Chapter 11: Summertime Terrorist Funsplosion Part 1
The eminence in shadow peered down at the ravaged school, watching groups of shackled students being corralled to the gym while pondering the most important decision he'd have to make for months.
Whether to play this scenario Die Hard style or Predator style.
Die Hard style would mean going back into his Cid persona and helping to fight off the terrorists as one of the students before slipping away and revealing himself as Shadow for the final fight. This had the advantage of improving his side character persona since people would look at him and say "That's Cid, he did that one little thing during the terrorist attack" but he could miss the boss fight if he couldn't get away from his own allies in time.
Predator style would mean hunting the hunters from the shadows, picking them off one by one and slowly showing himself more and more to build fear. This would be more immediately satisfying and he'd be able to move more freely but it posed two major problems.
1. It would resolve everything way too fast.
2. Maybe it was just the terrorist knock-off's version of the suit, but the full black outfits looked terrible in the summer sun.
That made it easy to decide to join the school cast until evening. The Die Hard method would also be less likely to come up again in the future, so it was the appropriate decision from a rarity perspective.
Still, the imbalance of power between the students and the terrorists was a problem, so he should take a few out right now to even things up. He lined up a few shots on a couple of slackers just hanging out in the space between the gym and the cafeteria.
As if we'd just be chatting out in the open mid-operation with enemies around.
He was pretty satisfied with the double kill he managed to land and looked around, trying to decide on his next set of targets.
Now, where to go next?
---
Sherry was sitting with Erin trying her best to look casual since she should have no idea what was about to happen. If there was one positive thing to say about her research partner, it was that she incredibly focused on her work. Indeed, Sherry thought that if she choked to death Erin wouldn't notice until her head hit the table, at which point she would refuse to look away from her book and tell her to keep quiet while she read.
Her long wait finally ended as an oppressive feeling took hold of the air, cutting into the room like a cold wind. Even Erin detached herself from her book to look down at her hand and attempted to form some magical effect which failed and fizzled out.
It was the first time she'd seen Erin attempt magic but she had always assumed she could, even though it wasn't required to research magical artifacts it was beneficial to be able to test your own work.
"Something's happened to our magic" Erin noted to the rest of the room.
Marco and Glenn then tried to use their own magic but had no more luck than Erin. They were discussing what to do next when the door burst open and two black cloaked cultists forced their way through while a red haired man in black with his face uncovered simultaneously smashed his way through the window.
"We are Shadow Garden...no wait it might be Shadow Guardian, let me check".
He gestured to his two associates who answered in a dead voice "We are Shadow Garden".
"Fuck, I was right the first time...well, who cares? The name's Rex and we're here for that artifact you guys are holding on to. Hand it over and no-one here has to get hurt". He gave a smile that made it very clear that whatever they did, someone was going to be hurt.
She'd heard from her father that a particularly difficult to handle member was coming, a named child with the nickname 'the rebel' due to his disregard for orders but this was so poorly done she was embarrassed to be in the same organisation as him.
Her limited experience in the cult had shown it to be a very…diverse organisation. Zenon and her father both had respected public personas while Rex had no public life to speak of and lived simply for the moments when the cult would let him off the leash to kill. She assumed the knights of rounds were like her father as he had once been a member but she had no way to be sure of that.
She thought even the lowest recruits might have had a more complete view of the organisation since her induction into the cult had been a complete accident. Almost a year ago she'd been planning to spend a night working on a history project to "Assess the legitimacy of the legend of the three heroes and the demon diabolos using historical evidence" but someone had taken most of the relevant books (without the librarian's knowledge) so she'd got home hours before she was expected back.
It was a sign of how much Lutheran's illness had progressed that a Bushin champion didn't notice her presence until after she'd overheard most of his conversation.
"Do you think this is a game?" She was pulled out of her memory by Glenn's irritated voice. It seemed he and Marco were as unamused by Rex's performance as she was.
"No, a game would be fun. Once I get this artifact thing I can go wild and kill whoever I want. That'll be fun" Rex explained in complete seriousness.
Marco and Glenn (wisely in her opinion) stopped trying to reason with him and stood back to back, settling into fighting stances facing opposite ends of the room when the wall to Rex's right burst apart and Beatrix stepped through the new opening casually.
Oh damn. The one person who could still be a threat in this situation.
She'd been off to lunch and ideally would have been kept out of the way until she and Erin had been taken, 'forced' to fix the control unit and then her father would have easily been able to deal with the weakened goddess of war. As it stood right now she just had to hope Rex could handle Beatrix with a handicap since it didn't look like she intended to let him get away.
It wasn't my fault. There was nothing I could have done to stop her coming back.
Beatrix pointed her sword at Rex and declared "This one looks strongest so I'll fight him. You two should deal with the ones by the door. Sherry, Erin, you need to leave".
Sherry collected the artifact from the drawer and prepared to leave while Erin yawned "Ah...how cruel...to make me run now".
As much as she would love to leave the other girl behind she couldn't, since if Beatrix survived she would think of Sherry as the sort of person who would leave a 'friend' behind to die.
Sherry grabbed Erin by the arm and almost dragged the stumbling girl to the room's rightmost door while the clash of steel rang out behind them.
"Sherry...you're annoying...I can do it myself".
By the time she got into the corridor Erin was moving steadily under her own power, which gave her a little room to think. If she could just meet another cultist she could 'surrender' to them and then get taken exactly where she needed to go. For that she needed noise.
"Erin, where do we go now?" She loudly cried in false hysteria.
Erin just looked bored "Beatrix will win... It's in her blood. Just stay out of the way… until she's done".
"We can't just wait" she wailed. "We need to do something, what if everyone else is being attacked right now. Cid, Alexia, Iris and the rest of the school".
Erin yawned again "Alexia and Iris went shopping".
She was about to yell 'and what about Cid' but her racket had achieved it's desired effect. A cultist was coming up to them, sword raised "We are Shadow Garden".
"Ah, please don't kill us. We surrender". She retreated, holding the artifact out in front of her like a shield. The man recognised her and hesitated, and his distraction ended up being his last mistake.
Speak of the devil.
A sword reached in at the cultists hip and came out just under the shoulder on his opposite side. Behind him stood Cid, his face contorted with fury.
Erin noticed something and stepped up to Cid, for the first time that day looking completely awake as she eyed his stomach and asked "What happened?".
Sherry edged around her and looked at the same place and gasped despite herself. His shirt was bloody and there was a narrow, distinctly sword shaped cut through the front. He'd obviously been recently healed as the angry red wound underneath was no longer bleeding or limiting his range of motion.
"Nothing much. I just got hurt and had to play dead for a while" Cid responded lazily.
"Thank goodness you're okay" Sherry said as she wrapped him in a quick hug, gingerly stepping around her dead compatriot and trying to avoid touching his bloody shirt.
"What should do we do now?" Erin asked Cid eagerly.
I just asked you that two minutes ago and you couldn't care less.
"We'll move to another room and plan out our next move" Glenn called from up the hall. "We're clear for now".
They went down to the floor below, with Cid leading them to the staff room and sitting in an armchair while Glenn and Marco explained the situation.
"So then this guy called Rex showed up and he seemed confused about what to say. He didn't even seem to know the name of his organisation since he called it Shadow Guardian at one point. Then he said he was trying to get the control unit and that he'd kill whoever he wanted once he had it".
Cid had been calm up to this point but it seemed he had finally reached his limit. He was clenching the side of his chair muttering "Unforgivable, absolutely unforgivable". Apparently he cared about everyone in the school much more than she had thought previously if the idea of them being hurt caused this kind of emotional outburst.
Marco swiftly moved the conversation along "Yeah well, Beatrix came in and saved our asses at that point, thanks for that by the way". He bowed his head slightly to Beatrix before continuing. "She was wiping the floor with him so he leapt back out of the window and once the three of us could focus on the two that were left it wasn't much of a problem".
Beatrix looked unhappy with Marco's description "I would have rather faced them properly one on one but it wouldn't have made a difference to whether or not I would win" she reasoned "and we need to resolve this quickly to prevent casualties".
"I wasn't complaining" Marco looked over to her and Erin "So is what's causing this the Eye of Avarice?".
Sherry nodded while Erin shrugged "Probably… It matches the description...but we can't be sure without seeing it".
Cid gave them a rundown of what he had seen through the school, though none of it surprised her. The students were being herded to the gym and the cultist were sweeping through the school to try and find any stragglers, though that seemed to be winding down as they found less and less for their effort.
"So why do you think Shadow Garden wants this artifact so much" Beatrix asked
"They're not Shadow Garden!" Cid exclaimed.
"They do wear the same outfits and have been saying that they're Shadow Garden. Since they were planning to kill us, why lie about it?" Marco interjected.
"One of them literally didn't know what they were supposed to be called!" Cid continued furiously "and you might have noticed all of those very masculine Shadow Garden members".
"He could have just been a battle fanatic that wasn't interested in the organisation as long as he could cause chaos. If he was an imposter trying to blame Shadow Garden then wouldn't it make more sense to not fumble the name. Honestly, we only have information from one operation involving Shadow Garden so it's not like we have a full view of them. It's possible they're much larger than we originally thought but only a specific division of women were active during the last incident" Glenn reasoned.
Wow, Rex's stupidity might actually pay off since no-one would believe he's that brain-dead.
Cid seemed to stall at these points, but eventually managed to pull out an answer triumphantly "Except for all of the cult documents about Shadow Garden I've been translating which mention they're all female. I'll bet you anything the real Shadow Garden will show up at some point and start attacking these copycats".
Why did he have to pick now to be clever.
"The important thing is what we should be doing now" Beatrix broke in firmly.
"These guys don't seem to be trying to keep this quiet so Iris and the rest of the knights probably know the situation by now and I don't think there's any point sending someone to tell them" Marco explained.
"If that's the case then Iris and the others are keeping their distance because of the anti-magic field. Is there anything we can do about that, you used magic before" Glenn looked at Beatrix hopefully but she just shook her head regretfully.
"When ever I try to use magic part of whatever I'm doing is getting drained away, so I'm using more than double the mana I usually would for the same effect. It will be dangerous for me to fight a prolonged battle or against multiple foes with this field up".
Erin was looking at her hand where a few thin lines of dark red were dancing at her fingertips "Looks like it doesn't work...if the magic's too thin. The eye probably can't detect it because...it's so minor".
Everyone was shocked by this and decided to try refining their own magic down that way for a few minutes but no-one was successful apart from Cid, though he explained this was due to his limited supply of magic so the technique was barely any different from his normal usage.
"So we need to take down the field so we can fight back properly and let Iris and the others come through" Marco looked to Erin and Sherry "Can you do anything to help with that?"
"Oh, I think so" Sherry began, a plan starting to form in her mind. "We have the control unit and once it's attached the eye shouldn't be able to take in any more mana, but it seems to have been damaged so we'd need our tools from the workshop to start fixing it and then have to find some way of combining it with the eye".
She had to commend Zenon for his paranoid preparations as they had caused no small amount of grief. The mana gathered in the eye was unusable without the control unit and by stealing it he'd blocked her father's path back to the knights of rounds without starting an internal conflict since he'd managed it undetected. Lutheran hadn't known who was behind the theft until Iris returned from Zenon's base with the artifact. By damaging it he had ensured his safety in the event that her father had discovered his theft and challenged him against the cult's rules on infighting (he'd be unable to use the mana gathered in the eye against Zenon during the confrontation). By ensuring it was repairable he'd also left a path for himself to use the eye if it ever came into his hands.
"But if Sh…" Cid (and Erin's) gaze of disapproval sent Glenn on another direction "The attackers want the artifact wouldn't we be giving them what they want".
"Well...Yes, but the eye will explode and destroy the whole school if we don't. If I'm right we have about ten hours left until that happens"
If I don't get it to father soon, he's going to die.
What happened to her mother wasn't Sherry's fault, as a child there was nothing she could have done. She had always told herself that if she could have done something then she would have and when she learned about Lutheran's disease and that he needed her help she knew she couldn't give up even if the price was high. She obviously didn't want to hurt anyone in the school but she had no real friends to speak of so it wasn't anything she couldn't sacrifice to save her father.
If he'd never gotten sick and kept his position in the rounds, then my mother would still be alive. How many times has he told me that.
Everyone had been quiet for a few seconds as they considered her previous words while Erin looked at the artifact, probably beginning to plan out how to begin the repairs.
"I could go and get them" Cid spoke out "It's not that far and I should be able to go unnoticed".
"Honestly you might be better off than us if you can still use magic" Glenn said "But it's too important and too dangerous to go alone, someone else should go with you".
"Maybe I should go, I know what tools we'll need" Sherry spoke out hopefully. This plan might go her way but she would be much safer if she could just get away from these people with the artifact and coordinate with her father.
"No offence but I think we should only send people with some combat training" Marco added "Besides, you should be working with Erin to figure out how you're going to fix that thing".
"Maybe I should just go alone, It'll be less easy to find me if I'm by myself" Cid offered.
"I'll go with him. We'll be as quick as we can so focus on buying time and escaping if anyone comes before we get back" Beatrix answered.
At least he should be safe with her.
"You should...change your shirt" Erin added casually. Cid and the rest of the group looked curiously and Sherry thought her slowness of speech this time was at least partly due to shyness "The blood...could leave a trail...and if they have any beastkin...they'll smell it and find you".
"Eh, I guess I probably should. Could you guys help me find something?"
They were able to find a shirt that would fit Cid before he left and her theory about Erin initially seemed confirmed when she tried to subtly look towards Cid as he went to the corner to change. After Cid left Erin smashed Sherry's understanding to nothing when she went over to his discarded bloody shirt, looked down at it like it was her firstborn and folded it up to put in the bottom of the bag she had brought with her.
"I'll clean it...and return it to him later. We should start talking...about how to fix the artifact". Erin lied unconvincingly when she noticed her, Marco and Glenn staring at her shocked by what they had just witnessed.
If I'd never seen her in the sun I might have thought she was a vampire. Is there some other kind of monster that likes human blood and that's sleepy all the time, or is this just some creepy obsession she has with Cid?
Sherry would never give up on her father, but if it meant a conflict with this woman she was completely ready to give up on Cid.
---
Cid was slightly apprehensive about having the Beatrix following him around. She had enough mana to push through the barrier for a little while and was one of the most renowned fighters in the world. Not that he thought he couldn't handle her, but getting things past her might be harder than with an ordinary person.
"So why'd you come" Cid whispered as they crept along the corridor. It would have made more sense to stick with the group as she would have been able to protect more people, and two people were naturally less stealthy than one.
"I saw your fight with Rose with my niece. I got a feeling you had the potential to become a great fighter someday".
"That… doesn't make sense. If you think I'm good then why not let me go alone". Cid responded before quickly adding "Not that I'm not grateful for the help". A side character like Cid would be scared and thankful to be protected after all. He added a little tremor to his voice and went for a few nervous glances in every direction as they continued on.
"Do you know how Allison reacted to your defeat?".
"Uh...she was upset?"
"She was completely impassive, she's always been good at that. The fact she was concealing her emotions at all tells me something"
Cid didn't know how to reply to this so decided to say nothing. Alpha was probably trying not to laugh at the audience for not seeing through his shtick.
"What do you think of her?"
"She's nice"
"and?"
"Clever"
"and?" she was beginning to sound frustrated.
I guess since she's missed so much of her life she's looking for more information. Could you please not drag me into your family drama though?
"She's a perfectionist, at least when it comes to whatever she's doing herself. When she's in charge of other people, and she usually does take charge of whatever group she's in, she's a little more forgiving but can get really mad if she thinks you've made a mistake you should have noticed. Whenever she does get angry she doesn't shout or scream but just sort of coldly lays down the law, and she's loyal. Maybe dedicated would be a better word, either way I don't think she'd ever give up on a friend even when she's upset with them".
That was how she brought the shades together. She was willing to look past a lot of shit in those early days to keep the team together.
Beatrix seemed to get what she wanted out of this as she smiled and followed up with something other than 'and'.
"She's told me a little about you, about how you found her an abandoned house to stay in and provided for her and her friends. I'm certain she would be upset if you got hurt again, so that's why I'm here".
Dammit Alpha, you're making me sound too heroic.
Well that at least explained why Beatrix had been kept such a close eye on him before the tournament and was following him now.
As he approached the corridor to the lab he sensed someone ahead, but as he got closer he realized it was actually two people. Both had magical power, but the second was much stronger and was concealing themselves much better than the first person was. If they were who he thought they were he needed to ditch Beatrix here.
"I don't sense anyone down this corridor and this is the only way in, so I think you should stay here. If someone comes then you'll be better off against more enemies in this narrow space than any of the labs".
Beatrix considered for a moment "Are you certain there's no-one there?"
"Absolutely one hundred percent"
Beatrix took a position facing away from the labs and rested her hand on her sword hilt "Okay then I'll keep watch from here. If there is anyone there yell and I'll come running".
---
Nu was waiting for lord Shadow, trying to ignore the frustration that came at not being able to kill the first child hiding just a few feet away. Even fighting at half of her strength through the field she would easily win but she couldn't do so quietly enough to not draw attention, and the point of coming here had been to establish contact with her master. If any of the others heard a commotion they would stick together more closely and she'd have no chance to talk with him.
She heard him pull the door open and step inside before a voice dripping with arrogance called out "So it's just a student huh? But if you came to this lab you must have the artifact. Hand it over and you can be one of the lucky ones".
Her master replied as if he'd been asked for directions "Are you Rex?"
She couldn't see him, but could tell he was smiling "Yeah, nice to hear my name's getting around no…." He stopped speaking and she heard a choking noise, as she stepped out of her hiding spot Nu saw Shadow had disarmed him and was holding him by the throat.
"Master, do you wish me to dispose of this vermin?" she would be more than eager to take the task off his hands.
"I surrender" Rex managed to whisper.
"What?" Cid asked dryly
"I give up...Can I...join you guys?" Nu was in her slime suit so he must have figured out they were the real Shadow Garden and he had no chance of escape but their mercy. He was an amusing man.
Cid took on a thoughtful expression.
Is he really going to spare this parasite.
"Okay you can join us, but first you need to answer one question correctly"
Rex managed a little nod "Okay, sure".
He pointed over to her and then back at himself "What's our name?".
Nu was confused by the question but Rex paled and took on a look of intense focus before cautiously offering "Shadow...Gaiden".
The top half of his head was skittering across the floor before Nu registered Shadow had even moved. Sure enough she had missed his arm moving but it had instantly transitioned into another position holding a slime sword. It was mildly frightening knowing if she wasn't entirely focused on him and using all of her magic to keep up she couldn't even follow his speed, and she'd have no chance of matching it in combat. She was too amused by the great joke Shadow had just played with the cultist to care very much.
She let out a little giggle and hastily quieted herself when Shadow looked at her curiously "Apologies master. Watching you play with that named child was highly enjoyable but shouldn't we have kept him alive for questioning?". As a named child he might have had useful information and enough of his sanity left to be susceptible to torture.
And as funny as that was it was surely too quick.
Lord Shadow looked at her with an irritated expression and she flinched slightly. He took a few seconds to respond "Did he seem like the type of person someone would give important information to?"
Of course. Even if he was a named child Rex's reputation was such that he wouldn't be trusted with any key knowledge. She was foolish to even consider that her master had just grown angry and killed him without any further consideration
"Yes. My apologies for not realizing immediately. Might I ask why you've come?"
"The artifact that's blocking everyone's magic can be countered with another artifact, but we need tools to fix it which is why I'm here. What's the situation like on your end?"
"We managed to gather approximately forty agents ready to storm the school whenever we chose to attack. We also have Ladies Beta and Epsilon leading ready to lead the squads and Lady Gamma is co-ordinating the operation from the rear. The shades are unaffected but the rest of our personnel are operating at around fifty percent efficiency in terms of mana usage".
Cid sat down at one of the desks and put a hand on his chin and looked contemplative "So it's to our advantage to wait until the field's down before we move in. I think we'll be trying that at around sunset so tell Gamma to be ready for that time. She should be able to sense when the field comes down".
Nu nodded and then Shadow listed off the tools and materials that would be required to fix the artifact and then they both split up to locate them. Thankfully the research students appeared to have given up without a fight and so (one half-brained corpse not withstanding) the room was in good order and it was easy to collect what they needed.
---
There were so many hushed whispers in the gym it was hard to recognise most of it as speech and not just some incessant wind constantly rising and falling through the massive space. Rose tried not to listen in on the closest ones (she'd already overheard a few conversations she was certain the speakers had meant to be private) as she slowly shifted positions, trying to move so gradually she wouldn't be noticed.
It had taken a while but she she had finally figured out a way to use her magic. If her usual supply was a river then what she held now was a trickle but it was enough for what she had planned. As she moved near to Alisa (a first year she had met in the music club) she gave a quick explanation of what she was doing and slowly levered herself so she could sit back to back with her.
Victor, one of her old fencing instructors had told her that observation was one of the most vital skills a swordsman possessed. His father had been an investigator and could apparently determine the character of almost anyone he met after a few minutes of conversation (this had usually included his story about how his father had easily deduced that the plumber he'd brought to fix his bathroom after a particularly excessive party wasn't a history tutor as Victor had tried to claim by the callouses on his hands and had promptly grounded him for a month).
Watching the terrorists, trying to see when her moment would come had revealed something to her. She wasn't the only one who was waiting for something. The rank and file were just standing around, almost aimless except occasionally doing something to keep the students in line while their leader was wearing his impatience openly, by turns pacing and staring down at an object Rose believed to be the source of their magic problem. That man would be a problem even if they had their magic back, a few of his underlings seemed dangerous but he was in another league.
I shouldn't try to fight him if I can avoid it. If I can get everyone out of this first he'll be brought down by the knights eventually.
They were waiting for something and that would be the moment to strike, not now when almost all attention was on the students, but later when they either tried to move them or were confronted by the knights. Knowing she shouldn't move didn't mean she couldn't prepare though so she spent the first hour of captivity trying to find some way of accessing her magic, and eventually got enough so that she could try to unbind her arms tied behind her back.
She realised she would be quickly spotted and retied if she cut all the way though so she weakened the rope just enough that it would snap if she put all her strength into pulling it apart. Then she moved from person to person trying to do the same for them. She had first went to the two remaining members of the student council she could see.
Their treasurer Oliver was a lanky, bespectacled boy with black hair that was unkindly known as a teachers pet by the rest of the school, but his respect for the rules didn't seem to extend to the commands of the terrorists. If anything he was so outraged at the disturbance they'd caused he'd jumped to follow her plan and set off on his own to free more of their captive classmates, although he would be using a jagged scrap of metal she'd managed to pull off one of the few chairs they had been given rather than magic, so his progress would be much slower than hers.
She had hoped for similar help from Roxanne since she was from Cid's class but she'd refused to hear anything about it. She'd pretended to be in shock and not to hear, but Rose could see the recognition and fear in her eyes. She'd decided to ignore her and hope for the best by keeping her head down.
At least she didn't get anyone killed.
That brought her thoughts back to Cid where they had often drifted during the slow process of moving around her classmates and loosening their bindings. The more she tried to avoid it the more it seemed to happen.
At first it had just been Cid's heroic final moments replaying in her mind but something even more painful eventually started to play out in her head. A scenario where all of this never happened and Cid was still alive.
She had imagined her own reaction to Cid's confession and their first magical date. Cid joining her for lessons (ridiculous since she was in the year above) and spending time with her friends. Going on vacation together.
Eventually the scenario met the inevitable bump in the road that was meeting her father but even that couldn't fully stop it. Cid worked tirelessly to impress her father and that combined with his gratitude to him for saving her life (somehow that was still included despite simultaneously not happening) and her own pleas would eventually move the king to allow them to be together.
Their journey to the Farleina and their wedding in the most grand cathedral of the capital. The happy cheers of the crowd as they made their way back to the palace to begin their new lives together. The daydream lost clarity when she reached their children and growing old together, but it was no less heartbreaking by its impossibility.
Oh Beatrix, How I wish that future was still possible.
---
Beatrix was mildly relieved when she saw Cid heading back down the corridor. She hadn't been that worried about him (his fight in the academy tournament had shown he was incredibly resiliant against powerful opponents if nothing else), but with her senses dampened by the environment she was glad to have confirmation that he was fine. It seemed he'd finally started to relax a little as well. You couldn't stay afraid indefinitely and dangerous experiences like these were what built fortitude in a warrior.
He gave her a little wave and they started skulking back to the staff room after confirming he'd been able to find everything they needed.
The trip back felt much quicker than going out had and they soon arrived to a small but grateful crowd.
Sherry and Erin then started working on the artifact with Cid pitching in as an assistant. Since they said it would take them several hours to complete Beatrix, Marco and Glenn decided to take shifts going out to look for lost students and try to bring them to safely. They only found two, a frightened economics first year named Lucy and a hulking boy called Garin that she was mildly suspicious of. He was at least seven feet tall and very broad, not the sort of person that was easy to overlook but apparently he'd stayed behind after class on clean up duty and been separated from his classmates.
After a few hours she noticed Sherry had moved away from the worktable and was now sitting in the corner fiddling with her skirt nervously. A little curious about what Cid and Erin were talking about she moved closer and honed her hearing on their conversation.
"Modified it...to cause mana overload...similar to possession. Limited output though...might not kill him...needed it not to go boom".
"Why didn't you tell Sherry?"
"Sherry just complained...said it wouldn't work...and to stick to the original idea. It's annoying to argue...with stupid people"
Cid seemed to hold back his initial response before finally saying "Are you going to try and see the results?".
"No...simple design...so I know it'll work. Do you need me...for the mission"
"Nah it's fine, we've got plenty of people. You can take a nap when your done."
"Thanks M-Cid". Within a few minutes she set the artifact and her tools down, held two of her fingers up to Cid, said "Vee" and then her head started to droop onto the table.
Cid pulled her out of her chair to effortlessly lift her across the room and set her down on a sofa set against the wall "There, are you comfortable?"
Erin made a sound she thought was agreement along with perhaps the tiniest nod she had ever seen.
It seems Alexia Midgar might not be my niece's only concern.
The sun was just beginning to wane when Sherry and Cid came over to report the artifact was ready so they needed to decide what they would do next.
"Well we obviously need to add the artifact together with the one Sh-the terrorists have but I'm not sure what the best way of doing that is. We should also try to get a message to Iris to let her know when we're going to strike".
Cid spoke up then "What if we all start at sunset. That would let us coordinate the timing pretty easily".
It was a decent idea and worked within their time limit, so it was quickly agreed upon.
"So who should we sent to Iris?"
"What about sending Cid, Sherry, Erin, Garin and Lucy. The terrorists are watching the entrances but they're positioned to stop entry not prevent escape. They should be able to slip out pretty easily and it would get them to safety" Glenn suggested.
"No I don't think Erin and I are going anywhere" Cid added.
"Why?" Marco asked
"Well Erin's been awake and working constantly for a while, so she's sleeping pretty deeply now. It's not a good idea to get her up and even if we forced her she couldn't run, so I'm going to stay behind to make sure she's okay. Sherry, Lucy and Garin should still go though".
The odds of him being hurt here while they took on the terrorists at the gym would be minimal, but she'd still prefer it if he left before the action started.
"I don't think I should leave either. The terrorists might kill one of you if you try to give the artifact to them but they've been mostly sparing students. If I take it to them and surrender it then I should be okay".
She supposed that was true but she'd never thought of Sherry as a very brave person, it seemed even after a hundred years people could still surprise her.
"Are you sure?" Cid asked with obvious concern in his voice.
"Yeah I'll be okay. Erin's done most of the work on the artifact so I want to do my part as well". She looked away from Cid and to the group before continuing "I know you guy's will have your magic back but once the terrorists have this their leader will be able to use all of the magic stored in the eye. I don't think even Beatrix will be able to win against him then".
Beatrix considered this to be likely true, but she'd still probably try fighting him anyway. It had been years since she'd had a one-on-one fight where there was even a possibility of losing so it was far too tempting to refuse. If she needed to call for help later she would.
And if I don't who will. These students will be in danger until this threat is gone.
She spoke to Marco and Glenn while Cid went to tell Garin and Lucy their parts in the mission. Lucy seemed relieved but Garin seemed upset at being sent away from the fight until Cid appealed to his sense of chivalry, asking him to help Lucy with her escape. Once the field was down Marco and Glenn would go in and start freeing the students (who would be able to help them overpower the terrorists by sheer numbers) while she would initially draw as much attention as she could to buy them time.