Ivan was gone. Leaving Jack with a bitter taste in his mouth as Jin arrived.
“Are you ok?” Jack's cousin asked.
“Yeah. Check on the guards. They’re unconscious but not dead. Lock down the area,” Jack ordered before taking off.
*****
“What are we going to do about this? He was here. In this palace, a place supposed to be impenetrable and heavily fortified!” Jack demanded, sitting across from Selfia in her private office. Beside Jack, Leona held Celeste while Ada laid down on a futon nearby and Kamila served tea.
“Relax Jack,” Selfia sighed, taking an intellipad from Violet, the armored black knight making a rare appearance in the castle. “Nothing happened.”
“But what if it did? What if he decided to plant a bomb, unleash an Anti-Army skill, or let loose a bio weapon underneath our feet like in Frelia? What then Selfia?! What?!” Jack spat, his hands slamming on the table that cracked under the strain of Jack's strength.
“Look Jack, I understand how you feel, but-”
“No you don't. Don't pretend that you do,” Jack hissed, all eyes on him. “My family was in danger tonight. Family. Which means more to me than just a fucking bargaining chip. Now I have done, EVERYTHING! That you have asked. That everyone has asked of me. And all I want is protection for those I love and the means to fight at enemies that we share in common. How fucking hard is that?!”
“Language!” Leona spat, yelling at Jack with her hands over Celestes ears.
Unbeknownst to Jack, his body began to emit black shadows, eyes flaring up with crimson.
“Tanji,” Ada coaxed, caressing Jack's shoulders. “Come, sit down with me.”
Jack clenched his jaw, but ultimately followed, sitting with his head held in his hands.
“Selfia. I want to get these people. And I can't do it sitting here, on my ass playing the image of your boy toy,” Jack sighed. “I have to kill every single one of them if I want to be free.”
“You will get that opportunity Jack. I promise. But right now I need you to be levelheaded, things are in motion,” Selfia said, taking a sip of tea from the cup served by Kamila.
"What things?" Jack demanded, "You keep telling me stuff is in progress but you aren't telling me what those things are."
“Remember the plan. Two more days till the masquerade. Once I secure my control, we'll have you on your way. I promise.”
“Plan?” Ada asked, the first she was hearing of it.
“Don’t worry about it Ada,” Jack said, resulting on a smack on the head.
“Don’t give me that! Need I remind you I’m carrying your child Mr! If something’s going on I want to know about it,” Ada hissed.
“I’m hosting a ball,” Selfia interjected. “Where I will carole many of my dissenters and arrest them. With them all in once place, I’ll be able to move in on them all at once.”
Leona raised a brow at the declaration, but ultimately said nothing.
“What about the High Table kill order?” Jack asked.
“What about it? The galla will be heavily guarded, high profile event. And I can handle myself Jack. We knew that eventually they would come for me,”Selfia replied, two of her floating arms placing a talisman around her neck. “And besides, with the Aegis, anything short of an anti-army attack skill will be stopped.”
“Do you think Ivan can be trusted?” Leona asked as Kamila handed her a pair of what appeared to be enchanted earrings to Jack's eyes.
“No. Absolutely not…” Jack said, trailing off before wetting his lips. “But… fuck. I can’t make sense of this. Why warn us?”
“To get in our heads? To defect?” Leona offered, placing a pair of earmuffs over Celeste's head who was staring at her intellipad. “Also, language!”
“Sorry,” Jack replied as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“A High Table defector would be good to have,” Selfia mused.
“No,” Ada chipped in, drawing looks from Selfia, Leona, and Kamila. “He has to die. He hurt my friends. Killed my clan’s guardian and Elder. Blinded his son, took my best friend’s arm and leg. It’s too late for repentance. I want his head.”
Silence took the room for a moment, at least until it was broken by Kamila collecting Selfia’s plate.
“Right,” Selfia said, standing up. “It’s late. Everyone should get some sleep. I’ll enact some contingencies but for now, the threat is over.”
*****
In his chambers, Jack sat reviewing every file, paper, and note Selfia had on the High Table. As a condition of his continued support, she gave him everything she had, at least allegedly, allowing him access to even CHECKMATE’s data, and what Director York had on the group.
First a sergeant aboard a landship, then a family aid, Alan York had entered the service of the Bell famila through a chance encounter after taking custody of Jill. And because of that encounter, his daughter had been marred, hooked up to life support machines that allowed her to remotely pilot Mechframes but do little to anything else.
Now he spent his days as Director of CHECKMATE, a group formed to hunt down the High Table with special autonomy from Selfia.
A man on a mission.
A man like Jack.
Yet, Jack couldn't help but feel guilty about the man's predicament, as if everyone he met was harmed just by running across him.
“So…” Ada said, hugging Jack from behind on their shared bed. “It’s been three hours, you’ve already looked over this a dozen times.”
“And I’ll look over it a dozen more times,” Jack said, eyes furrowed. “I need to keep you safe. And the first part of doing that is understanding what I’m up against.”
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“But you’ve seen this data before. Nothing knew has changed.”
“I know… but it helps to distract my mind,” Jack said, intellipad in hand and reading over the report of the special actors in play.
Black King/Smiling Man: ???
Green Bishop: Pope of the Theocracy Hugo Fitz
White Knight: dUMBASs Roland Cordelica
Gold Queen: Cynthia Rockefelle of Cordell Engineering.
Red Rook: ???
Purple Pawn: ???
Pawn#1: Robo Kat/(Unknown)KIA
Pawn#2: Man Maid(Finn Star)
Pawn#3: Mad Hatter(Juliana Ardona)
Pawn#4: Raven Mask(Cici Vernon)
Pawn#5: Cobalt Claw/(Lerry James)KIA
Pawn#6: Metal Man/(Unknown)KIA
Pawn#7: Blizzard Butcher(Serena James)KIA
Pawn#8: Gunslinger(Ivan Petroff)
Jack reviewed the list, a compilation of all key players painstakingly put together by Selfia’s people over the years. Every name had a drop down box. Their skills, activities, sightings. There were even information regarding blood type, ingested foods, and speech patterns.
Under one bodycam video, there was Python, he and a dozen awakened fighting Pawn number 5, Cobalt Claw, the man shimmering with unique luna energy that he formed into claws to tear through the CHECKMATE agents. Multiple videos of engagements culminating finally in the man’s death at the hands of Python strangling him with vines.
Each name had nearly two dozen combat files attached. Recovered data from corpses mostly. Very few ending in success for the CHECKMATE agents. In nearly four years, Selfia had only managed to kill three of the pawns while Jack had taken one down on his own.
This was what he was up against.
An organization that spanned the world with the power of an army, and support of nations.
“If she knows who they are, and what they've done, why not publicize this information?” Ada asked, watching with Jack.
“Selfia says it's a master card. That she's waiting for an opportunity.” Jack replied before he sighed, powerig off the tablet. “How's Yukino?”
“Physically? She's ok. But… she wants to go home. She has her augments already and has been doing physical rehabilitation with Doctor Light and Leona, but… You should check in on her.”
“Yeah,” Jack said. “I’ll try and visit her tomorrow.”
“You know…” Ada said, “Speaking of Yuki… You never told me you knew the man who attacked her.”
Jack froze.
“I… does it make a difference?” Jack asked, going back to his files. “I knew him. But… he's not the man I once knew.”
“Ok…” Ada said, realizing she wouldn't get more out of Jack without prying. “Who was he?”
Jack paused his video, pinching the bridge of his nose for a moment.
“Ivan… was a former classmate. A somewhat decent guy who liked to joke around and play pranks. Sometimes it got him into trouble with Sergeant Dave and other teachers, but he had Mai to rein him in.”
At the name Mai, Ada raised a brow.
“Is she the woman that died during your training mission?”
Jack turned to Ada. “How do you know about that?”
“You…” Ada frowned. “You talk in your sleep sometimes. And you've mentioned her name. I was worried so I asked Leona, and she told me about it.”
“Right…” Jack looked away, his gaze staring at something that wasn't there. “Yeah. It was… something. When Mai died, Ivan he… he changed. He turned ruthless. Hunted Theocracy soldiers with impunity and whatever light in his eyes was lost the moment he lost her.”
Jack turned back to Ada, letting out a chuckle as he shook his head.
“Perhaps the worst part, is that I can't blame him for what he became. All those lost. All those dead. For what? We were fighting an enemy we had no cause to hate until they gave us one. Until they made us hate them,” Jack's gaze turned to his palms, envisioning that clawed gauntlet stained in blood. “Made children into killers. But Ivan made his choice. Just like the theocracy took from him, he took from us. So now, I have to take from him.”
“But can you do it? Kill your friend?” Ada asked, hugging Jack from behind, her face nestled into his shoulder.
“I'll do what needs to be done,” Jack said, his jaw clenching as he recalled how he failed to capture the man.
“You shouldn't,” Ada said, caressing Jack’s hair. “When the time comes, you won't have to handle it.”
“What?”
“I'll take care of it,” Ada said, the pair sitting there for a bit in silence.
“Ok,” Jack replied after some time.
“Good. Now let's get some sleep,” Ada said, clapping her hands to turn off the lights.
Jack clenched his jaw, closing his eyes, Ada cuddling up to him with the pair quickly falling asleep…
At least Ada did.
After an hour, Jack snuck his way out from Ada’s grasp, walking out onto the balcony where he stood staring at the moon and the city of lights below.
Collecting his thoughts, Jack sat down, closing his eyes, his palm outstretched towards a tree in the distance where he began pulling at it with Gehenna.
“Let's not waste anytime ladies," Jack said, summoning Lilith and Sahaqiel, "I need to get stronger.”
****
Ada opened her eyes, the rays of light, illuminating the bedroom. The first thing he noticed, was that Jack wasn't there, the second thing she noticed, was that her clock read six AM.
She turned, grabbing her pink bathrobe off her nightstand before spotting Jack on the terrace, the man shimmering with black and gold energy, his body wafting steam.
She could feel it, mana, a thick wall of energy that was condensed and flowing upward as to not alert or wake her.
Ada went to check on him, but she paused, noticing how deep of a trance he was in and all of the plants that covered the terrace now wilted and dead.
Sweat flowed from his brow, dripping off his nose, coatings his half naked body that had shed his pajamas.
Ada smiled lightly, retracting her hand before an odd sense of hopelessness touched her.
For a moment, she regretted being pregnant, a thought that appalled her immediately.
She glanced over at her nodachi, the weapon giving her a chance to fight, to help, to be a part of Tanji’s life. To make his life easier.
Now… she couldn't help but feel like a burden as she rubbed her stomach.
Ada turned away, summoning her blade with a sudden sense of determination. Just because she was pregnant didn't mean she couldn't exercise. Couldn't train!
Well… light training. After all, Leona did say she needed up to thirty minutes of exercise, something she'd been neglecting.
Ada quickly got dressed and brushed her teeth, by the time she came out, Jack was still in a trance, the man an unmoving statue.
Finding a piece of paper, Ada wrote Love you, on the paper and taped it to the window, a small message for when he was done.
Exiting the room, Ada was greeted by Jack's security detail, a group of women who seemed to be well acquainted with Jack.
“Ma’am,” A woman at the door named Jessica Ashfield said.
“Good morning Lieutenant Ashfied. Have you all been here all night?” Ada asked, noticing the woman gathered in the hallway armed and in black armor that made her weary, almost like they were they're but weren't.
“Yes ma'am,” The woman said. “We'll be escorting you from here on out. Wherever you go, we'll go.”
“Even… to the bathroom? Because I don't know if you notice but I am pregnant and have to pee a lot.”
The officer smiled.
“We'll try not to invade.your privacy too much, ma’am,” Jessica said. “Where would you like to go?”
“To grab breakfast, then train a bit.”
“Train, ma’am?” Jessica asked.
“Yes. I'm getting a bit chunky if you can't tell, and I've been slacking,” Ada replied with a soft smile that seemed to radiate an earthly glow. “Plus, I need to keep an eye of a certain teenager running around these parts.”
“Right… of course,” Jessica said, signaling two women, Jena, and Tyrah to follow her.
****
Jack let out a breath, steaming exiting his mouth as electrical sparks radiated across his body.
He opened his eyes, surrounded by dead and decaying plants, his eyes taking in the sun as the words.
[Authority of Gehenna LvL2-> 3]
Hovered in front of his golden eyes mixed with red.