As the time for Clark's meeting with Phil and Andrea approached, articles rushed across the screen of his scroll. He read through each one, scrolling to the bottom of an article as quickly as the device could handle and tapping on the next.

The situation hadn't changed much from last night, but he kept himself informed. Most of the family heads of the alliance were facing charges. Thrace, Iona, Garis, and even crime cartel bosses like the Blood Orchid's Xiaoping.

Clark also kept up with Atreus' case, which had looked good for the past few weeks. The police chief had been totally abandoned by Dolus, and he seemed unable to use any of his other connections to help. It wouldn't be long until he was put away.

Just as the minute hand of a nearby clock was about to shift over, Clark raced to the warehouse for their meeting. It was early in the morning, only the highest parts of Mistral were lit up by the rising sun. Down here there was only diffuse background light.

Phil and Andrea were already inside. Phil had stayed here since the Iona fort raid, but it must have been difficult for Andrea to get here since her kidnapping case was going to be settled in court soon.

"Phil, Andrea," Clark nodded as they walked in.

Phil got up from his seat and grinned. "Farmer! It's good to see you back!"

"Same here," Andrea said.

"Thank you. I've been informed on everything that's happened while I was away. Are you two alright?"

"No need to worry," Phil said. "It was a lot to deal with, but we're fine now."

Andrea put on a confident smile. "It'll take more than a couple of kidnappings to give us trouble."

"That's an admirable attitude. Even so, I apologize for not being here when all that happened. I should have kept you safe."

"You don't have to apologize. You were doing something important for the Interference, right?" Phil asked.

Clark told him the truth. "Actually no, I was busy with a personal situation in Menagerie."

"Menagerie?"

"Yes, although I did end up doing much more than I expected. You might have heard about it in the news already."

From their confused looks, they hadn't. It didn't matter, Clark moved on. "Anyway, I don't have an excuse for not being here when you two were in danger. Are either of you upset about that? I understand if you are."

"We're not, Farmer," Andrea said. "I hope you called us down here for more than an apology, because Phil's right, it's nice but really not necessary."

That was interesting. Phil supported him, probably more than he should, but Clark had thought that Andrea at least would be bothered by his absence. From what he could tell though, she was telling the truth. There was no resentment or disappointment from her.

"Well that settles that then. Thanks for being so understanding," Clark said. "Now for the real reason I brought you here, Andrea's kidnapping. It's already gotten a lot of attention. We need to keep it front and center in the public. The Haven students who helped you will also give their testimonies, and since Pyrrha Nikos is one of them that's guaranteed to get even more attention."

They nodded, taking in his instructions. Clark told them he expected the trafficking victims to throw some more light on the alliance too, so Andrea should talk to them beforehand to prepare them. Some alliance members had escaped the accusations already, but their recent acquittals should still place suspicion on them. With Clark watching for how the alliance would use their government connections, he could protect the testifiers while they eventually garnered international outrage. It wasn't necessary for the plan, but it would put pressure on the courts to make the right decisions.

That wasn't all. They also had to use this chance to strike at Dolus.

"Phil, do you know the names of the people who tried to kidnap you?" Clark asked.

"Only one. Eugene Regas. He's a cop I met before through one of Balli's friends. There were one or two others I recognized too, I could ask for their names but for the rest I have no idea."

"Do you think anyone else you met through Balli, or even Balli himself set you up?"

"I doubt Balli would help Dolus. I don't know anyone else well enough to say."

"Okay Phil, listen carefully. You'll be able to go back home soon and reveal to everyone what Dolus tried to do. When you do that, I'm also going to need you to ask for those other names as quickly as you can. Try to find out which officers you found through Balli we can trust, but do it carefully. If you think some are getting suspicious of you, stop immediately."

"I will," Phil said.

"Good. I'm hoping that we can show a connection between these cops and Atreus and get Dolus to stumble into the same hole he's abandoned Atreus in. I'll also check out how much the guys who kidnapped you, or their higher-ups, know about Dolus. Andrea, if you can, ask your source if she knows anything either. We can't be sure that will work out though, but there are a few things I can bring up that will make it harder for him to maneuver his way out of this. "

"Wow, we're going to be busy," Andrea said. "Seriously, we probably won't even get a second to breathe with this workload."

She said it in a complaining tone but there was a smile on her face and an anticipatory gleam in her eyes. Phil was the same, and if Clark had taken off his mask they would have seen a matching expression.

Before they left, Clark told them to keep their walkie-talkies with them at all times. This was going to be a crucial and dangerous phase in the Interference's work, this time he'd respond as quickly as he could to any emergency.

\\\\\

From a distance, Clark watched as Phil ran into a police station. Not the one he worked at, this one was closer to the lower levels of the city, which was their best guess for where Regas and his men would have taken Phil.

He was wearing the same clothes as when he'd been kidnapped, and he'd roughed himself up to make it seem like he'd survived in the city on his own. Ruby and the others had made sure he was comfortable in the warehouse, but that would hint too much at Phil's connection to the Interference. Clark had gotten him to mess up his hair and work up a sweat to build up some body odor.

Of course, Phil and Andrea's involvement in the Interference was well-known to Dolus and the alliance, but they couldn't let it become public knowledge. It would be way too easy for Dolus to tangle them up in legalities.

Clark doubted the Councilor or the alliance would waste their time trying to prove a connection to the Interference. They wouldn't even be able to prove that the Interference existed unless they revealed the illegal methods of their information-gathering networks.

Phil still had to explain how he was here now if he'd been kidnapped, and Clark couldn't let him be accused of perjury. It would be far too easy for Regas to point out any lies in his testimony of how he'd been rescued.

That meant Phil would tell the truth. He'd been saved by masked huntsman, at least he assumed they were based on their skills. He didn't know who they were but they'd taken him away from his kidnappers and just left him after that. Until now he'd been too frightened to come back.

Clark smiled as Phil told his fellow police what had happened. He wasn't acting. His indignation and desperation for justice were real.

The officers here were dubious of Phil's story at first, but once they confirmed that he was also an officer and that Eugene Regas had disappeared they took his story much more seriously.

There didn't seem to be anyone in Dolus' pocket here, so Clark left while Phil was wrapped up in the process of being protected as a victim of a kidnapping case with the perpetrators were still on the loose.

\\\\\

Only a few days later, as Clark monitored the news in the evening, a story caught his eye. It wasn't at all related to the alliance, Dolus, or even Mistral, but it was on the front page of every news site.

Adam Taurus, Former Leader of the White Fang, Executed!

He could have breezed through the article with a flick of his finger, but instead he took his time reading it. Which was fine when there wasn't too much to say. It described the reactions of the crowd as Chief Ghira had made the announcement of the death penalty being administered to Taurus. Along with a summary of the recent capture of key White Fang members, the journalist gave hopeful sentiments as this signified the end of the White Fang.

It had only been four days since Clark had stopped Taurus, there was no way that was long enough to give him a trial. Phil's and Andrea's kidnapping trials hadn't even started yet, the lawyers were still gathering evidence and witnesses.

Clark searched up any information he could on Taurus' trial, but there wasn't any. Lots of stuff about the raid on the White Fang base, a little about the chieftain deliberating on how to handle the terrorists, but nothing on how this decision had been reached.

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Curious. And concerning. Clark hadn't thought the Menagerie government was corrupt, especially not after meeting Ghira. Giving Taurus the death penalty was understandable, but skirting the law to give it to him? No, even he deserved the chance to at least defend himself.

Unfortunately, with no information online on it, Clark didn't have a quick way to find out what had happened. The current attention on Menagerie meant that the few available channels were being used by news networks who'd pay premium prices on them. So he couldn't call and ask.

Normally he could make a simple dash to Menagerie, but right now he had to stay put in case Phil or Andrea needed him for an emergency.

Clark could hear Blake in the dorm. She wasn't with anyone, and since he didn't hear her doing anything else like eating, that probably meant she was reading.

He headed to RBY's room and knocked on the door. Blake opened it, and the book in her hand confirmed his guess.

"Clark. Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask you something." He held up his scroll with the title of the article he'd read. "This was a really fast decision. Can you give me an idea of how Menagerie's justice system works?"

Her face went blank after reading the title. Little twitches told him she'd forced down stronger reactions. "Yes. In most cases it's not much different from what you'll find in the Kingdoms, arrest, trial, verdict, and then jail time. The difference is that this wasn't like most cases, Adam is" -she corrected herself- "was the leader of the White Fang and a huntsman-level fighter. There wasn't time for a trial."

"I don't understand, why not?"

"He was too dangerous. My dad doesn't have anyone who can subdue him if he gets violent, and even if he did there was still too much harm Adam could have done if he escaped."

"Why not use aura cuffs?" Clark asked.

"We don't have them. Reliable ones are a recent technology that haven't made their way to a backwater like Menagerie yet," Blake said, with a hint of acid which thankfully wasn't directed at him.

Now the situation made sense. Containing Taurus would have been difficult, and Ghira had no way to stop him if he escaped. To protect Menagerie, they'd been forced to execute him quickly.

"Is it . . . different where you come from?" Blake asked.

That gave him some amusement. After being told everything, she still hadn't fully adjusted to the fact that he was an alien from another dimension. "Normally, in the country I came from, if he was in custody like that he would have been given a trial. Not too different from what goes on in the Kingdoms here."

"But you came from a world without Grimm, surely it's different?"

He considered the question. "Yes, but maybe not as much as you think. Most people are just normal humans, the general population doesn't even know that there are people with abilities that could threaten them like Taurus. His execution was fast compared to what I'm used to."

"I see. Do you disapprove of the decision?"

"No, I understand it. I disagree with the death penalty in most cases, but I see why it was necessary here."

"That's an interesting view. What would make Adam's death unnecessary for you?"

"Being able to detain him safely."

She hadn't seemed to have expected that answer. "Even for a terrorist like him?"

"Forgiveness was a big part of how I was raised," Clark said.

"How so?" she asked.

"Just part of my parents' religion." He wouldn't call himself a conventional Christian, but the lessons he'd been taught going to church in Smallville and talking to his parents still stuck with him. One of them being it was never too late for a person to repent and receive forgiveness for their sins. Clark decided that he didn't want to elaborate and ended the conversation. "Anyway, thanks for the help, I appreciate it."

She blinked, surprised at the sudden disappearance of his openness. "Of course, you're welcome."

He walked back up to his room, the turmoil of emotions hidden under a polite face. He believed in the right to earn forgiveness, but in this case only as an ideal that he couldn't reach.

Because when he really thought about it, about how Adam was responsible for Velvet's death, forgiving him seemed unacceptable. More than that, it was like nothing less than making him pay for the pain he'd inflicted on Clark, Satin, and everyone else he'd wronged could be enough.

But that was only his first impulse, rage and rancor that shouldn't be followed. Still, even when he calmed down, he couldn't feel the profound truth of the right of forgiveness, as if it were unable to make its way into his rigid heart.

\\\\\

Eugene Regas plodded to the house he'd been hiding in for the past few days, already regretting his decision to go out for lunch. There was no way to avoid the puddles in his path, and they grew quickly as the rain poured down. Even worse, the lowest level of Mistral barely had any storm drains, so water pooled in brown puddles long before running off.

He knew it was best to stay inside, even though when he did go out he became only one hooded face among many. Today though, he just hadn't been able to stand it. There was no harm in eating it out just once. He didn't like depending on the house's owner for food anyway, years of working with Dolus told him that it was dangerous to learn too much about whatever connection she had to his new boss, and it would be all too easy for her to slip something in a bowl of soup to make sure he never said a word about her.

Eugene entered the house. It seemed empty, but he'd learned that there were cameras watching the entrance. The owner would know if someone uninvited tried to come in, and she, along with her guards would probably make that person's life hell if they were lucky enough to survive at all.

He walked to his room and turned on the bedside lamp, showing just how small it was. There was little space besides the bed and closet. Eugene threw off his wet jacket.

"Nice place you've got here," a man said behind him.

Immediately Eugene spun around, hand on his gun but not raising it in case it was one of the owner's men. The moment he saw that the intruder was someone in all black instead of a bulging musclehead, he brought his gun up in a flash.

"Hold on, give me that." The gun had somehow ended up in the intruder's hands.

Now Eugene realized who he was dealing with. The man was dressed the same as those people who'd saved Helios that night. A black jacket and mask. He held the gun almost lazily, as if it were a harmless toy and didn't even point at Eugene. Even so, he seemed more than dangerous enough without it.

"Interference," Eugene said.

"Yes. That saves some time. Sit down."

Eugene obeyed, placing himself on the edge of his bed.

"I'm going to ask you some questions. Answer them truthfully. If you don't . . ." His fingers tightened on the gun and squished it as easily as clay. Watching it, Eugene would have thought it was fake if he hadn't heard the metal squeal in protest. The man threw it aside.

Eugene's mouth went dry. He didn't much effort to bring up mental images of the hand doing the same to him. Wrapping around his fingers, his arms, legs, or neck and squeezing. He hadn't been involved with torture much, but mangled bodies weren't a new sight for him. He nodded.

"Good. First, I want the names of everyone you know who worked for Dolus or Atreus. Write them down." He produced a pen and paper and gave them to him.

Eugene wrote as many as he could remember. If he'd had his scroll he could have given a few pictures too, since a few were friends outside of work, but carrying his scroll with him would have been like begging to be tracked down. When the intruder asked, he specified which ones had been with him when they'd gone to kidnap Helios.

"Do you know much about what Dolus has done in this city?"

"No, I was just a cop who did some jobs for him. I used to get them through orders from Atreus, I don't know what else Dolus did."

"What were those jobs?"

Eugene had done a good amount of jobs, but they weren't very different from each other. Beating up people who were bothering Atreus, there'd been a businessman and a lawyer among them. He'd also thrown out evidence for a few cases and delivered packages and money. Most of the time he hadn't known what they were for.

The intruder focused on the jobs Eugene could remember the most details from. He had him write them down along with the names of those who'd been hurt from his jobs. Since he couldn't name who he'd given stuff to, the intruder made him give descriptions of them.

When Eugene finished, the intruder took his paper, folded it up, and put it in his pocket. "Good news, we're almost done. There's just one more thing you have to do. You're going get out of hiding and admit that you kidnapped Phil Helios."

"Okay."

That gave the intruder pause. "Just 'okay'? You're very cooperative, you know."

"There's a reason for that." Eugene wouldn't have dared to point, so he just turned his head to the direction of the mangled gun on the floor.

"Yes, but aren't you afraid that Dolus might do something even worse to you?"

Crap! Eugene hadn't been careful enough. Of course he should have at least said something even if it wasn't an argument. He worked his brain to make up a good reason why he'd been so obedient.

"You're getting nervous." The intruder's tone was as casual as if he were telling the time.

"W-well of course I am. Dolus is pretty much finished anyway, you're a much more real threat right now than him. Besides, you need me, right? You'll protect me as long as I can help you get him stuck in court."

"You certainly have a high opinion of the Interference if you expect us to be able or willing to protect you from him."

Eugene hadn't been expecting that at all, he'd mentioned it in desperation. They were definitely powerful enough to keep him safe, although if they didn't need him . . .

"You're right though, we'll protect you. And I suppose with little Sophie with Amara outside the city-

Eugene gasped. His eyes went wide.

"-you probably think they're safe from Dolus."

They knew! The Interference knew about Eugene's wife and daughter! It was easy enough to find out, but he'd hoped they wouldn't get involved. Whoever his new boss was, whatever protection he gave them couldn't be enough against the Interference. Both the cartels' alliance and Dolus hadn't been able to stop them!

"Relax," the intruder said. "They'll be fine. Just make sure to testify, and remember, perjury's illegal." He began to walk to the door.

"Wait!" Eugene's cry brought him to a stop. "Don't go out that way, there are cameras and guards." He couldn't have the Interference retaliate against his family if anything happened to this man.

"Nice of you to worry, but I'll be fine." The intruder left and closed the door after him.

Now Eugene felt brave enough to leap up from the bed. If he could talk to the owner, the guards, he might be able to tell them how the boss had expected someone like this guy and to let him go.

He yanked the door open and looked out. Nobody was there.

\\\\\

Some time had passed since Clark had been to this house. He'd gotten a disappointing answer from its owner back then. Now he was hoping it would be different.

He knocked on the door. In a few seconds a woman in her forties opened it.

Jade Ophel. She narrowed her eyes as she recognized him. "You again. What do you want?"

"I want the same thing I asked for before, ma'am. The information your husband had on the Council, especially on Dolus."

She didn't answer, instead showing a deep-set frown.

"Do you pay attention to the news, Mrs. Ophel?" Clark asked. "What your husband knew could help a lot with what's going on in Mistral."

By this point, the trials with the crime cartels and Dolus were going well. A celebrity like Pyrrha being involved had thrown them into the spotlight. Other Haven students were testifying as well, not to mention the various other individuals like Regas who'd carried out tasks for Dolus over the Councilor's career. As Clark had hoped, the trafficking victims had been called on to say what they knew about the cartels.

They were going well, but there was still a chance that Dolus could retain some power after his verdict. Clark needed reduce the probability of that as much as he could. Plus, there were still other shady Councilors who needed to be scrutinized. From what hints Clark had found, Ned Ophel had information on them, possibly even connections to Dolus.

Mrs. Ophel sighed, and her frown disappeared. In a tired voice she said "Yes, I pay attention to the news and Ned's work could certainly help." A slight suspicion entered her eyes. "Who are you? How did you do it?"

"I think it would be safer if I didn't share the details."

"Of course it would. Wait here." She closed the door and went upstairs. When she came back down she had a folder in her hands. She gave it to him. "This is what you wanted. Don't let it go to waste, not like I did."

Clark flicked through it, using a bit of speed to skim much more of it than she could have expected. Ned's work was promising. "Thank you, I'll make sure to use it well."