The tactician heard quick footsteps approaching him. He looked up, frowning. 

"What's the situation?" Tiki stopped in front of him, frowning. Nowi was next to her.

"I don't know," he confessed, "The theater is closed, and police are everywhere." 

"This can't be good," Nowi muttered. 

They heard more quick footsteps. Chrom and Lucina appeared. 

"What's going on?" The bluenette frowned.

"Papa!" Robin turned. Morgan ran over, panting. 

"It's really bad," she said breathlessly, "Someone was murdered!"

"What?!" The tactician's eyes widened. 

"Come on!" She grabbed his hand, pulling him into the crowd. The other 4 followed quickly. 

They stopped before a police rope, gaping at the scene. 

A blond man was dead. They couldn't tell from what. Lucina recognized him. 

"That's…" she trailed off. 

"I knew he seemed familiar!" Morgan turned to her, "He was in your class last year, wasn't he?" 

Last year, Lucina had graduated from grade 12. She nodded breathlessly. 

"It's Xander… gods, who-" 

"Look," Tiki pointed at the wall. Blood marked it. 

Blood in what was unmistakably the Shepherds logo. 

Chrom brought his hand to his shoulder, frowning, "No way…" 

"Nowi, send a message to everyone in the Shepherds," Tiki clenched her fists, "We're holding an emergency meeting." 

Morgan brought her phone out, quickly snapping a picture and then sticking it back in her pocket. 

"The officers are coming around asking questions," Robin muttered, "Let's get out of here." 

"Right," Chrom nodded. They turned and began to walk quickly away. Nowi was typing furiously on her phone, mumbling. Once she was finished, everyone else's phones buzzed. 

"Excuse me, young lady." 

They reached the cars, turning around. Lucina had lagged behind, and was now talking to an officer. 

"Sir," she nodded politely, "Can I help you?" 

The bluenette forced herself to relax, her expression stoic and guarded. 

"Just a few questions regarding the scene. Have you seen any suspicious individuals in your time here?" 

"No sir." 

Chrom cursed, starting to walk over. Robin grabbed his shoulder. He looked back, and the tactician shook his head. 

"The victim was a 19 year old man named Xander Nohr. Did you have any relationship with him, and could you please specify what if you did?" 

"He was a fellow student in my class last year. We sat next to each other, however that was the extent of our relationship." 

"I see," the officer wrote that down, "May I know your name Miss?" 

"Marth." 

"Full name please." 

She tensed up slightly, "Marth Fellon." 

"She's good at this," Morgan muttered. 

"Thank you for your time Miss Fellon," the officer nodded, "Please proceed." 

He turned and walked off, beginning to speak with someone else. The bluenette sighed in relief, running to join the others. 

"Since when were you so good at lying?" Chrom crossed his arms. 

"Since right now apparently," she replied, sighing, "Let's get out of here." 

"Right," Robin nodded. He and Morgan got into their car. Tiki and Nowi got into their own car. Lucina grabbed the helmets, tossing one to her father. They climbed onto the motorcycle. 

The six of them drove off, back to the base. 

◇◇◇

"What's this all about?" Sully asked with a scowl as she entered the room. 

"Is this everyone?" Chrom surveyed the room. 

"Panne and Yarne went to pick up the new recruits," Inigo said, "Got a message from the boss saying they were approved." 

"We're here," Panne entered the room, "Sorry about that. We brought the newbies." 

"Hello!" Henry waved happily. 

"Unfortunate timing for us to join it seems," Tharja muttered. 

"What's going on?" Yarne frowned. 

"We have a problem," Nowi sighed. 

"Yeah, we got that part," Vaike retorted, "What's the problem?" 

"Give me a minute!" Morgan replied, fiddling with the projector and her phone. It turned on, and displayed her phone screen to everyone. 

"Nice wallpaper," Cynthia commented. 

"Thanks," the tactician's daughter hummed, "I took a picture, but it isn't pretty. Just a warning cause I know some of us are sensitive to gore." 

She went into her gallery, and pulled up her photos. A collective gasp rang around the room. 

"Ooh, blood!" Henry exclaimed. Tharja whacked him. 

"Not the time Henry…" 

"There was a murder at the theatre's," Robin said, "As you can see, it bears our marking." 

"Morgan, will you send me that photo?" Tiki asked, "I'll send it to Mother."

"Sure," the smaller girl nodded. 

"Alright, I'll cut to the chase," Chrom scowled, "Who did it?" 

"You think one of us did it?!" Severa exclaimed. 

Chrom didn't answer. 

Nobody else spoke. 

"Father…" Lucina frowned, sighing quietly, "Perhaps we're being too hasty." 

"I doubt anybody here would do that," Sumia stated, "Much less brand it with our symbol. Too direct and obvious."

"That's not why we're here anyway," Nah nodded in agreement. 

"It seems unlikely," Laurent muttered. 

"Very," Miriel agreed. 

Tharja and Henry had been extremely quiet. Tiki frowned at them. 

"You've both been very quiet, Henry, Tharja. Penny for your thoughts?" 

"It was probably the Grimleal," Henry replied immediately. 

"If it wasn't anybody here, it would've been them," Tharja agreed. 

"The Grimleal?" Chrom frowned, "What makes you think…" 

"You seem to have forgotten the fact that we're both ex-Grimleal," Tharja crossed her arms, "Something like this isn't beyond them." 

"Are you sure?" Morgan frowned. 

"Something tells me they're right," Robin admitted, "At least about this being something they would do." 

"It's definitely something they would do," Henry nodded, "Their boss hates the Shepherds with a burning passion. He'd do anything to get rid of you." 

"Which includes framing you," Tharja hummed, "This is why we left…" 

"Hold on," Vaike blinked, "You're ex-Grimleal?" 

"Mhm," the ravenette nodded. 

"Yeah, but we left because they were mean," Henry shrugged, "All of them. Evil bastards that would do anything for power." 

"That doesn't make any sense," Inigo frowned. 

"How do we know you aren't spying on us?" Severa scowled. 

Robin clapped to get everyone's attention, "Calm down everyone. Tharja and Henry were approved to join. Petty suspicions aren't what's important right now." 

"Alright," Miriel took out a notepad and began writing, "So we have established that the Grimleal are possibly framing us for murder. Why?" 

"Because they hate you," Henry stated. 

"Petty reason, but not out of the question," Laurent nodded. His mother wrote it down. 

"But what makes them think this will do anything?" Lucina asked, frowning. 

"It would make them look better," Gaius suggested. 

"If we become dangerous, the police will put more pressure into taking out us rather than them," Stahl replied.

"Internal conflict," Tharja stated.

"Explain?" Morgan frowned. 

"Stirring up conflict within the group would weaken you," she replied, completely monotone, "That would make it easier for them to take you out." 

"That makes sense," Tiki nodded.

"But why now all of a sudden?" Robin questioned. 

Everyone was quiet. 

"It's possible… and forgive me for speaking out of place," Cordelia began quietly, "But it's possible that they discovered our plans to attack their base." 

"No way," Chrom frowned, "How would they have done that?" 

"What plans?" Tharja blinked. Henry shrugged. 

"Someone could've told them," Miriel stated.

"So you're suggesting we have a traitor," Nowi frowned at her. 

"Forgive me Mother, but that seems extremely unlikely," Laurent replied, "Who here would do that?" 

"I never said it was someone here," Miriel replied, "It's possible someone has been hacking into our servers." 

"I'm pretty sure I would know if someone was hacking us," Gaius scowled. 

"Miriel might be onto something," Brady said, "How would you know?" 

"Simple, hey Morgan can I see that?" He turned to her. 

"Sure," she handed him her phone. 

"So, I have access to everything in our servers right?" He went into the datalog for their gang, "Everyone can access the first layer, but only certain people can access the higher ones. Tiki, Chrom, and the Boss are the only ones who can access the highest one. The plans were posted… here," he went into one of the folders, opening up the plans, "Lucina, Nowi, Morgan, Robin, Lissa, Frederick, Tiki, Chrom, and Boss are the only ones with access to this file. You know how I've got like, 6 monitors in the tech room? 3 of them are for cameras, one is for hacking other sites, one is for personal use, and the last one is for keeping an eye on the files. We've got firewalls, and I get a notification every time one of the classified files is opened." 

"So?" Vaike blinked. All this techy stuff was confusing him. 

"The notification tells me which file was opened, and who opened it," Gaius replied, "So if it was opened by someone unregistered, it would've told me." 

"That's only when they get in though," Sully frowned. 

"Do you know how many firewalls we have?" He replied, "Sure they got into the level, but they still have at least 2 to go through, one for the folder and one for the file. That gives me time to find them and kick them out." 

"And if you aren't there?" Morgan frowned, tilting her head. 

"I either ask someone to watch it or I set it to record. When I'm back, I check the recording. If something happened while I was gone, I check the firewalls and files, and then alert the commanders." 

"And if someone hacks the recording?" Miriel crossed her arms. 

"The alarms go off." 

"What if the alarms are disabled?" Owain blinked. 

"Okay, who thinks of disabling the alarms and the recording?" Gaius scowled, "That would take forever. I have at least five firewalls on them both." 

"Disabling the alarms is a nightmare," Chrom shuddered, "Okay, if we weren't hacked, how else would they know?" 

"Eavesdropping?" Cynthia suggested. 

"Well I sure hope not," Tiki scowled, "Nobody should be talking about the gang in public at all." 

Inigo's phone began ringing. He blinked. 

"Uh… one minute, sorry," he excused himself, looking sheepish as he left. 

"I'll remind him to turn his phone off next time," Olivia sighed quietly.

"Any more ideas?" Lucina asked. 

"Maybe someone broke in?" Kellam suggested.

"Alarms would've gone off," Nowi frowned. 

"And unless the tactics room hadn't been cleaned up, they would still have to hack through it," Gaius sighed. 

"I'll go check," Morgan sighed. Gaius gave her back her phone. She turned it off, disconnecting it from the projector and leaving the room. Robin turned the projector off. 

They waited in silence. 

Moments later, Morgan came back in, scowling. 

"Found the spy," she sighed in irritation, opening her hands. A spider rested in her hands. 

"A spider?" Chrom blinked. Lucina recoiled at the creature, stepping behind her father with a scowl. 

"Gaius," she dropped it in the hacker's hands. He stared at it. 

"Not a spider," he sighed, "Good eye Morgan." 

"An electronic bug?" Miriel hummed. 

"Yep, spider eyes don't glow." 

"They're glowing?" Lissa scowled, "Ew…" 

Morgan turned the lights off. The spider's eyes glowed.

She turned the lights back on, and Gaius crushed it with a scowl. 

"It must have been there when we were planning," she said, "Who knows how much longer it's been there." 

"If it was there then…" Robin frowned. 

"Oh gods," Chrom muttered. 

"All this security, and we forgot about simple bugs," Panne sighed. 

"It must have followed someone in here," Tiki frowned. 

Everyone looked around. 

"It could've latched onto one of us when we were coming in without knowing," Vaike suggested. 

"But… this means…" Lucina's eyes widened. 

"They know where our base is," Robin nodded. 

"Shit," Chrom muttered, "That means we have to relocate."

"And fast," Henry agreed. 

"What makes you say that?" Maribelle frowned. 

Tharja's eyes widened, "Then… oh Gods, he's right. The murder was a distraction." 

There was thumping above them. 

Tiki cursed out loud, "Dammit!" 

"Meeting suspended," Chrom said, "Everyone prepare for a fight." 

"Lon'qu, Vaike, Stahl, Kellam, Severa, Owain, and Inigo, move to the front," Robin ordered, "Get your weapons, take guns, but try to enforce close quarters. Use blunt objects as much as possible. Cordelia, Sumia, Cynthia, Cherche, Gerome, get to the helicopters. Gaius, computer room. Shut down the cameras, close all your sites, download anything you need to on a hard drive and delete it. If all else fails, break it all. Everyone else, empty the rooms. Armory, tactics room, anything and everything essential. Get it to the helicopters. Pilots, when you're full, take off. Get to the secondary base." 

"What about the rest of you?" Cherche frowned as she stood. The thumping upstairs became more insistent.

"We'll drive," the tactician replied, "Once everything is out, run for the cars. Healers, be on standby. Fighters, don't push yourselves. We'll meet at the secondary warehouse." 

Everyone stood up. The thumping was louder, more insistent. 

"And everyone." 

They turned to the tactician. 

"Don't die." 

There were a few smiles, "Yes sir." 

CRASH! 

A particularly loud thump gave way to a shattering, and shouts. 

"Go!" Robin shouted. 

"Not even 24 hours, and we're already facing the bastards," Tharja grumbled. Everyone rushed out of the room, racing around. 

The pilots raced for the helicopters. Lucina followed Gaius to the computer room. The fighters rushed to meet the incoming Grimleal. Everyone else began racing around, filling bags and boxes and running to the helicopters. 

Fists met fists. A couple people tossed weapons to the fighters. 

Blood began to spray everywhere. The fighters tried their best, but the sheer amount of enemies made it difficult to stop them all. 

Grimleal filled the area, running around. 

Morgan fiddled with her gun, using only one hand as she flicked the safety off and shot one in the tactics room. Robin flinched, and they ran out. 

"Any minute now Gaius," Lucina called, clocking another that entered the tech room. She raised her gun to shoot a second, and her foot landed in the third's crotch. 

"Almost done!" Gaius replied, turning, "Duck!" 

She did so. He shot another Grimleal. 

The computers beeped. 

"Done!" He removed the hard drive, holstering his gun and grabbing the bat under the desk. With a few swings, glass flew everywhere and the screens were shattered. One more brought the computer console down, and a third was landed for good measure. 

"Done. Let's get the hell out of here!" 

"Tiki, catch!" Chrom shouted over the chaos. Her laptop soared over everyone, and she caught it. 

"Don't throw my laptop dolt! I need it!"

"I can't carry both laptops and our stuff!" He retorted, "How else do I get to you?!" 

"By walking over and handing it to me like a normal person!" 

"I think we've established that I am not a normal person, and there's Grimleal everywhere!"

"Chrom, why do you have condoms in your desk?!" Lissa called.

"Don't shout that aloud Lissa!" 

Tiki sighed, ducking underneath a Grimleal's swing. She kicked him into another, and headbutted a third as she ran towards the group. She slid underneath Frederick's fist, and came up into the room. 

"Showoff," Chrom scowled. 

"You could've done a million other things besides throw my laptop," she retorted, joining Nowi at emptying her desk. 

"Okay, I get it. That was stupid. At least you caught it." 

"And if I didn't?!" 

"Stop arguing and stop emptying!" Lissa snapped, "Seriously Chrom, what are these doing in your desk?" 

"Why does that matter?!" He retorted. 

"Saving them for someone?" She smirked. He flushed. 

"Lissa, I understand you enjoy teasing Chrom, we all do, but now is not the time!" Tiki sighed. 

"Hey what's this?" Nowi frowned, holding up a toy. 

"Don't touch that!" She swiped it from the younger manakete. 

"That's everything," Chrom straightened up, shouldering his bag. Lissa did the same with her's. A moment later, Tiki and Nowi did the same. 

"We're ready!" Lissa said. 

Frederick nodded, and they began running for the emergency exit. After a small debate, they gave their stuff to Sumia and Cynthia, who afterward took off. They were the last ones. 

"That's everything!" Robin shouted, "Let's move! Carpool as much as possible!" 

"Father!" Lucina shouted. She tossed the motorcycle keys to him, and he caught them. 

Gunshots filled the air. People scrambled to leave. 

Robin tossed his keys to Morgan, and she started their car. 

Everyone was leaving. Two were left. 

The commander heard heavy breathing, and frowned, turning. 

The tactician had dropped his gun, and was staring at the Grimleal. 

"Robin!" 

He didn't answer. 

Cursing, he ran forward, grabbing the tactician's arm, "Robin! Come on!" 

He shook him roughly. That seemed to snap him out of it, and he nodded, following Chrom. 

The commander gave him Lucina's helmet, and thankfully it fit. They both climbed on. 

"Hold on tight."

And off they went.

◇◇◇

We lost them, thank Gods…

They slowed to a stop at a traffic light, and he registered the heavy breathing behind him. Something had happened back there, and it must have shaken him badly. 

"You okay?" He asked  

Robin didn't answer. Chrom mentally mapped out the city, frowning. 

The secondary base is just outside of town, but that's still a bit away. My apartment is closer.

Well, he's not in any shape to talk to the others anyway. I'll call them when we get there. 

The light turned green.