Xander woke up next to Cecilia. he started at the ceiling for a little bit, thinking about his next move. He looked outside, and the sun was just coming up. He opened the curtains and stared out of the window, looking over the city below. People were just starting to open up their shops, and the streetlamps were coming off to give way to the natural sun. And just looking from above filled Xander with a sense of both dread and guilt. He shouldn't be here, and he knew that. Just a few days ago he was an enemy, trying his best to dismantle places exactly like it. And it wasn't even like he agreed with how this place operated. If he learned one thing about this life, it was that giving a handful of people absolute power was one misplacement away from total disaster. But he supposed that some kind of redemption was his sole reason to keep going. That and Tsuki. For the first time in his life, he thought about what happens after death. There was always some kind of murmurs about it in the Legion, but he never paid attention from it. It didn't seem to have any sort of logic towards it, but it was a comforting thought. But then the idea of the bad afterlife hit him. He was pretty sure he and Tsuki qualified, seeing as they killed a guy who didn't deserve it. So the confort quickly changed to despair climbing and choking him as his breath got heavier.It wasn't the time to think about that. If he killed the source of a lot of the world's evil, that probably worked in getting him to a good afterlife, and perhaps let him negotiate with whoever runs it to get Tsuki out. But if it didn't he could at least face the bad afterlife with dignity, and face whatever punishments awaited him.
The next thought was what to eat for breakfast. He figured that everyone else would be getting up soon, so eating early and clearing himself sounded like a good move to him.
He opened the door and stepped into the hallway, where one girl was passing through.
Luminita.
He couldn't avoid it. She passed a glance his way, a glance that quickly widened into a terrified stare. Neither moved for a few agonizing seconds. Until she finally let out a horrified scream. Or attempted to, because Xander put his hand on her mouth before the sound could be heard, making sure to remove it as soon as the sound stopped. He tried shushing her in an attempt to calm her down, which seemed to work a little as she clutched the wooden railing around the castle's second floor.
"Why are you here!?" She asked, looking around for either an escape or another person to escape to.
"I'm fighting against Chelic, same as you!" Xander yelled in a hushed tone, looking around to make sure there was nobody to assume the worst from this scenario.
"Now?" She asked. "Not before you killed my father?!"
"Look, I'm sorry that happened!" Xander yelled as he looked into her eyes. Luminita looked back with a look of pure disgust, thrusting her head forwards.
"You're sorry?!" She screamed.
"Look, I swear it was an accident!" Xander yelled again, putting his hand above his face in preparation for any strikes she's be willing to throw out. "We just wanted to take the shield because we'd be killed otherwise, but your dad fought back and then I ended up blinding him before Priyanka broke his neck, and it just really was not supposed to end that way!"
"But you tried taking the shield!" She whispered.
"After being forced into it."
Luminita turned around to see a woman with a bob cut, a white button up shirt and blood red jeans, standing with a slight lean to the left at Luminita with a slight look of disapproval on her face.
"I'm sorry, who are you?"
"I'm the woman in your old shield." Cecilia affirmed with a relaxed hand to her chest. "And I assure you, everything this man said is one hundred percent true."
"You remember that?"
"I don't." Cecilia confirmed. "But I have been talking, and I'll admit, I've taken quite a liking to this man. Now I know it may be painful, but I would like to ask you what he's missing compared to the last time you saw each other?"
Luminita glanced up and down while Xander stood perfectly still, minus a few glances at Cecilia.
"He's missing an arm now." She said as she looked back.
"Well, yes." Cecilia nodded. "But notice anything else? Something that…helped you through your own recent pain?"
Luminita just looked in confusion.
"Friends. Talking about friends."
Luminita took a step back as the image of his two companions filled into her mind.
"Did something happen to them?" She asked. Her tone dropped somewhat. The thought of Xander also losing someone made her slightly less confrontational.
"Tsuki. The girl who glued you to a wall. She was killed by Chelic."
"Wait, Chelic?" She asked. "What happened there?"
"We tried stealing the weapons for ourselves, but then he found out and killed Tsuki. He almost got me, but thanks to your shield I was able to cut off my arm and escape."
"I…see. So what's your plan now?"
"He and I have come to the conclusion that if nobody else wants to, we'll be killing Chelic ourselves."
"Excuse me?"
"Look, your plan of redeeming the broken children is all well and good, they're off limits to us. But Chelic reminds me all too well of the evil from my time. The kind that settled into them for one reason or another, that won't stop until their ideas have rooted into every aspect of the world. And for these reasons, he needs to die a death as agonizing as possible. Any issues?"
Luminita looked at the woman, who stood casually. She was one hundred percent serious. And to be honest, the idea of Chelic just dying sounded okay to her.
"Look, Luminita." Xander sighed. "Is there anything I can do to make up for what I did?"
Luminita glanced to the side for a few seconds before facing them again.
"If you're successful in defeating Chelic and nobody has a reason to suspect you, then I'll pardon you and grant you full citizenship. But only if you're successful."
"Understood!" Xander said with a salute. Why he saluted, he didn't know.
Once everyone was ready, Rodrick and Julian stood in the hallway, in front of all the other heroes.
"Okay, Julian and I have been discussing what exactly to do, and we think we have a plan made." Rodrick announced.
"Basically, the Legion are way weaker then they look, so it shouldn't be that hard to take them down. Current plan? Attack in waves. Now, they want Cassandra, so we have her, me, and Samuel up first to draw away attention and take down the small guys, with Einer in case anything we can't handle shows up. Second wave is gonna be the big names. So the Kerobons, Stone Queens, and Battlestorms. Your job is to fight off the numbered units and help us make the big push towards Chelic. Jade and Hikaru are helping you out, just in case. And finally, everyone else. So the Lumps, Cecilia and Xander, and then Mia and Willow. You deal with stragglers and whatever backup plans Chelic has. Now, anyone need me to run that by again?"
"I think we got it." Luca nodded.
"Well, without further ado, we'll make our way to the airships and to victory!"