt familiar, devastatingly so. The feeling it gave off was one so intense that she almost broke down on the spot. She focused on that specific aura, as all the others faded away. A clear picture of the owner popped into view. “Found you!” she said aloud with an eager smile as she watched the man covered in a black cloak and hood walking a few streets away.

The Vixen stuffed away her yo-yo and rushed towards the street that The Slayer was currently heading down, and spied on him from an alley. As she watched him walk past, it took everything for her to not immediately run out and jump on him, but she couldn’t cause a scene, not yet anyways.

Shortly after he had passed, The Slayer quickly darted into an alley on the opposite side of the street. Confused, The Vixen waited until she was sure no one would notice her before dashing across towards it. She walked into the alley, but there was no sign of him. As she was just about to tighten her eyes to search, a blade was suddenly leaning against her neck and a body pressed against her back. She heard a person behind her say in a monotone voice, “It’s a little rude to chase after someone, y’know.”

After hearing his voice, The Vixen’s eyes began to well up, soon tears were flowing down her cheeks; a continuous stream pouring out of the bottom of the mask. “Drim…” was all she said before spinning in place, completely disregarding the blade against her neck.

She pressed her mask into his chest and began pounding on his shoulder as she cried out, “You jerk! It’s been twelve years, you kept me waiting for twelve years and that’s all you say?” She paused for a moment in both hitting and speaking, then hit him one more time while she complained, “And when the hell did you get so tall?!”

The Slayer stowed his blade, wrapped his arms around her, and hugged her close as he replied. “I know Phon, I’m sorry. I know it was selfish of me to keep us apart this long, but if we had stayed together, I would have just ended up relying on you like always. With what we’re about to do, I knew that I needed to grow and get stronger, become someone who could stand on their own.”

Drim loosened his hold a little as he looked down at Phon, who still had her face buried, and continued. “I know that you would support me without question, and take any burdens on your own, but I didn’t want that. I wanted to be able to stand beside you and take on this world together, and I promise that we will never be apart for that long ever again.”

“Ugh, when you say stuff like that you know I can’t stay mad at you,” Phon said as she lifted her head off of him. She tried to wipe away her tears but to no avail, and then looked up towards his face, as if to stare at him in the eyes and said, “I’ve grown too you know. I can’t wait until I can take off this mask so you can see for yourself, but I guess that will have to wait just a little bit longer.”

Drim let go of her and glanced around, seemingly unsure of what to say next. “I really can see how much you’ve grown though,” Phon said in a slightly depressed tone after taking a step back and properly examining him. He was quite tall, a little less than a foot taller than herself, and with her vision she could see how muscular he was even under his cloak.

He was definitely not the short and slightly chubby boy that Phon remembered; as she reminisced a little about how he always used to cling to her. His face had changed the most. It had a slightly stern expression now, almost scary. Long gone was the face that would smile brightly, still full of innocence that she would have given anything to protect. She could tell from the way he had hugged her, that his heart was still as pure as it once was, giving her an overwhelming reassurance.

Drim began to fidget a little as Phon continued to stare at him, most likely feeling a little self-conscious that she could see what was normally hidden from view. It appeared as if he suddenly remembered something as he reached behind in his cloak, then poked his arm out, holding something out to her.

“I stopped by Nathym’s place before coming here, and he had this ready for you. It now has fully functioning phone and internet capabilities, and not just that, he guaranteed that it will be the fastest and should be entirely uncrackable, waterproof, and nigh indestructible. Also, you’ll get both kinds of service anywhere in the world as long there’s not too much radiation.” Drim had said all this as if he was just repeating what he had been told.

Phon took the new device with glee. What he had handed her was a brand new state of the art smartphone. Smartphones were an emerging technology just before the war had started, and because countries then had to devote their resources to war efforts and then rebuilding, they hadn’t become widespread. They were now only commonplace among the upper classes in hub cities; lower classes and everyone else in the world still had flip phones or relied on landlines.

Phon swiftly reverted to her normal personality, a complete 180 from the emotional wreck she was just a moment ago. She was now happily humming to herself as she flicked through her new phone. After about a minute, she realized how absorbed she had gotten and looked back towards Drim. “Oh, did he make you one too?” she asked.

“Oh, no, I just had him upgrade my tablet,” Drim responded. “I know it’ll be a little awkward holding that big thing up to my face to talk to someone, but since you’ll be the one handling most of the phone stuff I figured it shouldn’t be a huge issue. I’ll probably mostly stick to texting for now.”

“Well in that case I’ll be sure to text you everyday,” Phon said as she pulled up her contacts, bouncing a little in place with excitement. There were only two names currently registered in her contacts: Nathym, whom she had never spoken to before, and Drim.

“Err, you know we’re going to be living together right?” Drim reminded her with a slightly anxious tone to his voice.

“Shut up, don’t ruin my fun!” Phon snapped back. A little vibration sound could be heard coming from the tablet stowed away in Drim’s quiver. When he’d later read the text he had just received, he would find a message solely consisting of every variation of smiley face that was available.

After finally getting over the excitement of her new toy, Phon slipped the phone into her skirt pocket and took out her previous, now outdated, device. She scrolled through its settings to the reformat option. After she pressed it, the device was now back to the original blank slate format she had received it in. She then threw it on the ground, and stamped on it until it was just little broken bits.

Phon grew a little more serious and then asked Drim, “Well I completed my task, how’d yours go?”

“Oh, I found someone a few days ago and already got everything we’ll need,” Drim replied. “I loaded up the information on your phone, and I have a physical copy ready to turn over too. You should probably check it over as we walk.”

“Okay sure,” Phon said with a slightly somber expression before staring intently at Drim. “I guess we’re really going to do this, huh. I mean, it’s not too late to back out now. Are you sure you want to go through with this? There could still be another way, a way we’re not hated. It’s something I’m fine with but…”

Drim cut her off mid sentence. “You know there’s no other way… not for us. The world will never accept us for who we are. We have to be what they expect us to be, at least for now. I don’t want them to look at me that way. Honestly, it makes me a little upset just thinking about it, but if that’s the role we need to take, then I’ll play the part.”

“I guess there’s no talking you out of it,” Phon said as she placed her hand on the back of her neck and strained her face towards the sky. “That’s good, this wouldn’t work if you weren’t in it one-hundred percent. Do you still want to visit ‘him’ before we start?”

“Yeah,” Drim replied. “Though I don’t know if seeing him in person just yet is the best course of action. He’s probably the only person who could convince us to stop. I’ll decide once we get there and see his situation.”

“Alright, well let’s get going then. We’re on a time limit, you know.” Drim nodded in response to Phon’s statement as they set out down the alley away from the main street. From this point on, they stuck to alleyways and back streets. It could be problematic if someone were to see them together this soon.

As they walked, Phon took her phone back out and opened the file Drim mentioned. “Ooo, this should work perfectly,” she murmured in a devious tone. After she read a little further she said, annoyed, “Crying woman, huh, well I can see how you got roped in then.”

The pair chatted a little as they continued onwards. They did their best not to draw attention and kept their voices down. Their destination began to loom overhead, a rather tall building poked above the city’s skyline.

◆◆◆

Harth Boldur, head of the Central Peace’s Reconstruction Division was heading back to his office after a long meeting. His office wasn’t in the fortress where the delegates met, but in a large skyscraper known as the Peace Tower in the heart of Prosper City.

As he pressed the button for the elevator, he wondered why he was required at that meeting in the first place. He felt that it had nothing to do with him. The meeting had been to confirm that all the preparations for the 10th anniversary were going smoothly. The CP had a special division specifically devoted to events. His division, which focused on assisting in the aid of rebuilding destroyed countries, far from specialized in planning social events.

He let these thoughts drift to the back of his mind as he approached the door to his office. His office, like the rest of the division heads that operated out of the tower, was on the very top floor. It had a balcony with a spectacular view of the city. This was just one of the many perks of his position. It paid extremely well, and earned him enormous amounts of respect from both people in power and everyday citizens.

None of these things mattered to Boldur, though. While all of these things were nice, not a single one factored into why he worked there and why he was so dedicated to his job. He was there to atone for his sins. He had never actually committed a crime in his life, but he felt an unbearable burden of guilt towards the world he felt he had failed to save. This was the best way he could think of to work towards amending that.

Boldur pushed the door open to his office and called out to his assistant but didn’t receive an answer. Thinking maybe his assistant had taken an early lunch, he glanced around the room. He felt a sudden panic at what he saw. His assistant was laying on the office’s couch, unconscious, but not in a position that would lead one to believe he was sleeping.

Boldur rushed over to his assistant and checked his pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing his assistant was still alive, only then noticing the note that was taped to his assistant’s chest.

Boldur composed himself and began to read the note. ‘Did you know that your assistant had orders to kill you if you showed any signs of plotting a coup? You had better be careful, Uncle.’ He had assumed as much, that action would be taken if he were to step out of line, but that thought quickly shot out of his mind as he read over that last word again. Uncle?! What?

He quickly moved his eyes down to read the rest of the note. ‘We know that what will happen tonight will surprise you, but please, don’t get in our way. We will contact you when the time is right if we need your assistance.’ The letter was signed ‘D & P’. “D & P,” he said aloud. “It couldn’t be, could it?”

Boldur quickly ran out to his balcony to look for any sign of the intruders, thinking that was the only way they could have possibly gotten inside. After his brief search turned up nothing, he began to read the note over and over again obsessively. If the ones who had written the note were whom he suspected, the world would be shaken to its very core.

Behind Boldur on the balcony were a few pots of various plants. A green rose with sharp black thorns was now hidden among them, swaying in the breeze of a sudden wind.

 

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