Adam and CB arrived about ten minutes later. They were together once more, a fact somewhat amusing to Marvin. They apparently couldn’t stand one another, but they were stuck together quite often in this mission.

“What do we have?” asked Adam as the two taller teens reached the top of the small hill.

“This.” responded Marvin, handing him the small piece of paper. Then, pointing at Marly who was still fiddling with Ava’s ring on her finger he added, “As well as a ring that belonged to Ava. Without boring you with unnecessary detail regarding the inner workings of magic, that ring solidifies the fact that Ava didn’t send the message that led to this mission. Not willingly at least.” He had tried to make his tone as neutral as possible, but he wasn’t quite sure he had succeeded.

“And how do you know this wasn’t all prepped after we started on the mission?” questioned CB, barely keeping his voice even. “If, for whatever reason, this Amdis wanted us to get near him, then he clearly has the resources and power to capture us and be done with it. Why go through all this trouble? Come up with a plan that relies so much on us doing things a certain way?”

Marvin thought about that for a moment. From an outside perspective that was a valid question. It even made himself question his previous beliefs for a moment. But it dissipated just as quickly. Looking at his friends he remembered that Amdis wanted something from them. He had said as much.

“You are meaningless. That’s why I want you to succeed. I want you to stop this from happening again. Give flavor to my endless existence.”

“Because he wants a challenge.” responded Marvin, surprising everyone. “Or at least he wants to have someone try and stop him. In every encounter I have had with him he has said as much. It's for his twisted pleasure. Last time I saw him he asked me to ‘give flavor to his endless existence’. And he wants me to be the one to do so because I don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.” Even saying these words brought him pain, but he couldn’t deny they had a lot of truth to them.

A tense silence followed. Surprisingly enough, it was CB that broke it by laughing. “Well then, I guess that answers that. A vampire with a death wish. But don’t think, even for a second, that you're going after those fools on your own. We will save Ava. Together.” he stated, not even trying to keep his voice down.

“CB is right. What world do we live in?” taunted Adam, before raising his fist to Marvin. “Don’t leave me hanging man.” Bumping his fist against Adam’s, Marvin felt a smile forming on his lips. It was a nice sentiment, but he wasn’t sure he deserved it.

“I know I’m not going to sound original here, but you really are an idiot.” sighed Marly. “Ava is my sister. And the two stooges here practically worshipped her. You really think we’re going to let the plans of a single vampire put us down? Or that we would abandon you? We’re doing this together!”

Doing this together. He had to admit this never crossed his mind. Beat Amdis at his own game. That’s what the plan was thus far. Even Marly herself had said so. And if they did so together, they had a higher chance of succeeding.

He never believed they were going to actually support him. This was a very emotional mission for all of them, so he always figured that he’d have to stand alone against the vampire and his machinations. Maybe once they figured out where Amdis was hiding he would sneak off, or they would decide that the three of them were better suited to do this by themselves and leave him behind. That he wasn’t worthy enough to stand as an equal.

Looking at the determined faces of his three classmates he realised that there was one crucial mistake in his previous thoughts. And it was a mistake Amdis made as well.

He wasn’t good enough. He knew that. But for the first time in a long time, Marvin wasn’t going to be alone.

“How touching.” called an unknown voice.

Before the dark haired boy could react, Adam had pushed him out of the way in his fully lizard form. A small spear crashed into his chest. He grunted but they seemingly did no damage. Immediately after Marvin whispered ‘Toxon tou Apollona’, heptagrams appeared in his hand that formed a bow and arrow. He aimed said bow at the direction that the spear came from only to see Annie’s babysitter-Maria he reminded himself-stare back at him from a few meters away. She had her hands held out towards them and a heptagram glowed in each one.

“Maria?”

“Amdis is a fool.” she started with a sneer. “He thinks himself a master manipulator, yet he created a moronic scheme that has already begun to fall apart. Even the most basic form of friendships that you have established collectively were enough to counteract it. And through it, the actual plan, something I cannot allow.

“Thoria! Multi!” Two spearheads were formed in her hands, shooting out towards them, multiplying to dozens mid air.

Adam and a morphed CB stood in front of Marvin and Marly respectively, taking the brunt of the damage.

The spearheads disappeared and Maria was suddenly on top of the large tree. Marvin shot an arrow at her, but she dodged and he only managed to graze her cheek. She landed in front of Marly, a full spear in her hands as she fought against the knife wielding blonde.

CB, having sustained only minor injuries, charged straight into the warring women. At the same moment Marly cut her opponent’s spear in half. Maria used CB’s size to her advantage, using his shoulder as a platform to jump out of the battle.

“Why are you doing this?” asked the dark haired boy, shooting an arrow at her once more. This time his hit managed to connect while she was on the air, going through her shoulder. Adam rushed in for the advantage, spinning to hit her with his tail as soon as she landed, knocking her back to the large tree.

The quartet stood ready to counter any retaliation, but Maria simply laughed. “To have such trouble against mere children. I’ve been a sorceress for three years, you know. And this is how I end up?” she said looking at the dark haired teen.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Marvin, not bothering to respond to her.

“A decent question.” smiled Maria. “I’m here because you have beaten both Hybrids we sent your way, which was quite unexpected. Plus Amdis has given you too much information for you to run free. In other words I’m here to take what we need.” she explained.

Then, using speed someone in her position shouldn’t possess, she jumped towards Marly, a heptagram appearing on her hand. Before Marvin had the chance to move CB managed to grab the smaller woman and push her back to the old trunk.

“You underestimate us, witch.” growled CB.

“It appears that I truly have. Amdis will get to play his game after all.” she smiled once more, this time looking directly at Marly. “Gate.” she muttered, and a bright white light blinded them. A moment later everything was normal again, except Maria was no longer there.

The four teens stood, looking at each other bewildered.

Marvin felt the backlash of the magic hit at him belatedly, but chose not to show it outwardly. Amdis had mentioned his target being someone else from their group, and now that person was revealed to be Marly.

“We need to leave.” he stated with as much energy as he could muster. “Now.”

--

Being a school principal was considered a respectable job in the International Defence Association. And it was one that Eobard particularly enjoyed since it meant that he could stay away from the nonsense of the association, a fact that was of the utmost importance to him after everything he had been through. It also meant that he wasn’t going to be at the beck and call of someone high up in the chain of command.

So of course he and Kara found themselves inside the office of one James Mallory for the second time in as many days. “This is ridiculous.” he muttered mostly to himself.

“It’s eight in the afternoon. How did you manage to get off your school trip?” asked Kara, although he believed she asked mostly in an attempt to make small talk and distract herself from the situation.

“I said I needed to go to a doctor. An emergency relating to my prosthetic arm.” he stated, looking at said arm. It was an effective lie, but he felt guilty for using it. It felt like a betrayal of everything he had sacrificed in his life as a soldier.

Before any actual conversation between them could begin, the doors to the large office opened, revealing Chiron in his centaur form, dressed with a military uniform on his human half and the bottom half of a horse armour his horse part.

“Eobard, Kara.” nodded the centaur at his two colleagues.

“Ah, the master planner.” called Eobard sarcastically. “On what do we owe the honor?”

“I don’t know what exactly you think of me Eobard, but I assure you I am not the evil mastermind you think I am.” calmly stated the centaur. “I have, however, conversed with James Mallory and I think we need to clear up some misunderstandings.”

“Like the fact that you went behind our backs and told the old Mallory everything about the mission? What was that all about?” snapped Kara, pointing an accusatory finger at the centaur.

“Indeed that was a mistake.” sighed Chiron. “But you must understand I have served House Mallory for twenty years. James Mallory has been its head for the majority of that time. I had to tell him something, reassure him that his eldest granddaughter was alive. I understand it might seem sketchy. With but a few words I can set one of the highest ranking members of the Association into a warpath. However, that is not my intent.”

“That’s all well and good, but it’s not why you called us here, is it?” questioned Eobard, narrowing his eyes at the centaur. All this talk seemed to have an ulterior motive behind it. To placate them. He wanted something.

“True. I want your allegiance.” responded Chiron.

At their angered looks he put his hand up while calmly stating, “Not to me. To the IDA.” He looked up to the painting depicting the human, werewolf and dhampir. “The vampiric forces are moving again. I suspect they took Ava Mallory. They were also the ones who sent the vaewolf two months ago. He’s in our custody, and he all but admitted that his reason for being there was to kidnap Marly.

“We were lucky that he was moronic enough to be distracted by our bait ring and that Marvin’s presence there allowed for him to be defeated. It was because of his failure that the vision Marvin Perlie had was triggered, a plan b if you will. I suspect they want to divert James Mallory’s attention. Probably take him out somehow. I don’t fully understand what their plan was exactly, but I do believe that is the end goal.” he explained to them.

“You think a war is coming.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement made by Kara.

Eobard found himself clenching his right fist. It made sense in a way. Send the kids on the mission. Take out Marly Mallory discreetly. But there was still a question mark in this equation. “What about the rest of them? What is their role?”

“What do you mean?” asked Chiron.

“Marvin has no ties to the Association. And I’m not familiar with any Lacetros and Smiths that have at least some importance in it either.”

“Not entirely inaccurate.” nodded Chiron. “ Neither of the two boys have any stellar background. While both come from families that have some distinguished generals and soldiers, there isn’t anything remotely close to James Mallory’s power and influence.”

“Still, if we assume their goal was to simply take Marly and use her and Ava against their grandfather in some way, there were simpler ways to go about that. I just don’t understand why their plan after the vaewolf failed was this mission. This way she has backup from her friends. And we can step in at any time as well.” explained Eobard.

“Most vampires have been alive for centuries at the very least.” began Kara. “Maybe they have a bigger plan we can’t figure out. Maybe there is dissension among their ranks.” shrugged the sorceress. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is what we do with the information we have. As well as the information we don’t have.”

“That, I am afraid, is up to you two. I am needed elsewhere. After the thirteen hour skirmish in Siberia various smaller conflicts have been taking place all across the globe. It could be tomorrow, it could be a year from now, but war is near. Will you back us up when the time comes?” asked Chiron intently, something other than calculated calmness decorating his voice for the first time since Eobard had met him.

Kara agreed immediately, but Eobard was apprehensive. There were many holes in their current theory. Sure, kidnapping Ava and Marly will affect their family and you could use their vulnerability to take them out of the playing field somehow, they chose an unnecessarily risky way to go about it. Especially considering it was all being done to deal with a single commander.

He stared at Chiron. It was entirely possible that the centaur simply didn’t have the answers to those questions. But Eobard’s gut told him that there was more there than what they thought. Still, something was coming and he was going to make sure it didn’t turn out like last time. For the memory of his fallen comrades. For the countless civilians that fell last time. For Marvin Perlie.

“I’m in.” he stated, not taking his eyes off the centaur.

He and Kara left the building shortly after, while Chiron went through the Caelum Terra to God-knows-where. They walked in silence for a while, neither feeling it was safe to discuss anything near the building itself.

“You don’t trust him.” stated Kara once they reached the hotel the school was staying at.

“How well you know me.” smirked Eobard. “It doesn’t make sense to me. I do believe that the vaewolf was there to kidnap Marly. Hell, I even believe that he was stupid enough to lose track of that simple goal.” he explained.

“But?”

“But everything after that is the issue. Why not just wait for us to once again lower our guard and then send another beast to kidnap her. Why go through the trouble of giving her, giving us, a winnable scenario?”

“If you really want an answer, I think it comes down to arrogance.” replied Kara. “A vampire with centuries of experience most likely thinks that everything will go this way. I don’t think you need more of a reason.”

Eobard merely grunted in response. It did make some sense. But would they really get so lucky? “Still, Chiron is definitely hiding something. It probably sounds stupid, but I could feel it.” he said.

“I agree with you, but we can focus on that later. For now, we need to contact the kids. The mission’s parameters have changed. Our approach must change as well.”

Before Eobard could respond to that, a notification came on his phone. It was a message from the school. He smirked at it.

“What timing. Get the Doppelgangers.” he told Kara. “Our students are returning. It’s time for us to regroup.”