//------------------------------// // Chapter 50: Consultation // Story: A Long Way to Fall // by Cinders of War //------------------------------// Frigid Night sat in the canteen, a table all to himself. The others around him paid him no attention, though he got a few stares from time to time. He tried not to think about them as he finished up his pasta; he had enough worries going through his mind as it was. He drank down the last of his coffee and sat back in his chair, wondering whether he should go find something to do. His private thinking time was rudely interrupted by someone he didn’t see tapping him on the back of the head. “Hey screwball, your crazy ex has been seen again.” “Hmm?” Frigid raised an eyebrow. “What happened?” The Assassin who had spoken, someone who Frigid recognized as an Apprentice rank, merely snorted at him. “Go ask Glimpse. I’ve got better things to do than talk to you.” Frigid frowned at the Assassin as he walked away. Normally, he wouldn’t let a lower-rank Assassin insult him and walk away, but he couldn’t blame them for hating him. He got up and went to look for Glimpse. Last he knew, the Recon and Intelligence Division leader was out scouting the Templar HQ. Something must’ve happened. Frigid hoped Mirror didn’t wound them too badly as he headed up the stairs. He decided to head to the medic wing first. If Mirror had done something to them, that’s where they’ll be after returning from their recon. He saw them almost immediately as he pushed through the doors. Glimpse was hunched over on a bed wearing Broadside’s coat around her while she shivered. Her eyes were empty and vacant, as if she wasn’t quite all there. A cotton pad hung halfway out of her mouth, soaked red with blood. Frigid spied Broadside lying down on another bed, Dr. Patch standing beside him. He looked even worse than Glimpse did; his face was ashy and deprived of all vigor, and a wet cloth spread over his forehead did little to counteract the sweating that drenched his clothing. “Glimpse,” Frigid called as he headed towards them. The senior Assassin took one look at him and turned away. “Are you alright? What happened?” Glimpse mumbled something around the pad, refusing to make eye contact. “Could you please not ask her questions now, Frigid,” Dr. Patch frowned. “It’s hard enough healing mouth wounds without jostling it with speech.” Frigid gave the Raider a sympathized look. “What happened to her, doc? What happened to both of them? What did Mirror Match do to them?” “I don’t rightly know,” Patch said tersely. “But from what I was able to gather, Mirror Match has a bit of a vendetta against us. She also poisoned Broadside here with something I can’t seem to pinpoint.” “She thtole my panths,” Glimpse spat forlornly. “She what…?” Frigid drew back a step. “Why?” He shook his head, deeming it lower than what she had done to Broadside. “Is it curable?” “I don’t know!” Patch said irritably. She stared into a microscope and held up several charts. “It’s unlike any toxin I’ve ever seen, it’s doing something to his blood, almost like it’s… alive or something.” “She kisthed me,” Glimpse said quietly to no one in particular. “Mirror did what…?” That statement caught Frigid’s attention. Then he remembered what was more at stake and returned his attention to the doctor. “What do you mean alive? Like, it moves on its own?” Dr. Patch nodded. For the first time since he had known the doctor, Frigid saw uncertainty in her eyes. Until now, he’d held onto the belief that no matter what, Dr. Patch would be there to help Assassins recover from any injury that they might suffer out there. But now, she looked almost afraid. “I don’t know what this is, but it matches no known substances in my experience, and I’ve experienced a lot. This is… different. Either it’s very new or it’s very old to have escaped medical scrutiny.” She ran a hand through her hair. “This isn’t looking good, Frigid. I don’t know what this toxin might do to him.” Glimpse shivered and drew her knees up to her chest. “I feel violated,” she whispered. “It’s all my fault…” Frigid said after a short pause. His old partner had mentally scarred Glimpse and poisoned Broadside with something very potent. “If only I had killed her that day…” Then Patch did something Frigid didn’t expect. She slapped him. “Look, I don’t care if you want to wallow in self-pity your whole life or not, but you can’t keep blaming yourself for every single thing that horrible woman does. What she does with the Templars is not your fault. Should you have killed her that day? Maybe. But in the world of medicine, there is no ‘should have’. Either you did it, or you didn’t. You’ve got to move on, or so help me, I’ll hit you so hard your grandchildren will feel it.” “Thanks, doc…” Frigid rubbed at his cheek. Sometimes, he forgot Patch was a trained Assassin like the rest of them. “You’re right. Maybe I’ll start looking ahead. Try and get Mirror to understand.” Patch frowned. “That’s not quite what I meant.” “But Patch. I… I still love her! I don’t know how I can get myself to end her. She was everything to me. I think she still is.” “End her, he says…” Patch and Frigid turned to look at Broadside. The man was sitting up, looking even worse than before but giving Frigid the evillest eye he’d ever seen. “If it was that easy, don’t you think I’d have done it? You can’t end her, Frigid. She’s too good. Thrashed us. She beat Star Lance, Frigid. What hope do you, do any of us have?” Frigid tried to find something to say, but he just couldn’t. What could he say to make a point? To make any point? He had nothing. Frigid just hung his head and shook it. “There must be a way.” Broadside shook his head, the action causing him to reach for a bucket next to his bed and retch into it. The sound of sick splattering into the bucket made everyone but Patch flinch. When the ill Assassin wiped his mouth, they all saw blood. “I think you better go, Frigid.” Patch waved him off as she attended to Broadside. “Your presence is not doing him any good.” Frigid nodded and took one last look at Glimpse and Broadside before heading out the double doors. Vendetta, Frigid thought. What kind of vendetta would Mirror have against the Assassins? Then he thought of it. A few months back, Mirror had stolen a document from the Mentor’s office, and then today, suddenly all this. He figured if anyone knew what she was after, it’d be the Mentor. Frigid headed around the corner, walking towards her office, almost running into three other Assassins. “My bad,” he told them as he made his way past them. He almost took a fourth step when a hand grasped his shoulder roughly. “Why don’t you watch where you’re walking,” the Assassin told him. “Or are your eyes as blind as your heart?” Frigid chose to ignore the comment. “I said I was sorry.” “Yeah well, saying sorry can’t bring the dead back. Why don’t you pay for it?” Frigid turned his head to see if the lower-rank Assassins were bluffing. They were not. “Not now. I’m busy.” “Busy doing what?” Another one scoffed. “Busy planning on betraying us too? Like your girlfriend did?” “You take that back, apprentice.” Frigid flashed the younger Assassins a warning in his eyes. Bad enough they were avoiding him, but now, this Assassin called him a traitor like Mirror? Frigid couldn’t accept that. “Make me.” the Assassin folded his arms and smirked. Frigid threw the first punch, catching the first Assassin off guard; he probably didn’t think Frigid had the guts to do it. The first one went down, knocked out in one blow. The other two, one female and one male, growled at Frigid and ran at him, fists flying for his face. The veteran ducked under the first one and spun her legs out from under her while delivering a straight blow to the third Assassin’s abdomen. The boy doubled over, allowing Frigid to toss him on his back. He quickly turned his front to the last Assassin, waiting for her to make her move. Instead, she hopped back a few steps before zooming down the hallway, soon out of sight behind the corner. “Newbies…” Frigid muttered as he straightened his coat before resuming his walk. He’d had enough with their petty insults. If the others really wanted to take it up with him, they’ll be getting what’s coming. Frigid just wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing any longer, while they spat various names at him. Finally arriving outside the Mentor’s office, Frigid rapped his knuckles on the door and waited for an answer. “Come in.” He gently pushed the door open and closed it behind him before approaching Star Lance and the Mentor, seated at one of the desks going through papers together. “Yes, Frigid…” Star Lance sighed and returned to his work. “What do you need?” “I… wanted to talk about Mirror Match,” Frigid squeezed out. It was a lot harder to talk about her around the bureau now, with all the hate the other Assassins have for her and himself. Star Lance looked to the Mentor for advice. Steel Shine pushed back her chair and stood up. “Frigid Night. What do you wish to ask.” “Mirror Match,” Frigid started after a swallow. “I want to know who she’s after, and I believe the missing document has something to do with this. May I ask, Mentor, what did she take that day?” The Mentor looked to her cabinet of files. “She took a report of the mission. The one where we destroyed the Eye.” Frigid thought about it. Why would Mirror want something like that? It was not as if she was super interested in it. Then he remembered. Mirror had said something to him shortly after the Eye exploded. “What in the queen’s name have you done?!” Mirror had yelled at him. It was important to her. Frigid had missed that until now. “I hope I can return the favor.” “Broadside was on the demolition team,” Frigid realized, both eyes widening to spheres. “Mirror Match is after the ones who blew it up!” “It seems so,” the Mentor confirmed with a nod of her head. “The document she took… It contained the names of everyone that took part in the mission, along with the objectives they had to complete. She knows which of us took part in destroying the Templar’s Eye.” “I spoke to Glimpse just now,” Star Lance muttered. “She said that Mirror poisoned Broadside with some kind of dagger, right after saying something about crimes against a ‘queen’. Seems there’s more going on with the Templars than we know. Either that or she’s completely delusional. She did say your girlfriend stole her pants.” Frigid’s cheeks turned red. He still didn’t know what Mirror would want with Glimpse’s shorts. “Mirror mentioned a ‘queen’ when after the machine blew up. Could the Templars have a Grand Master above Mahogany Wood?” There was a full minute of uncomfortable shifting. Frigid and Star Lance looked at their shoes. The Mentor rubbed the hilt of her sword, as if deep in thought. Finally, she nodded. “I will consult the archives for any information on any Templar Grand Master. In the meantime, anyone who was on the demolition team for that mission must be closely guarded and watched. No matter how good Mirror Match is, she’s only human in the end. We can beat her.” Not human. Frigid doubted that. He quickly stood up as well. “Let me help,” he offered. “Two people can search the archives faster than one.” The Mentor shook her head, smiling without any humor or cheer. “It’s not that kind of consulting, Frigid Night. You need to get back to work.” “Yeah, kid,” Star Lance stood up and cracked his neck. “Even I’m unable to help her. This is a job only the Mentor can do. Just get back out there. See what you can do to help.” The last thing Frigid wanted to do was go back out into the wolves’ den that the bureau had become, but he didn’t really have a choice. “Okay. Let me know if you find anything.”