52. Teamwork
Okay. Alright. What the fuck was any of that!?
Right!? What happened to her? Oh my gosh, that was terrifying!
I'm just standing like a statue outside of Luna and Castalia's dorm, still reeling over everything that just happened. I don't know if I've ever felt a burst of fear that dense before. It spooked me straight out of bed and into incarnate form. I thought one of the others got into a fight and was about to die! Or maybe that Amalthea girl was attacking people, but… I get there, and there are no signs of battle. Not even a mundane one. There's nothing.
Nothing but Luna, rapidly walking away from the site in a panic. Which is when I realize that was her fear, which means whatever happened scared her so bad that a probably normal human started leaking enough magic to subtly warp reality. The kind of terror that could make a bullet near-miss, or let a man tackle a kid just in time to stop them from being hit by a car. Hardly unheard of, but definitely rare. Put that kind of raw power in a formalized spell, and you have yourself real fucking magic.
So, you know, naturally I assume she's in danger, right? But when I try to help, she just gets more afraid. Absolutely terrified, with a disturbing undercurrent of hopelessness to it all. I try to help her home, try to talk to her the way Chloe talks to me, but she just… goes silent. More than usual, I mean. And then her emotions get really weird, shuffling and shifting around so fast they become impossible to follow.
Fear, yeah, but also anger, disgust, sorrow, hate, grief… basically everything on the color wheel except happiness and pride. And then she slammed the door in my face, cut me out of everything. I guess I can't really blame her. We weren't really getting along the last time we talked.
Still not sure how I feel about all that.
I mean, I think Chloe made it pretty clear. We overreacted and freaked out over nothing. Same as usual.
We definitely overreacted, but… things don't quite make sense, still. Especially now.
Well… yeah, true. Not sure what we can do about it, though. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Kicking off the ground, I fly back to my dorm because why the fuck not. I open the door to find a disheveled Chloe curled up on the couch, the TV playing a quiet video while her baggy eyes work to stay awake by focusing on it as hard as possible. She shuts the TV off as soon as I step in, though, her exhausted focus turning to me.
"You're back," she says. "That was fast. Is Luna okay?"
"No," I say. "No, she's really not. I'm pretty sure she isn't injured, though."
"That's something, I guess," Chloe sighs. "What happened?"
"I have absolutely no idea," I say. "She wouldn't tell me anything."
"Typical," Chloe groans, sinking back into the couch. "God. How bad was it?"
"Uh… emotionally?" I ask. "Bad. Real bad. Maybe like, maximum bad."
"Shit," Chloe says. "That's a high bar, coming from you."
"Thanks?" I try. I have been trying to train my emotional intensity more, but I don't get the impression she's trying to compliment me for some reason.
I think she's implying we get as bad as Luna. Emotionally.
What? Really? Well… I mean, it's our job to be that scared and angry. We use it for stuff. It's totally different.
…I guess.
"For god's sake, Fulgora, don't thank me," Chloe groans, which… okay, I guess. "So what do we do?"
"Uh… why are you asking me?" I blink.
"…Good point," Chloe admits. "Okay. Screw it. I'm too exhausted for this. We'll figure something out tomorrow. Drop by in the morning, make sure she's going to classes, make plans to meet up afterwards. We'll… we'll frame it as wanting to introduce you to Bean."
"What?" I ask. "Introduce me to a bean?"
"Luna's best friend Bean?" Chloe says. "They're meeting each other for the first time and staying over at her and Castalia's place? We've definitely talked about this; you were there."
"Uh… I don't remember anything like that, sorry," I say.
Chloe pinches the bridge of her nose.
"Okay," she says. "I'm going to bed. You should too."
"I'll try," I say, and she gets up and heads to her room. I stay right where I am for a while, incarnate form still buzzing with strength. I'm still a little pissed at Luna, but I'll kick the ass of whoever did this to her. I'd kick the ass of anyone who did this to anybody! Fuck!
Hey, calm down. We're shaking.
Huh? Oh. Yeah, tremors are running through my whole body right now. That was… a lot. I had no idea what to do for any of that. I have no idea what to do about anything. I just… I just fight. I'm not prepared for this.
There's nothing I can do.
Somehow, I manage to fall asleep about an hour later, waking up to shrill chirps of birdsong that never seem quite as beautiful when they're acting as an unwanted alarm clock. Still, fitful sleep is nothing new, and being tired is no excuse to avoid work, so I force myself out of bed, getting dressed in one of the outfits Chloe picked out for me while she, Luna, Castalia, and I all went shopping together that one time. God, I still can't believe Luna stepped in and pepper-sprayed the inside of Anath's mouth. She could have gotten her hand bitten off!
Seeing her thrashing on the floor afterwards was hilarious, though.
…Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome.
Anyway, we should go eat breakfast so Chloe doesn't yell at us when she gets up.
Chloe never yells!
She wants to yell.
…She definitely wants to yell. Yeah, okay, let's… go do that.
A quick bowl of milk and Wheaties is enough to fill my stomach, though I try not to wish we had some of Chloe and Luna's leftovers to reheat. The two of them cook too much for us already, and food is food. As long as it keeps the body running, it's enough. I drink the vaguely wheat-flavored milk from the bowl when I'm done. It's not really pleasant, but it would be rude to waste anything.
Chloe wakes up about half an hour later, dragging herself through her usual morning routine while I do warm-ups and stretches behind the couch. She eats quickly, though, and soon enough the two of us are heading over to Castalia's place. I realize as we're walking over that I don't actually have any idea if anyone in their house is awake this early, but moments after Chloe knocks on the door, Luna answers it.
The girl looks miserable, and she feels worse. Hair disheveled, clothes wrinkled… shit, is that the same outfit as yesterday? I don't have a good enough memory to know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't sleep a wink.
"Luna," Chloe greets with a soft smile. "Hey."
Luna just responds by putting one finger to her lips in a shushing gesture, a quick glance behind her revealing a black girl sleeping on her couch. Er… or maybe a black guy? I can't really tell from this angle, but I assume that's Bean.
"Gotcha," Chloe whispers, at which point Luna steps to the side to let us in. Hopelessness and sorrow still oozes off of her in such volumes that even my barely empathetic ass couldn't possibly miss it.
And she still cared enough to make sure we didn't wake up her friend.
Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It's the little things, I guess. I feel like such an idiot about our argument.
There's definitely something she's hiding, to be fair. Something big. But the important thing is that she's our friend, and she's the friend of our best friend, and she's suffering. We need to get to the bottom of whatever it is.
"Yeah, we've eaten breakfast. Thanks for asking," Chloe says, which… huh? Oh, right, Luna must have signed a question. "So, um… well, I guess there's no point beating around the bush with you. Eliza told me what happened last night."
Luna nods, resigned.
"Can… can you tell me what happened?" Chloe asks.
Luna shakes her head.
"Can you tell me why?"
Luna shakes her head, her emotions intensifying. It's honestly a little uncomfortable to be close to.
"Can we help in any way?" Chloe presses, once again receiving nothing but a shake of the head. So rather than trying to talk anymore, Chloe just reaches out and gives Luna a hug.
Luna stiffens up, not seeming to particularly enjoy the embrace at all, but she closes her eyes and lets the hug finish before pulling away. Afterwards, she pulls out her phone and starts typing.
"I'll be fine," her phone blurts out. "Thank you, though. You're a really good friend."
"…I do my best," Chloe says. "But I hope you'll forgive me if I keep trying to find ways to help."
"Please don't," Luna types. "Have you two eaten breakfast?"
"Yep," Chloe confirms. "Well, I think so. You ate breakfast, right Fulgora?"
"Yeah," I confirm. "How'd you know I'm Fulgora?"
"Minerva would have said something by now," Chloe says, which… fair.
I also would have joined in on the hug.
Yeah I'm not really much of a hugger. My musings on the subject are interrupted when the person on the couch starts to stir, though. Bean groggily rises, glancing over at us with a bleary look on… her face? His face? Pretty sure she's a she.
"Hey…?" Bean says.
"Oh, good morning! Sorry, did we wake you up?" Chloe asks while Luna types rapidly.
"Chloe, Eliza, this is Bean. They are my best friend," Luna introduces, which… really? They? That doesn't answer the question at all.
What? Yes it does?
What do you… oh! Oh, right. I forgot nonbinary people exist.
Yeah I hear that's a common problem for them. Maybe never say that out loud ever.
I-I wasn't going to!
"Hi," Bean says. "Sorry, gimmie a sec to become conscious. Uh… which door is the bathroom again?"
Luna points, and Bean nods, dragging their body up off the couch to relieve themself. Luna busies herself in the kitchen, slapping a buttered skillet onto a hot plate and cracking some eggs over it to cook them. Despite the fact that I already told her I ate breakfast, she asks if I want any, and… okay, yeah, I totally do. She obligingly cracks a few more onto the pan, and I feel awful for making her do more work while she's feeling terrible.
Don't be silly. You felt that tiny little spark of happiness, right?
Not… really?
Oh. I guess it was kind of getting drowned out in all the… yeah. But she likes doing things for people. She likes cooking. She likes helping. She started all this up to deal with her own stress.
Oh. I guess that makes sense. Well, I'm glad I'm not adding to her problems. …Whatever the fuck those problems are. Like this shit is… I don't even know where to start.
Yeah. I don't know either. I mean, Chloe doesn't even know, so we're gonna be totally hopeless!
True that. I just hope there's someone or something I can beat the shit out of that will solve this problem. That I could handle.
Heck yeah, solving problems with violence rocks!
Yeah. …Hey wait, no.
Hehe.
A massive outflow of joy heralds what I assume to be Castalia waking up, though that unimaginable gulf in power has admittedly been feeling a little closer lately. I'm not sure if that means I've gotten that much stronger, or if Castalia has gotten that much more depressed, but… well, it's hard to imagine her as 'depressed' with this kind of happiness filling the air. Then again, I don't think she knows what happened with Luna yet, and if anything will depress her enough to notice, it'll be that. The door to her room unlocks and opens, Castalia floating out and glancing between the three of us, clearly picking up on the mood.
"…What happened?" Castalia asks.
"We'll tell you later," Chloe butts in before I can respond.
"Oh," Castalia says. "Okay."
Soon enough, Bean is out of the bathroom as well, and they sit down to eat eggs with Castalia and me. Luna, notably, doesn't make any for herself, just like Chloe was talking about. Then again, if I were as stressed as she is right now, I wouldn't have any appetite either. And for all I know, she already ate. She was already awake when we got here, after all. Once we're all done, it's time to start heading for classes, which Luna joins us for. So… that's good. Chloe was really worried she'd skip out and end up doing something stupid. Even Bean walks with us, despite not actually being a student or having anywhere in particular to go.
"You're that other Earth Guardian, right?" Bean asks me.
"Huh?" I blink. "Oh, uh. Yeah. That's me."
"Cool," is all they say to that, which I suppose I'm thankful for.
As is often the case when we travel as a group, we all end up following Chloe as she leads the way, the girl happily chatting over her shoulder or occasionally straight-up walking backwards to maintain eye contact while in front. When we make it to our first destination, I belatedly realize that we made it to Luna's class first, even though my class would have been closer.
Tricky! Good job, Chloe.
With Luna dropped off, the four of us walk away together without her. We all look at each other, knowing exactly what's about to happen.
"Bean," Chloe starts. "Do you know anything about what happened last night?"
"Nnnnope," they say. "Only thing she's said to me since she left on her little night walk was introducing you two. Hi, by the way. I assume we're forming a Luna Alliance?"
"Yeah, basically," Chloe confirms. "That girl needs help. Sorry that this is such a weird way to meet."
"Eh, most of my relationships are online," Bean shrugs. "Starting off with the trauma-dumping is well-trodden ground for me."
"…I did not know normal humans could be that sad," Castalia chimes in. "She was not that upset when I went to sleep. What have I missed?"
"That's what we're all trying to figure out," Chloe says. "Fulgora?"
"Uh, right, yeah," I say. "So… I woke up last night when I felt this huge burst of fear. I thought it was a monster attack, or Amalthea casting something, so I flew out and… I didn't find anything there but Luna. Who was like, totally unharmed, but completely freaking out."
"From the way Fulgora described it to me, I think Luna was having a panic attack," Chloe says. "But she refuses to tell anyone why."
"Okay," Bean says. "I think I have a few important things to add, then."
"Oh, thank god," Chloe sighs. "Please, by all means."
"Right. So first of all, Luna and I have been friends for a long time. Like… I dunno, probably at least five or six years. We'd chat pretty much every single day. But around the end of spring, she suddenly just… vanished. Completely fell out of contact. And she stayed that way for three months. I thought she'd died."
"Oh, shit. Okay," Chloe says.
"And something she told me not to tell any of you, but I'm going to tell you anyway because fuck absolutely everything that's going on here right now, is that she was not mute before she disappeared. She didn't know sign language either. That's like, entirely new."
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"Wait, really?" Chloe asks. "No way she's only been learning ASL for three months. She's super quick and fluent."
"…Agreed," Castalia frowns. "She signs with the deftness of someone who has done it her whole life."
"Well, I don't know what to tell you other than she hasn't," Bean shrugs. "So anyway, when she got back, she refused to tell me anything that happened. In fact, she made it clear several times over that she couldn't tell me what happened. She implied that I would be in danger if she did tell me. Like she was being monitored or watched. Like someone or something would hurt me if I ever found out."
"She often leaves the dorm after I go to bed," Castalia comments. "She has told me she has insomnia and often needs to walk to clear her head. That is why she carries pepper spray. She travels alone at night."
"How often does she do it?" Chloe asks.
"I don't know," Castalia answers. "I am usually asleep. I would suspect at least once a week. It isn't always at night, though, so it could be more."
"If it's at least once a week, that could be like… regular check-ins with whoever is monitoring her," Bean says. "My running theory is that she got caught up in some secret government magical program."
"Government program…?" Castalia asks, tilting her head. "They are not allowed to have such things."
"Uh, well that's literally never stopped a government before, and I doubt it's going to stop them now," Bean says. "But while Luna denied being an Earth Guardian, she's never denied being involved with magic to some degree."
Oh, shit. Okay. That… was I right this whole time?
"Castalia, I'm not the only one who's noticed she has kind of a weird soul, right?" I ask.
"Souls and the emotional expressions thereof are not particularly standardized as a general rule," Castalia says. "There is nothing intrinsically suspicious about abnormal emotional responses."
"But…?" I press.
"…But yes, I have noticed," Castalia concedes.
"So something is threatening her, they're probably magical, and they're making her feel so overwhelmingly helpless that she'll barely say a word to anyone," I summarize. "Luna, who normally says whatever shit she's thinking whenever the hell she wants. So whatever's threatening her is someone she thinks can back up the threat even though she's friends with the most powerful person in the world. This kinda fuckin' narrows things down, doesn't it?"
"…Melpomene," Castalia says, coming to the same conclusion as me. "Of course. That's why she… oh no. Oh no."
"What?" I ask.
"Melpomene is targeting her because of me," Castalia says. "Because she's my roommate."
"Oh, fuck," I say. "Fuck! Of course the Corrupted would go after her, what have we even been thinking!?"
That's why she got so mad at us! We were accusing her of being associated with the people threatening her! Which was true, but… god fucking damn it. She's obviously not doing it because she wants to. I'm so stupid. I'm so stupid!
"Well… we can protect her from Melpomene, right?" I say, turning to Castalia. "As long as we stick together with her, Melpomene won't be able to do anything. Not with you there, right? We'll confront her, let her know we know and that we're helping whether she wants it or not, and bam. Problem solved. She's certainly butted into our business enough times that she can't complain if we return the favor."
"I'm… not sure," Castalia answers, a rare frown on her face.
"Woah, woah, everyone hold up!" Bean says. "We can't tell her about any of this!"
"Uh… why not?" Chloe asks.
"I don't know, but we can't!" Bean says. "It's something she was super clear on. She explicitly said to me that if I ever figure out what's going on with her, I shouldn't tell her that I know. Like, just the act of her knowing that we know would cause some kind of problem. I'm not sure why, but she was extremely serious about it."
"Well that's terrifying," Chloe says. "Is there mind-reading magic or something?"
"Not that I know of," Castalia says. "But… maybe. I would not call it impossible."
"Okay, we don't confront Luna, then," I say. "We just head to the Dark Rebellion's stupid castle and blow it up. Problem finally solved."
"You know I can't do that," Castalia says. "But everyone please stop talking for a moment."
I open my mouth to ask 'why?' but manage to close it in time. Chloe and Bean also stay quiet, Castalia taking a moment to herself to think. Eventually, she speaks again.
"…This doesn't make sense," she concludes.
"What doesn't?" I ask.
"All of it," Castalia says. "It doesn't make sense. The Dark Rebellion doesn't gain anything from this."
"I mean, they get a spy to live with you," Bean points out. "That's pretty big."
"They don't need to spy on me," Castalia insists. "Why would they need to spy on me? On any of us? They have not placed any particular effort into avoiding us, so they do not need to track our movements. They cannot be using her to keep track of our combat capabilities, since Luna does not come with us when we train. And they cannot be using her to keep track of our plans, because we do not have any. Earth Guardians go to convergences and defend them. That is the entirety of our planning, always. There is no relevant intelligence to be gained from a mole in Luna's position."
I… huh. That's actually a pretty good point. What would Luna even tell them? She hasn't been digging into any information in regards to my Earth Guardian activities, she's just been… hanging out with us.
"Hmm… yeah. And what about the mall?" Chloe asks. "That squirrel girl who tried to attack Eliza was a member of the Dark Rebellion, right? If Luna was getting threatened by them, why would she have stepped up and unloaded a can of mace into her mouth?"
"W-wait, hold up, Luna did what?" Bean asks.
That's… also a good point. Luna wasn't scared back then, she was pissed.
"Yeah… Luna's pretty fearless," Chloe says. "That's part of why it's so worrying that she's freaking out over something right now."
"Fearless?" Bean says. "You sure we're talking about the same Luna? My Luna has always been a bundle of high-pressure anxieties."
"Really?" Chloe asks. "I've always felt like she's the most put-together out of all of us. If something needs done, she's always taking charge and doing it. She's got a really forceful personality. In a good way, but… yeah."
"I… I legitimately can't believe that," Bean admits. "But I guess she's been pretty damn different after coming back from… wherever she was all summer."
"That's the other thing that doesn't make sense," Castalia says. "If the Dark Rebellion targeted her because of her association with me, it doesn't explain that absence, which occurred before we were roommates."
"Well, I mean, you two were still classmates last year, right?" Bean asks.
"What?" Castalia blinks. "No we weren't."
"…Yes you were?" Bean says.
"No," Castalia repeats. "We weren't. The first time I met her was when she became my roommate."
"You took an introductory computer science class last year," Bean says. "Luna sat behind you. She's talked about it several times before. Including the day she disappeared, actually. She talked about how a Preserver showed up in her class and whisked you away."
Castalia is silent for a while, digesting that information.
"…That's all true," she says. "I was in that class when the kaiju attacked last spring. But… there was no one who looked anything like Luna in that class. And as far as I know, no one by that name."
There's another long pause as all of us try to process that.
"So. Secret government magical program?" Bean suggests again.
"I am… slightly more convinced," Castalia admits.
"Magic can give someone a new body, right?" Chloe says. "Or change their current body."
"It can and does," Castalia confirms, "but it is usually quite temporary."
"The real bodies of the Dark Rebellion are all mutated to hell," I point out. "But Luna just… looks like a normal person. So whatever's up with her can't be whatever happened to them."
"Secret. Government. Magic. Program," Bean presses. "It explains everything!"
"Unlike the Dark Rebellion, the government would have reason to want to keep tabs on Castalia, right?" Chloe says. "And they could arrange for your roommate to be whoever they wanted."
"But Luna is not a spy!" Castalia insists, her voice noticeably louder than usual, though not quite a shout.
"…Yeah, even though it's my idea the 'spy' thing kind of falls flat. Luna is such a shit liar," Bean frowns.
"So what is she?" I ask. "Who is she? Because the one thing I am learning about all of this is that she's lied to us about way more than we initially thought she did. I don't know what the shit is going on anymore, but the shit definitely stinks."
We make it to the next-closest classroom, which happens to be mine. Anger's bubbling up inside me again, everything I thought I knew about someone my friends care about suddenly coming into question.
"…Let's try not to forget we're having this talk because of how unbelievably miserable Luna is right now," Chloe says softly. "Whatever's happening, it's clearly not something she wants."
"Does it matter?" I ask. "After this many secrets, after all this shit she's apparently been lying to our faces about, isn't it kind of her fault? She won't even talk to us. If she wants to handle it all herself, maybe we just let her."
"Eliza—" Chloe starts, but I cut her off.
"It's Fulgora," I insist. "And it's really starting to feel like that's the only reason Luna bothered to get close to us."
I stomp off into class, already regretting letting my temper take charge a little bit, but come on! At best, she's part of some shady organization trying to spy on us. At worst, she's working for the people who nearly killed Veritas and Aurora.
She's in trouble, though. Shouldn't we help her and give her a chance to explain herself before we judge her?
We did give her a chance to explain herself. She refused to do so! Look, there's a convergence tonight anyway. We should focus on getting through classes and preparing for that anyway.
Well, that's true. A good training session with the team should help a lot with clearing our head anyway.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Let's just… table all of this stuff until later.
And we should at least try to pay attention to school in the meantime.
I am trying!
Classes feel like they pass a lot slower than usual today, dragging on as the teacher drones away and tries to fill my head with information that doesn't seem to do anything but bump into and flop off my thoughts like a drunk bumblebee. But eventually, finally, I'm done with classes for the day and can head for Earth Guardian HQ. Minerva and I swap places on the way, my own thoughts melding comfortably into the background of hers as she preps to lead her team.
Which I'm going to do great at! Aurora and Veritas have both been making excellent strides in combat, and we've even been doing more spars with each other focusing on fighting other magical warriors rather than monsters, which as we've clearly learned requires a completely different approach. Unless we're fighting Anath. She just kinda runs right at us.
"Oɴᴄᴇ Aɢᴀɪɴ, I Fɪɢʜᴛ," I incant, power flooding my body and tucking it safely away as my true self manifests into the world in its place. "Bʀᴀᴠᴇ Pʀɪɴᴄᴇss Dᴜᴛɪғᴜʟ Mɪɴᴇʀᴠᴀ."
I step through the magical gateway to our base after activating my incarnate form, ending up in the familiar pristine-white teleportation hall. The entire place looks identical to how it used to before the Dark Rebellion blew the place up a while back. Construction took less than a month, though, and now it's like nothing even happened.
Lifting up off the ground, I float into the hall instead of walk just because I can and head towards where I suspect Veritas will be waiting for me, and Aurora too depending on how early she got out of chores for her mom. Initially, it seems like she beat me, since I can hear Veritas talking rather animatedly at someone as I approach her room, but it quickly becomes clear it isn't Aurora that she's talking to. And… I don't think it's Uma'tama or Amaterasu either.
"Just leave me alone!" Veritas snaps. "I never asked for you or your help! I'll eat what I want, when I want to!"
"Veritas?" I call out, turning the corner to see her yelling at… uh. Is that a human?
It is a human. An older woman, probably about… well, honestly, I'm no good at guessing any ages over like twenty, but she's definitely not an Earth Guardian. She's wearing a long-sleeved blouse and a floor-length skirt, and her somewhat pale face has quite the stern expression as she glares down at my teammate.
"You're skin and bones, girl. Didn't you say you want to be strong?" she asks.
"My real body is plenty strong!" Veritas snaps back.
"Uh, hello?" I try again. "Veritas, what's going on? Who is this?"
"Minerva!" Veritas perks up, turning to look at me with the same expression she uses when I save her from a monster about to bite her throat out. "This lady keeps trying to tell me what to do!"
"You're Minerva, then?" the human asks, turning to me with a considering gaze. "Hmm. I'm Mrs. Mckay. The Preservers have hired me to stay on base and take care of you girls."
"The Preservers did?" I ask, but… hmm. I guess I did hear something like that from Uma'tama. A 'caretaker' or something. I think they also mentioned something about a 'thoughts doctor?' "Well, it's good to meet you, Mrs. Mckay. Has Veritas not been eating?"
"She's only been eating junk food," Mrs. Mckay complains.
"Uma'tama lets me eat whatever I want!" Veritas insists.
"…It can be pretty nice to have a full, hot meal sometimes," I try. "You like macaroni and cheese, right Veritas? Didn't Uma'tama get you some of that?"
"They got me boxes of dry noodles and entire blocks of cheese," Veritas frowns.
"Hmm. Well, I could make homemade mac and cheese out of that," Mrs. Mckay tries. "How about that? Minerva, can you show me where any of those ingredients are?"
"Sure, Mrs. Mckay, but then we'll be heading off for training," I nod. "There's going to be a convergence tonight."
"Oh," Mrs. Mckay says, concern briefly touching her features. "Is that why you're here? Veritas said you'd be by today, but…"
"Uh… I mean, yeah that's why I'm here," I confirm, floating over to one of the weird slide-open cupboards that are more or less hidden all over the place.
"How often do you come by to visit Veritas?" she asks.
"Well, we train at least three times a week," I answer. "Usually more."
"So you only come by for training?" she presses.
"Training and missions, yeah," I confirm. "But I'm doing that as often as I possibly can. Whenever I'm not at school or patrolling or doing something my friends make me do, I'm here. We train for like, four to eight hours a day?"
"…I liked it when we went out to eat after that mission a few days ago," Veritas says.
"Oh," I say. "Okay. We can do that more, if you want."
"Cool," Veritas says, while the new… nanny? I guess? Just flicks her gaze back and forth between the two of us, not looking particularly happy for whatever reason. Honestly, I can't say I'm happy she's here either. Having a normal human in the base is weird. Now I have to be afraid I'll accidentally break her.
It's SUPER uncomfortable, yeah. I don't like it at all.
"Well, here's the noodles, and I assume the cheese is in the fridge, which is that closet-looking thing over there that's built into the wall," I say, pointing it out. "You wanna start with warm-ups while she's doing that, Veritas?"
Normally we'd wait until Aurora gets here to start, but both of us want to get away from this lady, so she nods and we head for the training room.
"Thanks for saving me there," Veritas says, hopping a little bit as she walks to keep up with my pace. "I don't get why Uma'tama says I'm supposed to listen to some random lady all of a sudden."
"I think it's… politics? Or something?" I hedge, not really understanding it myself.
"Well, it sucks," Veritas declares. "My parents are gone forever. That's supposed to mean I never have to listen to adults ever again."
I hesitate. I've… never really had any idea what to do when Veritas starts talking about her parents. I just have Jim. I've had Jim for as long as I remember. I don't know what having parents is even like.
"…Oh yeah?" I manage.
"Yeah," Veritas confirms with a scowl. "No one else gets to act like they're my mom. Not Uma'tama, and definitely not her."
I hesitate. This… seems bad. I don't know what to do… hmm. What would Chloe do?
"Can I… hug you, Veritas?" I ask.
"Um, what?" Veritas asks.
"Do you want a hug?" I repeat. "This just seems like kind of a hug-worthy situation, I think."
"I… okay?" Veritas says, immediately seeming slightly offended at herself for agreeing to it, but it's too late, I'm wrapping my arms around her for my absolute best-quality hug. Chloe has given me lots of practice!
"No one's ever going to replace them, okay?" I promise her. "But that doesn't mean you can't accept help from people who want to make sure you're happy and healthy."
"O-okay!?" Veritas squeaks. I break off the hug, smiling at her and finding her looking more embarrassed than I've ever seen before. "Who are you and what have you done with Minerva!?"
"What? Hey!" I protest, playfully pushing her away. "I've just been trying to get better at emotional stuff lately. In like, a not purely firepower-based way."
"Again: who are you and what have you done with Minerva?" Veritas repeats, pouting adorably at me. "C-come on, let's just fight already."
"Alright," I agree, summoning my gunstaff. "I've been working on that lately, too."
Veritas and I spar for nearly half an hour before Aurora finally shows up, and then I take them both on at the same time, doing my best to drill them in teamwork and coordination. That is, after all, by far their biggest advantage over older, more powerful magic users.
Veritas and Aurora are already very in-synch with each other, with Veritas having long since learned to trust Aurora's mind, while Aurora knows to always back up Veritas' quick instincts. At the stage they're at now, the two of them could easily overcome the strength I had when I first started leading them. But of course, they aren't the only ones who have improved.
The two of them dance in step with me, Aurora's orbs striking at me from behind while Veritas' shield dominates most of my vision immediately in front, her lance snapping out from behind it with powerful blows that don't leave any space for an easy counterattack. Yet still, they're slower than me, and even combined I find myself weaving between their attacks with even more ease than I could before they were this good.
There's just something… different now. I don't know what it is. I don't even feel super scared all the time anymore, but I'm stronger than I've ever been. I've hit some kind of… something with my training that has tipped me over an edge I didn't know existed, and all of a sudden everything is just so much easier. I almost took down Nanaya. Nanaya, who when we first met was so overwhelmingly above me in strength that I had no choice but to run without even trying. Nanaya, who once devastated my entire team working together without even breaking a sweat. And yet, somehow, I caught up to her.
And I'm only going to keep growing from here. Finally, finally, I can believe that I will be strong enough. That I'll even catch up to Castalia herself. I don't know where the feeling comes from or why I can believe it, but it feels incredible.
I wish I had your confidence. Because personally? I still don't think we're anywhere close.
Really? Even after how far we've come?
How far YOU'VE come. Nanaya still kicked MY ass.
Uh… that's not how I remember it. You two were hammering on each other! By the time I came out to clean things up, she was halfway beaten already. The only reason I knocked her out and you didn't was because I fought her second. And I still barely got the draw.
I guess. But that's just all the more reason not to assume we'll overtake her, isn't it?
Maybe? I dunno. I guess I just don't agree.
Why?
Because I believe in us, I guess? I believe in myself, and I believe in you.
Oh. Well that's fucking weird.
Haha! Well, no one has ever accused me of being normal! I duck under a strike from Veritas that was far too impatient and immediately go on the offensive, breaking her footwork and stepping in to use her as a shield against Aurora's attacks. Immediately, Aurora aborts her attempted strike, her weapons spinning around me to try and find angles to attack that won't put her partner at risk, forcing me to keep fighting against a struggling Veritas at a disadvantage.
Still, I pull through, knocking Veritas to the floor and quickly overwhelming Aurora without her partner there to help her. Still, the two of them did great, and I help them both up with a smile on my face.
"Good job today, girls!" I tell them. "We should probably call it here so you two can restore your strength for tonight. Uma'tama says there's a higher-than-usual chance this will be a swarm, but we can handle a measly swarm, right?"
"Yeah!" Aurora agrees, Veritas nodding solemnly.
"Heck yeah," I confirm. "So let's kick some butt tonight!"
After all the stress this morning, being able to take it all out on a bunch of monsters sounds perfect. And even if it gets bad… I'm sure the three of us can pull through.