[Further instructions will be sent, but remember to cut communications and follow Rex’s lead with care. End call,] spoke Enrai chairs were pushed back and sighs were let out. Some were from confusion, others from the simple weight of the unknown lying ahead.

Sam’s was from neither, standing up while reading Sebastian’s face.

[So, who the hell am I, after all!? And who are we looking for in the end!?] Dani laughed wryly, dissatisfied as her brothers at the absolute lack of detail surrounding the whole situation.

[You’re clearly Eunice since he called the other names out!] Renzo huffed as he stretched. [I still can’t believe they kept Cruella’s name in her new nickname,] he added with a giggle to ease the tension. [She runs to a new country and still can’t escape her name!]

Sebastian’s mind was still on matters worrying him most, but it only took a few seconds of Dani’s and even Sam’s laughter for him to crack a smile.

“Come on, guys. Let’s go, we can’t do anything until we get contacted like Enrai said,” Sam spoke with a gentle push of Sebastian’s back as they saw the doorway begin to clear out. “I realize there’s a huge disconnect between the absolute must-follow rules mixed in with the whatever-the-hell else stuff like this, just… letting us walk around like we live here? … Kind of thing going on, but-” she awkwardly attempted to escape the impending serious conversation before Sebastian stopped and interrupted.

“-No, it makes sense,” he sighed, looking around once more. “We aren’t back home, and we aren’t with Hexa. Of course things are very strange and different, but I think they trust us because we have no choice but to be quiet and follow every order. I don’t think they have a fear of us being a danger to them.”

“True,” Sam once more tried to suggest their exit with another gentle push. “So, in that case, let’s just roll with it, huh? We really never had a choice in the matter.” And as Sebastian finally gave in and started following Dani and Renzo out of the room, Sam felt the sting of that last line she spoke. She felt fake, cowardly, as if reverting to her older self all in one fell swoop. And the ditch digging commenced unintentionally, and altering course might not happen before Rex’s liaison would reach out.

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▽　▽　▽

.

The face Sebastian wore of anxiousness, worry, and disgust never disappeared, even after a relatively peaceful cool-down the four sat through inside a borrowed, well-protected suite Enrai loaned them that afternoon. Every explanation in the world about why they had to take Rex’s lead never calmed his nerves as the whole idea ate away at his sanity.

[I still don’t get why you’re all okay with working with the ONE man who spent so much energy trying to end us. Who is the real main target here?] Sebastian went on with his uneasy rant, halfway bent over the corner of the sofa of the living room.

Renzo’s hands went up in concession, seated across from him in a recliner. [I can’t explain it any more, brother. I’ll be blunt, did you want us to just say fuck you we’ll do this on our own? Spend days or even weeks pissing around in the wind hoping we’d just… run into Reaper one day?]

[It’s just like Boss,] Dani slipped back into the conversation from the bed she had been laying stomach-down on, head propped up on her crossed arms. She caught an unsuspecting nerve from both as she went on: [Business. None of us can ever say he did only good things with good people. Rex may have sent the orders to kill us, but what were we? We were the enemy. Now Reaper is the enemy of both of us, and the craziest thing? We have no proof Rex is the one who wanted us dead.]

Sebastian wanted to snap back at her argument, realizing a split second later he had no reply of any real substance, leaving his hand in the air.

Dani could only let out a wry chuckle. [Anyone have proof it wasn’t Reaper’s call all those times? Why do we run around in circles like this, wasting our last nerves when we should be resting up instead? It was a damned miracle we got that key piece of information handed to us to find and get revenge on the one who actually pulled the trigger and kept pulling triggers all this time. Do you REALLY need more reason, big brother?] She turned the other way with a huff. [I feel like I’m the older sister sometimes. Grow up, already, and get out of your feelings.]

Sam emerged from the bathroom at last, hand over her lower abdomen and looking somewhat pale. She had already looked terrible from the days of too little sleep, but the past twelve hours’ worth of havoc wreaked on her psyche began to show more and more with each passing hour.

[And there’s Cruella, too! Poor thing,] Dani continued, lifting her head off her arms to wave a hand towards her suggestively, causing Sam to come to an awkward stop. [She’s been working around the clock like Renzo here, can’t sleep at all, and now on top of everything she has to be front-line with this crazy-ass plan thrown at us!]

Pursing her lips, Sam looked away, hiding the guilt felt from having yet another convenient cover for her pop up unexpectedly. But as more words from Dani registered in her head, the more a second emotion began to arise while she listened, noting Sebastian’s slowly changing aura.

[Yet you,] Dani now went on the offensive as she brought herself to an upright seated position, arm still extended. [You sit there bitching and moaning about what you don’t like! As if you were the one suffering the most here with the most to lose! I can’t stand listening to it anymore- Renzo,] she then looked the other way with a huff. [Should I record his nonsense so he can see what I’m talking about!?]

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[Stop, stop,] Sebastian fussed, allowing his head to droop back over the backside of the sofa headrest. [I get it.] He took in a long breath as the air began to settle slightly before finally sitting up straight. [It’s something I need time to stomach. Just… I’m sorry. Maybe it was the fact we all almost died the other night that has me so quick to-]

“Hey,” Sam softly spoke to him with a hand on his shoulder, sitting down right next to him.

I can’t sit here and feel like shit about hiding more decisions from him. If I brought up the truth as is when I had that chance, there’d be way more fallout than this. I can’t forget that damage control is still a thing, and at this rate, the best thing to do is keep us all together as a unit, right? She told herself as she rubbed his shoulder in a calming fashion. “We’re all human. And besides, we really should be used to all of this by now, if I may be brutally honest,” she attempted to console with a forced smile. “But if you ask me? While I have been stressed out by everything going on, I do feel better about one thing- one constant here. We’re all together,” she added while looking around at the other two. “We all chose this route, yeah, so… you know? So far, we’ve been quite the damned team.”

Sebastian eased up a touch, letting out a sigh before tapping his left hand nervously on the side of the sofa. “Yeah. I still hate… I hate that this is how it has to be.”

Renzo laughed at the irony of the situation as he rocked in his recliner. [We could go back to Kennedy and work as mercenaries since that’s all we’d have left if we leave Hexa… go and die the same way we would if we stayed on mission.]

[We’re alley cats in that sense,] Dani joined in similar fashion. [If we have nine lives, we still got about five left.]

Sam joined in the melancholy laughter, feeling her chances at being open and honest drifting well beyond view and into oblivion. Nowhere to go but forward, there was only the hope that either the assignment would hurry up and cause a new stir, or that the assignment would instead crumble as a result of more Underground in-fighting. Either way, she knew there was no room for error as she had felt like she stood at the edge of a cliff, waiting for the next wrong step with how she’s handled everything since arriving in Argentina.

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●　● Southern Outskirts of Nanning, New People’s Republic of China

Marian wearily sat down at the foot of the same bed where Gabriel and Danielle slept, but the air felt like it had been quite the time passed since one last stayed. The room remained in disarray, empty folders strayed across the floor and various articles of clothes not brought along still at the foot of the closet door. She rubbed her tired eyes, taking in a slow breath before turning to the notepad she had placed by her side.

With her pen, she struck a line through what read: “Nanning Apartment.” And with nothing else to accomplish after rummaging through the place, she retired to the entrance where she used a code she had acquired to disarm the security system in getting in. After turning for one last futile look around, she opened the door to leave. And as she turned once more to lock the door back, the feeling of someone approaching had her spin back around in a flash as her heart nearly skipped a beat.

“You!?” Marian spoke with disgust, flustered as she put a hand over her rapidly beating heart. She fought hard to keep her gaze met with the man she looked upon for the first time in years.

“You came for the same thing, I assume,” Al calmly spoke as he held his hands up to show his intent of no harm.

“You have no idea what I am doing, nor would you have any reason why I shouldn’t shoot you down on the spot right here right now,” Marian seethed, keeping her voice lowered as she moved her hand lower down her jacket.

“You really must think I’m looking for my son,” Al shuffled his feet casually, almost as if bored by Marian’s reaction. He then raised a brow, keeping his tone the same: “I’ve already conceded that to his mother as she will take care of what she must.” His hands went back in his pocket as he noted her hand movements never changed in her reaction. “Hence I decided to come looking for Rex instead.”

Marian’s hand paused as her mind began racing. “What do you mean, Rex? Who is that?”

Al huffed as he closed his eyes for a moment. “Your hands stopped. You don’t intend on shooting me, so why not use me? Isn’t that what you’d prefer?”

“You make me want to vomit,” Marian growled at the apparent insult. “That’s all.”

“I got nothing left to lose, and I already see you are the same,” Al quickly fired back in a flat tone, returning her stare. “I just lost my father, and now I’m about to lose my son, my wife, and my daughter all in one fell swoop. To who? Take a good fucking guess.”

Marian was now aware of the smell of alcohol coming from his breath. She was, however, well aware of how he was when he drank from the last months of the previous war. He was never to be toyed with when he took that route. Her hands slowly fell to her side, but her frown of dejection never changed.

“And I know you aren’t exactly in the mood to play around with my son’s chances, are you.” He cleared his throat to the side, turning to face the apartment’s empty outside hallway. “Help me or don’t. I’ll keep moving regardless.”

A long pause came between the two as a steady wind picked up. “How?” Marian mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose as she took in a long difficult breath.

“Hmph,” Al huffed as he pulled up his left wrist and scrolled through several screens on his smartwatch. “Salim- I mean, Norris and Silva are off to bring something to Isaiah, so don’t worry about him just yet. I’ve garnered enough pieces of the puzzle to start making guesses, and your connections should amount to way more than mine enough to fill in the rest,” he added as he then pulled out his mobile, showing her a screen. “This is my list of contacts I’ll leave you with. Take it with you to your choice of Singapore or Hargrove C, letting each know you’re on my safe list using that code word.”

Marian’s eyes scanned down the list, only recognizing one of the names. “I assume you knew this place is under a heavy encryption shield,” she mumbled as she took out a notepad to copy down the information. “Why Hargrove?” she asked, referring to the Casares Region’s biggest metropolis space nation and former capital.

“Casares is likely crawling with supporters of your little movement, seeing many were originally from countries down here that have successfully revolted as of late. Chances are the rumors of Rex being based in Space aren’t a complete wash.”

“But Singapore’s network has always been one of the dark web’s biggest hubs. The Underground never made it without the big three.”

Al began growing impatient of the chatter. “So, do you prefer staying Earthside? I need to get moving.”

“Good, be out of my face,” Marian smartly replied, putting away her notepad and walking around him as she headed for the exit. “And don’t contact me ever again.”

“Singapore it is,” Al chuckled before a short coughing fit followed. After catching his breath, he turned up his watch once more to check off his list. “Casares… I haven’t seen you in almost a decade.” And as he turned to leave as well, he couldn’t help but ponder the possible connection between the events now and ten years back, only the last war started to end the confederacy yet this time it was to rebirth it.

He then remembered some of Lucian’s most recent concerns of Vrey’s sudden change in behavior as he became much more compromising with the Underground. “Of course,” he mumbled quietly to himself as he picked up the pace. “The last time Vincent Vrey feared any one entity, it was in Casares… and Singapore used to always be Casares’ biggest connection Earthside… I have to call Sam before I go too far.”