"Mia, turn on the TV! Channel three!"
Mia's assistants were filling her phone with panicked messages as her husband scrambled to turn the TV on. Several of the other leaders were asking what the next course of action was, but none of them were telling her what actually happened. Just something about an upcoming announcement in Sangaria? Luminita didn't say anything about it beforehand, so was she on board? Was she even alive? No, she had to be alive. All of those thoughts were just…lingering feelings of uncertainty swirling about in her mind after what happened to Zach. Her husband had turned the channel everyone was talking about on.
"We on? Okay, thanks. Hello, people of the skyspace!"
Mia lurched forward in her bed as she heard the voice. the damn voice of Chelic, his mocking tone drowning out the notifications of both her phone and her husband.
"So, you might have noticed that my background changed. Big reason for that! And it's because I took over Sangaria!"
Luminita paused, looking for any signs this was some kind of joke. She opened her phone to call Luminita again. There wasn't any reply.
"Yeah, yeah. Big change, I know." Chelic nodded to the camera. "Didn't do it alone. One man on my team, would you believe it? The man himself, right over there!"
Chelic turned the camera to Levin leaning against a wall, who casually waved.
"There's no…that can't be."
Her husbands whispering was the only thing that broke through the trance set by Chelic's announcement.
"Dear, could you get me some water?" Mia asked weakly. Her throat was drying up, and she found herself making cry coughs.
"Not now, honey."
"O-of course." She nodded.
"Levin, the madman, goes here alone, right after taking the dagger of Roperia. Oh yeah, that was him by the way. And less than a day later, he kills the prince of Roperia and takes the entire country of Sangaria for himself. This guy is an absolute menace!"
Chelic cackled while giving an intentional mad stare to the camera and bent down. He then pulled up Javier's corpse to the camera. It was shoddily cleaned with splotches of blood on his forehead.
"Hello, I'm Javier. My mom died and I cried a bunch, and then I fought back against someone for the first time in my life and got a beam through my skull." He said in a mocking voice as he paraded Javier's limp limbs in front of the camera. "Is that how it went? That what happened?" He asked.
"More or less." Levin's voice said from off screen.
"Alright, excellent." Chelic said, smiling to him as he threw Javier's corpse to the background. "So, time for my grand announcement! Now that I have something to use as leverage, you're all under my control now. The others can try to fight back. Key word being try. But I'll just kill them now that I have access to pretty much anywhere I want. So here's the deal. You're all gonna give me the remaining weapons alongside the people that were in the broken ones, and accept me as your new ruler. Old ones can still keep their old jobs delegating and stuff, but you report back to a Legion elite who then reports back to me. All good? Good. Now then, you have one week to give me the weapons. And any I don't have, I'll just track down. Any means necessary, you know the drill. Anyway, laters!"
The broadcast ended, and straight away Mia got dizzy and threw up. The legion made it's way into a permanent part of the Skyspace, and her own son was somehow alive and involved in it. Her husband was trying to stop her panicking, escorting the other members of her staff out of her room. A cold shill was washing over her as she tried to cling to something, anything, to ground her back to reality from this bad dream she was having. She clutched her husbands chest, sobbing softly into his shirt. A part of her was screaming at the events. Someone of her position, driven to tears instead of doing something proactive to stop the Legion's actions. But suddenly, a call was heard. From Freyja.
"I'm sorry, that was unbecoming of me." Mia said to her husband, snapping back to her usual emotionless state before she answered Freyja's call. She clearly had a harder time masking emotions.
"Mia, is that you?" She asked through a wavering voice.
"It's me, yes. Are you doing okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Willow and Luminita are too. They're in Vannana castle, and…I lied about you having called an urgent meeting over to discuss our next move. Come as soon as you can."
"Understood."
Mia snapped her phone shut and left the door. When her husband followed she pushed him away.
"If something happens to me, you're in charge."
She walked out before he could protest, but he didn't bother. She took the sword from her room and got onto her airship, and left with a small crew for Vananna.
Inside the ship, she was being bombarded with texts from all sides and leaders. She expected it to be panicked asks about what was going to happen next, but most of it was messages of concern.
'You holding on okay?'-Fen Hou
'Old lad was your son, was it? Just want to know if you're holding on alright'-Rory
'I take it you have a plan brewing?'-Kazumi
The leaders at least had faith in her, which gave her a slight sense of confidence as her ship went into Vannana castle. She went inside and was directed to the dining room of the castle. When she walked in she realized she had never seen it so…ordinary looking. Besides the congregation it was only a few servants double checking if everything was up to standard, no banners, no extravagant plates of food. All the leaders were sat around a series of small wooden tables pushed together into one long one. Mia sat at it's head. All the seats were full. Zach was replaced by his son, Arden, as a temporary measure while Fightston got another election going. Willow stood behind Luminita, trying to hide the look of dejection on her face.
"Willow, dear. Would you be able to work with the heroes now that most of them are here?"
"Sure thing, mom." Willow said with a slight nod before heading out.
"Well, Mia?" Sylvestro asked. "What's the plan?"
"To be honest…I don't have much of a plan." Mia sighed.
"So you called a meeting to discuss the plan you don't have?" Fen Hou asked.
"The meeting was Freyja's idea." Mia replied. Fen Hou looked at Freyja, who looked slightly betrayed.
"Here, we've all seen the broadcasts." Rory announced from his seat looking slightly more annoyed than usual. "Her own feckin son is working for the enemy, that would disturb any of us."
"Well, I think the only solution is to fight." Ola suggested. "If we don't stop Chelic now, we could easily be hunted down as soon as he wants."
"I mean, he only has one grand with a population that probably doesn't want him there." Kazumi answered. "We outnumber him pretty easily."
"He's probably got something up his sleeves if he's so confident." Ola said. "Look, I think we should get the others to carry some soldiers and weapons over. I'm calling them once it's over."
In the living room was where the heroes were gathered. The Miracle Scouts, the Battlestorms, the Kerabons, the Stone Queens, the Lumps, and Samuel. The woken up weapons were also there.
"So, darlings." Fiorella asked. "Any clue as to what the plan is?"
"I'm assuming you want to take them down." Rodrick asked back.
"If firsthand experience is anything to go by, we'll be more than enough to take them down." Fiorella replied with a handwave.
"We almost died." Capri said with a strained expression.
"Two of us almost died." Fiorella said with a more dismissive hand wave. "Ten of us would go well. Our current numbers are frankly overkill."
"I don't think the question should be whether or not we'd win." Luca said calmly. "I think the real question is what to do with the Legion members there."
"Afterwards?" Fiorella asked.
"I mean, I think this is the most important question here." Luca continued. "The easy answer would be to brand everyone there as a threat to the skyspace and either imprison or execute them. But-"
"We aren't doing that."
Julian cut across from the other side of the room.
"Look, I know we're pissed at the Legion. And most of your reasons to hate them are valid. Heck, you kill someone during our fight with them and I doubt I'll give much of a shit. But besides Chelic himself, I'm pretty certain any of the kids there would be able to come back to reality and become full citizens again."
"You think?" Samuel asked, glaring at him. ""Does that include the man who killed Adebayo?"
"Hey, hey. Like I said, kill him if you want. I just think it'll be a waste of time. But while I have your attention, I'd like to introduce my next idea. We should bring the ships back to the surface."
"We should what?" Caoimhe asked, squinting at him.
"Yeah, turns out the founders were a bunch of lying assholes and everything on the surface is fine. Slightly more disrepaired and abandoned, but it's liveable. Whole society down there too, so I think we find a way back there and make peace."
"I can confirm, perfectly nice people." Cecilia nodded.
"So anyway, our plan is to rush them and hope for the best?" Rodrick asked.
"Rush them after a goods night sleep. With that said, good night!"
Julian sauntered out of the room, and Roxanne and Cassandra followed. The rest of the group made their ways to their bedrooms, all belonging to one of Willow's siblings. Their fathers and children were all taken to their home grands as a safety precaution. Fiorella made her way through the hallway alongside Gisella, finding a one armed man pacing around the hallways.
"He doesn't look too familiar." Fiorella mumbled to Gisella, who shook her head. Fiorella took a deep breath and walked up to him.
"Excuse me, sir. Moment of your time, please."
The man shot up, meeting Fiorella at eye level. They were exactly the same height.
"How's it going?" The man asked. "Gotta say, you are…really tall for a woman. But hey, you make the dress work. I'm guessing it's custom made?"
"It is, yes. Dress shopping is difficult for a multitude of reasons, but this one I've stuck to. But enough fashion talk, hoodie and tie. What's your purpose?"
"He's with me!" Cecilia yelled, jumping between the two. "Sorry, he's ex-legion. So he's a little apprehensive about talking to you." She said, casually grabbing him by the shoulder and bringing him closer.
"Ex-legion?" Fiorella said, with both her and Gisella arching an eyebrow.
"Trust me, nobody hates the boss more than him!" She announced.
"Well, there are few better endorsements than a literal living relic." Fiorella said. "But while I have your attention, you wouldn't happen to know a girl named Priyanka, would you?"
"What do you know about her?" Xander yelled, freeing himself from Cecilia and meeting her at eye level once again.
"Well, I know she's from Gurut." Fiorella said with a slight eye roll. "Know that more than enough."
"But she's alive?" Xander asked.
"Currently in Gurut." She replied. "Looking for her birth parents with the government over there. Left the hammer back with them, so I suppose she's trustworthy enough."
"You think you could get her?"
"I'll see what I can do. Although a girl always responds better to a name, so I'll need yours."
"Xander." He said after a brief pause.
"Excellent, I'll tell her you're alive." Fiorella said with a casual wave. "See you tomorrow."
Xander looked back until they were out of sight, then looked forward. He saw Luminita, casually talking to Willow. Before she could even glance in his direction, he bolted into his room, which he was sharing with Cecilia.
"Xander, I'm pretty sure that was the girl you wanted to make up with." She said, looking at him cowering behind her bed.
"Look, you try making up with someone after killing her dad." Xander said.
"Well, she's probably on edge from everything going on." Cecilia sighed while glancing at the door. "We'll work on this tomorrow. And if you don't try to make amends, then I'll get the conversation started. Anyway, goodnight."