While the three in the Capital were thus engaged, the others had to deal with the immediate repercussions of the fight.

Team CRDL hadn't left Argus yet. They had to go through the base to even fly out.

Yang and Neptune were there to train while they were being kept in wait for their next assignment, and they passed them by and got some frigid looks.

"Maybe we should try to patch things up," Neptune suggested quietly.

"Why? They decided they wanted to be enemies, not us," Yang scowled.

"What about loving your enemies?" Neptune said. "Don't return evil for evil, insult for insult. Not an eye for an eye, all that? How are they different from Cinder, Em, or Merc?"

"Experience," Yang said.

Neptune just gave her a firm look.

Since he usually didn't really put his foot down, Yang was inclined to take it seriously when he did.

"Egh, if I have to," she rolled her eyes.

"That's my girl," Neptune said weakly, not sure she'd see the humor.

He just got a sullen look in response.

They walked over to where team CRDL was in the loading dock waiting.

"Do you think that flyer guy is the one who'll be driving? Because I want to transfer then," Dove griped.

Cardin had a cold patch on his eye. "I'm just glad to get out of here, though I'm sure Goodwitch will have plenty to say about this. Old bag."

"Oh, that's just not--" Yang turned to walk away and Neptune stopped her.

"Oh look, it's team washout," Russ suddenly spotted them. "Perfect."

"Hey, listen, a---h---, we came over here to--" Yang began hotly.

"Uh Yang," Neptune hissed. "Nice."

She folded her arms. "Well, go on," she nodded at him.

"We just came over to over to bury the hatchet," Neptune said, though it wasn't so easy for him either.

Cardin had tried to hit Yang after all.

"Oh, isn't that cute?" Sky Lark said. "A nice gesture after the stunt you pulled with our lockers."

"What are you talking about?" Neptune asked. "I don't know anything about lockers."

"So you and your new friends didn't spray paint threats on our storage lockers?" Russ said skeptically.

"What?" Yang said with real confusion.

"We took a picture," Dove held up his scroll. "We're going to send it to Glynda and post it online."

"You rat, how do you have the nerve?" Yang demanded.

"Those are some real... intense expletives," Neptune said. "And is that picture what I think it is?"

"Yep," Sky Lark said. "Points for creativity. It was all there when we went to collect our other luggage this morning. Along with this." He pulled out a note.

The note said, in a hurried scrawl in red ink: "This is for the $%*# who put Sustrai in the hospital."

"It wasn't the hospital, she just got checked out," Neptune corrected.

"Oh great, well no one told them," Russ said.

"Who would do this? No one at this base has ever acted this way before," Yang wondered.

"Come to find out your Green haired friend has a lot of allies," Sky Lark said, which was funny since one of CRDL had green hair also. "A bunch of people flipped us off this morning. Some of them said we were scum. One person with freaking bat ears said if we ever touched Captain Sustrai again, she'd put her pike up our butts."

"Claw?" Yang said. "Nice. I finally like her."

"You hit Sun too," Neptune said. "Do you guys really still look down on Faunus?"

"Oh Faunus are fine," Cardin said, darkly. "But not ones who defend terrorists. Come to think of it, his wife is one too."

"She left that ages ago, before we even knew her!" Yang was getting mad. "Doesn't that matter to you? D---! Don't any of you believe in mercy? Second chances? Redemption? What about this is satisfying to you?"

"You're one to talk, you weren't so forgiving to us last night," Russ said.

"You attacked my friends!" Yang said. "And my husband!"

"Actually, that wasn't us," Dove corrected. "That was those other guys, don't even know who they were."

"If it bothers you so much, why are you even here?" Cardin asked.

"We're trying to be better than this," Neptune said.

"Oh, isn't that nice?" Cardin was sarcastic. "The sainted world heroes have to be better than the rest of us bottom feeders. Well, guess what, even if we didn't fight gods and grimm godzillas, we still had to fight the other monsters and defend Beacon. You get all the glory for it, but we all were part of it."

"Hey, you know what?" Yang said. "We didn't ask for it. It just happened. Anyone could have gone. And it was hellish. You wouldn't have wanted to be there."

"That's a fair point, did you guys really want that?" Neptune said. "Grimm that turned you against your friends and ate you from the inside out? Made you do crazy things and you didn't even know you were doing it? Did you want to watch someone jump into a pond of grimm juice? Did you want to have the gods torment you and your team every way they could think of?"

At this, they began to look more uncomfortable.

"Yeah, you're right," Yang suddenly said with more energy. "You weren't there. You know who was? Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black. They saved our lives more than once, some of them. Even Fall helped. And right now she's trying to stop some people who are trying to bring the freaking mind grimm to us, and do the same as we had to deal with. And you people punished her and us for that!"

"Hey, it's not our fault your mom is clearly biased." Dove said.

Yang tensed, but Neptune gripped her shoulder.

"It's not bias," he said calmly. "Raven chose them because, for some reason, people who've had grimm in or around them more are better at sensing them. Cinder has an ability to see grimm other people can't, and pick out who's hiding them. Raven only asked her to help because some people have almost died because of the mind grimm latching onto them."

"Which you'd have known if you bothered to ask before attacking us," Yang said, very salty.

"How can you trust that b----h?" Russ said in disgust.

"I seem to remember you geniuses once lured grimm to our class," Yang said tightly. "And that was just for petty revenge on Pyrrha for roasting you. Jaune told us what happened later. I thought you learned your lesson then about asking for trouble. Now, if you can do that and call yourselves huntsmen now, what's the big difference? Sure, they destroyed Beacon, but that was Ironwood's fault too. He wouldn't take those stupid robots away when he was told to. And Atlas was more him than them. We were there, we saw it all... and honestly some of it was our fault too. That's why we went on the mission to stop it, we had to make it right."

"Maybe you guys didn't have to because it wasn't your fault," Neptune suggested. "Trust me, you don't want it to be your fault."

They began to look a little more uncertain, but still stoic.

"I guess we can't ask you to just forgive those guys," Neptune said. "It took us months, years even, to really start to feel different. Even just till yesterday, for some of us. But they really have changed. This faith works. It makes people new... you can't accept it yet, I get that... but we've seen it all proven true with them. And if it was you, no matter what your teammate did, would you have let someone just attack them?"

They frowned some more.

"And we came over here to make peace, only because we believe now that we have a duty to do that," Yang said. "That's not me, that's a Divine thing, I would rather punch you all again... but I can't just do what I want anymore. Learned that the hard way... But just saying, we know someone who died because of what they did... a few someones actually, and they've let it go. Why can't we? That's what we all thought. It's tough, but it's our calling to have to push further now... which is why we want to... well, let it go with you... even if I'm still pissed." She shrugged angrily.

"But we'll get over that," Neptune said. "Give it... oh a week or 7, but eventually. And I was hoping you guys would consider getting over it also. Maybe you can't understand our choices, but you could at least respect that we have our reasons."

"Or are you still bullies who just want to cause trouble?" Yang added before he could stop her.

At least Cardin winced, though the others didn't look so sorry. Perhaps they had always been even bigger cowards than he had, given that they'd just followed his lead.

A long pause ensued that made Yang want to scream.

At last, Russ and Dove just shrugged sullenly. 

"Like whatever," Russ said.

"I don't even care anymore," Dove said.

Sky Lark frowned. "So I'm supposed to let it go? Do you know my parents lost most of what they had? And the people who did it are still walking around freely, you think I can just swallow that?"

"Look, you don't know their life," Yang said. "All of them have stories of what they lost because people like us didn't do a d--- thing to help them. Some of them lived right under Atlas' nose and got treated like dogs. Or just ignored. We're not saints here, are we? If you want to hold your grudge, then you do what you want, but this never ends, trust me. I've played that game a lot, and the more I learned about the people I was angry at, the more I realized I was in no place to judge. If I was in their position, I'd probably have done what they did. Maybe not all of it... but then I had a family to help me, not everyone does."

"They did a lot they shouldn't have done, and they'd be the first to admit it now," Neptune said. "But I have to ask you guys, for real... which is better? Them having to live out their lives trying to repair the damage in anyway they can, which they're all doing, or... just paying for it with jail or by dying, and then nothing is fixed, and it's just the work of a moment anyway? Our mentor, Miss Likstar, pointed out that living is harder than dying when it comes to making up for your mistakes. That's why we dropped charges against them all."

Sky Lark shrugged. "So it's a punishment for them to have to deal with this? I could get behind that... but that's not me liking them or forgiving them. And I don't think they should get the clout for helping. It's them paying their dues."

"Kinda like you being a huntsman is paying your dues for picking on so many people," Yang said savagely.

He frowned.

"Look, guys, if that's how you have to see it, fine. At first we kind of had to see it that way to feel better too," Neptune said. "Try working with people who aren't even sorry yet and still have grimm appendages on them, it was really uncomfortable... but on the other side of it, it paid off. But if it's a punishment, then can it just be a punishment? Do you have to make it worse?"

"Trust me," Yang said. "It's harder for Mercury to deal with teamwork than it would be for him to deal with suspension. Don't give him an excuse to start being a prick again. That's only gonna make him worse."

"Are you two weirdos saying that leaving them alone is the best way to punish them?" Cardin said. "Because that sounds like a trick."

"It was super effective for us," Neptune said. "We're past it now, but it worked. That and, if you guys press charges, they might get in trouble, but you definitely will too, and that's not really helping anyone in the kingdoms. If we all get suspended, that's more people who won't be saved... and we've got this big crime ring to bust right now, it's terrible timing."

"More people will end up like Beacon," Yang said. "We saw it, you want to see?"

She held up her scroll, she'd taken evidence photos yesterday.

The scorched town made even that team wince.

"And more is coming," Yang said. "Like it or not, and I wasn't stoked about it either, but Cinder can spot this stuff and she found the rat who caused this yesterday. Mercury can kill the grimm faster than anyone else, and Emerald can see through mind grimm's tricks. We need them to stop these psychos before more towns get mauled... if you slow it down, you'll be part of the reason they suffered."

Uncomfortable shifting.

"And this is on the level?" Cardin said.

"We're not lying, check the mission records yourself," Neptune said. "Ask anyone, everyone around here knows this started months ago and is still ongoing. We're tired of it, but these three people are our best shot of stopping it. If we let them."

Another pause.

"You want us to drop this? Fine," Cardin said. "Save us a conversation with Glynda... at least one out of two. But in exchange, you better make dead sure they can really stop this." He pointed. "If it was just to cover for them, we're gonna take this whole thing to the next level. Mark my words."

"Yeah!" The other three all chorused.

"Fine," Yang crossed her arms again. "We'll stay on it. But it's going to take time. Maybe you should keep watching the news."

They just made scoffing noises.

Neptune wanted to exit before anyone had a chance to start arguing again.

"Well, that went better than I thought it would at the beginning," he said.

"Who knew?" Yang said.

"Shine and Wally would be proud of how we spun that around to get them to agree," Neptune said. "I'm surprised they believed us."

"I bet they just wanted an excuse to drop it so that they wouldn't get the third degree also." Yang said. "We're just lucky they aren't quite as dumb as they act."

"Yeah... but, Yang, the thing is, Cardin kind of left Jaune alone after that whole ursa thing, so we know he's not completely unreasonable," Neptune rubbed his neck. "But what about Jeff and his squad? I dont know if they can be talked out of this."

"I guess even a slightly more fair bully is better than a completely unfair d-----." Yang muttered. "Yeah, team CRDL were idiots, but they were never the worst we had to deal with. And I don't think Jeff will even talk. After he turned on Royal just over a little thing like that, you think he'd even listen to us?"

"I'm not sure we should even try, we might set it all off again, it's different when you go further back with someone, but we're total strangers... but if we don't, I don't know what they'll try to do... what if people are pissed at them too?" Neptune said.

"Good." Yang wasn't ready to pity any of those guys yet.

[I'm sure some of you are with her on that... I would be if I didn't think that could cause some ripple effects.]

***

Gira Belladonna was... not exactly thrilled that one of the people he remembered only for attacking his daughter's friends at Haven, and being solitary and unpleasant the next time she was there, appeared at him and Kali's headquarters--which was just the house they lived at.

Kali convinced him to let her in--she knew from Blake all about Cinder's... reformation.

[Literally, if you consider her arm and eye reforming.]

"So you need to find this Jack Dawkins because you think he was part of those awful, horrible people who kidnapped that poor Oscar boy?" Kali said over her tea.

They kidnapped Cinder and Royal too, but Kali didn't seem to recall that part.

"And he's under our charge?" Gira said. "This is serious. We've tried hard to change the people's image of us from criminals, and I really thought after all the good we've done in the last 4 and a half years, they had accepted us. A setback like that could get people talking all over again about the Fang's history."

Join the club, Cinder thought to herself.

She almost had to be wry about it, even objectively, their situations were pretty similar.

"All us ex--terrorists keep getting dragged down with the new ones," she said aloud, flatly.

Kali raised an eyebrow and then glanced nervously at Gira like he might get angry.

"I wouldn't consider us terrorists, that was after I stepped down," Gira said firmly. But he sighed. "Still, it is what happened after Khan took over, and even more with Taurus... maybe I should have done more to stop it. I thought it was right to allow them to use their methods if it was what the Faunus wanted... but my daughter has shown me that it is not enough to not aid people in doing evil, you must actively try to oppose it."

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," Kali said. "Blake says her teacher she respects so much told them that... where is that nice young lady? And her kindly partner also, they were such a good influence on the young people."

Apparently, Blake hadn't told them the full story... made sense, not many people knew it.

Cinder chose to ignore that question--she wasn't even sure it was really directed at her.

"The point is, we all have something to lose if this guy causes trouble," she said aloud.

"What danger are you in?" Gira said gruffly, but perhaps he was actually concerned.

Cinder didn't take it that way. "I'd rather not say," she bristled.

Kali's ears tilted. "My dear, surely you don't think we'd do anything to you. We're just as concerned as you are... unless it's a secret for another reason?"

Cinder stalled for a moment but then she said. "They want me for... personal reasons. That's why I'm here. I'd never set foot in this place otherwise, the council hates me."

"Hmfp, yes they haven't been the most open-minded to the amnesty group," Gira admitted. "Not everyone is to us either. You have to keep working at it. We still get confused with Taurus and his group of maniacs, and some of our good faunus people used to work with him till they saw what it really led to... I don't judge anyone for losing their way and needing to turn back, but others outside it don't understand. We have to be patient with them. Once we didn't understand why they saw us the way they did either, until we saw what it felt like to be targeted by the White Fang. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but evil does not justify more evil."

"I wish we'd been wiser before," Kali said. "To tell you the truth, Miss Fall," she stirred her tea. "It wasn't really till Blake followed that Adam person away from us that we truly began to feel the weight of our actions. We never condoned violence and theft, but we did not condemn it strongly enough. It made Blake think it was all right to support him. Then she wouldn't even listen to our warnings... but she came around, we knew she was a good girl who would eventually see things weren't right. I'm glad we taught her that... but we paid for not teaching it better. While she was away, we were so worried... I admit, when I heard about Beacon, I would have liked to have some strong words with you and your team."

Cinder looked up sharply.

"After all, Blake wouldn't have been there if not for Adam, in a sense," Kali said. "I was so sad that she didn't come home to us, she just went to Vale... but I see it was better that way now... and in a way, we were all saved in the long run because of those events. That's why it's hard to judge. We did what was wrong, but Right has a way of finding a way to come from even evil."

"I'd say evil has a way of appearing when there's Good," Cinder said.

"Yes, because they are at war," Gira said. "And in a war you expect to see both sides take shots... but it's enough that it's not all swayed only to evil. What would happen to us if it was? We're at peace with what happened now, but we must give our brethren more time, and, perhaps, young lady, you must give your own kind more time also. People do not all learn things at the same rate."

"Dear, we don't want to lecture her," Kali hissed. "After all, sometimes it can seem patronizing."

"I'm just saying not to rush judgment," Gira said. "We of all people should know to show some grace."

"What about Dawkins?" Cinder was finding this an awkward conversation even though she didn't even think they were insulting her.

"Oh yes... well, we can ask," Kali said. "The name does sound vaguely familiar. But some of our members don't come to our meetings anymore, they just have jobs and lives of their own. If that's the case, we won't know for sure if he's still in touch. Let me call our meetings coordinator."

She got up and left the room.

Cinder would rather have been left alone with Kali than Gira, but he didn't say much other than "So you work in Argus with the others?"

"Just temporarily," Cinder said.

Fingers crossed anyway.

"Blake's there now; it's an odd coincidence," Gira remarked.

Oh, he had no idea.

A few minutes later Kali came back, holding out her scroll.

"Well, we're in luck, I think," she said. "Dawkins has been coming to rallies... oh it's non-violent ones now," she said as if Cinder would have cared. "We just talk about issues that are still ongoing, and what we can do about them. Blake goes often to inspire people... anyway, that means he's likely still at his home address. I doubt he'd have moved; it's closer to the meeting spot. I can give it to you... but you're not going to hurt him...?"

"Not unless we have to," was all Cinder could say.

"Maybe we'd better go then. He might talk to us," Gira didn't trust her completely, and to be fair, he had every reason not to.

It might be better, Cinder realized, if they did go, it was easier cover for her being there at all. With her cloak on, no one could be sure she wasn't, in fact, just a faunus.

***

The pier, for Royal, was a vastly different experience from the Argus bay.

It was smaller, for one thing, and only had small water ships in it mostly, a few larger cargo ones for taking things across the lake to the cities on the other side. And from there on they would go to either Argus, or Menagerie depending on the direction they were heading.

A likely enough spot for the pirates to pass some of their stolen goods through without getting caught, plenty of other illegal stuff came to the merchants here this way.

Royal didn't know that much about this till Neo literally spelled it out for him.

"And why do I just get the feeling you know from personal experience," he said.

She shrugged.

"Well, good or bad news: I don't see anyone I know," Royal said. "What about you?"

Neo shook her head.

"I wish we could look at the goods more, for all we know, Kanap's death traps could be going right past us," Royal shook his head.

Neo tapped her head, then she assumed an outfit that was more sailor-esque, and started lolloping over the pier.

Royal tried to look nonchalant while he followed her.

He didn't have much to go on here, he ended up just idly looking at the names of the ships that were painted on the side of them, mostly references to Remnant legends, or people, or places.

Then his brain stopped on one, for a reason he wasn't quite sure of.

He backed up and looked at it more closely.

"The Royal Retribution," was painted on the side of one innocent looking ship, but it was large enough to have some cargo.

No one was on deck right then. They could have been inside.

"Psst, Skipper, over here," Royal waved at Neo.

Neo came back that way.

"I could be going crazy," Royal said. "But The Royal Retribution sure sounds like "the Monarch's Avenger'...which is the name of that airship."

[For those who had not guessed--or didn't Google it-- both those titles are references to "the Queen Anne's Revenge' the name of Blackbeard's--Edwin Teach's character inspiration-- ship.]

Neo tilted her head.

"Coincidence?" Royal said.

Neo made a motion that even without translation looked a lot like "maybe."

"Should we find out?" Royal asked.

Neo adjusted her glamorified sailor hat and ran along the pier and hopped lightly onto the ship.

Then she paused and drew some deep breaths. Her aura was barely up to this, she would need to turn this disguise off soon.

Royal tried not to look too obviously like he was watching, he pretended he was watching the skyline.

Neo slipped to the door to the inside of the ship and opened it, it wasn't latched.

Inside, she blended into the wall, and started down the narrow hallway.

The ship smelled like stale alcohol, and dust residue, which had a gritty, sharp smell similar to gun powder without the sulfur.

It wasn't that big, so Neo had little trouble finding the occupants. The sleeping quarters were along the hallway, and she opened the doors soundlessly.

It was dark in there, but she made out the shape of one man sprawling along a bunk, snoring.

The smell of dirty clothes and cigarette smoke hung around, Neo covered her nose and took her photo.

Then she checked the next door down, this one had two bunks, one seemed like it was for a woman from the clothes and toiletries in sight, the other had another man who was also asleep.

The woman was not in.

Neo shut that door lightly. At the end of this hall, a small staircase led to the hull where the supplies would be.

Following it, Neo found it fenced shut with a metal grate, but she picked the padlock easily and snuck inside.

Holding up her scrollight, she saw a lot of food crates and closed cases that usually held dust.

She shook some of these. She thought she heard dust vials. She was careful not to shake those anymore.

Towards the back, she finally hit the jackpot. Some cases with the danger symbol on them and the warning: Toxic, handle with care.

Neo had gloves on anyway, perhaps it was unwise to open it, but she was betting it was just to keep people from suspecting the truth.

She unlocked it and opened it, holding her breath.

She'd had to drop her disguise for this, but no one was here so it didn't matter.

Inside the case wasn't anything that looked like a toxic substance, instead it was a small device that looked an awful lot like some of the ones in Victoria's workshop.

Neo picked it up and along the side there was an engraving like you might find on car parts, that read: AUDR10x.

Curious, she opened a different case and found the same thing, but a little large. This read: AUDR50Xx

Neo ran the letters through her mind, she was used to deciphering codes, but this really looked the most like a tool description like you'd see on any Atlas weapon.

Then it hit her, it was so obvious! AU=Aura, DR=Drain, the numbers had to be how intense it was or how much time it would take for the target to recover.

Shuddering, she was going to put it back--but then thought better of it. Might come in handy.

She slipped it into her coat pocket instead and slyly refastened the cases.

She snooped through more and found other devices that she couldn't identify, but one looked something like the one Victoria had once used to summon grimm, Neo had only caught a fleeting glimpse of it, but it was something like a radio, and something like a radar.

By far the most dangerous weapon here, if she had to guess.

No engraving on this one, but on the inside was a label that said "Signal will go for 5 miles in good weather and terrain, subject to interference in unusual conditions."

And "Caution: Do not use around sticky substances."

This would have seemed like the usual precaution for some kind of normal radio device to the ignorant observer, but to Neo, the sticky part had a more sinister significance.

Grimm were attracted to sweet, sticky things, some said because it was like blood... or like those vile plants in the grimm land had been. Anyone who used this device would not want to up the odds of grimm noticing them if they meant to direct them to anyone else. Therefore... the caution wasn't just about not gumming up the works.

A warning label had never looked so nefarious.

Neo took a photo of it, but knew she was pushing her luck being here. This device was too big to easily smuggle out, though she was loathe to leave it here for them to sell.

But if she hurried, she could alert the authorities before they left the pier.

Neo didn't stop to note the irony of that thought, she just put the device back and then scurried out the room, putting the padlock back on.

"Nosy, aren't we?" A woman's voice startled her just as she'd finished.

Neo whirled around.

No one had been in the hall before, she was certain, but now a tall, broad shouldered woman with flaming red hair only slightly less brilliant than Pyrrha's, but much frizzier, was looking at her with a very dull, lazy but still hostile expression.

Neo would have guessed she'd been drinking, but she wasn't anything like tipsy enough to have trouble standing there, blocking the pathway.

Neo wasn't exactly sure what to do here.

"What did you steal?" the woman asked. "Don't try to deny it, I've seen enough thieves to know you weren't looking for the bathroom on someone else's ship. Unless Jack is having a fling I don't know about..." She frowned.

"You didn't come here to render certain services and then think you could just steal our cargo, did you?"

She didn't seem that mad about the idea of some harlot seducing her... well, Neo couldn't quite tell what the relationship was, but the idea of theft certainly bothered her a lot considering she was clearly a pirate.

Well, points for switching to a real ship instead of an airship.

Neo feigned looking confused and pointed to her ears. She couldn't speak, could she sell that she was deaf?

"You look familiar," The woman squinted, holding up her scroll light now. "Tri-colored hair."

Neo hadn't had time to change it again.

"Neopolitan!" The woman said suddenly. "Torckwick's girl... oh, the ones who went straight, isn't this a little backwards for you. Well everything is little for you, I guess."

"Real creative," Neo thought to herself.

"I know you can hear me, you little twit," the woman said. "Now hand over whatever it was. Maybe I'll give you quarter."

Likely story. But the woman pulled out a gun casually and pointed it at her.

Neo thought she could dodge it, but in this narrow hallway, how many times?

She reached into her pocket and pulled out, not in fact, the device, but a chocolate bar that she quickly glamorized to look like dust capsules.

"All that trouble for so little?" the woman said. "Pity, really. Not that this wouldn't fetch a pretty lien these days, but what can you do in this economy? Move it." She motioned for Neo to walk past her.

Neo cautiously did, keeping her eye on her the whole time.

"Oh leave off, I won't bite," the woman said harshly, giving her a bit of a kick in the shin.

Neo glared, but moved up the stair and to the hallway. No sign of the men still. Lazy sots.

The woman followed on Neo's heels, and then without warning, a different woman lept out of the door to the galley and at Neo, who jumped out of her way nimbly, but the first woman was ready and grabbed her shoulder, holding her in place.

Neo lacked energy to put up as much of a fight as normal after earlier, though she tried to break free, but it wasn't the best angle to use their momentum from.

The second woman reached out and flicked her in the forehead. A feeling like electricity went through Neo's body and her limbs locked up.

The other woman let her fall over then.

"Nice work, Mary," she said.

"Nice catch," Mary looked down at Neo. "Neopolitan, isn't it? A. k. a. Trivia Vanille. A long way from Vale, isn't she?"

"A long way from Argus, now, remember," The other woman said. "I thought she might be here for Jack,  but now I'm thinking, maybe it's them. They finally found us."

"Or she's looking for work." Mary said.

"No, I'd not say so. We have to go. Get the other boys back here. I have a sudden presentiment the weather won't be good for sailing later today."