"Are you okay, now ?" Sara asks me in concern. I just nod then gulp my whiskey down.
Receiving my nod, Sara sighs in relieve before dropping her body on the couch beside me.
"Sorry to ruin your plan," I say, al though sounded like mumbling, I genuinely meant it.
"It's not your fault. It's mine. I stupidly dismissed the small probability that Penelope would come," Sara blames her self. "Stupid!!"
"Hey.. come on. It's not your fault," I pull her into my embrace.
"This is my second mistake, Death," Sara says then covers her face, "I became overconfident thus I underestimated the anomalies."
"Don't be too hard on your self," I pat her shoulder to calm her down.
"Well, it's a luck of the draw," Charlotte chimes in while approaching us. She pats Sara's lap and gives her a wide smile, "Thanks to that incident, I managed to gain a lot of information from Madam."
"Yeah... More by accident than by design." Sara grumbles, still blaming her self.
"Accident or not, our mission is accomplished," Charlotte cheers her up.
"She's right," I support Charlotte, "Beside... you allowed everyone else made mistake but not yourself ?" I ask Sara who looks at me with a frown. "What a selfish," I continue then pinch her nose until she yips in pain.
"Death... you !!" She attacks me with pillow. I laugh, easily take the pillow away then hug her tighter.
Half a minute later. "I'm okay now," Sara says then shuffles from my arms. "Thanks."
"So, how was it ?" Lily asks in a sudden just like her and Bruno's appearances in front of us.
"Succeed," Charlotte answers, putting an okay finger sign in front of her face.
"Thanks to Penelope," Sara says with a wry smile.
"Really? What happened ?" Lily asks in curious.
"I will tell you later," Charlotte whispers to her while glancing at me. I believe she saw how my face instantly turned red and tense. In return, Sara pats my lap to calm me down.
"Where is Gila and Fire?" Sara asks, deliberately change the topic.
"I'm here... I'm here," Fred says while pushing his chair toward the living room.
"Gila ?" Sara asks again.
Charlotte snorts before yelling, "Hey, come down you, Stupid!"
Ten seconds later there is a sound of a door being slammed from the second floor. Not long after, Albert in pouting steps down the stairs. Pretending not noticing all eyes that are on him, he then sluggishly drops his body on the arm chair, way across where Charlotte sits.
"Okay, everyone is here," Sara says after taking a deep breath. Sara then turns her head toward Charlotte,"Let's here what you got."
Charlotte straightens up her upper body. "Well, first of all. It is true that all previous prodigies were..." She continues her words with a hand movement that mimicking a slit on the neck.
I can feel the atmosphere is getting tense when we all heard the information.
"But...," Charlotte continues. "Madam hasn't decided what to do with us."
"Wow, that is so much of a relieve," Albert says in a mocking way. Charlotte glares at him in annoyance.
"How can you be sure about that ?" Sara asks Charlote.
"I reached her memory of a yesterday's meeting with the high-priest. They discussed about prodigies they wanted to recruit."
"Discussing what ?" Bruno interrupts.
"About when they will be assembled and the mission they need to be accomplished."
"Okay and then ?" Sara asks Charlotte to continue.
"The high priest proposed a mission to... well, terminate us," Charlotte says,"but Madam refused it."
"Really ? What did she say ?" Fred asks in curious.
"She said: No. I don't want to terminate Royal Knights... yet."
We glance at each other hearing Charlotte's words.
"Did you reach her mind that informed the reason why ?" Sara asks.
"Maybe," Charlotte says in uncertainty. "I mean, she didn't say anything on the meeting. But, I gained another memory. This time she had meeting with the researchers. It seemed to be few years ago. The researchers reported that they had problem in breeding the material needed for stabilizing the brain cells growth. So, they proposed for not doing the procedure anymore. And in another memory, still with the reearchers, they reported about their new result in DNA engineering research. They didn't elaborate much about it, but it was still an ongoing research and they only experimented it with rabbits."
A pin drop silence emerges between us.
"So," I finally speaks out my thought, breaking the silence,"Madam decides to keep us because the new prodigies won't have the powers we have ?"
"Yes. And they won't win against us anyway," Albert adds.
"Well, not until the experiment is succeed," Sara reminds us.
"What is the experiment ?" Lily asks rhetorically.
"What ever it is, it should be better at least as powerful as the procedure they did to us," Charlotte answers.
"Fire, can you get any information about it ?" Sara requires to Fred.
"I will try. Research data is surely harder to get. They must put it in a server with high-level security," Fred says.
"Please work on it. We need to know what it is and how far it is from finish. Thus, we should know how many time we have and what should we do," Sara pursues.
"How about the prodigies ?" Lily asks.
"What about them ?" I ask her back.
"Well, we were the first layer on the prodigies list, right ? I mean, even Charlotte was bought from another chapter because our mind-bender didn't perform," Lily starts to explain. "But what if... what if... we eliminate all the first layer prodigies..."
"You're insane !!" I instantly refuses her idea.
"No way !!" Albert exclaims in synchronous with Charlotte and Sara's rejections.
"They are all still innocent!!" Fire supports me.
"Are they ?" Lily challenges Fred. "Tell me, Death... how many people you killed before you were recruited ?"
I don't answer her.
"How about you Gila ? Or maybe you, Black ? King ? Fire ? Bruno ?"
No one dares to reply. All of us had killed more than a person before being recruited by the organization. Gila might hold the record, sinve the street fight matches he was legendary in were only finished when one of the contader died.
"Ones they pick are not only kids that have extraordinary talents. They all use to take others' lives. Trained or instinctively. Or both," Lily adds.
"So what are you saying ?" Sara reluctantly asks.
"The first layer is the best prodigis they manage to track down. If we terminate them... then what left is the second best."
"What if the second best prodigies are still better than us ? Kids nowadays are more talented," Albert says.
"Well... then we leave them with the third best."
"That's too much," I groan in disagree.
"How about if I try to bend their mind first ?" Charlotte proposes an alternative. "I mean, I can make them to refuse to be recruited."
"Can you beat Madam's persuasion ?" Sara asks her.
Charlottes shrugs. "I may."
"That's too risky," Bruno murmurs.
"But at least we won't kill them in gruesome," Fred takes side on Charlotte.
"Alright.. alright.. enough," Sara intervenes. "We don't have enough data."
Sara then looks toward Fred. "I need data about the research AND the prodigies. I need to know all about them, what their abilitites, who are their coaches, how many people they killed. Everything."
She them turns to Charlotte. "I need yoo to posses Mr. Zacharia Mohayet, Madam;s P.A and investigate about what Madam's plan toward us."
Charlotte nods.
Sara sigh heavily. "After we gain enough data, I will make plans. We will discuss which plan is the best then we will execute it."
"You want US to choose the plan ?" Bruno asks in disbelief. All this time, Sara has always come with the final plan.
"Yes," Sara confirms him with a nod. "And I also want all of you to help me to think about every possibility each plan might fail up until the impossible prospect. Please do tell me if there is any loop hole in the plans. I don't want to make another mistake."
I glance at Sara. Her face is full of determination yet her eyes are bearing tears that almost fall down.