The door to The Raven's Eye swung open and Will entered without giving it so much as a second thought. A hanging doorbell chimed, alerting the innkeeper of his presence.

The ambiance belonged to another world when he stepped inside. A rustic cafe being the last place he expected to find in this isolated back lane. Perhaps it had a second motive. Its choice in brass, copper, steel and iron metals reminded him of home. Not to mention the counter-weighted clockwork wall decor, bare pipes and leather seating which drastically impacted the compact aesthetic of the place.

Will did his best to put the feeling of nostalgia out of his mind as he barged through the cramped interior, his boots reverberating off the wooden flooring. He glanced to his right in time to see the young woman disappear through a curtain of door beads parallel to the barista counter and followed her through.

"S-stay back!" Conviction masked her fear. To Will's surprise, she held a contractible baton with a pointed shaft his way. A weapon that oddly reminded him of the one he had found in his quarters. He froze. "D-don't come any further," she warned.

She appeared fragile. Her delicate face enunciated by her soft jawline and monolid shaped eyes. She was pretty, like a porcelain doll, with a certain fierceness that showed through her firm gaze, ignited from within. She wore a sophisticated black suit with a turtleneck and gold trimming, a grey scarf that wrapped around her shoulders and black knee-length boots. Combat gloves covered her hands.

"I know who you are." She attempted to sound brave. "You're the one who everyone is talking about."

"And who might that be?" Will asked.

Before she could answer, the hanging doorbell chimed again. They both looked back towards the exit to hear who Will knew could only be Ezra approaching them.

"Will?" Ezra called.

Her hazel eyes turned horrified. "I was right," she exclaimed. "And yet it doesn't make sense."

"That makes two of us," Will answered.

"Will, who is it-" He fell silent at the sight of them. Especially since it wasn't every day that you encountered your friend forced to submission at point blank range by a melee weapon. Just the thought roused the question that came to mind then of Ezra's true intentions. Considering all that had happened, could Will even call Ezra his friend? "Will-"

"As I suspected. You're with the Empire, aren't you?" the young woman asked, recognising Ezra's uniform. Will noted the lust in her voice.

"It's just us," Will reassured. Her dislike towards the Empire was evident in her tone, underlined with a layer of disapproval. "I know what this may look like, but we mean no harm. I only wanted to ask you a few questions," Will explained.

She was hesitant. But after a few seconds of hurried decision making, trust shifted in her eyes and her posture relaxed. She lowered the melee weapon. At least she was willing to hear them out.

"Alright." She sounded reluctant, despite agreeing to listen to them. "You can find a seat by the tables out there. I will return with some tea."

Such an offer was unheard of and yet a warm cup of tea was probably what they needed in this gloomy weather. As she pushed past them towards the barista counter back in the waiting area, Ezra took it upon himself to choose one of the many tables between the ornamented bookshelves available to them. He ended up picking the one that looked the most coziest hidden away in the far corner and called Will over to join him.

Will did so timidly, not wanting to get too comfortable in a place they weren't necessarily welcome in. The two sat down as if they were just long-time friends catching up after many postponed arrangements. To an outsider, it painted a mundane picture.

Unlike Will, Ezra seemed to have made himself at home in the corner booth, his one arm placed casually over the backrest as he leaned into it. As for himself, Will couldn't relax. He thought of the message Ezra had sent him the night before and attempted to ask him about it before the young woman could get back to them. He leaned forward.

"What did you mean?" he started. "When you said 'you can trust me?'"

To Will's surprise, his question didn't seem to phase Ezra as much as he'd expected when his grey eyes moved to his. If anything, he appeared abnormally relaxed as if they hadn't just found a dead body lying outside on the cobbled street.

"I thought it was pretty self-explanatory," Ezra answered. "I meant what I said."

"And what's Project Infinity?" Will asked.

Ezra's shoulders tensed, no doubt in severe confidentiality of the topic. "I was hoping you would overhear us." His voice dropped an octave. "But not here," he said. "Not now-"

The young woman returned before he could say anything else. She set down a teapot along with three cups and saucers before them and brought out a chair at the head of the table.

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything important," she said.

Will didn't realise how uneasy he was until his hands unclenched at her arrival. She had asked simply out of protocol with not a hint of concern in her tone. Ezra returned the sarcastic gesture.

"Nothing that can't be discussed elsewhere," he responded. "Let me guess. Your name is Raven, isn't it?"

She regarded him with a raised eyebrow and pursed lips, her expression degrading.

"Might I know your name then?" she asked.

"Ezra Grayson," he stated, and rather proudly with no consideration for Raven's personal feelings towards the Empire. "You might have heard of my father, Bill Grayson. CEO of ParaDark Enterprises-"

"I wouldn't be too proud of that," Raven remarked. Ezra elapsed into stunned silence. "And I certainly wouldn't be proud of anyone in relation to Victor Dark himself."

Will didn't have to see her to understand her bitterness towards him. She had made her feelings clear from the start. She wasn't afraid. She was tired, sapped of impatience for a revolution that had been delayed long enough.

"As you saw for yourself, the Victor Dark that I'm looking for is not the one you know," Will said.

"To be honest, I still don't know what I saw," Raven admitted. "You're Will Dark. But that's also Will Dark. What is going on?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Will told her. She took a sip of her tea and Will followed out of courtesy, the warm liquid soothing his nerves. "A few weeks ago, my brother went missing. Back home, he was invested in the existence of parallel universes. I fear his latest invention has to do with his sudden disappearance. All I can recall from following his trail is opening a peculiar door and ending up here. Next thing I know is that I am wanted for my brother's murder. Now the one person who might have been able to make sense of this is dead. If I don't figure out what's going on soon..." He didn't need to finish.

"I believe you," Raven said.

"Glad to hear we're on the same page," Ezra stated calmly. His uncalled for remark broke the tension. Raven's eyes shot to his.

"Don't associate us in the same sentence," she snapped.

"What do you have against the Empire anyway?" Ezra asked. "We've done nothing but serve and protect-"

"Then you don't know your Empire as well as you think you do," Raven implied.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ezra said.

Will was also confused. Where he stood from, he still didn't know if he could trust the Empire or not. While Project Infinity sounded suspicious, Will didn't have enough information to choose sides. Unlike Raven who seemed resolute in her opinion.

"Five years ago ParaDark Enterprises took my sister," she said. "Fey Everstar? Maybe she will come up in your records. And she wasn't the only one. They promised to return all volunteers to their families after assisting on a project they were working on back then. I haven't seen her since."

Will had no doubt that she was talking about Project Infinity.

"I had no idea," Ezra admitted. Will detected empathy in his tone, his actions shifting to one of guilt when he leaned forward with hunched shoulders, hands connecting as they pressed onto the table before him."I will look into it. I promise."

"I will hold you to that," Raven said.

Will was glad that they had come across Raven. In light of what had happened, things were starting to look hopeful. Then he shifted positions and was reminded of the broken device he had stumbled upon outside when it moved in his pocket. He considered asking Raven about the device and was about to take it out when the unmistakable sound of a transport ship engine cut through the air, startling them.

Whatever hope Will had felt in that fleeting moment of a possible partnership disappeared when Raven's hazel eyes glared daggers on identification of the sound, shooting towards Ezra in betrayal.

"I thought you said you were alone," she said, jaws clenched. She stood up. "I never should have trusted you-"

"Raven, wait! It's not what you think-" Will didn't get to finish.

Shouts from Imperial Soldiers sounded outside, drawing Will's attention towards the window next to them. He spotted movement and tried to warn Raven before the Empire could find them, forcing them to constrain her having involuntarily involved herself into this mess. But when he turned back, she had already gone.