Vol.4 Ch.34 – Team Building
Chapter 34: Team Building
“The brunette over there, that's the Lacrima, right?” Kaja asked quietly. She'd finished her speech and let the Lieutenant General take over again, sitting back down next to Jeanne.
“Yes, that's Elaine,” Jeanne said. “Why?”
“We've never worked with a Lacrima before,” Kaja said. “It would be a nice change of pace to fight alongside one.”
“Do you think you need help to fight the Necromancer?” Jeanne asked, feeling like an icy hand had wrapped around her stomach. Kaja and Omega were Heaven's premiere Necromancer hunters because they were good at it. They didn't need help, they just went in, did the job and got out.
“Reality is shifting,” Omega said quietly. It was probably meant to sound cryptic but Jeanne knew what he meant.
Outsiders couldn't just come into the world. The Necronomicon, the book Necromancers learned from, was the one exception to that, the one particle of Outsider matter that could invade a world without being invited in. And while any idiot could summon Outsiders if they knew how to, Necromancers were conduits for the Outside, capable of thrusting open the Outer Gates in a way no being of Creation, human or celestial or otherwise, could be.
But the Invasion had made the walls of the world brittle. Outsiders were not just able to flood into the world, they were also much more powerful than they used to be. The huge Gashadokuro they'd fought during Jeanne's first mission with Elaine's squad had been proof of that. A couple lowly Yellow Wraiths should never have been able to keep something that huge animated. And that was the problem.
Where all mages manipulated the Winds of Magic in one way or another, Necromancers could manipulate Outsider energies directly. And with the veil so thoroughly perforated they had orders of magnitude more energy to fuel their magecraft, making them a far bigger menace than they otherwise would be.
Unfortunately, if even Omega was willing to admit that the two of them might struggle to take down a Necromancer on their own the situation was probably even worse than Jeanne had feared. But after hearing what went down in Ohio she was fairly certain that with Elaine's team along they would be able to handle it.
“If you want to talk to her, leave Omega behind,” Jeanne said. She was sure Elaine didn't intimidate easy but she didn't want to subject Aurora to Omega's looming, especially with Aurora having been the liaison who coached the Necromancer on the necessary rituals.
Kaja looked from Elaine and her teammates over to Omega, then to Jeanne and then back to Elaine. “Yes, I think that would be for the best.”
Omega didn't dignify the exchange with a response.
“Drama queen,” Kaja sighed and got up to talk to Elaine.
**
“Should we get ready then?” Aurora asked. It was a jarring shift to Elaine. The girl had gone from happily devouring her mountain of fruit to standing completely on business in ten seconds flat. She could guess at how she'd become so proficient at shifting gears and all the reasons she could come up with led to her wanting to take yet another pound of flesh from Caulder. With any luck they would find a way to reach the bastard and wipe him out on this trip.
“No,” Elaine said, making Aurora pause, bringing the cute, insecure back for a moment. “Today we rest and relax. We get ready tomorrow.”
Aurora opened her mouth to argue, then paused and simply nodded.
“Finish your breakfast, then we can work on your magic.”
From the corner of her eye Elaine saw Cassie and Alexis exchanging glances before Alexis gave a slight shake of her head. Interesting. She hadn't known they'd grown that close.
She wasn't worried. She trusted both of them. They wouldn't go behind her back with anything and, more to the point, their orientations weren't exactly compatible. But apparently she would have to wait a little longer before she would find out what they were on about. Instead she felt warm breath against her ear before a voice like pillow talk husked:
“Could I borrow you tonight?”
Ophelia. The sexy vampire had been very patient, letting everyone take turns with her without interrupting, but clearly her patience had run out. And a good thing, too, because so had Elaine's.
“Absolutely,” she said without hesitation.
**
“I was out of line earlier,” Omega said quietly. “Again I apologize.”
Jeanne wasn't sure she'd ever heard Omega say so many words at once. Entire conversations with the man could go by without him speaking so much. If she'd had any doubts as to his sincerity, that fact alone would have cleared them.
“Apology accepted,” Jeanne said. There was a lot to unpack there and she went right to it. “But you're not wrong, I am a devil fucker now.”
Omega stayed quiet for a while, then said: “We used to call it fraternizing. But they aren't enemies. Not anymore, at least.”
Jeanne nodded. The relationship between Heaven and Hell had always been a tumultuous one but it hadn't always been antagonistic. The Invasion wasn't the first time both sides had worked together and even outside of those times they weren't at war. Even calling a Cold War, the way the humans had them, wasn't the right way to describe it. There were always squabbles but there were also partnerships. And relationships between angels and demons had never been unheard of. Omega was old-fashioned enough to think less of an angel for fraternizing with “the enemy” but, as he'd said, demons weren't exactly the enemy anymore. They might become the enemy again some day but that would require them to get rid of the Outsiders first.
“And I didn't tell Kaja to talk to them on her own because I was upset with you,” Jeanne said.
“The pixie was involved with Caulder.” Omega didn't phrase it as a question. As she'd told the Lieutenant General, Omega was taciturn and quiet but that didn't mean he wasn't observant or intelligent. Quite the opposite, in fact. He'd probably seen her stiffen when she'd looked at them.
“She was one of his slaves,” Jeanne confirmed. “She's traumatized enough. She doesn't need your judgment.”
“She doesn't,” Omega confirmed.
**
Almost subconsciously Aurora hid behind Elaine as the blond angel approached.
“Hi,” the angel said. Elaine knew this woman was on the same level as Jeanne but she didn't feel like it. Outwardly this Kaja woman didn't look like a terrifying angel. She looked... cute. Girl Next Door-cute, similar to Alexis. Short, slender, pretty, friendly and smart, nothing like the tall and muscular Jeanne. But at the same time the air around her seemed to positively thrum with power, like static electricity right before a thunderstorm.
If this woman was going to have a problem with Aurora she'd have to deal with Elaine first. But she didn't seem like she was here to threaten or otherwise present a problem. In fact...
“You're Elaine, right?”
Elaine nodded. “Kaja, right.”
“Exactly,” the angel said, then opened her mouth, turned halfway to the right, then aborted the motion and continued: “If it's not too much trouble my partner Omega and I would like to request your team's assistance tomorrow.”
Elaine blinked. “Why?”
“Well,” Kaja said, suddenly sounding a lot more casual and silly, “I kind of hate to admit it but... we hunt Necromancers. It's what we're good at. We are so good at it, in fact, that we usually kill them before they have a chance to really entrench themselves, before they have a chance to summon up entire armies. Except...”
“This one's had most of a year to do just that,” Elaine finished.
“Exactly,” Kaja said. “So while we're pretty sure we could take down the Necromancer on our own, taking down the Necromancer and an entire city full of Outsiders and undead is something else entirely. And if we can request a single squad to accompany us then obviously we'd pick the one that has a Lacrima in it.”
“You know what Lacrima are?” Elaine asked.
“Of course. It'll be interesting to fight alongside one for once.”
“Alright,” Elaine said. “We'll accompany you.”
“Awesome,” Kaja said, then slid into a chair. “So, tell me about you all. I want to know who we'll be fighting with.”
**
Bullshit, Mare thought. You just scanned us all.
She didn't even know why she had such an antipathy towards the angel but somehow the woman seemed too nice, too perfect, for Mare to trust.
But the woman surprised her. She didn't ask them about their abilities, didn't ask them questions the scan had already shown her. Instead she spoke to them as people, wanting to learn what kinds of people they were, what they enjoyed, what they fought for. Being new to Elaine's team the answers they gave were almost more fascinating to Mare than the way the angel acted.
Eventually the questions and answers stopped and Mare wondered for a moment why that was when she realized the angel's focus was entirely on her.
“Hi,” Kaja said.
“Hi,” Mare replied instinctively.
“You don't like me very much, do you?”