[T A S K] : what do you think Alessia told calvin
An outcold Huey gained consciousness to find his injury had been healed.
Yet the titan was defeated but there were no signs of the rift closing up.
"You were out for several minutes, I scouted the area by spreading my pneuma and found there are several echoes still roaming." Hailee sat across from Huey, leaning onto a stone wall.
"Was waiting for you to wake up so we could talk, considering Topplers would be swarming here the minute I finished of the remaining variants and the rift stitches up."
Huey hopped to his feet, taking his mask off. He stomped his leg against the ground just to make sure....
It didn't hurt.
"So pneuma really can heal wounds."
"Long as you've got enough. It is the breadth of life after all." Hailee replied Huey's remark while also rising to her feet.
"But some wounds have gone beyond any kind of healing simply applying your raw pneuma can do." She stared at the battle ground taking In the scenery of corpses, both friend and foe.
"My men...., I'm sure they fought bravely." The tone in Hailee's voice changed, while she walked slowly towards him. "But where's—"
"She didn't make it either." Said Huey, he couldn't meet her gaze and just stared at the floor.
Hailee turned back and closed her eyes. It was clear she had been preparing for that statement but a part of her still hoped.
"No. she had people who loved her dearly Huey." Tears welling up in her eyes. "They all did."
"All this power but I was right there and couldn't do anything about it. I'm sorry" Huey clenched his fists.
"It's not your fault, things like this happen. Caroline Cross and the rest of the Topplers knew what they signed up for the moment they put that jacket on."
"I need to clear my head." Hailee's lemon eyes lighted up. She was certainly in the mood for tearing echoes limb from limb.
"You don't have to worry about that." Huey raised his hand, the glow in his eyes predominantly blue.
The body of the decapitated titan moved. It quickly rose to its feet coated in the aura of Huey's crest and grew another head.
"What, how did you—"
"I recently discovered I could control dead variants."
The titan moved toward the location of the remaining echoes.
"It'll handle the rest."
"We still know so little about your power Huey but I can't even fathom how such a feat is possible." Hailee was dumbstruck.
"Yh, don't even understand myself. Feels like I learn something new everyday."
"So what was it you wanted to tell me, that you needed to come out here for."
Huey reached into the pocket of his coat "This." And produced the vial containing the blue substance.
Hailee took the vial, holding it up to the red light filtering through the rift barrier.
The blue liquid swirled inside
"This is the same substance the Golden Chalice recovered from that warehouse raid," she said slowly.
"I know, saw it on the news."
"Then you also know we have no idea what it does." She lowered the vial, eyes sharp on Huey.
"Except you do, don't you?"
Huey nodded. "It turns corpses into zombies with crest if they don't already have one, and if they do, it makes it stronger."
The silence stretched between them.
"You're serious."
"Completely." Huey gestured toward where the Knights' warehouse would be. "From the Intel I gathered, it Doesn't always work. maybe one in twenty, but Achusoi have a higher success rate than people who already have Crests."
Hailee's hand tightened around the vial. "This is... Huey, do you understand what this means? If someone's manufacturing artificial Crests using corpses...."
"Huh" she sighed
"We'll have to look into Azzuri and get to the bottom of this." Huey started walking toward the nearest body.
One of Caroline's teammates, the woman with short red hair. "They're being harvested."
Hailee followed, kneeling beside the corpse. She closed the woman's eyes gently, then clasped her hands in prayer. "Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord."
Huey knelt on the other side. "And let perpetual light shine upon her."
They moved to the next body. The agent who'd been impaled by the Titan's tail, then to Morris'es remains, what little was left of him.
"What you're doing....." Hailee said as they walked toward the fourth body.
"I know why you're doing it." She paused.
"So I can't ask you to stop, but you need to be more careful.
She had been keeping calm till this point but finally lost her cool.
"Huey what you did tonight was reckless and you should count yourself lucky to still be—."
"I know."
"Do you?" She turned to face him. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you've got a death wish."
Huey met her gaze. "You know what I'm after Hailee, I've got to do something to—"
"Even if ''doing something'' means killing?"
There it was. The question she'd been holding back.
"All the people Ive killed are the bad guys and they would have done a lot more damage if they were still alive." Huey said quietly.
"So yeah, and I'd do it again."
Hailee studied his face for a long moment.
"I'm not judging you. God knows I've done worse in the field. But your methods... they're going to catch up with you eventually.
"Questions will be asked the kind you won't have an answer to." The tone of her voice finally dropping.
"Let them ask."
They reached the pile of blood that would have been Caroline's
"She believed in you," Hailee whispered.
"Always said you were special. Even when everyone else wrote you off."
Huey knelt beside her. "And now she won't even be able to get a proper burial."
"Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord."
"And let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace."
"Amen."
They stood together, looking down at what remained of the remains.
"The Titan," Huey said finally.
"It could talk. Knew exactly what it was doing, even set a trap."
Hailee's expression hardened.
"And this rift was misidentified. The emergency broadcast said Level 2, but it was clearly Level 3 from the start."
"You think someone did that on purpose?"
"I think this whole sequence was staged. Corner a group of Topplers with a rift barrier that keeps high-ranking reinforcements out, then send in a Titan intelligent enough to hunt them."
She looked at the carnage around them.
"The question is why. Why target low-level Luce Nera agents?"
"Maybe they weren't the real targets." Huey gestured to the bodies.
"Maybe someone wanted to see how we the Topplers could handle such a crisis."
Hailee's jaw tightened.
"That's a terrifying thought."
"Speaking of terrifying thoughts. If someone's feeding false information about rift levels, they'd need access to Arcanum drive systems."
"I know." Hailee pulled out her phone, making a note. "I'll look into it."
She pocketed the phone, then looked at him directly. "I have a job for you."
Huey crossed his arms. "What's in it for me?"
"Really? Your sister asks for help and you want payment?"
"My sister the Vice-Captain asks me to risk my neck on a secret mission, yeah, I want something."
Hailee actually smiled at that. "Fine. You've been trying to steal files from my office for months but cant access em. Case files on Dad's incident and....
"the St. Helena massacre."
Huey tried to keep his expression neutral.
"Help me with this, and I'll give you legitimate access"
"Deal." He didn't have to think about it twice.
The rift barrier then started fading.
"The Titan finished the Echoes," Jazz reported in Huey's head. "Rift is destabilizing."
As if summoned, the massive creature emerged from the ruins.
It stopped in front of Huey, awaiting commands.
"What do you usually do with them?" Hailee asked, staring at the undead Variant.
"Store them in the Zone, ready deployment if I need backup."
"And this one?"
Huey's eyes blazed, his hand moved to his katana.
He unsheathed the blade in one smooth motion.
The katana flashed again and again, plasma burning through dead flesh, reducing the creature to hundreds of tiny pieces scattered across the pavement.
When he finally stopped, he was breathing hard and there was nothing left of the Titan but dust.
"Feel better?" Hailee asked quietly.
"No." Huey sheathed his blade.
The rift barrier collapsed completely, and Normal light returned to the street.
It made the carnage look even worse.
"You need to go,"Said Hailee. "Other Topplers will be here in minutes. I'll handle the rest."
Huey secured his mask onto his face.
He turned to leave, then paused. "Hailee?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you, for not trying to stop me."
"I learned a long time ago that you can't stop a Cross from doing what they think is right." Her smile was sad.
"Just promise me you'll always come back alive."
He didn't answer.
Blue electricity crackled around him and he dissolved into the power lines, vanishing just as the first emergency vehicles appeared in the distance.
Hailee stood alone among her dead, waiting for the living to arrive.
Huey materialized in the alley behind Galileo Hall, checking his phone. 11:47 PM. Thirteen minutes before curfew.
For once, he'd actually make it on time.
The blue glow faded from his eyes, leaving them their natural color.
The walk to his dorm was quiet, most students were already in their rooms and the hallways were mostly empty.
Huey reached room 202 and fished out his key.
The door was unlocked.
He pushed it open slowly.
Calvin was sitting shirtless on his bed, head tilted back and eyes closed in obvious relaxation.
Alessia Cardoso stood behind him, hands on his shoulders, working out tension in his muscles. Her glasses caught the light as she glanced toward the door.
"Oh good, you're back," Calvin said without opening his eyes. "Alessia was just helping with this knot in my shoulder. They had me sitting in terrible chairs all day at the court."
Alessia's hands didn't stop moving and her expression was perfectly calm.
But her eyes met Huey's.
And she smiled.