Misery Loves Company

She was being followed.

They were attempting to hide their presence for the time being, but that was easier said than done when it came to Mercury. Her radars were not often fooled by magic tricks, her advanced biology able to sense things far beyond the average mortal of this world. Add that to having direct access and control of the largest cashe of prototype and alien wares on Earthland, mixed with her own superior technological intellect, and it was actually very difficult to pull the wool over her eyes, though she often went along as though she were none-the-wiser to lead people astray – much like she was doing now, in fact.

These people were clever, whoever they were, but considering that Mercury was quite literally born into the life of an elite spy and assassin it was quite easy to recognize their movements and the patterns they used to track her. There were twenty of them in total, some of them keeping ahead of her and some behind, the entire group forming a loose circle around her as she moved through the crowded market streets Crocus. It was obvious they were waiting for an opportunity to confront her in a place where there weren’t too many people around. She had a feeling that had less to do with collateral damage and more to do with not wanting to draw attention to themselves, which could only mean one thing: the Dread Masters had arrived.

Mercury and the du Wolffs had been on high alert basically since the day after the welcome feast they had thrown her people. Vandrad had expressed his opinion that his enemies might make a move sooner rather than later while they perceived them to be weak, and unfortunately his theory seemed to be proving correct. Mercury sighed inwardly, knowing she was about to lose many of the supplies she had just purchased while out and about looking for things that might help the Xocili get a jump start on their new lives. In her head, she sent out a quick group message to Vandrad, Gren, Themmy, Mythal, Serilda, and her father with a simple note that merely stated: I am being followed. Be on your guards.

She was unaware how far too late it was for such a message to be going out, of course, as she was one of the last to be pulled into a several prong attack that was already underway. The truth surely would not take long to be realized, but for now she remained genuinely ignorant. Zemenar was the first to respond, which was of little surprise. Her father was always eager to share a word or conversation with her, and given his own biology he was able to receive, process, and respond to such messages with as much lightning speed as herself. He reached back out with a quick acknowledgement of her message, assuring her that he and the others on the island would be vigilant, though there was very little probability that anything would come their way. It didn’t hurt to be prepared, however.

Mercury had half a mind to simply open up a portal and disappear somewhere else, knowing that the simple maneuver would at least temporarily confound her assailants as they would have to scramble to figure out where she had teleported to and follow after her. Then again, it’s not like the Dread Masters didn’t know about her translocation ray at this point, particularly after her kidnapping of Patricia Reeves. Just how much effort had they gone through to ensure they could follow her, even if she teleported away? She supposed there was only one way to find out. Without tipping her hand, she pulled her translocater out of her small pack and gave it a casual little twirl. “Let’s go, Bandit! We’ve still got a couple more shops to hit.”

The crow cawed at her from his current perch on top of the stall of a street vender before flying down and landing on her shoulder. She could already sense the group of her stalkers quickly converging to one location nearby as she opened a portal with her gun and walked through, the gateway snapping shut behind her after only a second or two. On the other side Mercury had emerged in Era, not too far from the headquarters of the Rune Knights. If the Dread Masters didn’t wish to confront her before witnesses then Era was a safe place to collect a control study, seeing as how the Rune Knights were likely the last people that they wanted to draw attention from, particularly with Mythal and Serilda, so Mercury had calculated a high probability that while her pursuants would follow her to Era they would likely continue to merely observe rather than reveal themselves.

Her theory proved to be correct, and she was impressed to discover that it hadn’t taken the entire group of them to materialize around her within less than thirty seconds. That left her with a great number of questions, of course. It was no easy feat to follow someone through such a manner, so she could only assume that Maker had crafted something to aid them. She wondered briefly if the extraterrestrial engineer was among their numbers, but it seemed unlikely. He was more likely to hide behind a monitor until he was sure that he had the upper hand. Most likely this was just another test of her abilities for him to attempt to collect data. Very well – two could play at that game.

Moving along as normal, she swung by another vendor or two and chatted them up about their wares and asking into some of the supplies she was looking for. As she did so, she used her radars to analyze the movement patterns of the large group, marking each individual separately in her head and monitoring who they kept nearest to and where they positioned themselves amongst each other. She also kept an eye on her group message, a bad feeling washing over her. So far, the only ones who had opened and read the message aside from her father were Serilda and Mythal, the former having replied to confirm that they went home to protect Patricia and their daughters until the coast was clear, just in case. However, Vandrad, Themmy and Gren had not even read the message yet, which was unlike all three of them.

Whatever was going on here, it was a multifaceted strategy, and while Mercury was more than sure that everyone could hold their own that didn’t mean things wouldn’t go more smoothly without her help. That meant that she needed to deal with her invisible escort. Once she’d bought a few more things and continued under the guise of shopping, Mercury opened up another portal to move along one more time, preparing herself as she would only have a handful of seconds to set herself up before they followed after her.

When the Masters caught up to her, they would find her standing alone in the middle of a dense forest far outside any civilized areas of Fiore. She was waiting expectantly with Mercy in her hand. Bandit was nowhere to be seen. She smiled openly. “There! This is a little more private and intimate, just like you were hoping for. So how about you lot go ahead and show yourselves? While it’s fun moving around and pretending like I don’t know you exist, there is something to be said about how easy it was to catch on to all of you. I’m hoping that just means you weren’t trying very hard, otherwise I might have to be insulted.”

Only a moment or two later did their cloaking spell drop, revealing all twenty individuals gathered around her. They were garbed in what had to be the gaudiest outfits she’d ever laid eyes on, the red and gold armored robes covering them from head to toe. Each of them wore a unique mast crafted out of gold, intricately marked with tribal designs and sinister looking visages. Mercury visually blanched at them. “Well, if I wasn’t sure you were members of the Dread Masters before, there’s certainly no mistaking it now. At least you’re keeping up with the theme of pretentiousness…”

Without saying a word, a couple of them loosed spells at her only to find their magic dispelled when they came into contact with the barrier of light around her, the blue field rippling into existence to swallow up the energy before disappearing again. “Boy, you guys sure are eager to start this gang bang, aren’t you? We’ll get to that in a minute, don’t worry. I have my kinks and I am more than willing to play along. But I have a few questions for you, first. Let’s start with this one: Where is my darling Maker?” Turning slowly where she stood, Mercury eyed each of them, adjusting her vision settings to see through their metal faceplates and to the flesh and bone beyond. “You’re all human by the looks of each of you, which means that once again my playdate has stood me up. If he keeps this up, I may start to get the impression that he doesn’t actually like me.”

As a group, the Masters adjusted themselves around her as they calculated their next moves to adjust their attack. None of them spoke a word. Instead, they launched another small barrage of energy to test her shield without so much as entertaining her with a response, even to exchange witty banter or deliver threats of death. Hell, they didn’t even tell her to shut up. Of course, this merely left Mercury with plenty of talking room to work out answers to her own questions. After all there, were plenty of ways to get information without any of them speaking up. “Let’s see,” she conjectured aloud, spilling Mercury idly on her finger by the trigger. “I am vastly outnumbered here, which means you’re all either intent on killing me or at least keeping me busy and separated from Vandrad, so I can only assume he’s got a welcoming party of his own. I assume the same is true of his family, which quite honestly is impressively stupid. But hey, if you guys want to pick a fight with Themmy, that’s your own funeral I suppose.”

Still nothing. They were still focused more on trying to chip away at her shield, and a few of them were getting a bit antsy about it. That was curious. They had varying vital signals among them as they continued to adjust and throw new spells at the barrier in an attempt to break through it, and with each failed test there was a quiver in their vitals that suggested something along the lines of frustration, perhaps some wariness; almost like they weren’t expecting her to put up much of a resistance. She was starting to suspect a certain black haired guardian angel’s involvement. After all, Scourge had seen the level of destruction she was capable of, so surely the group should have been a bit more prepared. It was possible they were masking some other trick to catch her off guard, but that wasn’t the feeling Mercury was getting.

“So let’s work out the possibilities, then. I imagine Scourge is confronting Vandrad, yes? That seems the most likely scenario. What I wouldn’t give to watch that meatfest unfold live before my eyes. Mmph. Anyway, Serilda and Mythal have been checking in with me, so I know you’re avoiding them. Probably the smartest decision you’ve made today, really. You’d have to send someone incredibly strong to even be a small roadblock in Themesycia’s way. That, or someone that was exceptionally intelligent and crafty…” She peered at them, understanding dawning on her. “So that’s where Maker is, then, is he? I suppose Themmy is a much bigger threat than I am, so I’ll try not to be too offended by that.”

Mostly she was just talking and theorizing out loud at this point, speaking as though she knew what she was talking about just to gauge their reactions. However, by the subtle shifts and quivers in their vital signals, she knew she was guessing correctly. Yet they still continued not to speak to her, only putting forth their attacks and slowly trying to chip away at her shield, which was starting to dwindle. There was very little time left before it would shatter and this would turn into an all out brawl, and sadly not a single one of them were susceptible to being baited into conversation. Mercury rolled her eyes. “Ugh, they had to send the dull ones after me. Maker and Scourge were so much more fun than this. Alright, then. I suppose if that’s how you want it to be.”

They would only have a split second to prepare before Mercury suddenly surged forward at lightning speed, picking a target at random and descending on them much faster than they anticipated. Her blade snapped out and she brought it up in a quick and powerful slice aimed to carve the master from hip to collar in one fell swoop. And while she certainly managed to make contact, she would find that the attack wasn’t as fruitful as she would have hoped, the garish armor proving itself to be for more than just show. The person within recovered quickly, loosing a spell and hoping to hit her at point blank, but by them Mercury had already moved on and out of the way.

It wouldn’t take long for her to realize that the group around her really… was not suitably geared to fight her. They had an advantage in numbers, and their armor was nothing to scoff at, but their own attacks were a bit underwhelming to say the least. She got hit several times, but it really wasn’t doing as much damage as she would expect from an organization such as this. And granted they didn’t know the full extent of her power, as Mercury worked very hard to keep the true depths of her abilities a mystery, but this seemed a little apropos. Surely they knew that she trained with Vandrad regularly, so why hadn’t they sent a larger group than this, or at least people that were a bit stronger than this? She could only think that someone somewhere had taken the time to convince others that she wasn’t that big of a threat… and she had a sneaking suspicion on who that might be.

But it did provide her with an opportunity. A risky one, perhaps, but one that the Xocili couldn’t resist. She could tap into her true power and wipe them all out in a reasonably quick amount of time… or, she could continue to allow them, and thus the people they answered to, to live in the delusion that they had crafted of her. Keeping her cards close to the chest had never failed her before, so Mercury elected to stick with the strategy for the time being as she laid out the building blocks of her plan.

As long as she kept at her current pace, they would continue to fight more or less at a level of stalemate, with her being slightly ahead of them, but only slightly. Just enough to feed into the idea that perhaps they had underestimated her abilities a bit, but not by too much, leaving them room for some reasonable confidence that they would win out in the end. She worked her way through their ranks slowly, the masters tough but not impossibly so. They were simply requiring a bit of work to whittle down as she meticulously killed many of them one by one, waiting for her opportunity and doing her best to be convincing about the struggle she was having against them. A great number of their attacks landed true, and Mercury allowed the damage to take its toll until she was sporting a number of black stains of blood on her person and visibly slowing down from the strain of battle.

By the time the fight reached its apex, she had managed to reduce their numbers down from twenty to a whopping four. Mercury could tell they were getting a bit frantic at this point, clearly not having expected her to put up this much of a fight or have worked her way through this many of them, but to their credit they didn’t allow themselves to lose their stride, knowing that giving in to worry would only cause them to slip up. And for her part, Mercury had kept the use of her magic only to the things that she knew the Masters already were aware of. Primarily, her weapon and her ability to conjure metal and light. But if this gamble was going to pay off, she really needed one of them to step up their game.

Luckily, her wish would be granted. When she was distracted by two of the Masters that were flanking her on either side, the remaining two wised up and elected to combine their strength while she was preoccupied. They conjoined their hands together, building up a moderately powerful unison raid spell and hurling it at her. While Mercury could have dodged it, she instead allowed it to hit with full effect as she kept herself focused on the pair engaged in melee with her. With a shocked look did she go flying across the forest, her body crashing through several trees and bursting them into splinters before coming to a stop. She gasped in agony, the wind knocked from her lungs as she struggled to rise to her feet, only to find the weight of her body giving way beneath her as one of her legs was severely broken and twisted.

Swapping Mercy to pistol mode, she refused to give up and instead turned into a wild animal that had been backed into a corner, feral and unpredictable as she began to fire off round after round at her remaining attackers. They continued to bear down on her, one of them quickly rushing forward and conjuring a sword made of ice and plunging it into her side. Mercury screamed and unleashed a powerful wave of light, knocking all four of them back as she lashed out in desperation with her metal and light based spells with the frantic and erratic mannerisms of prey that was in the throes of death and making her final stand. One final spell was all it took from one of them, the caster materializing a number of sharp vines that grew from the ground before her and launching them at her at all once, the rough stakes piercing her in several places and pinning her to the tree behind her.

Mercury sat there in cold shock, the fight wiped out of her all at once as her life force began to drain from her body, along with any energy or focus she might have had to keep fighting. She could only watch as the Master that had conjured the vines made one last one, using it to pierce her straight through the neck. She choked and gasped for air for several long seconds before finally, her body was completely still. The four remaining opponents, not quite ready to drop their guard, held steady as one of them carefully approached and checked her. “She’s dead,” the masked assailant confirmed.

Then and only then did they relax, turning to take a look at the carnage around them. “That was close,” one of them said. “Too close. She was clearly hiding much of her strength before now.”

“As much as I hate to say it, I think we got lucky.”

“It doesn’t matter. We completed our mission. Alert the triad and let them know that Mercury Arseneault is dead.”

One of them wandered over and picked Mercy off the ground, turning it over in their hands. “I imagine the Engineer would be quite pleased if we brought this to him for study. And her body, as well.”

“Bring it all, and the rest of them too. We can’t leave any evidence behind of who was here. They took a few minutes to gather everything together, including Mercury’s body and her alien weapon. Then, one of them pulled out a magical artifact of some kind and activated it, and in the blink of an eye they were gone, along with all the evidence of their fallen comrades.

Mercury watched from afar where she was hidden from view by her own physical and magical cloaking, thanking several constellations of stars that she had spent the last several days hard at work on finishing the upgrades she had been building for herself. She had quite a bit of evidence on her of her battle with the masters on her person, mostly in the form of both her blood and theirs. Swapping her body out with a convincing clone mid fight had been quite the challenge, but she’d managed to succeed. The body and weapon that they were bringing back to the rest of their order would be more than convincing enough, even with Maker most likely getting his hands on it. He would surely feel like he had gotten quite the prize, and frankly he would gather quite a bit of information from the copies, even if they weren’t exact. She wasn’t thrilled by that, but there was much more that she would gain from this endeavor that would make the sacrifice worth it… so long as she was patient.

In the meantime, she needed to figure out what had happened to everyone else.

Mercury was just getting ready to open up a gateway to go check on some of the others when she felt two people materialize in the area. Her guard was instantly raised, and for a brief moment she was extremely frustrated as she thought that uncloaking her magical signature had alerted her alleged killers that she was not actually dead. But her annoyance lasted only a moment before she realized it was Vandrad, who spoke up to announce himself along with his present company Scourge. “Well, I see you two didn’t quite manage to kill each other yet. I’ll try not to pout too much over the fact that I didn’t get to watch you two wrestle each other half naked.”

Her invisibility dropped, the light around her seeming to bend briefly to reveal herself as she stood there looking very unsurprised at the image of the two men together. She gave Scourge a deep grin. “Hey there, tiger.” Emerald eyes gave him a brief but shameless once over as she got a good look at him without his top on before swiftly turning her attention to Vandrad. The prince stated the obvious about the Dread Master attacks, claiming that Scourge had enacted plans to make sure the du Wolffs got out safely, but for now they needed to act quickly. Supposedly, their unlikely companion was about to transport them somewhere where the three of them could wipe out the Dread Masters all at once.

Mercury’s interest and excitement piqued. “Oh good! Hopefully they’ll be more fun than this lot I just dealt with. They were boring.” Scourge chimed in to quickly dash her hopes at getting a run at Maker, however, the Dread Master – former Dread Master? – informing her that the leaders would have already moved someplace more safe, including the Triad, Maker, and… Her lavender brows snapped together. “Zifu?! I knew that woman was a fucking snake!” Mercury hadn’t liked or trusted Zifu from the beginning, and that had not changed since she and Seri had endeavored to patch things up with one another after the Voidwalker’s outburst. Mercury had been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but even this was far beyond what she had expected. And if Zifu was involved with the Dread Masters, the Silver Wolf ace could only conclude that the queen’s part in this attack likely was targeted at the Order of Souls, which meant Chishen, Wanda, and Gren were dealing with that – knowledge that did not sit well with her at all.

Exhaling a resigned huff from her nostrils, she forced herself to calm down. “Well, I hope Themmy saves some of Maker for me. But I swear to every constellation in the sky, if that two faced bitch hurts a single hair on my boyfriend’s head I’m going to skin her alive and hang her pelt on the wall like a vulcan.” Her words, which were by no means a joke, were delivered with the same laissez faire playfulness that she typically carried, the woman quick to tease and present even her toughest of emotions under the guise of calm humor. It certainly wasn’t the first time she’d referred to Gren as her boyfriend in front of Vandrad or his family, Mercury always one to play up her attraction to the older man, but there was a vein of anger and worry buried beneath her surface emotions that would betray how upset and furious she truly would be should something happen to the man. Not unlike how personally Gren had taken the news of Mercury’s kidnapping.

That was enough chatter for now, though. They had a retaliatory strike to make, and Mercury was all too eager to play along. “I’ve got only one request,” she told the men as she closed the distance between them, easily seeming to let go of her prior anxiety and slipping back into her typical mannerisms. “The Triad sent this little group to kill me, and as far as the survivors of that little battle are concerned they succeeded. I’d like to keep it that way, so not having any witnesses would be real swell. Which probably also means that I’m going to have to change up my attack style, since using my gunblade would be a dead giveaway to whoever comes investigating afterward. Guess that means you get another show. Lucky you.”

“Also, does it have to be your shoulder, or can I put my hand anywhere? Don’t give me that look, Vandaddy. You know what I’m about.” Despite her jesting, she put her hand on the taller man’s shoulder as instructed. Then, in a blink they were gone and standing in an entirely new place, a stone bunker similar to the one that they had first entered the night Faera attacked Mythal. However, this time they had a rather large welcoming party to greet them, the group completely relaxed and off the guards now that their tasks were over. The renegade Master greeted everyone cheerily, bursting into a fully empowered state that caused a massive spike in Mercury’s new magic sensory radars. Vandrad followed suit by slipping into his crimson form. Not to be outdone by the two men, Mercury coaxed an aura of her own to life as well, a brilliant display of prismatic light shifting and shimmering around her as mutlicolored bolts of electricity crackled and zapped along her body. And since this was not a battle any of them planned on half assing, and her magic was not suffering from a recovery set back like Vandrad’s had been recently, she had the full weight of her power on full display for the first time in a very, very long time. The last time she had let loose like this had been the sea serpent fight, and she had grown astronomically since then. The light of her aura was so bright that everyone in the room save for Vandrad and Scourge would find themselves instantly blinded, shrinking back and covering their faces in agony.

With a roar, Mercury unleashed a tremendous bolt of lightning that streaked through the air toward her first target before breaking off into pieces and jumping from person to person. In a matter of only a second or two, she had struck nearly everyone in the room with the attack, each of them crying out in pain and seizing from the literal shock. As she conjured a suit of armor around her body and two thick and overlarge mechanical gauntlets upon her hands, a sadistically wild smile was plastered to her face as she shot forward at light speed, hurling herself into the thick of the crowd as they scrambled to recover and regroup. The pistons in the gauntlets cocked back like the hammer of a gun, and when her fist landed on her chosen target it released in a similarly explosive fashion, the gauntlet snapping out and discharging so much power that her unfortunate foe simply burst into a misty spray of blood and viscera.

She continued to move in similar fashion, never standing still long enough for anyone to lob an easy shot at her. The gauntlets were easily used to block and deflect spells cast her way as she punched or smacked them out of her way. Nearly everyone she squared up against was literally crushed, their bones popping and breaking beneath the swing of her fists. Even when their opponents did manage to strike her – and they did many times as, statistically speaking it was impossible for her to not get hit in a crowd this size – she showcased how much of her training had been spent taking blows from Vandrad, the small, lithe woman easily shaking off the pain and negative effects and pushing relentlessly forward like they’d done little more than tintilate and entice her further. At least once during the combat she zipped right past Scourge as she flattened an unsuspecting Dread Master that had been more focused on the pink haired man than on her, shooting Scourge a flirty wink while they were close before racing off once more.

Her radars alerted her to an enemy attempting to flee the building in the chaos. Conjuring several thin metal plates in the air, Mercury leaped from plate to plate to climb up above the chaos of the battle. Once she was over everyone’s heads, she shot one of her gauntlets across the room where it crushed the would-be escapee against the stone wall, leaving him little more than a crimson paste to decorate the base. As she fell back to the ground in a controlled descent, Mercury eyed a nearby Dread Master that had managed to get his gaudy golden helmet on. Soaking her magic into the metal, she clenched her fist, causing the gold plated steel to crumple around the man’s skull and pop it like a balloon, his headless body slumping to the floor in a bloody spray. Twisting gracefully in the air, she landed in a low crouch and launched toward her next opponent. Batting the woman’s spell out of the way with the remaining gauntlet, Mercury snapped her hand out and latched onto the opposing woman’s face. When she ripped her hand back, all the oil in the woman’s body came with it, leaving her foe’s flesh so shriveled and dry that the woman instantly broke out in unimaginable pain and itching, scratching at her body to relieve the discomfort and finding her brittle skin flaking off in large chunks until she was bleeding out all over her body.

Holding the globule of body oil before her, Mercury shed her remaining gauntlet and threw herself into a ring of other masters. Her bare hand took turns in quick succession as they reached toward her various targets and violently ripped the natural grease out of their bodies, leaving them parched and frail and in an immense deal of burning anguish until she had a large sphere of body oil hovering before her. Holding her hands on either side of the globe, she used her magic to compress it together slowly, building up pressure at an exponential rate as she fed it with her own prismatic oils until it was volatile. Then it exploded all around her in a wide radius, covering everyone in the immediate area. Immediately following it was another burst wave of lightning, the colorful sparks igniting the flammable liquid and lighting all of them on fire. From there, she resorted to picking off the rest with raw blasts of pure light not unlike what Vandrad and Scourge often unleashed with Energy Monarch, though the nature of her power was clearly much different than anything anyone in the room would have sensed or seen before now, backing up Trinity’s prior words that whatever magic it was Mercury wielded, it was something as rare and powerful and unknown as both Energy Monarch and the Ark.

As the battle started to dwindle down to a close she took a look around at the carnage. Mercury was almost as drenched in blood by that point as she had been after slaughtering Sabine’s family, the Xocili pleased with herself but also disgusted by the film of nastiness that clung to her. Wrinkling her nose in distaste and making a half assed effort to shake some of the viscera off of her, she sauntered back toward her male companions. “Well, that was lovely and cathartic and much more exciting than my last fight, even if I’m going to need to shower for the rest of my life to feel clean again. What’s next?”

If the knowledge that Gren had been very close to dying had an effect on how viciously she behaved in the following battle, neither of the men chose to comment on it. Instead, the trio thrust themselves right into the fray and the unsuspecting Dread Masters didn’t stand a chance against even one of them, let alone all three. Before long the building had been utterly razed and not a single survivor had managed to flee to get word out to their leaders, nor to confirm Mercury’s continued existence. By the end of it, both men had elected to sit back and let Mercury finish up the work, both of them more than happy to appreciate her in action, though Vandrad tried to pass it off.

She mosied over to them, pleased with herself and inquiring as to their next steps. Scourge started by admitting he was entirely too captivated by the idea of helping Mercury shower, which earned the taller man a saucy grin from the woman. But otherwise, he figured the best step would be to blow this particular bunker sky high. With the forces here wiped out, that would leave the leaders without very many resources to call upon any time soon which would give the rest of them more time to prepare even if they didn’t know where the others had gone. Mercury was already smirking to herself, getting ready to let them in on what exactly she had done in her last encounter when Scourge stopped himself mid sentence from leaving the destruction of the building to her, a frown upon his face.

Mercury tensed up along with Vandrad as the prince asked what was wrong, and Scourge confirmed there were more people around. “What?” she asked, looking to her internal HUD. It didn’t show any evidence of others in the area, but then again she realized the whole area behind the door that Scourge indicated was a bit of a void to her. Something in the walls must have been too thick for her radars to penetrate, which was saying something. But it wasn’t Dread Masters. If anything, he said it felt like children because of the infantile state of their magical cores. The pink haired man ripped the door off its hinges and was shocked by the sight that greeted them there: a row of cells that were holding adult prisoners.

But not just any prisoners.

One of them spoke Vandrad’s name, causing Mercury to frown, and a moment later it was revealed that everyone being kept within the prison was Rhaegarian – Vandrad’s people. As the prince went to greet the one he knew by name, Mercury was already hurrying inside to analyze the prison doors for traps. Finding none, she set about releasing the others one cell at a time, conjuring one of her large gauntlets back onto her hand and punching through the thick glass to free those gathered beyond. Vandrad asked Scourge if he would be able to get all of them out together, which Scourge admitted he’d never attempted to move such a large group at once before but believed he was capable of doing, though his confidence on the matter wasn’t firm.

In the biggest shocker of the century, Vandrad approached the former Dread Master with an air of patience, advising that if he did this for them the prince would give him the answers Scourge sought from him, even following his request with a gentle please. Mercury watched carefully, observing the two men and taking notes of their body language with one another as she waited for the outcome, though truthfully she figured that Scourge would do it. He’d already come this far, hadn’t he? There was no backing out now. Surely the remaining leaders of the Dread Masters would know that he had turned his back on them by this point, and there was very little he could do to cover that. Ultimately, Scourge did agree but not in exchange for information, rather as recompense for a debt he had supposedly owed Vandrad for earlier.

That seemed to be enough for Vandrad. Agreed, Scourge scanned the small crowd to get an idea of what he was working with, admitting that the trip was probably going to deplete what was currently left of his energy, but willing and cheery nonetheless. He instructed everyone to grab hold of one another forming a physical link between them all, and to try to contain themselves until the ride was over, though he amended his comment about not requesting a charge for his services by asking Mercury to be the one to serve as the central link.

The Xocili flashed him a flirty grin. “Anything for you, tiger. But first things first; I believe you ordered one extra large explosion?” Taking a steady breath to center herself, Mercury held her hands in front of her chest with her palms facing one another. Everyone would get to watch as she began to craft an intricate bomb before their eyes. Wires rippled into existence like veins of blood in the space between her hands, connecting to one another even as plates of metal began to encase them with jolts of electricity and light sparking to life amidst the wires and junction boxes, the bomb forming itself from the inside out until it was complete in her hands. Picking a spot, she set the device down and armed it, a red light blinking the warning that it was hot and primed to detonate whenever she deemed it to do so, and this one would be far larger than her last one had been. “There. That should do it.”

Pleased, she rejoined everyone else and set herself up to allow herself to be the main connector between the others and Scourge. The moment they teleported out, her bomb would detonate, leveling the entire bunker and then some, though none of them would have stuck around to see it. The instant they landed they were understandably besieged by a very alert Themesycia who had her sabers in hand and was charging toward Scourge with a single intent. Even as Mercury erected a barrier of light around Scourge to try to help protect him just in case, Vandrad stepped in his mother’s way and called her off the hunt, interrupting her to inform her that Scourge had betrayed the Masters and was the only reason all of them were still alive – a statement that Gren confirmed from his own experience, thanking the man if begrudgingly.

Once she was sure that there wasn’t about to be another brawl, Mercury released her protective spell around Scourge and caught him before he could fall too hard to his knees, helping him down gently. As Vandrad gave a broad introduction between Themmy and the Rhaegarian survivors, Mercury stepped away from the exhausted master and made her way over to Chishan and Gren. Her countenance softened considerably upon approaching Vandrad’s father and it was evident that she somehow already knew that he had almost died. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck for a tight, wordless hug, breathing a deep sigh of relief as the anxiety trickled from her.

Holding him for a long time while the others were presumably distracted with introductions, she finally stepped back and gave him a small, if emotional smile before moving on to Chishan. Her mannerisms returned to form for him, giving the man a wry smirk. “Good to see you, stud.” Giving him a hug as well, she informed him, “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I need you to know that if I ever see Zifu again, I’m going to murder her.” She did her best to speak up in a playful manner, but there would be no mistaking that she was deadly serious. As far as Mercury was concerned, Zifu had made the top of her shit list even higher than Maker. Maker, for all that he was a psychopath, had at least always been up front about who he was and was delightful to banter with. Zifu was just a lying, coward of a queen. Pulling away from them both, her green eyes glanced between them both with a sober look as she asked, “Wanda..?” There was no way Zifu or the Dread Masters would leave the living Ataxian Shard alone in this endeavor, but considering the woman wasn’t present with everyone else… Once they presumably revealed that Wanda was safe and unharmed in Mythal and Serilda’s care, she would nod in relief.

“Mercury..!” Zemenar worked his way through the small crowd of Xocili to greet her quietly, his eyes wrought with worry at the sight of her covered in so much blood even if it obviously wasn’t hers.

She gave him a hug as well, the older man holding her tightly. “Hey, dad. Don’t worry, I’m alright. Nothing I couldn’t handle.” Mercury pulled back to give him a soft smirk.

He nodded his understanding, though like any parent that did little to fully ease his worry. He glanced at the ragtag group of refugees they had arrived with, seeing what had been his own people barely a week ago. “What can we do to help?” he asked.

“I’m sure they’ve had a rough time and could use some comforts. Maybe see if you and Khelben can get everyone to round up some food and water? I’m sure Themmy and Vandrad can handle the rest.”

Her father nodded and left to do just that, rounding up Khelben and the others and getting them to work on pulling some immediate supplies to start passing out to the Rhaegarians, as well as to Scourge. From there, Mercury sought to ease her own anxiety by going around and once more checking on every single member of the du Wolff family and giving each of them long, tight embraces before finally rejoining Vandrad and Themmy.

The moment between her and Gren was ripe with unspoken affection, the two holding one another silently for a long moment and just letting their embraces speak for one another rather than their words. When that was done they made a conscious effort to part, even though both would have preferred to stay, so Mercury could continue on to Chishan. She regretted her words almost instantly, so spurned by her anger toward his wife that she hadn’t really stopped to put Chishan’s feelings first. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me,” Mercury told him quietly, checking her attitude and softening up to be more mindful toward him. Between her and Gren, they both extended their condolences and empathy in their own ways, with Chishan assuring them that he’d work past it eventually, but for now he was just happy they were all safe.

Mercury asked about Wanda and he confirmed that she was safe and on her way to Seri and Mythal’s place with some woman named Kessicia; the contact that Scourge had sent to help make sure Gren, Chishan, and Wanda made it out alive. It wasn’t a name that Mercury recognized, but now that things had calmed down a bit Gren admitted the name was familiar, tracing her back to a former mercenary guild that had once been Council approved. As far as he had been aware, Kessicia had died in the guild’s first major mission. Clearly that wasn’t the case, and Chishan reiterated the woman’s words that Scourge had saved her life. Not only that, but apparently she was allied to two Divines which caused Mercury to frown in thought. Whoever Kessicia was, it seemed she was in a similar boat as Serilda. How curious.

But they weren’t going to get answers on that tonight. After Zemenar came over to see what they could help with, Mercury moved back over to Vandrad and Themmy. The woman was eyeing the state of her son, correctly surmising that he had also been caught up in the attack. He confirmed as much, informing her that Scourge had been sent for him but had chosen to not only spare him but also to make sure Vandrad regained some of his lost power. The Silver Wolf ace nodded and chimed in with, “They also sent twenty people to try and take me out. They weren’t a very skilled force, and I had figured even before the two of them came to collect me that Scourge had something to do with the group not quite being up to the task. Though, I did let a few of them escape; as far as they are aware I’m dead, and with any luck I put a couple things in place that will give us an advantage.”

Themmy turned to Scourge then, inquiring as to the reasons behind his change in allegiance. The Dread Master admitted that most of it was still for his own selfish reasons, admitting it had more to do with wanting to make a power move against the Dread Masters more than from a personal concern for Vandrad and his family. That, and he wasn’t exactly looking to get on either her or Mercury’s hit lists. The Xocili grinned at him. “Aw, c’mon. I bet we could make it fun.”

He and the duchess went back and forth a little about Maker and the island, with Themmy making it very clear that she expected him to keep his knowledge of the place to himself. Scourge was already playing ignorant, remarking about how he couldn’t really see much of it anyway due to the sun, before speaking up to take his leave. Even though he was the sole reason that all of them were alive and safe, he knew that he was still the odd one out and not entirely trusted by those present just yet, so rather than overstay his already shaky welcome he thought it best to leave them to their devices and recovery. With a bow to the woman, he turned and started walking away toward the coast line.

Mercury watched him go, feeling admittedly odd about letting him just leave without some sort of… closure on the day’s events? Luckily, Vandrad caught her gaze and with a small nod he seemed to be of the same impression, indicating that they should follow after to have a word with him. So Mercury slipped off with her fiance, who managed to call his attention just before Scourge disappeared. The Dread Master turned to glance at them, ready with a playful quip about whether they were looking for a goodbye kiss, which he admitted he was more interested in with Mercury than Vandrad. She grinned at him. “Careful what you wish for.”

Vandrad, unsurprisingly, chose to ignore the comment. Instead, he sought clarification over the things that Scourge had relayed to him during their fight. Mercury frowned curiously at the mention of something called the “Union” and chose to just listen quietly as they talked it out. Scourge admitted to understanding Vandrad’s hesitance, particularly after their first meeting, and asked the man to apologize to Bartrand for pretending to be him. After that, he admitted that there was much involving the Ark and even the Masters that he wasn’t fully privy to, but he cautioned them not to think their enemy fully defeated. Though he knew he still had a way to go in earning real trust, he asked that they at least believe that he genuinely had no ill will toward them or Vandrad’s family, and his only aim was to have a mutually beneficial working relationship.

He offered the prince a handshake and after a moment of consideration Vandrad took it, accepting his words and imploring him to take care of himself now that he’d made himself a target. It was a sentiment that brought a chuckle to Scourge, who remarked that being a target was half the fun, living Mercury a much appreciated wink before he finally blinked out of sight. The pair stood there only moment a moment before Themmy finished approaching, both of them having sensed her. She put her hands on each of their shoulders and commented on how strange Scourge was, someone who bore such confidence and yet didn’t really seem to know where he belonged. Mercury nodded. “Yes. I’m familiar with the feeling…” After all, that very sentiment had described her up until very recently.

Then Themmy broke the sobriety of the mood by admitting how attractive he was. Mercury was instantly grinning at the older woman, even as Vandrad was trying to chastise his mother. “You can say that again.” She admitted that she had a very intimate place on her body for men like Scourge, and Vandrad put his foot down, informing her that she was not allowed to sleep with the man. Themesycia appeared to acquiesce, if begrudgingly, though the look she gave Mercury when Vandrad wasn’t looking told a different story. “Yeah, full disclosure: I’m making no such promises,” she teased her future husband, linking her arm in his and giving him her trademark smirk.

From there, the duchess insisted it was time for them to return to the others as there were a lot of introductions to be had, as well as another feast to put together. Mercury sighed dramatically. “Man, I was this close to maxing out my bingo card,” she lamented without providing any context, knowing that Themmy would likely understand what she was talking about even if Vandrad didn’t. “Alright, let’s go meet some future in-laws.”