SIS B5: Chapter 17: Serious Talk and North

"I assume you're coming with us?" Daz asked Alison as he summoned the Ridomochi Final Model the moment he stepped outside of the old chapel.

The nervous McArthur woman nodded hesitantly. "I, uh, don't really have a choice, do I?"

"There is always a choice, but if you want to continue living, then yes, you don't," Daz said as he opened the car's relatively small trunk and gestured for her to get in it.

"The... the boot?" Alison wore a look of horror. "I... I don't think I'm small enough to fit in there."

"Buy a skill to become more flexible. Maddy and I will be privately talking up front and I don't want you on my or her lap," Daz said coldly.

"R-Right. W-What about the roof?" Alison asked.

"Can your body hold on and withstand us going between Mach-1 and Mach-4?"

"Eh, I've never tried. Flexibility, then? Uh... T-This'll do. It's only 10,000 merit points... How long will we be driving for?" Alison asked.

"Twenty minutes to an hour. It depends on how long Maddy and I talk for," Daz said, his expression softening as he looked at his fiancée.

She didn't return his warmth. Conflict and pain were all he could see in her eyes buried beneath her relief at the news her brother yet lived.

"Okay. I-I think I can manage that long... Uh, I didn't think today would end up with me in the boot of an alien car," Alison mumbled sadly as she clambered on into the vehicle's trunk.

Daz closed it after making sure she was snuggly inside and he then got into the driver's seat. When Madison had entered the car, he took off and headed north while maintaining a pace of a little over Mach 1.

"I would have done it again the very same way even knowing of your love for your brother," Daz stated.

Madison turned to look at him and said, "Why? Must, be, better, way. Chris, good. Not, want, to, be, cruel, like... her."

"That may be the case, but I don't know him and you haven't heard from him in fifteen years. He has nothing to do with us. One possibly innocent life in exchange for the life of the woman who tormented you when you were a toddler and continues to belittle your efforts to this day? The scale isn't even close to being balanced," Daz argued in a soft tone.

He would happily apologise any day to Madison over this but he would never regret it nor choose to act differently. He was apologetic for hurting her feelings - not for what he had attempted to do.

The queen needed to die. If that meant Christopher McArthur must go with her, then so be it.

Madison turned to stare ahead out of the windshield before saying, "If, to, kill, your, father, Rose, had, die, too. Would, you, kill?"

"Of course not and that's a weak comparison. Rose has been with us for 11 years. She's our daughter as much as she is my sister. I love her deeply. I would give up my hatred of Father in an instant if doing so would protect her. Christopher means nothing to me beyond the fact he is your biological brother. He shouldn't mean as much to you as he does but I'm not trying to negate your feelings or pretend they don't exist," Daz replied.

Tears pooled up in Madison's eyes before slowly streaming down her emotionless face. "I, love, Daz. Love, but, I, not, as, cold. I, also, love, Chris. He... family. Can, find, way, to, deal, with, mother, without, hurting, him?"

Daz sighed. "If it were that easy, of course. Can you or I break whatever power is connecting him to your mother though? Hell, we don't even know if she's actually done whatever she did to their stand-ins to their actual selves. That would just be provided us with an easy way to kill your mother by just killing Christopher."

"... Want, look, way. Not, strong, enough, now, but, can, train. Improve, Alteration. Try, detect, soul, link. Try... remove, it," Madison pleaded.

Daz looked at her and reached over to gently grab the back of her head. He then leaned over and kissed her golden-blonde hair softly. "Of course. I'm not against that. If we can get rid of her without killing him, all the better. You know I don't exactly want my future brother-in-law to die if he's done no wrong."

Madison moved her head and stared right into his eyes as her own trembled. "Promise?"

"I promise," Daz said with all of the sincerity in the world.

"Okay. I, trust," Madison answered as she utilised her Ember of Expression to make a weak yet powerful smile.

Daz moved back to his straight-seated position before saying, "I'm happy this didn't make a rift between us... Honestly, this is the first-ever real fight we've had besides that time you stole from an ATM machine and it just had to over the life or death of your brother. Nothing is simple with us, is it?"

Madison exhaled some air as if in amusement. "Because, we, agree, ninety, nine, percent, time."

"That's true. Now... you, you blue little blob of fur. It's time for us to have that chat," Daz said a bit coldly to Mr Barrier but not in an inquisitive manner.

He wanted to question the creature but he wasn't exactly putting it on blast since it had genuinely been a massive help to both him and Madison ever since she had won it at the grand system auction.

Madison reached up and pulled the powerful creature from her head and placed him in her lap. "Still, upset, Daz. But, don't, mind, you, interrogate, Mr, Barrier."

'So one conversation isn't enough to gain full forgiveness? She knows it was the right call though logically speaking... Emotions...' Daz shook his head.

[Ember of Empathy [Entry-level (initial mastery)] has increased to 26%.]

He smiled as wryly as his usually expressionless face would allow. "I am sorry. But yes, we should move on. We've both already said our piece. I'd suggest we sleep on it, but it's hardly the time for that right now."

A look of contemplation entered Madison's eyes. "Could, definitely, sleep. Car, too, comfy."

"Haha," Daz chuckled. "I love you, Maddy."

Her face grew rosy. "Love, you, too. No, matter, what."

Those words filled Daz's heart more than any others ever could.

[Ember of Love [Entry-level (final mastery)] has increased to 4%.]

"Now, Mr Barrier, why haven't you spoken to us for so long, only choosing to do so on a news station interview, of all things?" Daz asked, a warm feeling still lingering in his chest from the Ember growth.

If he'd learned one thing today, it was that even if he did something completely reprehensible in Madison's eyes, she would still feel the same way about him as she always had.

That made him use a lighter tone with the blue-furred creature on Madison's lap than he perhaps intended to.

Words in the form of a barrier appeared on the flying car's windshield after Mr Barrier jiggled somewhat.

"There was no need."

"What do you mean, 'no need'? There's so much I'm sure we could have learned from you given that you are literally powerful enough that the system cannot forcefully assimilate you into itself," Daz noted.

"That, true?" Maddison asked to which Mr Barrier jiggled in a way that resembled a nod. "Huh. Strong, Mr, Barrier."

Daz sighed. "You willingly became an object under the system's rule, not forcefully. This alone hints at your origins as anything but simple. Needless to mention you can create such a flexible yet unbreakable barrier at will. The fact the system used the word 'unbreakable' in your status description is very telling," Daz pointed out.

"Yes, I'm not simple. No one really is. But there truly was no need to talk until now. Most of your questions I likely cannot even answer without paying a large price since I have made an arrangement with the system."

The words faded before being replaced by new ones. The windshield was only so big, after all.

"We were able to communicate easily enough with my body movements, no? Yes and no go surprisingly far in terms of communication."

Madison yawned softly. "Wonder, what, voice, would, sound, if, could, talk. Wonder, same, for, Master, Sorola..."

Daz tilted his head up to meet her eyes only to see that she had curled up as much as her seatbelt would allow her to and she had fallen asleep.

"Typical," he sighed with a smile.

A short silence consumed the car as Daz increased its speed to Mach-4. Before long, words appeared in front of his vision once again.

"She will never forget this. You know that, yes? She will always remember that you ignored her pleas to spare her brother."

Daz narrowed his eyes at the blue blob sitting atop Madison's thighs. "And? I never asked her to forget it. We've talked it over. Perhaps we'll need to talk it over even more in the future, but I do not hope for nor expect for her to simply forget the matter. I know I was in the wrong in her mind."

"... This is why you are pure in your own twisted manner."

He didn't humour Mr Barrier with a response. Instead, he used the remaining travel time to have a short phone call with Rose and then he used his Future Sight as many times as his limited internal energy would allow.

***

"Small airport," Daz said in greeting as he got out of the Ridomochi Final Model and quickly moved to open the trunk before he helped Madison out of the passenger side door.

A man almost seven-foot-tall and with as much muscle as Crusher had before she became a peak existence nodded back at him.

"It used to be for business flights and training, really. Perth was never a big city. This airport reflects that pretty well I think," he replied. "Even with all of the system modifications."

"Already, here?" Madison grumbled with a yawn.

Daz smiled at her. "Yup. Scotland is right next to England, after all." He turned his attention back to the mountain of a man and asked, "You must be Craig Miles then? I assume you've been informed already."

"Aye, to both questions," Craig replied. "Wanna tell me what really happened between you and that bitch as we get off the runway? Ever since we lost Edinburgh, this place has been getting busier and busier. System upgrades can hardly keep up with all of the traffic."

"War efforts are never easy," Daz agreed.

Craig nodded. "It's a shame we can't focus our war efforts in Inverness and Aberdeen. Bigger cities with better infrastructure. Gotta stay close to the border though, eh?"

At that moment a thunk rang out from the back of the Ridomochi Final Model. "Ow!"

Craig raised an eyebrow. "interesting luggage."

Daz shrugged. "It's a two-seater."

Of course, the sound had come from Madison's cousin rolling out of the car's trunk.

With Alison out of the vehicle, Daz returned it to wherever the key stored it before tossing said key into his Industrial Item Box.

"Owwie, my bones," Alison whimpered. "I don't want to do that ever again..."

"I wasn't told much, to be honest," Daz confessed, ignoring the estranged McArthur. " I was just advised to come to Scotland since you're also at odds with the High Queen."

Craig nodded. "It was them that took Edinburgh from us. After losing Glasgow to the Annihilation Pixies - I know, ridiculous sounding - them taking our last major southern city in the way they did was the final straw. The media may say we're in negotiations, but we're really in a full-scale war already. Your help is greatly welcomed."

"I can only imagine. As for me, I tried to kill the queen after an argument. Turns out it wasn't the queen at all but a substitute. I assume you know about esper powers?" Daz asked.

Craig smiled. "'Course we do. Our clan leader's one. That's among the handful of reasons we haven't been forcefully taken over like Wales and Ireland were."

Daz tilted his head in confusion. "They didn't have espers too?"

"They did, but... you'll understand when you meet her. The clan leader doesn't have a simple power like Dragon's Flame, Ancient Script, Golden Curse, or Patrick's Might. It's really something you gotta see, not have explained to you," the large man claimed.

Daz thought on the powers mentioned. He had heard about some of them before from Lorenzo, he recalled.

'Dragon's Flame - The ability of the Bennion House. They owned a huge manufacturing conglomerate before the apocalypse, did they not?' To Daz's understanding, the esper ability allowed a person to create flames from nothing and control them at will.

A powerful but ultimately rather uncomplex ability. It surely must have been useful to keep Wales relatively safe from the system's invasion. 'but not from the invasion of Maddy's mother.'

'I've never heard of Ancient Script before. It could be so many different things. Golden Curse was the power of the hidden royal family of Ireland from what Grandfather told me, right? It let them turn anything to gold but at a cost more than just that of their internal energy. Grandfather never did tell me what that extra cost was though...' Daz pondered as they left the runway and soon the airport complex proper.

Before long, they were in a car driving off to the clan leader's location.

'Patrick's Might. Another power of Irish descent judging by the name. I wonder what it did?' Daz thought.

Craig was friendly enough. He maintained a steady conversation with Daz, Madison, and even Alison for their entire trip.

Alongside these rather inane conversations, he was rather seriously wondering if perhaps it might be possible to extract a person's esper power and bloodline in some way.

If so, could he gain more powers? Could he fix the bloodline-lacking children back home? Could he help Rose?

'Just a loose thought with no substance. Let's focus, Daz. We're here to meet a nation's leader to plot the assassination of another nation's leader,' Daz concluded as he glanced at Madison who was just blankly looking out of the vehicle's window. 'Correction; assassinate her without killing Christopher somehow. Love sure is difficult.'