Irene felt it. She didn’t know exactly what Heechul’s words meant, but hearing a voice given to that ineffable tug on something deep inside of her as she looked up at the imprisoned Shiva, she knew it was true. They were connected somehow.

“A god?!” Joy sputtered.

“You can’t mean the Shiva?” Seulgi asked incredulously.

“She’s not a god,” Heechul corrected. “I just told you; they’re espers.” He pointed behind himself to a tube containing a dark, hulking, behorned figure, a shock of fiery orange hair running like a mane from the top of its head down its muscular back.

“Ifrit.”

With his other hand, he pointed towards another tube, with a slender, serpent-like creature floating inside, its shimmering scales the color of opal, fringed with turquoise fan-like fins.

“Leviathan.”

There must have been a dozen more thusly occupied glass tubes running the length of the lab.

“So they’re real,” Yeri said tonelessly. She looked just as tired as the Chief Engineer suddenly, and Solji stepped up to place her hands on the thief’s shoulders.

“You actually did it.” Solji watched Heechul darkly over the top of Yeri’s head. “And here I just thought you were crazy.”

Heechul just gave her a wane smile, noting the disdain in the don’s voice. “I think I am crazy, but we actually started this experiment long before we ever contacted you.”

Joy turned a stunned expression towards the two gang members, but Yeri’s mind still seemed to be elsewhere. “What does he mean?” the queen demanded. For a moment, silence reigned, broken only by the soft rhythmic bubbling of the tanks, while the engineer and the don stared at each other.

Heechul saved the two ladies from answering. “We’ve been searching the world for these espers. We distill their energy and use it in our machines and weaponry,” he sighed, waving to the tangle of tubes that sprouted from each glass container and wove up into dark machinery on a secondary level with more criss-crossing walkways above them.

“Magitek,” Joy stated.

Heechul nodded. “Demand began outstriping supply, so we needed to find more of these espers.”

“So you tried to hire us,” Solji continued, pulling Yeri closer to herself protectively. Suddenly Yeri’s self-proclaimed title of ‘World-Famous Treasure Hunter’ began to make more sense to Seulgi as she stared at Yeri’s mute form in wonder.

“But it was tricky,” Heechul acknowledged with another nod. “We couldn’t exactly tell you what we wanted them for, and our only clues as to their whereabouts were based on little more than legends and myths.”

“You weren’t just using them for Magitek,” Irene broke in quietly. It wasn't a question. When she looked back at the tank, she saw Shiva had placed her own hand on the glass, against Irene’s.

“No,” Heechul admitted solemnly, looking over at Irene with an apologetic gaze. “We weren’t.”

Irene’s frosted skin stuck to the steel surgical table and her quick, frightened breaths fogged in the otherwise humid research lab. Heechul sat back on his stool to give her some space. After the way Leeteuk had reacted to his own series of injections, he wasn’t sure what to expect from Irene.

The young sergeant convulsed in a fit of coughing, the air in her lungs bitter cold. She rolled onto her side, and tried to push herself up on her hands, but she slipped, her palms forming streaks of ice on the table as soon as she touched it. She gasped and struggled even more frantically to sit upright. “Heechul… Heechul!” she cried quietly, fear quavering in her voice.

Heechul watched carefully, mentally noting each change that Irene expressed, even as he called out to her gently, “It’s okay, you’re okay! Do you feel any pain? Can you look at me? Focus on me if you can.” She turned to look at him, her horrified gaze meeting his odd mix of excitement and concern.

“It’s really happening…” she breathed, her words made visible by a small puff of ice cold fog. She raised her hand in front of her, turning it this way and that. Her skin had turned a bluish white, her nails purple as if she were some long-dead corpse trapped in a glacier, frostbitten and preserved for eternity.

Is that what was happening to her? Was she something… other, now? Was she more than mortal? Would she live forever? She certainly felt like she had been elevated above humanity, as she flexed her fingers slowly, already acclimating to the cold. That icy feeling deep in her chest, like her heart was pumping blood as cold as a mountain stream, was slowly creeping out from her core through her limbs, becoming less of a shock with every beat.

She was definitely something else now. There was a power spreading through her system that felt old. Very old. And it wasn’t just a power, it was a perception. Even this poor engineer-turned-scientist sitting next to her was still just a normal person. And there was something that sparked within her at that thought. Something that echoed in the back of her mind like faint siren, an alarm… warning her.

Uwee hee hee…

Irene clapped her freezing hands over her ears, but looked up, startled when she heard a voice.

“Aha, I see I am too late for the festivities!” Irene let out a long billowing breath as she saw the wide manic grin of the Emperor’s first advisor, the Court Wizard, leering out at her from the shadow of the doorway. He waltzed in, making a show of shivering in his silken trousers and billowing dress shirt. “My, what a cold greeting! But I must say, I’m chilled- er, thrilled, rather, to see that the procedure seems to have worked!”

Leeteuk’s grin faded into a more ponderous, close-mouthed smile as he circled Irene on the surgical table. Irene followed him with wary eyes, feeling her pulse quicken and the air in her lungs grow colder still. This was her first time seeing the Court Wizard outside of a military parade, and certainly the first time she had seen him this up close and personal. She didn’t like the predatory way he looked at her with those cold, calculating eyes, or his incessant smile.

“Yes, it seems you got it right, this time at least,” Leeteuk murmured as he came to stand by Heechul. “So, what can she do~?”

+++

Strangely, Irene had never seen Wendy outside of their fencing atelier before, so meeting her in the training yard under the hazy sky was odd. It reminded Irene how little she really knew about the younger girl, and how she may spend her time when they were apart. Perhaps she could ask her later on, but for now, they were here to train.

Heechul sighed as he tapped a wide pencil to his lips, staring down at his clipboard. “Wendy? Do you remember how we did this with Leeteuk?”

Wendy definitely remembered, but she did her best to simply smile up at the Chief Engineer and nod. Heechul appreciated her effort.

“Well,” he said quietly, though the next closest people were all the way down at the other end of the drill yard, far too scared of the Witch to train any closer. “Irene should be slightly easier to teach. Just show her some of the basics for now. How to contain it, mostly.”

Irene couldn’t help being more reserved than usual around Wendy, even though the little witch was barely able to contain her excitement. She gave Heechul a brief salute before bouncing over to Irene and taking her hands.

And then promptly dropped them again, rubbing her fingers and blowing hot air into her palms.

Irene winced, still getting used to just how cold her touch was to everyone, and everything. She had already ruined several delicate instruments in Heechul’s lab when she had finally gotten off of the table and skated into one of his workbenches from the streaks of ice created by her feet contacting the floor.

She flinched when Wendy carefully took her hands again, this time holding them cupped against her chest. Irene could feel the heat radiating from Wendy - the reason she had begun to wear sleeveless shirts to try and keep cool during fencing practice - and instinctively stepped closer to the younger girl, basking in the warmth.

Heechul stopped tapping the pencil against his lips and raised an eyebrow. Was… this… part of the training? He somehow suspected it wasn’t, and cleared his throat. “Uh, ladies? We have a long afternoon ahead of us…”

Not just because she was embarrassed, Irene quickly stepped back and held her arms behind her back, feeling the last bit of heat from Wendy quickly dissipate. Shyness aside, she too was eager to get started. She wanted to see what she could do, and perhaps begin to turn some of those vicious rumors away from Wendy and take them upon herself.

Wendy, however, scrunched up her face at Heechul in a pout, which he nearly returned, and probably would have, if it weren’t for the fact that they were out in the middle of the drill yard. “I was just trying to warm her up a little…!”

“Yeah, well she doesn’t even feel the cold anymore. She doesn’t know how her touch affects others. You’re supposed to help her with that,” he countered. Wendy, somehow still ever a child throughout all of this, stuck her tongue out at him and took Irene by the wrist to lead her a short distance away, so they could converse in peace.

When he first selected Irene for his next experiment, after going through stacks and stacks of files of new recruits, it was because she seemed to fit his physical criteria. She looked perfect on paper, but when he had first met her in person, that’s what had given him the idea to narrow his focus down to one esper. That first interview had left him with such a clear impression of Irene’s cool, calm demeanor, the epithet of Ice Princess would have suited her with or without the injection. After his mistake with Leeteuk, and Irene’s obvious affinity for cooler elements, it suddenly seemed so obvious: focus on one esper, and give her everything Shiva had to offer.

“She’ll be the perfect match to the Witch,” he remembered telling the army’s Master Swordsman naught a year ago. “Together they’ll be Fire and Ice.”

But now he was growing concerned about just how perfect the match was, as he watched Wendy laugh and Irene cover her face in one hand as she pushed the Witch with the other.

“Just try again,” Wendy encouraged after her laughter subsided. It was wholly new to watch mist sublimate off of Irene’s outstretched arms, to see her bluish skin, and her dark wavy hair catch the midday light in crystalline shimmers. It practically brought tears to her eyes. She was starting to really feel like she wasn’t quite so alone in this world.

But she couldn’t let Irene stay like this. She needed to teach Irene how to conceal her abilities and her new nature. She couldn’t stand it if Irene began to receive the same kind of treatment she had to face here in the capital. It was ironic how happy she was that Irene was no longer ‘normal’, but was now tasked to do everything in her power to teach Irene how to act like it.

“It’s just like keeping a straight face - like hiding your emotions.” Irene seemed to be great at that, so this shouldn’t be any trouble at all, right?

Irene gave Wendy a sidelong glance then returned her attention to her hands. Was it connected to her emotions, then? How was she feeling right now? Nervous, confused, a little frustrated… a little shy. She schooled herself into a neutral expression and forced her shoulders to relax, and slowly, nearly imperceptibly, she thought she began to see color return to the tips of her fingers. The familiar pale, flesh tone hue to her skin regressed, however, when Wendy clapped her hands suddenly, startling her.

“Yes! Exactly! I knew you’d be good at this,” Wendy exclaimed, very pleased with her assessment and Irene’s quick progress. Leeteuk hadn’t even bothered with trying to conceal his powers and had been far less receptive to the youngster’s instructions. She beamed over at Irene appreciatively and Irene couldn’t help but smile back.

She had been scared about giving up her humanity, about sacrificing herself to the Emperor’s consuming desire for domination over his enemies - though in truth she had never had much choice in the matter - but seeing Wendy so ecstatic was making the transformation much easier to bear.

And just like that, all traces of the other in her appearance seemed to vanish as she softly gazed at Wendy.

Heechul wrote that down.

+++

“Is it worth it?”

Heechul blinked at the blonde thief who shrugged out of Solji’s arms. It was a loaded question, he knew, he just couldn’t figure out which angle this girl was coming at the situation from. Her familiarity with the Don of the Slam Shuffle Gang suggested she was also part of that outfit, so was she referring to the high upfront costs the Empire paid them for information? Was he asking about the man power it took to chase after every lead-? Wait…

“We’ve made modest gains,” he supplied thoughtfully. “For instance this time we’re fairly certain about the location of the Phoenix; when we tried to contract your… gang, we had somewhat misinterpreted the-” he was cut off by the vhpp vhpp vhpp of a dagger whirling so close past his neck that he felt goosebumps raise from his jaw clear down to his shoulder.

“Let GO OF ME!!!” Yeri shrieked as Solji and Irene practically tackled her to the ground. “He’s playing games with people’s lives and for WHAT?” she continued to yell as they struggled to hold her still. Seulgi was stunned, but slowly brought the tip of her sword back up to point at Heechul, still unsure at this point whether he was truly an enemy worth fighting or not.

And to be fair, Joy was also debating this as she slowly wrapped her fingers around the ripchord of her chainsaw. Why was he being so free with all of this information? Was he having a change of heart about his current employer? Did he care more about his experiments than what side he was on?

Or perhaps he figured none of them would be getting out of here alive.

Heechul ducked and ran back to a desk at the far end of the walkway, hiding behind the piece of furniture in surprise. He looked like he had been awoken out of a coma, the deep creases in his face less prominent, his tired eyes wide and alert as he stared at Yeri. Her outburst hadn’t been expected at all, and while he had thought he had done his best to stall the group from proceeding further, he now truly feared for his life.

The World Famous Treasure Hunter stilled in the two older girls’ grip and she looked coldly at Irene. “Let. Go. Of me.”

“You can’t kill him,” Irene refused, standing her ground under the younger girl’s uncharacteristically fierce gaze.

“Why not?” Yeri growled back. “He doesn’t care who lives or dies- more importantly why do you care?” Had Seulgi been right? Had Irene been playing her all this time?

But Irene had no answer for her as she suddenly felt everyone’s eyes upon her. She stood up slowly and released Yeri, who immediately pushed past her to retrieve her thrown dagger.

Was it strange that Irene maybe… perhaps in a twisted way… felt like he was family? As if she could even begin to understand the meaning of that word. She looked at Seulgi who stared back at her with a mixture of shock and confusion, and then she shifted her gaze up to Shiva watching them all with her unreadable, foreboding gaze. Was Yeri right about the Chief Engineer? Probably. But Irene didn’t know any different in this circus that was the Empire of Gestahl. No, all she knew was how to fight.

“I joined the Returners for one reason,” Yeri spat as she advanced towards where Heechul cowered.

“Yeri…” Joy warned. Solji crossed her arms with a resigned sigh.

“-And you’re not going to stop me now,” Yeri continued, talking right over the queen.

Irene had barely gripped the handle of her sabre to stop the blonde when an all too familiar laugh pulled the breath right out of her lungs.

“Uwee hee hee~! I do so hate to interrupt such a delightful performance, but you’ll have to excuse us,” tittered Leeteuk, the Empire’s Court Wizard.

Why was he here? Irene quickly pulled her sabre free of its sheath and glanced around. It was only when she noticed the others gazing upwards that she realized he was on the second floor, laughing down at them from one of the suspended walkways overhead.

And he wasn’t alone, as soldiers filed in behind him and his party. Lots of soldiers. They practically filled the entire upper walkway as it groaned on its suspension rods under their heavy footfalls.

“My, how rude, Irene, you must introduce me to our guests~”

“No thanks,” Joy broke in flatly. “I’ve already had the displeasure of making your acquaintance.”

“Queen Sooyoung, you honor us,” Leeteuk cooed with a gallant bow. “And Don Solji, if I’m not mistaken?” he added with a nod, while the other redhead simply glared back up at him. “Then please, allow me to introduce my entourage: Irene you will remember General Jung Eunji? She’s been kind enough to fill in during your… absence.

“And of course,” he said finally, his eyes narrowing at Irene in dark glee, “you know the Witch.”

Irene swallowed thickly. Her attention had been split between trying to watch Leeteuk’s every move, and the sight of Wendy, standing at his side impassively, with that despicable diadem resting against her brow. So he still used the Slave Crown to control her. Was Eunji protecting her? Was Eunji truly filling in for Irene? Was Eunji able to thwart Leeteuk’s plans the way she had once worked so hard to be able to do?

“I told you to go around in case they came this way,” Heechul called up to the Court Wizard irritably.

“Please, you do me a disservice. I came this way hoping I could run into them,” Leeteuk drawled. “How often is it that I get to meet old friends, after all~?” His gaze took in the rag-tag crew Irene had surrounded herself with: they were clearly ready for a confrontation, but were watching her almost as if waiting for a signal. Interesting. Was she their leader, then?

Perhaps some taunting was in order.

“I’m afraid we’ll have to catch up another time, however. I’m on my way out at the moment,” he continued, his gaze flicking back to the General and the Witch. “I see you’ve discovered my private collection-” he ignored Heechul’s scoff, “-and I was just leaving to collect another specimen, you see.”

“You’re not going anywhere with her,” Irene growled as she formed a long shard of ice in her free hand. At the clear call to action, Joy let her chainsaw rip and its mechanical roar filled the otherwise still lab.

“Ah, ah!” Leeteuk scolded playfully over the noise. “Please, Irene, not in front of our guests. After all, I believe you understand how this works~?” He pulled Wendy in front of himself and leaned over her shoulder as he tapped at the crown she wore. “A word from me, and she’ll be… how should I put this? Decommissioned.”

Eunji… “Eunji?!” Irene cried out, the desperation in her voice surprising even herself. Why didn’t she do something?

But Eunji could barely make herself meet Irene’s gaze through the gloom of the lab. She was letting her old senior officer down. She was letting her old comrade down, but Irene didn’t understand the pressure Eunji faced, nor the strings she had to pull to force Leeteuk to let her accompany him on this mission.

She silently pleaded with Irene to not make her choose between Wendy and her.

But all Irene saw in Eunji’s face was resignation and defeat. Just what had Leeteuk been up to while she was away?

Leeteuk knew he had Irene backed into a corner, and he was utterly delighted to see what she might do. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been lying about the fact that they were leaving. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. “I’m afraid we’ll have to cut this short, Irene,” he intoned sourly, dropping his affected lilt. “But don’t worry, I’ve prepared some entertainment for you while I’m away,” he motioned to the soldiers. “And if you dare to drop in unannounced again,” he growled down at them, “I will be sure to deal with you personally. Ladies~” he gestured ahead of himself, indicating that Wendy and Eunji should proceed before him.

“Eunji…” Irene breathed, watching them exiting into the factory through a door up on the second level. “Eunji…!” she called out, pleading. “WENDY!!!”

“Uwee hee hee~ Goodbye, Irene~” Leeteuk bowed, before slamming the iron door shut behind them.

There was the flutter of clicks as dozens of rifles were cocked and aimed against them, and Irene stared after the Court Wizard for just a beat before whirling into action. She grabbed Joy’s hands as they held her chainsaw and she smashed it against Shiva’s tank, the high pitched squeal of the toothed blades whirring against the glass causing everyone to cover their ears.

Heechul’s desperate cry for them to stop was lost in the noise.

Joy helped Irene hold the chainsaw in place and with their combined strength, the tank breached, cracks splintering out like a spider’s web in all directions before shattering. The ambient fluid splashed over them and drained down through the perforated iron walkway, and Shiva swayed, hanging from her mask and the tangles of tubes that connected her to Odin knew what kinds of devices. Irene quickly cut her free and the esper fell into her arms, bringing all activity in the lab to a halt.

“What have you done...” Heechul whispered in horror as some of the soldiers began to back away from the railing.

Irene tore the mask from Shiva’s face and the esper took a long, deep breath before opening her piercing blue eyes. She gazed up at Irene and cupped the side of her face gently with her freezing hand.

Joy hoped there was a plan to go along with freeing Shiva, but Irene seemed mesmerized by the esper in her arms. And if Joy had to admit, she was too afraid to interrupt.

Shiva let out another long sigh and let her head roll on her shoulders. The bangles on her ankles and wrists tinkled as she shifted her weight to get her feet under, still using Irene for support. When she opened her eyes again, it was to look up at the soldiers above them, who nearly panicked at her stare. Indeed, the girls on the lower level could hear their labored breathing as they struggled not to break into a hysteria. The esper simply raised a hand in their direction and they scattered, some racing ahead towards the factory, some rushing back from whence they came, but Shiva snapped her fingers in an arc catching them all in a deadly chill, a deep freeze that stopped them right in their tracks.

She gave Irene a knowing smile as she snapped her fingers once again, and the soldiers shattered in a blast of tiny flakes of ice, a diamond dust that rained down on the Returners.

Seulgi gasped at the finality of the display of power, feeling the tiny pricks of ice melt against her skin as she looked up. There was no trace left of the soldiers, save one lone rifle, dropped during their attempt to escape.

Shiva slumped again in Irene’s arms, and the ex-general collapsed to her knees under the larger woman’s weight.

“Shiva?” Irene asked in distress. “Shiva?!” She seemed very feeble suddenly, her breathing shallow, and her movements sluggish. “Heechul? What’s wrong with her?” Irene called out, twisting her head to look for the Chief Engineer.

Heechul crawled out from behind the desk, torn between primal fear and scientific curiosity at the new situation. “She’s weak, Irene. She’s… she was one of our first espers… we… used her for many experiments. Irene, we need to put her back into a tank, quickly!” he instructed, his tone hardening the more he spoke.

But Shiva seemed to have different plans. She reached up to cup Irene’s face again, forcing the ex-general to look at her. The esper shook her head at Irene, with a pleading look in her dark blue eyes. She pulled Irene’s head down until she could plant an icy kiss on her forehead, and murmured something in a surprisingly warm voice.

“Wh… what did she say?” Joy asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Irene shook her head slowly, her eyes never leaving Shiva’s. “I… have no idea…” she admitted, as she began to feel the weight in her arms lighten. “No…? No, what’s happening?!” she asked in alarm as the esper began to disappear, right before her eyes. She attempted to hold Shiva closer to herself the more transparent she became until Irene fumbled forward onto her hands as the esper finally winked out of existence.

“No!” she cried into the quiet lab. “Why?” Shiva, whom Heechul had said was a part of her now, was gone.

Though perhaps not entirely.

As Irene sat up willing back the sudden tears in her eyes, she saw the shimmer of a strange glassy stone in her lap. She carefully picked it up and held it in her hands. It had a cool blue core and pulsated as she turned it over, examining it.

“What’s…?” Seulgi began to ask.

“Magicite?!” Heechul breathed in answer. He scrambled back to the desk and shuffled some papers around, looking for a pencil. “I can’t believe…? After all this time…”

“What are you babbling about?” Solji asked in annoyance.

Heechul scoffed and rolled his eyes at the plebian don. “Magicite! The purest form of an esper’s energy. Do you realize how long I’ve been searching for a way to…? And for it to be this easy...?”

Irene stood up so quickly, all conversation ceased. “Easy?” she asked in a deadly quiet voice. She clutched the shard of magicite tightly in a fist as she looked over at a chagrined Heechul.

“I-Irene… my life’s work,” Heechul begged for understanding.

“Well now you’ve discovered it,” she said acidly. “Congratulations.” She turned back towards the Returners. “We need to go after Leeteuk.”

“What?!”

“Leeteuk?”

“The Court Wizard? Why him?”

“With the Witch in tow? That’ll be fun,” Solji added dryly, and Irene glared at her with such a threat in her eyes that the don looked suitably cowed.

“First you protect this lunatic,” Yeri protested, pointing at Heechul, “and now you want to abandon our ultimate goal in order to go after the second in command?” The thief walked right up to Irene, undeterred by her hard stare. “What are you really here for?” she asked quietly.

Irene held Yeri’s gaze with an authority becoming of an ex-general used to making difficult decisions. “I’m here to win a war, one way or another. And right now our best bet is to take out the three people at the head of the campaign: the Court Wizard, the General of the Imperial Army, and Wen-... and the Witch. They’re all heading out on a mission together. We may never get another opportunity to strike them all at once, at the same time, in the same place.” Even if Yeri had her misgivings about Irene’s true intentions in this fight, she at least wouldn’t be able to argue with her about this.

“What about the rest of the... er, espers,” Joy asked, eyeing the other tanks warily.

“DON’T!” Heechul suddenly yelled, jumping in front of Ifrit’s tank. “Some of them are so weak they wouldn’t last a minute outside their tanks, and the others… if you free them, there’s no telling what kind of havoc they’d wreak. Irene, I’m serious,” he reasoned. “You don’t know what we went through to contain them. If you unleash their powers on the world, there’s no telling how many they’d kill in their revenge.”

“And whose fault is that?” Yeri spat, unmoved.

“Irene, please,” Heechul begged. “Think of Wendy… but ten times worse,” he warned darkly.

Irene held his gaze for a moment before finally nodding. “Fine, but we’re not done here,” she called after him as he gave her a faint, grateful smile and walked back to his desk. “Once we settle things with Leeteuk, we’re coming back to put a stop to this, whether you want us to or not.”

He nodded somberly as he fished around in the pocket of his yellow lab coat and pulled out a key. He unlocked a drawer in the filing cabinet and pulled it open, withdrawing two files. He slowly walked over to her and held them out. “The next time we meet, you’ll probably try to kill me, then, because I’ll protect my work with my life,” he admitted quietly as he smiled down at her softly. “So here. Some light reading for your trip.”

Irene took the two aged files suspiciously and eyed their faint labels. “... ‘Joohyun’,” she read aloud before glancing at the next one, “and ‘Seungwan’...?”

“Trip?” Joy asked. “Where are they going? Where are we going?”

“To Narshe,” Heechul answered. “Miners seem to have found another esper trapped in a glacier near the town. It’s a particularly powerful one, so Leeteuk thought it’d be best to retrieve it himself.”

"And we should believe you?" Yeri asked scathingly.

Heechul gave her a wane smile, the tiredness in his expression returning. "A small concession so that you'll let me keep the rest of these," he nodded to the tanks. "For now, at least," he added with a small smile at Irene before walking back to the filing cabinet.

Irene watched him walk away quietly. She felt like she should say something after his admission about them now being on opposite sides of this war. But what could she really say, after everything?

“Irene?” Seulgi asked gently, her fingers hesitantly brushing her wrist as the rest of them turned to leave. Irene glanced up at her with an unreadable expression and Seulgi nodded towards the door. “Moonbyul’s waiting.”

She nodded with a light sigh, but Joy suddenly piped up, “Wait, the Sky Armors!”

Yeri looked at the queen askance. “What about them?”

“I’ve been wondering how we’re going to escape, and it’s perfect! We’ll just hijack a couple of the Sky Armors and fly back to the Blackjack!” Joy exclaimed.

Seulgi beamed at their luck, but her face fell again at Solji’s question. “That’s great except… does anyone know how to fly a Sky Armor?”

“How hard can it be?” Joy asked. “If an Imperial soldier can figure it out, then you bet your last gil so can I!”

“I’d take that bet if the guards hadn’t confiscated my cash,” Solji grumbled.

Heechul didn’t watch them go, he merely heard the girls finally rush back into the factory, slamming the iron door shut behind them. He stared down at the last file in the drawer, wondering if he should have given it to Irene as well, but either way, it was too late now. It was so old, even he could barely read the faint penciled label in the shadow of the cabinet: ‘Jeongsu’.

He slowly shut the drawer and locked it once more, slipping the key back into his pocket.

+++

Stealing a pair of Sky Armors was a simple matter of outrunning the goggled engineers on the factory floor, and dispatching the handful of guards clustered near the open bay doors. Flying a pair of Sky Armors was where the true challenge lay as Solji, Irene and Seulgi piled into one and Joy and Yeri scrambled into the other and they attempted to take off. Irene was relieved to see that the control panel was reminiscent of a Magitek Armor’s console, and after a few false starts she finally managed to get them airborne, while the Queen of Figaro, head of her own team of royal engineers, struggled a bit with all the levers and switches before sending them zipping past the trio at a breakneck speed.

“WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Joy cackled madly as she sent them looping up in a spiral, gaining altitude at a rate that was undoubtedly unhealthy, and most definitely unsafe as Yeri screamed shrilly in her ear and had a death grip around her neck.

And as Irene struggled to catch up to the maniacal pair, she was relieved to see the garishly large flying casino still circumnavigating the ziggurat. It seemed like she was going to have to find a way to thank the ace airship pilot after all, though their journey wasn’t over just yet.

No, indeed. It was just beginning.