Chapter Sixteen: The Evasive Limbo underneath the Gaze of the Siren

Chad and Ryuji were more than a little on-edge this mission.

For one thing, although it had been a couple weeks since the aftermath of the Zaylor mission, the two of them were still rather unnerved; losing Prince Richard was bad enough, considering how long they had known him, but even if Richard had only been an Apprentice-Rank Magna Centurion, he should have been more than enough for most opponents.

The fact he had been taken out left everyone in the order feeling less than comfortable; kind of a reminder of the order's mortality, one might think…but the real problem was their comrade for this mission.

Steiner had just finished his rather bold proclamation, which, all of them well knew, ruined any chance of a surprise attack, and ensured that any insurgents with even a speck of intelligence were now in hiding and would have to be rooted out, probably with heavy collateral damage.

In the large windows beyond, Pearl Bay's docking region was nearing. A ship this large usually had to wait for special clearance on the larger reserved docks; smaller ones wouldn't do, and in many cases they'd have to settle for the largest flat area they could find, although here that wouldn't matter. Clearing his throat a bit, the pilot looked behind him. "Lord Steiner, the Ehrgeiz has been cleared for landing by the Pearl Bay Port Authority. Shall we proceed?"

"Naw…" Steiner retorted in an annoyed voice as he cracked his neck. "I just told the entire damn island that to mess with the locals. What do you think, you stupid maggot!? Land, already! I've seen drones with more common sense!"

Chad, in spite of his utter loathing for being on missions with this guy, couldn't help but snicker a bit as he came in. "Give him a break, Bolton. Lately your orders have been as confusing as those damn rotating puzzles."

At once, the bald man snapped his head around. "Watch your tongue, McDermott! Or are you questioning the authority of your senior?"

The smiled faded. "'Senior'? Last I checked, no Magna Centurion has a rank of 'authority' over another—or maybe you were just trying to say that you're one step closer to eating liquefied meals in a retirement home?"

"What Chad is trying to say," Ryuji calmly interjected, seeing Steiner start to form a fist, "is that some of your actions have been a bit 'questionable' as of late. Let's be honest—you sounded like we were preparing to invade. We're just responding to a reported assault; why do you make it sound so hostile?"

"And here I thought you were a seasoned Jiodisan samurai, Ryuji," Steiner snapped back. "Haven't you ever heard of nipping something in the bud? If all the locals are rioting here, then it's obvious they're starting up another insurrection—and blaming us for all of it! It's Zaylor all over again!"

"A few dozen at the most is hardly 'all the locals'…" Chad muttered, rolling his eyes.

Steiner swiveled his head to him. "You'd better learn to hold your tongue at the right times, if you know what's good for you. You go flapping your lips at a time like this, someone may start accusing you of being a terrorist sympathizer…."

"Oh, give it a rest," the other man retorted. "I'm making an observation, is all. You know I'd give my life for the security of the Aurino Republic without a doubt—but I'm not keen on punishing those that don't actually deserved to be punished!

"Make no mistake: I have no problems doing the nitty-gritty parts of my duty if that's what it takes, but —unlike some— I only resort to it if it's the only way! I'm telling you—I don't think that the Barney Mega Store majority shareholders regretted the locals' suffering for a minute, and if we'd just waited a bit more till busting heads, things might have gone down better for everyone!"

"Grow up!" Steiner spat. "Justice ain't always pretty. Seriously, I'm getting sick of you, Michael, Samuel, and everyone else bitching about how it could have gone down. You weren't even there! And besides, King Andross said the proper action was taken.

"Collateral damage is a part of combat, and they're the ones who started acting like they could screw around with the Republic. Orion headed that mission, and he said the same damn thing, so what's there to argue about?"

Ryuji cleared his throat and looked to one side before murmuring, "As I recall, Orion requested a new partner that very same day. I don't suppose he's talked to you since then, has he? If not, it would seem actions speak louder than words."

Steiner was quiet momentarily at that. Then he gave a snort and looked around; he seemed to be assessing the environment …how most of the Centurions and soldiers present were looking at him by now… as he cleared his throat.

"Prince Orion may be a living weapon, but he still didn't have the stomach to punish his brother properly," he said in a calmer voice after a moment. "Look…I don't blame him —blood ties, and all that— but treason can't be tolerated. Not by anyone. Someone had to do it."

No one answered; they merely frowned a bit and returned to their tasks, leaving it at that for now. Chad rolled his eyes again; Ryuji said nothing. If anything else was about to be said, it was interrupted by a hiss from the door hydraulics.

Anticipating who it was, the crew immediately went to attention and the Magna Centurions in the room stood straighter as a stern, yet aloof, female voice suddenly cut through the silence: "Steiner, your thickness is quite an eyesore at times. Even if you are a veteran Magna Centurion, the call still wasn't yours to make."

As the doors continued to slide aside, a rather voluptuous-looking female walked into the room. Well…"walked" would be a rather crude term. More like "alluringly strolled inside, almost as if she was a model on a runway". Plump-lipped, smelling of perfume, flawless hair without a single split end, and lovely blue eyes—she certainly didn't look too dangerous.

She was clearly athletic, but far lither and more of an attractive magazine figure than a stereotypical toughened, bulky warrior. Her customized suit of magenta, pink, and white armor was very thin, and clung to her figure in such a way so as to accent all of her naturally flawless body features: definitely not a Magna Centurion type. Nevertheless, it was clear all present regarded her with respect. Two far more conventional female soldiers walked in at her sides, one with blond hair and one with auburn.

The captain gave a salute as soon as she entered, prompting everyone else to do the same.

"Magna Centurion Fiona Jehu Carollo on deck!"

The woman continued to mince forward, watching everyone else quickly snap their own salutes. Some actually looked nervous around her, and not because she was attractive. However, she merely gave a cute giggle as she neared the captain, then winked. "At ease, Captain Vance. I'm just here to make sure everything's in order."

The ship commander didn't ease beyond lowering his arm. "Yes, ma'am. No problems to report, ma'am. GZ engines are cooling down; situation is under control."

"Well, if everything was really 'under control', we wouldn't be here, now would we?" Fiona answered, flicking some of the hair out of her face before snapping her fingers to one side. "Cynthia, dear, tell me the situation on the island."

At once, the blond-haired woman marched up to the computer on the right side of the room, causing the technician there to gulp and quickly move to one side as she took over. She muttered something to him at one point, but kept most of her gaze to the readout. "Nothing too abnormal, Fiona," she answered after a while. "High energy fluctuations in Pokarda and the towns around it—that must be the source of the trouble."

Steiner finally broke, giving a grunt. "Damn it, Fiona! Stop taking this so damn casually—you're setting a bad example! Look, it's clear that this is just the first wave; that they're going to cause uprising all over the entire province! We've got to smash them down before they get—"

"You remind me of a colorblind bull, Steiner," Fiona suddenly cut him off, her voice abruptly and —uncharacteristically, for her appearance— hard. "Always seeing red, and always charging at it. The situation here is simple."

She gestured to the window out toward the direction of Pokarda. "Some thieves or tomb raiders attacked that temple that was uncovered, some of the locals immediately concluded that it was the military seizing whatever wealth or relics were inside for redistribution, and they responded. Hardly a rebellion or an uprising.

"They've been loyal to the Aurino Republic ever since they were assimilated into our nation. This is just a snap response to a surprise attack; the locals are on-edge, is all." She turned her head away a bit. "One can hardly blame them, considering how some members of the military have been carrying out operations lately; it seems as if some could use a refresher course on how the Magna Centurions are sworn to protect the people of the land…."

"I do protect the people of our land," Steiner grumpily replied, jabbing his thumb to himself. "Not squatters on land we conquered not two generations ago still itching to get revenge…."

"They're not going to start thinking of themselves as Aurino citizens so long as we keep treating them like prisoners of war," Fiona retorted, turning her head slightly back towards him. She then sneered and shook his head. "Honestly, you're like a boy with a BB gun, running around looking for rabbits to shoot nowhere near the garden. In fact, I think I heard a story about that in your youth; how sad…. With disgraces like you in the order, it's amazing that we aren't putting down an insurgency every other day."

Steiner bristled at that, but Fiona no longer seemed to care, as she turned her head. "Let that be a warning to all of you, and not just Steiner here. I am overseeing this operation, and I forbid any combat action unless there are confirmed hostiles. If any of you as so much as gives a civilian a papercut, I swear you'll be in the infirmary for a month. Understand?"

Ryuji simply nodded. Chad gave a playful half-wave, half-salute. Steiner, for his part, turned red and snarled. "Spineless!" he spat. "Every last one of you! I'm not going out to make the Magna Centurions look bad, but don't expect me to just wave cheerfully at any terrorists, either!"

Fiona looked at Steiner again at that. She stared a moment, her gaze remaining hard, before she smiled widely at him. She turned and slowly began to pace around him. "Well, then," she said, her smile staying but her voice becoming rather cold. "I suppose I'll just have to ensure that you keep your anger directed toward terrorists, and not toward whoever happens to have a pulse, won't I? You're getting 'chaperoned', Steiner—by soldiers who have my complete trust—and they'll have orders to bring back any prisoners to me."

Steiner chuckled darkly, following her with his head. "And here I thought someone supposedly as smart as you would know better than to swallow the mud those media vultures throw up. You're actually putting more stock in a varmint's word over that of a Magna Centurion? You know, maybe it's your loyalty we should be—"

The man cut off in surprise: he had just blinked, and before he'd closed his eyes, Fiona had been behind him. When his eyes were open again, though, she was right in front of him, as if she was the victim of a poor film-editing technique.

He pulled back a bit. As for Fiona, her playfulness was gone: she had turned from being alluring to being a furious warrior of deadly intent.

"Do you ever shut up?" she snapped. "To hell with the media—those 'varmints' you refer to are my crew, and if they said my skin had turned green and you said it hadn't, I'd still believe them over a spoiled bastard like yourself. Here's a special little command, just for you…"

She held up her hand and made a snapping motion. As quickly as she had moved, a magenta dagger likewise appeared in her grip.

"I ever hear about you harassing a woman on this mission, or any mission, I'll take off…say…four sizes of that manhood of yours that you boast so much about. Look me in the eye, Bolton." She leaned in a bit closer. "Tell me I'm lying."

Steiner's bald head began to perspire as he gulped. "Are you out of your mind? You can't just do that and get away with it! You're a Magna Centurion, just like me!"

Fiona merely gave an airy laugh, slipping the dagger away and resuming her old persona. "Please—the Queen would give me a medal, after what happened to her youngest son." She snapped the former knife-wielding hand to him. "Keep this in mind: coming from a bloodline of Magna Centurions dating back to the order's founding will only get you so far. I'd work a little harder on being less of a disgrace, if I were you."

The bald man flustered a bit, but said no more; he only glared at her. A moment later, the ship about them gave a slight rattling from the retros fully kicking in and the gravity repulsors firing up to even landing.

Captain Vance coughed, trying to use this moment to ease the tension. "My lords, my lady, we are now docked in Pearl Bay. What are your orders?"

The voluptuous, and deadly, woman stared at Steiner a moment more, before she again drew herself up and smiled. "Let's see…I believe I shall go meet the governor at Pokarda, for starters. Chad, dearest…would you care to be my backup?"

At once, the young Magna Centurion snapped to attention: "You got it, Fiona. Ready when you are."

"That's the spirit." She smiled again, before her eyes flickered back to the bald man. "Now, then, how about Ryuji and Steiner go look around Pearl Bay to see if any terrorists are up to something around the shores, hmm? Think you two big, strong boys can watch each other's backs while looking around?"

Ryuji actually broke his stoic facade and snickered. "I won't let any hostiles out of my sight, Fiona…of any kind."

Steiner hesitated only a moment before becoming as "normal" as possible. "Fine, fine…just let me get to work, already."

Fiona smiled a bit more before leaning forward and giving Steiner a pat on the cheek that made him grit his teeth, keeping up her sultry facade. "Now, that's a good doggie…" She laughed. "…I mean, 'boy', of course! Prep my shuttle to deploy in five minutes." She turned and began to walk out the rear exit. "Oh, and Elly? Make sure my sunscreen is ready—I'm hoping to sneak in a tan. After all, it's been a while since I could frolic in such nice weather…."

The brunette aide immediately nodded and moved out as well. In moments, both of them had made their way through the hydraulic doors. The second the panels had closed behind them, Steiner gritted his teeth so hard that Chad could actually hear them clenching.

Muttering an endless stream of curses under his breath, the bald man began to stomp out the exit as well, shaking the deck with each step and looking like a volcano about to erupt; Chad stayed quiet and still until he was sure he too had passed through the entrance and had it shut securely behind him.

At that point, he sighed. "Mission's just started, and already tempers are so high you could melt an iceberg…."

Ryuji cast a glance out the window and took a deep breath. "I'll make sure Steiner doesn't dishonor the Magna Centurions any more than he already has. Even in the worst case, it shouldn't be hard; I'm honestly surprised that four of us were even redirected here—at best, there's a few mobs and opportunists trying to hang onto their stolen loot."

"Whatever poor bastard decides to pick a fight with us is in for overkill," Chad mused as he looked over a terminal, "but I guess we were passing close and had good timing. It may not be too boring—what intel we've gotten so far says we already have a bunch of people likely dead around the Pokarda grottos, and lots of people are freaked out. It's like a tea kettle ready to whistle. Funny…who'd have thought some locals would go so nutty over some ancient ruins?"

The last two elite warriors then departed, ready to confront whatever threat they set their eyes on.

As they prepared to land, someone who used to work under their order's banner was working very frantically to ensure that he wasn't still there when they arrived.

"Can all of you move, or do you need help?" Richard spoke with increased urgency. The Surge Zeppelin had, thankfully, flown out of the view of the tunnel: they had to be moving in for a landing back at Pokarda. That gave the Ravens at least a little time, but there was no telling who the other three Magna Centurions on board were—Steiner was slow enough that it wouldn't matter if he spotted them, but some of the other members were quick enough to be on them in an instant….

Troy wiped some blood from his mouth and looked down to his arms. Both of them were still missing patches of skin and bleeding, but it seemed as if the acid spell lost its reactivity quickly: in spite of the acrid smell of burned flesh, they weren't getting worse. "I can still move my legs. That crap burned my arms real bad. Damn it, I hate when I can't fight back…."

"If anyone has any of those field gels, you should use them now," Richard pointed out. "We need to patch your injuries long enough to get back to the Valro Caverns. We'll handle the rest from there."

The group quickly did as they were told, breaking out their gels. As they went about the task as fast as they could, Troy looked up a bit and glanced at the places where two of their comrades had been. He immediately scowled. "Those freaks are going to pay for this one day; I swear to Mavlos they will."

"Might be a good idea to know more about them if we want to get back at them," Voltaire threw in, taking out his spare gels and tossing them to the others before turning to the nearest dead Ibis Corps member. He immediately started to advance on the corpse. "These guys sure have lots of tech that might tell us why such a high-ranking member of the Ibis Corps came here. A little insight could go a long way…."

He then started to bend down closer to the body. "Wrist-mounted mini-computer—even if they're only making coded calls, that'll be nice to take a look at—"

He reached for the gauntlet it was fastened to, only to recoil a moment later when a pop, followed by a shower of sparks, erupted from it. The others jumped a bit as well, especially when it was matched with a similar burst from the opposite gauntlet a moment later, followed by bursts all over his body. Grimacing and wafting away some smoke, Voltaire looked in and over the body. He coughed once from the fumes.

"All right, bang goes that idea. I guess I should have known fanatics like these guys wouldn't be so careless. Wonder what they've got to hide behind those—whoa!"

Abruptly, Voltaire snapped away from the body completely, landing on his back and four limbs and quickly scrambling away. The others immediately found out why as the visor on the figure glowed bright red for a moment as the entire body continued to smoke and smolder before abruptly bursting into flames altogether. The other bodies quickly fried their own technology before following suit; soon the whole cavern was lit by the flames.

"Talk about hardcore," Troy muttered before spitting on the ground. "Burn themselves up so you don't get squat."

"They may have dental records, but I'm not about to risk messing with whatever kind of stuff they might have to get rid of that." Voltaire grunted as he began to rise again. "I don't feel like getting acid all over my fingers trying to yank out a burning skull's bridgework."

"You can pick apart the remains of that Zandoris' corpse next time I get my hands on him all you like…" Troy answered, "…assuming there's enough pieces of it left after I'm done…."

"Are you all ready to go?" Richard impatiently asked as he motioned to the tunnel. "Because if we stick around here much longer, we're not going to live to have any rematches—or new matches, for that matter…."

Troy frowned and looked to the tunnel, but then paused. He turned his head slightly back to the temple, still broken open with the last few of Zandoris' fires dying. He stared at it a moment, before cracking a bit of a smile.

"Yeah, yeah…sure thing, Requiem. Just one more thing before we head out, though—" He turned to him and managed to lift one of his arms enough to jab a thumb at the ruined structure. "We didn't get first place on this one…so how about a consolation prize?"

Once more, it was a good thing that Richard had his mask on, because his look turned rather aghast. He didn't have to be a genius to realize what Troy was hinting at. For a moment, he nearly opened his mouth and shouted in outrage, but he stopped himself: he had to keep up the persona as best he could after all that.

"Are you suggesting we loot a place where people were massacred? Even if we had time for this, which we don't, that makes us no better than the Hydra Wyverns."

"Sure it does! It ain't like we're the ones who whacked these people," Troy answered defensively. "Besides, it's not like we're gonna take much—just a little pocket change. No one'll ever notice. Just end up in a dusty museum or some politician's wallet, otherwise…."

Richard's fists tightened audibly. His cold demeanor broke a bit; his voice becoming more undignified. "I'll know—and I thought I made it clear that the Crimson Tengu Ravens aren't about getting rich?"

However, the thought of the treasure lying around was by now making the rest of the boys excited. Troy was already stepping toward it, and the others were getting eager too. Dan suddenly stepped forward and gave Richard a pat on the shoulder, causing his "leader" to snap to him. "Nothing wrong with a few mementos and petty cash, though, right? Just to cover expenses? Troy's right—place is loaded, and no one will ever notice."

The prince snapped to him in shock. "But…."

Dan motioned ahead. "Go on, but make it quick, guys. Just little stuff—don't try hauling any of those damn statues out of there."

Giving a few exclamations of glee, like kids during the holidays, the gang immediately ran for the open temple entrance and quickly jumped inside. Richard grit his teeth and fumed; Voltaire was likewise frowning as he turned his head back to the tunnel entrance.

He looked more than a little tense a moment later when something else flew by the view outside: this time it was a pair of Zaitron machines. He nearly bolted for it before he saw that they were just passing by and hadn't noticed them…yet.

"Um, you are all aware that we don't have to worry about funding in the order, right?" he tossed out.

Richard had noticed the fly-by as well, although it seemed none of those currently looting the temple did. He scowled and grew far more insistent, stepping forward as well. "That's right; this is a waste of time. We're moving out n—"

Dan gave a gentle yet firm squeeze on the shoulder, holding Richard back a bit. "Even so, haven't you ever heard of an insurance policy?" He spoke back, still a bit casual…but also growing a bit in volume. "And mementos are always nice. We'll decorate that cave up all nice and pretty."

Richard snapped. "You listen to me—"

"No, you listen!"

At once, the young man was silenced. In a flash, Dan had stepped in front of him, and his face had lost all its usual blitheness. It was now glaring angrily at Richard as Dan held a finger in front of the mask. He spoke quietly, but in a tone that was clearly threatening.

"I got my boys to join your little 'youth group' two days ago, and, as I figure it, two of them just got barbecued because of it. The rest of us just got our asses kicked. You better get some street smarts into that metal bucket on your head, because you try and tell them they ain't getting anything out of this, and I don't think I'm going to be able to keep them from calling 'mutiny' on you. Besides, like hell am I leaving Rocky and Eloy's families high and dry after I just got them killed listening to you."

This silenced Richard, but only for a brief moment before he frowned beneath his mask. "I thought you told me you guys weren't about pillaging from the weak, Nicholson."

"It's not like that, man; it's damned complicated! I don't see nobody laying claim to this loot other than guys who've been dead for centuries; nobody even knew it existed until a couple days ago." Dan retorted, his face unchanging. "You may have your principles, but a man has to have his way now and then! Are you going to harp on me all day about this thing, or are you going to deal with it?"

While no one could hear exactly what the two were saying, by now everyone had noticed that Dan and Requiem were about five seconds away from getting into an altercation of their own; that made everyone except Troy freeze and look back to them.

The fact that it had gone silent after Dan's last statement made them even more hesitant to move. The stillness was finally broken when a light came on at the side of Voltaire's Dragon Lenses, causing him to suddenly turn his head to the side.

"Well, this has been quite the stimulating conversation, gentlemen, but now we really need to go. Whatever jamming equipment the Ibis Corps had seems to be gone as well, so the scanners are working again and picking up local transmissions…and none of them are good."

Both men finally broke at that, Richard turning fully to him. "What are they saying?"

"Either the Ibis Corps weren't quite as 'silent' as they thought they were, or the Hydra Wyverns were too sloppy, because it got out to Costa Toro that people were being massacred. For lack of better suspects, people are starting to blame the Aurino Republic and starting some riots.

"The Magna Centurions are coming in to quiet the situation down, and…" He gestured around. "…seeing as our opponents elected to be interred via cremation, currently the only people standing around who look like they might have massacred the lot of them would be us."

Troy scoffed as he tossed some rubies in his pockets. "Who cares? Bunch of pompous ceremonial soldiers. If I hadn't gotten so messed up by Rustbucket, I'd say bring 'em on…."

"Even if we hadn't encountered Zandoris, it would take everything we had to escape one Magna Centurion alive," Richard answered, almost angry. "Four is suicide."

"So is going out the way we came; big signatures are already on their way, and you won't make it." Voltaire answered. He gestured back to the tunnel. "That way isn't much better, but it leads right into the jungle, and I don't think anyone's spotted it yet. You guys should head that way now, while you still can."

This caused Dan to raise an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'you guys'? Where do you think you're going?"

Voltaire laughed a bit as he began to head toward the direction of the normal exit. "Out to throw in a bit of misdirection, of course. With my tricks, maybe a little charm, and a lot of luck, it should work out. Besides, I'm the only one of you still in any shape to stall anyone."

There was no small amount of unease on hearing all of that, especially from Richard: this wasn't anything like what they had run into before—Magna Centurions weren't slouches at magic, nor fell prey easily to simple or even advanced tricks. Richard took a few steps towards Voltaire at this. "Jade Hawk, are you sure you want to do this?"

"I should be able to convince them I wasn't part of the attack. They'll come running like hounds either way, and give you all time to escape," he muttered back. "Don't worry about me; I'm sure it'll all work out. Best we can make a bad situation right now."

Richard really wished he could be sure that this was Voltaire speaking from certainty and not just his normal devil-may-care attitude, but the truth was, they needed a diversion.

"Just…be careful."

"Come on—don't make my end such a big deal when you boys are the ones with the hard job. Get back to the docking bay as fast as you can, and it'll be smooth sailing from there."

Giving a flamboyant wave, Voltaire turned and dashed into the tunnel to the front of the cave. Richard really wished he could have believed Voltaire when he'd said it would be fine, but, considering his own near-death at the hands of the Magna Centurions the last time he ran into them, he hoped Voltaire had more than a few other tricks he hadn't shown yet. While his friend was still running off, Richard looked back to the others and made for the new tunnel.

"Get those gravity rappels on; we're going to need them. And from here on in, no magic unless I give the word; those guys have Dragon Lenses of their own…."

At roughly the same time Richard and his group finished clearing the tunnel and began to descend the cliff on the other end with the rappels as fast as they could, a small transport shuttle descended through the foliage into the open clearing nearest the temple's front.

It wasn't a hard task, considering the area had already been cleared for such craft for the dig. The shuttle gave a hiss as it spread out its landing stabilizers, the sound of its retros soon blasting out and casting up clouds of dust and vapor as it came down, before each one of the legs pressed into the uneven landscape.

The craft had barely touched down when the side cracked open, exposing the transport doors and allowing them to slide open. Fiona immediately sprung out and advanced; Chad was right behind her, and had to rush to keep up.

A set of heavily armored commandos followed both of them, rapidly spreading out through the area in a typical securing maneuver, although it seemed the Magna Centurions weren't willing to wait: Fiona had already advanced to the nearest mutilated corpse, giving it a sour look.

They weren't alone in the area: in spite of Steiner's warning, it seemed some of the locals had already arrived and gotten to work, and remained that way even after the announcement.

A few rovers that seemed to normally be used for farming work were nearby, as well as several of the natives with work gloves on their hands and handkerchiefs over their mouths and noses to act as ramshackle biohazard gear. One by one, they were picking up the bodies and loading them up into carts.

Of course, several of them stalled upon seeing the new arrivals; some froze altogether, clearly fearful of the group. Others merely stared and remained motionless. After a few moments, one of the mustached individuals who seemed to be acting as an overseer, directing which bodies went where, began to advance. As soon as he was before them, he gave a respectful bow.

"Lady Fiona, members of the Aurino Republic, I am Doge Enrique. On behalf of everyone in Costa Toro, I want to thank you and the other Magna Centurions for arriving so quickly. I'm sorry for the abruptness of my call, but I'm hoping you can keep the situation from decaying into anything so drastic as to require all of your powers."

Fiona immediately smiled wider and more playfully, putting her hands on her hips and turning a bit of a pose. "Aw, my dear Doge, you make it sound like it was so much trouble—it was on our way anyways. My comrades are already in position at Pearl Bay, and the soldiers are all ready, so don't you worry your sweet little head. So, tell me, where's the fire?"

The elected official looked past her to the entrance to the grotto for a moment, nervously stroking his mustache. "To be honest, madam, I'm not entirely sure myself—until only a little while ago, we couldn't get a hold of anyone on our Codec; it looks like whoever attacked wanted to avoid attention. The local police were first on the scene; they heard from some civilians that a giant man in black armor led two groups of men in.

"One group was in odd combat outfits, and the other had gang tattoos. The big one led a massacre, apparently, but no one knows what else happened. And when news got out that a big man in armor who looked like a knight was attacking Pokarda, the rumor blew out of proportion, and soon tempers started to flare. They're still flaring, and will continue the longer we don't know what actually happened."

"Well," Fiona answered as she looked over her surroundings again, "I know there have been a lot of clashes that got, for lack of a better word, 'messy' as of late, but I assure you we're not here to punish the province. So, now, I'm assuming the attackers went into the grotto. Are they still in there?"

"Excuse me."

Chad and Fiona both turned and looked to one of the villagers helping load bodies: he had pulled away his makeshift mask, and now held up his hand. "My friend and her child ran out right before it started getting noisy in there. She says some man in a metal mask saved them, but everyone else was already dead.

"The last thing she saw before she started running and not looking back was the one who saved her and some other masked individuals fighting a big armored one with a giant …well… 'demon-sword' is what she called it."

"How big?" Fiona asked.

"Taller than him."

She was intrigued by that, turning slightly back to Chad. "Aside from Orion, I only know a few other guys who could pull that off. So he got into a fight with another enigma, hmm?" She looked back to the man. "Any chance the fight is still going on?"

"Unless they changed the staging ground, madam, I'd say it's concluded."

The sudden call came from the direction of the grotto, and at once the villagers snapped in alert to it, fearful that whoever had been inside was coming out, even if the voice was pleasant enough. The soldiers also snapped their guns around in alert, having gotten more than a little high-strung on seeing the state of the bodies around them.

Chad and Fiona themselves stayed reserved but looked as well. A moment later, the former of the two blinked and squinted a bit, jutting his head forward as if his eyes were playing tricks on his mind.

"Wait a sec…is that…Voltaire Joachim?"

Fiona also looked a bit surprised, although she tried to hide it behind her normal mannerisms. He definitely looked like he had seen better days: he was dirty and torn-up, his normally flawless hair disheveled, smelling a bit of smoke, and some nasty black material was spotting his clothes in a few spots, which wasn't hard to notice, considering he was wearing white.

Nevertheless, he managed a casual wave, even if it looked as if he was having to grit his teeth and really force himself to do so…but there was no question it was the same man from the tabloids and magazine covers. Seeing as he was staggering a bit to get to them, Fiona decided to save him the trouble. She turned on one foot and began to strut up to him.

"Well, I'll be—isn't this funny? The son of Isaac Joachim, spending a perfectly good work day hanging out in a jungle…in a combat zone." she mused as she neared. She indicated to one side. "The beach is over there, young master…along with the bars and the waitresses who want to cross off 'I did Voltaire Joachim' on their lists of ten things to do before they die. And you look more than a little roughed up…." She came to a halt in front of him. "Were you up to some late-night romancing? How cute…but this is hardly the time for such games."

"Heh—yeah, 'Malaria Sex'; it's all the rage," Voltaire shrugged the comment off sarcastically. "Funny story, really. Er…well, maybe not so much 'funny', but certainly a story, at any rate….

"I'm sure you already know that my family was interested in doing their own independent survey of the new temple to see what could fit into our museums. Well, why should my old man get his feet dirty when he's got the younger generation for that sort of thing, eh? I arrived earlier, and I thought I'd get a little sneak peek at the site before the official process started; see if I can still make my 9 'o clock tomorrow and all.

"Well, I usually consider myself prepared for chance occasions, but I definitely didn't have 'terrorist attack' anywhere on the list. I barely set two feet inside the entrance before they jumped me. Next think I know, I'm hanging upside-down from the ceiling and hearing them betting each other whether I'm worth twenty million Auros alive or if they'll have to settle for ten.

"All of the sudden, I hear a bunch of clashing in the distance, and they run like Rakthians to high-proof grain liquor. Obviously these guys weren't the brightest bulbs in the box, because they left me loose enough to stretch a bit, and left my wand on me, and once I had enough for a spell…well, the rest is history."

Fiona crossed her arms. She kept her eyes on him, watching him pant, but her expression didn't change. "And you only decided to run out now, after the fighting had been over for a good twenty minutes?"

"Oh, not at all; I did what any good spoiled little rich playboy would do," Voltaire answered with a sheepish shrug. "I tried to call for help first—but all the comms were jammed. So, I found a nice little crevasse to squeeze into, and hid while I heard what sounded like a new war breaking out in the next cave over. Given the sounds I was hearing, I sure as hell wasn't getting out until I'd heard a good long silence."

The Doge immediately sighed, wiping his brow a bit. "Well, thank goodness you did. That's all we would have needed: on top of this massacre, those savages also killing someone like Voltaire Joachim." He looked to the man. "Considering all that happened here, you're lucky to be alive."

Fiona said nothing at first; she continued to stare at Voltaire. Still panting, he simply stared back at her. A moment later, she strutted forward a bit more, making her steps long and deliberate this time, until she was right in his face.

She came to a stop and stared. The man showed nothing; he continued to pant and sweat, but it was impossible to tell if that was from pain and exhaustion or anxiety. A single drop of blood rolled off of an abrasion near his forehead.

Slowly, the woman reached out a single finger and dabbed it.

"Poor little boy," she said after a moment, in an overly sweet voice, reaching her hand back forward and stroking his hair. "Went out for a little scouting adventure and ended up with all this big scary ruckus, didn't he?

"Well, I would love to cheer you up, but I have a lot of things to take care of, so, sorry. I do suppose it would be rather stupid for your family's business to sponsor such actions…." Pulling her hand back, she stepped back once and spoke in a more straightforward voice. "Before I let you go, I don't suppose you can tell me anything interesting, like what the criminals looked like?"

Voltaire cleared his throat a bit, getting over the reaction, before again growing casual. "If I could tell you their home addresses, I would, Madam Fiona. Unfortunately, they were all clad in black and had masks. They seemed quite serious about doing their 'job' right, be it murder or otherwise."

"How unfortunate," the woman answered idly, then looked to the Doge. "Excuse me, sir, but could I get a better look at the crime scene over here? I'd like to get an impression of what sort of power this giant man had."

The official nodded, breaking out of his own stunned behavior, and quickly moved over to one side, leading her to one of the bodies that had not yet been removed. As she walked to one side, and the soldiers went back at ease and resumed their perimeter sweep, Chad was more or less left alone with Voltaire. After a moment, he looked back to the heir to the Joachim fortune.

"Sounds like you had a rough day. At least you made it out of there, unlike these poor bastards…. Seems everywhere we go nowadays, it's another bloodbath." He sighed, looking over the area ruefully. "Kind of wish it was as boring as the old days."

"I don't mean to get off topic," Voltaire suddenly spoke up, "but…have there been any more updates about what happened to Richard Zilos? Did they ever find his body?"

Chad looked up a bit. "Oh—oh yeah, I forgot; you used to be buddies with the prince, didn't you?" He frowned. "No, sorry—nothing else."

Voltaire's face fell a bit and he gave a nod. "I figured, after that rockslide, but I thought I'd ask. It was a damn shame—he wanted to be a Magna Centurion more than anything, as long as I knew him. Then, on his first mission…."

"Yeah…" the man threw in regretfully, "…I still wish I would have been on that mission. Then maybe I could have made sure that bald son-of—"

Without turning around, and seeming to still fully be looking to the Doge and at the crime scene, Fiona gave a cough.

Chad hesitated, then rephrased his response. "The prince's death was tragic, but the Magna Centurions will carry out the king's wishes, and honor his memory by putting down all insurgency in the future before it has the chance to escalate to the levels at Zaylor." He spoke almost as if he had memorized it from a card.

"Don't you have to let your mommy and daddy know you're in one piece, Master Joachim?" Fiona spoke up from one side.

Voltaire managed a bit of a smile as he slicked his hair back. "Well, my father doesn't like to be awoken from anything short of someone about to shoot him in the head, but I think I've distracted the 'professionals' here long enough." He gave a nod to her, and then looked back to Chad. "Good luck. You'll be a good sport and send my regards to Richard's family, won't you?"

"Sure, sure." Chad immediately nodded. "And don't worry about a thing around here; we'll have this cleaned up and under control in no time."

A few of the villagers gave snorts and mutters at that, clearly reinterpreting what he'd meant. Chad immediately formed a frown of his own, but in the end could only roll his eyes and groan. The Doge sweated a bit more at that, wiping his own brow before calling out, "Everyone, just calm down, before things get out of hand."

That only prompted a few more audible mutters; Chad caught the words "sellout" and "patsy". At the moment, he wished he could rip that mustache right off of Steiner's face. He had just had to make that little announcement of his….

Voltaire checked his palm computer for a moment, and then gave a nod and started to walk away. However, after only a step, he turned back around. "Oh, by the way—Lady Fiona, if you're still here in an hour or two, after I've gotten cleaned up, would you care to be my guest for dinner?

The woman gave a laugh. "Thank you for the offer, little master," she answered none-too-gently, "but I don't think you'd make it through half the night before I'd have to call your father and tell him that you were killed in action. Major Bato, could you please escort him back to the resort?"

Voltaire smiled and looked away again, to find that three commandos had surrounded him and were at attention. He blinked, then looked back to Fiona with a wider smile. "I'm so flattered, to receive a three-man escort. Better safe than sorry…."

The man and his new entourage left the area. That left just the group gathered there finishing up with the bodies, and half of those had already left on a fully-loaded hover. What few people were left were continuing to give dark looks to the remaining Magna Centurions, but also slowly going back to work.

Chad frowned in response to those looks—had things really gotten so bad that they had earned this much distrust? This was almost ridiculous; as far as he knew, all of the missions he had been on recently were fairly cut-and-dry.

Then again, he hadn't been paired on a number of major missions that the other higher-ups, like Orion and Raphael, had been on…and he made it a point of avoiding missions that Steiner was on like the plague.

Yet as he thought of this, he suddenly paused.

While glancing about idly, he had noticed a few things. Some of the natives who were left were continuing to move the same body around, but not actually picking it up; others kept covering and uncovering their corpses. Still more were squatting near a third and muttering about nothing.

Furthermore, the jungle had gotten unusually quiet since the conversation had ended….

Something was wrong.

Reaching up to his own Dragon Lenses Scanner, Chad tapped the button for basic heat scanning. The infrared immediately picked up nearby heat sources: animals, plasma weapons, and electronics. There were the people before him, the Doge, Fiona, a few birds , and…someone in the trees.

Looking more carefully, he also saw the signature of a cheap, compact power cell, a kind used in many basic plasma sniper rifle models, located between their hands.

"I don't think so, wise guy. Extend, Polaris! Sonic Stab!"

Chad's hand went down to his side, and closed around the hilt of a red sai. A moment later, he snapped around fully to the location of the sniper, whipping out his sai and pointing it right at them. Assuming the figure was going to fire, they couldn't react fast enough to do so before Chad had gestured with his free hand and let out a quick chain of words, in response to which the sai glowed red, popping out the end of its blade telescopically. In an instant, it extended over twenty yards, sinking into the canopy vegetation.

A cry of pain sounded out, causing the Magna Centurion to smile grimly. He snapped his sai back, the blade rapidly collapsing back to normal length, and returned it to his side before he quickly performed another hand symbol and chanted again, this time for one of his personal favorite spells: the Gravity Kick. Excellent when you knew exactly where to aim it, and the Sonic Stab had distracted the opponent, so they wouldn't dodge.

When he was finished casting, the spell seemed to have had no effect…until a man dressed as a native suddenly gave a pained cry and flew right out of the canopy, flinging forward such that he landed with a thud right at the feet of the orange-and-white armored man. In his hands —mostly because of the shoulder strap's presence— was a plasma sniper rifle.

The figure was totally bewildered at how that had just happened, and looked about wildly, but soon regained his bearings when he saw Chad glaring down at him. He immediately froze and looked back up at him.

"Hey, moron…" The Centurion snorted. "…you and your buddies around here hate the idea of us Magna Centurions being around, yet you think it's a great idea to try to sneak up on us with a sniper rifle?"

Many of the remaining villagers in the area tensed at that, realizing he had guessed they were keeping him there long enough for the sniper to get into position. The sniper himself swallowed and sweated, but then clenched his jaw and tried to look firm.

"What difference does it make?" he finally asked. "We all know the truth about this; you can't play us for fools. It's just like everywhere else: you sent in one of your people to start a fight, you have an excuse to move in, and soon you'll take the temple and everything in it, as well as anything else of value we have. So either we give you a reason to kill us, or we wait for you to make one up!"

The soldiers in the area had noticed the rest of the villagers tensing by now. Many of those looked angrily at Chad as well, showing defiance while they still could…but that rapidly changed as weapons were aimed at them, the commandos clearly picking up that they were all in on this attempted strike and, therefore, all liable to the same judgment.

Chad felt like groaning again. These people were nothing to him, in terms of a threat—the part that annoyed him is that they were upset enough to start trouble for fear of their lives. In spite of what King Andross had put out, the truth had to have leaked about Zaylor; if someplace like Costa Toro, way out here, knew about it, then it had to be all over the country. And Steiner had been here, putting fuel on the fire. One might almost thing he had made that statement knowing it would incite the people to do this…giving him a good excuse….

"Oh, calm down, everyone."

The voice had come from Fiona. While everyone else was tensing, either fearing death or getting ready to administer it, she remained perfectly calm and casually flicked her hair back.

"I told you we're not here to fight, and I'm a woman of my word." She stated it simply as she walked forward toward Chad and the wounded sniper. "No need for things to get so out-of-hand. In fact, I'm ready to present you with a token of my goodwill…."

She came to a halt before the man, who looked up to her somewhat nervously, but she merely continued to smile as he clutched his still-bleeding hand.

"You didn't fire that thing just now, did you?"

The man, a bit surprised at such a question, blinked, then slowly shook his head.

"Well then, I can't very well arrest you for that. Neither did I see you taking aim. So I'll tell you what…" She smiled a bit more, leaning forward a bit. "…promise you won't cause any more trouble, and we'll forget the whole thing ever happened. Understand?"

The would-be sniper clearly looked rather surprised, as did the civilians around him. They definitely couldn't believe what they had heard, and many of them wondered if it was a trick.

Yet something about this woman seemed so pleasant that, even with her sultry and alluring demeanor, they couldn't help but feel a measure of trust for her and her words. All this, in spite of being so fearful of these Magna Centurions that they thought they would only be here to kill them and pillage them….

"Well…um…okay," he finally said, timidly.

Fiona smiled as she looked up, then motioned to one side. "Elly, heal the poor fool, would you? Chad, take half of the forces down to the grotto, and see what you can find there. I'll take the other half and head back to town to see about any more attackers. If you need any assistance, give me a call. But, before we get going…" She smiled a bit more. "…I think it's high time to ease everyone's tension…."

Chad immediately realized what she was talking about…and, as much as he hated to admit it…a part of him was upset that he wouldn't get to stay to 'watch the show'. Yet he forced himself to stay official—this was supposed to be about the villagers, not about getting the male members of their group in the mood. There was a reason Fiona kept only focused female commandos in her personal retinue.

"All right, guys—follow me," he announced, quickly moving his hand over half of them. He tried to keep all the rookies in the group, but he also picked a veteran or two. One of the latter actually swore when he saw that he was being pulled away, but quickly fell in with him. In moments, they were filing out as well—yet no one seemed to notice. Everyone's eyes were on Fiona; just then, she had seemed to grow more interesting …even fascinating… than a moment ago.

The woman let out a long breath, arching her back and raising her head to run her hands through her hair. "Well, now, this area may be tense, but hardly a battle zone…and this place has so many fresh, cold springs in it…and this armor is so stuffy…." She smiled a bit as she lazily turned her head to one side. "Cynthia…be a dear and help me get this attire off, won't you?"

Cynthia hesitated momentarily, a bit new to this routine, before nodding and coming forward. As for Fiona, she was already removing her bird-styled helmet and sighing. "I always do like being more 'open' with people…" She giggled, making her long hair unfurl from beneath her helmet like poured water. A moment later, she slowly removed her gauntlets, one finger at a time, letting them casually fall to the ground.

The villagers around them, meanwhile, were finding her more and more fascinating. One might think it was simply due to confusion, or maybe the fact she was revealing more and more skin…but, if any of them had had enough of their wits to realize it, it would have occurred to them that a small voice in their heads was telling them, "keep watching".

The aide helped her remove the torso armor, no longer leaving any of her curves to the imagination, considering the skin-tight black leotard underneath. Fiona laughed a bit more as she removed the leggings and the boots.

She gave heavy sighs and breathed deeply with each new item, and the men around were now staring so intently at her that one might think they had gone in to see a strip show rather than been afraid of her and what she represented. When she was done, she gave long, nimble stretches, showing off all of her shapely figure and giving a bit of a sigh that sounded almost like a moan.

"There." She looked to the sky. "Much more relaxed. See? I'm not hiding anything under all this." She smiled a bit more. "Or do you all want more proof?"

With that, she reached behind herself deftly, grabbed her leotard's zipper, and gave a pull till the zipper went all the way to the bottom, not pausing as her outfit slid down her shoulders and expose her chest. To the stunned surprise of the men, many of them forgetting to breathe and turning bright red in the face, she did not hesitate to lightly push down the black garment entirely down her hips and to her ankles.

In moments, she was casually flicking the garment off of her feet, now completely naked. The way they were leering at her now, one might mistake this for a situation where these men were all lusty perverts…but the truth was, some were old, some were quite moral and chaste, and some had families they loved very much.

None of that mattered, though; right now, they couldn't think of anything except the alluring figure in front of them now shaking her hair and giving her bosom a light jiggle as she finished "freshening up".

Finally, with this done, she let herself "air out" a bit, running her hands through her hair and accenting her generous chest for the men a few moments longer, but then finally reached down and plucked out her necklace, along with her sheathed dagger.

She put both back on, attaching the latter to the former. Her larger weapon was taken up and attached to a section of her wrist armor, which was then fastened to one arm. She then flashed a smile to the men again.

"Now, then…would anyone like to tell me if there were any spots in town where the real bad guys were spotted?"

There was a moment of hesitation from the group: they seemed to come back to their senses a bit…but not all the way. Eventually, one of them spoke up, in a stutter: "Well…I…I did hear someone screaming near the local shrine earlier—just down that path."

Fiona grinned, wrinkling her nose before blowing him a kiss. "Thank you! I think I'll mosey on over there, right now. As for the rest of you…" She tutted. "…don't feel too bashful; I know full well I'm quite the catch. Oh…and boys? Don't come too close." She wagged her finger. "I do bite."

She gestured to her retinue before turning and beginning the walk to the shrine, smiling all the while. She had known exactly how that would work out the moment she started. It was the same way all over the country: even before she had learned to mix in a bit of her mana to cast small charm spells that made displays like this totally irresistible, she had been doing this for years. Men were pigs at worst, and little boys at best—always looking at her with either a leer or the thought that she was some innocent supermodel here to entertain them; what better thing to do than exploit the facts?

Centuries ago, back in the days before women were allowed to take the field with men, women had learned to use their 'natural weapons' to get the best of their male opponents. And men didn't change; still thinking with their short-swords, so to speak. Who was she, not to play it to her advantage?

It had helped her against "superior" opponents more than once, and invariably left the opposition totally dumbfounded and disarmed. She only hoped Cynthia got used to it soon enough—she didn't need her aide's hesitation giving the men reason to pause.

The shrine wasn't far, just as had been said; just a short hike and up a small hill. Fiona never even flinched at the fact she was not just barefoot but nude—one didn't get to be a Magna Centurion and not be able to go 'commando' in a jungle, after all. They came to a set of stone stairs and ascended them, finally reaching the shrine itself. There wasn't much to the actual structure—simple and to-the-point.

More elaborate was the set of four stone statues put in front of it, which were a bit worn and overgrown from ambient vines and foliage, but definitely looked as if they had been posted as guardians of a sort. The truly eye-catching detail, however, was what the shrine framed: beyond it was the main freshwater spring source that supplied Costa Toro with water.

In particular, it was where the water rushing out formed a shallow river that cascaded down a very lovely waterfall. The sound of rushing water was a welcome sound, compared to most of the urban noises and engines the group was used to. The shrine itself was basic, but had been kept clean and neat, free from dirt and grime as well as overgrowing plants and roots.

Fiona again took the lead as they arrived, moving right to the center of the shrine and glancing about, admiring the décor and style. "Hmm…very lovely. Authentically wholesome, sacred, and all that other nice stuff you say about places like this…. Definitely no screaming, though…"

Suddenly, she paused in midstep. The others, keeping their distance, tensed a bit, but they heard a small chuckle from the woman before she turned her head and looked to the base of a tree at one side.

"Oh, so that's where it came from."

The others nearly spoke, but she put a finger to her lips and hushed them. She then turned and walked right up to the tree's base and turned her head skyward. Her assistants and the soldiers looked up, but all they saw was more foliage.

Her personal aides, however, had Dragon Lenses scanners, and tapped into them, putting the infrared mode into use. In moments, they spotted a heat signature in the trees…yet Fiona didn't seem worried: she looked perfectly innocent as she cutely folded her hands in front of her and looked up to the canopy.

"Is someone up there? If so, you should really come down; it's getting late, and it's not safe to stay in a tree all night in the jungle."

"No!" a panicked voice shot back, one of a young girl. "Go away! You'll lead the demons here!"

"Don't worry, they're all gone now," Fiona answered, staying reassuring and calm. "And if they weren't, you're safer with me; I'm a Magna Centurion. No one will hurt you without going through me."

The girl paused; there was a slight movement in the tree's canopy. "You're…you're a Magna Centurion? But…you aren't wearing armor or…or anything…."

"How observant," the woman remarked, holding up her wrist and rotating it. "Emblem is right here. Now, come on down—I know this has been a hard day, but I'm sure your family is worried about you. Me and my group can get you back safe and sound."

There was a bit more movement: it seemed whoever was in the tree was looking to see if she was telling the truth about the 'group'. Apparently seeing that there were soldiers there, and that all of them had their weapons shouldered, she called back to Fiona, "You will catch me, right?"

The woman held out her arms in reply. There was another pause, but a few seconds later, a native girl with red pigtails leapt from the trees and landed right in her arms. She put her down a moment later, still smiling and giving her a pat on the head. "You're a brave child."

She looked up a bit shyly in response. "Well…it was a soft landing."

Fiona snickered a bit, and then looked back up to the others. "We might as well escort her back; I think that's it for this area. See if we can't reunite her with her parents."

One of the aides suddenly whipped a hand to her ear, obviously getting a transmission through the Codec. Both Fiona and the others looked to her expectantly; after a moment or two, she lowered her hand and looked back up to her. "My lady, Lord Ryuji has just finished his sweep of the Pearl Bay periphery. He reports no hostiles matching any of the reports."

"So either they're being very sneaky, or they're already gone." Fiona sighed. "Well, we needed to do a quick search for any rioters, so let's keep an eye out for signs while we're doing that. Thank you, Elly." She gently placed her hand on the little girl's shoulder and led her forward, back toward the others.

Upon reaching them, she passed the child off to her aides. "Please see to getting her back to the villagers. Seeing as we shouldn't be encountering any cause for major force, I'm going to use the opportunity to take a quick swim."

The group was a bit surprised at that statement, but Fiona kept smiling. "Chad will be done soon, and can more than handle any minor insurgencies that haven't already died down. Major Darphus, I trust you can ensure this area is secure without my oversight, yes?"

"Yes, ma'am." The officer of the group quickly saluted, stuttering only a little bit. It seemed his helmet had been inclined slightly downward while looking at the Magna Centurion. "As you command."

"Good," she said with a smile, adjusting her necklace one more time. "Have fun!"

Without another word, she turned and sprinted right for the edge of the shrine. A moment later, she reached the edge and immediately leapt off, stuck her hands out, and dove right into the shallow river near the waterfall. A few of the men continued to look for a while, looking like they had the image of her rear burned in their minds, before they somewhat stiffly turned and went to do their task.

Fiona's aides were all that were left in a moment. Cynthia frowned at the whole thing before turning to Elly: "I know I'm a bit new, and not so used to everything Lady Fiona does, but is this really a good time for swimming?"

The other aide turned and began to escort the somewhat-puzzled child (and the very-puzzled aide) back the way they had come. "You have a lot to learn about how she works," she answered as she pulled out her data pad and started typing. "She's not going swimming—she's going fishing."

It was a bit of a bumpy ride, but Richard realized that Voltaire must have succeeded in his diversion, because he and the rest of the Crimson Tengu Ravens were able to scale down the cliff and back to the relative safety of the jungle without so much as a single Zaitron coming by.

Of course, things got a bit more difficult from there. The rest was up to them as they slowly began to make their way back to the resort. It wasn't exactly easy—while the Magna Centurions hadn't brought a whole division with them, there were still quite a few individuals looking out and around on patrols.

They had a number of military vehicles with them, too; Richard blanched every time one of the Zaitrons passed, even after they were hidden by the canopy, knowing that those things had scanners of their own.

Of course, they weren't as high-end as Voltaire's, and, luckily, that made all the difference: there was a mode programmed to see the 'visual range' of common military machines, leaving it a matter of simply staying out of that range and ducking around and past the flesh-and-blood military men.

As Richard led them on, everyone stayed silent, even Troy: they may have had their Codec, but no one wanted to draw any unnecessary attention. Luck was on their side as the roofs of civilization neared: it seemed the Aurino soldiers were sticking mostly to the jungle near the front of the grotto, leaving the way to proceed clear.

The Pearl Bay docking area finally came ahead; a bit further, and the Pellegri's cargo bay finally appeared. Here, Richard drew them all to a temporary halt—there was one final obstacle standing between them and a clean getaway: a few sentries had been posted. Not many, but, naturally, all it would take was one.

Considering the position, only Richard had the best view, so, after a moment, Dan spoke up. "What do you think?" he whispered. "Is escaping going to be a problem?"

"It'll be a tight squeeze, but we can make it," Richard answered. "They've got sentries, but they're not on high-alert. We should get onto the roof when they're not looking, and sneak through the vents. There's no surveillance in the building, so once we're past them, we're home free."

"Easy enough—except for the part of how we get onto the roof without any cameras not on the building seeing us," Troy grumbled, spitting yet again.

"I have something for that too, although a bit unorthodox," Richard answered.

"Like what?" Dan asked.

"I'll use a Gravity Push spell to propel you all into the air, one by one. Once in the air, you use the gravity rappels to attach yourselves to the roof and pull yourselves in."

Blank stares all around. Dan's own look soon turned sour. "That's your grand plan? Turn us into cannonballs?"

"I can't cast warp spells, and I'm not skilled enough for flight magic," Richard answered. "So, unless you want to risk being spotted while we do this the 'slow way', that's all we have. I promise you won't get discovered this way."

"Oh, yeah?" Zach suddenly threw out. "And you're never wrong about your ideas? Like back there with the Ibis Corps?"

Richard actually felt a flash of anger at that rather than regret, but he managed to keep calm. "I'm fully aware of the situation here, unlike back there. It'll work."

Dan cracked his knuckles. "Well, whether he's certain or not, those guys have got scanners of their own, and I don't want to wait for some of them to double back to town and start using them. Just think of it as being like extreme hoverboarding." He looked to Richard. "Sure you can only do one at a time?"

"I might be able to manage two, and if you think you're going to scream, that would be best," the young man answered. "Then you can cover each other's mouths."

"I'll go up first, and I'll do it solo," Dan answered before reaching to his side and snapping out his gravity rappel, getting it ready. "Just hurry it up."

Richard nodded. Beneath his helmet, he gave a bit of a nervous breath: this was pretty reckless to be trying on himself, let alone anyone else, but he felt he had a good grasp of it. Quickly, he looked to his destination and judged the distance from Dan to the roof. That done, he held up one hand, gestured with the other, and chanted momentarily, bringing up the spell.

A split second later, and Dan looked as if he had been launched out of a catapult, being flung into the air and for the roof in a rather high arc. Everyone else nearly gasped on seeing their former leader go airborne, and Richard sweated a bit, seeing Dan flail for a moment as he was thrown farther and farther from them….

Finally, he snapped out of it and fired his gravity rappel. At least, Richard assumed he did so when he stuck out his arm and a moment later his body sailed straight for the roof. He even managed to land somewhat gracefully a second later. After stumbling a moment before he regained his footing, he looked down and gave a thumbs-up.

Richard looked to the others. "So far, so good. Who's next?"

It took a few glances about, but finally Troy volunteered next. The rest went in twos. There was one close call where they landed only two feet in from the edge of the roof, as opposed to falling down onto the guards, but the rest of the launches went successfully, and soon the crew was all on the roof.

Finally, there was only Richard left, although he didn't bother using the spell on himself. Rather, he again called on Greymont's ability to enhance his speed and agility, and, as soon as the men weren't looking, he leapt up to the roof's edge and successfully swung to the top. He made a bit more noise from his armored boots' toes hitting the stone cornice, but he was with the others.

After he had landed safely, he gave a small nod. Dan looked to the nearest rooftop skylight and down inside: the cargo boxes they rode on the way in were directly below. "Looks like we're in the clear. Let's head down and load up."

"Wait—listen!" Hector suddenly spoke up, holding a hand.

The group paused and turned their heads slightly. For a split second, Richard heard nothing…but then he noticed it, coming over the ambient noise of the shore: footsteps approaching. A good number of them, too. More than that, they were in lock-step, a sure sign they were military personnel.

"Sounds a bit too many to be a changing of the guard. Spoke too soon…" Dan muttered.

"Did we get spotted?" Hector worried.

"Relax just a moment…" Richard answered, crouching. So long as they stayed in the center of the roof, they were hidden well enough, but no sense in making it easier on whoever might look up. The others quickly followed suit.

That done, the young man quickly moved to the side of the roof nearest the approaching noise. It didn't sound like too many, but with their numbers and the formality of lock-step, it was safe to conclude that it was a group with one of the Magna Centurions. Before they tried anything else, he at least wanted to see which one it was.

After a few moments, he managed to look just over the edge while keeping his head low and concealed. The light was fading now, but he could make out some Aurino men approaching.

The Centurion in the lead was a bit indistinct at first…before a gleam from the setting sun tagged the individual's head, then was reflected into his eyes almost like it had hit a mirrored surface. Richard felt his stomach tense up into knots at that: he knew what that meant…. Instinctively, even though he had no proof yet, nor the strength for any —much less that— fight, he put his hand on his sword hilt.

Bolton Steiner, the man Richard had heard heralding his own arrival, was indeed the one leading the group; he became more unquestionably identifiable as he neared. For a moment, a storm of fears flooded Richard's mind—maybe they had been found out; maybe Voltaire's deception hadn't worked….

Those fears soon proved to be irrational. The man didn't even cast a second glance at the cargo bay; he and his retinue were headed right for a second group of soldiers coming down another lane. The young man realized that he had been so focused on Steiner, he hadn't even noticed there were two sets of troops out there. He observed that the second group was headed by Ryuji.

After giving the others a signal to hang on, Richard watched as the two forces came to a stop before one another. Ryuji gave a brief salute. "Turn up anything substantial, Steiner?"

The older man snorted. "Did I contact you?"

"No."

"Then what do you think!?" he snapped. "The rats scattered as soon as we spilled the light on them! This whole damn assignment is the pits; Fiona and Chad are where anything interesting is…."

Ryuji eyed him a moment longer before stating evenly, "I didn't encounter anything other than restless villagers myself; seems they all went indoors as soon as they could. Some heard noises, but that's it. Even whatever rioting might have broken out has been stopped.

"Fiona is using her…unique ways of pacifying the people around Pokarda; seems her calm is spreading as easily as the panic to the rest of Costa Toro. By sunup tomorrow, we should be ready to head back."

"You really think it's that simple?" Steiner retorted, looking out to some huts on the horizon. "Mark my words: this is Zaylor again. It's Zaylor everywhere, nowadays. They're just waiting to stab us in the back again—"

"I think it's pretty clear at this point this all arose from an outside source," Ryuji calmly interrupted him, "and, in spite of recent events, it looks as if the people will trust us so long as they realize we're here to help, rather than to worsen the situation."

"You really think they would have bothered rerouting guys like us here if they just wanted us to help backwater hicks recover from some small-time thieves?" the big man snarled. "And if they did, well, nuts to them, too! We don't need to be wasting our time on this crap! They want someone to calm these people down, then just send in a damn negotiator or tie-wearing politician! They need guys killed…then bother waking us up!"

"I have to disagree," Ryuji continued. "I think it doesn't hurt to have four of us on a goodwill mission for a change. Sometimes it's better to let the presence of a sword keep other swords in their sheaths than to get the sword rusty over trivial matters."

"And here I thought you had some real-world experience under your belt." Steiner chuckled. "Open your eyes and look around. Look at the people staring back at us. Don't tell me you aren't seeing that look in their eyes. You know the kind. Yeah, you may think they like us now, but that's only because they're not stupid enough to try anything while we're flexing our muscles around them. All that 'peace and love' stuff is for the church sermons…." He paused, raising an eyebrow. "Come on—you really think being nice will make everyone all chummy? What's so bad with conflict, anyway? What happened to your pride as a warrior?"

"I may enjoy a good battle, but if I just wanted to sate a lust for combat, I would have done better becoming a gladiator for the coliseum in Quanhai," Ryuji answered. "I joined this order to promote harmony within the Aurino Republic. Its enemies provide all the combat I desire; I've no need to look for extra fights by antagonizing civilians. If we treat the people here as the enemy, they will keep thinking that we are the enemy, and the cycle of aggression will simply continue."

"Who cares?" Steiner retorted. "Like any of these island locals mean anything to you, me, or anyone else in the Magna Centurions? They get in your face, just smack 'em back out of it!"

Ryuji closed his eyes. "And did you ever think that might make them angrier? Make them feel humiliated? Demeaned as a person? Incite a desire for revenge? History has shown that governments that abuse the masses are always overturned by the first group to give the people a better offer."

"Well, then I guess we just don't get sloppy, eh?" Steiner lashed back. "If the maggots try and act out, then smash them down so hard they don't have a chance to strike back! And if that ain't enough, kill 'em! And if their kids or brothers or sisters or whatever gets mad, smack them down, too! Let me show you something…."

The big man turned his head and gave a whistle. "Grub! I'm thirsty! Get over here! Shake a leg!"

A member of Steiner's group almost immediately broke off from the rest of the soldiers, snapping out a canteen from his side and quickly moving up to the taller man. After uncapping it, he passed it on to him. "Here you are, Lord Steiner."

The giant snatched the canteen from his hands and held it up to his mouth. However, he barely had a swallow down before he yanked it away and spat it to one side. Throwing the container to the ground, he brought up his hand and swung it out, sending out an echoing slap that Richard and his group could hear clearly as the soldier went sailing to the ground, clearly knocked off his feet.

"What the hell was that supposed to be!?" he shouted at him. "Think I like my water hot, you moron!?"

Grub looked a little shaken up from the experience, but, as fast as he could, still reeling a bit, he pulled himself to his feet and snatched up the canteen. Once standing, he immediately gave a bow of respect. "So sorry, sir. I was careless; I'll refill this with cold water immediately."

"Well, don't just stand there! Hurry it up!"

Grub bowed a bit more, then turned and quickly ran off. During this time, Ryuji had opened his eyes again, and as he saw the man run, he saw Steiner's own scowl disappear and turn into a grin. Bolton looked back to his fellow Magna Centurion and gestured at Grub.

"See that guy? 'Grub' ain't his real name—it's Pyotr or something. A couple years ago, he hated my guts. Of course he did—half his family was a bunch of traitors; they tried to sell some secrets to Rakthia. I found out, and, well…" He shrugged. "…I took care of it, of course. I made an example out of them, too, especially his old man. Well, he couldn't stand me, of course. Eventually the runt actually tried to kill me. Grub was thickheaded enough to try to avenge his pops, so I sliced his legs off."

Sure enough, the legs seemed to not be working quite as well as they should on the running soldier. Steiner snickered a bit as if there was a hidden joke.

"Not everyone can afford as good prostheses as the royal family. I think I cut off the right one just a little lower than the left…. Anyways, what was left of him got put in the stockade for a few weeks. Oh, he was still stubborn after that, so I said I wanted to 'interrogate' him a bit. I went right in there and beat him and flayed him for two full days. He actually made me stop for a water break once or twice…but I just kept at it.

"Kept at it until he stopped giving me that dirty look…then until he stopped screaming…then kept right on until I beat out every stupid idea he had about thinking he could so much as spit in the same room I was in. Until he couldn't look at me without feeling my fist around his throat. And I didn't let him out of that room until he got on the ground and admitted to me just what a little grubworm he was to an elite like me…"

He chuckled. "Don't even care if I let him have a gun now; he's no fool anymore. He's not stupid enough to try and shoot me with it. That's what I love about the army: discipline. Everyone knows their place. Mavlos, I wish we could just do that to everyone…."

"And here I thought at least a part of you became a Magna Centurion to protect the Aurino Republic; silly me." Ryuji dryly responded. "So you see anyone that is weaker than you as someone that has to be beaten into submission? Citizens shouldn't try to harm their own nation, but at the same time, they shouldn't be treated as mere cattle that can only exit as food!

"I chose to become a Magna Centurion to serve the Republic because I preferred it over the ideologies of the Jiodisan Union—primarily the mantra that a person's role in society is chosen for them the moment they're born. And yet you say this nation's ideology is a sham?"

Steiner's smile vanished, and he coughed as he looked back. "Of course I care about protecting the Republic; I'm just a pragmatist—not some damn wide-eyed fairytale twit! You give these locals any slack, they'll only use it to try and stab you in the back the first chance they get.

"I'll be the first to admit that deciding what someone can do just because of their genes can leave a lot of wildcards left in the dust, and it's a damn waste of national resources to not utilize untapped potential. Bloodlines don't always decide who is a winner—the late prince proved just being from noble blood doesn't produce a winner, eh?

"I do believe that everyone deserves a shot at the big time. A chance to show their stuff. But if they can't make the cut, then, for Mavlos' sake, get them out of the way and let in someone who can! Don't lower the bar so that they've already made it! If you can't take something for yourself, why the hell should someone have to give it to you!?"

He scowled as he looked around. "Look at this damn Republic: everywhere you go, pathetic, worthless whiners! This bottom-feeder thinks the Republic should send his kids to school on our dime. That one thinks he deserves a paycheck because he doesn't feel like slinging burgers.

"That one thinks because his great-great-granddaddy got his house torched he deserves all of its value plus interest. That one thinks because his mom isn't even from this country that we've got to take down our flag around him.

"All they ever do is complain how much they want and want and want, while guys like us work to provide for these weak sacks of crap who couldn't even fire a gun if their lives depended on it! They should feel lucky they even got the right to exist! What rights should some useless scum with no talents or skills get besides being tools!?"

"How about dignity as human beings?" Ryuji idly muttered, half to himself.

Unfortunately, Steiner picked up on this, and his temper seemed quite incensed by now. "They ain't humans! They're barely roaches! A roach doesn't deserve any dignity! It doesn't deserve happiness or comfort! It doesn't even deserve to live!

"That's why they have to be dragged out of their delusions, and forced to see that losers don't deserve dignity, and that they don't really deserve happiness, or love, or fulfillment, either!

"Saying everyone deserves happiness makes the masses docile sometimes, but the cold, hard truth is that happiness is only for those that are worthy of it! If you're too weak to be able to seize happiness, then that's too damn bad for you; you just have to accept you're a loser!

"It's not nice, but anyone that knows how things work knows that there'll always be angry losers at the bottom of the food chain! That's how things are: the losers are always the ones who are sacrificed to bring glory to their superiors!

"Showing mercy to trash just makes them delusional, and that's why we've got idiots with troublesome ideals, like in Zaylor, and in here, that need to be smashed before the sparks cause a fire! Mercy really is completely useless on such eyesores, you know—spare your enemy, and he will shoot you the moment you turn your back! It's that kind of weakness that got the prince killed! "

"You got him killed, Steiner," Ryuji suddenly interjected, his tone sharp enough to be heard over the bigger man.

The giant groaned. "Not this again…. I wouldn't have used the Mana Bomb if the dimwit hadn't been stupid enough to get suckered in by the locals and tried to defend the mavericks. I knew he was a naïve little twit all along…but if none of you had the guts to take him out, then I did you a favor! He never should have been in the Magna Centurions in the first place; hell, he shouldn't even have been a prince…."

"Wow." Dan commented at this point. Richard didn't look to him; at the moment, his hand was grasping the fascia so tightly that the metal flashing was ripping apart. "What a class act—and I thought your basic Magna Centurion was bad…"

"His sins are quite longer than what he's outlining," Richard quietly answered as the flashing tore a bit more in his grip. "He's the embodiment of this nation's corruption: claims to be the most devout servant, when he's the epitome of human selfishness, pride, and vanity."

Hey, Boss? Greymont's voice spoke up in Richard's head.

Normally, the prince would have been overjoyed —this was the first Richard had heard from him since the battle, and he sounded healthy again— but he was too focused on the man below. His mind was a mixture of emotions: one half pain and fear, and the other half unfathomable rage.

Is this that guy who nearly killed you? Sure sounds like a jerk….

You have no idea, Richard answered, tightening his grip a bit more. Now the railing really did rip, audibly enough for the others to look to him. As Troy saw this, he chuckled. "Damn, Requiem—have a history with this stuck-up fathead? The guy's right below you, so just kill him now, while you have the drop on him! Come on—you have this big a beef with this guy, then just do it. We can take these posers!"

Richard finally snapped out of it at that. He looked to Dan, who merely shrugged again. "Now, I don't normally go around saying waste whoever you don't like, but I've been on the street long enough to know when you're looking at just another unpleasant fella and when you're looking at a walking scumbag. Go on and take him—you'll make the world a better place." He gestured out a bit. "We may be beat up, but we can take the rest of his little flunkies."

The young man sighed and looked away again. "As revolting as that man is, he is not where he is on title alone. Fighting him would be like fighting Zandoris all over again, only this time we would have to fight someone that was just as strong with him, and maybe even an entire army backing them up. The odds are, without a doubt, not in our favor."

"Fair enough," Dan answered, seeming to let the moment pass. "That means we'd better split as soon as we have the go-ahead, since these meatheads don't seem to be waiting for us."

Below, the two Magna Centurions had gone silent during this, staring at each other with none-too-favorable looks. After a time, Ryuji was the one who broke eye contact, turning to one side as he put a hand to his Codec. After a moment, he looked back to Steiner.

"Chad has more intel for us, and has given a rendezvous; as this area seems clear, we should meet up."

"Fine." Steiner snorted. "Maybe there's some rats over there to make this less than a total loss…. I'll join you in a second." He motioned to one side. "Gotta take a leak."

Ryuji stared back silently a moment, but finally nodded. His hand went up and made a gesture before he turned and started to march in a new direction, his troops rapidly falling in behind him and filing out as well.

As Steiner went off to one side, that left only a minority of the original military members behind. As they thinned out more from there, Richard heard a beep from his Codec. Immediately, he reached up and tapped it to activate. A second later, Voltaire's voice came in.

"Requiem, how are you doing?"

The others quickly tuned in as Richard answered, "We're on the cargo bay's roof; we'll be back in the boxes shortly. What about you?"

"I think I deserve a medal for bold-face lying in the faces of two Magna Centurions and still being alive to boast about it. I'll be fine once I call my parents. The bad news is, the ship can't launch until morning, so I hope those patches to your injuries can hold for several more hours, and that those pillows are comfy."

A few of the Crimson Tengu Ravens grimaced, but they seemed to realize it couldn't be helped. Richard himself looked back to Steiner again, apparently back from his 'leak', which must have been in the gutters or on a building wall, returning to his men to move out.

Richard stared at him for a rather long moment. The prince remembered Zaylor more vividly than ever with him there—not just the fight, but how he treated everyone around him like trash; how he considered the enemies' surrender simply "spoiling his fun".

How much he liked to always boast of his background and power, throwing it around, doing far more damage to the reputation of the Magna Centurions than anyone or anything else; how men like him were the reason things had gotten so bad; how they had taken the situation of his father's lenience and made it worse. He thought of how close he was, easily within jumping distance….

As he thought this, his hand drifted to his sword hilt and grasped it, slowly beginning to expose the blade.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and shook it. Still in a daze and seeing red, Richard snapped around to see who had touched him. He found Dan staring flatly back at him.

"Hey, dude, what's the deal? You said yourself we can't pick a fight now. I don't know how big a beef you have with this guy, but no matter what, now's not the time, right?"

Richard continued to seethe a moment beneath his helmet. His anger was still burning; there Steiner was down there, just as smug as ever…but his logic kicked in. There was more than revenge now.

There were the Ibis Corps, Zandoris, and whoever else was with them; there was Alec Steel, and whatever connection he had to them—and there was the fact that this was a fight they couldn't possibly win. The best he could do was take Steiner with him, and that didn't really amount to much. In the end, picking this fight would be petty and worthless.

Even so, it took pretty much all of his effort and conscious will to push his sword back into its sheath.

"I suppose that is what I said. Damn it—even if we could take him, there's no way we could avoid getting noticed by the others. If the others showed up as well, then any chance of survival would be gone, especially if Fiona arrived. Come on—let's get into position before something happens. Bolton Steiner, your requiem is postponed…for now. "

Troy just snorted before asking, amused, "They really let a dame be a Magna Centurion? Man, she must have gotten cozy with a lot of bigwigs to get that far—maybe even the King himself. Bah—if I wasn't busted up from that Ibis Corps lapdog, I wouldn't be running from some puffed-up woman!"

Richard eyed Troy and then chuckled darkly. "You understand nothing. That mindset would let Fiona Jehu Carollo kill you before you even realized it. I assure you: she did not get to her position by seduction—she got there because she is one of the most vicious and dangerous fighters in Aurino. Today isn't the day to find out what I mean, though—we're going now," he stated the last part with what sounded like repressed fury in his voice as he lead the way to the skylight window.

As the group wearily headed back towards the crates, Richard thought over all that had so-quickly unfolded, looked at his wounded comrades, and grimaced,

Today was supposed to help the Ravens' reputation rise, but all it did was show just how small a fish we are in this pond of a world. I gave it everything I had, and Zandoris was just revved up by it; if he hadn't retreated, we would be dead now. And, as much as I want to kill Steiner, there's no point in killing him just to die shortly afterwards. At least both Chad and Ryuji seem to be mad at Steiner for killing me….

Maybe I have more allies there than I thought; maybe I could even…no. It's too risky; I can't trust anyone but myself, Voltaire, and Uncle Nathan. I have to find a way to stop the Ibis Corps, or at least expose them before whatever they are plotting is accomplished, before I can take such a gamble. I am not going to let them bring about their new, demented era!

Still, we managed to survive, so that's what counts. I have to be more careful from now on, though; another miscalculated mission could be our last. I had some luck today, though—Fiona was here, and it would take a ton of luck just to survive long enough to talk to her if she saw me!

The freshwater spring that eventually grew into a river through Costa Toro wound all around the island's numerous valleys and ravines, frequently passing through residential and commercial districts, before it at last emptied into the sea. A perfect photo opportunity was taking place right now: the sun was going down, and the sky had turned from orange to red, now rapidly fading into purple as night neared.

The night life was not quite as vigorous as it would have normally been, however—people were, for the most part, still huddling indoors, taking the warning that had been issued very seriously, and therefore all the stores, eateries, and bars were closed well before evening descended.

All save one—but not by its owner's choice.

There was one bar on the boardwalk that was open in the most literal sense, the metal shutters broken apart and the door forced open. The last remaining members of the Hydra Wyverns, easily identifiable from their tattoos and numbering five in all, were currently helping themselves to the hard liquor and cash register. They had started with the hard booze, but by now were down to the beers; it was a testament to their stamina that they weren't passed out, but none of them seemed to have all their wits.

The tallest and bulkiest among them, sporting a Mohawk and a pierced nose, chugged the last bit of premium beer from a large glass bottle before smashing it against the counter.

He belched. "Dammit…how long izz't gonna take Genjuro ta' git back 'ere with them goods? Military's already 'ere!" he grumbled in a surly tone. "Loot ain't no good t'us if we git busted before we can git away wit' it…"

"Take it easy, man, yer way too tenz." a smaller, bald gangster said, hunched over on the bar with a three-quarters empty bottle in one hand. He began to wave it listlessly. "No way dey'll find us wit' our sub! Meybe dose Ibis Corpz guyz're tryin' to swindle the boss outta the deal…or somethin'…."

"If dey t'ink they're gonna screw uz over jus' cuz they can do some fancy-schmancy shadow sch…sch…crap," the tall one retorted, "the boss'll stick it to 'em."

"Don' worry," the smaller one spoke up again, pushing his head up a bit. "Hydra Wyvern's gonna be loaded tomorrow…everyone's gonna know how hardcore we are…and then we're gonna throw the biggest, most liquor, women, and drugs party you've ever seen…"

"Ooh, a party!" a woman's voice, quite sober, answered cheerfully. "How fun! Can I join?"

The gangsters, inebriated as they were, nevertheless managed to look up to find out who had just spoken, realizing that there was no females in their midst already. Their heads turned west, toward the direction of the freshwater stream spilling into the ocean.

They forgot all about that —as well as the ocean, the boardwalk, and the booze— a moment later. The most shapely, attractive woman they had ever seen in their lives was advancing on them, glistening with moisture from the freshwater stream and shaking it from her long, thick hair. Of course, the most alluring thing about her was that she was completely naked, save for a necklace with a small knife and a single vambrace.

The only sound that was made over the next several seconds was the sound of the bald one dropping his bottle onto the floor, where it shattered, so he could rub his eyes in disbelief.

"Ah knew diz foreign liquor was hard, but …damn… I must've ate the worm."

The woman giggled and put her left hand on her hip. "Oh, don't worry, boys," she drawled seductively. "I assure you, I'm quite real…and so are these."

As she continued to approach, she put a bit more spring in her step, causing certain parts of her anatomy to bounce up and down. The drunken men watching her practically began to drool as they ogled the sight. One of them began to giggle perversely.

"Ah don't care if I'm imaginin' her 'r not…she'z real enough fer me!"

"Damn, ah need to move out here…."

The tallest man finally staggered off of the bar and onto his feet. He wobbled a bit, but he quickly straightened up and took a step towards her, a hungry, lustful look on his face. "So, uh…what's a nize lady like you doin' walkin' 'round in the evenin' buck naked?"

The woman cutely put a finger to her lips in a mock-thoughtful expression. "Well, I happen to be taking a vacation, and I thought I'd do a little nude sunbathing…" She giggled a bit. "Never tried it before. But I must have fallen asleep, and when I woke up, everyone was gone, so I'm a tad lost…but you boys seem to know where the fun is." She smiled a bit more and turned her head. "Help a girl out? I'll be happy to give you boys a night you won't forget, to say thanks…"

The giggling got louder. The tallest man wiped away a bit of his slobber, but his expression had soured a bit, showing he may have been a tad more sober than he'd let on. "Now, jus' hold on a sec, lady," he answered. "You ain' the firs' whore I've come across, ya' know. I know you must've heard us talkin' 'bout that loot. So ya' think, jus' because yer smokin' hot, we're gonna let you have a cut, you've got another thin' comin'."

"My, so uptight!" the woman answered, coming to a stop a short distance away and folding her hands behind her. "Don't worry; I don't expect anything for free. You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours…and maybe a little more than your back, if you play your cards right…."

The gangsters chuckled a bit at that…in a way a bit dirtier than the giggles. The others began to get up at this point, while the one in the lead started to advance.

"Sheesh, lady…you must be drunker than us, or on something…. Why the hell would any of us pay good money for something we can take for free?"

The looks turned dirtier as the gangsters began to move a bit faster, surrounding the woman. One of them licked his lips, and another was already starting to remove his belt. The only reason they weren't rushing in at once was because there seemed to be an internal dispute of who would get to go first. As for the woman, she looked casually around without seeming too miffed.

At length, as they continued to close in, she sighed: "And you wouldn't even hear my deal…. Oh well. Boys, say hello to my personal toy: the Orchid Beguiler. Now—constrict!"

The men didn't seem to hear or care; they kept moving in. A moment later, a purple aura erupted from the lady's navel, revealing the single metal stud in it; from the glow, it was clearly a wand. Only the tallest man snapped his head down and begin to comprehend what had happened before six vine-like lengths of metal suddenly erupted from beneath the flooring around the five Wyverns. In an instant, as if they were alive, the metal cords lashed around the gangsters, snaking around each of their legs and arms several times before lashing the limbs together, then winding about their torsos and necks.

Drunk as the men were, they nevertheless became alert quite quickly when the metal lengths tightened, especially once it started growing painful. The looks of lust and pleasure quickly morphed into shock and pain.

As for the woman, she kept smiling like a magician doing a trick as she reached her hand with the vambrace behind her back, and brought it around again a moment later with a long purple-and-black handle in it.

She snapped her arm once, and immediately, as if snapping out of thin air, many metal ropes revealed themselves to be attached to it. Five of them were extended into the ground and up again to trap the gangsters, but there were nine in all. As a result, the weapon somewhat like a cat-of-nine-tails, although the length of each metal cord made it seem more like a bullwhip.

Fiona gave it a sharp snap, and immediately the men about her screamed in agony as the lengths coiled tighter. She grinned from ear to ear, then gave the weapon another snap, harder than the first. They screamed even louder, causing her to giggle. "Nothing like landing fish…but, as they say, never mix business and pleasure." Loosening the cords just enough to let them breathe, the woman opened her eyes, her look far more deadly now. "All right, boys—now we'll discuss the deal. You'll get much more than a back scratch if you don't cooperate, whereas if you do I might not turn you into dog chow once this is over."

She watched the few of them who were actually bold enough to struggle; she merely giggled at that. "How cute—trying to get away. Don't bother; manlier men than you have tried and failed. Let's start simple: who are you and your boys, waiting out here for someone to bring you some promised 'loot', hmm?"

The lead gangster, in spite of his situation, was fumbling for his side. There was a gun strapped there, although, as tightly bound as he was, it might as well have been in a safe. That didn't stop him from trying to go for it. "You little bitch…rot in hell. Go fu—"

"Ah, ah—language!" the woman scolded as she tightened one finger's grip on her whip's handle. At once, the length of whip surrounding the wrist of the arm going for the weapon glowed bright red with heat and rapidly contracted, lopping the hand right off of his body.

The resounding scream that resulted caused Fiona to again closer her eyes, tilt her head back, and take in a long, deep breath, as if she was savoring every cracked note. She continued to do so for a few more seconds as the man kept screaming, his fellow gangsters staring in horror.

The cry finally began to diminish as he fell to his knees in his agony, and, after licking her lips, she looked back at him, flicking her hair back. "You boys are quite the gluttons for punishment, aren't you? Well, I can oblige you; after all, you just tried to sexually assault a Magna Centurion—that's a hundred lashes!"

She turned her wrist slightly. Immediately, the lengths of whip snapped loose, causing the tightly bound men to reel back for a moment. A split second later, the ropes rapidly contracted and retracted into the ground—with the five men in tow. The gangsters cried out in alarm and terror as they were smashed into the ground with roughly the same amount of force they might have encountered if they were slammed by a slow-moving hovercar. More cries of pain came out.

"One…."

The cords extended, yanking the men back into the air rather than letting them simply pull themselves up—all of them were too sore and stunned to do so. A second later, it yanked back down and slammed them again. This time, the sounds of a couple bones breaking came out as well.

"Two…."

"Stop! Stop! Please!" the one whose hand had been cut off screamed with all the air he could gather. "We had no idea you were a Magna Centurion!"

The whips loosened, but not enough to let the men up; each gangster remained bound. Fiona looked to the man who had spoken for a moment. After a second, she advanced and extended one of her bare feet, putting it down on the man's skull. Very slowly, she began to shift her weight off of her other foot and onto this one.

"So everything would have been okay if I had been just some helpless stoner, hmm?" she said as she slowly curled toes around, over his face, to position the nails on his throat. "You promise to only violate women who can't fight back from now on, hmm? Men…all the same: loathesome…unsightly…disgusting…eyesores."

Her toenails began to dig into his throat, hard enough to draw blood. As he gurgled in pain, the woman actually looked more pleased than ever, her eyes almost gleaming.

"An apology wasn't what I wanted to hear. How about telling me an answer, before I get any more excited? It would be just like a little boy for you to rupture before we reach the climax…"

The man gurgled something else in response, but, as she couldn't make it out, she eased the pressure just a bit. "What was that?"

"Kill me if you want…I ain't no squealer," he rasped. "Whatever you think you can do to me…it's a spa treatment, compared to what the others'll do…."

"Now, that sounds like a challenge to me," she answered before snapping her wrist, instantly causing metal thorns to erupt from her weapon, all along every length. More screams resulted. She moved her foot and turned her hand again, causing the tallest man to be yanked into the air over her head.

The thorns dug into him deeper, and blood started to roll off of him, running down the cords and dripping down to the floor. The woman casually stuck her tongue out and caught some drops on it like snowflakes. She immediately gulped them down and hummed in delight. "You clearly don't know me very well, if you think dying by my hand is the 'easy' way out…."

"They'd kill my family, too!" the man hoarsely retorted. "You're a Magna Centurion—you wouldn't let innocent people get killed!"

The woman was silent momentarily. She looked into his eyes, and saw the panic and terror inside of them: she seemed to be judging whether or not he was serious. Finally, she giggled.

"Well, it seems you're intent on dying here…but I'm afraid corpses don't have voices, so I can't have that. No matter; there's other ways to make you talk…."

Her empty hand began to rise. The men tensed in terror, expecting something horrible and painful. The extremity ended up drifting to her necklace and taking the scarlet dagger off. The captives' sweat began to mix with their blood, fearing she was about to gut them with it…yet she didn't draw it out of its sheath; instead she pressed a hidden button with her thumb. Instantly, the weapon gave a series of mechanical clicks and whirs, and transformed into an ocarina-like instrument.

It was one-handed, so she shifted her grip and pulled the instrument up to her face. She didn't put her lips on the mouthpiece right away, however.

"Once again…who are you, what are you doing here, and why? Let the truth flow out of you. Ballad of Sincerity."

With that, she began to play. To describe the melody would be impossible, other than that there was something strange about it. It seemed to both follow a meter and not follow one at the same time; to be both in major and minor chords at once…but there was something inexplicably loose about it, flowing and cascading like the stream the woman had come from.

The notes simply kept coming, and there was no way for the men to restrain them. In only a few moments, the pain on the gangsters' faces disappeared and their bodies went still. Their expressions went from tight to calm to utterly blank as their eyes stared at nothing, growing vacant and empty. The effects only proceeded to get worse over the next minute as she kept playing. Finally, one began to speak in a voice void of emotion or care:

"I'm Marco, a Hydra Wyvern. We and the rest of the Hydra Wyverns were going to loot the temple's treasures to make it big in Los Midas. We didn't have the power ourselves, so we decided to work with the Ibis Corps. Our leader needed their help to break through the magical defenses, but also to scare away the locals. My orders were to guard our escape submarine until it was time to escape."

The woman removed her mouth from the ocarina. The men remained hypnotized, but she seemed to frown a bit that this was all he'd responded with. She shrugged after a moment. "Well, if that's all you know, that's all you know. You should just feel lucky that you're all too pathetic for me to bother giving you the 'full session'. Don't worry your little self-preserving heads; you won't even remember you opened your big mouths."

She gave a sharp downward twist with the whip hand. Immediately, the group was flung violently away and smashed against the building's side, but they were simultaneously released as well. They tumbled onto the boardwalk in sore, bleeding, beaten heaps. The impact also seemed to jar them out of the spell's hold, for soon they began to moan and writhe on the ground.

As for the woman, she gave the Orchid Beguiler another snap, making the thorns retract and the whip lengths rapidly recede, like the end of a tape measure. She looked around to make sure no one else was present, and then reached over with the hand holding the ocarina and tapped a button on her vambrace with her pinkie finger. A small blip of static came out.

"Chad, do you read me?" Without waiting for a response, she continued, "Tell the others that I was successful in catching some fish. Slimy as they were, they had a bit of good meat in them. It's worse than we thought—this was more than just a heist.

"Those Ibis Corps mercs we keep hearing rumors about were part of this one, and they were looking for something in the temple. I suggest we scour this province with a fine-toothed comb to make sure none of them are hiding here; tell Ryuji and Steiner to meet me here posthaste."

She gave a glance to the pile of beaten gangsters.

"Oh, yes—and send a few cops and an ambulance while you're at it; I've got some attempted rapists here in need of casts and jail sentences. That's all."

Once again not waiting for verification, she switched the transmitter off. After replacing her weapon in its holster and doing the same with her ocarina after reverting it to its dagger-like shape, she stretched and gave a smile as she enjoyed the breeze from the ocean.

"Moon's coming out for a lovely evening…. Looks like it wasn't a waste to come here after all. I'm glad that I could reach out to the locals before tensions boiled over to another bloodbath.

"Still, these Ibis Corps are being quite pesky lately. I wonder, just what are those shady bastards up to? It doesn't seem to be merely for wealth…whatever they're up to, hopefully we can find out their true agenda before they can enact it. Well, the scum may have gotten away this time, but next time I won't let those terrorists elude me.

"Let's hope these idiots didn't know the good wine, to drink it first," she muttered as she turned and headed toward the bar.