“Are you really going to stay down here the whole time?” Moonbyul asked as she came into the main gallery below deck and saw that Irene was still at one of the game tables idly a pile of poker chips.

It would be almost two full days before they would breach the Southern Continent’s interior and make their advance on Vector, and Moonbyul couldn’t imagine trying to stay inside that entire time. The Blackjack had finally left Jidoor after the return of the rest of Moonbyul’s crew, and their jeering and disbelief about how their captain had tried to maroon them in one of the most expensive cities on the Northern Continent.

The captain came and sat at Irene’s table, only slightly disappointed that the ex-general didn’t give her that usual disgusted expression. Instead, Irene simply raised a brow as Moonbyul reached into one of the table’s drawers and withdrew a deck of cards.

“I’ve been sailing the ocean for weeks,” Irene answered begrudgingly. She hoped she could use the excuse of being bored with the view to cover up her discomfort.

“But have you ever seen it from up here?” Moonbyul asked as she began shuffling.

Irene scowled. “I’d rather not.”

Moonbyul squinted across the table at her before setting the deck in front of Irene. Irene stared at it, then glanced back up at her warily.

“Cut it,” Moonbyul instructed, and Irene complied, mimicking an action she had seen her soldiers perform countless times while resting in the barracks. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?” she asked suddenly, a shrewd expression crossing her features.

Moonbyul picked up the deck and began slowly dealing cards out one, two, one, two to the both of them. Irene scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. An Imperial General, afraid of heights.” The slight quaver in her voice belied her attempt at a calm dismissal.

“Right, how silly of me,” Moonbyul replied with a smirk. She peeked at her hand; it wasn’t a bad draw: the jack of diamonds and ten of clubs. She waited for Irene to do the same, but when she glanced over, she saw Irene hadn’t even touched her own cards. Moonbyul reached over and slid the cards closer to the ex-general with a gloved finger.

“You’re either really confident, or you have no idea how to play.”

Irene narrowed her eyes at the captain. Moonbyul’s expression told her that she wasn’t necessarily talking about the cards, though whatever game she was trying to play, Irene wasn’t sure she was interested.

“I’ve never played before,” she finally admitted. She glanced at her cards the same way as Moonbyul had done: the queen of hearts and ace of spades. She had no idea what it meant, but if the gambler wanted an opponent, Irene wasn’t about to lose. “What do I do now?”

“Now? We let fate decide,” Moonbyul playfully explained as she placed three new cards on the table from the deck, revealing them face up one by one.

Irene couldn’t help rolling her eyes at Moonbyul’s seemingly incurable need for drama. She watched the cards as she laid them out. The two of clubs, the queen of spades, the ten of spades. Irene studied her own cards again for a moment before reaching over and picking up the queen of spades.

Moonbyul blinked at her. “What are you doing?”

“I want this one.”

“You can’t… you don’t…” the airship pilot couldn’t finish her sentence as she began snickering into her gloved hand.

Irene frowned severely. “Why not? You put them on the table, and I want this one. You can have one of the other cards.”

Moonbyul gave another laugh. Either they played a very odd mix of rummy and poker in the Gestahlian Empire, or Irene really hadn’t ever played before. She leaned across the table to take the card back, but Irene held it out of her reach.

“What are you doing?” It was Irene’s turn to ask.

“Putting the card back,” Moonbyul explained exasperatedly. “You don’t get to just take the cards, they’re for everyone!”

“Well here, you can have this one instead, then,” Irene said, handing over her ace of spades.

Moonbyul took the card in confusion. “What? I- no, Irene, give me the card back!” She put a knee up on the table in an attempt to lengthen her reach as Irene leaned back in her seat, keeping a firm grasp on her two cards. “And don’t show me your hand!”

“Fair is fair!” Irene insisted as she turned this way and that to avoid Moonbyul’s hands. “If you wanted it, you should have taken it first!”

“But that’s not how you play!” Moonbyul exclaimed, her voice rising with her temper.

Irene quickly realized that she delighted in frustrating the captain. “You’re just angry because I took the queen! It’s not my fault you’re not fast enough,” she retorted, barely managing to keep her glare in place in the face of Moonbyul’s discomposure.

“Look, let’s… just start over,” Moonbyul strained as she finally plucked Irene’s cards from her hand.

+++

“How’s your head?” Yeri asked. Despite the fact that they were flying, Yeri was barely troubled by the light breeze whipping her purple bandanna into her face. She had asked Sujeong, how fast they were going, and the helmsman had replied that though the Blackjack topped out at a brisk 25 knots, they were currently holding course at around 15 knots. To a retired smuggler like Yeri she was having trouble reconciling the fact that they were moving that quickly through the air. 

Joy waited until Eunae and Seulgi passed, the former timidly taking the latter around the perimeter of the deck, before answering. “It looks worse than it is,” the queen replied, gingerly touching the bump on her forehead that Irene had given her as she continued to watch the odd pair.

Yeri lightly swatted her hand away from her head so she could see. She had to stand up off of the lashed barrels they were sitting on to get a good vantage on the much taller queen, carefully brushing Joy’s fiery red hair back away from the bump. She searched blindly in her satchel as she tilted Joy’s head down, her fingers groping for a certain shape: the fluted neck of a glass potion bottle.

Joy was silent as she let Yeri do as she pleased. Joy had been pampered for most of her life; in her childhood she had always been attended by tutors or servants - even when she would manage to escape down to her father’s machines in the basement of the castle, there had still been the team of engineers keeping a wary eye on her. Into adulthood and after her coronation, she had felt even more suffocated, now by the attentions of her advisors in their attempt to support her in her role as Queen of Figaro.

But with Yeri it was different.

Or maybe Irene had hit her a little harder than she realized.

“Why’d she hit you, anyway?” Yeri asked sourly as she finally looked away to grab the potion out of her bag. Joy stayed still, kept in place by Yeri’s fingers absently touching her temple.

“I... may have seen something I shouldn’t have,” Joy intoned guiltily.

Yeri rolled her eyes as she uncorked the bottle with a pop and dabbed a bit of of the potion on her fingers. “What, did you walk in on her and farm girl kissing or something?”

Joy looked up at her in shock. “You knew?!”

“Knew? Wait, what?!” Yeri squawked, almost dropping the bottle. “They kissed? Irene and Seulgi?!” she shrieked.

From around the deck, six pairs of eyes looked their way and Joy jumped up and covered Yeri’s mouth with her hands. “For Odin’s sake! Keep it down!”

But it was too late. Somi, who had been swabbing the deck nearby, dropped her mop with a clatter and clapped her hands over her own mouth. “Seulgi’s cheating on the captain?!” she asked the two girls. Yeri pulled Joy’s hands away so she could properly sputter at Somi.

“Cheating?? On that playgirl?” she countered, matching Somi’s scandalized expression.

Seulgi, halfway down the railing from the arguing trio, buried her face in her hands as Eunae fretted beside her.

“I can’t believe you guys would take advantage of her like this!” Somi continued. She suddenly turned and sprinted for the trapdoor, intent on alerting the captain about the illicit affair.

“Wait, where aRE YOU GOING?!” Joy yelled after her, but then Seulgi ran past her, chasing after Somi with Eunae close behind. Joy blinked at them, stunned at the commotion. She exchanged a look with Yeri before they both wordlessly decided to follow.

Moonbyul had just begun ing her dress shirt right as Somi stormed into the gallery. There was silence, entirely uncharacteristic for the youngest crewmember of the Blackjack, as Somi struggled to make sense of the scene before her: Moonbyul was half-sitting on the green, felt gaming table in her shirtsleeves, and Irene was standing before her with her arms crossed and a rather pleased smirk coloring her features.

And she was wearing Moonbyul’s long, embroidered coat.

And she was wearing Moonbyul’s wide, leather belt.

And she was wearing Moonbyul’s knee-high boots.

The barefoot, bereft captain stared back at Somi mournfully.

“So you’re cheating too?” Somi whispered in shock.

“What?” Irene and Moonbyul chorused, but before Somi could answer, Seulgi, Eunae, Joy and Yeri piled into the room behind her.

Eunae covered her eyes in embarrassment. Attempted kidnapping aside, she hadn’t realized her captain was the kind of woman to cheat on her own wife… with the person whom her wife had cheated on her with.

“I didn’t cheat,” Irene refuted, with an air of haughtiness in her tone. “I won fair and square.” She hugged her new coat tightly around herself and instinctively reached for the sinch around the waist. But there wasn’t one, like there had been on her officer’s coat. Old habits, as Yeri would say. Irene pursed her lips as she met Somi’s confused gaze.

“... What?” Somi asked after a beat.

“No one’s cheating on anyone!” Seulgi tried to explain, pulling her hat off and running her fingers through her hair in exasperation. She looked fixedly at Somi as she continued, afraid of catching Irene’s gaze. “I’m not… we’re not married,” she gestured at Moonbyul with her hat.

“O-oh.” A look of understanding slowly came over Somi's features. “Sorry for uh… interrupting then,” she apologized with a nod at Moonbyul’s half-ed shirt.

Moonbyul followed her gaze and hastily began to button back up.

“Hey, wait a second,” Irene protested, crossing her arms. The wide sleeves of Moonbyul’s coat reached nearly to the tips of her fingers, and the patterned hem would have brushed the floor had Irene not traded in her dress shoes for Moonbyul’s high-heeled boots. Overall, the garment dwarfed her figure, and Seulgi had never seen her look less like a trained killing machine. It was strangely adorable, despite the odd circumstances. “I won the last round, so I get your shirt. It’s your own rules!”

“I think we should go…” Joy began, but Yeri cut her off.

“Did you lose a bet?” the blonde asked, eyeing the cards on the table Moonbyul was leaning on.

The captain let out a low whine as she slowly started ing again. “She keeps winning. I can’t wait until I get to drop you guys off at Vector!”

+++

Jung Eunji, General of the Gestahlian Imperial Army, couldn’t sleep. She tried to blame her new quarters, but she knew she was just looking for excuses. Accepting the promotion had meant finally moving out of the officers’ barracks and into the residential wing on the opposite side of the emperor’s great iron ziggurat, and the lack of constant noise from the other officers was oddly unsettling. She wondered if Irene had felt the same when she had received her new room assignment. What had it been like to move out of the only home she had ever known, and away from her soldiers?

Because for Eunji, it felt pretty lonely.

Irene had been so single-minded in her climb to the top, never afraid to outshine a superior officer or speak her mind if she had an idea. Eunji had always been one step behind her, and had watched her toil through sleepless nights and grueling campaigns in her relentless pursuit of that gold star for her lapel. It hadn’t been easy to watch Irene trade in friendship and camaraderie with her fellow officers for grabs at more power, but once Irene had reached the top, Eunji had finally understood her motivation.

Irene’s first order to her Commanders had been to halt all field assignments for the Witch.

“But she’s already been deployed to Maranda,” Commander Kim Suho interjected.

“They’re going to force an unconditional surrender so we can turn it into a second Tzen,” Commander Do Kyungsoo explained evenly, looking up at Irene from under his heavy brows.

“New orders,” Irene stated, barely acknowledging their statements. “I will take the 32nd Battalion to Maranda personally as reinforcements. We’ll do this the old fashioned way.”

Commander Kim sat up in his seat. “The 32nd? It’s mostly infantry; they only have…” he paused to think for a moment, “twenty Magitek Armors.”

“And they’ll have me,” Irene growled. “And Commander Jung.”

Eunji blinked. “Me? Yes, ma’am!”

“You two?” Commander Do asked with a frown. “You both just got promoted. You should at least take one of us instead of her,” he reasoned, gesturing at the other commanders seated around the conference table.

“Commander Jung will accompany me to Maranda. That’s an order,” Irene repeated solidly. She briefly met Eunji’s much warmer gaze with her icy stare. “We’ve had many assignments together over the years. I… I trust her.”

I trust her.

But now Irene was gone. Possibly dead.

Eunji laughed to herself as she pushed aside the heavy iron doors and walked out onto the balcony of her room, which was really more of an observation deck that overlooked the large drill yard.

Irene, dead. Eunji knew it was impossible. It was going to take a lot more than a few Magitek Armors to take down the former general, but it begged the question: where was she? What was she doing? Eunji hadn’t been given the full details of Irene's treason and escape until she had received her promotion, and the circumstances suggested Irene had had help. Which meant she might have friends.

Well, friends inasmuch as Irene had ever been able to make friends, but Eunji had hope. Irene had somehow managed to escape this life, but Eunji worried if she’d be able to function outside of her role in the Empire. The yard far below was dark and empty, but even just the sight of it brought back the memories of the dust and the sweat, and the sounds of hundreds of soldiers grunting and shouting as they trained. It was all they knew.

Small flakes drifted across her field of vision, slowly fluttering past her and disappearing into the darkness. Snow? But it wasn’t that cold out, and it seemed a little too early for it. She reached out her hand to catch one, but instead of melting away in her palm, it left a dark grey smear. A little oily even.

Ash.

Eunji craned her head up and searched the facade of the ziggurat as it rose high above her into the gloom. She could see a faint glow coming from an opening several floors above, and she hurried back inside, not even pausing to shut her balcony doors in her haste.

She clenched her fist, feeling the stain on her palm as she grabbed her coat with her free hand and rushed out of her quarters.

+++

Leeteuk wasn’t entirely displeased to see General Jung burst into his chambers unannounced. After all, she had been so good at playing her part in his scheme so far. His suppositions had been correct; she was far easier to manipulate than Irene, and had the same penchant for self-sacrifice that the Ice Princess had displayed.

It was pitiful, really.

“Uwee hee hee! My, how nice of you to join us, General~,” he lilted as he watched her compose herself in the doorway to his expansive antechamber. The Emperor’s Court Wizard and chief advisor enjoyed a few modest luxuries, including red velvet upholstered furniture, gold-trimmed and tasseled, glittering in the light of several equally garish crystalline chandeliers. The whole room was distastefully opulent, but that wasn’t what made Eunji pause.

It was the stench.

Wendy stood in the middle of the room, mutely watching the smoldering remains of what Eunji desperately wished wasn’t, but ultimately had to admit was a human body. The few charred bones and piles of ash stuck to the black marble floor in a slick of melted fat, and if she had walked in on this scene about three years ago, she might have been ill, but she had unfortunately become accustomed to such sights over the past few years.

Breathing through , she swiftly marched over to Wendy and turned her away from what was left of the corpse. As expected, Wendy calmly allowed herself to be guided, under the full effects of the copper diadem resting on her head. Leeteuk’s Slave Crown.

“Should I even bother to ask who that was?” Eunji quipped angrily, ignoring the Court Wizard’s greeting. She carefully slipped the crown off of the smaller girl, frowning at the indentation it left on her forehead. At the sudden return of control of her own body, Wendy all but collapsed against Eunji with a shuddering gasp.

“Steady! I’ve got you,” the general murmured to her as she quickly wrapped her arms around Wendy, keeping her upright.

Wendy slowly looked around, trying to remember where she was. Trying to remember anything. She was warm, blisteringly hot, and there was smoke in the air, and a familiar overcooked smell.

She had killed again, hadn’t she?

As her gaze drifted to the floor, looking for her victim, she felt a hand gently cup her face and force her to turn her head.

“Wendy? Wendy, look at me,” Eunji quietly commanded. Wendy searched her face in confusion, and painfully Eunji counted the seconds until she saw a glimmer of recognition in the Witch’s eyes.

One.

Two.

Three.

Fou-

“Eunji?” Wendy asked tentatively. Eunji forced a smile. “Oh, Eunji…” Wendy whispered as she let the general support her weight.

“Are you quite finished ruining my fun?” Leeteuk drawled in minor irritation.

“Your fun?” Eunji growled, sweat already trickling down her neck and soaking into the collar of her coat. Wendy was always so hot after using her magic, but Eunji wasn’t about to let her go. Not until they were far away from Leeteuk.

“She’s not a toy, you clown!”

Leeteuk rolled his eyes. How many times had he already heard that one? “You think too highly of yourselves,” he cooed. “We’re all the playthings of the Emperor,” he corrected darkly.

“Well I’m not sure the Emperor would approve of using… using his most powerful weapon for your amusement.”

She grimaced at his slow smirk. She had hesitated and he had seen right through her. He always saw right through her.

“And I doubt he would approve of your conflict of interest, lovergirl.” She had the upper hand in the argument, and he wasn’t going to debate the point, but how could he possibly resist adding that little sting?

Luckily Wendy still seemed to be in too much of a daze to pay any attention to their conversation. She could only absently stare at their dull reflections in the black marble tiles.

Eunji wanted nothing more than to break the Slave Crown over her knee and give it back to Leeteuk in pieces, but she knew that wouldn’t prevent him from making another one. And worse, it would be treason. Leeteuk had finally found Irene’s breaking point, but Eunji had promised herself that she would do whatever it took to protect Wendy, even if it meant making small concessions to the Court Wizard.

Making sure Wendy could stand up by herself, Eunji carefully pulled away so she could hand Leeteuk the Slave Crown.

“How cooperative~” he noted, giving her that taunting smirk as he accepted the circlet. “I suppose I was finished with her anyway. Though now I need someone to come clean up this mess.” He took a long, audible sniff of the air. “Makes a man hungry, though, doesn’t it~?”

Eunji didn’t deign to answer as she returned to Wendy and led her away with an arm around her waist.

Leeteuk just waved at her with his fingers. “Enjoy the rest of your evening, General~!” he called after them as Eunji slammed shut the doors to his apartments. “Enjoy it while you can.”

Uwee hee hee!!!