Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The rising sun through the airship's window provided just enough illumination for Jusis to flip through his reports without turning on the overhead orbal light. There were very few other passengers on the commuter ship from Barehard to Roer, where he was going to meet with the Reinfords to discuss a potential upgrade to his city's infrastructure. He knew it was going to take a lot of mira to make it happen, but they couldn't lag behind Heimdallr when it came to modern conveniences.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighing heavily, and checked his ARCUS. Another hour until they would land. Normally he would have taken the family's private airship, but several opinion pieces in the Imperial Chronicle suggested that he should avoid seeming too ostentatious with his wealth. The entire country was still trying to buckle down following the disastrous Great War and the issues with the Retributive Tower. Not that he minded. He appreciated the freedom of a private airship, but he had to think about his people and their perception of him.

There was a notification for an orbmail from Millium and he flipped it open, laughing at a selfie she took last night in whatever little town she was in now. Wherever she was, she looked like she was having fun. He wondered when she would be in Kreuzen next, and was about to reply when a shadow fell over the cabin. Frowning, he glanced out the window.

One black dot on the horizon became three, then half a dozen, all of them far too large to be birds. They grew closer and he realized they were unmarked airships.

"All passengers, this is your captain speaking," came the tinny announcement over the speaker. "Please remain in your seats and fasten your seatbelts."

"What's going on?" asked a man a few rows back.

The airship dropped suddenly, Jusis's ARCUS flying off his lap, papers scattered. He quickly buckled his seatbelt as an explosion rocked the ship. All around him, the other passengers started to panic, shouting, demanding to know what was happening. Looking out the window, however, it was obvious. The other airships drew closer, their main guns pointed at the commuter ship. Jusis saw the occupants on the deck holding wicked looking weapons, and felt his anxiety spike as he recognized who they were.

Jaegers.

-

The pounding on the door downstairs drove Lloyd to consciousness. It wasn't unusual that they received early morning requests at the SSS building. People came by asking for help all the time. None of them were this insistent, though. He pulled on a shirt and hurried downstairs, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He saw KeA pop her head out of the kitchen.

"I got it," he said, then paused. "How long have you been up, anyway?"

She grinned at him. "About an hour. I'm making pancakes! I was just going to come wake you up."

Lloyd shook his head, but returned the smile. "I owe you. Maybe try sleeping in sometime, though. It's the weekend!"

She stuck her tongue out at him then ducked back into the kitchen as Lloyd unlocked the front door. For a second, he didn't see anything, then he looked down into two glassy mis-matched eyes.

"Lapis?" he asked, thoroughly confused. It wasn't time yet for her and Rufus to visit Crossbell, something they'd been doing regularly for the past year just to check in and say hello. He immediately knelt down, sensing something wrong from the way she was holding herself.

She flung her arms around Lloyd and howled. "RUFUS!"

"Shh, it's okay," Lloyd assured her, though he felt a sudden rush of panic. Was Rufus hurt?

"Rufus?" KeA asked, coming back out of the kitchen. "Oh! Lapis! What's wrong?"

Lloyd picked up the little doll and shut the door, carrying her inside so they could sit down to talk. KeA hurried over with a glass of water for her.

Lapis was hiccuping through her tears. "R-Rufus, he left! He left, he said he had something important to do and he…"

Lloyd noticed a folded letter pinned to her dress. Curiously, it had his name on it. "What happened?" he asked, removing it.

Lapis took a sip of the water from KeA and sniffed. "I don't remember! He just said he had something to do and then I blacked out! When I woke up, I was in my case and my case was on your doorstep!"

KeA hurried to bring it inside. "Should I call the others?" she asked Lloyd.

"Not yet," said Lloyd. "Let's figure out what happened first." He unfolded the letter and they all leaned in to read it.

Lloyd,

You are the only one I can trust to take care of Lapis while I deal with something important. Should anything happen to me, I know she'll be in good hands with you.

Don't follow me.

-RA

It wasn't nearly as enlightening as he thought it would be. What did Rufus have to take care of that Lapis couldn't go with him? He knew that the two of them - four, counting Swin and Nadia when they deigned to join - were traveling around Zemuria doing mercenary work. Once a month or so, Rufus would return with Lapis and spend a few days in Crossbell to catch up. None of the things they got up to sounded more dangerous than what they'd already been through.

"I'm going to make a few calls," said Lloyd. Something definitely wasn't right. Whatever Rufus had gotten himself into, he knew it wasn't good. He would need help, no matter what the note said. "KeA, can you look after Lapis?"

KeA nodded. "Of course! We were just going to have breakfast. Help me set the table?"

Lapis looked at Lloyd, unsure.

"Hey," said Lloyd, looking at her. "We'll find out where he is and what's going on, okay?"

"Do you promise?"

Lloyd made a 'X' over his heart with his finger. "Cross my heart."

This, apparently, was sufficient for Lapis for now. She followed KeA to help set the table while Lloyd hurried back upstairs. He noticed the notification light on his ARCUS was blinking, and he flipped it open.

Rean: Tried calling you. Call me as soon as you get this.

He was about to dial Rean when his ARCUS started to ring. "Bannings here."

"Lloyd, did you get the paper yet?" Randy asked, without so much as a good morning.

Lloyd started back downstairs. "No, what's going on?" He opened the front door and glanced around, then saw the newspaper wrapped up in the flowerbed.

"Headline," said Randy. "I'm on my way over now. Rean called me early this morning."

Worried now, Lloyd removed the rubber band from the paper and shook it out, reading the headline.

Lloyd stopped reading. Things suddenly became crystal clear. "I'll see you when you get here," he said to Randy, then hung up before immediately dialing Rufus's number. It gave a half a ring, then cut off. Out of range or turned off. He dialed Rean.

"Lloyd, did you hear?"

"Yeah," said Lloyd. "Did you-"

"They found him," said Rean, his voice thick and shaking. "An hour ago they pulled him out. He… Jusis. Lloyd, he didn't make it."

The paper slipped from Lloyd's hand and he felt himself go weak at the knees. He leaned heavily against the SSS building's door, not sure what to say.

"Rufus is gone," Lloyd said. "Lapis showed up without any memory of how she got here. There's a note from Rufus saying he had to take care of something. Rean, I'm so sorry."

There was silence on the line for a moment. "I'm on my way to Heimdallr," Rean said quietly. "We all are. We're meeting…" He broke off. "I tried calling Rufus, too. Machias is a mess. His dad is trying to get more details. Everything's a little insane right now and I can't-"

Lloyd heard his voice break, and his heart broke with it. "Focus on your friends. The rest of Class VII," he said gently. "I'm going to track Rufus down. Keep me updated on… on things. If you can."

"Mmhm," Rean said. "That's… thanks, Lloyd. We figured if anyone could get in touch with Rufus, it's you."

"Let me know if you need anything else. I can be in Erebonia just as fast as you need me."

"Thanks. I'm gonna go."

"Take care, Rean."

Lloyd heard the line click, then bent down to retrieve the paper, looking at the headline again. He felt numb. Though he and Jusis weren't close friends, they exchanged the occasional call or orbmail message. Most of their conversations centered around Rufus. Actually, a lot of his conversations with Rufus were about his brother, too. Lloyd understood. The bond between brothers was strong, after all. He remembered when he was told about Guy, and in his mind's eye, he was brought back to the day of his funeral.

He couldn't do anything then. He felt so helpless. But Rufus wasn't helpless and he wouldn't sit idly by. Lloyd knew exactly what he was going to do. Which meant that he, Lloyd, had a group of jaegers to track down. Flipping open his ARCUS, he dialed Tio's number. It was an all hands on deck situation. Even if he couldn't do anything for Rean and the rest of Class VII, he could at least ensure Rufus's safety.

-

Three days.

Three days since he'd gotten the news. Since the shock, the realization. Not wanting to hear the truth. He didn't believe it at first. He couldn't believe it. There was no way it was true. But he pushed those feelings aside, for the next bit of news that came revealed the crash was no accident. It was reported almost immediately that jaegers perpetuated the attack. Once he assured Lapis's safety, Rufus started reaching out to every one of his contacts.

There was a bit of guilt for pushing her aside, but she needed to be kept safe. She was all that was left now of his family. Now that Jusis was…

It wasn't the first time he separated himself from what needed to be done, and did so again now, focusing. His lips pressed into a thin line under his mask as he watched and waited, perched high in a tree, unmoving, blending in with the darkness. A new device of his allowed him to see those below him, outlining their shapes in bright red auras.

Jaegers were only hired mercenaries. They didn't act on their own. Someone held their leash. Even with his contacts he couldn't determine where the mira trail led. Which meant he needed to find the jaegers and get the information from the source. Their camp was just ahead, and he was waiting.

Three days since he found out his brother died. No, since Jusis was murdered. Obtaining a passenger list was easy enough. Put the right amount of mira in the correct hands and you could find out almost anything. Tracking down the reason for his brother's assassination was worth any coin. Aside from Jusis, the passenger list was mundane. Commoners, low level nobles, no one of note. Perhaps he should have felt bad thinking of their lives in such a way, but his capacity for sympathy was null. Right now, nothing mattered except uncovering the truth about who wanted his brother dead, and avenging him.

ARCUS in hand - communication function disabled - Rufus leapt from tree branch to tree branch, moving as quietly as he could. The wind was violent tonight, whipping at his cloak, but also providing him enough cover to silence his movements. They were just below, a group of a dozen jaegers who were involved in the attack. Not the entire regiment, but this would do for now.

He only needed to keep one of them alive for questioning.

Taking careful aim, he whispered. "ARCUS activate!"

At first, the ones below thought it was just the wind being whipped into a normal frenzy, but too late did they finally realize they were under attack. The art that Rufus cast whirled into a vicious tornado, hurling them off their feet and into the air. He leapt down, sword slashing lightning fast, cleaving three of them into pieces as he landed. They hit the ground as the art died out.

Rufus turned to parry a strike from another who'd gained his feet, wicked looking dagger in hand. Rufus was quicker, knocking the blade aside and thrusting his sword forward into the man's gut. There was a wet squelching noise as he pulled back, and he turned to cast another art at the ones remaining. Silver spikes rained from the sky, capturing them all in a bright glow. For a moment none of them moved, then all but one turned on each other in their confusion. The sounds of gunfire filled the forest.

Rufus focused his attention on the one left. Lips curled into a feral smile behind the mask, he quickly raced toward him, pleased when the jaeger took off running. So, he thought, it is to be a hunt, then.

Without his mask it would have been nearly impossible to track the other in the pitch black darkness. The further they moved away from the camp, the thicker the brush, the darker the forest. Not even the moon penetrated the canopy above. Rufus dodged trees and rocks, leaping over fallen logs. He heard the man's panicked breathing and honed in on that red outline.

Pulling a thin wire from his belt - a present from Nadia, along with the lessons on how to use them - he hurled three needles ahead of the jaeger. The wires criss-crossed, tripping him up, sending him crashing to the ground. Still panicking, the jaeger pulled an orbal pistol from his belt and rolled to his back, firing wildly.

Rufus activated hidden shields, surrounding himself in a shimmery protective field. Though he needn't have bothered. Every shot went wild, the jaeger's hand shaking badly. A new recruit? Rufus wondered. He swung his sword and sliced the barrel of the pistol, causing the gun to overheat. With a surprised shout, the jaeger dropped it and tried to crawl backward away from Rufus.

A heavy booted foot came down on the jaeger's ankle. "Stop," Rufus commanded, his voice scrambled by the mask.

"What do you want?!" the jaeger asked, his voice wavering.

"I want to know who hired you to take down that Bareahard airship. The one that carried Jusis Albarea. Was he the target?"

"And - and if I tell you? You'll let me go?"

Rufus saw his hand stray to his side, going for his pouch. In a flash, he had his own dagger out and flicked it at the ground.

The jaeger screamed in pain as the blade went through his hand, pinning it to the ground.

"No," said Rufus. "But I will make your death quick."

He knelt down, knee pressing on the man's uninjured wrist, and grabbed the hilt of the dagger. Instead of pulling it free, he gave it a twist.

The jaeger howled again and Rufus heard him pleading between sobs of pain. Definitely a new recruit, Rufus thought. Anyone else might have tried to spit in his face or worse. He lifted his mask and then reached out, removing the jaeger's helmet. Underneath, it was just a boy. A young man, probably in his late teens or early twenties. Sweaty brown hair plastered to his forehead, dark eyes that were full of fear.

"Who sent you to kill Jusis Albarea?" Rufus asked, keeping his tone as steady as he could.

He watched the boy swallow hard, throat bobbing, as he looked around wildly.

"Your compatriots are dead." Rufus would confirm it once he was done here. If the confusion art hadn't finished them off, then he would see to it himself. "Tell me."

"Our... Ouroboros," said the jaeger. "Please let me go!"

Rufus's eyes narrowed, trying to determine if he would be able to get any more information about this one. Likely not, he thought. He supposed it was lucky that they even gave the name of their employer to a simpering child like this. Frowning, he yanked the dagger from the jaeger's hand.

The jaeger whimpered in pain. "Please, please let me go. I won't tell anyone what happened-"

"No," said Rufus, lowering his mask once again. "You won't."

In one quick motion, he drew the blade over the jaeger's neck, severing his carotid artery. A hollow, empty feeling followed as he watched the life leave the boy's eyes. He stood, wiping the blood from his dagger, then he started back toward the camp, sword in one hand, ARCUS in the other.

At least he had a name now, even if it would take him a bit longer to formulate a plan.