“Thank you for taking the Valen express!” A chipper woman greeted them after the three Fiends exited the portal made of Phon’s blood.
Jaid reeled for just a moment, blinking away the disorientation from the transport. Her eyes then wandered around the tunnel that she’d explored thoroughly before, the last place she’d been before she was captured and outed as a spy. It made her stomach twist and clench.
“I heard about what you guys did,” Valen began rambling. “You went and rescued Dura and a few others, so dashing. I can see why some people ship the two of you, Jaid, even though you’re like siblings—which makes it even better for some. In fact, I’m getting an idea myself.” The Bloodletter pulled out a notebook at her counter and began scribbling down ideas.
It had actually been a day since the prison break—well, the second one. They’d spent most of the remainder of the day helping those they’d liberated get back home. A good chunk of them were actually locals who’d been taken from their families. And Dura went ahead and reinforced their locks and homes, whatever it took to help them feel safe.
For the remaining prisoners who lived farther away or had nowhere else to go, they were taken to the nearest safehouse. The acting manager would assist them with whatever they needed, and see them to wherever they needed to go. Kada also reached out to Xard’s assistant, Dette for further assistance, since she had gotten rather good at such work.
But it was getting later in the night around then, and the Valen Express had already closed for the day. Since she was a one woman operation with her own duties and needs, there were set hours where the teleportation network could be accessed anytime by calling her. But the rest of the time was her own, though she could always be contacted during an emergency.
And since the safehouse had limited beds, the Fiends ended up spending the night at a new hotel. Dura spent the evening trying to cleanse himself of his incarceration, scrubbing himself clean. The man even shaved his head, even though it would regrow the next day, just to not have to deal with the hassle of trying to wash out all the grime. Despite that, he ended up passing out from exhaustion and slept all night in the tub.
Kada spent her evening on her phone, texting other members and looking up information of the year she’d missed, constantly asking Jaid questions for clarifications. Besides helping The Mermaid find her footing, The Paladin didn’t do much else. They had a mindless show on the TV, which she focused on in and out, still too terrified to actually look at the recent news.
And when Kada finally decided to go to sleep, Jaid attempted to join her, not to much success. More than anything else, she was dreading the next day, when she’d actually have to return to the Fiends For Hire compound after all this time. She knew in her heart that everything would turn out alright, but awkward scenarios kept playing in her head, leading to another night of pitiful rest.
“Okay, I’m gonna take Dura upstairs since Farian wants to examine us both,” Kada relayed. “You should just chill in the lab for now. Relax, get some food, they should have plenty, and no one should really bother you there. I’d invite you up to the restaurant for that but… uhh…”
“How to put this delicately. A lot of our members don’t really know the super finite details of our plans, and don’t understand yet that this was all the outcome we wanted. So there’s a good chance a lot of them blame you for the current state of things and everything that’s gone wrong… Meaning it’s probably best you don’t just walk around until we have an opportunity to smooth things over and explain.”
“Which I’ll get right on… after I find Pox or Laurim. I’ve had many struggles, so now I need snuggles, you understand. Oh, and I heard Ten is here somehow. Definitely want to see what that’s about. But after that! I’ll get to working on clearing your good name, I promise!”
Jaid’s faith in the group, or Kada at least, was suddenly wavering as she watched the woman and Dura depart. However, the knight didn’t mind any excuse to postpone the cringeworthy encounters that were bound to happen, so she also didn’t put up any sort of fight and argument. Valen opened the door behind the express booth and let Jaid inside.
To think that after all the hostility between their groups, Jaid would just be let into the renowned secret lab like it was nothing, and unsupervised no less. There had been countless meetings at the Central Peace about how to infiltrate the lab and attain whatever knowledge and goodies lay inside, both before and after the raid.
Apparently, some Rep’s personal agent, whom Jaid hadn’t met, had somehow managed to sneak inside and provided a bit of data about the layout, not that there was much to share. And while the knight was overcome with emotion for finally being able to see it herself, it also felt a bit underwhelming after being hyped up so much.
The woman walked past the personal quarters, not daring to intrude on their personal space, but her curiosity got the better of her when she reached the labs. The four smaller labs were currently all unoccupied, but each was littered with their own research and experiments. She was able to guess three of the four labs, ‘Gaseous Understudy’, ‘Pill Head’, and ‘Blood Fetishist’. They had to be Andi, Farian, and Valen.
Jaid wasn’t sure who ‘Poison Tongue’ was, but their lab was filled with lots of experiments that were hard to look at, mostly flesh and syringes. Before she reached the larger two labs, there was another room with the words ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ scrawled across the door. It seemed a bit redundant in an already ‘secret’ laboratory, but it brought up an interesting question. Was she authorized personnel? What even was her status in the group anymore?
The question went ignored for the moment as her curiosity continued to guide her towards Nathym’s lab. She didn’t step inside, but still poked in her head. From floor to ceiling, the walls were covered in blueprints, most of which Jaid couldn’t begin to decipher. The only things she even began to recognize were satellites that they’d recently launched and a rocket ship.
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Why was Nathym designing a rocket ship? Could it just be a passing fancy, or were there actually future plans involving it. ‘Domination’ couldn’t possibly extend to the far reaches of space, could it? That’d be too insane and ambitious even for them. But Jaid’s musings and nosiness were suddenly interrupted.
“We have an intruder!” someone yelled from behind her.
Jaid whirled around, preparing excuse after excuse in her head as to why she was there and defend what she’d been doing. But she was caught further off-guard when it was Alk. “I’m sorry about Kalter,” the knight said the first thing that popped into her mind out of reflex.
She immediately regretted saying it, unsure of how Alk would respond. Maybe The Plague Doctor would blame her for Kalter’s death, or demand to know what happened. She also had to assume that informing the woman that it was Dura who’d done the deed would only lead to more problems. But she was conflicted, because if Alk now actually was part of the Fiends for Hire, the knight didn’t want to keep any secrets from them that could come back to haunt her later.
“Thank you,” Alk replied with the most surprising words of all. And to add to the oddness, the woman suddenly looked shy and reserved. “If uhh… If you’re back, does that mean Kada’s back too?”
“Err, yeah she is,” Jaid connected the dots. “She’s currently upstairs being inspected by Farian, and then she said she was going to go find someone to snuggle.”
That only added fuel to the fire and Alk desperately turned to Ahvra who had just stepped out of the lab herself. The Plague Doctor didn’t need to say any words before the small scientist sighed and agreed. “Fine, you can go. But… tell me what will happen if you try to kill Fluffy Gene Splicer.”
Alk’s face twisted in annoyance and started to turn red out of embarrassment. She then stammered, “G-gi-gi-girly photoshoot.”
“That’s right,” Ahvra reinforced. She then deactivated her bracelet and Alk zoomed out of the room towards the elevator. The Witch then turned to answer Jaid’s obvious curiosity. “I can’t threaten her with dissections like the others. She would actually be interested in the results and could remove any pain she may feel.”
“So I have to threaten her with something she’d actually hate: a girly photoshoot with Chorus where she’d have to dress in all sorts of frilly clothes and perform a bunch of cute poses. And it would all be put out online for everyone to see.”
“But don’t worry about her, Backstabbing Knight. Though, I suppose not anymore. You will need a new nickname. I will think on it. In the meantime, you are welcome to relax and help yourself to meals in the fridge. Poison Tongue probably won’t be back today, so her food would just go spoiled.”
Ahvra vanished back into her lab, and Jaid did just as she suggested, grabbing food from the kitchen and then slumping down into the couch. The first few bites were delicious but conflicting. Memories and nostalgia flooded back to her days as a spy, when she got to enjoy such delights every meal. To continue enjoying it now, the knight had to remind herself that she would actually deserve it this time.
But about halfway through the plate, her tantalizing meal was disturbed. Ahvra popped back up, pointing a giant needle towards Jaid’s face. “I am glad you are enjoying yourself, Many Munchers. Hmm, no that didn’t feel right. I shall keep experimenting with a new name, but that is not why I am here.”
“Good food, yes. Deserves payment, don’t you think? That and you must have some guilt haunting you, for all the many things you’ve done. Want to help in any way possible, right? So… I would like a little bit of blood.”
The syringe in the small girl’s hands didn’t indicate that there would be a ‘little bit’ of anything, but Jaid let her continue. “As you may know, Fiend blood is special. It is embedded with the properties of our Curses. Very good for experiments, for inventions, for the betterment of all humanity. You wouldn’t want to keep all that goodness for yourself, would you? That, and, the amount I took during your interviews has almost run dry. Have been preserving it, but there’s only a few drops left.”
Jaid didn’t even put up a fight and rolled up her sleeve. She still hated showing off the Curse marks on her arms, but had grown to despise it a bit less over the years. Ahvra jumped on the opportunity and shoved the needle right in, not even making an attempt at being delicate. The Witch proceeded to suck her dry like a starving, greedy leech.
Once the syringe was full, Ahvra skittered away, giggling to herself with her oddly disturbing monotone laugh. Jaid was left feeling woozy and emaciated. But thankfully, she still had half a plate of food in front of her to get her energy back. And maybe now she’d help herself to seconds from the fridge out of Ahvra’s stockpile. Which she did minutes later without shame.
Feeling alive again after finishing two meals, Jaid was left with nothing else to do. She eventually decided to grab her phone and click on the Fiends For Hire member app. Before she’d left the CP, Jaid had dug out the old phone she’d received when she’d first joined the For Hires, that she’d stored away all these years, not using it because of the obvious spyware.
Surprisingly, the phone had turned right on, still maintaining its battery and updates after all that time. She’d also performed a reset on it, removing the CP’s own spy-related apps while maintaining those that came preinstalled by Nathym. Jaid hadn’t tried the member app yet, but it let her log right in just as it had before, only requiring a facial recognition scan for security.
But before Jaid could scroll over to her profile to check her own status, she was interrupted once more. “Jaid,” Nathym nodded to her as he walked by, carrying a box of parts. The man set them down in his lab and then came right back out, looking at her with more intent.
“I guess you finished what you needed to do. That’s good. I’ve already met with Drim and Phon while I was out West. They needed me to make something for their plans tomorrow. And they gave me a gist of everything that was going on. But if you have some time then… actually, did Ahvra talk to you about…?”
Nathym didn’t finish his sentence and instead walked into Ahvra’s lab. The knight then heard a few minutes of mumbling along with a bit of arguing. She couldn’t make out most of the words but picked up on ‘just drained her blood!’ followed shortly by ‘well then give some back!’. What exactly did they want her to do?
Both scientists exited the lab not long after and approached the woman who was just trying to mind her own business on the couch. “We have a request for you,” Nathym’s voice was stern and his eyes were serious, and then he bowed his head. “We ask that you save Mallea, because you’re the only one who can!”