“So, you’re telling me that you saw him passing here?”, asked a patrolling soldier.

  “Yeah, my eyes don't lie to me. His appearance matches with those photos shown on the news last year. Look, I even saved it on my phone here”, Catarina testified while showing her smartphone screen to him.

  “Wow, you saved that?”, Miranda was impressed. “Or… is there some other reason you kept his photo, hm?”

  “What?! Miranda, please, what are you talking about! He was only my childhood friend back in Tragula, just like Yuna”, Catarina cut off Miranda’s tease.

  She continued: “The real reason that I saved his and his new gang’s photo was that… after everything from the Tragula Incident to Yuna becoming a vanguard, his sudden appearance in Andrestod shortly after almost felt too coincidental. It was as if he were trying to find his surviving friends…”.

  “If he was looking for me, why in the world would he randomly commit a heist in that city’s museum?”, Yuna, who came with that soldier, expressed. She added: “Honestly, it's more likely that he had gotten bold after acquiring that special resolite, and wanted to test his power recklessly”.

  “Anyway, do you see where they were heading?”, she asked.

  Catarina answered: “Oh, I overheard him chatting with another person in black as they were heading towards the old temple. They said something about… the graveyard there?”

  “In that case, Vanguard Yuna, we must report this to the Commander first. He is very dangerous, so we would need to approach him with caution”, said the accompanying soldier.

  “*Sigh*... you're right”, Yuna crossed her arms, slightly stressed.

  “By the way, thanks for the input, guys. We'll be on the move now”, she told her friends before leaving with the soldier.

  “Bye, Yuna!”, Catarina waved as they walked away.

  “Heh, Yuna is so different now from when she was 8 months ago…” Miranda fondly expressed.

  “I know, right? She looks so professional and dependable in those Vanguard armour”, Catarina excitedly replied.

  “Yeah, yeah. That’s it, let's get back to work”, Miranda said.

  The two girls in their blue vests returned to Coronae Elite School to continue their humanitarian work there. After finishing high school, they had signed a short contract with Tachyon Help & Aid Organisation (THAO) to fill up their free time before continuing their studies, and had spent roughly a month living in Nova helping its community under the decade-long trust-building program.

  Meanwhile, Yuna, the newly graduated Vanguard, returned to the Nova command post just a few minutes down the street, where she met with her commander to urgently report on the situation. After listening to everything she got, Commander Brent replied:

  “Thank you for reporting, Vanguard Yuna. I shall immediately assign a team for you to confront him at the graveyard. It will be on you to deal with him and his friend as you have been briefed on before”.

  “Copy, sir!”, she crisply replied. After dropping the salute, she softened up her voice to add: “Also… can I say something, sir?”

  “What is it?”, Commander Brent responded.

  “Do you think it is a coincidence that Lori—I mean—Whitestick, suddenly appearing mere days after I’m deployed here?”, she asked, referring to Lorian using the military’s officially assigned codename for him.

  “That’s not for you to be concerned about. Remember, your role in Operation Tidechanger is only to act as a proxy to win him over into becoming our ally. Once we get him within our grasp, we will get to learn about the full extent of his power”, he answered.

  “Got it, sir!”, she assured.

  As she stepped out of the commander’s office and headed toward the assembly point, her heart weighed on with an indescribable feeling of dread and nostalgia. Although she had undergone a long series of training and indoctrination from Tachyon, a certain doubt rose within her:

  “When he sees me in this armour suit, would he still see me as his friend, or has those retched Rustbed pirates poisoned him enough to distrust Tachyon entirely?”

  “He had most probably seen the harsh side of Tachyon without understanding its reasoning first; that must be how he ended up with those people. Whatever it was, I guess it's now my chance to try to mend him into seeing the reality we’ve been struggling with”.

  After the team assembled and briefings were given, they set off on an armoured truck and reached the site mere moments later.

  .

  .

  .

  “Lorian, what’s going on? Why do you look frightened?”, Alaric worriedly asked after Lorian abruptly stopped his answer.

  “Matina just told me that a group of soldiers is coming to us right now”, he answered monotonously as he looked out the street below.

  “What?! Hey Matina! Why can’t you tell me too?”, Alaric madly asked.

  “Sorry, Alaric, but I didn’t want to disturb your sentimental moment just now”, she finally spoke into his mind.

  Alaric drew his sword as he readied himself for combat with a fierce gaze. He joined Lorian in looking out for their arrival while talking to Matina: “Fine, whatever. Now, tell us when they’re arriving. My sword’s itching for some blood here”.

  “Alaric, wait! There’s something else you need to know, too”, Lorian quickly alerted him.

  “What else, kid?”, Alaric responded disgruntledly.

  “Among those soldiers, there’s a Vanguard, and she was my friend from Tragula”, he answered heavily. “For personal reasons, I can’t have you immediately attack them”.

  Alaric was surprised: “Whoa, whoa, why am I only hearing about this now? Is this what you and Matina talk about in private back in Mirukafa?”

  Matina interjected in their mind: “Absolutely. However, everyone has their own secret, so I had to keep everyone’s secrets private from one another whenever I needed to talk to them about it”.

  “Hold up, since you never had any private conversation with me, does that mean I’m the only one without a private talk with you? Like, apart from me, I swear I’ve seen you bring the others with you alone back then”, he pointed that out.

  “Well, that’s true. Partly because I don’t have anything to say to you, and partly because you’re too happy living your fisherman life on shore”, she bluntly answered.

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  “Ugh… damn you, adjutor”, he got annoyed.

  Right as Alaric and Matina finished bickering, they heard the armour truck arrive as it parked in front of the old temple before rows of soldiers jumped out from the back.

  “Well, here they come…”, Alaric nonchalantly said as he sheathed his sword. “Let’s see what they got”.

  They calmly waited for them to rise onto the graveyard hill, where they eventually received the ‘greeting’ they had been expecting from those power-armoured men.

  “You two! Stay where you are!”, the team leader shouted at them.

  Multiple barrels of plasma rifles were pointed at them, and yet both remained resolute and unfazed against them. Lorian then loudly spoke to them:

  “Where is your Vanguard? I know she is with you!”

  “What the—how did he know about that?”, one of the soldiers wondered in his mind. “Is this guy a mind-reader?”

  Just as Lorian said that, the soldiers at the back made way for someone coming through their formation, before that person eventually got to the front and revealed their face to him.

  “Hey, Lorian. How have you been?”, Yuna confidently greeted.

  “Yuna… It’s really you…”, Lorian cautiously muttered, tightly containing his excitement to see her again.

  “It’s been so long, hasn’t it? Losing our home, getting separated and all…”, she calmly expressed. “Who’d have known that our separation would lead us into becoming special individuals, right?”

  “Tell me, what have they done to you, Yuna? Why do you look so comfortable being with the imperial soldiers who have ruined and changed people’s lives in Everbloom? Don’t you see what they have done to this city alone?”, he asked genuinely.

  “How about you tell me about yourself first, Lorian? What have your friends from Rustbed done to you, sneaking into Tachyon while committing a heist at a museum in Andrestod to steal an important artefact? I’ve never expected someone as humble as you to stoop so low, you know?”, she countered.

  “And… to have the audacity to be wearing said artefact on your wrist while casually walking around in a Tachyon-controlled city… you’re truly bold now…”, she disgustedly gazed at Lorian’s Contact Bracelet as she added that.

  He responded: “I know… it makes no sense for me to have this. But, I had a reason to get this bracelet, and it goes back to what happened to our village. I needed it to figure out who or what caused that ray of light to destroy everything”.

  “And now that you have it, did you find what you’re looking for?”, she seriously asked.

  “I did”, he confessed. “But I won’t share with you for free”.

  “Hmph… why?”, she added.

  “Because I need you to leave behind your role as a vanguard first. I can’t have you continue like this”, he pleaded.

  “Huh?!”, she frowned, “You really think you could just say that to my face?”

  “Yuna, how much did you know about how our village was destroyed?”, he asked first.

  She reluctantly answered: “That ray of light… it destroyed the whole village while also killing many of the soldiers who were nearby. Why do you ask?”

  “I see… so that's what they told you, huh?”, he expressed.

  He told her: “Don’t you know that before that mysterious ray of light descended, our village was overrun by Tachyonian and Seirionian soldiers who were fighting amongst the houses there? As they were fighting, they also destroyed our neighbours’ houses, and killed whoever was in their way”

  “I can’t have my friend be on the same side as those murderers, because I don’t want you to end up like them…”

  “Hah! Trying to spin the history here, are we? You think fabricating lies toward Tachyon would have shaken my loyalty? Pft… try better…”, she arrogantly said.

  “YUNA! I SAW THE HEAVENLY RAY COME DOWN WITH MY OWN EYES! AND I SAW HOW THE VILLAGERS WERE BEING SHOT WAY BEFORE THAT! HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THAT FORSAKEN LIGHT, THE LITTERED CORPSE OF OUR PEOPLE WOULD STILL BE THERE FOR EVERYONE TO SEE!!!”

  Lorian shouted at the top of his lungs with all his rage. Yuna’s strong dismissal of his own traumatic witnessing, which left a deep emotional scar in him, irked him the wrong way, and he couldn’t keep it in for much longer. He even pulled out his resolite and transformed it into its halberd form as he shouted all of that.

  “Whoa, whoa, Lorian! Cool down, you’ve only started talking to her for a few minutes!”, Alaric tried to talk to him.

  Even Matina tried to calm him down by saying directly into his mind: “Lorian, control yourself. Don’t act rashly just because she said the wrong thing”.

  The soldiers were all on high alert with fingers on the triggers as they aimed directly for his head. Yuna also pulled out her resolite and transformed it into its sword form as she held it forth in a defensive stance.

  Sweat accumulated on Lorian’s forehead as he recalculated his next choice of action under heavy breathing. In that stressful moment, Alaric’s previous unanswered question popped back into his mind:

  “If you were Mr Gray, would you have regretted it earlier and tried stopping everything from the beginning, or would you wait for everything to fix itself like him?”

  He asked himself: “Should I let her be for now, or would it be too late then?”

  Matina then told him in his mind: “Everything she said and believed was told by her mentors and superiors, who themselves only heard it from the higher-ups. The truth has always remained, but the information has been deliberately altered by many hands to make it more pleasing to their ears, and more importantly, to fit within their mental image”.

  “But worry not, for they are superficial, and eventually, the true image of reality will always emerge”, she added.

  Lorian lowered his halberd as he came to a calming resolution. Similarly, Yuna and the soldiers also lowered their weapons in sync.

  “Enough, get straight to the point”, he tiredly spoke to Yuna, “Are you here for this Contact Bracelet? Or are you here to arrest us?”

  “Truthfully, even if we were to capture you, you’re probably just going to fight your way out, knowing your strong ability. Even if we managed to stop you alone, you still have friends who are exceptionally good at fighting that would come for you. All in all, arresting you is not something we believe we could on you, so rest assured”, she informed him with a more amicable tone.

  Lorian and Alaric grew sceptical of the sudden flattery, but let it pass for the time being. Lorian even asked: “Then, what do you want from us?”.

  “Let’s just say, we want to let bygones be bygones…”, she said. “Rather than looking back on all the wrongs, why not forge ahead for the benefit of everyone?”

  Lorian and Alaric’s scepticism increased further. This time, they both felt something was already being set here.

  “Are you trying to get us to join you instead?”, Lorian bluntly asked.

  “Well… not in that manner…”, she evasively said. “More like, a little exchange as a friendly gesture… yeah!”.

  In Yuna’s mind, she anxiously said: “Oh no, I’m slipping up already. They’re much more vigilant than I imagined! Quick, think of something!”.

  It became pretty obvious to Lorian and Alaric that something was up, as they had suspected initially. They even gave each other some head nods, silently agreeing that they should start looking for a quick escape here.

  But then, Yuna blurted out something that enticed them:

  “We could help clear out all your friends' criminal records in Tachyon! Including the museum heist, so you would be able to keep the Contact Bracelet while being able to enter Tachyon again!”

  They both gazed at her again with a surprised face. Alaric also asked: “When you said ‘our friends’, who are you specifying exactly?”

  “Umm… your three other friends who were with you… plus that accomplice from the museum who is currently in jail”, she hesitantly answered.

  “Wait! You mean Mr Delaney!”, Lorian excitedly exclaimed, still remembering their xenoblin friend who had helped them acquire the Contact Bracelet.

  “Oh yeah, poor guy must have been rotting in jail without any hope left after what he has done. I hope he’s still doing fine”, Alaric commented.

  Realising that he had the chance to help Finley Delaney, who was also King Caroon’s informant, made him reconsider whether he should give Yuna, and by extension, the United Federations of Tachyon, the exchange they wanted. Lorian even consulted Matina in this regard, asking in his mind:

  “Matina, what do you think of this situation? Should we trust what she said here?”

  Matina replied: “Hmm, your friend herself actually has no power in deciding whether Finley Delaney can be released, but if you push it hard enough, I suppose her superior will listen and try to get something done”.

  “Could you try asking Captain Odya as well on this matter? I want to listen to her thoughts as well”, he requested.

  “Give me seconds, I’ll relay the message to her”, Matina responded before going silent.

  Seconds later, Matina came back and told him: “Your captain seems to agree on the matter. She said: Oh, what?! Are they seriously telling me they’re promising THAT much? Have Lorian proceed with it first, I’ll try to see if I can get to the city myself”.

  “Umm… is Captain seriously coming to us?”, Lorian awkwardly asked.

  Matina answered: “I said no, since there’s no way I could safely guide her through the forest as you did. So, I told her that you’ll try to get on good terms with the Tachyonians first, before they allow your airship to land in the city properly”

  “So, I guess it now falls under me…”, Lorian muttered.

  Meanwhile, Yuna had been staring at Lorian for some time already. She was confused by Lorian’s changing expressions while he remained completely silent. She spoke out to him: “Umm… hello? Can I know whether you’ll agree to it or not?”

  “Uh—Sorry! I was thinking deeply just now”, he awkwardly answered, trying to cover up his secret.

  “Anyway, going back to what you’ve said…”

  “I shall agree to it… on behalf of the Strife Striders”

  “Hey! Since when do you get to make that decision?”, Alaric inquired.

  “Since he became a Concordian, that is. Hehe…”, Matina poked in Alaric’s mind.