Heeding The Call (Power Rangers/Familiar Of Zero)
- Thread starter Animaster
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- Crossover Fantasy Superhero
That's because they're not actually a popular uprising, at least in canon. They're a bunch of rich assholes using the excuse of one to overthrow the royals in a grab for more power, all while feeding propaganda to the common folk that this is for their benefit. Granted, the royals do have genuine problems (such as the Albion king killing his own brother, his brother's whole family, and anyone associated with them just for being associated with an elf) that give the movement more legitimacy. And even then the whole thing was orchestrated by Joseph as a giant distraction while he geared up for his big Burn The World plan.
As for how things will play out in my story, stay tuned to find out.
Part Fifteen: Breathing Lightning
Night had fallen as an impromptu celebration erupted in the village, the people reveling in their newfound freedom from their oppressors. At the center of it all were five teenagers and a grown man, the heroes of the hour. The people danced and sang their praises, offering food and whatever meager rewards they could provide to their saviors. Tommy was not among them, for he had given himself a grim and unenviable task.
He was not used to his fallen enemies leaving remains, most of the time they were vaporized in a massive explosion. But not here, not now. The pit was wide and deep enough that it normally would have taken multiple men hours to dig, but Tommy managed it by himself in just one. Super strength and stamina had their advantages, even when he sometimes wished they didn't.
As he threw the last body into the pit, he drew Saba from his side and took aim. The bodies ignited the instant the laser blast made contact, and Tommy silently powered down and sat on a nearby rock. Jean was right, the smell was awful. As he watched the flames, his mind cast back to older times. Darker times. Greener times. He remembered when he had last killed normal humans, he remembered the glee he had felt, as well as the shame and disgust afterward.
But then, he never really stopped killing, never stopped taking satisfaction from the act. He supposed the fact that none of them were human made it easier to stomach, made it easier to justify. They were aliens, robots, mutants, artificial whether by magic or science. But they were still alive, and he killed them, all while striking a pose and making a quip. It was the same for most of the Power Rangers, with only two teams actually capable of capturing their enemies alive. They had asked if S.P.D or Time Force could share their capture technology but they were declined, citing that they didn't want to endanger the timeline. Like that actually mattered, spacetime distortions were so common that one could simply trip and fall into one. They've messed with time so often that it was a wonder that the universe hadn't fallen apart yet.
Maybe retirement had softened him, it had been eight years since he'd had to kill an enemy. No, that wasn't exactly true. He had gone for the kill against those wind-construct assassins in La Rochelle. They weren't human, but he didn't know that until after the fact. And he certainly paid no thought to smashing Mathilda's golems to pieces, not to mention the death threats he'd made lately. Was this the summation of his life? Doctor Tommy Oliver, killer to the core? To think, he was excited to do all of this again.
The sound of a snapping twig roused him from his thoughts and he turned to find Wardes approaching him. He still didn't know what to think of the younger man, every instinct screamed that he shouldn't be trusted but he had yet to actually do anything that required yet more violence to solve. Tommy had been taught when he was young that violence was always the last option, and yet it always ended up being the only option.
"Écu for your thoughts?" Wardes asked as he came to stand beside Tommy.
"I guess you could say that I'm mourning," Tommy replied.
"You are equally confusing as you are intriguing," Wardes began, "I can hardly recall meeting a man of your age and especially your experience who would feel such sentiments for those who don't deserve it."
"I might have agreed with you when I was your age, but time has a funny way of changing things. I've spent my life fighting the worst monsters that you could imagine, the kind that could make those soldiers look like saints in comparison. And yet the kicker of it all is that some of the worst of those monsters actually managed to change for the better. I guess I'm not so much mourning who those soldiers were in the present, but rather I'm mourning who they were in the past and who they could have become if they had just chosen another path."
"Do you truly believe that?" Wardes asked solemnly, "That someone can be redeemed after doing something so terrible?"
"I have to, otherwise I'd be a monumental hypocrite."
"And yet you still saw fit to pass judgment upon them."
"I swore an oath to fight cruelty and malice wherever it might appear, and while I'd love nothing more than to settle conflicts with words, that's rarely a luxury I get to have. While I can never know why they joined up with Reconquista, I do know that they chose to terrorize this village, beat a child half to death, and forced the mother to watch. That can never be justified."
Tommy gave one last look into the fire in the pit and then stood. Despite his loathing of the situation, he knew that what he did was right. The villagers didn't deserve to be caught up in this war and he helped give them some peace back. That's what ultimately mattered. He turned and began to walk from the outskirts back to the village center where the kids still were.
"I confess that your mention of terrible monsters has left me intrigued," Wardes said as he followed, "What sort might they have been? Orcs. perhaps trolls?"
"Nothing like that, but have you ever encountered a man made entirely of eyeballs?"
"Certainly nothing like that."
"Good, because that one could shoot fire out of all of its eyes. How about a spider the size of a tower?"
"Surely this is some sort of jest."
"Trust me, I wish it was," Tommy said with a rueful chuckle.
"Your homeland must be utterly nightmarish, it's no wonder you're so powerful if that's what you must contend with."
"Speaking of monsters, what do you know about elves?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I had heard recently that elves aren't particularly liked around here so I wanted to find out more about them."
"I have never had the misfortune to cross one so all I know is from stories. Some say that their strength is monstrous and their magic more so, it would require an entire unit of elite war mages just to fell one elf. There are even those who claim they drink the blood of humans to fuel their magic, but that is more the realm of vampires."
"You have vampires here too?"
"Oh yes, and they are arguably more insidious than elves."
The talk of monsters came to an end when they rejoined the group. The five teenagers sat at the center of a long table that had been brought out as part of the celebration, each with a plate of food in front of them though some seemed not to have been touched. Tommy didn't blame them for not having an appetite after what they'd been through. As he and Wardes sat down, he took a moment to observe them. Kirche was busy flirting with some of the men of the village who also sat at the table, and she didn't seem the least bit bothered that she'd burned multiple people to death, while Tabitha was impassive as usual. He'd have to investigate further into them.
The other three weren't taking things as well. Louise sat quietly, simply staring at the table with a look of deep inner conflict, while Montmorency looked much the same though she was busy tending to Guiche who looked to be having the worst time of it. The normally vibrant and theatrical young man, who would have basked in such adoration from the people, instead sat silently, pale as a sheet and with a distant look in his eyes.
"How is everyone holding up?" Tommy asked, eliciting surprise from the three preoccupied teens.
"Oh just dandy," Kirche replied, "If I had known we'd be fawned over like this, I'd have joined up with little group far sooner."
"I... that is to say..." Louise began, trying to find the words.
"You did well today," Tommy said as he looked at the whole group.
"Did we?" Guiche asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
The sound of shuffling footsteps then reached their ears and Tommy looked over to see the young boy from earlier approaching them, most of his wounds now fully healed and his other eye open again. In his hands, he clutched an apple, and Tommy could see the boy's mother a short distance away.
"F-for you," the boy said as he presented the apple to Tommy.
"Well thank you," Tommy replied with a smile as he accepted the gift, "You were really brave earlier."
"T-the bad men were hurting m-mama," the boy said, "I didn't want them to hurt her no more."
"What's your name?"
"I-it's Brom, sir."
"Well, Brom, it's thanks to you that she's safe now."
Brom smiled at that and jogged back to his mother, the pair walking off to presumably get some sleep after such a harrowing day.
"You see that?" Tommy asked of the group, "That's why you did well. You gave these people their futures back, you gave them hope, even if we had to resort to killing those soldiers to make it happen. Don't be proud of the lives you took, be proud of the lives you saved."
Silence fell as the more morose members of the group took in his words, and even Kirche seemed to be giving them some thought. Everyone tried their best to eat, but it was decided that they would rather go to bed. Thankfully, the people of the village were more than willing to shelter them for the night and though it was uneasy, sleep claimed them all.
Morning soon came and the group gathered in the center of town. Though they still seemed worse for wear, Tommy could see that his words and a good night's rest had a positive effect on the teens.
"There is still so much we wish to give you for what you have done for us," the town elder said as he met them to see them off, "If there is anything, please do not hesitate to ask."
"There is one thing," Tommy said as he reached into his pouch and pulled out a beacon to hand to the old man, "Take this and put it in the safest place that you have."
"Of course, but... what is it?" the elder asked as he examined the beacon.
"It's a way for us to know if you're ever in trouble again," Tommy explained, "If more of those soldiers come, we'll be able to come back to help."
"Oh thank you, good lords and ladies," the elder replied with a deep bow, "And be safe on your journey."
With a nod, Tommy led the party back onto the road and further into the unknown.
The march through the wilderness was as tedious and bothersome as the previous day. Many were the complaints of sweat and soreness, with occasional grumbling from Louise when she needed to be helped over an obstacle that everyone else could jump or levitate over.
"Don't let it get to you, Pinky," Derflinger said, "It's not like I could have made it across that river by myself either."
"Your words are hardly reassuring," she replied through clenched teeth as she did her best to wring out her hair.
"Just be thankful that you can even walk, what I'd give to be able to move on my own..."
Day eventually turned to night and it had been decided that they should make camp. They found a relatively open clearing and they set to work, which didn't take very long with magic involved. Guiche had casually dug a fire pit with a wave of his wand, while Kirche just as easily provided the fire. From there, it was simply a matter of setting up their bedding.
"These fastenings are oddly intriguing," Guiche said as he repeatedly unzipped his backpack, "And dare I say, somewhat satisfying to use."
Tommy resisted the urge to chuckle at the sight. He didn't blame Guiche for his fascination, they were rather elegant in their simple design, and he was honestly glad to see the young man take an interest in something new. He was even more glad to see that him in better spirits following the events of the previous day. And Guiche wasn't the only one, on either count. Louise and Montmorency also seemed to be feeling better, and the group at large had varying reactions to both the zippered backpacks and the sleeping bags. All except for Tabitha.
The young woman simply sat by the fire, reading her book by its flickering light. Tommy had yet to properly speak with her, so he supposed that now was as good a time as any.
"What are you reading?" Tommy asked as he approached.
"Book," she quietly replied, not even bothering to look up at him.
Tommy could tell that she was going to be a tough nut to crack, but he wasn't unused to working with quiet kids. It was just a matter of what to say to get them to open up. Of course, he didn't exactly have much to work with.
"That dragon of yours is pretty impressive," he said, bringing up one of the only other things that he knew about her.
Tabitha said nothing, only responding with a nod as her eyes remained glued to the page. Tommy resisted the urge to sigh, time for a different approach.
"I used to have a dragon for a battle partner," he said, a tinge of sadness entered his voice as the memory of the Dragonzord came to him.
"...What happened?" she asked, now looking at him from the corner of her eye.
"An old enemy did something to my abilities and it affected our connection. They've been asleep for a long time now."
"I'm sorry."
"I appreciate it."
Tabitha said no more, simply nodding before returning to her book. Tommy shrugged and began to walk away, it wasn't much but that was at least progress.
"We should establish a watch rotation," Wardes announced to the group, "We are in the midst of enemy territory and it would do us no good to be ambushed in our sleep."
"That won't be necessary," Tommy replied as he summoned Saba to his hand and removed Derflinger's sheathe from his back, "These two don't need sleep so they can be our watch."
He then stood Derflinger against a nearby rock and allowed Saba to float freely. The matter settled, everyone settled in for the night and tried to get some sleep
The crackling of burning wood was the only sound that permeated the night as Saba made his rounds, the living blade kept his eyes focused and ears sharp for any sign of danger. Since the day of his creation, he was dutybound to be a weapon of defense and justice, to defend those who could not defend themselves and serve at the side of his wielder.
For a brief moment, he turned to look at Tommy, fast asleep amongst his newfound companions. Saba was glad to see him spending more time with other people, even if the circumstances could have been better. It did Tommy no good to spend so much of his time alone in an empty house. And while many of said companions were... complicated, he agreed with Tommy that they were ultimately decent people.
"Hey, hey!" a loud whisper emanated from the other side of the campsite, "Over here, pussy cat!"
At least, most of them were decent. If Saba could have them, he would be suffering from a near-constant headache from dealing with the other living sword. Was this how Rita Repulsa always felt around her minions? Why Tommy saw fit to acquire such an uncouth weapon was absolutely beyond him, the mouthy cur gave all swords everywhere a bad name. Saba did his best to ignore his annoying counterpart, distractions could not be afforded at this juncture. He turned and began to scan the treeline, on the lookout for even the slightest...
"Psst! Hey! Yoo-hoo!"
With an irritated growl, Saba floated over to the other sword and glared at him.
"What do you want?" Saba ground out, trying his best not to raise his voice.
"You want to hang out? Maybe swap stories?"
"Why would I ever do such a thing with the likes of you? It is bad enough that we must work together, I would prefer to not have to deal with you beyond that. And now is not the time for that."
"C'mon, we've got a lot in common! You're a talking sword, I'm a talking sword, that's plenty of reason for us to be friends!"
"Not if we were the last living beings in existence."
"Pleeeeeeaaaaaase?"
Saba wanted more than anything to simply float away from such a pathetic display, and yet it was that patheticness that kept him there.
"If I agree to this, will you at least shut up for a while?" Saba asked against his better judgment.
"Yeah, sure, absolutely!" Derflinger replied.
With an exasperated sigh, Saba lowered himself to float beside the other sword, and waited. And waited. And waited. The moment that Saba was willing to converse with Derflinger, suddenly he was dead silent.
"Well?" Saba asked irritably.
"Uh... You ever get trapped at the bottom of a river before?" Derflinger asked.
"No."
"Good, good. I don't recommend it, fish are terrible for conversation."
"That's it? That's what you wanted to say?"
"Honestly, I didn't expect to get this far."
Saba said nothing and simply began to float away. He couldn't believe that he gave in to such idiocy!
"Wait, wait!" Derflinger pleaded.
"Why should I?" Saba replied, barely resisting the urge to shout.
"Look, I get it, all right? You don't like me, a lot of people don't like me. I know what I'm like, I know that I'm extremely annoying. So far, Partner's the only one that's able to put up with me. And since you and him have been together for so long, I figured you'd be able to too. Can you blame me for wanting more of that?"
"Is that all?"
"You're the only other living sword that I know. For all my life, I thought that I was the only one, and now here you are."
"Surely there must be others, your creator couldn't have been the only one to have the idea in all that time."
"None like us. Sure, they talk, but they're made to only say a handful of phrases, nothing you can have a proper conversation with."
"And yet all you've done since we met is try to antagonize me."
"Because I'm jealous. You can move on your own, you have eyes that you can close. If something's bothering you, you can just decide to leave! Do you have any idea what I would give to have that? All I can do by myself is talk and see all around me, and I can't turn off the latter."
Saba fell silent, unsure of how to respond. He supposed it made sense, anyone in such a situation would be at least somewhat resentful of others. But that did not justify all of the crass remarks and jabs at the expense of others.
"Do you know how I wound up at the bottom of that river?" Derflinger asked.
"No, I don't."
"It was several centuries ago. My partner at the time was being chased by some people, who and why I can't remember. Knowing me, I probably said something stupid that made them mad. It wouldn't be the first time... We tried to escape by crossing a river but we weren't fast enough, my partner took an arrow to the back and we both fell in. Our pursuers must have been satisfied because they never came after us. So there I was, unable to move, unable to even talk from all the water, completely helpless while I was forced to watch my partner drown.
"Have you ever watched up close as someone slowly died? Seen the light leave their eyes, seen the little twitches and shudders as they struggle? It felt like an eternity, even though it only took several minutes. And there we lay, for who knows how long. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do anything but stare into my partner's dead eyes. I had to watch as they slowly rotted away, as pieces were taken off of them by either the current or scavenging fish. At that point, I just wanted them to be gone already. Eventually, only bones were left, and even those were swept away. I don't even remember their face anymore, just a half-decayed skull.
"I lost count of how much time had passed after that, I only know that it must have been quite a while because the river slowly dried up and I was found by some traveling soldiers. That's how it usually goes for me, every few centuries I find someone who can put up with me, but they eventually die and I end up getting lost somewhere dark and alone. It's the closest thing to death that I can experience. But when I'm able to live, I make every moment count because I know it could all go away again in an instant, even if all I can do is say stupid things about what I see."
Saba was silent as Derflinger finished, completely unsure of how to respond to that. He couldn't comprehend how anyone could go through any of that for so long and remain relatively sane. After all, he was only technically nineteen years old. Although...
"I... believe that I can understand to some extent," he said as he once more came to float beside Derflinger.
"You do?"
"There was a time when one of Tommy's enemies struck a decisive blow and both his and the powers of the other Rangers were broken beyond repair, at least at the time. As I am part of his powers, I disappeared with them. Yet I was still conscious, and I could still observe things through our shared link to the Morphing Grid. I felt helpless as I watched him continue to fight, and as he slowly spiraled into a deep despair. That day, during the battle against the golems, was the first time he had summoned me in years."
"Why didn't he summon you before then if he could?"
"By the time the powers that I'm connected to were repaired, he was recovering from his aforementioned despair. My presence would have been a reminder of dark times that he was trying to move past, and I did not want him to relapse because of me. I do not hold it against him and neither should you."
Silence fell between them as they processed what they had told each other. Saba was silently glad that Tommy was asleep as he already had so many problems that he was trying to solve and he didn't need more.
"It's funny, Partner told a similar story to the blue-haired girl earlier," Derflinger said, "That happen to him often?"
"It was an unfortunate recurrence for Tommy, yes. At current, he's had six different power sets."
"And they're all connected to this 'Morphing Grid' thing, right?"
"Indeed. You see, the..."
"Wait, did you hear that?"
Saba immediately rose into the air and began to scan their surroundings. Suddenly, he heard the snap of a branch coming from the left, then another from the right, too rapid and focused to be random. He looked to Derflinger and they both knew what to do.
"EYES UP!" Derflinger called out, "WE'VE GOT COMPANY!"
Tommy was on his feet before his eyes had fully opened and dashed toward Derflinger, drawing the sword with one hand while Saba flew into the other. The others were up a second later, eyes focused and wands ready.
"Guiche, golems!" Tommy commanded.
The young man complied and in moments, six golems had sprung from the ground with shields and spears taking formation around the group.
"What's happening?" Louise asked.
"We're about to find out," Tommy replied.
The sounds of footsteps and snapping branches continued around them, soon followed by a stench that could make a garbage dump blush.
"Only one thing smells like that," Wardes said, "Orcs."
"Can they be reasoned with?" Tommy asked.
"All who tried have failed, most believe they aren't intelligent enough to communicate in anything resembling language," Guiche explained, disgust clear in his voice, "Though I don't know why you would want to, their favorite food is human infants."
"Why haven't they attacked yet?" Montmorency asked.
"A good observation, orcs aren't known for mind games," Wardes explained.
The sounds of footsteps and snapping branches continued for a full minute, only to suddenly stop. Tommy held Saba and Derflinger at the ready, waiting for the other shoe to drop. A roar that sounded almost like a scream echoed from the left and a figure rushed from the shadows straight at Montmorency, but one of Guiche's golems intercepted, holding the beast back with its shield. Tommy immediately flipped Saba into a reverse grip and took aim, the laser blast punching clean through its skull. The beast fell to the ground and Tommy got a look at it in the firelight.
It was humanoid and slightly taller than a human, with chalk-like skin that almost looked decayed as it sagged on its bones, and a face that had bloodshot, wild eyes, a gaping maw filled with uneven and jagged teeth, and a pig-like nose in the middle. It held a crude, wooden club in its hand, and thankfully had enough decency to wear a loincloth. More screaming roars then erupted around them and more orcs rushed them, attacking with wild abandon.
"Saba, go!" Tommy commanded as he threw the sword into the air.
He rose above the attacking horde and began to rain laser fire down upon them. Tommy then lunged at the nearest orc and with a single swing, cleaved its head from its neck with Derflinger. Clubs and claws banged and scraped against bronze shields as spells were cast, blades of wind and gouts of flame cut through their attackers while flurries of icicles and tendrils of water pushed them back, all the while concussive blasts caused disorder among the orcs to make them easier targets.
An orc swung its club at Tommy but he easily kicked it away, returning the favor with another decapitation. He dashed around the perimeter that Guiche's golems formed, slashing and stabbing, punching and kicking any orcs he could reach while the others picked the rest off at a distance. He struck an orc in the chin with such force that its neck snapped, then drove his foot into the chest of another so hard its spine broke against a tree.
With one last spear of wind through the heart, the last orc fell. All was silent once more, save the heavy breathing of those still standing. All remained on guard, unsure if this was truly the end of it or just another trick to lull them into a false sense of security.
"Is... is it over?" Louise asked.
"Of course," Kirche proclaimed, "Nothing could have..."
The sound of very large, very heavy footsteps then reached their ears, heavy enough that the ground vibrated with each footfall. Closer and closer the footsteps came, followed by the sound of wood crashing and splintering as trees were knocked down. It came out of the shadows, nearly as tall as the trees themselves and significantly wider. Its skin was a mottled gray, its arms long enough to reach past its oblong knees, great tusks rising from its jaw. The beast's misshapen face contorted as it let loose a guttural roar that nearly deafened them.
"Is that a troll?!" Louise shouted.
"If it is then it is far larger than any I've seen," Wardes said, "We must flee, quickly!"
"I've got this," Tommy said as he sheathed Derflinger and pulled out his Morpher, "It's Morphing Time! Tigerzord!"
Tommy called Saba back to his hand as the morph was complete and ran headfirst at the troll. The beast swung its own club at him, what looked to be just a tree it had uprooted, but he easily dodged to the side. He jumped, high above the troll's head before landing on its shoulder and took a swing at its neck with Saba, only for the resulting wound to be closer to a paper cut than anything fatal.
"Troll flesh is notoriously strong!" Wardes called out.
"Good to know!" Tommy called back as he dodged out of the way of the troll's hand.
He landed on the back of the troll's neck, one hand grasping onto the skin of its head to hold himself in place, only for something to catch his eye. Bits of metal were embedded into the back of its head, brought into sharp relief by the sensors in his helmet. Tommy raised his fist and brought it down with all the strength he could muster upon the embedded metal, eliciting a roar of pain from the troll as it flailed to remove him. Again and again, he drove his fist into the beast's weak spot, until it came to a stop, falling to the ground with one last, shuddering breath.
"How did you do that?" Guiche asked as Tommy stepped off of the troll's body.
"Its skin may have been extremely tough but its internal organs weren't, so I just hit it with enough force to give it a fatal concussion," Tommy explained as he unmorphed, "We should pack up and get moving, it would be a bad idea to stay here."
As the party set about gathering their things, Tommy took another look at the back of the troll's head. Even in its ruined state, he could see that the metal was too uniformly placed to be random shrapnel. He then walked to one of the fallen orcs, only to find that it had similar implants. Someone had experimented on these creatures, which would explain their unusual behavior if Wardes were to be believed. Yet another problem that he would have to put off until later.
Tommy gathered up his things and after making sure the fire was fully out, he led the party out into the dark woods.
Louise stifled a yawn as they walked through yet another patch of forest. Dawn had come and passed hours ago but they had been walking for far longer, ever since they had been awoken by the previous night's events. Even though her duty to her country was paramount, she hoped that it would be over soon so that she could sleep in a proper bed again. Although, the 'sleeping bag' as Tommy had called it had been rather comfortable, however brief her experience with it had been.
"We should be nearly there," Tommy announced, much to Louise's relief.
It was then that Tommy suddenly veered off course, his eyes alight in a way she had never seen from him before. It almost reminded her of when Professor Colbert would go into one of his enthusiastic treatises on some new theory he had concocted. She watched as he approached a tree, reached down, and gently retrieved a leaf from the ground, holding it as if it were some priceless treasure.
"What are you doing?" Kirche asked, "That's just a leaf."
"You don't understand," Tommy said as he turned around, leaf held before him, "This species of tree has been extinct back home for thousands of years, I've only ever seen old drawings of what they look like. This is an incredible discovery."
"It's still just a leaf," Montmorency retorted, causing Tommy's enthusiasm to dim somewhat.
It was then that the sound of a distant explosion reached their ears, and most of the group dared to look at Louise.
"It wasn't me!" she protested.
"Come on!" Tommy ordered as he placed the leaf in one of his pouches and took off in the direction of the explosion.
They gave chase, doing their best to keep up with someone so much faster than them. They breached the perimeter of the forest, and the sight before them froze Louise to the core. They stood upon a cliff overlooking a castle fortress under siege, cannon fire bombarding the walls as an army of soldiers waited for the opportunity to break through.
"That's New Castle!" Jean-Jacque exclaimed.
"Are we too late?" Montmorency asked.
"I don't believe so, look!" Guiche said, gesturing to the fortress, "The portcullis yet holds, we may yet be in time!"
Indeed, even Louise could see that the gates had not yet been breached. But how would they get passed the army before them?
"I'll carve a path, the rest of you follow when it's clear," Tommy proclaimed.
Louise watched as he transformed, the white and gold of the suit shining in the midday sun as he leaped from the edge of the cliff. He was like a white streak as he raced toward the battle, faster than she had ever seen him move before. He weaved between the soldiers, striking them down as he went, before coming to a halt before the gate and turning to face the soldiers. A cannon fired, aimed squarely at Tommy, only for him to catch the cannonball with one hand. Then, with a mighty swing of his arm, he threw the cannonball with the same force as the cannon itself, and the offending weapon of war was reduced to scrap along with the patch of ground it once stood upon.
The remaining soldiers, having witnessed such a display up close, began to flee. He had done it, he had forced them into retreat! The group immediately cast levitation upon themselves and descended to the ground below, while Louise had to be carried by Jean-Jacque. As much as she wished to bemoan such an embarrassing situation, now was hardly the time! They raced toward New Castle and the gate opened as they approached, only to be met with weapons drawn as they stepped through.
"State your purpose!" one of the defenders of New Castle demanded as he brandished his spear for emphasis.
The group then turned to look at Louise, this was it, this was her moment. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, clenched her hands to stop their trembling, and stepped forth.
"I am Louise Francois le Blanc de la Valliere!" she began, head held high, "My companions and I have come to seek an audience with Prince Wales Tudor of Albion, by order of Her Royal Highness, Princess Henrietta de Tristain!"
A chorus of murmurs erupted from the crowd and were just as swiftly silenced as a figure fully clad in armor stepped forward, the crowd parting as they approached. They then removed their helm to reveal a young man with golden, chin-length blond hair and clear blue eyes.
"Valliere?" he asked, before a look of realization crossed his features, "Yes, I recall now. The soiree on the shore of Lagdorian Lake, you had accompanied the princess for most of the evening."
"I am honored that you remember me, Prince Wales," Louise replied with a deep bow.
"Though I wish to take you at your word, circumstances demand that I require proof of your identity and intentions," the prince said solemnly.
"Of course, Your Highness," Louise replied, before lifting her hand to show the ring that the princess had given her.
Another look of recognition crossed the prince's face and he unlatched the gauntlet from his right hand. Upon his finger was another ring, similar to her own but where the jewel on her's looked as if water had been stopped in place and carved, his looked as if a shaped cloud was set into the ring. He approached closer, his men at the ready for any sign of treachery, and held his ring up to hers, a small rainbow manifesting from their proximity.
"They speak the truth!" Prince Wales announced to his soldiers, "Allow them passage!"
"But my lord..." one of the soldiers began.
"If you do not believe your ears then believe your eyes!" the prince proclaimed, "You have all borne witness to how they have driven the enemy from our gates! For that, we owe them much gratitude!"
His order given, the soldiers of New Castle lowered their weapons and allowed them safe passage to the central keep. Within laid the main hall, now derelict from lack of upkeep, filled with hundreds of refugees and injured soldiers.
"Your Highness!" one of the men approached, a look of confused apprehension upon his visage, "What happened? What of the enemy?"
"Driven off thanks to our newcomers, at least temporarily," the prince announced to the hall.
Another wave of murmurs passed among the many occupants, all eyes on them, and on Tommy in particular. He had not yet dispelled his armor, even as they entered the relative safety of the castle.
"Come, Lady Valliere," the prince began, "We shall speak in my chambers of the urgent matter about which the princess has sent you."
He moved to a door to the side of the hall and Louise followed, followed in turn by Tommy and Jean-Jacque.
"The rest of you wait here," Tommy said to the others, "We'll be back in a few minutes."
"We await your return, Sir Thomas," Guiche proclaimed.
"Your... knight is quite dedicated, Lady Valliere," Prince Wales said, "I confess that I have never seen a knight quite like him. Sir Thomas, was it?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Tommy replied as he removed his helmet and held it under his arm, "Unfortunately, our mission has reached its critical juncture and risks cannot be allowed."
"Yes, such are the times we live in," the prince said sadly.
They walked through the corridor until they came to a small room, the interior of which was just as dilapidated as the rest of the castle. Small candles rested upon a modest desk and barely provided sufficient illumination.
"So, what urgency compelled Princess Henrietta to send you all here?" the prince asked as he stood behind the desk.
"A letter that she sent to you, Your Highness," Louise began, "She believes that if the worst were to come to pass and that letter fell into Reconquista hands, it could spell disaster for alliances that she is trying to forge in order to defend Tristain. She sent us to retrieve it from you."
"...I see."
The prince then retrieved a key and unlocked a drawer in the desk, pulling out an envelope. He removed the contents and began to silently read it, a whistful smile spreading across his face.
"How ironic, she had sworn me to never part with this letter, and yet now she herself asks me to. Oh, my dear Ann..."
"If I may, Your Highness," Tommy began, "I believe it would be best if the letter was destroyed, eliminating any chance that unwanted eyes would ever see it."
"A course of action that pains me deeply, yet a wise one all the same. So be it."
Prince Wales then held the letter and its envelope to the flame of one of the candles. It began to burn in his hand, slowly being consumed, all the while his pained expression deepened, and then tossed it into the nearby fireplace.
"We have a second objective that we'd like to discuss with you, Your Highness," Tommy began, "We're here to evacuate you and your people to Tristain."
For the briefest moment, Louise saw a flash of what she thought to be fear and anger in Prince Wales' eyes, before he turned and went to leave the room.
"Your intention is appreciated, but I am afraid that will be impossible," the prince said.
"And why is that?" Tommy asked as they followed.
"It simply is, we are cornered like rats here in New Castle. Even our ships cannot ferry us to safety due to those blasted cannons."
"Would they be cannons that fire piercing light?" Louise asked.
"You've seen one?" Prince Wales asked, stopping in the middle of the corridor.
"Our own ship was hit by one when we arrived in Albion," Tommy explained, "We barely managed to land safely."
"If even your ship has been shot down, how do you expect to evacuate us?"
"Our allies back in Tristain have been preparing a means of instantaneous transportation for this purpose."
"Impossible, no such thing exists."
"You saw me drive off an army single-handedly, didn't you? It's been my life's work to do the impossible."
"Even if you speak the truth, the answer is still no," Wales said as he resumed his march back to the main hall.
"I have seen what he speaks of, Prince Wales," Louise began as they followed, "I have seen many things that I still can't even begin to understand, but I know that he can make it happen."
"Regardless, our place is here, in Albion," the prince said as they passed through the door, "Today was to be our final stand. Though you have given us a moment's reprieve, for which we are grateful, we know that Reconquista is rallying as we speak, and it is for the honor and glory of Albion that we must face them."
"So you just plan to just give up and die?" Tommy said.
The entire hall fell silent as the words left Tommy's mouth, all eyes turned to him. Louise was shocked that he would say such a thing, and to royalty at that. She knew he could be quite blunt while speaking and she paid it no mind for all that he had done for her, but this was beyond the pale!
"Watch your tongue, sir knight," the prince said warningly, "It is only by your position as diplomatic emissaries that I do not see you flogged for this insolence."
"And then what?" Tommy continued undeterred, "What good will that do? What good will come from throwing away not only your life but every life in this castle?"
"How dare you...!"
"No, how dare you. You spoke of honor and glory earlier, but what good will honor and glory do for your people? Do you believe that Reconquista will be so moved by your sacrifice that they'll stop their bid for conquest? Or do you think that they'll be somehow magically protected from harm?"
"I-I beg your forgiveness, Prince Wales," Louise interjected, "He often speaks out of turn like this, but... He is correct. We have witnessed how the people of Albion suffer under Reconquista's rule. They need you, now more than ever. Come with us so that you might return to save them."
"I will not flee like a coward!"
"Wales..." a voice called from the back of the hall, raspy yet strong.
The crowd of onlookers parted ways to reveal a man that Louise had not noticed before. He was old, perhaps in his fifties yet he looked far older, as if ravaged by illness. He sat upon a makeshift throne, in tattered yet regal robes and with a crown upon his head.
"Father?" the prince asked as he approached the king of Albion.
"Go with them... my son..." the king said between heavy breaths.
"Father, I cannot. You yourself have said that there was no other way."
"That was before... fate had intervened..."
"But how can I when I have already failed as prince?"
"You only fail by either dying or giving up," Tommy interjected, "And you're still breathing. Are you saying you've given up?"
"Step forward... white knight..."
"Your Majesty," Tommy replied as he approached, bowing deeply.
"You speak with... much audacity..." the king began, barely managing to hold back a harsh cough, "Yet also with much wisdom. You say that... you can save my people?"
"I can, Your Majesty. I will ensure that they are taken to safety in Tristain."
"Then... so be it..."
"But father..." the prince interjected.
"Please... I have already... lost your brothers to this war... I will not lose you as well..."
Prince Wales turned to look to all gathered in the hall, then to the king, then to Tommy, his expression filled with much inner turmoil.
"If I agree to this, how will you evacuate us?" he said warily.
Tommy then pulled a small object from... somewhere, causing Louise to briefly wonder what exactly happened to his other clothes when he manifested his armor. The object was about the size of a grain and resembled the small discs, the 'beacons', in color.
"Hold onto this and you will be instantly taken to Tristain," he explained as he held out his hand.
"How many of these do you have?" Prince Wales asked, eyeing the object suspiciously.
"Unfortunately, it is the only one. We didn't have the time to make more, nor did we know how many people would be here. But we can still evacuate everyone, it will just take a bit longer to prepare things properly."
"I don't..."
"It's your choice. If you go out there to die, then hope dies with you. But come with us, and hope will endure. Your people will know that you still fight for them."
"Prince Wales!"
Everyone turned to find a soldier bursting into the hall, a look of panic on his face.
"Archibald?" Prince Wales asked, "What happened?"
"Reconquista are rallying, they have fielded one of those monstrous cannons, Your Highness!"
A wave of worried murmurs washed over the crowd at the sudden bad news, Louise having to fight down her own fear as she recalled the last time she witnessed one of those dreaded things.
"Can you stop it?" Prince Wales asked of Tommy.
"I believe I can," he replied.
"Good," the prince said as he took the object from Tommy's hand, "When will... this take me away?"
"In just a moment," Tommy said as he put his helmet back on and turned, placing a hand to his ear, "Alpha, are you there? Begin the evacuation."
A moment passed, and then Prince Wales disappeared in a flash of light, eliciting reactions of shock from the gathered people.
"What happened? Where is the prince?" one of the soldiers demanded.
"Alpha, patch them through over the speaker," Tommy said, and new voices began to emanate from his helmet.
"What? How... Henrietta?" came the voice of the prince.
"Wales? Oh, Wales!" the princess said in return.
"He is safe in Tristain, and you will all be joining him soon. Be patient for just a few more minutes," Tommy proclaimed to the crowd.
Louise then watched as he retrieved one of the regular beacons from... wherever he pulled it and walked to a crack in the wall, slipping it inside.
"Alpha, a second beacon is active," Tommy said before turning to the man named Archibald, "So about that cannon?"
"Uh, y-yes, this way!"
He turned to follow, and Louise could only watch. Her part was done, now it was just a matter of waiting. She turned to the crowd, anxious and fearful as everything they thought they knew had been upended. She turned to the king, struggling yet unwavering. She turned to her classmates, all of whom with their own expressions of worry or relief. She turned to... Hold on, where had Jean-Jacque gone to?
It was then she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Tommy followed the soldier through the corridor and up a flight of stairs until they emerged on the castle ramparts.
"There it is!" the soldier, Archibald, said as he pointed into the distance.
Tommy looked and the man was right, the Reconquista soldiers had returned, and with them came the weapon in question. Though fine details were impossible to determine at this distance, Tommy could see that the cannon was far larger than the ones he had seen earlier, large enough that it appeared to require ten men to push it into place.
"You'd better get back inside with everyone else," Tommy said before stepping on the edge of the wall and leaping off.
He landed and began to run, and the enemy soldiers charged at him in response. He drew his swords and cut them down, as he did with every soldier behind them, faster than they could realize. More soldiers fired arrows and muskets, but all they did was bounce off his chest plate and helmet. It was then that spells began flying at him, he dodged a blast of wind and then swung Derflinger through a fireball, completely dissipating it.
As he drew closer to his target, the cannon began to glow, bright lines along its exterior filling up to signal its charge. Tommy ran faster, he had to stop this here and now! But the cannon grew brighter and brighter, faster than he had hoped. He had no choice then, he stopped in his tracks and dug in his heels, arms spread as wide as possible. If he couldn't stop it from firing, then he would stop it from hitting the castle.
A great beam of light poured from the cannon's barrel and struck Tommy square in the chest, pain erupting everywhere. He fought through it just as he always had, his feet slowly digging small divots in the ground as he was pushed back by the force of the blast, but he would not fall. He roared at the top of his lungs as the pain reached its peak, and then the beam dissipated.
Wasting no time, Tommy rushed the cannon and raised Saba high, bringing him done with all the force he could muster. Again and again, he rained down blow after blow, cracking through the cannon's plating and splitting its barrel. He then leaped back and took aim with Saba, firing a laser blast straight through it. As they continued to fire, the cannon began to heat up, glowing from dull orange to nearly white, before exploding into so much scrap and shrapnel.
As had happened earlier, the remaining soldiers began to flee for their lives, and Tommy took a moment to catch his breath. He looked down at where he had been struck and saw that the golden emblem of his chest plate had been scorched black. A sharp ache passed through his chest, but this was nothing new for him.
"Tommy!" Alpha cried over the comms, sounding panicked.
"What's wrong, Alpha?" he asked.
"Wardes has betrayed us! He's attacked everyone and taken Louise!"
For a brief moment, the world disappeared, save for the dull ache in his chest, and his absolute fury.
"Where did they go?" Tommy demanded.
"They're heading for a forest to the east, they're still within range of the beacon so I can guide you to them."
"And everyone else in the castle?"
"No one is gravely injured as far as I can see, the evacuation is still underway."
Tommy took off running eastward, dread and rage competing for space in his mind. It wasn't solely anger at Wardes, but anger at himself as well. He knew he shouldn't have trusted him, he knew it! But he gave him the benefit of the doubt, and look where that got them! Part of him wanted to know why, but the rest just wanted to tear him limb from limb.
It was nearly sundown when he reached the edge of the forest, he would need to make this quick before it got too dark. Following Alpha's directions, he navigated through the woods, until a sharp pain lanced through his chest, causing him to collapse and power down involuntarily. He gripped onto the trunk of a tree and with gritted teeth, pulled himself back up. The pain was no longer a dull ache, now that his powers were no longer muting it, but a sharp stab. If he had to guess, it was probably a broken rib, but he couldn't afford to worry about that now.
He marched through the forest, eyes peeled for any signs of Louise or Wardes, ignoring as each breath hurt more and more. It was then he came upon a clearing, and resting against a tree was Louise, completely unmoving. The dread and rage in his mind began to spiral, what had he done to her?
"Tommy, I'm detecting multiple figures around you," Alpha said over the communicator.
"On your left, Partner!" Derflinger shouted.
Tommy narrowly dodged as a spear of wind sailed past him, splitting a tree in half. Then another, this time from behind. Tommy dodged and blocked with Derflinger as he moved, he had to get to Louise. Now blades and blasts of wind flew at him with more frequency, so he made a mad dash. As he reached the tree where Louise lay, the attacks stopped. He leaned down and checked her vitals, her pulse was fine and she was breathing, but her eyes just stared blankly into space. He then stood, scanning the surroundings for any signs of their attacker.
"Face me, traitor!" Tommy roared in challenge.
"You are either supremely stupid or supremely naive, and I am unsure which is worse," Wardes replied, his voice seeming to come from everywhere.
"Maybe I am, since I trusted you."
"You really should have made good on your threats to me, all of this could have been avoided."
"So what happened to honor and justice?"
"Where is the honor in serving tyrants? Where is the justice for those who suffer under their bootheel?"
"And replacing their boot with yours is somehow better?!"
"Someone like you could never understand the sacrifices that must made in the name of liberation."
Then, out of the shadows stepped Wardes, sword wand drawn and raised. And then another Wardes appeared, coming from the left, and another coming from the right. Tommy raised his own swords, this wasn't the first enemy he'd faced that could copy themselves. He waited, and sure enough, so did they. It seemed they didn't want to hurt Louise while he was standing right in front of her, but he couldn't just charge in and potentially let another copy make off with her.
"Partner, behind and to your left!" Derflinger shouted.
Tommy turned but the wind blast had already been fired, blasting him away from Louise. He landed on his feet and one of the Wardes copies was already on him, attempting to skewer him on his sword but Tommy deflected each strike. Then another Wardes joined in, peppering him with wind spears from a distance, some he dodged while others he stopped with Derflinger. The third stayed back, waving its sword in intricate patterns, probably a big spell.
Tommy gave the first two the slip and charged at the third before it could finish, but a sharper pain than before spread through his chest, and he fell to the ground. The third Wardes finished its incantation and aimed its sword, great arcs of lightning lashing out and hurtling toward him. They struck, and Tommy felt every cell of his body go numb and erupt with pain all at once, every nerve vibrating as the electric current coursed through him. He cried out in pain, the blasts of lightning still flowing. Then it ended, and as Tommy tried to pull himself up, a wind blast struck true, and he was thrown into a tree.
What... happened? Louise did her best to recall, but everything was a blur. She recalled a hand on her shoulder, then suddenly she was falling. She tried to stand but could not move, she heard shouts and screams but could not find their source. Then, she was moving, being carried. They were in a rush, racing through rooms, and then suddenly they were outside. She could make out the dimming light of sunset, only for things to grow darker.
Now here she sat, against what she thought was a tree. Now here she sat as she was forced to watch her fiance and familiar do battle. Jean-Jacque was... attacking Tommy, but why? Why would he... Did he...did he do something to her? No, Jean-Jacque would never, he couldn't! Then why? Why couldn't she move? She tried to stand but her legs would not move, she grasped for her wand but her fingers lay limp.
Her mind raced, what was happening? Why couldn't she move?! This wasn't right! She tried to do something, anything! She could not flail and she could not scream, no matter how desperately she wanted to! No! This was not the time for panic, she had to do something! She needed to focus, she needed something familiar. Louise then began to recite spells in her head, desperately hoping that for once she could cast something. Even one of her explosions was preferable to this.
But nothing happened. Again and again she recited every spell that she had ever read about or tried, and still nothing! And all the while she watched, helpless to stop the fight before her. Her heart then dropped as he watched Tommy be bombarded with lightning, his screams of agony echoing through the forest and in her mind. He was then blasted away, out of her sight, and she was left alone with the three Jean-Jacques before her. A fourth then stepped out of the shadows and began to approach, reaching out for her. No, no, please no...!
A blur then raced through her vision, cutting down the three other Jean-Jacques, each exploding in a burst of wind. The blur then came to a stop in front of her, imposing itself between her and Jean-Jacque. Saba, Tommy's sword, roared like the tiger it looked like at Jean-Jacque, daring him to take another step.
"Sic-kiyah!"
Faster than she could follow, Tommy flew back into view, once more clad in his armor, and kicked Jean-Jacque hard enough to launch him into a tree. A wave of relief washed over Louise, she was safe!
"So, you were the one that set those assassins on us in La Rochelle," Tommy said as he turned to face Jean-Jacque, calling Saba back to his hand, "You probably hired the ones that attacked us on the mountain pass too."
"How...!" Jean-Jacque ground out.
"I told you before, didn't I? I'm always holding back."
Jean-Jacque merely growled from his place at the base of the tree, a grimace of pain on his face as he gripped his shoulder with one hand, the other lying limp at his side. He tried to stand, reaching for his sword which now lay shattered on the ground, but fell once more.
"Give it up, Wardes," Tommy said, "It's over."
"No... No, I will never give up!"
Jean-Jacque then tore the silver pendant from his neck, revealing a long, sharp needle hidden within, and stabbed himself in the chest. A miniature hurricane erupted around him and he began to float off the ground, arcs of lightning lashing out around him, and his broken arm once more moving freely.
"Power... So much power!" he roared, releasing a burst of wind that tore through the trees around him.
"Round two it is, then," Tommy said and charged.
Lousie's hope faded as she watched them clash once more, now more intensely than before. Tommy's blades were an imperceptible blur as he struck at Jean-Jacque, who blocked all with a barrier of wind. He then retaliated, sending innumerable blades of wind and arcs of lightning toward Tommy who was forced to dodge and deflect. Jean-Jacque then raised a hand, and the wind around him picked up the broken fragments of the trees he destroyed, hurling them at Tommy who cut through them all.
Louise had to do something, needed to do something, but she couldn't! She recited spells again but it was no use! Jean-Jacque sent more and more lightning, scorching black their surroundings and setting trees and grass ablaze, all to kill Tommy, who did his best to stop most of it with Derflinger. This was all wrong, how could this have happened? Why was this happening?! She wanted it to stop, to make it all stop!
And then, a thought occurred to Louise. She did not know how it came to her, yet here it was. It was... familiar, and comforting, yet she knew not why. Words began to form in her mind, unknown words that flowed as naturally as any other, perhaps more so. She focused all of her might on the words, repeating them over and over. Then, her fingers began to move.
Tommy dodged to the side as another blast of lightning flew his way, flipping through the air as he went. The once-dark forest was now lit up like they were fighting in a giant fireplace. Wardes had completely lost his mind, he tried so carefully not to hurt Louise and now she was in more danger than ever! This ended now. Tommy planted his feet on a tree as he flew toward it and pushed off, launching himself at Wardes with full force. He swung with both blades, but they bounced off yet again.
"Derflinger, can you absorb his shield?" Tommy asked as he dodged again.
"I've been trying to Partner, but it's too much!"
"Time for another tactic then."
Tommy aimed Saba and fired, the laser bouncing off the wind shield and causing a tree to explode. He fired again and again, only causing more damage to the already ruined forest. He deflected a lightning bolt with Derflinger and charged at Wardes again, unleashing a flurry of blows as fast as possible, only for the shield to suddenly expand and blast him back.
"Pathetic fool!" Wardes roared, a manic grin on his face, "I am invincible!"
"That's what they all say, right before I turn them to dust!"
Wardes then charged at Tommy, who could only raise his swords to block the attack. Wardes kept pushing and Tommy kept holding his ground, the sound of wind grinding against steel echoing around them. Wardes pushed harder and Tommy began to slide back, his boots digging divots into the dirt. Worse yet, the pain in his chest was growing. He could really use some backup right about now!
"STOP!"
Both men turned and for the briefest moment, they saw Louise, on her feet, arm out, the ring on her finger glowing, and her eyes pitch black. The next thing they knew, a massive explosion ripped through the forest, knocking them both into trees and to the ground. As Tommy got to his feet, he found that he had been involuntarily unmorphed again. He picked up Derflinger and looked over to his opponent, but struggled to see as everything was now darker. The explosion must have put out the forest fire. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that Wardes was in much worse shape. Some of his clothes had been torn away, revealing black scorch marks all along his arms and chest, even on his face, while his hands were completely charred. And yet, despite taking so much damage, he still tried to get to his feet.
"Why?" Tommy asked, now feeling somewhat sorry for the other man, "Why do any of this?"
"Why?" Wardes replied, severe pain evident in his voice, "After all I've done, you ask why? You could never understand."
"Try me."
Wardes then began to laugh, but it quickly devolved into a ragged cough, blood starting to come out of his mouth.
"It didn't have to be like this, there's always another way," Tommy said.
"All that power, enough to bring the world to its knees, and yet you use it like this," Wardes replied, now on his feet, "You truly are a naive fool."
"I tried the world domination thing once, it wasn't for me."
Wardes then lunged, trying to get past him to get to Louise, but Tommy casually pushed him back to the ground.
"Don't bother trying, Wardes. You couldn't carry a wand with those ruined hands, let alone an entire person."
"I... I must...!" Wardes said, before hacking up more blood.
Tommy said nothing, just sighed, sheathed Derflinger, and reached down to pull the 'pendant' out of Wardes' chest, placing it in one of his pouches. He then turned to check on Louise. She had collapsed to the ground again, this time completely unconscious instead of the trance she had been in. He checked her over to see if she had been hurt, and found something curious: a small metal disk had been placed at the base of her skull. This must have been how Wardes sedated her. Carefully, he gently pulled on the disk, successfully removing it and placing it too in a pouch. He then gently cradled her in one arm as he activated his communicator.
"Alpha, I have Louise. Bring us home."
The teleportation activated and they were back in Jean's workshop.
"Is she alright?" Jean demanded as he rushed over.
"She's okay, just unconscious."
"That's a relief," Jean said as he took hold of her.
"What about the others?"
"They arrived safely, if a bit roughed up."
"Tommy, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..." Alpha said before collapsing to the ground.
"Alpha!" Tommy exclaimed and ran over.
He rolled the robot over and quickly pressed a switch at the back of his neck, only the lowest section of the lightning bolt on his chest flashing before going dark.
"His power core is dry, he must have been working nonstop without charging," Tommy said with a sigh of relief and turned to face Jean, "We should put him outside when the sun comes up and he'll be good as new."
"That's good to hear," Jean replied, before punching Tommy in the face.
Tommy reeled back, more from the shock than the pain. He reached to his nose and found that it was bleeding. He looked to Jean, only to see barely restrained fury in his friend's eyes.
"Get. Out."
Tommy said nothing, simply turning to the teleportation console. He found the coordinates labeled for the Trisain royal palace and activated them, disappearing in a flash of light.
Tommy rematerialized in a grand hall, one much like where they had been in New Castle, only this one was in much better shape. Tall windows lined white walls, each framed with long, deep purple curtains. The floor was made of what looked to be marble, at least the parts that weren't occupied by hundreds of refugees. He watched as butlers, maids, and guards rushed back and forth tending to everyone, and saw a sizable group of them gathered around one spot. He drew closer, and found that they were standing around a body: the king of Albion, with a sizable hole pierced through his chest.
Tommy hated himself at that moment, he did everything right, and he still couldn't protect everyone. If he had just gotten rid of Wardes earlier...
"You!" one of the grieving shouted as he looked up and saw Tommy, "You did this! You led the traitor to us!"
The man lunged at Tommy and he put up no resistance, but Prince Wales intervened, pulling the man back.
"Get a hold of yourself!" the prince ordered.
"But the king! If he hadn't..."
"If he hadn't been there, we'd all be dead. The king was already dying, surely you saw it."
"What's this about a traitor?" Princess Henrietta asked as she stepped away from the crowd, "Where is Captain Wardes?"
"The former Captain Wardes betrayed us, he was an agent of Reconquista," Tommy grimly explained, "He attacked everyone and tried to kidnap Louise, but I chased him down and left him for dead."
"Oh no, is she alright?" the princess asked, deeply worried.
"She's safe back at the academy, along with her other classmates."
"I am relieved to hear such good news."
Tommy simply nodded, and took a moment to take in the princess' appearance. No longer did she wear a dark robe as she had the last time they met, instead wearing a regal yet simple, near-white, long-sleeved gown, the collar of which was inlaid with three green gemstones. Over top, she wore a purple cape that matched her hair, the fastening also inlaid with a green gemstone, and atop her head was a silver tiara inlaid with three more green gemstones.
"You have done a great service not only to Tristain, but to Albion as well," the princess began, "Name any reward and if it is within my power, it shall be granted."
"That won't..." Tommy began, but then he was struck with an idea, "Actually, there is one thing. While in Albion, we ran into some orphans and their caretakers who were in danger of Reconquista attacking them. If it's possible, could you find them a place to live here in Tristain?"
"Such a selfless request, I will see that it is done, " the princess replied.
The sound of doors opening met their ears and they turned to see a woman standing at the entrance to the hall. She appeared to be in her mid-to-late-forties and wore an entirely black dress with a veil. The prince and princess walked to greet the woman and Tommy followed a short way behind them.
"Oh, James..." the woman said sadly as she looked over to the body of the king.
"Mother?" the princess asked, "I had not expected you to be here."
"I came as soon as I heard the news," the woman, the queen, replied.
"Your Majesty," Prince Wales said with a deep bow.
"Wales, it is good to see you. With the news coming from Albion, I had feared the worst."
"The worst would have come, Your Majesty, if not for this man here," the prince said and gestured to Tommy.
"You are the one who saved my nephew and his people?" the queen asked.
"Not alone but yes, Your Majesty," Tommy replied, bowing deep... wait, 'nephew'?
"Then you have our deepest gratitude. Daughter, see to it he is rewarded handsomely."
"It is already underway, Mother."
Tommy didn't hear the rest of the conversation, as he suddenly became light-headed and blacked out.
The rain poured heavily upon the region of Newcastle, and above one forest in particular. As he crawled through the mud, each motion causing agony to course through his body, Jean-Jacque Francis de Wardes refused defeat. He didn't care how much pain he endured, how long it took, or how much he must sacrifice to see it through, he would not allow his mother's death to be in vain.
His charred fingers bled as he clawed his way forward, his body grew ever colder as he was drenched by the storm, his vision wavering with each agonized breath. It was then that all feeling left his body, everything became colder. He could no longer move, his thoughts awash in delirium. No, this could not be the end... It could not...
"Poor little knight, so alone and broken."
Something sharp plunged into his back, and suddenly he was awake, aware of all sensation, especially the pain. That voice, he knew it. What was she doing? No, not this! Not like this!
"Fear not, little knight. We still have use for you yet."
He was not used to his fallen enemies leaving remains, most of the time they were vaporized in a massive explosion. But not here, not now. The pit was wide and deep enough that it normally would have taken multiple men hours to dig, but Tommy managed it by himself in just one. Super strength and stamina had their advantages, even when he sometimes wished they didn't.
As he threw the last body into the pit, he drew Saba from his side and took aim. The bodies ignited the instant the laser blast made contact, and Tommy silently powered down and sat on a nearby rock. Jean was right, the smell was awful. As he watched the flames, his mind cast back to older times. Darker times. Greener times. He remembered when he had last killed normal humans, he remembered the glee he had felt, as well as the shame and disgust afterward.
But then, he never really stopped killing, never stopped taking satisfaction from the act. He supposed the fact that none of them were human made it easier to stomach, made it easier to justify. They were aliens, robots, mutants, artificial whether by magic or science. But they were still alive, and he killed them, all while striking a pose and making a quip. It was the same for most of the Power Rangers, with only two teams actually capable of capturing their enemies alive. They had asked if S.P.D or Time Force could share their capture technology but they were declined, citing that they didn't want to endanger the timeline. Like that actually mattered, spacetime distortions were so common that one could simply trip and fall into one. They've messed with time so often that it was a wonder that the universe hadn't fallen apart yet.
Maybe retirement had softened him, it had been eight years since he'd had to kill an enemy. No, that wasn't exactly true. He had gone for the kill against those wind-construct assassins in La Rochelle. They weren't human, but he didn't know that until after the fact. And he certainly paid no thought to smashing Mathilda's golems to pieces, not to mention the death threats he'd made lately. Was this the summation of his life? Doctor Tommy Oliver, killer to the core? To think, he was excited to do all of this again.
The sound of a snapping twig roused him from his thoughts and he turned to find Wardes approaching him. He still didn't know what to think of the younger man, every instinct screamed that he shouldn't be trusted but he had yet to actually do anything that required yet more violence to solve. Tommy had been taught when he was young that violence was always the last option, and yet it always ended up being the only option.
"Écu for your thoughts?" Wardes asked as he came to stand beside Tommy.
"I guess you could say that I'm mourning," Tommy replied.
"You are equally confusing as you are intriguing," Wardes began, "I can hardly recall meeting a man of your age and especially your experience who would feel such sentiments for those who don't deserve it."
"I might have agreed with you when I was your age, but time has a funny way of changing things. I've spent my life fighting the worst monsters that you could imagine, the kind that could make those soldiers look like saints in comparison. And yet the kicker of it all is that some of the worst of those monsters actually managed to change for the better. I guess I'm not so much mourning who those soldiers were in the present, but rather I'm mourning who they were in the past and who they could have become if they had just chosen another path."
"Do you truly believe that?" Wardes asked solemnly, "That someone can be redeemed after doing something so terrible?"
"I have to, otherwise I'd be a monumental hypocrite."
"And yet you still saw fit to pass judgment upon them."
"I swore an oath to fight cruelty and malice wherever it might appear, and while I'd love nothing more than to settle conflicts with words, that's rarely a luxury I get to have. While I can never know why they joined up with Reconquista, I do know that they chose to terrorize this village, beat a child half to death, and forced the mother to watch. That can never be justified."
Tommy gave one last look into the fire in the pit and then stood. Despite his loathing of the situation, he knew that what he did was right. The villagers didn't deserve to be caught up in this war and he helped give them some peace back. That's what ultimately mattered. He turned and began to walk from the outskirts back to the village center where the kids still were.
"I confess that your mention of terrible monsters has left me intrigued," Wardes said as he followed, "What sort might they have been? Orcs. perhaps trolls?"
"Nothing like that, but have you ever encountered a man made entirely of eyeballs?"
"Certainly nothing like that."
"Good, because that one could shoot fire out of all of its eyes. How about a spider the size of a tower?"
"Surely this is some sort of jest."
"Trust me, I wish it was," Tommy said with a rueful chuckle.
"Your homeland must be utterly nightmarish, it's no wonder you're so powerful if that's what you must contend with."
"Speaking of monsters, what do you know about elves?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I had heard recently that elves aren't particularly liked around here so I wanted to find out more about them."
"I have never had the misfortune to cross one so all I know is from stories. Some say that their strength is monstrous and their magic more so, it would require an entire unit of elite war mages just to fell one elf. There are even those who claim they drink the blood of humans to fuel their magic, but that is more the realm of vampires."
"You have vampires here too?"
"Oh yes, and they are arguably more insidious than elves."
The talk of monsters came to an end when they rejoined the group. The five teenagers sat at the center of a long table that had been brought out as part of the celebration, each with a plate of food in front of them though some seemed not to have been touched. Tommy didn't blame them for not having an appetite after what they'd been through. As he and Wardes sat down, he took a moment to observe them. Kirche was busy flirting with some of the men of the village who also sat at the table, and she didn't seem the least bit bothered that she'd burned multiple people to death, while Tabitha was impassive as usual. He'd have to investigate further into them.
The other three weren't taking things as well. Louise sat quietly, simply staring at the table with a look of deep inner conflict, while Montmorency looked much the same though she was busy tending to Guiche who looked to be having the worst time of it. The normally vibrant and theatrical young man, who would have basked in such adoration from the people, instead sat silently, pale as a sheet and with a distant look in his eyes.
"How is everyone holding up?" Tommy asked, eliciting surprise from the three preoccupied teens.
"Oh just dandy," Kirche replied, "If I had known we'd be fawned over like this, I'd have joined up with little group far sooner."
"I... that is to say..." Louise began, trying to find the words.
"You did well today," Tommy said as he looked at the whole group.
"Did we?" Guiche asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
The sound of shuffling footsteps then reached their ears and Tommy looked over to see the young boy from earlier approaching them, most of his wounds now fully healed and his other eye open again. In his hands, he clutched an apple, and Tommy could see the boy's mother a short distance away.
"F-for you," the boy said as he presented the apple to Tommy.
"Well thank you," Tommy replied with a smile as he accepted the gift, "You were really brave earlier."
"T-the bad men were hurting m-mama," the boy said, "I didn't want them to hurt her no more."
"What's your name?"
"I-it's Brom, sir."
"Well, Brom, it's thanks to you that she's safe now."
Brom smiled at that and jogged back to his mother, the pair walking off to presumably get some sleep after such a harrowing day.
"You see that?" Tommy asked of the group, "That's why you did well. You gave these people their futures back, you gave them hope, even if we had to resort to killing those soldiers to make it happen. Don't be proud of the lives you took, be proud of the lives you saved."
Silence fell as the more morose members of the group took in his words, and even Kirche seemed to be giving them some thought. Everyone tried their best to eat, but it was decided that they would rather go to bed. Thankfully, the people of the village were more than willing to shelter them for the night and though it was uneasy, sleep claimed them all.
Morning soon came and the group gathered in the center of town. Though they still seemed worse for wear, Tommy could see that his words and a good night's rest had a positive effect on the teens.
"There is still so much we wish to give you for what you have done for us," the town elder said as he met them to see them off, "If there is anything, please do not hesitate to ask."
"There is one thing," Tommy said as he reached into his pouch and pulled out a beacon to hand to the old man, "Take this and put it in the safest place that you have."
"Of course, but... what is it?" the elder asked as he examined the beacon.
"It's a way for us to know if you're ever in trouble again," Tommy explained, "If more of those soldiers come, we'll be able to come back to help."
"Oh thank you, good lords and ladies," the elder replied with a deep bow, "And be safe on your journey."
With a nod, Tommy led the party back onto the road and further into the unknown.
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The march through the wilderness was as tedious and bothersome as the previous day. Many were the complaints of sweat and soreness, with occasional grumbling from Louise when she needed to be helped over an obstacle that everyone else could jump or levitate over.
"Don't let it get to you, Pinky," Derflinger said, "It's not like I could have made it across that river by myself either."
"Your words are hardly reassuring," she replied through clenched teeth as she did her best to wring out her hair.
"Just be thankful that you can even walk, what I'd give to be able to move on my own..."
Day eventually turned to night and it had been decided that they should make camp. They found a relatively open clearing and they set to work, which didn't take very long with magic involved. Guiche had casually dug a fire pit with a wave of his wand, while Kirche just as easily provided the fire. From there, it was simply a matter of setting up their bedding.
"These fastenings are oddly intriguing," Guiche said as he repeatedly unzipped his backpack, "And dare I say, somewhat satisfying to use."
Tommy resisted the urge to chuckle at the sight. He didn't blame Guiche for his fascination, they were rather elegant in their simple design, and he was honestly glad to see the young man take an interest in something new. He was even more glad to see that him in better spirits following the events of the previous day. And Guiche wasn't the only one, on either count. Louise and Montmorency also seemed to be feeling better, and the group at large had varying reactions to both the zippered backpacks and the sleeping bags. All except for Tabitha.
The young woman simply sat by the fire, reading her book by its flickering light. Tommy had yet to properly speak with her, so he supposed that now was as good a time as any.
"What are you reading?" Tommy asked as he approached.
"Book," she quietly replied, not even bothering to look up at him.
Tommy could tell that she was going to be a tough nut to crack, but he wasn't unused to working with quiet kids. It was just a matter of what to say to get them to open up. Of course, he didn't exactly have much to work with.
"That dragon of yours is pretty impressive," he said, bringing up one of the only other things that he knew about her.
Tabitha said nothing, only responding with a nod as her eyes remained glued to the page. Tommy resisted the urge to sigh, time for a different approach.
"I used to have a dragon for a battle partner," he said, a tinge of sadness entered his voice as the memory of the Dragonzord came to him.
"...What happened?" she asked, now looking at him from the corner of her eye.
"An old enemy did something to my abilities and it affected our connection. They've been asleep for a long time now."
"I'm sorry."
"I appreciate it."
Tabitha said no more, simply nodding before returning to her book. Tommy shrugged and began to walk away, it wasn't much but that was at least progress.
"We should establish a watch rotation," Wardes announced to the group, "We are in the midst of enemy territory and it would do us no good to be ambushed in our sleep."
"That won't be necessary," Tommy replied as he summoned Saba to his hand and removed Derflinger's sheathe from his back, "These two don't need sleep so they can be our watch."
He then stood Derflinger against a nearby rock and allowed Saba to float freely. The matter settled, everyone settled in for the night and tried to get some sleep
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The crackling of burning wood was the only sound that permeated the night as Saba made his rounds, the living blade kept his eyes focused and ears sharp for any sign of danger. Since the day of his creation, he was dutybound to be a weapon of defense and justice, to defend those who could not defend themselves and serve at the side of his wielder.
For a brief moment, he turned to look at Tommy, fast asleep amongst his newfound companions. Saba was glad to see him spending more time with other people, even if the circumstances could have been better. It did Tommy no good to spend so much of his time alone in an empty house. And while many of said companions were... complicated, he agreed with Tommy that they were ultimately decent people.
"Hey, hey!" a loud whisper emanated from the other side of the campsite, "Over here, pussy cat!"
At least, most of them were decent. If Saba could have them, he would be suffering from a near-constant headache from dealing with the other living sword. Was this how Rita Repulsa always felt around her minions? Why Tommy saw fit to acquire such an uncouth weapon was absolutely beyond him, the mouthy cur gave all swords everywhere a bad name. Saba did his best to ignore his annoying counterpart, distractions could not be afforded at this juncture. He turned and began to scan the treeline, on the lookout for even the slightest...
"Psst! Hey! Yoo-hoo!"
With an irritated growl, Saba floated over to the other sword and glared at him.
"What do you want?" Saba ground out, trying his best not to raise his voice.
"You want to hang out? Maybe swap stories?"
"Why would I ever do such a thing with the likes of you? It is bad enough that we must work together, I would prefer to not have to deal with you beyond that. And now is not the time for that."
"C'mon, we've got a lot in common! You're a talking sword, I'm a talking sword, that's plenty of reason for us to be friends!"
"Not if we were the last living beings in existence."
"Pleeeeeeaaaaaase?"
Saba wanted more than anything to simply float away from such a pathetic display, and yet it was that patheticness that kept him there.
"If I agree to this, will you at least shut up for a while?" Saba asked against his better judgment.
"Yeah, sure, absolutely!" Derflinger replied.
With an exasperated sigh, Saba lowered himself to float beside the other sword, and waited. And waited. And waited. The moment that Saba was willing to converse with Derflinger, suddenly he was dead silent.
"Well?" Saba asked irritably.
"Uh... You ever get trapped at the bottom of a river before?" Derflinger asked.
"No."
"Good, good. I don't recommend it, fish are terrible for conversation."
"That's it? That's what you wanted to say?"
"Honestly, I didn't expect to get this far."
Saba said nothing and simply began to float away. He couldn't believe that he gave in to such idiocy!
"Wait, wait!" Derflinger pleaded.
"Why should I?" Saba replied, barely resisting the urge to shout.
"Look, I get it, all right? You don't like me, a lot of people don't like me. I know what I'm like, I know that I'm extremely annoying. So far, Partner's the only one that's able to put up with me. And since you and him have been together for so long, I figured you'd be able to too. Can you blame me for wanting more of that?"
"Is that all?"
"You're the only other living sword that I know. For all my life, I thought that I was the only one, and now here you are."
"Surely there must be others, your creator couldn't have been the only one to have the idea in all that time."
"None like us. Sure, they talk, but they're made to only say a handful of phrases, nothing you can have a proper conversation with."
"And yet all you've done since we met is try to antagonize me."
"Because I'm jealous. You can move on your own, you have eyes that you can close. If something's bothering you, you can just decide to leave! Do you have any idea what I would give to have that? All I can do by myself is talk and see all around me, and I can't turn off the latter."
Saba fell silent, unsure of how to respond. He supposed it made sense, anyone in such a situation would be at least somewhat resentful of others. But that did not justify all of the crass remarks and jabs at the expense of others.
"Do you know how I wound up at the bottom of that river?" Derflinger asked.
"No, I don't."
"It was several centuries ago. My partner at the time was being chased by some people, who and why I can't remember. Knowing me, I probably said something stupid that made them mad. It wouldn't be the first time... We tried to escape by crossing a river but we weren't fast enough, my partner took an arrow to the back and we both fell in. Our pursuers must have been satisfied because they never came after us. So there I was, unable to move, unable to even talk from all the water, completely helpless while I was forced to watch my partner drown.
"Have you ever watched up close as someone slowly died? Seen the light leave their eyes, seen the little twitches and shudders as they struggle? It felt like an eternity, even though it only took several minutes. And there we lay, for who knows how long. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do anything but stare into my partner's dead eyes. I had to watch as they slowly rotted away, as pieces were taken off of them by either the current or scavenging fish. At that point, I just wanted them to be gone already. Eventually, only bones were left, and even those were swept away. I don't even remember their face anymore, just a half-decayed skull.
"I lost count of how much time had passed after that, I only know that it must have been quite a while because the river slowly dried up and I was found by some traveling soldiers. That's how it usually goes for me, every few centuries I find someone who can put up with me, but they eventually die and I end up getting lost somewhere dark and alone. It's the closest thing to death that I can experience. But when I'm able to live, I make every moment count because I know it could all go away again in an instant, even if all I can do is say stupid things about what I see."
Saba was silent as Derflinger finished, completely unsure of how to respond to that. He couldn't comprehend how anyone could go through any of that for so long and remain relatively sane. After all, he was only technically nineteen years old. Although...
"I... believe that I can understand to some extent," he said as he once more came to float beside Derflinger.
"You do?"
"There was a time when one of Tommy's enemies struck a decisive blow and both his and the powers of the other Rangers were broken beyond repair, at least at the time. As I am part of his powers, I disappeared with them. Yet I was still conscious, and I could still observe things through our shared link to the Morphing Grid. I felt helpless as I watched him continue to fight, and as he slowly spiraled into a deep despair. That day, during the battle against the golems, was the first time he had summoned me in years."
"Why didn't he summon you before then if he could?"
"By the time the powers that I'm connected to were repaired, he was recovering from his aforementioned despair. My presence would have been a reminder of dark times that he was trying to move past, and I did not want him to relapse because of me. I do not hold it against him and neither should you."
Silence fell between them as they processed what they had told each other. Saba was silently glad that Tommy was asleep as he already had so many problems that he was trying to solve and he didn't need more.
"It's funny, Partner told a similar story to the blue-haired girl earlier," Derflinger said, "That happen to him often?"
"It was an unfortunate recurrence for Tommy, yes. At current, he's had six different power sets."
"And they're all connected to this 'Morphing Grid' thing, right?"
"Indeed. You see, the..."
"Wait, did you hear that?"
Saba immediately rose into the air and began to scan their surroundings. Suddenly, he heard the snap of a branch coming from the left, then another from the right, too rapid and focused to be random. He looked to Derflinger and they both knew what to do.
"EYES UP!" Derflinger called out, "WE'VE GOT COMPANY!"
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Tommy was on his feet before his eyes had fully opened and dashed toward Derflinger, drawing the sword with one hand while Saba flew into the other. The others were up a second later, eyes focused and wands ready.
"Guiche, golems!" Tommy commanded.
The young man complied and in moments, six golems had sprung from the ground with shields and spears taking formation around the group.
"What's happening?" Louise asked.
"We're about to find out," Tommy replied.
The sounds of footsteps and snapping branches continued around them, soon followed by a stench that could make a garbage dump blush.
"Only one thing smells like that," Wardes said, "Orcs."
"Can they be reasoned with?" Tommy asked.
"All who tried have failed, most believe they aren't intelligent enough to communicate in anything resembling language," Guiche explained, disgust clear in his voice, "Though I don't know why you would want to, their favorite food is human infants."
"Why haven't they attacked yet?" Montmorency asked.
"A good observation, orcs aren't known for mind games," Wardes explained.
The sounds of footsteps and snapping branches continued for a full minute, only to suddenly stop. Tommy held Saba and Derflinger at the ready, waiting for the other shoe to drop. A roar that sounded almost like a scream echoed from the left and a figure rushed from the shadows straight at Montmorency, but one of Guiche's golems intercepted, holding the beast back with its shield. Tommy immediately flipped Saba into a reverse grip and took aim, the laser blast punching clean through its skull. The beast fell to the ground and Tommy got a look at it in the firelight.
It was humanoid and slightly taller than a human, with chalk-like skin that almost looked decayed as it sagged on its bones, and a face that had bloodshot, wild eyes, a gaping maw filled with uneven and jagged teeth, and a pig-like nose in the middle. It held a crude, wooden club in its hand, and thankfully had enough decency to wear a loincloth. More screaming roars then erupted around them and more orcs rushed them, attacking with wild abandon.
"Saba, go!" Tommy commanded as he threw the sword into the air.
He rose above the attacking horde and began to rain laser fire down upon them. Tommy then lunged at the nearest orc and with a single swing, cleaved its head from its neck with Derflinger. Clubs and claws banged and scraped against bronze shields as spells were cast, blades of wind and gouts of flame cut through their attackers while flurries of icicles and tendrils of water pushed them back, all the while concussive blasts caused disorder among the orcs to make them easier targets.
An orc swung its club at Tommy but he easily kicked it away, returning the favor with another decapitation. He dashed around the perimeter that Guiche's golems formed, slashing and stabbing, punching and kicking any orcs he could reach while the others picked the rest off at a distance. He struck an orc in the chin with such force that its neck snapped, then drove his foot into the chest of another so hard its spine broke against a tree.
With one last spear of wind through the heart, the last orc fell. All was silent once more, save the heavy breathing of those still standing. All remained on guard, unsure if this was truly the end of it or just another trick to lull them into a false sense of security.
"Is... is it over?" Louise asked.
"Of course," Kirche proclaimed, "Nothing could have..."
The sound of very large, very heavy footsteps then reached their ears, heavy enough that the ground vibrated with each footfall. Closer and closer the footsteps came, followed by the sound of wood crashing and splintering as trees were knocked down. It came out of the shadows, nearly as tall as the trees themselves and significantly wider. Its skin was a mottled gray, its arms long enough to reach past its oblong knees, great tusks rising from its jaw. The beast's misshapen face contorted as it let loose a guttural roar that nearly deafened them.
"Is that a troll?!" Louise shouted.
"If it is then it is far larger than any I've seen," Wardes said, "We must flee, quickly!"
"I've got this," Tommy said as he sheathed Derflinger and pulled out his Morpher, "It's Morphing Time! Tigerzord!"
Tommy called Saba back to his hand as the morph was complete and ran headfirst at the troll. The beast swung its own club at him, what looked to be just a tree it had uprooted, but he easily dodged to the side. He jumped, high above the troll's head before landing on its shoulder and took a swing at its neck with Saba, only for the resulting wound to be closer to a paper cut than anything fatal.
"Troll flesh is notoriously strong!" Wardes called out.
"Good to know!" Tommy called back as he dodged out of the way of the troll's hand.
He landed on the back of the troll's neck, one hand grasping onto the skin of its head to hold himself in place, only for something to catch his eye. Bits of metal were embedded into the back of its head, brought into sharp relief by the sensors in his helmet. Tommy raised his fist and brought it down with all the strength he could muster upon the embedded metal, eliciting a roar of pain from the troll as it flailed to remove him. Again and again, he drove his fist into the beast's weak spot, until it came to a stop, falling to the ground with one last, shuddering breath.
"How did you do that?" Guiche asked as Tommy stepped off of the troll's body.
"Its skin may have been extremely tough but its internal organs weren't, so I just hit it with enough force to give it a fatal concussion," Tommy explained as he unmorphed, "We should pack up and get moving, it would be a bad idea to stay here."
As the party set about gathering their things, Tommy took another look at the back of the troll's head. Even in its ruined state, he could see that the metal was too uniformly placed to be random shrapnel. He then walked to one of the fallen orcs, only to find that it had similar implants. Someone had experimented on these creatures, which would explain their unusual behavior if Wardes were to be believed. Yet another problem that he would have to put off until later.
Tommy gathered up his things and after making sure the fire was fully out, he led the party out into the dark woods.
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Louise stifled a yawn as they walked through yet another patch of forest. Dawn had come and passed hours ago but they had been walking for far longer, ever since they had been awoken by the previous night's events. Even though her duty to her country was paramount, she hoped that it would be over soon so that she could sleep in a proper bed again. Although, the 'sleeping bag' as Tommy had called it had been rather comfortable, however brief her experience with it had been.
"We should be nearly there," Tommy announced, much to Louise's relief.
It was then that Tommy suddenly veered off course, his eyes alight in a way she had never seen from him before. It almost reminded her of when Professor Colbert would go into one of his enthusiastic treatises on some new theory he had concocted. She watched as he approached a tree, reached down, and gently retrieved a leaf from the ground, holding it as if it were some priceless treasure.
"What are you doing?" Kirche asked, "That's just a leaf."
"You don't understand," Tommy said as he turned around, leaf held before him, "This species of tree has been extinct back home for thousands of years, I've only ever seen old drawings of what they look like. This is an incredible discovery."
"It's still just a leaf," Montmorency retorted, causing Tommy's enthusiasm to dim somewhat.
It was then that the sound of a distant explosion reached their ears, and most of the group dared to look at Louise.
"It wasn't me!" she protested.
"Come on!" Tommy ordered as he placed the leaf in one of his pouches and took off in the direction of the explosion.
They gave chase, doing their best to keep up with someone so much faster than them. They breached the perimeter of the forest, and the sight before them froze Louise to the core. They stood upon a cliff overlooking a castle fortress under siege, cannon fire bombarding the walls as an army of soldiers waited for the opportunity to break through.
"That's New Castle!" Jean-Jacque exclaimed.
"Are we too late?" Montmorency asked.
"I don't believe so, look!" Guiche said, gesturing to the fortress, "The portcullis yet holds, we may yet be in time!"
Indeed, even Louise could see that the gates had not yet been breached. But how would they get passed the army before them?
"I'll carve a path, the rest of you follow when it's clear," Tommy proclaimed.
Louise watched as he transformed, the white and gold of the suit shining in the midday sun as he leaped from the edge of the cliff. He was like a white streak as he raced toward the battle, faster than she had ever seen him move before. He weaved between the soldiers, striking them down as he went, before coming to a halt before the gate and turning to face the soldiers. A cannon fired, aimed squarely at Tommy, only for him to catch the cannonball with one hand. Then, with a mighty swing of his arm, he threw the cannonball with the same force as the cannon itself, and the offending weapon of war was reduced to scrap along with the patch of ground it once stood upon.
The remaining soldiers, having witnessed such a display up close, began to flee. He had done it, he had forced them into retreat! The group immediately cast levitation upon themselves and descended to the ground below, while Louise had to be carried by Jean-Jacque. As much as she wished to bemoan such an embarrassing situation, now was hardly the time! They raced toward New Castle and the gate opened as they approached, only to be met with weapons drawn as they stepped through.
"State your purpose!" one of the defenders of New Castle demanded as he brandished his spear for emphasis.
The group then turned to look at Louise, this was it, this was her moment. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, clenched her hands to stop their trembling, and stepped forth.
"I am Louise Francois le Blanc de la Valliere!" she began, head held high, "My companions and I have come to seek an audience with Prince Wales Tudor of Albion, by order of Her Royal Highness, Princess Henrietta de Tristain!"
A chorus of murmurs erupted from the crowd and were just as swiftly silenced as a figure fully clad in armor stepped forward, the crowd parting as they approached. They then removed their helm to reveal a young man with golden, chin-length blond hair and clear blue eyes.
"Valliere?" he asked, before a look of realization crossed his features, "Yes, I recall now. The soiree on the shore of Lagdorian Lake, you had accompanied the princess for most of the evening."
"I am honored that you remember me, Prince Wales," Louise replied with a deep bow.
"Though I wish to take you at your word, circumstances demand that I require proof of your identity and intentions," the prince said solemnly.
"Of course, Your Highness," Louise replied, before lifting her hand to show the ring that the princess had given her.
Another look of recognition crossed the prince's face and he unlatched the gauntlet from his right hand. Upon his finger was another ring, similar to her own but where the jewel on her's looked as if water had been stopped in place and carved, his looked as if a shaped cloud was set into the ring. He approached closer, his men at the ready for any sign of treachery, and held his ring up to hers, a small rainbow manifesting from their proximity.
"They speak the truth!" Prince Wales announced to his soldiers, "Allow them passage!"
"But my lord..." one of the soldiers began.
"If you do not believe your ears then believe your eyes!" the prince proclaimed, "You have all borne witness to how they have driven the enemy from our gates! For that, we owe them much gratitude!"
His order given, the soldiers of New Castle lowered their weapons and allowed them safe passage to the central keep. Within laid the main hall, now derelict from lack of upkeep, filled with hundreds of refugees and injured soldiers.
"Your Highness!" one of the men approached, a look of confused apprehension upon his visage, "What happened? What of the enemy?"
"Driven off thanks to our newcomers, at least temporarily," the prince announced to the hall.
Another wave of murmurs passed among the many occupants, all eyes on them, and on Tommy in particular. He had not yet dispelled his armor, even as they entered the relative safety of the castle.
"Come, Lady Valliere," the prince began, "We shall speak in my chambers of the urgent matter about which the princess has sent you."
He moved to a door to the side of the hall and Louise followed, followed in turn by Tommy and Jean-Jacque.
"The rest of you wait here," Tommy said to the others, "We'll be back in a few minutes."
"We await your return, Sir Thomas," Guiche proclaimed.
"Your... knight is quite dedicated, Lady Valliere," Prince Wales said, "I confess that I have never seen a knight quite like him. Sir Thomas, was it?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Tommy replied as he removed his helmet and held it under his arm, "Unfortunately, our mission has reached its critical juncture and risks cannot be allowed."
"Yes, such are the times we live in," the prince said sadly.
They walked through the corridor until they came to a small room, the interior of which was just as dilapidated as the rest of the castle. Small candles rested upon a modest desk and barely provided sufficient illumination.
"So, what urgency compelled Princess Henrietta to send you all here?" the prince asked as he stood behind the desk.
"A letter that she sent to you, Your Highness," Louise began, "She believes that if the worst were to come to pass and that letter fell into Reconquista hands, it could spell disaster for alliances that she is trying to forge in order to defend Tristain. She sent us to retrieve it from you."
"...I see."
The prince then retrieved a key and unlocked a drawer in the desk, pulling out an envelope. He removed the contents and began to silently read it, a whistful smile spreading across his face.
"How ironic, she had sworn me to never part with this letter, and yet now she herself asks me to. Oh, my dear Ann..."
"If I may, Your Highness," Tommy began, "I believe it would be best if the letter was destroyed, eliminating any chance that unwanted eyes would ever see it."
"A course of action that pains me deeply, yet a wise one all the same. So be it."
Prince Wales then held the letter and its envelope to the flame of one of the candles. It began to burn in his hand, slowly being consumed, all the while his pained expression deepened, and then tossed it into the nearby fireplace.
"We have a second objective that we'd like to discuss with you, Your Highness," Tommy began, "We're here to evacuate you and your people to Tristain."
For the briefest moment, Louise saw a flash of what she thought to be fear and anger in Prince Wales' eyes, before he turned and went to leave the room.
"Your intention is appreciated, but I am afraid that will be impossible," the prince said.
"And why is that?" Tommy asked as they followed.
"It simply is, we are cornered like rats here in New Castle. Even our ships cannot ferry us to safety due to those blasted cannons."
"Would they be cannons that fire piercing light?" Louise asked.
"You've seen one?" Prince Wales asked, stopping in the middle of the corridor.
"Our own ship was hit by one when we arrived in Albion," Tommy explained, "We barely managed to land safely."
"If even your ship has been shot down, how do you expect to evacuate us?"
"Our allies back in Tristain have been preparing a means of instantaneous transportation for this purpose."
"Impossible, no such thing exists."
"You saw me drive off an army single-handedly, didn't you? It's been my life's work to do the impossible."
"Even if you speak the truth, the answer is still no," Wales said as he resumed his march back to the main hall.
"I have seen what he speaks of, Prince Wales," Louise began as they followed, "I have seen many things that I still can't even begin to understand, but I know that he can make it happen."
"Regardless, our place is here, in Albion," the prince said as they passed through the door, "Today was to be our final stand. Though you have given us a moment's reprieve, for which we are grateful, we know that Reconquista is rallying as we speak, and it is for the honor and glory of Albion that we must face them."
"So you just plan to just give up and die?" Tommy said.
The entire hall fell silent as the words left Tommy's mouth, all eyes turned to him. Louise was shocked that he would say such a thing, and to royalty at that. She knew he could be quite blunt while speaking and she paid it no mind for all that he had done for her, but this was beyond the pale!
"Watch your tongue, sir knight," the prince said warningly, "It is only by your position as diplomatic emissaries that I do not see you flogged for this insolence."
"And then what?" Tommy continued undeterred, "What good will that do? What good will come from throwing away not only your life but every life in this castle?"
"How dare you...!"
"No, how dare you. You spoke of honor and glory earlier, but what good will honor and glory do for your people? Do you believe that Reconquista will be so moved by your sacrifice that they'll stop their bid for conquest? Or do you think that they'll be somehow magically protected from harm?"
"I-I beg your forgiveness, Prince Wales," Louise interjected, "He often speaks out of turn like this, but... He is correct. We have witnessed how the people of Albion suffer under Reconquista's rule. They need you, now more than ever. Come with us so that you might return to save them."
"I will not flee like a coward!"
"Wales..." a voice called from the back of the hall, raspy yet strong.
The crowd of onlookers parted ways to reveal a man that Louise had not noticed before. He was old, perhaps in his fifties yet he looked far older, as if ravaged by illness. He sat upon a makeshift throne, in tattered yet regal robes and with a crown upon his head.
"Father?" the prince asked as he approached the king of Albion.
"Go with them... my son..." the king said between heavy breaths.
"Father, I cannot. You yourself have said that there was no other way."
"That was before... fate had intervened..."
"But how can I when I have already failed as prince?"
"You only fail by either dying or giving up," Tommy interjected, "And you're still breathing. Are you saying you've given up?"
"Step forward... white knight..."
"Your Majesty," Tommy replied as he approached, bowing deeply.
"You speak with... much audacity..." the king began, barely managing to hold back a harsh cough, "Yet also with much wisdom. You say that... you can save my people?"
"I can, Your Majesty. I will ensure that they are taken to safety in Tristain."
"Then... so be it..."
"But father..." the prince interjected.
"Please... I have already... lost your brothers to this war... I will not lose you as well..."
Prince Wales turned to look to all gathered in the hall, then to the king, then to Tommy, his expression filled with much inner turmoil.
"If I agree to this, how will you evacuate us?" he said warily.
Tommy then pulled a small object from... somewhere, causing Louise to briefly wonder what exactly happened to his other clothes when he manifested his armor. The object was about the size of a grain and resembled the small discs, the 'beacons', in color.
"Hold onto this and you will be instantly taken to Tristain," he explained as he held out his hand.
"How many of these do you have?" Prince Wales asked, eyeing the object suspiciously.
"Unfortunately, it is the only one. We didn't have the time to make more, nor did we know how many people would be here. But we can still evacuate everyone, it will just take a bit longer to prepare things properly."
"I don't..."
"It's your choice. If you go out there to die, then hope dies with you. But come with us, and hope will endure. Your people will know that you still fight for them."
"Prince Wales!"
Everyone turned to find a soldier bursting into the hall, a look of panic on his face.
"Archibald?" Prince Wales asked, "What happened?"
"Reconquista are rallying, they have fielded one of those monstrous cannons, Your Highness!"
A wave of worried murmurs washed over the crowd at the sudden bad news, Louise having to fight down her own fear as she recalled the last time she witnessed one of those dreaded things.
"Can you stop it?" Prince Wales asked of Tommy.
"I believe I can," he replied.
"Good," the prince said as he took the object from Tommy's hand, "When will... this take me away?"
"In just a moment," Tommy said as he put his helmet back on and turned, placing a hand to his ear, "Alpha, are you there? Begin the evacuation."
A moment passed, and then Prince Wales disappeared in a flash of light, eliciting reactions of shock from the gathered people.
"What happened? Where is the prince?" one of the soldiers demanded.
"Alpha, patch them through over the speaker," Tommy said, and new voices began to emanate from his helmet.
"What? How... Henrietta?" came the voice of the prince.
"Wales? Oh, Wales!" the princess said in return.
"He is safe in Tristain, and you will all be joining him soon. Be patient for just a few more minutes," Tommy proclaimed to the crowd.
Louise then watched as he retrieved one of the regular beacons from... wherever he pulled it and walked to a crack in the wall, slipping it inside.
"Alpha, a second beacon is active," Tommy said before turning to the man named Archibald, "So about that cannon?"
"Uh, y-yes, this way!"
He turned to follow, and Louise could only watch. Her part was done, now it was just a matter of waiting. She turned to the crowd, anxious and fearful as everything they thought they knew had been upended. She turned to the king, struggling yet unwavering. She turned to her classmates, all of whom with their own expressions of worry or relief. She turned to... Hold on, where had Jean-Jacque gone to?
It was then she felt a hand on her shoulder.
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Tommy followed the soldier through the corridor and up a flight of stairs until they emerged on the castle ramparts.
"There it is!" the soldier, Archibald, said as he pointed into the distance.
Tommy looked and the man was right, the Reconquista soldiers had returned, and with them came the weapon in question. Though fine details were impossible to determine at this distance, Tommy could see that the cannon was far larger than the ones he had seen earlier, large enough that it appeared to require ten men to push it into place.
"You'd better get back inside with everyone else," Tommy said before stepping on the edge of the wall and leaping off.
He landed and began to run, and the enemy soldiers charged at him in response. He drew his swords and cut them down, as he did with every soldier behind them, faster than they could realize. More soldiers fired arrows and muskets, but all they did was bounce off his chest plate and helmet. It was then that spells began flying at him, he dodged a blast of wind and then swung Derflinger through a fireball, completely dissipating it.
As he drew closer to his target, the cannon began to glow, bright lines along its exterior filling up to signal its charge. Tommy ran faster, he had to stop this here and now! But the cannon grew brighter and brighter, faster than he had hoped. He had no choice then, he stopped in his tracks and dug in his heels, arms spread as wide as possible. If he couldn't stop it from firing, then he would stop it from hitting the castle.
A great beam of light poured from the cannon's barrel and struck Tommy square in the chest, pain erupting everywhere. He fought through it just as he always had, his feet slowly digging small divots in the ground as he was pushed back by the force of the blast, but he would not fall. He roared at the top of his lungs as the pain reached its peak, and then the beam dissipated.
Wasting no time, Tommy rushed the cannon and raised Saba high, bringing him done with all the force he could muster. Again and again, he rained down blow after blow, cracking through the cannon's plating and splitting its barrel. He then leaped back and took aim with Saba, firing a laser blast straight through it. As they continued to fire, the cannon began to heat up, glowing from dull orange to nearly white, before exploding into so much scrap and shrapnel.
As had happened earlier, the remaining soldiers began to flee for their lives, and Tommy took a moment to catch his breath. He looked down at where he had been struck and saw that the golden emblem of his chest plate had been scorched black. A sharp ache passed through his chest, but this was nothing new for him.
"Tommy!" Alpha cried over the comms, sounding panicked.
"What's wrong, Alpha?" he asked.
"Wardes has betrayed us! He's attacked everyone and taken Louise!"
For a brief moment, the world disappeared, save for the dull ache in his chest, and his absolute fury.
"Where did they go?" Tommy demanded.
"They're heading for a forest to the east, they're still within range of the beacon so I can guide you to them."
"And everyone else in the castle?"
"No one is gravely injured as far as I can see, the evacuation is still underway."
Tommy took off running eastward, dread and rage competing for space in his mind. It wasn't solely anger at Wardes, but anger at himself as well. He knew he shouldn't have trusted him, he knew it! But he gave him the benefit of the doubt, and look where that got them! Part of him wanted to know why, but the rest just wanted to tear him limb from limb.
It was nearly sundown when he reached the edge of the forest, he would need to make this quick before it got too dark. Following Alpha's directions, he navigated through the woods, until a sharp pain lanced through his chest, causing him to collapse and power down involuntarily. He gripped onto the trunk of a tree and with gritted teeth, pulled himself back up. The pain was no longer a dull ache, now that his powers were no longer muting it, but a sharp stab. If he had to guess, it was probably a broken rib, but he couldn't afford to worry about that now.
He marched through the forest, eyes peeled for any signs of Louise or Wardes, ignoring as each breath hurt more and more. It was then he came upon a clearing, and resting against a tree was Louise, completely unmoving. The dread and rage in his mind began to spiral, what had he done to her?
"Tommy, I'm detecting multiple figures around you," Alpha said over the communicator.
"On your left, Partner!" Derflinger shouted.
Tommy narrowly dodged as a spear of wind sailed past him, splitting a tree in half. Then another, this time from behind. Tommy dodged and blocked with Derflinger as he moved, he had to get to Louise. Now blades and blasts of wind flew at him with more frequency, so he made a mad dash. As he reached the tree where Louise lay, the attacks stopped. He leaned down and checked her vitals, her pulse was fine and she was breathing, but her eyes just stared blankly into space. He then stood, scanning the surroundings for any signs of their attacker.
"Face me, traitor!" Tommy roared in challenge.
"You are either supremely stupid or supremely naive, and I am unsure which is worse," Wardes replied, his voice seeming to come from everywhere.
"Maybe I am, since I trusted you."
"You really should have made good on your threats to me, all of this could have been avoided."
"So what happened to honor and justice?"
"Where is the honor in serving tyrants? Where is the justice for those who suffer under their bootheel?"
"And replacing their boot with yours is somehow better?!"
"Someone like you could never understand the sacrifices that must made in the name of liberation."
Then, out of the shadows stepped Wardes, sword wand drawn and raised. And then another Wardes appeared, coming from the left, and another coming from the right. Tommy raised his own swords, this wasn't the first enemy he'd faced that could copy themselves. He waited, and sure enough, so did they. It seemed they didn't want to hurt Louise while he was standing right in front of her, but he couldn't just charge in and potentially let another copy make off with her.
"Partner, behind and to your left!" Derflinger shouted.
Tommy turned but the wind blast had already been fired, blasting him away from Louise. He landed on his feet and one of the Wardes copies was already on him, attempting to skewer him on his sword but Tommy deflected each strike. Then another Wardes joined in, peppering him with wind spears from a distance, some he dodged while others he stopped with Derflinger. The third stayed back, waving its sword in intricate patterns, probably a big spell.
Tommy gave the first two the slip and charged at the third before it could finish, but a sharper pain than before spread through his chest, and he fell to the ground. The third Wardes finished its incantation and aimed its sword, great arcs of lightning lashing out and hurtling toward him. They struck, and Tommy felt every cell of his body go numb and erupt with pain all at once, every nerve vibrating as the electric current coursed through him. He cried out in pain, the blasts of lightning still flowing. Then it ended, and as Tommy tried to pull himself up, a wind blast struck true, and he was thrown into a tree.
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What... happened? Louise did her best to recall, but everything was a blur. She recalled a hand on her shoulder, then suddenly she was falling. She tried to stand but could not move, she heard shouts and screams but could not find their source. Then, she was moving, being carried. They were in a rush, racing through rooms, and then suddenly they were outside. She could make out the dimming light of sunset, only for things to grow darker.
Now here she sat, against what she thought was a tree. Now here she sat as she was forced to watch her fiance and familiar do battle. Jean-Jacque was... attacking Tommy, but why? Why would he... Did he...did he do something to her? No, Jean-Jacque would never, he couldn't! Then why? Why couldn't she move? She tried to stand but her legs would not move, she grasped for her wand but her fingers lay limp.
Her mind raced, what was happening? Why couldn't she move?! This wasn't right! She tried to do something, anything! She could not flail and she could not scream, no matter how desperately she wanted to! No! This was not the time for panic, she had to do something! She needed to focus, she needed something familiar. Louise then began to recite spells in her head, desperately hoping that for once she could cast something. Even one of her explosions was preferable to this.
But nothing happened. Again and again she recited every spell that she had ever read about or tried, and still nothing! And all the while she watched, helpless to stop the fight before her. Her heart then dropped as he watched Tommy be bombarded with lightning, his screams of agony echoing through the forest and in her mind. He was then blasted away, out of her sight, and she was left alone with the three Jean-Jacques before her. A fourth then stepped out of the shadows and began to approach, reaching out for her. No, no, please no...!
A blur then raced through her vision, cutting down the three other Jean-Jacques, each exploding in a burst of wind. The blur then came to a stop in front of her, imposing itself between her and Jean-Jacque. Saba, Tommy's sword, roared like the tiger it looked like at Jean-Jacque, daring him to take another step.
"Sic-kiyah!"
Faster than she could follow, Tommy flew back into view, once more clad in his armor, and kicked Jean-Jacque hard enough to launch him into a tree. A wave of relief washed over Louise, she was safe!
"So, you were the one that set those assassins on us in La Rochelle," Tommy said as he turned to face Jean-Jacque, calling Saba back to his hand, "You probably hired the ones that attacked us on the mountain pass too."
"How...!" Jean-Jacque ground out.
"I told you before, didn't I? I'm always holding back."
Jean-Jacque merely growled from his place at the base of the tree, a grimace of pain on his face as he gripped his shoulder with one hand, the other lying limp at his side. He tried to stand, reaching for his sword which now lay shattered on the ground, but fell once more.
"Give it up, Wardes," Tommy said, "It's over."
"No... No, I will never give up!"
Jean-Jacque then tore the silver pendant from his neck, revealing a long, sharp needle hidden within, and stabbed himself in the chest. A miniature hurricane erupted around him and he began to float off the ground, arcs of lightning lashing out around him, and his broken arm once more moving freely.
"Power... So much power!" he roared, releasing a burst of wind that tore through the trees around him.
"Round two it is, then," Tommy said and charged.
Lousie's hope faded as she watched them clash once more, now more intensely than before. Tommy's blades were an imperceptible blur as he struck at Jean-Jacque, who blocked all with a barrier of wind. He then retaliated, sending innumerable blades of wind and arcs of lightning toward Tommy who was forced to dodge and deflect. Jean-Jacque then raised a hand, and the wind around him picked up the broken fragments of the trees he destroyed, hurling them at Tommy who cut through them all.
Louise had to do something, needed to do something, but she couldn't! She recited spells again but it was no use! Jean-Jacque sent more and more lightning, scorching black their surroundings and setting trees and grass ablaze, all to kill Tommy, who did his best to stop most of it with Derflinger. This was all wrong, how could this have happened? Why was this happening?! She wanted it to stop, to make it all stop!
And then, a thought occurred to Louise. She did not know how it came to her, yet here it was. It was... familiar, and comforting, yet she knew not why. Words began to form in her mind, unknown words that flowed as naturally as any other, perhaps more so. She focused all of her might on the words, repeating them over and over. Then, her fingers began to move.
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Tommy dodged to the side as another blast of lightning flew his way, flipping through the air as he went. The once-dark forest was now lit up like they were fighting in a giant fireplace. Wardes had completely lost his mind, he tried so carefully not to hurt Louise and now she was in more danger than ever! This ended now. Tommy planted his feet on a tree as he flew toward it and pushed off, launching himself at Wardes with full force. He swung with both blades, but they bounced off yet again.
"Derflinger, can you absorb his shield?" Tommy asked as he dodged again.
"I've been trying to Partner, but it's too much!"
"Time for another tactic then."
Tommy aimed Saba and fired, the laser bouncing off the wind shield and causing a tree to explode. He fired again and again, only causing more damage to the already ruined forest. He deflected a lightning bolt with Derflinger and charged at Wardes again, unleashing a flurry of blows as fast as possible, only for the shield to suddenly expand and blast him back.
"Pathetic fool!" Wardes roared, a manic grin on his face, "I am invincible!"
"That's what they all say, right before I turn them to dust!"
Wardes then charged at Tommy, who could only raise his swords to block the attack. Wardes kept pushing and Tommy kept holding his ground, the sound of wind grinding against steel echoing around them. Wardes pushed harder and Tommy began to slide back, his boots digging divots into the dirt. Worse yet, the pain in his chest was growing. He could really use some backup right about now!
"STOP!"
Both men turned and for the briefest moment, they saw Louise, on her feet, arm out, the ring on her finger glowing, and her eyes pitch black. The next thing they knew, a massive explosion ripped through the forest, knocking them both into trees and to the ground. As Tommy got to his feet, he found that he had been involuntarily unmorphed again. He picked up Derflinger and looked over to his opponent, but struggled to see as everything was now darker. The explosion must have put out the forest fire. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that Wardes was in much worse shape. Some of his clothes had been torn away, revealing black scorch marks all along his arms and chest, even on his face, while his hands were completely charred. And yet, despite taking so much damage, he still tried to get to his feet.
"Why?" Tommy asked, now feeling somewhat sorry for the other man, "Why do any of this?"
"Why?" Wardes replied, severe pain evident in his voice, "After all I've done, you ask why? You could never understand."
"Try me."
Wardes then began to laugh, but it quickly devolved into a ragged cough, blood starting to come out of his mouth.
"It didn't have to be like this, there's always another way," Tommy said.
"All that power, enough to bring the world to its knees, and yet you use it like this," Wardes replied, now on his feet, "You truly are a naive fool."
"I tried the world domination thing once, it wasn't for me."
Wardes then lunged, trying to get past him to get to Louise, but Tommy casually pushed him back to the ground.
"Don't bother trying, Wardes. You couldn't carry a wand with those ruined hands, let alone an entire person."
"I... I must...!" Wardes said, before hacking up more blood.
Tommy said nothing, just sighed, sheathed Derflinger, and reached down to pull the 'pendant' out of Wardes' chest, placing it in one of his pouches. He then turned to check on Louise. She had collapsed to the ground again, this time completely unconscious instead of the trance she had been in. He checked her over to see if she had been hurt, and found something curious: a small metal disk had been placed at the base of her skull. This must have been how Wardes sedated her. Carefully, he gently pulled on the disk, successfully removing it and placing it too in a pouch. He then gently cradled her in one arm as he activated his communicator.
"Alpha, I have Louise. Bring us home."
The teleportation activated and they were back in Jean's workshop.
"Is she alright?" Jean demanded as he rushed over.
"She's okay, just unconscious."
"That's a relief," Jean said as he took hold of her.
"What about the others?"
"They arrived safely, if a bit roughed up."
"Tommy, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..." Alpha said before collapsing to the ground.
"Alpha!" Tommy exclaimed and ran over.
He rolled the robot over and quickly pressed a switch at the back of his neck, only the lowest section of the lightning bolt on his chest flashing before going dark.
"His power core is dry, he must have been working nonstop without charging," Tommy said with a sigh of relief and turned to face Jean, "We should put him outside when the sun comes up and he'll be good as new."
"That's good to hear," Jean replied, before punching Tommy in the face.
Tommy reeled back, more from the shock than the pain. He reached to his nose and found that it was bleeding. He looked to Jean, only to see barely restrained fury in his friend's eyes.
"Get. Out."
Tommy said nothing, simply turning to the teleportation console. He found the coordinates labeled for the Trisain royal palace and activated them, disappearing in a flash of light.
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Tommy rematerialized in a grand hall, one much like where they had been in New Castle, only this one was in much better shape. Tall windows lined white walls, each framed with long, deep purple curtains. The floor was made of what looked to be marble, at least the parts that weren't occupied by hundreds of refugees. He watched as butlers, maids, and guards rushed back and forth tending to everyone, and saw a sizable group of them gathered around one spot. He drew closer, and found that they were standing around a body: the king of Albion, with a sizable hole pierced through his chest.
Tommy hated himself at that moment, he did everything right, and he still couldn't protect everyone. If he had just gotten rid of Wardes earlier...
"You!" one of the grieving shouted as he looked up and saw Tommy, "You did this! You led the traitor to us!"
The man lunged at Tommy and he put up no resistance, but Prince Wales intervened, pulling the man back.
"Get a hold of yourself!" the prince ordered.
"But the king! If he hadn't..."
"If he hadn't been there, we'd all be dead. The king was already dying, surely you saw it."
"What's this about a traitor?" Princess Henrietta asked as she stepped away from the crowd, "Where is Captain Wardes?"
"The former Captain Wardes betrayed us, he was an agent of Reconquista," Tommy grimly explained, "He attacked everyone and tried to kidnap Louise, but I chased him down and left him for dead."
"Oh no, is she alright?" the princess asked, deeply worried.
"She's safe back at the academy, along with her other classmates."
"I am relieved to hear such good news."
Tommy simply nodded, and took a moment to take in the princess' appearance. No longer did she wear a dark robe as she had the last time they met, instead wearing a regal yet simple, near-white, long-sleeved gown, the collar of which was inlaid with three green gemstones. Over top, she wore a purple cape that matched her hair, the fastening also inlaid with a green gemstone, and atop her head was a silver tiara inlaid with three more green gemstones.
"You have done a great service not only to Tristain, but to Albion as well," the princess began, "Name any reward and if it is within my power, it shall be granted."
"That won't..." Tommy began, but then he was struck with an idea, "Actually, there is one thing. While in Albion, we ran into some orphans and their caretakers who were in danger of Reconquista attacking them. If it's possible, could you find them a place to live here in Tristain?"
"Such a selfless request, I will see that it is done, " the princess replied.
The sound of doors opening met their ears and they turned to see a woman standing at the entrance to the hall. She appeared to be in her mid-to-late-forties and wore an entirely black dress with a veil. The prince and princess walked to greet the woman and Tommy followed a short way behind them.
"Oh, James..." the woman said sadly as she looked over to the body of the king.
"Mother?" the princess asked, "I had not expected you to be here."
"I came as soon as I heard the news," the woman, the queen, replied.
"Your Majesty," Prince Wales said with a deep bow.
"Wales, it is good to see you. With the news coming from Albion, I had feared the worst."
"The worst would have come, Your Majesty, if not for this man here," the prince said and gestured to Tommy.
"You are the one who saved my nephew and his people?" the queen asked.
"Not alone but yes, Your Majesty," Tommy replied, bowing deep... wait, 'nephew'?
"Then you have our deepest gratitude. Daughter, see to it he is rewarded handsomely."
"It is already underway, Mother."
Tommy didn't hear the rest of the conversation, as he suddenly became light-headed and blacked out.
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The rain poured heavily upon the region of Newcastle, and above one forest in particular. As he crawled through the mud, each motion causing agony to course through his body, Jean-Jacque Francis de Wardes refused defeat. He didn't care how much pain he endured, how long it took, or how much he must sacrifice to see it through, he would not allow his mother's death to be in vain.
His charred fingers bled as he clawed his way forward, his body grew ever colder as he was drenched by the storm, his vision wavering with each agonized breath. It was then that all feeling left his body, everything became colder. He could no longer move, his thoughts awash in delirium. No, this could not be the end... It could not...
"Poor little knight, so alone and broken."
Something sharp plunged into his back, and suddenly he was awake, aware of all sensation, especially the pain. That voice, he knew it. What was she doing? No, not this! Not like this!
"Fear not, little knight. We still have use for you yet."
One day, Tommy will learn the lesson of Shiro, the foes who get away are always the worst ones to deal with later.
That's "Françoise." I'll forgive the lack of a cedilla since that's not on the standard English language keyboard (I use Windows Character Map), but you used the masculine form of the name. The feminine form has an "e" on the end.
While we're at it, Wardes' given name is "Jean-Jacques" with an "s" on the end. Consonants at the end of French words are often silent unless the next word starts with a vowel. Also, I don't recall him having a middle name in canon but if you're going to invent one for him, it should follow the pattern of Tristainian names being French which would make it "François" rather than "Francis."
The misspelling is admittedly because I am not a French speaker, which is ironic because French is one of the official languages where I live. As for Wardes' middle name, I didn't come up with that. Every source that I've come across lists him as having a middle name and that it's Francis. Though that does make it seem kind of odd that he and Louise have basically the same middle name.
They're also the ones who can choose a different path.
He doesn't need to be taught. He was that guy.
This exactly. It's why I've been having Tommy try talk down/sympathize/empathize with every enemy so far. And he's not even the only one, quite a few Power Rangers villains turned things around for the better.
Part Sixteen: New Day, New Problems
Author's Note: Starting with this chapter, this story is now fully caught up with the version over on Spacebattles. As such, new updates are going to take longer to come out. Thank you for your patience.
Tommy awoke to early morning light streaming through the window, and rolled over to go back to sleep. He then realized that the window was on the wrong wall compared to his bedroom and immediately sat up. He pulled back the pure white curtains around his bed and found that he was in what looked like an infirmary, a large hall lined with rows of beds, each with their own curtains around them. He looked down and found his clothes had been removed, the only thing covering him being a white sheet, and his chest had been bandaged. He then recalled what had happened, what he believed to be a broken rib must have been worse than he thought. He gently stretched, only to find no pain whatsoever.
"Ah, you're awake."
Tommy turned to find an older woman, probably in her mid-fifties, walking toward him. She wore long, grey robes that matched her grey hair that was tied in a professional manner, and glasses that framed a very stern expression. She honestly resembled a librarian more than a doctor.
"What happened?" Tommy asked as she approached.
"You fainted in front of the queen, that's what happened," she replied with a huff, "In any other situation, you would have been thrown out. But since you were injured, you were given leniency. Now, I must examine you."
Tommy did not attempt to resist as the woman drew a wand and began to wave it around him, muttering incantations as she went. He couldn't help feeling somewhat awkward, even though he'd had plenty of physical examinations throughout his life. Maybe it was because those didn't involve being poked all over by a wooden stick.
"Well, you seem to have healed rather quickly," she said as she continued to examine him, "Even with the potions we had given you, it still should have taken a few days for you to recover, given the extent of your injuries and especially for a man your age."
"How bad was it?"
"You suffered several broken bones, primarily all of your ribs, and there were even signs that you had been struck by lightning several times. Now, do you feel any pain at all?"
"No, nothing so far," Tommy replied, resisting the urge to shrug off the severity of his injuries as he didn't think the doctor would take it well.
"In that case, I see no reason not to discharge you. I shall have your things returned to you, though we had to lock that sword of yours in a closet for the night. It would not stop making comments about the maids."
"Yeah, sorry about him. I thought I had gotten him to stop doing that."
Tommy sat and thought back to the previous day as he waited, and the guilt came back to him. Despite his best efforts, the king of Albion was killed and the kids got hurt, Louise especially. He should have listened to his initial instincts, he shouldn't have let any of them come along, and he especially should have just thrown Wardes off the cliff. No, there was no point in dwelling on past mistakes, that was how so many of his problems started. The kids were alive, that's what mattered, and hopefully he'd have more time to prepare them before the next disaster struck.
His thoughts then turned to what the doctor said about his injuries. It wasn't the injuries themselves that concerned him, he'd taken similar beatings before and pulled through. How he received them was another matter entirely. He had been careless, operating on the assumption that Wardes was just a normal human, magic aside. He really shouldn't be making assumptions about anything at this point in his life. Then there was that pendant, or whatever it actually was. It had increased Wardes' power immensely, enough to make Tommy struggle. He'd get Alpha to analyze it as soon as possible, if Wardes had one then who knew how many were out there?
"There you are, Partner!"
Tommy looked up and saw Derflinger, being carried along with the rest of his things by a maid. He then spotted the belt of pouches resting on top of his folded clothes. He really hoped no one went poking around in there.
"Thank you," Tommy said to the maid as he accepted his things, before turning to Derflinger, "I thought I told you to stop with the comments toward women."
"Oh, uh... Sorry about that. Old habits, you know?"
"We'll work on it," he said as he closed the curtains around his bed and began to get dressed.
He made sure to check if everything was still there and sure enough, his morpher, communicator, digital map, unused beacons, shovel, and especially Wardes' pendant and the immobilizing disc he removed from Louise were all accounted for. Just then, his communicator beeped.
"Alpha?" Tommy asked as pressed the button.
"It's Jean, actually," Jean replied, sounding despondent, "I see that you've recovered."
"How did...?" Tommy began before realization struck, "Oh right, there's an active beacon here so you're able to see me."
"Indeed. Tommy, I wish to apologize for striking you. That was entirely uncalled for."
"There's no need to apologize, I completely understand. If anything, I should be apologizing. I failed to keep my promise to keep everyone safe."
"You brought them back alive and in one piece, I am grateful for that. But when I saw Louise in such a state..."
"How is she?"
"She has yet to awaken."
"I see. How's Alpha doing?"
"I placed him outside in the sun as you had said, but he too has yet to awaken."
"Give it an hour or two and he should be back on his feet," Tommy replied, both relieved and still worried, "I'll be back soon, there are a few things that I need to take care of here."
As the communication channel closed, Tommy resumed getting dressed. He was glad that Jean wasn't still mad at him.
"Say, uh... Where's Saba?" Derflinger asked.
Now that he mentioned it, he hadn't seen the other sword since he was forcibly demorphed. Tommy held out his hand and willed Saba to appear, but nothing happened.
"You there, furball?" Derflinger said to open air but got no response, "Uh... fish breath? Flea-bitten rat muncher? Uh oh..."
Tommy pulled out his morpher and thrust it forward, pressing the switch... but nothing happened. He pressed it again and again, he even pulled out the Power Coin and reinserted it, but still nothing. The old Tommy luck strikes again...
Jean observed as Alpha passed a scanner over Tommy's morpher, attempting to discern what might be wrong with it. Of all the things he did not understand about the technology around him, this was the most mysterious of all.
"You're certain that you don't feel any different?" Alpha asked as he turned to Tommy.
"I don't feel any slower or weaker, if that's what you mean," Tommy replied as he observed the scan results on the monitor.
"And you've fully recovered from your injuries, so you're connection to the Morphing Grid is still intact..."
"What is the Morphing Grid?" Jean asked.
"It's more or less the source of the Power Rangers' power," Tommy replied, "It's a transdimensional energy field, it exists across all points of space and time, and it is simultaneously a source of life as well as being generated by life."
"You use such a wonderous thing as a weapon?"
"Giving power to the Rangers is just one facet of it," Alpha explained as he continued his work, "The truth is that no one knows the full extent of what the Grid can do. Even after thousands upon thousands of years' worth of study, we've only scratched its surface. Such is the problem when dealing with something truly infinite."
"And you harness this power through this device, this 'morpher'?"
"That's right," Tommy said as he turned to face him, "In this case, the Power Coin at its center is what's connected to the Grid. But most humans back home lack the magical ability to harness it by itself, so our mentor Zordon created the Power Morphers to remedy that problem."
"Huh, so that's what Saba was trying to say before we got interrupted by those orcs," Derflinger interjected, "Is he going to be okay, Partner?"
"Of course, we'll get him back in no time," Tommy replied.
Jean began to pace back and forth across his workshop as he considered this new information, his mind racing at what it could mean. Magic combined with technology, he had hypothesized such an idea long ago in his youth, but he had long discarded it as a flight of fancy. Yet the proof now sat before him, and he was afraid of it. One of his oldest dreams was within arm's reach, and it was a weapon of war.
"I'm afraid that these tools aren't enough to determine the problem," Alpha lamented, "I need something more powerful."
"I've got something like that in my lab," Tommy replied, "It's calibrated for analyzing the Dino Gems but I'm sure we can get it to work for the coin. What about the things I took off of Louise and Wardes last night?"
"In a word? Perplexing," Alpha said as he moved to look over the aforementioned objects on a second table, "The design is sophisticated but the exact construction is poor, my guess is that they were working with unfamiliar materials. The metal in particular is unlike any I've seen before. The fact that they functioned at all despite these limitations shows that whoever made these knew what they were doing."
Jean too looked upon the objects in question, one a small metal disc, the other what appeared to be a simple silver pendant with a needle extended, dried blood still present. He thought over what Tommy had told him, of how the former had been used to immobilize Louise while the latter had given the former lord of house Wardes a vast increase in magical power. To think that such things could exist.
"The most curious part is that both have been completely burned out," Alpha proclaimed.
"I'm afraid I don't understand, I don't see any burn marks on them," Jean said as he looked at the objects.
"That's because the damage is too small for human eyes to see, but my optical visor is designed to pick up on details that small. However, I can't determine what caused the burning, neither device appears to have a power source."
Jean resumed his pacing. No power source, yet they functioned all the same, affecting both Louise and Wardes to such drastic degrees. Unless...
"I believe I know what powered them," Jean began, "Magic. These devices were being fueled by the magic of Miss Valliere and Lord Wardes.
"That could be it," Alpha said, "But then what caused their magic to burn out the devices?"
"...The explosion," Jean replied, realization dawning on him, "Miss Valliere's explosions cause magical effects to disappear. But because the devices were fueled by their magic rather than being magical themselves..."
"It caused a backlash effect," Tommy interjected, "That could explain why Wardes was covered in burns after we were hit... Wait. I was hit by that explosion too, could that be what's affecting my powers?"
"I'll have to run a deeper scan to be certain, and we'll have to take a reading of Louise's explosions to compare it to," Alpha explained, "Now the remaining question is what could this have done to Louise?"
"Yeah, I don't think eyes turning pitch black is normal in any situation," Tommy said.
Jean continued to observe as his friends looked over the readings they had obtained, but his mind was elsewhere. The ring, he knew that it had something to do with this, he knew that it was trouble the moment he saw it on Louise's finger. After all, he had encountered its kind before. He cast his gaze up to the highest shelf in his workshop, to an inconspicuous box tucked into the corner. Flashes of the worst night of his life entered his mind but he forced them down. If the ring that the princess had given to Louise was indeed a royal treasure, then what had he found that night?
Louise awoke with a start, grasping at anything she could as the memories came back to her. She had been taken, unable to move. They had been in the woods, but... She looked around and found that she was in her room, in her bed. She then realized that she could move again, and a wave of relief washed over her.
"You're awake."
She turned to find Tommy sitting in a chair beside her bed, an open book in his hand. He was once more wearing the clothes from his home, white overcoat and spectacles included.
"How are you feeling?" he asked as he set the book down on her table.
She looked down at her hand and closed it then opened it again, partly to be sure that it was real, and partly just to feel the sensation again. She was safe, it was over. Memories then surged once more in her mind, everything on fire, being unable to move, unable to do anything...!
"W-what of the mission?" Louise asked instead, anything to distract herself.
"It was a complete success, we managed to get everyone out safely," he replied, only for his reassuring expression to slip into melancholy, "Well, almost everyone."
"What happened?"
"The king of Albion was murdered."
"I... I see..." she replied, "H-how long have I been asleep?"
"About three days."
"Three days?!"
Louise immediately pulled her blankets off and made to stand up, only for her legs to give out beneath her, the only thing to keep her from falling was Tommy's swift intervention.
"Easy now," he said as he gently set her back onto her bed, "You're going to be a bit weak after being asleep for so long."
"But I must report to the princess!" she insisted as she tried to extricate herself from his grasp.
"She's your friend, she'll understand if you need a bit of time to recover. You can give your report once you're back on your feet."
Louise wished to protest further, but she knew that he was right. It would not do to collapse in front of the princess, or Prince Wales for that matter. Then, much to her utter embarrassment, her stomach began to growl rather audibly.
"I'll go get you something to eat," Tommy said and began to make his way to the door.
"Thomas, wait."
"Yes, Louise?" he replied, turning back to face her.
Louise looked at her hands once more and felt a sense of utter self-loathing. She knew logically that what had transpired had not been her fault, that she could have done nothing to stop it. Yet that was the very reason she loathed herself. She was weak, and helpless, just as she'd always been. Before it was something that troubled her greatly, but was ultimately bearable. Now? Now, a king had been assassinated, and she had nearly been taken. Her mind returned once more to that night, the forest ablaze while she sat limply against a tree.
Her mind then turned to him. Just the mere thought of her fiance... no, former fiance, infuriated her in a way that even Kirche never could. He used her, manipulated her! He did all of this and she allowed him to do it in her naivete! She was weak, she was stupid, but no more.
"Teach me how to fight," she asked, "Like you."
"Are you sure?" he asked, taking a step toward her.
"For all of my life, I have been ridiculed for being small and useless, and I am tired of it. So yes, I am sure!"
Tommy was silent for a moment, his gaze appraising. What was he waiting for? What was there to think about? It was a simple yes or no answer!
"Alright, I'll teach you," he said, becoming serious, "But you have to promise me something."
"Name it."
"You have to promise me that you'll use what I teach you only to defend yourself or others."
"Are you insinuating that I would go around attacking people?!"
"I've known a lot of people like you, Louise. People who have spent their lives being kicked around by the whole world, and who wasted no time in kicking back the second that they got the chance. I used to be like that."
"Y-you were?" Louise asked, surprised at such an admission.
"Growing up, I didn't have much that I could define myself with," he began, retaking his seat in the chair, "It comes with the territory of being an orphan, but even after I was adopted, my father's work required us to move around the country a lot so we couldn't have much in the way of possessions that could weigh us down. I was always the new kid in school, and I never stayed in a single school long enough to properly make friends. I was only a bit older than you when I finally had a permanent home, and even then it took me a couple of years to realize that.
"When I was about eight or nine years old, some older kids at school were picking on me for being the new kid. Things eventually turned physical and I wound up being the last one standing. In that moment, I felt truly alive for the first time. I finally had something that was solely mine, something that nothing could take away from me. So naturally, I went around picking more fights so that I could keep experiencing what was mine, and of course, I got in trouble.
"My parents had no idea how to punish me, they couldn't take away any of my things because I didn't have any, and they couldn't confine me to my room because that's where I had spent all of my free time anyway."
"Why didn't they simply beat you as punishment?" Louise asked.
"They didn't believe in that kind of punishment, they thought it would only do more harm than good. My father then saw an ad for a local karate school in the newspaper and decided to sign me up for lessons. I took to it like a fish to water and the rest is history."
Louise sat silently and contemplated what she had heard. It was hard to believe that someone so even-tempered and understanding used to be a violent hooligan in his youth, even if briefly. But the assertion that she would be the same was preposterous! She would never do such a thing, it was unbecoming of nobility! But then, she had experienced nobles displaying deplorable behavior of all sorts... No, she was nothing like them!
"You're angry, it's understandable after what happened," Tommy said.
"You know nothing!" she shouted.
"Don't I? You think I've never been betrayed before? Admittedly, it wasn't by someone as close as a fiance, but he was still someone that I had considered a friend and it still hurt. It didn't help that I had to kill him, twice even."
"How did you...? No, never mind, I don't want to know."
For once, Louise was grateful for the odd things that Tommy spoke of, it had taken her mind off of the hole she now felt in her chest, if only for a moment.
"...Why did he do it?" she asked, more to herself than anything.
"I asked him that toward the end, but he refused to say."
"Did you...?"
"No, I didn't kill him. But after what he did to himself, he was too badly damaged to be a threat anymore. Getting you out of there was more important."
"What did he do to himself? I've never heard of such a thing being possible."
"You were awake when everything was happening?"
"For most of it, but everything went black and I don't remember anything afterward."
"Well, Alpha is working on solving that, along with everything else we saw in Albion."
Louise looked down at her hands once more and clenched them into fists. It hurt so much that this was the final straw, but this was what she must do. She had no other choice.
"I promise," she began, turning toward Tommy, "I swear upon my honor as a Valliere that I will use your teachings only in the defense of others."
"I'm glad to hear it," he replied with a smile, "We'll begin when the next Day of Void comes around. Until then, you rest and recover, and I'll go get you something to eat."
Louise watched as he closed the door behind him, and a tear began to roll down her cheek. She could not hold it in any longer and began to sob into her blankets.
Guiche's room was quiet, as if it were empty. Yet that was not the case at all as Montmorency sat upon his bed and he alongside her, his hand entwined with hers, his head resting upon her shoulder. For the last three days since they had returned from Albion, a sensation that she would rather not repeat, Guiche had asked her to his room. Though he was his usual self in front of others, only she knew the truth. The events in Albion weighed on him, and he did not wish to be alone.
When he had first asked her to his room, she had assumed something altogether different would happen, as what other conclusion would someone reach upon such a request? She was relieved when it turned out to simply be to sit with him in silence, as she was not yet ready for the alternative, even if it was with Guiche. Moreso, she felt a sort of happiness. Not at the circumstances that led to this point, but that Guiche had asked her to be here with him, that he trusted her enough with such vulnerability.
The odd sword that Guiche had carried throughout their journey now sat in the far corner of the room, untouched since their return. Time passed as nothing was said, every so often he would squeeze her hand and she would return the gesture. It was then that there was a knock at the door.
"Y-yes?" Guiche asked as he sat up and straightened his hair.
"Can I come in, Guiche?" a male voice answered.
"Sir Thomas? B-but of course!"
The door opened and Valliere's familiar stepped inside, an expression of concern on his face.
"You're both here, good," he said as he closed the door behind him, "This will save me a trip. May I take a seat?"
"Y-you may," Guiche replied.
"How are you feeling?" the familiar asked as he sat in one of Guiche's chairs.
"I am...well," Guiche answered, his tone suggesting otherwise.
"You can be honest with me, Guiche," the familiar, Tommy, said, "I was there, remember?"
"I... do not know how I feel," Guiche said with a sigh, his momentary mask gone, "Everything that transpired is exactly what I wanted, and yet I am haunted. Even with your forewarning, I was not ready."
"I meant what I said in Albion, you did well. Taking a life isn't easy, but you did so to protect your allies and the villagers."
"...Does it become easier?"
"It shouldn't. Even after all the years I've spent doing this, every life I take weighs on me."
"How do you keep it from tearing you apart inside?"
"I focus on all the good that comes from it, all the lives that get to see another sunrise. But I never let it become a justification. It's good that you feel remorse, even if it's for someone who did terrible things."
"I... I see."
"What about you, Montmorency?" Tommy asked, turning to face her, "Did you find what you were looking for in Albion?"
"I... do not know," she replied, averting her eyes, "I barely did anything."
"I think Brom would beg to differ, that potion of yours helped him get back on his feet."
"H-his wounds were shallow enough that he would have recovered on his own, my assistance was negligible."
"It isn't about how effective your help was, but that you helped to begin with. You gave them aid during a time of great hardship and he and his mother are going to remember that for the rest of their lives. I'm starting to think that helping people might be what you're good at."
Montmorency did not know what to say to that. How could this man possibly know such a thing from just one event? How could he know her when even she didn't know herself?
"Well, I've got other things that I need to see to," he said as he stood from the chair, "But if either of you need to talk about anything, I'm always happy to listen."
He then left the room, and the silence returned. Montmorency's mood soured as she processed the familiar's words, what good would more talk do when it had hardly done anything so far? She was no closer to understanding herself than she was at the beginning of all of this!
"Montmorency?" Guiche asked.
"Yes, Guiche?" she replied, turning to face him.
"I believe Sir Thomas is correct about you," he said, trying to smile through his sadness.
"He doesn't know me," she replied, turning away from him, "How can he possibly make such a judgment about me?"
"I know you," he countered, placing his hand on hers, "I was there when you tried to save Katie and when you healed that child, you did not hesitate either time."
"T-those were extraordinary circumstances! How can I help others here and now?"
"Wouldn't you say that you already help people? The fragrances you make seem to always brighten the days of others."
"I... suppose..."
"And you taught yourself to make effective healing draughts quite quickly."
"Yes... Yes, I did."
The more she thought, the more a plan began to form in Montmorency's mind. Guiche's words made sense, and she supposed the familiar might have made some sense as well. She smiled, once more entwined her hand with Guiche's, and placed a kiss on his cheek. For the first time in what felt like ages, Montmorency began to feel like herself again.
As it happened, the next Day of Void had been the very next day, and yet Louise still had not been able to get up. It had taken another day before Louise felt well enough to leave her bed and return to class. As she dressed, she paused to consider her cape and broach. She had done it, she had fulfilled her promise to herself. A smile spread across her face as she felt its familiar weight upon her shoulders after a long absence.
As she walked the halls toward the first class of the day, many of her fellow students began to whisper to each other as she passed. Louise paid them no mind because she did not care what they said, today was going to be a good day and she would not let anyone or anything spoil it for her.
She crossed the threshold of Professor Colbert's classroom and ascended the stairs of the elevated seating, taking her usual place in the back corner. She looked around the room at her classmates and all were present, as if the last couple of weeks had not happened. Guiche and Montmorency sat closer to the front, the former making one of his usual bombastic boasts to those who would listen. Farther along the back row, Louise saw Kirche talking to Tabitha about something or other while the other girl just sat facing forward.
"Settle down and take your seats, everyone," Professor Colbert commanded as he entered the room and took his place behind the lectern at the front, "We are still behind on the curriculum so we will all need to focus."
He began his lecture and Louise sat with rapt attention. He was right that they were far behind and she was determined to not miss anything. As the lesson progressed, questions were asked of them and without hesitation, Louise was quick to raise her hand and provide the answer, her mood improving each time.
"Well, well, look who decided to grace us with her presence."
Louise turned to find that Kirche had walked over and sat beside her. The Germainian just had to come and ruin her day!
"What do you want, Zerbst?" Louise whispered, "Can't you see that I'm trying to focus? Unlike you, I'm here to learn something."
"I just wanted to see how you were, but it seems that you're back to yourself. Still the same uptight snob."
"Better than a classless whore."
Kirche simply sneered in response and returned to her seat beside Tabitha. Louise shrugged it off, what did she care, anyway? Probably just another attempt to torment her. As the lesson progressed, Professor Colbert asked for a demonstration of the principle he had been teaching, and Louise immediately volunteered.
"Miss Valliere?" he asked, concern clear on his face, "Are you certain?"
"Of course, Professor," she replied and confidently walked down to the front of the room.
"Watch out, the Zero is going to attempt something," Kirche called out, eliciting a chorus of laughter from the class.
"That is enough from all of you, especially you, Miss Zerbts," the professor admonished before turning to Louise, "You may proceed, Miss Valliere."
"Thank you, sir," she replied.
She drew her wand and began to cast, following the instructions written on the chalkboard. With the final word, she raised her wand...! But nothing happened. Louise waited, as did the rest of the class, but there was no explosion. She looked at her wand, trying to determine if it had been damaged in some way. She hoped that it wasn't, it was a family heirloom.
"Well that's a relief," one of her classmates said.
"She can't even do explosions anymore? Now she really is the Zero!" another exclaimed, causing another round of laughter.
"Cease this at once!" Professor Colbert commanded, but the laughter continued.
Louise felt her face burn red as she made her way back to her seat, her head hung low. She buried her face in her arms the second that she sat down, trying to hide her shame and drown out the rest of the world. And all the while, her mind could only focus on why. Why was there no explosion? Why did this even bother her? She hated the explosions, she had wanted them to stop for most of her life! But this somehow felt... wrong?
The laughter of her classmates eventually died down and the lesson continued until its conclusion. Louise waited until she was the last in the room to get up, in the vain hope that perhaps that would make them all forget about her and what happened.
"Miss Valliere, a moment, if you would?" Professor Colbert asked.
"Y-yes, Professor?" she replied as neutrally as she could muster.
"Do you feel alright?" he asked, his concern evident.
"I am f-f-fine."
"If you wish, you can come by my workshop and we can all discuss what happened here."
"Thank you, sir, but I am fine," Louise ground out.
She then turned and left for her next class. As the day went on, Louise kept to herself, what confidence she had started the day with had been shattered. What made her think that returning to classes would somehow be something good? She had taken for granted her time away. She was sorely tempted to run back to Albion, at least there she had been somewhat useful.
As the final class of the day let out, she found herself at a crossroads. Part of her wished to go to dinner, but another just wanted to go to her room and avoid everyone for the rest of the night. But then she remembered Professor Colbert's offer and another desire overcame her, a desire to be around people that actually gave a damn about her. Her course set, she made her way out to the courtyards.
The orange glow of sunset washed over her as she stepped outside and crossed the grassy expanse until she came to the now-familiar wooden shack, whereupon she knocked on the door.
"Enter," came Professor Colbert's muffled voice.
She opened the door and stepped inside to find Tommy, Professor Colbert, and Alpha poring over something or other on one of the screens. She found one of the empty chairs and promptly slumped into it.
"Hey, Louise," Tommy said, looking up from their work, "How was your day?"
"Terrible," she replied simply.
"You want to talk about it?" he asked, fully turning to face her.
"I don't know what I was thinking," she began sullenly, "For some stupid reason I thought today would go well, but I was reminded that nothing has changed. I made a fool of myself in front of everyone, like usual."
"I had asked for a demonstration of a spell and Miss Valliere volunteered," Professor Colbert explained, "Unfortunately, it did not go well."
"The worst part is that there wasn't even an explosion, absolutely nothing happened!" Louise complained.
"I thought you didn't like your explosions," Tommy said, "Isn't this a good thing?"
"It should be, but..."
"Did you try more than once to see if it constantly happened that way?"
"No, I was too mortified to even think of that."
"Then how about we step outside for a minute and give it a try?"
Louise did not wish to humiliate herself further, yet her desire for answers won over. They left the workshop and walked a safe distance away before Louise began to cast. She attempted every spell that she could think of, yet they produced no results, not even the tiniest pop. She did her best to retain her composure, but her trembling hands and heavy breathing gave away her inner turmoil.
"I guess we're in the same boat, then," Tommy said, "My powers aren't working right either."
"What?" Louise asked, shaken from her downward spiral, "When did this happen?"
"We think it happened while I was fighting... him in Albion," he began, "You had somehow pushed through the device that was stopping you from moving and you caused a huge explosion that knocked us both over, completely without a wand at that. Whatever he had done to himself was undone and it left him badly injured, and it seems to have affected both of us as well."
"I don't remember doing any of that," Louise said, "And I've never been able to cast spells without a wand."
Her mind raced as she tried to understand what she had been told, this did not match with anything that she had studied. But she supposed that she was no ordinary mage. Was this part of being... a Void Mage?
"I believe that I have a hypothesis," Professor Colbert said as he retrieved the ring the princess had given her from his pocket.
"You took the ring?" she asked.
"It is a royal treasure, yes? I believed that it would be safer with me than in the presence of prying eyes."
"I... suppose that is logical."
"Try casting again while wearing it," Professor Colbert said as he held out the ring.
She took the ring and placed it on her finger, then began to cast. She attempted the same spell that the professor had asked her to demonstrate earlier. With one final brandish of her wand, a moderately sized explosion erupted in the direction she had been pointing. She looked down at her wand, then at the ring, then up at the two older men.
"W-what does this mean?" she asked
"It means that we've got some questions to ask the princess the next time we see her," Tommy replied.
Louise simply nodded, she was very much in need of answers right now.
Tommy awoke to early morning light streaming through the window, and rolled over to go back to sleep. He then realized that the window was on the wrong wall compared to his bedroom and immediately sat up. He pulled back the pure white curtains around his bed and found that he was in what looked like an infirmary, a large hall lined with rows of beds, each with their own curtains around them. He looked down and found his clothes had been removed, the only thing covering him being a white sheet, and his chest had been bandaged. He then recalled what had happened, what he believed to be a broken rib must have been worse than he thought. He gently stretched, only to find no pain whatsoever.
"Ah, you're awake."
Tommy turned to find an older woman, probably in her mid-fifties, walking toward him. She wore long, grey robes that matched her grey hair that was tied in a professional manner, and glasses that framed a very stern expression. She honestly resembled a librarian more than a doctor.
"What happened?" Tommy asked as she approached.
"You fainted in front of the queen, that's what happened," she replied with a huff, "In any other situation, you would have been thrown out. But since you were injured, you were given leniency. Now, I must examine you."
Tommy did not attempt to resist as the woman drew a wand and began to wave it around him, muttering incantations as she went. He couldn't help feeling somewhat awkward, even though he'd had plenty of physical examinations throughout his life. Maybe it was because those didn't involve being poked all over by a wooden stick.
"Well, you seem to have healed rather quickly," she said as she continued to examine him, "Even with the potions we had given you, it still should have taken a few days for you to recover, given the extent of your injuries and especially for a man your age."
"How bad was it?"
"You suffered several broken bones, primarily all of your ribs, and there were even signs that you had been struck by lightning several times. Now, do you feel any pain at all?"
"No, nothing so far," Tommy replied, resisting the urge to shrug off the severity of his injuries as he didn't think the doctor would take it well.
"In that case, I see no reason not to discharge you. I shall have your things returned to you, though we had to lock that sword of yours in a closet for the night. It would not stop making comments about the maids."
"Yeah, sorry about him. I thought I had gotten him to stop doing that."
Tommy sat and thought back to the previous day as he waited, and the guilt came back to him. Despite his best efforts, the king of Albion was killed and the kids got hurt, Louise especially. He should have listened to his initial instincts, he shouldn't have let any of them come along, and he especially should have just thrown Wardes off the cliff. No, there was no point in dwelling on past mistakes, that was how so many of his problems started. The kids were alive, that's what mattered, and hopefully he'd have more time to prepare them before the next disaster struck.
His thoughts then turned to what the doctor said about his injuries. It wasn't the injuries themselves that concerned him, he'd taken similar beatings before and pulled through. How he received them was another matter entirely. He had been careless, operating on the assumption that Wardes was just a normal human, magic aside. He really shouldn't be making assumptions about anything at this point in his life. Then there was that pendant, or whatever it actually was. It had increased Wardes' power immensely, enough to make Tommy struggle. He'd get Alpha to analyze it as soon as possible, if Wardes had one then who knew how many were out there?
"There you are, Partner!"
Tommy looked up and saw Derflinger, being carried along with the rest of his things by a maid. He then spotted the belt of pouches resting on top of his folded clothes. He really hoped no one went poking around in there.
"Thank you," Tommy said to the maid as he accepted his things, before turning to Derflinger, "I thought I told you to stop with the comments toward women."
"Oh, uh... Sorry about that. Old habits, you know?"
"We'll work on it," he said as he closed the curtains around his bed and began to get dressed.
He made sure to check if everything was still there and sure enough, his morpher, communicator, digital map, unused beacons, shovel, and especially Wardes' pendant and the immobilizing disc he removed from Louise were all accounted for. Just then, his communicator beeped.
"Alpha?" Tommy asked as pressed the button.
"It's Jean, actually," Jean replied, sounding despondent, "I see that you've recovered."
"How did...?" Tommy began before realization struck, "Oh right, there's an active beacon here so you're able to see me."
"Indeed. Tommy, I wish to apologize for striking you. That was entirely uncalled for."
"There's no need to apologize, I completely understand. If anything, I should be apologizing. I failed to keep my promise to keep everyone safe."
"You brought them back alive and in one piece, I am grateful for that. But when I saw Louise in such a state..."
"How is she?"
"She has yet to awaken."
"I see. How's Alpha doing?"
"I placed him outside in the sun as you had said, but he too has yet to awaken."
"Give it an hour or two and he should be back on his feet," Tommy replied, both relieved and still worried, "I'll be back soon, there are a few things that I need to take care of here."
As the communication channel closed, Tommy resumed getting dressed. He was glad that Jean wasn't still mad at him.
"Say, uh... Where's Saba?" Derflinger asked.
Now that he mentioned it, he hadn't seen the other sword since he was forcibly demorphed. Tommy held out his hand and willed Saba to appear, but nothing happened.
"You there, furball?" Derflinger said to open air but got no response, "Uh... fish breath? Flea-bitten rat muncher? Uh oh..."
Tommy pulled out his morpher and thrust it forward, pressing the switch... but nothing happened. He pressed it again and again, he even pulled out the Power Coin and reinserted it, but still nothing. The old Tommy luck strikes again...
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Jean observed as Alpha passed a scanner over Tommy's morpher, attempting to discern what might be wrong with it. Of all the things he did not understand about the technology around him, this was the most mysterious of all.
"You're certain that you don't feel any different?" Alpha asked as he turned to Tommy.
"I don't feel any slower or weaker, if that's what you mean," Tommy replied as he observed the scan results on the monitor.
"And you've fully recovered from your injuries, so you're connection to the Morphing Grid is still intact..."
"What is the Morphing Grid?" Jean asked.
"It's more or less the source of the Power Rangers' power," Tommy replied, "It's a transdimensional energy field, it exists across all points of space and time, and it is simultaneously a source of life as well as being generated by life."
"You use such a wonderous thing as a weapon?"
"Giving power to the Rangers is just one facet of it," Alpha explained as he continued his work, "The truth is that no one knows the full extent of what the Grid can do. Even after thousands upon thousands of years' worth of study, we've only scratched its surface. Such is the problem when dealing with something truly infinite."
"And you harness this power through this device, this 'morpher'?"
"That's right," Tommy said as he turned to face him, "In this case, the Power Coin at its center is what's connected to the Grid. But most humans back home lack the magical ability to harness it by itself, so our mentor Zordon created the Power Morphers to remedy that problem."
"Huh, so that's what Saba was trying to say before we got interrupted by those orcs," Derflinger interjected, "Is he going to be okay, Partner?"
"Of course, we'll get him back in no time," Tommy replied.
Jean began to pace back and forth across his workshop as he considered this new information, his mind racing at what it could mean. Magic combined with technology, he had hypothesized such an idea long ago in his youth, but he had long discarded it as a flight of fancy. Yet the proof now sat before him, and he was afraid of it. One of his oldest dreams was within arm's reach, and it was a weapon of war.
"I'm afraid that these tools aren't enough to determine the problem," Alpha lamented, "I need something more powerful."
"I've got something like that in my lab," Tommy replied, "It's calibrated for analyzing the Dino Gems but I'm sure we can get it to work for the coin. What about the things I took off of Louise and Wardes last night?"
"In a word? Perplexing," Alpha said as he moved to look over the aforementioned objects on a second table, "The design is sophisticated but the exact construction is poor, my guess is that they were working with unfamiliar materials. The metal in particular is unlike any I've seen before. The fact that they functioned at all despite these limitations shows that whoever made these knew what they were doing."
Jean too looked upon the objects in question, one a small metal disc, the other what appeared to be a simple silver pendant with a needle extended, dried blood still present. He thought over what Tommy had told him, of how the former had been used to immobilize Louise while the latter had given the former lord of house Wardes a vast increase in magical power. To think that such things could exist.
"The most curious part is that both have been completely burned out," Alpha proclaimed.
"I'm afraid I don't understand, I don't see any burn marks on them," Jean said as he looked at the objects.
"That's because the damage is too small for human eyes to see, but my optical visor is designed to pick up on details that small. However, I can't determine what caused the burning, neither device appears to have a power source."
Jean resumed his pacing. No power source, yet they functioned all the same, affecting both Louise and Wardes to such drastic degrees. Unless...
"I believe I know what powered them," Jean began, "Magic. These devices were being fueled by the magic of Miss Valliere and Lord Wardes.
"That could be it," Alpha said, "But then what caused their magic to burn out the devices?"
"...The explosion," Jean replied, realization dawning on him, "Miss Valliere's explosions cause magical effects to disappear. But because the devices were fueled by their magic rather than being magical themselves..."
"It caused a backlash effect," Tommy interjected, "That could explain why Wardes was covered in burns after we were hit... Wait. I was hit by that explosion too, could that be what's affecting my powers?"
"I'll have to run a deeper scan to be certain, and we'll have to take a reading of Louise's explosions to compare it to," Alpha explained, "Now the remaining question is what could this have done to Louise?"
"Yeah, I don't think eyes turning pitch black is normal in any situation," Tommy said.
Jean continued to observe as his friends looked over the readings they had obtained, but his mind was elsewhere. The ring, he knew that it had something to do with this, he knew that it was trouble the moment he saw it on Louise's finger. After all, he had encountered its kind before. He cast his gaze up to the highest shelf in his workshop, to an inconspicuous box tucked into the corner. Flashes of the worst night of his life entered his mind but he forced them down. If the ring that the princess had given to Louise was indeed a royal treasure, then what had he found that night?
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Louise awoke with a start, grasping at anything she could as the memories came back to her. She had been taken, unable to move. They had been in the woods, but... She looked around and found that she was in her room, in her bed. She then realized that she could move again, and a wave of relief washed over her.
"You're awake."
She turned to find Tommy sitting in a chair beside her bed, an open book in his hand. He was once more wearing the clothes from his home, white overcoat and spectacles included.
"How are you feeling?" he asked as he set the book down on her table.
She looked down at her hand and closed it then opened it again, partly to be sure that it was real, and partly just to feel the sensation again. She was safe, it was over. Memories then surged once more in her mind, everything on fire, being unable to move, unable to do anything...!
"W-what of the mission?" Louise asked instead, anything to distract herself.
"It was a complete success, we managed to get everyone out safely," he replied, only for his reassuring expression to slip into melancholy, "Well, almost everyone."
"What happened?"
"The king of Albion was murdered."
"I... I see..." she replied, "H-how long have I been asleep?"
"About three days."
"Three days?!"
Louise immediately pulled her blankets off and made to stand up, only for her legs to give out beneath her, the only thing to keep her from falling was Tommy's swift intervention.
"Easy now," he said as he gently set her back onto her bed, "You're going to be a bit weak after being asleep for so long."
"But I must report to the princess!" she insisted as she tried to extricate herself from his grasp.
"She's your friend, she'll understand if you need a bit of time to recover. You can give your report once you're back on your feet."
Louise wished to protest further, but she knew that he was right. It would not do to collapse in front of the princess, or Prince Wales for that matter. Then, much to her utter embarrassment, her stomach began to growl rather audibly.
"I'll go get you something to eat," Tommy said and began to make his way to the door.
"Thomas, wait."
"Yes, Louise?" he replied, turning back to face her.
Louise looked at her hands once more and felt a sense of utter self-loathing. She knew logically that what had transpired had not been her fault, that she could have done nothing to stop it. Yet that was the very reason she loathed herself. She was weak, and helpless, just as she'd always been. Before it was something that troubled her greatly, but was ultimately bearable. Now? Now, a king had been assassinated, and she had nearly been taken. Her mind returned once more to that night, the forest ablaze while she sat limply against a tree.
Her mind then turned to him. Just the mere thought of her fiance... no, former fiance, infuriated her in a way that even Kirche never could. He used her, manipulated her! He did all of this and she allowed him to do it in her naivete! She was weak, she was stupid, but no more.
"Teach me how to fight," she asked, "Like you."
"Are you sure?" he asked, taking a step toward her.
"For all of my life, I have been ridiculed for being small and useless, and I am tired of it. So yes, I am sure!"
Tommy was silent for a moment, his gaze appraising. What was he waiting for? What was there to think about? It was a simple yes or no answer!
"Alright, I'll teach you," he said, becoming serious, "But you have to promise me something."
"Name it."
"You have to promise me that you'll use what I teach you only to defend yourself or others."
"Are you insinuating that I would go around attacking people?!"
"I've known a lot of people like you, Louise. People who have spent their lives being kicked around by the whole world, and who wasted no time in kicking back the second that they got the chance. I used to be like that."
"Y-you were?" Louise asked, surprised at such an admission.
"Growing up, I didn't have much that I could define myself with," he began, retaking his seat in the chair, "It comes with the territory of being an orphan, but even after I was adopted, my father's work required us to move around the country a lot so we couldn't have much in the way of possessions that could weigh us down. I was always the new kid in school, and I never stayed in a single school long enough to properly make friends. I was only a bit older than you when I finally had a permanent home, and even then it took me a couple of years to realize that.
"When I was about eight or nine years old, some older kids at school were picking on me for being the new kid. Things eventually turned physical and I wound up being the last one standing. In that moment, I felt truly alive for the first time. I finally had something that was solely mine, something that nothing could take away from me. So naturally, I went around picking more fights so that I could keep experiencing what was mine, and of course, I got in trouble.
"My parents had no idea how to punish me, they couldn't take away any of my things because I didn't have any, and they couldn't confine me to my room because that's where I had spent all of my free time anyway."
"Why didn't they simply beat you as punishment?" Louise asked.
"They didn't believe in that kind of punishment, they thought it would only do more harm than good. My father then saw an ad for a local karate school in the newspaper and decided to sign me up for lessons. I took to it like a fish to water and the rest is history."
Louise sat silently and contemplated what she had heard. It was hard to believe that someone so even-tempered and understanding used to be a violent hooligan in his youth, even if briefly. But the assertion that she would be the same was preposterous! She would never do such a thing, it was unbecoming of nobility! But then, she had experienced nobles displaying deplorable behavior of all sorts... No, she was nothing like them!
"You're angry, it's understandable after what happened," Tommy said.
"You know nothing!" she shouted.
"Don't I? You think I've never been betrayed before? Admittedly, it wasn't by someone as close as a fiance, but he was still someone that I had considered a friend and it still hurt. It didn't help that I had to kill him, twice even."
"How did you...? No, never mind, I don't want to know."
For once, Louise was grateful for the odd things that Tommy spoke of, it had taken her mind off of the hole she now felt in her chest, if only for a moment.
"...Why did he do it?" she asked, more to herself than anything.
"I asked him that toward the end, but he refused to say."
"Did you...?"
"No, I didn't kill him. But after what he did to himself, he was too badly damaged to be a threat anymore. Getting you out of there was more important."
"What did he do to himself? I've never heard of such a thing being possible."
"You were awake when everything was happening?"
"For most of it, but everything went black and I don't remember anything afterward."
"Well, Alpha is working on solving that, along with everything else we saw in Albion."
Louise looked down at her hands once more and clenched them into fists. It hurt so much that this was the final straw, but this was what she must do. She had no other choice.
"I promise," she began, turning toward Tommy, "I swear upon my honor as a Valliere that I will use your teachings only in the defense of others."
"I'm glad to hear it," he replied with a smile, "We'll begin when the next Day of Void comes around. Until then, you rest and recover, and I'll go get you something to eat."
Louise watched as he closed the door behind him, and a tear began to roll down her cheek. She could not hold it in any longer and began to sob into her blankets.
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Guiche's room was quiet, as if it were empty. Yet that was not the case at all as Montmorency sat upon his bed and he alongside her, his hand entwined with hers, his head resting upon her shoulder. For the last three days since they had returned from Albion, a sensation that she would rather not repeat, Guiche had asked her to his room. Though he was his usual self in front of others, only she knew the truth. The events in Albion weighed on him, and he did not wish to be alone.
When he had first asked her to his room, she had assumed something altogether different would happen, as what other conclusion would someone reach upon such a request? She was relieved when it turned out to simply be to sit with him in silence, as she was not yet ready for the alternative, even if it was with Guiche. Moreso, she felt a sort of happiness. Not at the circumstances that led to this point, but that Guiche had asked her to be here with him, that he trusted her enough with such vulnerability.
The odd sword that Guiche had carried throughout their journey now sat in the far corner of the room, untouched since their return. Time passed as nothing was said, every so often he would squeeze her hand and she would return the gesture. It was then that there was a knock at the door.
"Y-yes?" Guiche asked as he sat up and straightened his hair.
"Can I come in, Guiche?" a male voice answered.
"Sir Thomas? B-but of course!"
The door opened and Valliere's familiar stepped inside, an expression of concern on his face.
"You're both here, good," he said as he closed the door behind him, "This will save me a trip. May I take a seat?"
"Y-you may," Guiche replied.
"How are you feeling?" the familiar asked as he sat in one of Guiche's chairs.
"I am...well," Guiche answered, his tone suggesting otherwise.
"You can be honest with me, Guiche," the familiar, Tommy, said, "I was there, remember?"
"I... do not know how I feel," Guiche said with a sigh, his momentary mask gone, "Everything that transpired is exactly what I wanted, and yet I am haunted. Even with your forewarning, I was not ready."
"I meant what I said in Albion, you did well. Taking a life isn't easy, but you did so to protect your allies and the villagers."
"...Does it become easier?"
"It shouldn't. Even after all the years I've spent doing this, every life I take weighs on me."
"How do you keep it from tearing you apart inside?"
"I focus on all the good that comes from it, all the lives that get to see another sunrise. But I never let it become a justification. It's good that you feel remorse, even if it's for someone who did terrible things."
"I... I see."
"What about you, Montmorency?" Tommy asked, turning to face her, "Did you find what you were looking for in Albion?"
"I... do not know," she replied, averting her eyes, "I barely did anything."
"I think Brom would beg to differ, that potion of yours helped him get back on his feet."
"H-his wounds were shallow enough that he would have recovered on his own, my assistance was negligible."
"It isn't about how effective your help was, but that you helped to begin with. You gave them aid during a time of great hardship and he and his mother are going to remember that for the rest of their lives. I'm starting to think that helping people might be what you're good at."
Montmorency did not know what to say to that. How could this man possibly know such a thing from just one event? How could he know her when even she didn't know herself?
"Well, I've got other things that I need to see to," he said as he stood from the chair, "But if either of you need to talk about anything, I'm always happy to listen."
He then left the room, and the silence returned. Montmorency's mood soured as she processed the familiar's words, what good would more talk do when it had hardly done anything so far? She was no closer to understanding herself than she was at the beginning of all of this!
"Montmorency?" Guiche asked.
"Yes, Guiche?" she replied, turning to face him.
"I believe Sir Thomas is correct about you," he said, trying to smile through his sadness.
"He doesn't know me," she replied, turning away from him, "How can he possibly make such a judgment about me?"
"I know you," he countered, placing his hand on hers, "I was there when you tried to save Katie and when you healed that child, you did not hesitate either time."
"T-those were extraordinary circumstances! How can I help others here and now?"
"Wouldn't you say that you already help people? The fragrances you make seem to always brighten the days of others."
"I... suppose..."
"And you taught yourself to make effective healing draughts quite quickly."
"Yes... Yes, I did."
The more she thought, the more a plan began to form in Montmorency's mind. Guiche's words made sense, and she supposed the familiar might have made some sense as well. She smiled, once more entwined her hand with Guiche's, and placed a kiss on his cheek. For the first time in what felt like ages, Montmorency began to feel like herself again.
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As it happened, the next Day of Void had been the very next day, and yet Louise still had not been able to get up. It had taken another day before Louise felt well enough to leave her bed and return to class. As she dressed, she paused to consider her cape and broach. She had done it, she had fulfilled her promise to herself. A smile spread across her face as she felt its familiar weight upon her shoulders after a long absence.
As she walked the halls toward the first class of the day, many of her fellow students began to whisper to each other as she passed. Louise paid them no mind because she did not care what they said, today was going to be a good day and she would not let anyone or anything spoil it for her.
She crossed the threshold of Professor Colbert's classroom and ascended the stairs of the elevated seating, taking her usual place in the back corner. She looked around the room at her classmates and all were present, as if the last couple of weeks had not happened. Guiche and Montmorency sat closer to the front, the former making one of his usual bombastic boasts to those who would listen. Farther along the back row, Louise saw Kirche talking to Tabitha about something or other while the other girl just sat facing forward.
"Settle down and take your seats, everyone," Professor Colbert commanded as he entered the room and took his place behind the lectern at the front, "We are still behind on the curriculum so we will all need to focus."
He began his lecture and Louise sat with rapt attention. He was right that they were far behind and she was determined to not miss anything. As the lesson progressed, questions were asked of them and without hesitation, Louise was quick to raise her hand and provide the answer, her mood improving each time.
"Well, well, look who decided to grace us with her presence."
Louise turned to find that Kirche had walked over and sat beside her. The Germainian just had to come and ruin her day!
"What do you want, Zerbst?" Louise whispered, "Can't you see that I'm trying to focus? Unlike you, I'm here to learn something."
"I just wanted to see how you were, but it seems that you're back to yourself. Still the same uptight snob."
"Better than a classless whore."
Kirche simply sneered in response and returned to her seat beside Tabitha. Louise shrugged it off, what did she care, anyway? Probably just another attempt to torment her. As the lesson progressed, Professor Colbert asked for a demonstration of the principle he had been teaching, and Louise immediately volunteered.
"Miss Valliere?" he asked, concern clear on his face, "Are you certain?"
"Of course, Professor," she replied and confidently walked down to the front of the room.
"Watch out, the Zero is going to attempt something," Kirche called out, eliciting a chorus of laughter from the class.
"That is enough from all of you, especially you, Miss Zerbts," the professor admonished before turning to Louise, "You may proceed, Miss Valliere."
"Thank you, sir," she replied.
She drew her wand and began to cast, following the instructions written on the chalkboard. With the final word, she raised her wand...! But nothing happened. Louise waited, as did the rest of the class, but there was no explosion. She looked at her wand, trying to determine if it had been damaged in some way. She hoped that it wasn't, it was a family heirloom.
"Well that's a relief," one of her classmates said.
"She can't even do explosions anymore? Now she really is the Zero!" another exclaimed, causing another round of laughter.
"Cease this at once!" Professor Colbert commanded, but the laughter continued.
Louise felt her face burn red as she made her way back to her seat, her head hung low. She buried her face in her arms the second that she sat down, trying to hide her shame and drown out the rest of the world. And all the while, her mind could only focus on why. Why was there no explosion? Why did this even bother her? She hated the explosions, she had wanted them to stop for most of her life! But this somehow felt... wrong?
The laughter of her classmates eventually died down and the lesson continued until its conclusion. Louise waited until she was the last in the room to get up, in the vain hope that perhaps that would make them all forget about her and what happened.
"Miss Valliere, a moment, if you would?" Professor Colbert asked.
"Y-yes, Professor?" she replied as neutrally as she could muster.
"Do you feel alright?" he asked, his concern evident.
"I am f-f-fine."
"If you wish, you can come by my workshop and we can all discuss what happened here."
"Thank you, sir, but I am fine," Louise ground out.
She then turned and left for her next class. As the day went on, Louise kept to herself, what confidence she had started the day with had been shattered. What made her think that returning to classes would somehow be something good? She had taken for granted her time away. She was sorely tempted to run back to Albion, at least there she had been somewhat useful.
As the final class of the day let out, she found herself at a crossroads. Part of her wished to go to dinner, but another just wanted to go to her room and avoid everyone for the rest of the night. But then she remembered Professor Colbert's offer and another desire overcame her, a desire to be around people that actually gave a damn about her. Her course set, she made her way out to the courtyards.
The orange glow of sunset washed over her as she stepped outside and crossed the grassy expanse until she came to the now-familiar wooden shack, whereupon she knocked on the door.
"Enter," came Professor Colbert's muffled voice.
She opened the door and stepped inside to find Tommy, Professor Colbert, and Alpha poring over something or other on one of the screens. She found one of the empty chairs and promptly slumped into it.
"Hey, Louise," Tommy said, looking up from their work, "How was your day?"
"Terrible," she replied simply.
"You want to talk about it?" he asked, fully turning to face her.
"I don't know what I was thinking," she began sullenly, "For some stupid reason I thought today would go well, but I was reminded that nothing has changed. I made a fool of myself in front of everyone, like usual."
"I had asked for a demonstration of a spell and Miss Valliere volunteered," Professor Colbert explained, "Unfortunately, it did not go well."
"The worst part is that there wasn't even an explosion, absolutely nothing happened!" Louise complained.
"I thought you didn't like your explosions," Tommy said, "Isn't this a good thing?"
"It should be, but..."
"Did you try more than once to see if it constantly happened that way?"
"No, I was too mortified to even think of that."
"Then how about we step outside for a minute and give it a try?"
Louise did not wish to humiliate herself further, yet her desire for answers won over. They left the workshop and walked a safe distance away before Louise began to cast. She attempted every spell that she could think of, yet they produced no results, not even the tiniest pop. She did her best to retain her composure, but her trembling hands and heavy breathing gave away her inner turmoil.
"I guess we're in the same boat, then," Tommy said, "My powers aren't working right either."
"What?" Louise asked, shaken from her downward spiral, "When did this happen?"
"We think it happened while I was fighting... him in Albion," he began, "You had somehow pushed through the device that was stopping you from moving and you caused a huge explosion that knocked us both over, completely without a wand at that. Whatever he had done to himself was undone and it left him badly injured, and it seems to have affected both of us as well."
"I don't remember doing any of that," Louise said, "And I've never been able to cast spells without a wand."
Her mind raced as she tried to understand what she had been told, this did not match with anything that she had studied. But she supposed that she was no ordinary mage. Was this part of being... a Void Mage?
"I believe that I have a hypothesis," Professor Colbert said as he retrieved the ring the princess had given her from his pocket.
"You took the ring?" she asked.
"It is a royal treasure, yes? I believed that it would be safer with me than in the presence of prying eyes."
"I... suppose that is logical."
"Try casting again while wearing it," Professor Colbert said as he held out the ring.
She took the ring and placed it on her finger, then began to cast. She attempted the same spell that the professor had asked her to demonstrate earlier. With one final brandish of her wand, a moderately sized explosion erupted in the direction she had been pointing. She looked down at her wand, then at the ring, then up at the two older men.
"W-what does this mean?" she asked
"It means that we've got some questions to ask the princess the next time we see her," Tommy replied.
Louise simply nodded, she was very much in need of answers right now.
Part Seventeen: Exercises Of Mind, Body, And Soul
Tabitha sat on the bed reading by candlelight in the otherwise dark room. For many years, books had been her respite from the world. After all, the characters in books never died, not truly. Even if the hero perished to save the day, he would still be there on the first page. Real people, however, didn't come back. She understood firsthand how fragile a life was, she had certainly taken enough of them by now. So she found comfort and even friendship in fictional people, because real people could disappear at any moment, and she knew that she wouldn't be sent to kill a character in a book.
Books were especially a respite in this place. She hated this castle and the people that lived in it, she wished that she could hop on Sylphied and fly away to wherever her whims took her. But she had no choice, not when the one person that mattered was held beyond her reach. So she did as she was told, came when she was called, and killed whoever she was pointed at. Tabitha wished that she could sit in this room and continue reading for as long as she wanted, but she knew that she needed to be somewhere soon. She closed her book and set it on the bedside table, took a deep breath to compose herself, grabbed her staff, adjusted her glasses, and made her way to the door.
The stone corridor was just as dark as the room she had left, illuminated only by torchlight and the occasional slivers of moonlight that slipped through the windows. All was quiet, save for the sounds of her shoes on the stone floor and her breathing. She eventually arrived at the large, ornate double doors that separated her from her puppet masters, and unfortunately, one was standing in front of those doors.
She wore a regal, deep blue gown with a high collar with white accents, trimmed in gold that resembled a blooming flower, and matching detached sleeves. Her long, light blue hair framed her face, and atop sat an ornate crown that matched her dress. As Tabitha drew closer, the other girl's blue-stained lips spread into a grin that matched the malice in her sharp, cold eyes.
"Well, well," she said, "It looks like the little doll has gone for a midnight stroll."
Tabitha said nothing and stood before the door, waiting to be permitted to enter. She then felt a sharp pain as her hair was suddenly pulled and was forced to face the other girl, hands gripped around her face to keep her from moving.
"Don't you ignore me, you little bitch," the girl hissed, "You think you're better than me, you think that just because you're allowed to leave that you can be free! But you'll never be free, so long as I hold what matters most to you."
Tabitha remained silent, expressionless. Even as the grip on her face tightened and sharp nails dug into her skin, she would not give in to her cousin's taunts.
"That's enough," another voice commanded.
From the corner of her eye, Tabitha could make out a pale face framed in long, dark hair, a figure clad in a black and violet dress.
"Come now, Sheffield," Isabella pouted, badly feigning guilt as she released Tabitha from her grip, "I was just catching up with my dear cousin."
"You know as well as I that useful tools are hard to come by," Sheffield replied, before stepping forward to push open the large doors.
The vast stone room on the other side was lit by torches that cast deep shadows, barely illuminating the path to the far end at which rested a throne, and upon that throne was a man. The man that Tabitha hated most of all. Though he was barely visible, half veiled in shadow, Tabitha could still make out his short, light blue hair and matching goatee, as well as the large fur collar of his deep blue overcoat.
"Report," the man commanded, the sound of his voice causing Tabitha to grip her staff tighter.
"Weapons development is progressing on schedule and within the predicted margin of error, my liege," Sheffield began with a light bow, "In particular, many of our experiments in Albion are bearing fruit."
"And what of you, my daughter?"
"Infiltration is still underway but we already have a sizable force in position," Isabella explained, "They await your command to strike, Father."
"And you, Chevalier Tabitha?"
For the briefest moment, she considered just killing them all. She knew how to kill multiple people with a single spell, and none were hidden behind cover. She snuffed out the idea, they were too intelligent not to have some countermeasure prepared. She knew nothing about that Sheffield woman, save that she possessed a myriad of enchanted items, despite seemingly having no magic of her own. She could have given them all protective objects for just such a scenario. If Tabitha failed in the attempt, she could lose everything. She hated to do this, but there was no other way.
"The one who calls himself the White Ranger is formidable, from the little I have observed, not merely in combat, but with machinery as well. Additionally, he possesses allies of potentially similar skill and strength that he may call upon. Direct confrontation is ill-advised."
"He will be dealt with in time," the damnable man before her said, a vicious smile spreading across his shadowed face, "For now, continue your surveillance."
Tabitha merely nodded, expression unchanging. Valliere's familiar did not deserve this. From what she had seen, he was a good, kind man. He reminded her of Ivaldi, a valiant warrior who fought for the good of all. But life was not a book, and the good were rarely victorious.
"The three of you, return to your assignments," King Joseph de Gallia proclaimed, "We shall bring a glorious new dawn to this piteous world."
Seven days, that was what Louise had to suffer through. Seven days of renewed ridicule until she could begin to take back control of her life. The previous day's mishap, or lack thereof, still weighed on her mind. What had she done in Albion that did... something to her magic that she now had to wear the royal ring to achieve her regular explosions? Tommy's explanation of the events still confused her as she still could not recall a thing beyond passing out.
She wanted nothing more than to solve the confounding mysteries of her magic. But the pile of mysteries seemed to grow ever higher and she had yet to take a single forward step toward understanding any of it, the supposition that she was a Void mage notwithstanding. As much as it pained her, she knew she had to set this aside for the time being and focus on what she could do.
Classes went as they always had, complete with whispers about her from her classmates that both she and they knew that she could hear. Louise did her best to ignore them, even when they escalated from whispers to taunts when they noticed she was ignoring them. She just needed to get through this for seven days, it was no different than anything she had suffered from them before. But before she didn't have something that she looked forward to.
Though the passage of time felt agonizingly slow, the days passed by until the Day Of Void arrived. Louise woke early, prepared and yet nervous for whatever Tommy had planned. She would not be useless and helpless any longer. She dressed and went down for breakfast in the dining hall, and yet nothing was appetizing, her nerves had twisted her stomach into knots. Despite this, she forced down a plate of egg and sausage, she could not afford hunger impeding her.
Hours slowly ticked by as she paced around her room, her mind racing, until a knock at her door caught her attention.
"You're up and ready, good," Tommy said as he entered and handed her some folded clothing, "Change into those, and then we can get started."
Louise accepted the garments and found them rather distasteful. The sleeves of the plain white blouse were far too short for her liking, lacking fastenings of any sort, suggesting that she would have to pull it over her head to wear it and it looked like it would ill fit her. The plain black trousers also seemed like they would not fit her and similarly lacked fastenings. Atop the pile were a pair of plain white stockings though far shorter than what she usually wore, appearing to only rise past her ankle. If it weren't for the fact that they did not match any fashion she was familiar with, she would swear they were peasant clothes.
"Must I wear these?" she asked as she looked them over.
"Would you prefer that your uniform gets covered in sweat and dirt?" Tommy replied.
"A fair point, I suppose. But why are they so loose-fitting?"
"It's to allow you full range of motion while training. Now get changed so we can get started."
As he left the room and closed the door behind him, Louise sighed to herself. This is what she wanted, after all. She removed her uniform and quickly dressed in the 'training clothes', finding them to be rather comfortable, save for the short sleeves leaving her arms so exposed.
"I'm ready," she called to the door and Tommy stepped back in.
"Good. Now be sure to brace yourself, teleportation takes some getting used to," he said before speaking into his communicator, "Alpha, send us to the training spot."
For the briefest moment, Louise felt a shock run through her body, as though every inch of her had been struck by lightning, only for it to fade as she now found herself outside. She stumbled slightly as she attempted to reorient herself, shaking a dizzy spell from her head.
"Is that what you experience every time you do that?" she asked.
"Like I said, it takes some getting used to. Though you did fairly well, most people fall over the first couple of times they're teleported. Now, let's get started."
Louise looked around to find that they were in a grassy field beyond the academy's walls, the castle still close enough that she could make out the windows of its towers. In her immediate surroundings, she saw a variety of odd objects neatly piled against a tree, as well as what looked like two poles embedded in the ground a short distance apart.
"Are you ready?" Tommy asked, "This won't be an easy path to walk."
"As ready as I'll ever be," she replied.
"To begin, you're going to perform a series of basic exercises to determine your current physical fitness, and from there we'll formulate a suitable training regimen. First, you will run back and forth between the two poles until you are unable to continue. You can begin at any time"
Louise nodded and walked over to the nearest of the poles. She looked to the other, gauging the distance between the two. They weren't unreasonably far apart so this shouldn't be too difficult. Louise took off, her shoes disturbing the grass as she went. In moments, she reached the other pole and ran back to where she started. As she went, her breathing became heavier, and her legs began to burn, but this wasn't so difficult. As she ran toward the far pole once more, the burn in her legs doubled and her breath left her. She slowed and fell to her knees, trying to catch her breath and now fully aware of the sweat that had accumulated all over.
"You okay?" Tommy asked as he approached, offering an odd bottle.
She took the container and examined it before bringing it to her lips, the taste of refreshing water quite welcome.
"I am... fine..." she said between breaths, "I don't understand, I didn't have this much trouble with running during the mission."
"Threats to your life are usually a good motivator," Tommy replied, "Are you ready to keep going?"
She nodded and stood, prepared for what came next. Tommy then demonstrated push-ups, balancing himself on his hands and toes, then lowering himself to the ground before pushing himself back up. Louise assumed the same position and repeated his actions, her arms beginning to burn from the exertion as she raised herself up. As had happened while running, the burn doubled as she lowered herself a second time and found that she could not lift herself again. Try as she might, her arms eventually collapsed from under her.
Louise could feel the burn now on her face. How could she accomplish anything if she could hardly do these simple actions? Did her ineptitude with magic extend to this as well?
"Louise?" Tommy asked, concern in his tone.
"I'm f-fine!" she said as she rose from the ground, "What's next?"
Despite her best efforts, every subsequent exercise ended the same, with her barely managing to complete any of them. As she sat on the grass, the water in the bottle long drained by this point, she looked up at the sky as she tried to get her breath under control. What was she even thinking when she asked for this? This was miserable, she couldn't believe that people willingly put themselves through this.
"Alright, I think we've got enough data to work with," Tommy began, "From here on, you'll perform each of these exercises save for the running twice daily, first thing after you wake up and before you go to bed. You will do five repetitions of each one."
"Five?!" Louise nearly shouted, "I can barely do one!"
"And the more you do them, the easier they'll become," Tommy countered, "They weren't easy for me when I first started either."
"I suppose..."
"Now, are you ready for your first proper lesson?"
For a moment, Louise considered saying no and just walking away from this dreadful nonsense. But giving up had never been an option before and it would not be here.
"Yes, I am," she said as she stood and faced her teacher.
"Should you come across someone who seeks to do you harm, you will do everything in your power to escape from them."
"What?! I thought you were going to teach me how to fight!" Louise exclaimed
"I am teaching you to defend yourself," Tommy countered, now deadly serious, "As you currently are, you are not strong or skilled enough to fight off an attacker. So if running means that you will survive, then you will run. Is that understood?"
"...I understand."
"Good. Now for lesson number two: how to throw a punch."
Tommy walked over and stood beside her to demonstrate the proper stance: feet shoulder-width apart, dominant foot a step and a half forward with seventy percent of her weight on her back foot, and arms raised with balled fists.
"Now, the key to a proper punch is to follow through," he explained, "You want to turn your body in the direction of the hand that you are punching with to give it enough force to be effective. And remember to never fully extend your elbow when punching with full force, that's a good way to hurt yourself and it makes retracting your arm take longer. A split second might not seem like much, but it can make all the difference in a fight."
Tommy then demonstrated, slowly at first so that she could see the technique, then at full speed to show what it truly looked like. Louise readied herself, taking note of how Tommy only extended his arm ninety-five percent of the way, and slowly tested the technique for herself. She extended her right arm, making sure to twist her torso as she had been shown, before returning to her starting point. She did it again, faster this time, then again faster still. She then punched with her left arm, feeling the air rush past her hand in the sudden movement, all the while Tommy corrected her technique where needed.
He then walked over to the pile of objects and retrieved... she didn't know what to make of it. It was round and flat, primarily black in color with a red spot in the center, and Tommy seemed to be wearing it like a glove. He then instructed her to punch it. She did as instructed, her knuckles making swift contact with the soft yet firm material, her hand lightly stinging from the friction. She struck again, the target unmoving due to Tommy's strength. She alternated her fists, right then left then right again, and as she continued, Louise realized something.
She was doing this. Though the action itself was extremely minor, she was the one doing it. She was accomplishing something without failure, the thought of which sent a lightness through her chest and caused a smile to form on her face. She struck the target, then again, and again, until Tommy called for them to take a rest. He handed her another bottle of water which she happily accepted, for the moment uncaring of how much she was sweating or how much her hands stung.
"Not bad for your first training session," Tommy began, "And don't think I didn't notice you were starting to have fun. Just remember the story I told you last week."
"Of course I remember," Louise replied, her mood slightly soured, "I would never descend to such lows as to go around assaulting people."
"I'm just making sure. It can be exhilarating to push yourself to new limits, even addicting, so make sure that you don't let it overtake you."
"I do suppose it was an enjoyable experience," Louise admitted, looking down at the bottle in her hands, "I can hardly recall the last I enjoyed doing something."
That was not entirely true as she recalled many moments of fun in her life. The times her mother took her flying on the back of her manticore, whenever Cattleya would read to her, all the mischief she and the princess would get up to. But that was all so long ago, before her lack of magical ability came to light.
"Well you're in luck," Tommy replied, "So long as you're up for it, we'll continue to do this every week."
"I would very much like that," Louise replied with a genuine smile.
"It's still not too late yet, you up for another round?"
"I do believe that I am."
Louise and Tommy continued to train until the sun began to set, and then they teleported back to her room. Though she ached all over, and most definitely needed a bath, Louise felt accomplished for the first time in a long time.
Another Day of Void, another day of boredom. Kirche lay upon her bed, one hand absent-mindedly scratching the ridges on Flame's head as he napped on the floor below. Tabitha was gone again, much to her concern and frustration. She understood that her friend wished to keep things to herself, but Kirche couldn't help but wonder. Was she off on some secret adventure? Perhaps even to see a secret lover? Or maybe it was exactly as Tabitha had said, that the hunting trips to feed a dragon really did take a while.
That still didn't alleviate her current predicament of having nothing to do. Day of Void was an apt name, what else would you call a day completely empty of entertainment? She sat up and looked out her window at the same old sky, the same old clouds, and the same old sun. A brief flash of light then caught her attention, and she spied two very new things down on the ground. Though her current vantage point in one of the academy's towers allowed for few details, the cascade of long pink hair was unmistakable at any distance. Which meant that the other figure was most likely that handsome familiar of hers.
As Kirche watched, a gleeful mirth washed over her at the sight far below. She just could not believe what she was witnessing, Louise was exerting herself like a lowly peasant, and it seemed as if her familiar was making her do it! Kirche's laughter filled her room, disturbing Flame from his nap. She wished to apologize to her familiar, but the thought of Louise performing menial exercise caused her laughter to redouble!
As she regained control of herself, her thoughts turned to how she would use this newfound treasure trove of information. This should keep her entertained for a good while at least.
Dinner in the Alviss Dining Hall was a standard affair for any student of the Tristain Academy of Magic, or as standard as can be for one who has suffered a harrowing experience. Though Guiche wished to be anywhere else, he had appearances to keep and so mustered as much of his charisma as he could so that his companions were none the wiser. They sat together at one of the long tables that ran the length of the hall, each enjoying an array of dishes befitting of their station as young scions of great lineage, listening intently as Gimli recounted a bit of humor.
"Liquor? I hardly know her!" he proclaimed, tossing back his shoulder-length green hair as he laughed at his own jest.
The rest of the group laughed along, though Guiche's heart wasn't in it. At any other time, he would have found such a play on words highly amusing. But since returning from Albion, he had found that much that he once found entertaining had lost its luster. And much to his consternation, his friends had noticed.
"Come on, Guiche, Gimli's humor usually gets you to laugh harder than that," Reynald said as he adjusted his glasses.
"Yeah, what's gotten into you?" Malicorne asked between bites of his second helping of dessert.
As much as Guiche wanted to explain, he did not know what good it would do. They weren't there, they hadn't seen what he had. They hadn't... cut a man down.
"Hey, this should brighten his mood," Gimli said.
He then held his leg out in front of a passing maid, tripping her and sending the plates she had been carrying clattering to the ground, many of them broken. Though his friends laughed uproariously, Guiche grew silent. He watched as the maid hurriedly cleaned up the mess, her face a deep red, tears barely contained. He watched, and memories from not so long ago came unbidden to his mind. A child savagely beaten, a mother forced to watch. A man bleeding to death at his feet.
What should he do? A part of him wished to rush over, to apologize and assist with cleaning the mess. But what would his friends think? The son of a general, debasing himself as if he were a common servant. He would be a laughing stock, he would bring shame to his family. Before he could act, the maid had finished and quickly fled.
"What's with you, Guiche?" Reynald asked.
"I... I've lost my appetite," Guiche replied, and stood to leave.
He walked to the entrance of the hall, his mind awash with conflict, all the while his friends called after him to no avail. He wandered through the courtyards, the cool, early evening air doing little to ease his turmoil. What was he thinking? This was no way for him to act, he knew better than to let some maid trouble him so. And yet, troubled he was, his shoulders weighed by an inexplicable guilt. He ran his hands through his hair, anything to shake him from this state, and he felt something shift on his wrist. He looked to find the bracelet, the 'communicator' that Sir Thomas had given them before the mission. In his malaise, he had not realized that he had still been wearing it. Recalling what he had been told, he pressed on the jewel and spoke into it.
"S-sir Thomas?" Guiche tentatively asked, "Are you there?"
"Guiche?" Sir Thomas replied after a moment, "How can I help you?"
"Do you have a free moment? There is something that I wish to speak about."
"Of course, stop by Professor Colbert's workshop whenever you're ready."
As the communication ceased, Guiche breathed a sigh of relief. Sir Thomas had not steered him wrong yet, surely he would know how to put his mind at ease.
After dropping Louise off and grabbing a bite to eat, Tommy set to work on maintaining Derflinger's blade. He might not be covered in rust anymore, but that was no excuse to forgo proper weapon care. He sat on a bench in the setting sun, slowly working on sharpening the blade in front of him. After everything that had been going on, a nice quiet moment was just what he needed.
"You there!" a voice called out.
Tommy turned to find the head chef marching across the courtyard toward him.
"Can I help you?" Tommy asked as the man came to a stop.
"You're Siesta's uncle, yes?" the man asked.
"That's right."
"The name's Marteau, I've been looking for you to offer my thanks for freeing us from that witch. I had planned to find you sooner, but I lacked the time to do so until now."
"No thanks are necessary," Tommy replied as he sheathed Derflinger, "I was just doing what I always do."
"I also wanted to get your measure," Marteau continued, "Siesta speaks very highly of you, says you're a man of the people. I wanted to see for myself."
"Well I hope that I'm living up to her high praise," Tommy said.
"I'm not so sure," Marteau replied, crossing his arms and giving Tommy a serious look.
"How do you mean?"
"I don't pretend to know how it is you do what you do, but I know it isn't magic like what the nobles do. So as far as I'm concerned, you're a commoner like us. But I can't help noticing that you spend more time with the nobles than with your own kind."
"I am a teacher by trade, is it so unusual for me to try to help kids who might need it?" Tommy asked, standing to properly face the other man.
"They've already got plenty of teachers here and they're hardly children, they practically adults as far as anyone is concerned," Marteau countered.
"That's exactly why they might need extra help, the time between adolescence and adulthood can be confusing and stressful," Tommy explained.
"I'd say they're doing just fine, they've certainly got enough money and power to make any problem go away."
"Money and power isn't everything."
"I beg to differ. You've only been here for a few weeks, but I've worked here for years, and do you know what I see year after year? The same dismissive attitude that most nobles have toward us common folk. Sure, some treat us decently enough, but the rest just see us as interchangeable and disposable. We break our backs so that they don't have to lift a finger, and what do we get? We're ignored at best and stepped on at worst."
"That is fair, I don't blame you for seeing things that way," Tommy began, "You have every right to be angry in such a situation. I've seen the same problems happen back home. But maybe me being here for such a short time is letting me see things that you're missing."
"And what's that?" Marteau asked.
"The kids here have their flaws, no doubt about it. But I see in them a potential future. A brighter, better future for everyone. All they need is the right guidance, and they could change the entire world."
"You really think that highly of them? After everything that you've seen happen since you got here?"
"I've seen the worst of monsters become genuine heroes, so I believe that a bunch of teenagers can become better people."
Silence fell between the two men as they sized each other up. Tommy had to admit that Marteau had a point, he did spend an awful lot of time with people who treated others as inferior. And it would probably help if he tried to spend more time with Siesta. But Tommy also knew that change couldn't happen without those who could make it happen.
"After what you did for us and what Siesta said, I'm willing to trust you," Marteau said, "But I'm not going to believe these claims of yours until I see them with my own eyes."
"Then I guess it's a good thing that I'm in the business of doing the impossible," Tommy replied.
"We'll see about that," Marteau said before walking off.
Tommy began to walk toward the workshop, his thoughts occupied by yet another problem he needed to contend with. He really needed to make a list at this point. As he walked through the door, he spied Alpha diligently working at the terminal but noticed that Jean wasn't back yet.
"Welcome back, Tommy," Alpha said as he continued to work.
"Thanks, pal," Tommy replied, "Is Jean not back yet?"
"I believe he's still in his staff meeting."
"Those can definitely be a pain. What are you working on?"
"I'm fine-tuning our mapping algorithms so that we can obtain more geographical data from fewer beacons, but we'll need to start making improvements on the beacons as well."
"Good work, and I'll see about getting us some more raw materials."
Tommy then sat down in front of the microscope and began to work on a project that he'd been thinking about since he found it in Albion. He reached for the sample case and pulled out the tree leaf, then took a pair of scissors and carefully cut off a piece to examine. He looked through the eyepiece and began to take notes on its cell structure when the door opened. He looked up and saw that Jean had returned.
"How did the meeting go?" Tommy asked.
"As well as could be expected," Jean replied with a sigh, "What are you working on?"
"Just a bit of paleontology, I'm examining the leaf that I found in Albion."
"I see, but what is so important about it that it requires examining? To my knowledge, it is quite common."
"It might be common here, but back home this species has been extinct for thousands of years. We only know that it existed because of fossils and drawings of it in old books."
"Oh, then this must be quite the discovery. Do you plan to publish your findings?"
As Tommy was about to answer, it occurred to him that he wasn't sure. Part of him wanted to write a paper on it, it would go against his integrity as a scientist not to. But then how much was he willing to reveal about how he made such a discovery?
"Is everything all right, Tommy?" Jean asked.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Tommy replied, "Your question caught me off guard."
"How so?"
"I realized that if I tried to write a paper about this leaf, I would have to explain how a simple science teacher managed to travel to another planet."
"Aren't other worlds and their denizens common knowledge on your world?"
"They are, but we don't have publically available space travel. The last time anyone from the general population left Earth was with the Terra Venture colony, and that was thirteen years ago."
"Oh, I see. Why don't you tell the truth? If the Power Rangers are such renowned heroes as you had described, I'm sure that people would accept your research."
"That's just it, I don't want to tell them who I really am. Call me selfish, but I need to keep those parts of my life separate, or else one side will consume the other again. Plus it would be wrong to use my status like that."
"Yes, I do recall you mentioning that," Jean admitted, "Do all Rangers keep their identities hidden?"
"Some have public identities, but most of us prefer anonymity in our day-to-day lives. It's actually rare for Rangers to remain active, at least on Earth. We're usually happy to lend a hand to an active team if it's necessary, but we otherwise prefer to move on with our lives."
It was then that Tommy's communicator beeped. He answered and found it was Guiche calling, the young man asking to see him. He then gave Guiche the okay to come by the workshop.
"What do you suppose he could want to talk about?" Jean asked.
"Knowing him, either he needs more relationship advice, or he's still struggling with what happened in Albion," Tommy replied.
"I knew that I should have stopped them from going on that mission..." Jean lamented.
Tommy turned and picked up the leaf again, examining it as he turned it by the stem. Should he reveal his identity to the world just for this? It wasn't even that big of a discovery in the grand scheme of things, just a minor passion project of his. He didn't even want any fame from it, just the pursuit of science for its own sake.
"I must confess that leaf brings to mind a conundrum that I've been pondering," Jean began, "Doesn't it seem odd to you how many similarities our worlds share despite being so unfathomably far apart?"
"There could be any number of explanations, we are dealing with a timeframe of at least six thousand years," Tommy replied, "For all we know, it could be some spacefaring group visited one planet and decided to take samples and bring them to the other, or it could all just be a huge coincidence."
"For a man of science, you are quite blasé about such world-shaking possibilities. Although, I suppose you've experienced so many such occurrences that they don't phase you anymore, do they?"
"I wouldn't say that, it's more that experience has made me more open-minded to just about anything. If anything, it's the little things that I've come to appreciate."
It was then that a knock at the door interrupted their conversation, followed by Guiche stepping into the shack, a look of conflict and shame upon his face.
"What did you want to talk about?" Tommy asked.
"Something happened in the dining hall," the young man began as he took a seat, "Despite my best efforts, my friends have noticed that I have been out of sorts ever since... In an attempt to lift my spirits, one of them tripped a passing maid. Before this, I would have laughed along with them, yet the sight of her on the ground like that had caused me to recollect about our time in Albion. I don't understand why I feel this way."
"Is this sort of treatment of the maids common?" Tommy asked.
"Unfortunately, it is," Jean replied, clearly frustrated, "Despite the best efforts of myself and other professors, many of the students and even the rest of the professors see the serving staff as less than human."
"But they are less than us," Guiche retorted, "We have magic and they don't, we are inherently superior."
"So you think I'm inferior, Guiche?" Tommy asked.
"What? Of course not!" Guiche replied.
"But you just said that magic makes you superior, and I don't have any magic."
"It's not the same, you're different."
"What makes me different, Guiche?" Tommy began, sternly looking at the young man, "What about me makes you think that I'm superior over others, even though you just said that I am inferior?"
"Because you're clearly powerful," Guiche replied.
"So it's power that matters, not just magic? You think that just because we're strong and the servants aren't, it means that they should be abused?"
"Well, yes! I mean, they serve us, that's how it has always been. We have magic, therefore we rule and they must obey."
"You know, I spoke with the head chef Marteau earlier. In fact, he brought up this exact issue. He spoke about how commoners are treated, and I told him that you and your classmates had the potential to be better. But I can clearly see now that he had a point."
"Oh, what does he know?" Guiche groused dismissively
"I'll tell you what I know," Tommy countered, "I know that regardless of anyone's abilities, we're all people at the end of the day. It doesn't matter if someone can bring statues to life or if they have to scrub toilets for a living, we all wake up the same, we all breathe the same, we all dream the same, and we all bleed the same. And after what we went through in Albion, I think you know that now."
"T-that was different! That...!"
"How was it different? You can feel appalled at the mistreatment of those villagers but feeling guilt over how that maid was treated is somehow incomprehensible to you? You can feel remorse for the man you killed even after the suffering he helped cause, after he tried to kill you, but not for this maid who did nothing to you?"
"I... I don't know!" Guiche shouted, now holding his head in his hands.
"Yes, you do. You just don't know how to say it. And that's okay," Tommy began, placing a hand on the young man's shoulder, "It's good that you feel guilt like this, it means that you're capable of compassion. And it's good that you came to us with this, because it means we can help you understand."
"What do I do? How can I make this stop?"
"First of all, you can apologize to the maid."
"B-but what of my reputation?"
"If you're this broken up about things, I think your reputation is what's least important here. If you can apologize to that Katie girl, you can apologize to the maid."
"I wouldn't even know how to find her."
"I can arrange a meeting for you."
"Now if only you could locate Katie as well, I'd be able to put all of my worries at ease."
"You are unable to find Miss Lotte, Mr. Gramont?" Jean asked.
"Yes, Montmorency and I have been searching so that I might apologize for my scandalous behavior toward her," Guiche replied, "And yet, despite our best efforts, she has eluded us."
"How strange, I know that she isn't missing as I have seen her in my classes numerous times."
"That is what others have said as well when we asked of her whereabouts."
"I think I have an idea," Tommy said before turning, "Alpha?"
"Yes, Tommy?" he replied.
"Can you generate a real-time map of the academy?"
"Give me a few moments and I'll have it ready."
As they sat and watched, Alpha's golden digits sweeping over the keys with mechanical precision, an image began to form on the screen. First as a wireframe outline, soon followed by color and texture, until finally, the entirety of the academy lay before them.
"Alright, Guiche," Tommy began, "Show Alpha where Katie's room is on the map."
"Incredible..." Guiche muttered before catching himself and pointing at the map, "What I mean to say is that her room is right there."
The map then zoomed in on the third floor of one of the academy's towers, a tower that just so happened to be right above and beside the workshop.
"Well at least she's close by," Tommy said.
The map then zoomed further, revealing the interior of the room, yet no one seemed to be home.
"That isn't right, students should be in their rooms at this time of night," Jean said, his confusion evident.
"Then let's see where she is," Tommy replied, "Guiche, can you describe to Alpha what Katie looks like?"
"Of course," Guiche began, "She is roughly the same height as Montmorency, with long, brown hair, violet eyes, and she wears the brown cape that all first years wear."
"Searching, searching... Ay yi yi, we have a match!" Alpha exclaimed.
As the image materialized, they found the young woman in question sitting at a wooden table with a large stack of books, surrounded by large shelves filled with more books and flipping through pages at a brisk pace.
"That's it, that's her!" Guiche declared, clearly relieved at the sight.
"That's the library," Jean began, his confusion intensified, "Students aren't permitted in there at this hour. How could she have gotten past the librarian?"
"Let's go find out," Tommy declared, "Alpha, can you teleport us there?"
"Of course, it's ready when you are."
"You both are going to want to brace yourselves," Tommy warned his compatriots, "Hit it, Alpha."
In a flash of light and a surge of energy, their surroundings changed. Gone was the shack and instead, they found themselves among countless books... and an unoccupied table, with one book still open in front of a chair that looked like it had been hurriedly pushed aside.
"You were right, that was disorienting," Jean complained as he leaned against the table, "Hold on, where is Miss Lotte?"
"Katie?" Guiche called out.
"Alpha, what happened?" Tommy said into his communicator, "Where did she go?"
"I... I don't know!" Alpha replied, "She was there one moment, then there was a brief flash of static and now she's gone!"
"Do you think there was a delay in what the map was showing?"
"I'll look into it, but I am certain that it was a one-to-one feed."
"Madame Ducharme?" Jean called out, walking around some of the bookshelves "Are you... Abigail!"
Tommy and Guiche immediately followed, only to find an older woman slumped over a desk. To her side was what looked to be a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits. Jean was in the process of checking her vitals, only to sigh in relief.
"She's alive," he said, then began to tap her cheeks to rouse her, "Abigail? Abigail, it's Colbert. You need to wake up."
Yet his attempts failed to wake her. Tommy leaned down to look at the tea and biscuits, and a dreadful idea came to him.
"I think she's been drugged," he said grimly.
"Drugged? Do you mean she might have been poisoned?" Jean asked, before also looking at the food before them.
"There has to be some other explanation, Katie would never do this," Guiche protested, "But then... she is fond of cooking and baking..."
"We'll find out what's going on, Guiche," Tommy said.
He then walked back to the table in the hopes that what Katie had been reading would shed some light on what's been happening, only to find some of the books suddenly missing.
"Guiche, Jean, get over here," he called out.
"What's wrong?" Jean asked as he and Guiche rounded the corner.
"Some of the books that were here when we arrived are gone now."
"But how could that be possible?" Jean asked, "Unless..."
"Katie is still here?" Guiche suggested.
Suddenly, a loud bang echoed through the room. The three rushed toward the sound, only to find the door of the library slowly swinging closed as if it had been wrenched open in a hurry. They pulled the door open and peered down the dark hallway, but saw nothing.
"Derflinger, did you see anything?" Tommy asked.
"Sorry, Partner," the sword replied, "Either she figured out how to become invisible or she's just really good at hiding behind bookshelves because I saw nothing."
"Should we go after her?" Guiche asked.
"Assuming it even is Katie who's responsible for this, it's a big castle and she could be hiding anywhere by now," Tommy replied, "I'll have Alpha keep an eye out for her, but right now our top priority is making sure the librarian is okay."
As they returned to the unconscious woman, Tommy grimaced at the situation. Things were so much easier when a giant monster was involved, at least then he wouldn't be feeling so powerless.
Books were especially a respite in this place. She hated this castle and the people that lived in it, she wished that she could hop on Sylphied and fly away to wherever her whims took her. But she had no choice, not when the one person that mattered was held beyond her reach. So she did as she was told, came when she was called, and killed whoever she was pointed at. Tabitha wished that she could sit in this room and continue reading for as long as she wanted, but she knew that she needed to be somewhere soon. She closed her book and set it on the bedside table, took a deep breath to compose herself, grabbed her staff, adjusted her glasses, and made her way to the door.
The stone corridor was just as dark as the room she had left, illuminated only by torchlight and the occasional slivers of moonlight that slipped through the windows. All was quiet, save for the sounds of her shoes on the stone floor and her breathing. She eventually arrived at the large, ornate double doors that separated her from her puppet masters, and unfortunately, one was standing in front of those doors.
She wore a regal, deep blue gown with a high collar with white accents, trimmed in gold that resembled a blooming flower, and matching detached sleeves. Her long, light blue hair framed her face, and atop sat an ornate crown that matched her dress. As Tabitha drew closer, the other girl's blue-stained lips spread into a grin that matched the malice in her sharp, cold eyes.
"Well, well," she said, "It looks like the little doll has gone for a midnight stroll."
Tabitha said nothing and stood before the door, waiting to be permitted to enter. She then felt a sharp pain as her hair was suddenly pulled and was forced to face the other girl, hands gripped around her face to keep her from moving.
"Don't you ignore me, you little bitch," the girl hissed, "You think you're better than me, you think that just because you're allowed to leave that you can be free! But you'll never be free, so long as I hold what matters most to you."
Tabitha remained silent, expressionless. Even as the grip on her face tightened and sharp nails dug into her skin, she would not give in to her cousin's taunts.
"That's enough," another voice commanded.
From the corner of her eye, Tabitha could make out a pale face framed in long, dark hair, a figure clad in a black and violet dress.
"Come now, Sheffield," Isabella pouted, badly feigning guilt as she released Tabitha from her grip, "I was just catching up with my dear cousin."
"You know as well as I that useful tools are hard to come by," Sheffield replied, before stepping forward to push open the large doors.
The vast stone room on the other side was lit by torches that cast deep shadows, barely illuminating the path to the far end at which rested a throne, and upon that throne was a man. The man that Tabitha hated most of all. Though he was barely visible, half veiled in shadow, Tabitha could still make out his short, light blue hair and matching goatee, as well as the large fur collar of his deep blue overcoat.
"Report," the man commanded, the sound of his voice causing Tabitha to grip her staff tighter.
"Weapons development is progressing on schedule and within the predicted margin of error, my liege," Sheffield began with a light bow, "In particular, many of our experiments in Albion are bearing fruit."
"And what of you, my daughter?"
"Infiltration is still underway but we already have a sizable force in position," Isabella explained, "They await your command to strike, Father."
"And you, Chevalier Tabitha?"
For the briefest moment, she considered just killing them all. She knew how to kill multiple people with a single spell, and none were hidden behind cover. She snuffed out the idea, they were too intelligent not to have some countermeasure prepared. She knew nothing about that Sheffield woman, save that she possessed a myriad of enchanted items, despite seemingly having no magic of her own. She could have given them all protective objects for just such a scenario. If Tabitha failed in the attempt, she could lose everything. She hated to do this, but there was no other way.
"The one who calls himself the White Ranger is formidable, from the little I have observed, not merely in combat, but with machinery as well. Additionally, he possesses allies of potentially similar skill and strength that he may call upon. Direct confrontation is ill-advised."
"He will be dealt with in time," the damnable man before her said, a vicious smile spreading across his shadowed face, "For now, continue your surveillance."
Tabitha merely nodded, expression unchanging. Valliere's familiar did not deserve this. From what she had seen, he was a good, kind man. He reminded her of Ivaldi, a valiant warrior who fought for the good of all. But life was not a book, and the good were rarely victorious.
"The three of you, return to your assignments," King Joseph de Gallia proclaimed, "We shall bring a glorious new dawn to this piteous world."
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Seven days, that was what Louise had to suffer through. Seven days of renewed ridicule until she could begin to take back control of her life. The previous day's mishap, or lack thereof, still weighed on her mind. What had she done in Albion that did... something to her magic that she now had to wear the royal ring to achieve her regular explosions? Tommy's explanation of the events still confused her as she still could not recall a thing beyond passing out.
She wanted nothing more than to solve the confounding mysteries of her magic. But the pile of mysteries seemed to grow ever higher and she had yet to take a single forward step toward understanding any of it, the supposition that she was a Void mage notwithstanding. As much as it pained her, she knew she had to set this aside for the time being and focus on what she could do.
Classes went as they always had, complete with whispers about her from her classmates that both she and they knew that she could hear. Louise did her best to ignore them, even when they escalated from whispers to taunts when they noticed she was ignoring them. She just needed to get through this for seven days, it was no different than anything she had suffered from them before. But before she didn't have something that she looked forward to.
Though the passage of time felt agonizingly slow, the days passed by until the Day Of Void arrived. Louise woke early, prepared and yet nervous for whatever Tommy had planned. She would not be useless and helpless any longer. She dressed and went down for breakfast in the dining hall, and yet nothing was appetizing, her nerves had twisted her stomach into knots. Despite this, she forced down a plate of egg and sausage, she could not afford hunger impeding her.
Hours slowly ticked by as she paced around her room, her mind racing, until a knock at her door caught her attention.
"You're up and ready, good," Tommy said as he entered and handed her some folded clothing, "Change into those, and then we can get started."
Louise accepted the garments and found them rather distasteful. The sleeves of the plain white blouse were far too short for her liking, lacking fastenings of any sort, suggesting that she would have to pull it over her head to wear it and it looked like it would ill fit her. The plain black trousers also seemed like they would not fit her and similarly lacked fastenings. Atop the pile were a pair of plain white stockings though far shorter than what she usually wore, appearing to only rise past her ankle. If it weren't for the fact that they did not match any fashion she was familiar with, she would swear they were peasant clothes.
"Must I wear these?" she asked as she looked them over.
"Would you prefer that your uniform gets covered in sweat and dirt?" Tommy replied.
"A fair point, I suppose. But why are they so loose-fitting?"
"It's to allow you full range of motion while training. Now get changed so we can get started."
As he left the room and closed the door behind him, Louise sighed to herself. This is what she wanted, after all. She removed her uniform and quickly dressed in the 'training clothes', finding them to be rather comfortable, save for the short sleeves leaving her arms so exposed.
"I'm ready," she called to the door and Tommy stepped back in.
"Good. Now be sure to brace yourself, teleportation takes some getting used to," he said before speaking into his communicator, "Alpha, send us to the training spot."
For the briefest moment, Louise felt a shock run through her body, as though every inch of her had been struck by lightning, only for it to fade as she now found herself outside. She stumbled slightly as she attempted to reorient herself, shaking a dizzy spell from her head.
"Is that what you experience every time you do that?" she asked.
"Like I said, it takes some getting used to. Though you did fairly well, most people fall over the first couple of times they're teleported. Now, let's get started."
Louise looked around to find that they were in a grassy field beyond the academy's walls, the castle still close enough that she could make out the windows of its towers. In her immediate surroundings, she saw a variety of odd objects neatly piled against a tree, as well as what looked like two poles embedded in the ground a short distance apart.
"Are you ready?" Tommy asked, "This won't be an easy path to walk."
"As ready as I'll ever be," she replied.
"To begin, you're going to perform a series of basic exercises to determine your current physical fitness, and from there we'll formulate a suitable training regimen. First, you will run back and forth between the two poles until you are unable to continue. You can begin at any time"
Louise nodded and walked over to the nearest of the poles. She looked to the other, gauging the distance between the two. They weren't unreasonably far apart so this shouldn't be too difficult. Louise took off, her shoes disturbing the grass as she went. In moments, she reached the other pole and ran back to where she started. As she went, her breathing became heavier, and her legs began to burn, but this wasn't so difficult. As she ran toward the far pole once more, the burn in her legs doubled and her breath left her. She slowed and fell to her knees, trying to catch her breath and now fully aware of the sweat that had accumulated all over.
"You okay?" Tommy asked as he approached, offering an odd bottle.
She took the container and examined it before bringing it to her lips, the taste of refreshing water quite welcome.
"I am... fine..." she said between breaths, "I don't understand, I didn't have this much trouble with running during the mission."
"Threats to your life are usually a good motivator," Tommy replied, "Are you ready to keep going?"
She nodded and stood, prepared for what came next. Tommy then demonstrated push-ups, balancing himself on his hands and toes, then lowering himself to the ground before pushing himself back up. Louise assumed the same position and repeated his actions, her arms beginning to burn from the exertion as she raised herself up. As had happened while running, the burn doubled as she lowered herself a second time and found that she could not lift herself again. Try as she might, her arms eventually collapsed from under her.
Louise could feel the burn now on her face. How could she accomplish anything if she could hardly do these simple actions? Did her ineptitude with magic extend to this as well?
"Louise?" Tommy asked, concern in his tone.
"I'm f-fine!" she said as she rose from the ground, "What's next?"
Despite her best efforts, every subsequent exercise ended the same, with her barely managing to complete any of them. As she sat on the grass, the water in the bottle long drained by this point, she looked up at the sky as she tried to get her breath under control. What was she even thinking when she asked for this? This was miserable, she couldn't believe that people willingly put themselves through this.
"Alright, I think we've got enough data to work with," Tommy began, "From here on, you'll perform each of these exercises save for the running twice daily, first thing after you wake up and before you go to bed. You will do five repetitions of each one."
"Five?!" Louise nearly shouted, "I can barely do one!"
"And the more you do them, the easier they'll become," Tommy countered, "They weren't easy for me when I first started either."
"I suppose..."
"Now, are you ready for your first proper lesson?"
For a moment, Louise considered saying no and just walking away from this dreadful nonsense. But giving up had never been an option before and it would not be here.
"Yes, I am," she said as she stood and faced her teacher.
"Should you come across someone who seeks to do you harm, you will do everything in your power to escape from them."
"What?! I thought you were going to teach me how to fight!" Louise exclaimed
"I am teaching you to defend yourself," Tommy countered, now deadly serious, "As you currently are, you are not strong or skilled enough to fight off an attacker. So if running means that you will survive, then you will run. Is that understood?"
"...I understand."
"Good. Now for lesson number two: how to throw a punch."
Tommy walked over and stood beside her to demonstrate the proper stance: feet shoulder-width apart, dominant foot a step and a half forward with seventy percent of her weight on her back foot, and arms raised with balled fists.
"Now, the key to a proper punch is to follow through," he explained, "You want to turn your body in the direction of the hand that you are punching with to give it enough force to be effective. And remember to never fully extend your elbow when punching with full force, that's a good way to hurt yourself and it makes retracting your arm take longer. A split second might not seem like much, but it can make all the difference in a fight."
Tommy then demonstrated, slowly at first so that she could see the technique, then at full speed to show what it truly looked like. Louise readied herself, taking note of how Tommy only extended his arm ninety-five percent of the way, and slowly tested the technique for herself. She extended her right arm, making sure to twist her torso as she had been shown, before returning to her starting point. She did it again, faster this time, then again faster still. She then punched with her left arm, feeling the air rush past her hand in the sudden movement, all the while Tommy corrected her technique where needed.
He then walked over to the pile of objects and retrieved... she didn't know what to make of it. It was round and flat, primarily black in color with a red spot in the center, and Tommy seemed to be wearing it like a glove. He then instructed her to punch it. She did as instructed, her knuckles making swift contact with the soft yet firm material, her hand lightly stinging from the friction. She struck again, the target unmoving due to Tommy's strength. She alternated her fists, right then left then right again, and as she continued, Louise realized something.
She was doing this. Though the action itself was extremely minor, she was the one doing it. She was accomplishing something without failure, the thought of which sent a lightness through her chest and caused a smile to form on her face. She struck the target, then again, and again, until Tommy called for them to take a rest. He handed her another bottle of water which she happily accepted, for the moment uncaring of how much she was sweating or how much her hands stung.
"Not bad for your first training session," Tommy began, "And don't think I didn't notice you were starting to have fun. Just remember the story I told you last week."
"Of course I remember," Louise replied, her mood slightly soured, "I would never descend to such lows as to go around assaulting people."
"I'm just making sure. It can be exhilarating to push yourself to new limits, even addicting, so make sure that you don't let it overtake you."
"I do suppose it was an enjoyable experience," Louise admitted, looking down at the bottle in her hands, "I can hardly recall the last I enjoyed doing something."
That was not entirely true as she recalled many moments of fun in her life. The times her mother took her flying on the back of her manticore, whenever Cattleya would read to her, all the mischief she and the princess would get up to. But that was all so long ago, before her lack of magical ability came to light.
"Well you're in luck," Tommy replied, "So long as you're up for it, we'll continue to do this every week."
"I would very much like that," Louise replied with a genuine smile.
"It's still not too late yet, you up for another round?"
"I do believe that I am."
Louise and Tommy continued to train until the sun began to set, and then they teleported back to her room. Though she ached all over, and most definitely needed a bath, Louise felt accomplished for the first time in a long time.
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Another Day of Void, another day of boredom. Kirche lay upon her bed, one hand absent-mindedly scratching the ridges on Flame's head as he napped on the floor below. Tabitha was gone again, much to her concern and frustration. She understood that her friend wished to keep things to herself, but Kirche couldn't help but wonder. Was she off on some secret adventure? Perhaps even to see a secret lover? Or maybe it was exactly as Tabitha had said, that the hunting trips to feed a dragon really did take a while.
That still didn't alleviate her current predicament of having nothing to do. Day of Void was an apt name, what else would you call a day completely empty of entertainment? She sat up and looked out her window at the same old sky, the same old clouds, and the same old sun. A brief flash of light then caught her attention, and she spied two very new things down on the ground. Though her current vantage point in one of the academy's towers allowed for few details, the cascade of long pink hair was unmistakable at any distance. Which meant that the other figure was most likely that handsome familiar of hers.
As Kirche watched, a gleeful mirth washed over her at the sight far below. She just could not believe what she was witnessing, Louise was exerting herself like a lowly peasant, and it seemed as if her familiar was making her do it! Kirche's laughter filled her room, disturbing Flame from his nap. She wished to apologize to her familiar, but the thought of Louise performing menial exercise caused her laughter to redouble!
As she regained control of herself, her thoughts turned to how she would use this newfound treasure trove of information. This should keep her entertained for a good while at least.
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Dinner in the Alviss Dining Hall was a standard affair for any student of the Tristain Academy of Magic, or as standard as can be for one who has suffered a harrowing experience. Though Guiche wished to be anywhere else, he had appearances to keep and so mustered as much of his charisma as he could so that his companions were none the wiser. They sat together at one of the long tables that ran the length of the hall, each enjoying an array of dishes befitting of their station as young scions of great lineage, listening intently as Gimli recounted a bit of humor.
"Liquor? I hardly know her!" he proclaimed, tossing back his shoulder-length green hair as he laughed at his own jest.
The rest of the group laughed along, though Guiche's heart wasn't in it. At any other time, he would have found such a play on words highly amusing. But since returning from Albion, he had found that much that he once found entertaining had lost its luster. And much to his consternation, his friends had noticed.
"Come on, Guiche, Gimli's humor usually gets you to laugh harder than that," Reynald said as he adjusted his glasses.
"Yeah, what's gotten into you?" Malicorne asked between bites of his second helping of dessert.
As much as Guiche wanted to explain, he did not know what good it would do. They weren't there, they hadn't seen what he had. They hadn't... cut a man down.
"Hey, this should brighten his mood," Gimli said.
He then held his leg out in front of a passing maid, tripping her and sending the plates she had been carrying clattering to the ground, many of them broken. Though his friends laughed uproariously, Guiche grew silent. He watched as the maid hurriedly cleaned up the mess, her face a deep red, tears barely contained. He watched, and memories from not so long ago came unbidden to his mind. A child savagely beaten, a mother forced to watch. A man bleeding to death at his feet.
What should he do? A part of him wished to rush over, to apologize and assist with cleaning the mess. But what would his friends think? The son of a general, debasing himself as if he were a common servant. He would be a laughing stock, he would bring shame to his family. Before he could act, the maid had finished and quickly fled.
"What's with you, Guiche?" Reynald asked.
"I... I've lost my appetite," Guiche replied, and stood to leave.
He walked to the entrance of the hall, his mind awash with conflict, all the while his friends called after him to no avail. He wandered through the courtyards, the cool, early evening air doing little to ease his turmoil. What was he thinking? This was no way for him to act, he knew better than to let some maid trouble him so. And yet, troubled he was, his shoulders weighed by an inexplicable guilt. He ran his hands through his hair, anything to shake him from this state, and he felt something shift on his wrist. He looked to find the bracelet, the 'communicator' that Sir Thomas had given them before the mission. In his malaise, he had not realized that he had still been wearing it. Recalling what he had been told, he pressed on the jewel and spoke into it.
"S-sir Thomas?" Guiche tentatively asked, "Are you there?"
"Guiche?" Sir Thomas replied after a moment, "How can I help you?"
"Do you have a free moment? There is something that I wish to speak about."
"Of course, stop by Professor Colbert's workshop whenever you're ready."
As the communication ceased, Guiche breathed a sigh of relief. Sir Thomas had not steered him wrong yet, surely he would know how to put his mind at ease.
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After dropping Louise off and grabbing a bite to eat, Tommy set to work on maintaining Derflinger's blade. He might not be covered in rust anymore, but that was no excuse to forgo proper weapon care. He sat on a bench in the setting sun, slowly working on sharpening the blade in front of him. After everything that had been going on, a nice quiet moment was just what he needed.
"You there!" a voice called out.
Tommy turned to find the head chef marching across the courtyard toward him.
"Can I help you?" Tommy asked as the man came to a stop.
"You're Siesta's uncle, yes?" the man asked.
"That's right."
"The name's Marteau, I've been looking for you to offer my thanks for freeing us from that witch. I had planned to find you sooner, but I lacked the time to do so until now."
"No thanks are necessary," Tommy replied as he sheathed Derflinger, "I was just doing what I always do."
"I also wanted to get your measure," Marteau continued, "Siesta speaks very highly of you, says you're a man of the people. I wanted to see for myself."
"Well I hope that I'm living up to her high praise," Tommy said.
"I'm not so sure," Marteau replied, crossing his arms and giving Tommy a serious look.
"How do you mean?"
"I don't pretend to know how it is you do what you do, but I know it isn't magic like what the nobles do. So as far as I'm concerned, you're a commoner like us. But I can't help noticing that you spend more time with the nobles than with your own kind."
"I am a teacher by trade, is it so unusual for me to try to help kids who might need it?" Tommy asked, standing to properly face the other man.
"They've already got plenty of teachers here and they're hardly children, they practically adults as far as anyone is concerned," Marteau countered.
"That's exactly why they might need extra help, the time between adolescence and adulthood can be confusing and stressful," Tommy explained.
"I'd say they're doing just fine, they've certainly got enough money and power to make any problem go away."
"Money and power isn't everything."
"I beg to differ. You've only been here for a few weeks, but I've worked here for years, and do you know what I see year after year? The same dismissive attitude that most nobles have toward us common folk. Sure, some treat us decently enough, but the rest just see us as interchangeable and disposable. We break our backs so that they don't have to lift a finger, and what do we get? We're ignored at best and stepped on at worst."
"That is fair, I don't blame you for seeing things that way," Tommy began, "You have every right to be angry in such a situation. I've seen the same problems happen back home. But maybe me being here for such a short time is letting me see things that you're missing."
"And what's that?" Marteau asked.
"The kids here have their flaws, no doubt about it. But I see in them a potential future. A brighter, better future for everyone. All they need is the right guidance, and they could change the entire world."
"You really think that highly of them? After everything that you've seen happen since you got here?"
"I've seen the worst of monsters become genuine heroes, so I believe that a bunch of teenagers can become better people."
Silence fell between the two men as they sized each other up. Tommy had to admit that Marteau had a point, he did spend an awful lot of time with people who treated others as inferior. And it would probably help if he tried to spend more time with Siesta. But Tommy also knew that change couldn't happen without those who could make it happen.
"After what you did for us and what Siesta said, I'm willing to trust you," Marteau said, "But I'm not going to believe these claims of yours until I see them with my own eyes."
"Then I guess it's a good thing that I'm in the business of doing the impossible," Tommy replied.
"We'll see about that," Marteau said before walking off.
Tommy began to walk toward the workshop, his thoughts occupied by yet another problem he needed to contend with. He really needed to make a list at this point. As he walked through the door, he spied Alpha diligently working at the terminal but noticed that Jean wasn't back yet.
"Welcome back, Tommy," Alpha said as he continued to work.
"Thanks, pal," Tommy replied, "Is Jean not back yet?"
"I believe he's still in his staff meeting."
"Those can definitely be a pain. What are you working on?"
"I'm fine-tuning our mapping algorithms so that we can obtain more geographical data from fewer beacons, but we'll need to start making improvements on the beacons as well."
"Good work, and I'll see about getting us some more raw materials."
Tommy then sat down in front of the microscope and began to work on a project that he'd been thinking about since he found it in Albion. He reached for the sample case and pulled out the tree leaf, then took a pair of scissors and carefully cut off a piece to examine. He looked through the eyepiece and began to take notes on its cell structure when the door opened. He looked up and saw that Jean had returned.
"How did the meeting go?" Tommy asked.
"As well as could be expected," Jean replied with a sigh, "What are you working on?"
"Just a bit of paleontology, I'm examining the leaf that I found in Albion."
"I see, but what is so important about it that it requires examining? To my knowledge, it is quite common."
"It might be common here, but back home this species has been extinct for thousands of years. We only know that it existed because of fossils and drawings of it in old books."
"Oh, then this must be quite the discovery. Do you plan to publish your findings?"
As Tommy was about to answer, it occurred to him that he wasn't sure. Part of him wanted to write a paper on it, it would go against his integrity as a scientist not to. But then how much was he willing to reveal about how he made such a discovery?
"Is everything all right, Tommy?" Jean asked.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Tommy replied, "Your question caught me off guard."
"How so?"
"I realized that if I tried to write a paper about this leaf, I would have to explain how a simple science teacher managed to travel to another planet."
"Aren't other worlds and their denizens common knowledge on your world?"
"They are, but we don't have publically available space travel. The last time anyone from the general population left Earth was with the Terra Venture colony, and that was thirteen years ago."
"Oh, I see. Why don't you tell the truth? If the Power Rangers are such renowned heroes as you had described, I'm sure that people would accept your research."
"That's just it, I don't want to tell them who I really am. Call me selfish, but I need to keep those parts of my life separate, or else one side will consume the other again. Plus it would be wrong to use my status like that."
"Yes, I do recall you mentioning that," Jean admitted, "Do all Rangers keep their identities hidden?"
"Some have public identities, but most of us prefer anonymity in our day-to-day lives. It's actually rare for Rangers to remain active, at least on Earth. We're usually happy to lend a hand to an active team if it's necessary, but we otherwise prefer to move on with our lives."
It was then that Tommy's communicator beeped. He answered and found it was Guiche calling, the young man asking to see him. He then gave Guiche the okay to come by the workshop.
"What do you suppose he could want to talk about?" Jean asked.
"Knowing him, either he needs more relationship advice, or he's still struggling with what happened in Albion," Tommy replied.
"I knew that I should have stopped them from going on that mission..." Jean lamented.
Tommy turned and picked up the leaf again, examining it as he turned it by the stem. Should he reveal his identity to the world just for this? It wasn't even that big of a discovery in the grand scheme of things, just a minor passion project of his. He didn't even want any fame from it, just the pursuit of science for its own sake.
"I must confess that leaf brings to mind a conundrum that I've been pondering," Jean began, "Doesn't it seem odd to you how many similarities our worlds share despite being so unfathomably far apart?"
"There could be any number of explanations, we are dealing with a timeframe of at least six thousand years," Tommy replied, "For all we know, it could be some spacefaring group visited one planet and decided to take samples and bring them to the other, or it could all just be a huge coincidence."
"For a man of science, you are quite blasé about such world-shaking possibilities. Although, I suppose you've experienced so many such occurrences that they don't phase you anymore, do they?"
"I wouldn't say that, it's more that experience has made me more open-minded to just about anything. If anything, it's the little things that I've come to appreciate."
It was then that a knock at the door interrupted their conversation, followed by Guiche stepping into the shack, a look of conflict and shame upon his face.
"What did you want to talk about?" Tommy asked.
"Something happened in the dining hall," the young man began as he took a seat, "Despite my best efforts, my friends have noticed that I have been out of sorts ever since... In an attempt to lift my spirits, one of them tripped a passing maid. Before this, I would have laughed along with them, yet the sight of her on the ground like that had caused me to recollect about our time in Albion. I don't understand why I feel this way."
"Is this sort of treatment of the maids common?" Tommy asked.
"Unfortunately, it is," Jean replied, clearly frustrated, "Despite the best efforts of myself and other professors, many of the students and even the rest of the professors see the serving staff as less than human."
"But they are less than us," Guiche retorted, "We have magic and they don't, we are inherently superior."
"So you think I'm inferior, Guiche?" Tommy asked.
"What? Of course not!" Guiche replied.
"But you just said that magic makes you superior, and I don't have any magic."
"It's not the same, you're different."
"What makes me different, Guiche?" Tommy began, sternly looking at the young man, "What about me makes you think that I'm superior over others, even though you just said that I am inferior?"
"Because you're clearly powerful," Guiche replied.
"So it's power that matters, not just magic? You think that just because we're strong and the servants aren't, it means that they should be abused?"
"Well, yes! I mean, they serve us, that's how it has always been. We have magic, therefore we rule and they must obey."
"You know, I spoke with the head chef Marteau earlier. In fact, he brought up this exact issue. He spoke about how commoners are treated, and I told him that you and your classmates had the potential to be better. But I can clearly see now that he had a point."
"Oh, what does he know?" Guiche groused dismissively
"I'll tell you what I know," Tommy countered, "I know that regardless of anyone's abilities, we're all people at the end of the day. It doesn't matter if someone can bring statues to life or if they have to scrub toilets for a living, we all wake up the same, we all breathe the same, we all dream the same, and we all bleed the same. And after what we went through in Albion, I think you know that now."
"T-that was different! That...!"
"How was it different? You can feel appalled at the mistreatment of those villagers but feeling guilt over how that maid was treated is somehow incomprehensible to you? You can feel remorse for the man you killed even after the suffering he helped cause, after he tried to kill you, but not for this maid who did nothing to you?"
"I... I don't know!" Guiche shouted, now holding his head in his hands.
"Yes, you do. You just don't know how to say it. And that's okay," Tommy began, placing a hand on the young man's shoulder, "It's good that you feel guilt like this, it means that you're capable of compassion. And it's good that you came to us with this, because it means we can help you understand."
"What do I do? How can I make this stop?"
"First of all, you can apologize to the maid."
"B-but what of my reputation?"
"If you're this broken up about things, I think your reputation is what's least important here. If you can apologize to that Katie girl, you can apologize to the maid."
"I wouldn't even know how to find her."
"I can arrange a meeting for you."
"Now if only you could locate Katie as well, I'd be able to put all of my worries at ease."
"You are unable to find Miss Lotte, Mr. Gramont?" Jean asked.
"Yes, Montmorency and I have been searching so that I might apologize for my scandalous behavior toward her," Guiche replied, "And yet, despite our best efforts, she has eluded us."
"How strange, I know that she isn't missing as I have seen her in my classes numerous times."
"That is what others have said as well when we asked of her whereabouts."
"I think I have an idea," Tommy said before turning, "Alpha?"
"Yes, Tommy?" he replied.
"Can you generate a real-time map of the academy?"
"Give me a few moments and I'll have it ready."
As they sat and watched, Alpha's golden digits sweeping over the keys with mechanical precision, an image began to form on the screen. First as a wireframe outline, soon followed by color and texture, until finally, the entirety of the academy lay before them.
"Alright, Guiche," Tommy began, "Show Alpha where Katie's room is on the map."
"Incredible..." Guiche muttered before catching himself and pointing at the map, "What I mean to say is that her room is right there."
The map then zoomed in on the third floor of one of the academy's towers, a tower that just so happened to be right above and beside the workshop.
"Well at least she's close by," Tommy said.
The map then zoomed further, revealing the interior of the room, yet no one seemed to be home.
"That isn't right, students should be in their rooms at this time of night," Jean said, his confusion evident.
"Then let's see where she is," Tommy replied, "Guiche, can you describe to Alpha what Katie looks like?"
"Of course," Guiche began, "She is roughly the same height as Montmorency, with long, brown hair, violet eyes, and she wears the brown cape that all first years wear."
"Searching, searching... Ay yi yi, we have a match!" Alpha exclaimed.
As the image materialized, they found the young woman in question sitting at a wooden table with a large stack of books, surrounded by large shelves filled with more books and flipping through pages at a brisk pace.
"That's it, that's her!" Guiche declared, clearly relieved at the sight.
"That's the library," Jean began, his confusion intensified, "Students aren't permitted in there at this hour. How could she have gotten past the librarian?"
"Let's go find out," Tommy declared, "Alpha, can you teleport us there?"
"Of course, it's ready when you are."
"You both are going to want to brace yourselves," Tommy warned his compatriots, "Hit it, Alpha."
In a flash of light and a surge of energy, their surroundings changed. Gone was the shack and instead, they found themselves among countless books... and an unoccupied table, with one book still open in front of a chair that looked like it had been hurriedly pushed aside.
"You were right, that was disorienting," Jean complained as he leaned against the table, "Hold on, where is Miss Lotte?"
"Katie?" Guiche called out.
"Alpha, what happened?" Tommy said into his communicator, "Where did she go?"
"I... I don't know!" Alpha replied, "She was there one moment, then there was a brief flash of static and now she's gone!"
"Do you think there was a delay in what the map was showing?"
"I'll look into it, but I am certain that it was a one-to-one feed."
"Madame Ducharme?" Jean called out, walking around some of the bookshelves "Are you... Abigail!"
Tommy and Guiche immediately followed, only to find an older woman slumped over a desk. To her side was what looked to be a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits. Jean was in the process of checking her vitals, only to sigh in relief.
"She's alive," he said, then began to tap her cheeks to rouse her, "Abigail? Abigail, it's Colbert. You need to wake up."
Yet his attempts failed to wake her. Tommy leaned down to look at the tea and biscuits, and a dreadful idea came to him.
"I think she's been drugged," he said grimly.
"Drugged? Do you mean she might have been poisoned?" Jean asked, before also looking at the food before them.
"There has to be some other explanation, Katie would never do this," Guiche protested, "But then... she is fond of cooking and baking..."
"We'll find out what's going on, Guiche," Tommy said.
He then walked back to the table in the hopes that what Katie had been reading would shed some light on what's been happening, only to find some of the books suddenly missing.
"Guiche, Jean, get over here," he called out.
"What's wrong?" Jean asked as he and Guiche rounded the corner.
"Some of the books that were here when we arrived are gone now."
"But how could that be possible?" Jean asked, "Unless..."
"Katie is still here?" Guiche suggested.
Suddenly, a loud bang echoed through the room. The three rushed toward the sound, only to find the door of the library slowly swinging closed as if it had been wrenched open in a hurry. They pulled the door open and peered down the dark hallway, but saw nothing.
"Derflinger, did you see anything?" Tommy asked.
"Sorry, Partner," the sword replied, "Either she figured out how to become invisible or she's just really good at hiding behind bookshelves because I saw nothing."
"Should we go after her?" Guiche asked.
"Assuming it even is Katie who's responsible for this, it's a big castle and she could be hiding anywhere by now," Tommy replied, "I'll have Alpha keep an eye out for her, but right now our top priority is making sure the librarian is okay."
As they returned to the unconscious woman, Tommy grimaced at the situation. Things were so much easier when a giant monster was involved, at least then he wouldn't be feeling so powerless.
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
For Power Rangers invisibility comes mostly from Wacky Shenanigans with a very flimsy Watsonian explanation and a Doylist explanation relating to actors not being able to be on set but being able to do some voice work remotely
Part Eighteen: Matters Of Trust
"This is quite troubling," Headmaster Osmand said as he stroked his long beard.
The atmosphere of the academy infirmary was tense as the three men stood back while the matron examined the unconscious librarian, Guche having been sent to bed soon after they had brought her there. Tommy's mind was racing as he tried to find an answer to all of this. As much as he wanted to take Guiche's word that Katie wasn't behind this, not to mention wanting to believe the best of her in general despite only ever seeing her a few times from a distance, the evidence they currently had all pointed to her. What puzzled him the most was her disappearing act that could hide her from their sensors. It was then that the matron approached.
"Headmaster, Professor, I have discovered what has befallen Madame Ducharme," she began, holding up a vial, "She has been dosed with plant extracts that are normally used to alleviate pain, one that we have a stock of for any ailments among the students or faculty. Your hypothesis was also correct, it was indeed fed to her in the tea and biscuits. However..."
"However?" Osmand asked.
"I am unsure how but the extract she was given was far more refined than I have seen before, I am at a loss as to where or how anyone could obtain something like that. Moreover, it would seem that she has been dosed with this multiple times before."
"Can anything be done to help her?"
"I have already given her a potion that should revive her, but I am unsure how long that might take given the unusual circumstances."
As if on cue, the sound of coughing then reached their ears. They turned to find the librarian was already awake and made their way closer.
"Madame Ducharme?" the headmaster asked.
"Agh, my head..." she groaned, "Where am... Headmaster? Professor? W-what am I doing in the infirmary?"
"We found you unconscious at your desk," Jean began, "It would seem that someone had poisoned you."
"Poison? Rubbish, who would do such a thing?" she asked.
"We believe this to be the source," the matron said, holding up a tray that contained the tea and biscuits.
"No, that's not possible."
"How so, Abigail?" Osmand asked.
"The Lotte girl would never do such a thing," Ducharme protested, "She has been the sweetest first year I had ever met in my time as librarian of this institution. She often brings me tea and biscuits, freshly baked and brewed by her own hands. She has quite the talent for it, so good that I would find myself dozing off at my desk only to wake a few hours later."
"That is usually the effect of the extract that I found," the matron explained.
"Rubbish, I say. What reason could such a darling child have to do such a thing?"
"I'm afraid we don't know yet," Jean said, "During the time that Miss Lotte has been bringing you refreshments, have you noticed any books missing from the library?"
"Now that you mention it... Yes, yes, some had gone missing."
"Why did you fail to report this?" Osmand asked.
"In truth, I assumed that I had misplaced them while sorting the inventory and figured that they would turn up again."
"Do you recall the contents of those books?"
"They were texts on rather advanced forms of magic, only really useful for theoretical study."
"I see. Thank you for your time, Madame Ducharme. We shall leave you to recuperate."
"Don't you go haranguing the Lotte girl or I'll have to do some haranguing myself!"
"I have no doubt that you would, Abigail," Osmand replied with a friendly chuckle.
As the three men left the infirmary, doubt had begun to form in Tommy's mind. He didn't want to believe that Katie had done this, but the victim pointed her out as the culprit, unintentional as it was. But they couldn't just go around hunting her down on this alone, they needed more information before they could come to any concrete conclusions. His mind wandered back to whatever it was that made Katie invisible, that had to be significant. It was either some kind of magic, or...
"Headmaster, I have an odd request," Tommy began.
"I'm listening," Osmand replied.
"Could we use your magic mirror to try to find Katie?"
"Didn't you say that you were able to locate her on your own?"
"We were, until we weren't. Something is blocking us from seeing her and I was wondering if your mirror could get around it or if it might be affected too."
"An interesting proposition, I see no harm in testing this hypothesis."
They made their way to the headmaster's office and in moments stood before the mirror. Osmand raised a hand and waved it, the reflection in the glass beginning to ripple and shift. As it settled back into place, they looked into a rather dark room, barely bright enough to make out the form of Katie, once more quickly turning pages in a book while surrounded by what looked like crates.
"That's the dungeon," Jean said, "How could she have gotten in there?"
"You have a dungeon here?" Tommy asked.
"As I said during our last conversation, Doctor Oliver," Osmand began, "This was not always a place of education. The dungeon you see has not been used for its original purpose for some time. We mostly use it for storage."
"We can see her, so let's put this to the test," Tommy said and then activated his communicator, "Alpha, can you bring up live footage of the dungeons of the academy and tell me what you see?"
"I can see a dark room filled with crates, why do you ask?" Alpha replied.
"We're using the headmaster's magic mirror to search for Katie and we're looking right at her. It seems like whatever she's using can hide her from technological surveillance but not magical."
"...I'll get back to you, I have a hypothesis to test."
"I hope he doesn't take too long," Osmand said.
"Knowing him, he'll be back in a few minutes," Tommy replied.
As they continued to watch the mirror, a look of surprise appeared on Katie's face and she immediately ran from her hiding spot.
"What happened? Where is she going?" Jean asked.
"Where she's going, I don't know," Tommy replied, "But she can't go very far and we'll always be able to track her within the academy. But I have a suspicion about what caused her to move."
A moment later, a flash of light briefly illuminated the office and then faded to reveal Alpha, holding a tablet.
"What did you find?" Tommy asked.
"I ran some diagnostics on the system and look what I found," Alpha replied as he handed over the tablet.
"Faint electromagnetic interference?" Tommy asked as he read through the report.
"I figured it was a possibility when you said she was hiding from electronic surveillance."
"Good work, pal. Now our next step is to sweep the workshop for any listening devices."
"You think she's been listening to us?" Jean asked.
"She knew to hide right before we teleported into the library, and just now she fled right after we told Alpha we could see her," Tommy explained.
"What do we do now?"
"We wait and keep an eye out for her."
"After she has already poisoned someone?" Osmand asked.
"We still don't know why she's doing all of this," Tommy explained, "This kind of technology isn't something that can be found at a local shop, she must be getting it from someone who knows how it works."
"Or she could be a once-in-a-generation genius who made it herself," Alpha countered.
"It's possible but not likely, even geniuses need infrastructure to work from and I don't think she has any fabrication equipment hiding under her bed. Plus, it still doesn't explain her motivation."
"Do you think Reconquista might be behind this?" Jean asked.
"After what we saw in Albion, it's likely," Tommy began, "The princess did say that Reconquista might have infiltrated the country. For all we know, they're threatening Katie's family to force her to do this. If we act too soon, they could end up hurt. We know that keeping up appearances is an important factor since she's been showing up to class this whole time, so it's unlikely she'll flee the school."
"If this is so, then what could Reconquista be after in our library?" Osmand asked, "Without the missing books, we can't know what to look for."
"Maybe it's not even something specific," Tommy said, "If this academy is as prestigious as everyone says, then they're probably looking for anything that could be remotely rare or powerful. And what better way to do it than to use one of the students?"
"Then it appears we are at an impasse, at least until we learn more." Osmand declared.
"At least we can be on the lookout for future suspicious activity," Jean replied.
"Ay yi yi, now we need to add EM shielding to the to-do list..." Alpha added.
"Don't worry, I'll get you the components," Tommy said.
As they left the headmaster's office, discussing possible strategies as they went, Tommy wondered what they could be missing from this situation. At this point, all they could do was wait.
Louise awoke to pain, every muscle in her body sore from the previous day's exertions. This was what she wanted, she was warned that this was how it was going to be, but she still wished it hurt less. As she rose to get dressed for the day, she recalled the tasks that she had been given, and so began her new daily routine. As she expected, she could barely do two of any of the exercises that she had been given. The push-ups resulted in her once more face down on the floor, and the sit-ups left her feeling like a fish that had been left to flop around on the ground. But by far the worst was the squats, her legs practically screamed at her to stop each time she crouched and stood again. But Tommy had said it would get easier with time, and she had no reason to doubt him given his own physical expertise.
As she finished the last of her exercise attempts, she took a moment to catch her breath before she resumed putting on her uniform and proceeded down to breakfast. As she entered the dining hall, she found that it was flush with her schoolmates gossiping. She walked past, searching for a space at one of the long tables, and all the while she caught snippets of what held their attention. Something about an attack in the library, how the librarian was bedridden in the infirmary, and that the library was off-limits until further notice.
If it weren't for the things she'd lived through recently, she'd immediately assume it was all nonsense. But it seemed that such things had become a normal occurrence. She would have to ask Tommy about it once classes had finished for the day, as chances were that he was somehow involved. She then recalled what he had told her some weeks ago, of how such madness was attracted to him. She supposed she believed him now.
It then occurred to her that she didn't have to wait for classes to be over to speak with Tommy, she still had that bracelet that he had given her, the one that could communicate across distances. But she had left it in her room, and she wasn't going to have time to retrieve it without being late for class. She would just have to make a detour during the lunch period to get it. With her plan in place, she finished her breakfast and went off to the first class of the day.
Much to her annoyance, however, the first class required practice partners. As she sat in her seat, enduring the laughter from her classmates as they all paired up, she told herself that this would all be over soon enough, just as it was every day. Every Founder-forsaken day. And then, much to her mounting irritation, Kirche sat next to her.
"What do you want, Zerbst?" Louise asked through gritted teeth.
"We're supposed to pair up for the lesson, aren't we?" she replied with a smug smile.
"We both know that you never do anything if it doesn't benefit you," Louise retorted.
"True, but surely this does benefit me," Kirche replied, her smile growing wider, "After all, exercise benefits everyone."
"What?"
"That is why we're here after all, to receive training in our magic?"
"Why are you saying it like that?"
"Because I saw what you were doing yesterday!" Kirche exclaimed before devolving into uproarious laughter, drawing looks from their classmates.
Louise's face burned at the realization that she had been seen. She should have known that they were still visible to all of the windows of the academy! It must have been sheer luck that only Kirche had seen her, or else everyone would be making fun of her by now.
"Your familiar must have been disappointed with how little you did in Albion if he's making you train like a peasant," Kirche said.
"He's not making me do anything," Louise bit back, "I asked him to train me."
This only caused Kirche to laugh harder, and Louise's embarrassment turned to anger.
"It's not like I'm seeing you try to do anything worthwhile," Louise spat.
"Why should I try when I can already do everything I need?"
"You really don't get it, do you? All you do is coast by on your talent and appearance, while I've spent a significant portion of my life working only to get nowhere. Well, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of you. I'm tired of always being useless and being looked down upon for it, so if this is the only way that can be something then so be it, my pride be damned."
"Don't act as if you're blameless in all of this," Kirche retorted with a glare.
"Are you suggesting it's my fault that you all ridicule me for something beyond my control?"
"You know what I'm talking about. You act like some poor, helpless victim but you give just as many insults as you get. You act like you're better than everyone else but you're nothing but a stuck-up little bitch."
"I am better than everyone else," Louise ground out, "I'm better because I'm the only one here putting in any effort. While all of you idle away your time, I have to struggle because I actually have something to lose."
"Oh yes, your precious family pride, so important that you'd spit in the face of the one person who actually wanted to be your friend."
"At least my family wants something from me."
Kirche merely glared at Louise before walking back to her previous seat. What did she know? What did any of them know? They all had it easy, they could afford to waste their time. Louise sat and ruminated through the rest of the class until the time came for her to go to the next. Hours passed until the lunch period arrived, and Louise set her plan into motion. She made her way to her room and there upon her table sat the bracelet she had been given. She recalled Tommy had told her to press down on the jewel and speak his name into it and she did so, but nothing happened. She tried again, this time calling for Alpha, yet there was no response. Were they away somewhere? Surely not, as Tommy always had his bracelet on him and he could use it anywhere. Was her bracelet broken somehow?
Either way, it didn't matter. Her plan had failed and she wasted some of her meal time. She would just have to wait until the end of the day to go and look for them. As the final class of the day let out, Louise made her way to the dining hall and sat down to enjoy a proper meal now that she had time, one that wasn't left half-eaten in her rush not to be late. She then walked to Professor Colbert's workshop, the sun having very nearly set. She knocked upon the door and was greeted by Tommy.
"Hey, Louise," he began, "Come on in."
She followed him inside and found that the place had become an absolute mess, more than usual, at any rate. On the left, the various devices that had been set up by Tommy were now in pieces with Alpha intently examining them. On the right, a multitude of boxes that had once sat neatly upon shelves were now strewn about, and Professor Colbert stood on a step ladder examining the now empty shelves.
"How were your classes?" Tommy asked as if oblivious to the chaos unfolding around them.
"They were fine?" Louise said, "Never mind that, what is going on here? I tried to contact you earlier with the bracelet but you wouldn't answer."
"Oh, sorry about that," he said before nodding in Alpha's direction, "The terminal needed maintenance so we had to shut it down."
"Did the maintenance require that you take everything else apart as well?"
"That, uh..." Tommy began, then looked over his shoulder, "I'll explain outside."
He then walked out the door and Louise followed in utter confusion. What was going on that had him acting like this? What kind of explanation required they be outside?
"So here's the thing," Tommy began once they were a fair distance away, "We believe that someone has put listening devices in the workshop and we're trying to find them, if they're even there. We think someone is spying on us."
"Who could possibly do that?" Louise asked, now more confused than ever, "Why would they do that?"
"You know that Katie girl that Guiche and Montmorency have been looking for?"
"You think she's behind this?" Louise asked incredulously.
Tommy then explained everything that had happened the previous night, of how they found Katie in the library after hours, how she somehow knew they were coming, and how they found the librarian had been poisoned.
"So the rumors about the library were true," she began, "That's what I tried to contact you about, I figured that you might be involved. But why Katie, and how? The only ones that know how any of these things work are you and Alpha."
"And Reconquista," Tommy replied grimly.
Louise recalled those horrendous cannons that had nearly blasted them out of the air and devastated New Castle. She recalled almost falling to her demise, she recalled being unable to move because of...
"Louise?"
She looked up and saw Tommy looking intently at her, concern clear on his face.
"I'm f-fine..." she said as she tried to shake off the memories.
"If you need to talk about it, I'm always free to listen."
"It is appreciated, but... Never mind that, why would Katie work for Reconquista?"
"Our current theory is that they're threatening her family to force her compliance, we'll be keeping an eye on her until we can learn more."
"And if her treason is genuine?"
"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it."
Louise's thoughts roiled at this new information. Another traitor in their midst, and she was once more powerless to do anything about it. Even if Tommy was keeping an eye on the situation, action still needed to be taken, this could not go on.
The midday sun shone down upon the Tristain Academy of Magic as two figures walked across one of the courtyards to their destination, an out-of-the-way corner rarely frequented by the students.
"Must I do this?" Guiche asked, "I wasn't the one who tripped the maid."
"But it was done for your benefit," Tommy replies, "And you said that this wasn't the first time you and your friends had done this. You know that it was wrong, so now you need to make amends."
"I suppose..."
As they rounded the corner, the people they intended to meet came into view. Marteau stood firm, his broad shoulders squared and arms crossed, a look of skepticism on his face. Tommy couldn't blame the man, not after the abuse he and the other servants had to endure. To Marteau's left was Siesta, her expression wary at first but she became relieved as they came into view, and to his right was who Tommy assumed to be the maid that Guiche and his friends had wronged. She was a young woman around the same age as Siesta, with brown hair tied in a braid and looking like she wished she was anywhere else.
Tommy and Guiche came to a stop a short distance away, and the young man took a moment to compose himself before stepping forward. He hoped that Guiche would learn from this like he'd been learning from everything else lately, he needed to understand the true values of others.
"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting," Guiche began, "I wish to offer my apologies for the treatment you received the other night, and for any times before that."
Marteau remained impassive as one moment became two, causing Guiche to fidget nervously as he waited. The head chef then turned to the maid at his right and gave her a nod. She stepped forward, her own nervousness clear as day.
"T-the offer is appreciated, m'lord," she began, unsure whether or not to avert her gaze, "B-but it is not necessary."
"I insist," Guiche replied, "I have come to understand that such actions are unbecoming and that you are as much a person as anyone else. As such, on behalf of myself and my friends, I apologize for our actions."
Guiche then bowed deeply, eliciting looks of surprise from the rest of the gathering. Tommy hadn't expected that from such a prideful young man, he didn't understand much of the dynamics of nobility, but even he recognized this for the big deal that it was. The events of Albion must have affected Guiche more than he realized.
"T-thank you, m'lord," the maid replied and nervously bowed in return.
As the two straightened, the maid looked toward Marteau who gave her a nod and she proceeded to leave.
"You can head back too, Guiche," Tommy said.
As Guiche walked away, Marteau stepped forward and gave Tommy an appraising look.
"I never thought I'd see the day," he began, "But one apology isn't going to make up for years of abuse."
"I didn't think it would," Tommy replied, "But change has to start somewhere."
"Fair. Now if you can get all of them to start acting like that, then I'd be mighty impressed. Come on, Siesta."
"Actually, there's something I wanted to talk with Siesta about."
"Alright, but don't take too long."
"What did you wish to speak about, Uncle?" Siesta asked as Marteau began to walk away.
"First, I wanted to thank you for helping to set this meeting up," Tommy began, "It was something that Guiche needed, in multiple ways."
"It was no trouble at all, and it was worth it just to see a noble bow to a commoner."
"That caught me off guard too. The second thing is that I wanted to ask if you'd be interested in helping with Louise's training."
"You think I'd be able to help with that?" Siesta asked.
"Of course, you've certainly got the skills for it," Tommy replied, "The fact is that there might be times when I can't be here to oversee her training and she'll need someone to help her keep up with things, plus she's going to need a proper training partner once she advances far enough."
"I see. To tell the truth, I do have experience helping my younger siblings and cousins with their training, so I suppose I should be able to help with Miss Valliere. Though I'm unsure when I'd have the time what with work and all."
"I can ask the headmaster if you can have time off on the Day of Void."
"If you can then I would be happy to help. I would certainly enjoy a moment away from scrubbing pots."
As they left the area, they spoke of potential ideas to help Louise improve, as well as their own training experiences.
The Day of Void came once more and Louise woke with a vigor she scarcely recalled having before. It was more than just her anticipation for the day's training, but she could not find the words to describe such a sensation. She had been so wrapped up in trying to understand this sudden and new positivity that she had not realized until she finished her assigned exercises that she finally completed five of each. She looked at herself in her mirror and couldn't help but smile, she was genuinely making progress. It was then that she knew what this feeling was: pride. Genuine pride in herself, something that it would seem she had almost forgotten in all of the bravado she put on to cover her insecurities. But no more, she would make sure to never forget again, she would earn this pride no matter what it took.
And so Louise found herself standing beneath the tree where she began her training, one hand propped against it as she tried to balance on one foot. Balance and breathing, the foundations of all martial arts, Tommy had said. It was easier said than done, as she had not done something like this since she was a child. To make matters worse, Tommy had added an 'incentive' that if she fell, she would have to perform an exercise of his choosing. Though she understood that it would ultimately help her, the thought of more of the dreaded squats pushed her to get this right.
As she finally began to find her balance, she did as she had been instructed and closed her eyes, emptied her mind, and focused only on her breathing. All was quiet around her, save for the sound of a minor breeze, the occasional bird, and her own breathing. It was quite relaxing, enough that she felt confident she could remove her hand from the tree and maintain her balance. Slowly, she lifted her palm away, then her smallest finger, then her ring finger...
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
Just as Louise was about to lift her hand completely, the sound of an all-too-familiar voice caused her to lose focus, and she immediately fell to the ground. Her face burned as she stood, embarrassment and anger equally swirling in her chest as she saw Kirche walking toward them.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded before turning to Tommy, "What is she doing here?"
"I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about," Kirche replied with a smirk, "If you could do this then surely anyone could. And that outfit? It suits you perfectly."
"If all you're going to do here is make snide remarks," Tommy began as he closed his book and rose from his spot by the tree, "Then I will kindly ask you to leave. But if you're serious about joining us, then we can arrange something."
"What?!" Louise shouted at him, "Are you out of your mind?!"
"Let's speak in private, Louise," Tommy said and began to walk.
Louise followed and hoped he had a good explanation. What could he even be thinking by offering for Kirche to join them? They came to a stop out of earshot of Kirche and Louise merely looked at Tommy and waited for an answer.
"I think that her being here could be beneficial to you," Tommy began.
"You can't be serious," Louise retorted, "How could there be any benefit to her being around while I train?"
"I saw how you fell the second you heard her voice, so her being here could help you improve your focus."
"How am I supposed to focus if she's just going to taunt me the entire time?"
"If you can't stay focused in the face of her taunts, then how do you expect to focus when someone is trying to stab you?"
"That's a completely different situation!" Louise protested.
"Yes, one that's infinitely worse and with a worse outcome if you lose focus. Compared to that, do schoolyard taunts really sound as awful?"
"No, but..."
"Think of it like this: if you can learn to tune her out here, you'll be able to tune her out anywhere. You won't have to deal with her or anyone else tormenting you."
"I suppose that makes sense..."
"Here's what we'll do: we give her the option to join us. If she accepts, we put her through the same tests that you did. If she becomes discouraged from them, she won't come back. And if she refuses the offer, she leaves anyway."
"But if she accepts and the tests don't drive her off, then I have to put up with her."
"It'll be no different from all of the training you've done so far, a little bit of pain now means a lot of benefit later. No matter what happens, you stand to gain from the results."
"...Fine."
They marched back to where Kirche stood, Louise dreading what was to come. Even if he did make some sound arguments, she still thought Tommy was out of his mind.
"Here's the deal," Tommy began as they approached Kirche, "If you're going to join us, you'll need to perform a few test exercises so that I can know how best to train you. Does that sound fair?"
"A few measly little exercises?" Kirche replied, "This will be as easy as casting a minor cantrip. For most people, at least."
"Zerbst..." Louise ground out, already regretting everything.
"To begin, I want you to run from one of those sticks in the ground to the other and back as many times as you can," Tommy ordered, "And as for you, Louise, that will be five push-ups."
"What did I do?" Louise protested.
"You fell down, remember?"
Louise grumbled under her breath as she made her way back to the tree and got into position. It wasn't even her fault that she fell, Kirche just had to go and open her mouth. She probably did it intentionally too, just waited for the right moment to humiliate her. As she worked through the push-ups that she had been assigned, Louise looked up and saw Kirche struggling just as she had and a small smile came to her face. This might not be as bad as she thought.
As she finished her push-ups, Louise stood and returned to her spot under the tree and resumed her balance practice. She focused once more on her breathing, her mind clear, with nothing but the sound of the wind, birds, and Kirche's misery to keep her company. She made her attempt once more, slowly removing her hand from the tree as she adjusted her balance. As she lifted the last of her fingers, she stood for one second, then two, then three, only for a slight tremor in her leg to unbalance her, and she had to place her hand back on the tree. Though she was disappointed that it hadn't lasted longer, three seconds was still a good start, in her opinion.
She continued her attempts until Tommy brought the training session to an end. As Louise grabbed a towel and a bottle of water, she watched as Kirche slowly made her way back to the castle, the sight of her nemesis exhausted and drenched in sweat was the best way to end the day.
"You did pretty well today," Tommy began.
"It was certainly much easier than everything else you've had me doing," Louise replied.
"Taking time to do something easier is important," he explained, "That way you don't overwork yourself to the point of getting hurt. It's why you do your daily exercises when you wake up and go to bed, so that you can recover while you're in class and while you sleep."
His logic was sound, as it frequently was. Louise was a little annoyed at how easy it had become for him to convince her of things, though she supposed that came with age and experience.
"By the way, we have another mission coming up in a few days," he said.
"Have you been in contact with the princess?" Louise asked, "And you never thought to inform me?"
"You needed time to recover from the last mission and to catch up on the classes that you missed," Tommy explained, "Putting all of this on you so soon wouldn't have done you any good."
"I think I know what's good for me more than you," Louise retorted.
"We've already been over this, your focus should be on your education. You shouldn't even be involved in any of this but circumstances have been beyond our control. No one at your age should have the weight of the world on their shoulders, I would know."
"What kind of a mission is it?" Louise asked, still irritated.
"Thankfully nowhere near as long as the last one, only a couple of hours at maximum. We'll go over everything in detail when we meet with the princess the day before."
As they teleported back to the castle, Louise fumed at the impudence she had been shown. She was involved in all of this just as much as he was, if not more. It was her country that was at risk, possibly even her entire world. She had every right to be informed of what had been happening. However... She supposed she appreciated that he cared enough to give her time to rest...
As she changed back into her uniform and made to go to dinner, she began to wonder just what kind of mission they were being assigned.
One of the things that Tommy had learned in his time working with cutting-edge technology was that the same meditations he had learned from years of martial arts training also applied to mechanical maintenance. So many tiny, precise components that required a steady hand to repair them, where one mistake could ruin the whole thing, and then having to repeat the same process over and over, was a lot like maintaining focus while trying to do a hundred one-handed push-ups. The trick was in learning to divide one's focus so that the monotonous task at hand didn't become overwhelming.
So there he was, wrist-deep in Alpha's chest cavity, performing some maintenance that he had requested. Mostly it consisted of checking component integrity and making adjustments to any fastenings that might have loosened over time, but Alpha had insisted he check for listening devices as well. Tommy had insisted that there was no way that anyone could get close enough to plant a bug in him, but the android wouldn't budge on the matter. After all, someone was getting close enough to spy on them, and his predecessors had been sabotaged before, something that Tommy still felt guilty about all these years later.
As he shone the penlight over Alpha's internals, double-checking his work and making sure that everything matched the schematics that Alpha had given him to reference, he heard the door of the workshop open and looked up to find Jean walking through.
"Oh my!" Jean exclaimed as he witnessed the sight before him, "What... exactly are you doing?"
"Alpha asked me to do some maintenance on him," Tommy replied and patted the deactivated yet still-standing robot on the shoulder.
"Oh, I do suppose that makes sense," Jean admitted, "Pardon my astonishment, but it does look rather gruesome from a distance."
"I don't blame you, it took me and the rest of my old team a while to get used to the idea since Alpha acts so human and we know him so well."
As Jean closed the door behind him, Tommy made one last pass over his work before grabbing Alpha's back plate and reattaching it. He then pressed the power switch and all of the lights in Alpha's body flared to life.
"How are you feeling, pal?" Tommy asked.
"Much better, thank you," Alpha replied, "You even managed to get that one loose cable link in the far corner that's been bothering me. And you're certain there was no evidence of tampering?"
"I triple-checked everything, there wasn't a single thing that shouldn't be there," Tommy reassured.
"What's this about tampering?" Jean asked.
"I was worried that if our mystery spy was getting close enough to listen to us without our notice, then they could do something to me as well," Alpha explained.
"I'm glad that you're well, but I'm now more worried as to how Miss Lotte has been listening to us," Jean said, "We found nothing out of place both in or around the workshop."
"The only place we haven't checked yet is her room," Tommy began, "Which is right above us. Alpha, can you pull up the live feed of her room again?"
"I must confess that I am becoming concerned with these cavaliere invasions of privacy," Jean protested.
"Believe me, I wouldn't even consider doing this if the circumstances were different," Tommy replied, "Besides, is it much different from how the headmaster uses his mirror?"
"No, it isn't, and I dislike it when he does it as well."
"The feed is ready," Alpha announced.
The three peered through the screen, only to find an unoccupied room like last time.
"No one's home, so Katie is either cloaked again or she's on another late-night excursion," Tommy began, "But for now that's not what we're looking for. Start sweeping for anything out of place."
"I'm on it, Tommy," Alpha replied.
The feed panned over the entire space, moving from corner to corner, checking under her bed, and even around the small kitchen and wash basin that were set up in there. Guiche was right, she must really like to cook. Yet despite their thorough search, everything was what you'd expect from a teenage girl's room.
"I don't understand," Jean began, "If this device isn't here then where could it be?"
"She must keep it on herself at all times then," Tommy replied, "She heard us in both the library and the dungeon. But if there isn't a second part that's transmitting sound to her, then her listening device must be more powerful than we thought if it can listen to everything within such a wide radius."
"And if Reconquista gave such a powerful device to her, then they must have more."
"Which means we're in more trouble than we thought. Keep searching just in case, Alpha."
"You got it, Tommy."
Tommy and Jean walked back to the table and sat down, their minds now occupied with more problems. He knew one thing for certain, though: they needed to find and stop Reconquista's supplier before it was too late.
"I don't mean to constantly badger you with my concerns," Jean began, "But are you now starting to train Miss Zerbst? Louise and Guiche are one thing, given the circumstances, but this? Have you forgotten the deal we made?"
"In my defense, I haven't had time to go scouting for alternative Ranger candidates," Tommy replied, "And we need to evaluate if Kirche has the right qualities beyond my initial encounters with her. Plus, this could be good for her and Louise."
"They're already at each other's throats most of the time, I don't see how making them spend more time together will make things better," Jean countered.
"The way I understand it, most of their conflict comes from the disparities between them," Tommy explained, "So putting them on an even playing field for once could help them start to see eye-to-eye. Even if neither becomes a Ranger, they still need to learn to put their issues with each other to rest or else it could destroy them."
"Be that as it may, is it necessary to be so deceptive about it?" Jean asked.
"I've known plenty of kids like them and I can guess that you have too. They're too stubborn to listen to words, so they need to see it with their own eyes before they can understand."
"I often wish that teaching didn't require being so... underhanded, at times," Jean lamented, "What of your other upcoming project? You're certainly taking a much bigger risk with it."
"It's a confrontation that was going to happen sooner or later," Tommy explained, "Better to have it happen now when we can control it, rather than later where it could blow up in our faces."
"But to use an infamous thief and an elf as the examples?"
"The Power Rangers protect everyone," Tommy declared, "If the prince and princess are going to work with us, they will need to confront their prejudices."
"And what of those children? You're willing to put them in the line of fire?"
"They've been in the line of fire long before I got here. I'm taking them out of it and giving them a better home. I might not have known the prince and princess for long, but I can tell they're compassionate enough not to let fear control them. And if not, then they're at least smart enough not to try anything while I'm there, or ever."
"This seems to stem from more than just a sense of duty."
"That's because I have friends and family who are all part of groups that have been oppressed and otherwise prejudiced against throughout history. I'd do everything I can for them, so I'll do the same for this elf girl who lost everything just because she exists."
"But you don't know our history with the elves."
"Do I need to? From what I've heard, it all sounds pretty similar to what happened in Earth's past. I won't judge her and leave her out in the cold just because her ancestors and yours fought over something probably stupid."
"I agree with you, but you are getting involved with people who have far more political power than I do, and they might not take kindly to this. You might be able to withstand the consequences, but what of the rest of us? What of this academy? What happens if they decide to attack us if they can't attack you?"
"The headmaster asked me all of this a few weeks ago, so I'll repeat what I've told both you and Louise: anyone who tries to attack this place will have to go through me, and no one gets through me."
"Then the headmaster was right, you are reckless in your righteousness," Jean said as he shook his head in disbelief, "You are willing to go to war with heads of state over the fate of those who are otherwise considered worthless or worse."
"Then it's par for the course, most of my enemies were self-styled royalty who also thought they could abuse anyone they pleased."
"I'm starting to think that power of yours is affecting your judgment."
"If I don't use this power to make things better for people who need it, then what good is it?"
Silence fell between the pair as the words sank in. Maybe Jean was right, maybe he was getting reckless. Maybe this stupid midlife crisis was affecting him more than he thought. But what else was he supposed to do, just let so many people suffer? He had the power to make a difference, someone has to care about the people that no one else will care about.
"I'm sorry that so many of our conversations end up like this," Jean lamented.
"Don't be," Tommy replied, "Your concerns are valid, and I appreciate your insights in all of this. You know more about how things work around here than I do, it's why I trust you to work with me on all of this."
"I just wish that you would consider less drastic courses of action. Why must Louise be involved in this?"
"For the same reason as the prince and princess, she needs to confront her prejudices."
"You don't intend to do this with everyone, do you?"
"Not everyone, just the ones that can influence change for the better."
"And what of this... deal you've made with Fouquet? Especially after what she did to all of us? This could be some trick. To think, I had actually considered courting her."
"You never mentioned being attracted to her," Tommy said with a sly grin.
"Don't change the subject," Jean replied, blushing in embarrassment.
"Okay, fine," Tommy acquiesced, "I don't fully trust her, but someone who did all that she did just to take care of her sister and some orphans can't be as bad as everyone thinks. Plus she did help us get to Albion at great risk to herself so I kind of owe her. And the worst that she did to us was under the influence of dark magic, something that I know too well."
"Your ability to sympathize and empathize with those that society would reject is commendable, but you really should be more discerning in who you connect with."
"Yeah, I had to learn that the hard way..."
"I don't mean to interrupt," Alpha began as he walked over to them, "But I've searched as much as I could, Katie's room is spotless. I even checked all of the places we know that she's frequented recently, and there's no sign of anything more advanced than what's already there. I also took the liberty to search for the missing books as well but those haven't materialized either. Although..."
"What are you thinking, Alpha?" Tommy asked.
"I think her room might be too spotless, come take a look."
They got up and walked to the terminal, the image of Katie's room still where they had left it.
"Look at the bed specifically," Alpha said as he zoomed in the image, "What do you see?"
"It looks to be a normally made bed to me," Jean began, "But now that I look at it, I don't know any other way to describe it but it looks like it hasn't been unmade in some time."
"You both think that she hasn't been sleeping in her bed?" Tommy asked as he looked over the image.
"Exactly," Alpha confirmed, "Now the question is where has she been sleeping."
As this new confusing information joined the rest that swirled in his mind, a thought occurred to Tommy. A dark thought, one that he wished was completely unfounded, yet started to make more sense the more he put things together.
"Jean, do you remember what I told you about the orcs and troll we fought in Albion?" he slowly asked, his dread growing with each word.
"The ones that had things implanted in their heads? What does... No, you can't possibly be suggesting..."
"I don't want to believe it either, but the more we learn about this mystery, the more it starts to make sense. Katie has access to advanced technology that we can't seem to find, technology we think she got from Reconquista. And if they can put cybernetic implants into orcs and trolls, why not humans?"
"Then... what do we do?" Jean asked, clearly disturbed by this theory.
"We keep investigating, try to find any answers that explain all of this before we accept the worst conclusion," Tommy replied, "I'll ask Siesta in the morning if she could ask the other maids whether anyone has been able to get into Katie's room to clean."
"Right, I will... I will inform the headmaster of our findings," Jean replied.
"And I will keep scanning the castle for any anomalies," Alpha added.
As Tommy watched the screen shift through various locations in the castle, he hoped against hope that he was wrong.
The atmosphere of the academy infirmary was tense as the three men stood back while the matron examined the unconscious librarian, Guche having been sent to bed soon after they had brought her there. Tommy's mind was racing as he tried to find an answer to all of this. As much as he wanted to take Guiche's word that Katie wasn't behind this, not to mention wanting to believe the best of her in general despite only ever seeing her a few times from a distance, the evidence they currently had all pointed to her. What puzzled him the most was her disappearing act that could hide her from their sensors. It was then that the matron approached.
"Headmaster, Professor, I have discovered what has befallen Madame Ducharme," she began, holding up a vial, "She has been dosed with plant extracts that are normally used to alleviate pain, one that we have a stock of for any ailments among the students or faculty. Your hypothesis was also correct, it was indeed fed to her in the tea and biscuits. However..."
"However?" Osmand asked.
"I am unsure how but the extract she was given was far more refined than I have seen before, I am at a loss as to where or how anyone could obtain something like that. Moreover, it would seem that she has been dosed with this multiple times before."
"Can anything be done to help her?"
"I have already given her a potion that should revive her, but I am unsure how long that might take given the unusual circumstances."
As if on cue, the sound of coughing then reached their ears. They turned to find the librarian was already awake and made their way closer.
"Madame Ducharme?" the headmaster asked.
"Agh, my head..." she groaned, "Where am... Headmaster? Professor? W-what am I doing in the infirmary?"
"We found you unconscious at your desk," Jean began, "It would seem that someone had poisoned you."
"Poison? Rubbish, who would do such a thing?" she asked.
"We believe this to be the source," the matron said, holding up a tray that contained the tea and biscuits.
"No, that's not possible."
"How so, Abigail?" Osmand asked.
"The Lotte girl would never do such a thing," Ducharme protested, "She has been the sweetest first year I had ever met in my time as librarian of this institution. She often brings me tea and biscuits, freshly baked and brewed by her own hands. She has quite the talent for it, so good that I would find myself dozing off at my desk only to wake a few hours later."
"That is usually the effect of the extract that I found," the matron explained.
"Rubbish, I say. What reason could such a darling child have to do such a thing?"
"I'm afraid we don't know yet," Jean said, "During the time that Miss Lotte has been bringing you refreshments, have you noticed any books missing from the library?"
"Now that you mention it... Yes, yes, some had gone missing."
"Why did you fail to report this?" Osmand asked.
"In truth, I assumed that I had misplaced them while sorting the inventory and figured that they would turn up again."
"Do you recall the contents of those books?"
"They were texts on rather advanced forms of magic, only really useful for theoretical study."
"I see. Thank you for your time, Madame Ducharme. We shall leave you to recuperate."
"Don't you go haranguing the Lotte girl or I'll have to do some haranguing myself!"
"I have no doubt that you would, Abigail," Osmand replied with a friendly chuckle.
As the three men left the infirmary, doubt had begun to form in Tommy's mind. He didn't want to believe that Katie had done this, but the victim pointed her out as the culprit, unintentional as it was. But they couldn't just go around hunting her down on this alone, they needed more information before they could come to any concrete conclusions. His mind wandered back to whatever it was that made Katie invisible, that had to be significant. It was either some kind of magic, or...
"Headmaster, I have an odd request," Tommy began.
"I'm listening," Osmand replied.
"Could we use your magic mirror to try to find Katie?"
"Didn't you say that you were able to locate her on your own?"
"We were, until we weren't. Something is blocking us from seeing her and I was wondering if your mirror could get around it or if it might be affected too."
"An interesting proposition, I see no harm in testing this hypothesis."
They made their way to the headmaster's office and in moments stood before the mirror. Osmand raised a hand and waved it, the reflection in the glass beginning to ripple and shift. As it settled back into place, they looked into a rather dark room, barely bright enough to make out the form of Katie, once more quickly turning pages in a book while surrounded by what looked like crates.
"That's the dungeon," Jean said, "How could she have gotten in there?"
"You have a dungeon here?" Tommy asked.
"As I said during our last conversation, Doctor Oliver," Osmand began, "This was not always a place of education. The dungeon you see has not been used for its original purpose for some time. We mostly use it for storage."
"We can see her, so let's put this to the test," Tommy said and then activated his communicator, "Alpha, can you bring up live footage of the dungeons of the academy and tell me what you see?"
"I can see a dark room filled with crates, why do you ask?" Alpha replied.
"We're using the headmaster's magic mirror to search for Katie and we're looking right at her. It seems like whatever she's using can hide her from technological surveillance but not magical."
"...I'll get back to you, I have a hypothesis to test."
"I hope he doesn't take too long," Osmand said.
"Knowing him, he'll be back in a few minutes," Tommy replied.
As they continued to watch the mirror, a look of surprise appeared on Katie's face and she immediately ran from her hiding spot.
"What happened? Where is she going?" Jean asked.
"Where she's going, I don't know," Tommy replied, "But she can't go very far and we'll always be able to track her within the academy. But I have a suspicion about what caused her to move."
A moment later, a flash of light briefly illuminated the office and then faded to reveal Alpha, holding a tablet.
"What did you find?" Tommy asked.
"I ran some diagnostics on the system and look what I found," Alpha replied as he handed over the tablet.
"Faint electromagnetic interference?" Tommy asked as he read through the report.
"I figured it was a possibility when you said she was hiding from electronic surveillance."
"Good work, pal. Now our next step is to sweep the workshop for any listening devices."
"You think she's been listening to us?" Jean asked.
"She knew to hide right before we teleported into the library, and just now she fled right after we told Alpha we could see her," Tommy explained.
"What do we do now?"
"We wait and keep an eye out for her."
"After she has already poisoned someone?" Osmand asked.
"We still don't know why she's doing all of this," Tommy explained, "This kind of technology isn't something that can be found at a local shop, she must be getting it from someone who knows how it works."
"Or she could be a once-in-a-generation genius who made it herself," Alpha countered.
"It's possible but not likely, even geniuses need infrastructure to work from and I don't think she has any fabrication equipment hiding under her bed. Plus, it still doesn't explain her motivation."
"Do you think Reconquista might be behind this?" Jean asked.
"After what we saw in Albion, it's likely," Tommy began, "The princess did say that Reconquista might have infiltrated the country. For all we know, they're threatening Katie's family to force her to do this. If we act too soon, they could end up hurt. We know that keeping up appearances is an important factor since she's been showing up to class this whole time, so it's unlikely she'll flee the school."
"If this is so, then what could Reconquista be after in our library?" Osmand asked, "Without the missing books, we can't know what to look for."
"Maybe it's not even something specific," Tommy said, "If this academy is as prestigious as everyone says, then they're probably looking for anything that could be remotely rare or powerful. And what better way to do it than to use one of the students?"
"Then it appears we are at an impasse, at least until we learn more." Osmand declared.
"At least we can be on the lookout for future suspicious activity," Jean replied.
"Ay yi yi, now we need to add EM shielding to the to-do list..." Alpha added.
"Don't worry, I'll get you the components," Tommy said.
As they left the headmaster's office, discussing possible strategies as they went, Tommy wondered what they could be missing from this situation. At this point, all they could do was wait.
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Louise awoke to pain, every muscle in her body sore from the previous day's exertions. This was what she wanted, she was warned that this was how it was going to be, but she still wished it hurt less. As she rose to get dressed for the day, she recalled the tasks that she had been given, and so began her new daily routine. As she expected, she could barely do two of any of the exercises that she had been given. The push-ups resulted in her once more face down on the floor, and the sit-ups left her feeling like a fish that had been left to flop around on the ground. But by far the worst was the squats, her legs practically screamed at her to stop each time she crouched and stood again. But Tommy had said it would get easier with time, and she had no reason to doubt him given his own physical expertise.
As she finished the last of her exercise attempts, she took a moment to catch her breath before she resumed putting on her uniform and proceeded down to breakfast. As she entered the dining hall, she found that it was flush with her schoolmates gossiping. She walked past, searching for a space at one of the long tables, and all the while she caught snippets of what held their attention. Something about an attack in the library, how the librarian was bedridden in the infirmary, and that the library was off-limits until further notice.
If it weren't for the things she'd lived through recently, she'd immediately assume it was all nonsense. But it seemed that such things had become a normal occurrence. She would have to ask Tommy about it once classes had finished for the day, as chances were that he was somehow involved. She then recalled what he had told her some weeks ago, of how such madness was attracted to him. She supposed she believed him now.
It then occurred to her that she didn't have to wait for classes to be over to speak with Tommy, she still had that bracelet that he had given her, the one that could communicate across distances. But she had left it in her room, and she wasn't going to have time to retrieve it without being late for class. She would just have to make a detour during the lunch period to get it. With her plan in place, she finished her breakfast and went off to the first class of the day.
Much to her annoyance, however, the first class required practice partners. As she sat in her seat, enduring the laughter from her classmates as they all paired up, she told herself that this would all be over soon enough, just as it was every day. Every Founder-forsaken day. And then, much to her mounting irritation, Kirche sat next to her.
"What do you want, Zerbst?" Louise asked through gritted teeth.
"We're supposed to pair up for the lesson, aren't we?" she replied with a smug smile.
"We both know that you never do anything if it doesn't benefit you," Louise retorted.
"True, but surely this does benefit me," Kirche replied, her smile growing wider, "After all, exercise benefits everyone."
"What?"
"That is why we're here after all, to receive training in our magic?"
"Why are you saying it like that?"
"Because I saw what you were doing yesterday!" Kirche exclaimed before devolving into uproarious laughter, drawing looks from their classmates.
Louise's face burned at the realization that she had been seen. She should have known that they were still visible to all of the windows of the academy! It must have been sheer luck that only Kirche had seen her, or else everyone would be making fun of her by now.
"Your familiar must have been disappointed with how little you did in Albion if he's making you train like a peasant," Kirche said.
"He's not making me do anything," Louise bit back, "I asked him to train me."
This only caused Kirche to laugh harder, and Louise's embarrassment turned to anger.
"It's not like I'm seeing you try to do anything worthwhile," Louise spat.
"Why should I try when I can already do everything I need?"
"You really don't get it, do you? All you do is coast by on your talent and appearance, while I've spent a significant portion of my life working only to get nowhere. Well, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of you. I'm tired of always being useless and being looked down upon for it, so if this is the only way that can be something then so be it, my pride be damned."
"Don't act as if you're blameless in all of this," Kirche retorted with a glare.
"Are you suggesting it's my fault that you all ridicule me for something beyond my control?"
"You know what I'm talking about. You act like some poor, helpless victim but you give just as many insults as you get. You act like you're better than everyone else but you're nothing but a stuck-up little bitch."
"I am better than everyone else," Louise ground out, "I'm better because I'm the only one here putting in any effort. While all of you idle away your time, I have to struggle because I actually have something to lose."
"Oh yes, your precious family pride, so important that you'd spit in the face of the one person who actually wanted to be your friend."
"At least my family wants something from me."
Kirche merely glared at Louise before walking back to her previous seat. What did she know? What did any of them know? They all had it easy, they could afford to waste their time. Louise sat and ruminated through the rest of the class until the time came for her to go to the next. Hours passed until the lunch period arrived, and Louise set her plan into motion. She made her way to her room and there upon her table sat the bracelet she had been given. She recalled Tommy had told her to press down on the jewel and speak his name into it and she did so, but nothing happened. She tried again, this time calling for Alpha, yet there was no response. Were they away somewhere? Surely not, as Tommy always had his bracelet on him and he could use it anywhere. Was her bracelet broken somehow?
Either way, it didn't matter. Her plan had failed and she wasted some of her meal time. She would just have to wait until the end of the day to go and look for them. As the final class of the day let out, Louise made her way to the dining hall and sat down to enjoy a proper meal now that she had time, one that wasn't left half-eaten in her rush not to be late. She then walked to Professor Colbert's workshop, the sun having very nearly set. She knocked upon the door and was greeted by Tommy.
"Hey, Louise," he began, "Come on in."
She followed him inside and found that the place had become an absolute mess, more than usual, at any rate. On the left, the various devices that had been set up by Tommy were now in pieces with Alpha intently examining them. On the right, a multitude of boxes that had once sat neatly upon shelves were now strewn about, and Professor Colbert stood on a step ladder examining the now empty shelves.
"How were your classes?" Tommy asked as if oblivious to the chaos unfolding around them.
"They were fine?" Louise said, "Never mind that, what is going on here? I tried to contact you earlier with the bracelet but you wouldn't answer."
"Oh, sorry about that," he said before nodding in Alpha's direction, "The terminal needed maintenance so we had to shut it down."
"Did the maintenance require that you take everything else apart as well?"
"That, uh..." Tommy began, then looked over his shoulder, "I'll explain outside."
He then walked out the door and Louise followed in utter confusion. What was going on that had him acting like this? What kind of explanation required they be outside?
"So here's the thing," Tommy began once they were a fair distance away, "We believe that someone has put listening devices in the workshop and we're trying to find them, if they're even there. We think someone is spying on us."
"Who could possibly do that?" Louise asked, now more confused than ever, "Why would they do that?"
"You know that Katie girl that Guiche and Montmorency have been looking for?"
"You think she's behind this?" Louise asked incredulously.
Tommy then explained everything that had happened the previous night, of how they found Katie in the library after hours, how she somehow knew they were coming, and how they found the librarian had been poisoned.
"So the rumors about the library were true," she began, "That's what I tried to contact you about, I figured that you might be involved. But why Katie, and how? The only ones that know how any of these things work are you and Alpha."
"And Reconquista," Tommy replied grimly.
Louise recalled those horrendous cannons that had nearly blasted them out of the air and devastated New Castle. She recalled almost falling to her demise, she recalled being unable to move because of...
"Louise?"
She looked up and saw Tommy looking intently at her, concern clear on his face.
"I'm f-fine..." she said as she tried to shake off the memories.
"If you need to talk about it, I'm always free to listen."
"It is appreciated, but... Never mind that, why would Katie work for Reconquista?"
"Our current theory is that they're threatening her family to force her compliance, we'll be keeping an eye on her until we can learn more."
"And if her treason is genuine?"
"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it."
Louise's thoughts roiled at this new information. Another traitor in their midst, and she was once more powerless to do anything about it. Even if Tommy was keeping an eye on the situation, action still needed to be taken, this could not go on.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The midday sun shone down upon the Tristain Academy of Magic as two figures walked across one of the courtyards to their destination, an out-of-the-way corner rarely frequented by the students.
"Must I do this?" Guiche asked, "I wasn't the one who tripped the maid."
"But it was done for your benefit," Tommy replies, "And you said that this wasn't the first time you and your friends had done this. You know that it was wrong, so now you need to make amends."
"I suppose..."
As they rounded the corner, the people they intended to meet came into view. Marteau stood firm, his broad shoulders squared and arms crossed, a look of skepticism on his face. Tommy couldn't blame the man, not after the abuse he and the other servants had to endure. To Marteau's left was Siesta, her expression wary at first but she became relieved as they came into view, and to his right was who Tommy assumed to be the maid that Guiche and his friends had wronged. She was a young woman around the same age as Siesta, with brown hair tied in a braid and looking like she wished she was anywhere else.
Tommy and Guiche came to a stop a short distance away, and the young man took a moment to compose himself before stepping forward. He hoped that Guiche would learn from this like he'd been learning from everything else lately, he needed to understand the true values of others.
"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting," Guiche began, "I wish to offer my apologies for the treatment you received the other night, and for any times before that."
Marteau remained impassive as one moment became two, causing Guiche to fidget nervously as he waited. The head chef then turned to the maid at his right and gave her a nod. She stepped forward, her own nervousness clear as day.
"T-the offer is appreciated, m'lord," she began, unsure whether or not to avert her gaze, "B-but it is not necessary."
"I insist," Guiche replied, "I have come to understand that such actions are unbecoming and that you are as much a person as anyone else. As such, on behalf of myself and my friends, I apologize for our actions."
Guiche then bowed deeply, eliciting looks of surprise from the rest of the gathering. Tommy hadn't expected that from such a prideful young man, he didn't understand much of the dynamics of nobility, but even he recognized this for the big deal that it was. The events of Albion must have affected Guiche more than he realized.
"T-thank you, m'lord," the maid replied and nervously bowed in return.
As the two straightened, the maid looked toward Marteau who gave her a nod and she proceeded to leave.
"You can head back too, Guiche," Tommy said.
As Guiche walked away, Marteau stepped forward and gave Tommy an appraising look.
"I never thought I'd see the day," he began, "But one apology isn't going to make up for years of abuse."
"I didn't think it would," Tommy replied, "But change has to start somewhere."
"Fair. Now if you can get all of them to start acting like that, then I'd be mighty impressed. Come on, Siesta."
"Actually, there's something I wanted to talk with Siesta about."
"Alright, but don't take too long."
"What did you wish to speak about, Uncle?" Siesta asked as Marteau began to walk away.
"First, I wanted to thank you for helping to set this meeting up," Tommy began, "It was something that Guiche needed, in multiple ways."
"It was no trouble at all, and it was worth it just to see a noble bow to a commoner."
"That caught me off guard too. The second thing is that I wanted to ask if you'd be interested in helping with Louise's training."
"You think I'd be able to help with that?" Siesta asked.
"Of course, you've certainly got the skills for it," Tommy replied, "The fact is that there might be times when I can't be here to oversee her training and she'll need someone to help her keep up with things, plus she's going to need a proper training partner once she advances far enough."
"I see. To tell the truth, I do have experience helping my younger siblings and cousins with their training, so I suppose I should be able to help with Miss Valliere. Though I'm unsure when I'd have the time what with work and all."
"I can ask the headmaster if you can have time off on the Day of Void."
"If you can then I would be happy to help. I would certainly enjoy a moment away from scrubbing pots."
As they left the area, they spoke of potential ideas to help Louise improve, as well as their own training experiences.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Day of Void came once more and Louise woke with a vigor she scarcely recalled having before. It was more than just her anticipation for the day's training, but she could not find the words to describe such a sensation. She had been so wrapped up in trying to understand this sudden and new positivity that she had not realized until she finished her assigned exercises that she finally completed five of each. She looked at herself in her mirror and couldn't help but smile, she was genuinely making progress. It was then that she knew what this feeling was: pride. Genuine pride in herself, something that it would seem she had almost forgotten in all of the bravado she put on to cover her insecurities. But no more, she would make sure to never forget again, she would earn this pride no matter what it took.
And so Louise found herself standing beneath the tree where she began her training, one hand propped against it as she tried to balance on one foot. Balance and breathing, the foundations of all martial arts, Tommy had said. It was easier said than done, as she had not done something like this since she was a child. To make matters worse, Tommy had added an 'incentive' that if she fell, she would have to perform an exercise of his choosing. Though she understood that it would ultimately help her, the thought of more of the dreaded squats pushed her to get this right.
As she finally began to find her balance, she did as she had been instructed and closed her eyes, emptied her mind, and focused only on her breathing. All was quiet around her, save for the sound of a minor breeze, the occasional bird, and her own breathing. It was quite relaxing, enough that she felt confident she could remove her hand from the tree and maintain her balance. Slowly, she lifted her palm away, then her smallest finger, then her ring finger...
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
Just as Louise was about to lift her hand completely, the sound of an all-too-familiar voice caused her to lose focus, and she immediately fell to the ground. Her face burned as she stood, embarrassment and anger equally swirling in her chest as she saw Kirche walking toward them.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded before turning to Tommy, "What is she doing here?"
"I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about," Kirche replied with a smirk, "If you could do this then surely anyone could. And that outfit? It suits you perfectly."
"If all you're going to do here is make snide remarks," Tommy began as he closed his book and rose from his spot by the tree, "Then I will kindly ask you to leave. But if you're serious about joining us, then we can arrange something."
"What?!" Louise shouted at him, "Are you out of your mind?!"
"Let's speak in private, Louise," Tommy said and began to walk.
Louise followed and hoped he had a good explanation. What could he even be thinking by offering for Kirche to join them? They came to a stop out of earshot of Kirche and Louise merely looked at Tommy and waited for an answer.
"I think that her being here could be beneficial to you," Tommy began.
"You can't be serious," Louise retorted, "How could there be any benefit to her being around while I train?"
"I saw how you fell the second you heard her voice, so her being here could help you improve your focus."
"How am I supposed to focus if she's just going to taunt me the entire time?"
"If you can't stay focused in the face of her taunts, then how do you expect to focus when someone is trying to stab you?"
"That's a completely different situation!" Louise protested.
"Yes, one that's infinitely worse and with a worse outcome if you lose focus. Compared to that, do schoolyard taunts really sound as awful?"
"No, but..."
"Think of it like this: if you can learn to tune her out here, you'll be able to tune her out anywhere. You won't have to deal with her or anyone else tormenting you."
"I suppose that makes sense..."
"Here's what we'll do: we give her the option to join us. If she accepts, we put her through the same tests that you did. If she becomes discouraged from them, she won't come back. And if she refuses the offer, she leaves anyway."
"But if she accepts and the tests don't drive her off, then I have to put up with her."
"It'll be no different from all of the training you've done so far, a little bit of pain now means a lot of benefit later. No matter what happens, you stand to gain from the results."
"...Fine."
They marched back to where Kirche stood, Louise dreading what was to come. Even if he did make some sound arguments, she still thought Tommy was out of his mind.
"Here's the deal," Tommy began as they approached Kirche, "If you're going to join us, you'll need to perform a few test exercises so that I can know how best to train you. Does that sound fair?"
"A few measly little exercises?" Kirche replied, "This will be as easy as casting a minor cantrip. For most people, at least."
"Zerbst..." Louise ground out, already regretting everything.
"To begin, I want you to run from one of those sticks in the ground to the other and back as many times as you can," Tommy ordered, "And as for you, Louise, that will be five push-ups."
"What did I do?" Louise protested.
"You fell down, remember?"
Louise grumbled under her breath as she made her way back to the tree and got into position. It wasn't even her fault that she fell, Kirche just had to go and open her mouth. She probably did it intentionally too, just waited for the right moment to humiliate her. As she worked through the push-ups that she had been assigned, Louise looked up and saw Kirche struggling just as she had and a small smile came to her face. This might not be as bad as she thought.
As she finished her push-ups, Louise stood and returned to her spot under the tree and resumed her balance practice. She focused once more on her breathing, her mind clear, with nothing but the sound of the wind, birds, and Kirche's misery to keep her company. She made her attempt once more, slowly removing her hand from the tree as she adjusted her balance. As she lifted the last of her fingers, she stood for one second, then two, then three, only for a slight tremor in her leg to unbalance her, and she had to place her hand back on the tree. Though she was disappointed that it hadn't lasted longer, three seconds was still a good start, in her opinion.
She continued her attempts until Tommy brought the training session to an end. As Louise grabbed a towel and a bottle of water, she watched as Kirche slowly made her way back to the castle, the sight of her nemesis exhausted and drenched in sweat was the best way to end the day.
"You did pretty well today," Tommy began.
"It was certainly much easier than everything else you've had me doing," Louise replied.
"Taking time to do something easier is important," he explained, "That way you don't overwork yourself to the point of getting hurt. It's why you do your daily exercises when you wake up and go to bed, so that you can recover while you're in class and while you sleep."
His logic was sound, as it frequently was. Louise was a little annoyed at how easy it had become for him to convince her of things, though she supposed that came with age and experience.
"By the way, we have another mission coming up in a few days," he said.
"Have you been in contact with the princess?" Louise asked, "And you never thought to inform me?"
"You needed time to recover from the last mission and to catch up on the classes that you missed," Tommy explained, "Putting all of this on you so soon wouldn't have done you any good."
"I think I know what's good for me more than you," Louise retorted.
"We've already been over this, your focus should be on your education. You shouldn't even be involved in any of this but circumstances have been beyond our control. No one at your age should have the weight of the world on their shoulders, I would know."
"What kind of a mission is it?" Louise asked, still irritated.
"Thankfully nowhere near as long as the last one, only a couple of hours at maximum. We'll go over everything in detail when we meet with the princess the day before."
As they teleported back to the castle, Louise fumed at the impudence she had been shown. She was involved in all of this just as much as he was, if not more. It was her country that was at risk, possibly even her entire world. She had every right to be informed of what had been happening. However... She supposed she appreciated that he cared enough to give her time to rest...
As she changed back into her uniform and made to go to dinner, she began to wonder just what kind of mission they were being assigned.
---------------------------------------------------------------
One of the things that Tommy had learned in his time working with cutting-edge technology was that the same meditations he had learned from years of martial arts training also applied to mechanical maintenance. So many tiny, precise components that required a steady hand to repair them, where one mistake could ruin the whole thing, and then having to repeat the same process over and over, was a lot like maintaining focus while trying to do a hundred one-handed push-ups. The trick was in learning to divide one's focus so that the monotonous task at hand didn't become overwhelming.
So there he was, wrist-deep in Alpha's chest cavity, performing some maintenance that he had requested. Mostly it consisted of checking component integrity and making adjustments to any fastenings that might have loosened over time, but Alpha had insisted he check for listening devices as well. Tommy had insisted that there was no way that anyone could get close enough to plant a bug in him, but the android wouldn't budge on the matter. After all, someone was getting close enough to spy on them, and his predecessors had been sabotaged before, something that Tommy still felt guilty about all these years later.
As he shone the penlight over Alpha's internals, double-checking his work and making sure that everything matched the schematics that Alpha had given him to reference, he heard the door of the workshop open and looked up to find Jean walking through.
"Oh my!" Jean exclaimed as he witnessed the sight before him, "What... exactly are you doing?"
"Alpha asked me to do some maintenance on him," Tommy replied and patted the deactivated yet still-standing robot on the shoulder.
"Oh, I do suppose that makes sense," Jean admitted, "Pardon my astonishment, but it does look rather gruesome from a distance."
"I don't blame you, it took me and the rest of my old team a while to get used to the idea since Alpha acts so human and we know him so well."
As Jean closed the door behind him, Tommy made one last pass over his work before grabbing Alpha's back plate and reattaching it. He then pressed the power switch and all of the lights in Alpha's body flared to life.
"How are you feeling, pal?" Tommy asked.
"Much better, thank you," Alpha replied, "You even managed to get that one loose cable link in the far corner that's been bothering me. And you're certain there was no evidence of tampering?"
"I triple-checked everything, there wasn't a single thing that shouldn't be there," Tommy reassured.
"What's this about tampering?" Jean asked.
"I was worried that if our mystery spy was getting close enough to listen to us without our notice, then they could do something to me as well," Alpha explained.
"I'm glad that you're well, but I'm now more worried as to how Miss Lotte has been listening to us," Jean said, "We found nothing out of place both in or around the workshop."
"The only place we haven't checked yet is her room," Tommy began, "Which is right above us. Alpha, can you pull up the live feed of her room again?"
"I must confess that I am becoming concerned with these cavaliere invasions of privacy," Jean protested.
"Believe me, I wouldn't even consider doing this if the circumstances were different," Tommy replied, "Besides, is it much different from how the headmaster uses his mirror?"
"No, it isn't, and I dislike it when he does it as well."
"The feed is ready," Alpha announced.
The three peered through the screen, only to find an unoccupied room like last time.
"No one's home, so Katie is either cloaked again or she's on another late-night excursion," Tommy began, "But for now that's not what we're looking for. Start sweeping for anything out of place."
"I'm on it, Tommy," Alpha replied.
The feed panned over the entire space, moving from corner to corner, checking under her bed, and even around the small kitchen and wash basin that were set up in there. Guiche was right, she must really like to cook. Yet despite their thorough search, everything was what you'd expect from a teenage girl's room.
"I don't understand," Jean began, "If this device isn't here then where could it be?"
"She must keep it on herself at all times then," Tommy replied, "She heard us in both the library and the dungeon. But if there isn't a second part that's transmitting sound to her, then her listening device must be more powerful than we thought if it can listen to everything within such a wide radius."
"And if Reconquista gave such a powerful device to her, then they must have more."
"Which means we're in more trouble than we thought. Keep searching just in case, Alpha."
"You got it, Tommy."
Tommy and Jean walked back to the table and sat down, their minds now occupied with more problems. He knew one thing for certain, though: they needed to find and stop Reconquista's supplier before it was too late.
"I don't mean to constantly badger you with my concerns," Jean began, "But are you now starting to train Miss Zerbst? Louise and Guiche are one thing, given the circumstances, but this? Have you forgotten the deal we made?"
"In my defense, I haven't had time to go scouting for alternative Ranger candidates," Tommy replied, "And we need to evaluate if Kirche has the right qualities beyond my initial encounters with her. Plus, this could be good for her and Louise."
"They're already at each other's throats most of the time, I don't see how making them spend more time together will make things better," Jean countered.
"The way I understand it, most of their conflict comes from the disparities between them," Tommy explained, "So putting them on an even playing field for once could help them start to see eye-to-eye. Even if neither becomes a Ranger, they still need to learn to put their issues with each other to rest or else it could destroy them."
"Be that as it may, is it necessary to be so deceptive about it?" Jean asked.
"I've known plenty of kids like them and I can guess that you have too. They're too stubborn to listen to words, so they need to see it with their own eyes before they can understand."
"I often wish that teaching didn't require being so... underhanded, at times," Jean lamented, "What of your other upcoming project? You're certainly taking a much bigger risk with it."
"It's a confrontation that was going to happen sooner or later," Tommy explained, "Better to have it happen now when we can control it, rather than later where it could blow up in our faces."
"But to use an infamous thief and an elf as the examples?"
"The Power Rangers protect everyone," Tommy declared, "If the prince and princess are going to work with us, they will need to confront their prejudices."
"And what of those children? You're willing to put them in the line of fire?"
"They've been in the line of fire long before I got here. I'm taking them out of it and giving them a better home. I might not have known the prince and princess for long, but I can tell they're compassionate enough not to let fear control them. And if not, then they're at least smart enough not to try anything while I'm there, or ever."
"This seems to stem from more than just a sense of duty."
"That's because I have friends and family who are all part of groups that have been oppressed and otherwise prejudiced against throughout history. I'd do everything I can for them, so I'll do the same for this elf girl who lost everything just because she exists."
"But you don't know our history with the elves."
"Do I need to? From what I've heard, it all sounds pretty similar to what happened in Earth's past. I won't judge her and leave her out in the cold just because her ancestors and yours fought over something probably stupid."
"I agree with you, but you are getting involved with people who have far more political power than I do, and they might not take kindly to this. You might be able to withstand the consequences, but what of the rest of us? What of this academy? What happens if they decide to attack us if they can't attack you?"
"The headmaster asked me all of this a few weeks ago, so I'll repeat what I've told both you and Louise: anyone who tries to attack this place will have to go through me, and no one gets through me."
"Then the headmaster was right, you are reckless in your righteousness," Jean said as he shook his head in disbelief, "You are willing to go to war with heads of state over the fate of those who are otherwise considered worthless or worse."
"Then it's par for the course, most of my enemies were self-styled royalty who also thought they could abuse anyone they pleased."
"I'm starting to think that power of yours is affecting your judgment."
"If I don't use this power to make things better for people who need it, then what good is it?"
Silence fell between the pair as the words sank in. Maybe Jean was right, maybe he was getting reckless. Maybe this stupid midlife crisis was affecting him more than he thought. But what else was he supposed to do, just let so many people suffer? He had the power to make a difference, someone has to care about the people that no one else will care about.
"I'm sorry that so many of our conversations end up like this," Jean lamented.
"Don't be," Tommy replied, "Your concerns are valid, and I appreciate your insights in all of this. You know more about how things work around here than I do, it's why I trust you to work with me on all of this."
"I just wish that you would consider less drastic courses of action. Why must Louise be involved in this?"
"For the same reason as the prince and princess, she needs to confront her prejudices."
"You don't intend to do this with everyone, do you?"
"Not everyone, just the ones that can influence change for the better."
"And what of this... deal you've made with Fouquet? Especially after what she did to all of us? This could be some trick. To think, I had actually considered courting her."
"You never mentioned being attracted to her," Tommy said with a sly grin.
"Don't change the subject," Jean replied, blushing in embarrassment.
"Okay, fine," Tommy acquiesced, "I don't fully trust her, but someone who did all that she did just to take care of her sister and some orphans can't be as bad as everyone thinks. Plus she did help us get to Albion at great risk to herself so I kind of owe her. And the worst that she did to us was under the influence of dark magic, something that I know too well."
"Your ability to sympathize and empathize with those that society would reject is commendable, but you really should be more discerning in who you connect with."
"Yeah, I had to learn that the hard way..."
"I don't mean to interrupt," Alpha began as he walked over to them, "But I've searched as much as I could, Katie's room is spotless. I even checked all of the places we know that she's frequented recently, and there's no sign of anything more advanced than what's already there. I also took the liberty to search for the missing books as well but those haven't materialized either. Although..."
"What are you thinking, Alpha?" Tommy asked.
"I think her room might be too spotless, come take a look."
They got up and walked to the terminal, the image of Katie's room still where they had left it.
"Look at the bed specifically," Alpha said as he zoomed in the image, "What do you see?"
"It looks to be a normally made bed to me," Jean began, "But now that I look at it, I don't know any other way to describe it but it looks like it hasn't been unmade in some time."
"You both think that she hasn't been sleeping in her bed?" Tommy asked as he looked over the image.
"Exactly," Alpha confirmed, "Now the question is where has she been sleeping."
As this new confusing information joined the rest that swirled in his mind, a thought occurred to Tommy. A dark thought, one that he wished was completely unfounded, yet started to make more sense the more he put things together.
"Jean, do you remember what I told you about the orcs and troll we fought in Albion?" he slowly asked, his dread growing with each word.
"The ones that had things implanted in their heads? What does... No, you can't possibly be suggesting..."
"I don't want to believe it either, but the more we learn about this mystery, the more it starts to make sense. Katie has access to advanced technology that we can't seem to find, technology we think she got from Reconquista. And if they can put cybernetic implants into orcs and trolls, why not humans?"
"Then... what do we do?" Jean asked, clearly disturbed by this theory.
"We keep investigating, try to find any answers that explain all of this before we accept the worst conclusion," Tommy replied, "I'll ask Siesta in the morning if she could ask the other maids whether anyone has been able to get into Katie's room to clean."
"Right, I will... I will inform the headmaster of our findings," Jean replied.
"And I will keep scanning the castle for any anomalies," Alpha added.
As Tommy watched the screen shift through various locations in the castle, he hoped against hope that he was wrong.