Only for now…
Three months, he reminded himself. I have three months. I need to crush this menace on my territory in three months.
Ignoring his weariness, Huxian pushed himself from the bed, grabbing his clothes and was about to grab his communicator from the sideboard when his eyes landed on a strangely decorative pouch. Blinking, he picked it up and opened the silken drawstring, tipping a few of the contents into his hand.
Pills. Peach pills. And a note in a decorative hand.
Use them well. You will need them,
Parame
Before he could think, could do anything else, there was a knock on the door, causing him to jump, scrambling to tip the pills back into the pouch and draw the string closed.
“Yes?” he demanded.
“Forgive the interruption, Agent Yin,” said the voice of what he recognised to be one of his underlings. “We came to inform you - the reinforcements from Pandora. They’re here.”
And just on time.
“Excellent.”
---
The meeting with the agents had gone well. While he couldn’t yet give up control over the barrier until things were in place, he could, at the very least, delegate tasks to the new agents, leaving him to concentrate on his own self appointed task, (one that would use less energy and thus safe the peach pills for emergencies, while weapons were distributed and a much more permanent barrier was in place. They would need his full strength as a celestial fox to aid in wiping out the undead. Plus they could also get started on pinpointing the actual mastermind.
With all this in place, he returned to his room to draw up a few plans, eat dinner and, more importantly, check on Rodessa in the aftermath of the dreamscape. He had put a lot of pressure on her, and with the fact that it was breaking, however slowly...He wanted to be certain it wouldn’t happen before he finally crushed this enemy.
He checked his communicator and after fiddling with a few of the commands rang up the girl on a line usually used for emergencies It was, admittedly, usually used to make sure that they wouldn’t be loudly calling while stealth was needed, or to make sure the other person was alive and couldn’t always get to the phone, or if they were unconscious and needed back up. It was, at least from some rookie agents, a ‘complete disrespecting of privacy’, but considering both he and Rodessa had hung around each other stripped to underwear on more than one occasion, he doubted she minded.
As it was, she wouldn’t have answered him anyway, still fast asleep. So, shrugging, he left it running - he needed to catch her before she went and knew that she would answer him once she saw he was on the line - and propped it against the bedside lamp. That done, he set about to dig into his now cooling breakfast and read over some of the notes from the meeting with the agents, adding his own notes to bring up at a later point.
It was about twenty minute or so later (he admittedly hadn’t been watching the time as he nibbled his toast and scribbled notes) that he heard a stirring from the other end of the line and peered over the paper to see her blearily pushing herself up, hair sticking up at all sorts of angles as she tried to work out where she was.
He bit back a laugh, knowing it wasn’t likely her fault. He had been making her run like a madwoman in the dreamscape after all.
“Morning, sleeping beauty,” he said instead, wondering how she would react. Would she dismiss it as a crazy dream? Would she rage at him? Or would she finally have the caution he had been hoping to instil in her.
She groaned slightly, sounding more like a zombie than some of the Jiangshi did, rubbing her eyes groggily. “Hue…..Mon’in’...” She blinked a few times, before stiffening, her eyes widening as everything from the dream clicked into place. Her head snapped up, staring at Huxian. Because this wasn’t part of that weird dream, was it. Her heart stopped when she thought she caught sight of fangs and a glint of gold and jolted back with a gasp, almost falling off the bed in the process.
“Ro?!” Huxian yelped, jolting forwards on the other end of the line, worried hazel eyes running over her. Feeling like her heart was running a mile a minute, she noticed that there was not an inhuman fang in sight when he opened his mouth to continue his worried tirade. “What are you doing reacting like that first thing? You’ll end up giving yourself concussion at this rate. Where’s the fire?”
Blue fire, maybe? Her mind couldn’t help but prod at her sardonically, before she shook it off, eying the other over the phone carefully. The lightning was bright enough on his end of the communicator that she could see him clearly. No sign of tails, normal human eyes, no ears in weird places, just the Huxian she had always known.
But so had that one in the dream...She reminded herself, rubbing her head as she felt the rising headache. But was it even a dream? It felt far too real...Not to mention she was sure, absolutely sure that the bright lighting hadn’t caused her to hallucinate either…
He did say that in this ‘mystic world’ things weren’t always what they seem, Ro remembered, biting her lip. But could he really….
It seemed impossible, but… the image of the not so human Huxian wouldn’t leave her mind….
“...Are you sure you’re alright?” Huxian asked, a frown crossing his face. “You’re being remarkably spacey. It’s not like you.”
“I...eh…” How on earth was she going to explain this? She sucked at lying to him when he knew something was wrong most of the time. He just seemed to know things like that. (Was that due to something supernatur- she shook her head, trying not to let that thought in her mind, not yet. “Well…” she licked her suddenly dry lips. “I had a...weird dream.”
“Oh?” that sly smile that always brought dread when it aimed at her spread across his face. “Were you dreaming of me? Ooo, was it something saucy? I bet it was something Saucy...It was, wasn't it!” he teased, pointing at her.
Clapping her hands to her cheeks, she knew she likely had turned red, mind traitorously landing on how the dream started.
“Shut it, you!” She snapped, flustered. That was exactly what she meant. He just knew things! How could he have known to tease her about something like that. She said weird, after all! Weird, not hot!
And, oh god, was that another tick in the inhuman corner? Was it intuition? Could someone have intuition that accurate…?
No, she couldn’t just beat around the bush here, she had to know!
But even then, she couldn’t just come out and accuse him. He was Huxian, the person she knew for so many years...She was scared to think that maybe she didn’t even know him at all...But...she had to know.
“Hue…?” She managed finally, uncertain how one even broached the subject, even directly. “You’ll always tell me the truth...right?”
The teasing grin slid off his face, obviously sensing the seriousness of the topic to come. Slipping papers and half finished breakfast to one side, Huxian shifted, his attention focused entirely on her. “As best as I can,” he replied, a frown on his face, “...What’s on your mind?”
Well, it was a better answer than no...more than she expected, considering their times as assassins and the fact that everyone alive had some secrets they kept to themselves. That look in his eyes was certainly no lie there. But would being something not human be one of those secrets? Or would he have told her if he was?
God, this was crazy...he would think her insane if she was wrong, and if she was right then he might think her crazy anyway. How could she even tell him that it was a stupid dream that made her question his entire existence thanks to a version of him in a dream that was either a monster that looked a bit human, or was totally into some kind of furry cosplay. Probably best to avoid talking about the dream anyway in case he teased her and she lost her nerve.
“Hue…” she said finally, looking him in the eye for any hint of a lie. “You...you are human, right? I...I mean….you would tell me if you weren’t...right?”
For a long moment, he said nothing, searching her own gaze in turn. She knew he would see her concern, her worries and fear, but it almost seemed like he was looking for something else as well. And when he finally spoke:
“Tell me, Rose Bud...What makes a man?”
What? “Hue, I’m not in the mood for some….old chinese proverbs!” she snapped, clutching her hands to her chest as if it was the only thing stopping her from Either trying to throttle him through the Communicator or to keep her hammering heart where it belonged. “Please...quit dancing around the question. Answer me…”
“I am,” Huxian said, just as calmly as before, just as seriously. “But that is the thing, Ro - we’re both monsters. You’ve said it yourself. We’re the boogie men that people fear. “Death’s Daughter” and “Manus Celer Dei”. To mortal men, you are a force of nature, an end that is inevitable, memento mori. To the mystics, Pandora and it’s swift hand of god...both a salvation and a beast in the night. When one deals with the monsters of the world, one is doomed to become the very thing they face. I told you before, after all, ‘if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee’. Long story short, we are all monsters...at least, to some extent.” He tilted his head, a smile, almost self deprecating crossing his face. “Depressing as it is...does that help?”
“Tch…” Rodessa huffed, rolling her eyes. “That is not what I meant and you know it.” However, she should have known that he wouldn’t admit if he was a monster or not. Even she wasn’t certain she could if she was….Agh! “Ass!” she hissed, huffing as she crossed her arms. “Whatever...I don’t care.”
“How very….what was that word again…’tsundere’ of you,” Huxian drawled, “ And yet the thing you ‘don’t care about’ had you wake up and almost give yourself concussion falling of the bed…”
“Oh, Fuck you, Fluffball!”
“I’d love to, but the distance is so great,” Huxian’s smirk was practically devilish. “But it’s nice to know you truly were thinking of me in saucy, compromising positions, dear. Truely, I’m flattered to be the subject of your fantasies-”
A moment later, the screen went dark, not from being turned off, but rather from a pillow being thrown at the screen. Huxian could still hear the swearing in the background, though whether it was about him or about the fact that the pillow had thrown the communicator off the bed, he wasn’t certain. But it gave him a moment to sigh, guilt burning in his chest.
I’m sorry, Roza….I can’t...I can’t answer those questions yet. It’s not the time and...you wouldn’t understand...not yet… He clenched his hand on the sheets. I promise you, I’ll tell you the truth about it when the time is right...When its right...I’ll tell you everything…
Still, that she was questioning him now about it...at least what he had set out to do had been fulfilled. She was questioning things. She wasn’t just assuming that things were mundane. Maybe it wouldn’t last forever, but it was a start. A start until she regained the instincts she needed to survive as an Agent. And if she can survive that, then maybe….
The picture on the screen finally gained colour again as the pillow was removed and the communicator dragged onto the bed again, the background a blur of movement until it settled on facing Rodessa’s face once again. Grumpilly, she flipped him the bird. “Sit on it and spin, Fluffy!”
Huxian grinned, sly smile easily slipping back into place. “Was that an invitation, dear?”
“AH!!!” she looked ready to tear out her own hair “Fuuuuuck Yooooou!~”
“But I already told you,” Huxian chirruped ‘innocently’. “We’re not even in the same r-”
“Rodessa Meiah-Matus Destiny Hunter!”
Both tearer and victim flinched at the sound of the strict cultured and highly disapproving voice cutting through the bickering like a blade. From somewhere behind Rodessa, Huxian could see the Pandora executive stalk into the room with all the grace and poise of an apex predator.
“What is the meaning of such uncloth language, young lady?”
The volume was no louder than an ordinary voice, and yet it seemed deafening in the sudden silence.
“Ugh…” The spell of her entrance was broken by the flat groan of irritation from Rodessa. “The brat’s back…”
Rolling her eyes as if to say she was surrounded by kids and morons, Rodessa flopped back onto the bed, rolling to her side to stare bored and dead-eyed at the communicator, gifting her partner with the flattest of stoic expressions, before closing her eyes. “Nothing, nothing,” she waved off Violet. “Just a domestic argument between partners.”
“That may be the case,” Violet sniffed. “However such language is unnecessary. All it does is make one sound uncouth and uncultured, with barely half a mind to think up anything more creative than a common ruffian.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rodessa drawled. “Get off my back.” she swing herself back up, slipping off the bed in one smooth motion. “I’m going to shower. The last thing I need first thing in a morning is your bitching.” With a flick of a hand, she sauntered to the bathroom. “Later, Hue.”
“Bye,” Huxian waved, even though he knew she couldn’t see him.
Clucking under her breath, Violet went to pick up the communicator to turn it off, only to pause when Huxian spoke, “Actually, Vi, before you switch off….a word?”
“Hm?” Violet blinked at the communicator. However, seeing the look on his face, her annoyed expression smoothed over and she sunk to the bed. The moment she heard the water running, Violet nodded. “What do you need, Agent Yin? Are the agents Pandra sent not enough?”
“They’re fine,” Huxian waved off. “However, it’s not about the mission I needed to warn you about. Rather, a different one.” His eyes pointedly flicked behind her, to where the bathroom was.
This immediately seemed to have her attention. “What about...that mission?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.
“This may sound as though I’m teaching grandmothers to suck eggs. However, you need to keep a closer watch over her,” he told her, making sure to get it all out quickly enough that the Lady wouldn’t misunderstand. “This isn’t about if you can make sure her training is going well, not exactly. I’m not rehashing old arguments. This is more serious.”
He met her eyes.
“The seal, Vi. It’s breaking.”
Violet tilted her head slightly, though the level of concern Huxian was hoping to see wasn’t present. Instead, bemusement. “What exactly would be be implying, Yin?” she questioned. “The seal was always a temporary….solution.”
He knew that, but that was based on things they thought they knew back when they had found out the thing was on her in the first place. Rubbing his temples, he tried to think of the best way to tell her that this manner of break was not the one they were expecting.
“Vi, she managed to pull up a memory of...Us”
That seemed to stump her. “What?”
“Us...what we…” he licked his suddenly dry lips. “What she and I once were to each other….Its...From what we came to understand about the seal, it’s not supposed to happen now, but the fact remains that it has. And that can only mean one of two things…”
Violet bit her thumb, expression intense. “She has either grown far stronger than we anticipated…” she breathed. “Or that little issue that never seems to die is about to flare up...But whatever the cause, it indicates all manner of hell is about to break loose...And if your charge fully awakens without you being there…”
“She’ll go off like a nuclear bomb,” Huxian finished, grimly. “Worst case, she’ll become a savage, no better than a mindless beast. Alternatively, her body won’t be able to handle the strain of something like crashing through her and…” His voice broke, a shiver running through him at the nightmarish image of what would be left. He hugged himself, cold to the soul. “I...don’t want to think of it…” he whispered.
“Then what would you suggest?” Violet asked, eyes sharp.
He wanted to hiss why she was asking him, but out of the two of them, hell, out of most people in Pandora, sorcery was one of his areas of expertise, which included things such as curses, illusions, and, more importantly, seals.
Gods have mercy….
“There’s nothing much we can do about the seal itself at this point,” Huxian admitted finally. “Just….keep an eye on her for now and tell me if anything changes. It doesn’t matter how big or small, keep me informed. As much as I hate the thought, especially after everything else we talked about…” He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before announcing what almost felt like a sentence. “Give her a crash course on the details. Most of what she needs to learn can only be really taught on the field anyway. I’ll help fill in the gaps where I can.” He looked her over. “How long were you planning to keep on the training wheels?”
“Ideally six months,” Violet noted, ticking off on her fingers. “Introduction, managing the mundane, weapons training, countermeasures, diplomacy between the two-”
“We have three months at a push,” Huxian interrupted, heart sinking, noting even Violet’s pale skin turn ashen. “You need to hurry through it. Skip over anything that is reiterating what she might already know from her other jobs or anything unnecessary. I haven’t lost her in all these years, and I will not do so to caitor to standing on ceremonies and tradition.”
“So what do you suggest?”
Huxian wracked his brains for all the information about the various agents and allies that were in Japan at that time and could help teach the most important skills. “Take both girls to meet Master Munechika,” He suggested. “Get them upgrades to their weapons and awaken Zeus and Hades - they’ve been dormant for too long as it is - and teach Rodessa how to use the basics of anti-mystic enchantments. Let her experience a few missions to get her feet wet, then bring her to me. In the meantime, I’ll be monitoring from here for any sign of increased deterioration.”
Violet blinked. “How?” she asked, bamboozled.
“Ah…” Huxian glanced away. “Lets just say I’ve been gifted some…. ‘heaven sent’ dreams,” he hedged. “Either way, I’ll exploit it as much as I can to keep her stable until I’m actually in the same country as her again.”
She still seemed a little bemused, but there was also an understanding in her eyes - she had obviously caught just whom he was referring to by ‘heaven sent’. Face set, determined, Violet inclined her head.
“Then that is what we will do.”
[END]
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