TEAM ZRCN ARC 3 - CHAPTER 20
I did say I had a bad feeling about this didn’t I?
Thanks to @neopoliitan for lending me his help with proofreading again!
HELIA
"I mean you've got to have some crazy stories right?"
Helia smirked into her cup of tea, then took a long sip before responding to the question. "I don't know what you're implying, Elio." She teased.
"No crazy fans? No crazy Grimm battles?" Elio pressed. "Come on, I bet you have some stories to tell."
"Not everyone has such a colourful life as you," Cherry laughed, nudging Elio in the side.
"Colourful is a bit of an understatement,” Morgan quipped, not looking up from where he was tinkering away on what looked to be Calantha’s armour.
“To answer your question - no, I do not have any crazy fans,” Helia responded, smiling slightly when she noticed that Elio seemed disappointed to hear that this was the case. “However, I do have a few crazy stories under my belt. There was one time in Higanbana that was particularly wild if I do say so myself.”
Elio leaned forward in interest. “Oh, do go on.”
Spurred on by Elio’s words, and further encouraged by the captive audience she had in Cherry and Calantha, Helia began to retell the events of what happened when her team had stopped in the town of Higanbana.
It was one of the last good memories she had of her team before growing tension had forced them apart. They were on their way back to Mistral following a mission in Shion when they had chosen to stop and rest. The journey back was taking longer than expected, hampered by Anthea having hurt her ankle, but they knew the village had an inn as they had passed through it on their initial journey. It seemed like a reasonable place to rest up.
In the end, it had turned out to be a good job they had stopped there - as only a few hours later the village had to contend with a large Archelon that had come up from the nearby river and had nearly bitten some poor teen’s arm off.
A long, tiresome battle between HNSA and the Archelon had soon followed, and after nearly two hours, they finally succeeded in defeating it. The Archelon had been a troublesome Grimm to deal with; its hard shell leaving it with only a few precise places to truly wound it. There was also its slightly hooked mouth to contend with, which made it nigh on impossible for anyone other than Anthea using her crossbow to hit it, until Leyla was able to successfully use her semblance to restrain it long enough for Alcyone and Helia to finish it off.
As she wrapped up her tale, there was a hint of sadness behind her words, the pain of Alcyone’s still recent passing rising up again. When tears threatened to form, she looked away, and made a hasty apology for almost crying.
“It’s okay,” Elio said, in a surprisingly soothing voice. He reached across and held her hand gently for a moment. “You don’t have to apologise.”
Helia smiled back at him in gratitude and took a moment to calm herself again with a steadying breath. She had just settled back down when Wren returned to the base with ZRCN in tow. She had received a call earlier in the morning and had left in a hurry soon after. Elio had tried to pry some information from Parson, teasing the man over the kiss he had shared with Wren the night before in an effort to get some information out of him, but he seemed to know just as little as the rest of them.
Wren and ZRCN entered the communications room and Helia noted that they appeared to be missing a member as Xanthos was nowhere to be seen. Clearly, she was not the only one who noticed as Elio was quick to ask in a light tone, “Where’s Ravindra? Don’t tell me he’s still in bed.”
“He’s on his way with Captain Bougainvillea,” Wren responded sharply. Helia was not used to such a tone from the older woman, so she would have been lying if she said she hadn’t been a little startled. Looking up at her, Helia could see the older woman appeared on edge, and it was only then that she realised the members of ZRCN who were present also appeared to look unsettled. It hadn’t gone unnoticed by the other Mob Ops either; Elio had promptly gone quiet following Wren’s response, he and the others all now looking directly at their leader, curious about her sudden change in attitude.
Despite some questioning looks from her teammates Wren said nothing and remained silent until the aforementioned arrival of Captain Bougainvillea with Xanthos in tow. When the two of them appeared, Helia suddenly had a good idea what had rattled everyone so much.
Xanthos was still wearing his formal clothes from the night before, only he was now down a jacket, his tie hung haphazardly around his neck, and the left sleeve had been torn at the shoulder.
“What even...What happened to him?” Morgan asked, following a sharp intake of breath.
“A member of staff at the university found him pretty banged up in one of the broom closets,” Carmen explained, looking at Xanthos as she spoke. “One of the medical staff checked him over and he was given the all clear - just a little dazed if anything.” Carmen smiled weakly before looking at Wren, a more serious expression taking hold. “You’ll want to hear what he has to say.”
She gestured for Xanthos to speak, but he appeared hesitant, and for a moment struggled to meet Wren’s gaze. “I’m sorry,” He finally said. “I really tried to stop them, but I failed…”
“What are you sorry for?” Wren asked.
“They took her - Belleza and Miho took Rosie!” Xanthos responded, a mix of anger and frustration in his voice. His gaze shifted over to Neela. “They took your sister too. Mira tried to help me, but she was caught in the battle and they took her with them.”
Neela blinked. “Ravi-”
But Xanthos had already turned away and was looking back at Wren. “I should have been able to do more, to put up more of a fight. They caught me off guard, and now because of me we might have lost them both!”
Wren’s expression softened considerably upon hearing his confession, and Helia watched as she stepped forward and gave him a small embrace. “It’s alright, Xanthos,” She told him as she pulled away.
“But…” He began to stammer.
“No buts,” Wren cut him off. “You did what you could at the time, and that’s all I can ask.”
“So what do we do now?” Parson asked. He rose from his chair and came to stand by Wren, resting a hand on her shoulder. Before Wren could even give an answer, it was Calantha who spoke up first.
“We could call Belle.” Was her suggestion, holding her modified scroll in one hand for emphasis.
“You’re able to call her?” Cherry asked, sounding surprised.
“Yes?”
“And you didn’t tell us this before?”
“It’s alright Cherry, I already knew,” Wren cut in, getting the other woman to stand down from her line of questioning. “The General and I both are aware she has a line of contact to her sisters. Numerous attempts were made to reach out to them before and after we left Atlas, but our calls were all ignored.”
“So why would she answer now?” Morgan questioned.
“Because she has something we want,” Calantha responded grimly.
The room fell silent after that, nobody appearing to know what to say or what to do, until finally Helia heard Wren speak again.
“Call her. And put her on speaker.”
Calantha nodded and tapped away on her scroll quickly, before placing it in the centre of the table where she was sat with Helia, Elio, and Cherry. Like everyone else, Helia watched as the scroll rang, waiting for the telltale noise the call had been connected. When the familiar click occurred, Helia was not alone in inhaling sharply.
“Helllooooooooooooooo,” Belleza Rossi’s voice rang out across the room. “Is that you, little lamb?”
Calantha hesitated. “It is.”
“Oh good, I was expecting a call from you soon. I’ve been waiting for my scroll for hours now for it to come in.” She laughed loudly. “Is Major Honeycutt there too?”
Wren leaned in close to the scroll. “I’m here,” She answered simply. “We’re all here.”
“How nice for you,” Belleza responded, her voice oozing with fake sweetness. “You must be calling about those items I have, correct?”
“They’re not items, they’re people,” Wren scolded.
“Mind your tone, major,” Belleza warned.
“We do not appreciate these games, Miss Rossi,” Wren pressed on. “We want Mira and Rosie back safe now.”
“Does that mean I get to keep the other one?”
Helia looked up, catching Cherry silently mouth “Other one?” in the direction of Elio and Morgan, who shrugged in response.
“I don’t follow.”
There was a ping sound on the scroll as another message came through. Wren was quick to give her consent, and Calantha leaned forward, tapping a few buttons on the screen to open the message, which turned out to be an image attachment, and opened it up. Helia studied the screen intently as a silver haired boy appeared on it. She did not recognise him, but it was very clear that all of ZRCN did, none more so than Zelde.
“That’s my brother!” She blurted out, which quickly answered any questions Helia and the others had over his identity. “But that’s impossible. He’s in Atlas right now.”
“He was in Atlas,” Belleza corrected, having heard Zelde’s comment through the scroll. “He was a little gift we picked up just before we left for Highpoint. I would have thought by now his parents might have filed a report for him, but we’ve heard nothing.” There was a pause before she could be heard snickering. “And here I was thinking I had parental problems.”
Although Zelde was standing far away from her, Helia could sense her tension from the other side of the room. On either side of her, Zelde was flanked by Cordovan and Neela, who pressed against her in a comforting manner. Helia could not imagine what it felt like to find out your brother had been held in the clutches of Belleza Rossi for all this time.
“We want them all back,” Wren said into the scroll. “Do you hear me? All of them.”
“I hear you loud and clear,” Belleza responded. “And you can have them all back. But first you can do something for me.”
“No.”
“You haven’t even heard what I have to say yet!” Belleza protested.
Wren groaned loudly. “Go on.”
“Wise choice,” Belleza said, as though agreeing to hear her terms was some great decision. “I have something you want, and you have something I want - or rather my sister wants - so it stands to reason we can resolve all of this with a simple trade.”
“I’m not-”
“You don’t get the deciding vote here,” Belleza said sharply, cutting Wren off before she could finish. “Calantha, are you listening?”
Helia looked up at Calantha, and noticed how rigid she had become.
“You know I couldn’t care less where you are and what you are doing right now,” Belleza began, her words implying she was speaking solely to Calantha at this point. “But Bianca...she misses you dearly. She blames me for you leaving naturally, even though I’ve told her time and again, you made that choice on your own.” Belleza let out an exaggerated sigh. “Come home, Cala. Bianca misses you and I know you miss her too. Come back to Olympia with me and I’ll let the others walk free.”
“What if I say no?” Calantha asked.
“No?” Belleza repeated. “No?” By the tone she used, she hadn’t even considered this to be an option from her sister. “If you say no, then it's quite simple - they come home with me instead.” There was a long pause before she added, “Since you seem unable to make a decision right now, I have decided to be generous and give you some time to think things over. You can have forty-eight hours. And if I don’t hear anything from you by then, I will take that as your answer. Goodbye for now, Calantha. I hope to see from you soon.”
“Wait!” Wren called. “Are they safe? Is Rosie-”
But Belleza had already hung up before Wren could get her answer. Wren placed her hands on the table, and lowered her head, sighing softly to herself.
“Malaka!” Elio cursed from his seat. “What are we going to do now?”