The sun is already high in the sky. In Aquamarine Port City, Beheaders are moving up and down in its streets. A petite girl wearing standard Beheader leather armor with a fitting shirt, leather bottoms and boots is alone, on a gondola, moving through its water channels.

For those who have a gondola, the water channels stop being a wall and turn into another set of streets to move up and down the city. Besides her, there can be seen other Beheaders on their own gondolas in the channels too.

Amelia is now on the other side of the city, the side that opposes the old cathedral. Moving through the channels, she gets to the brewery district, were the fruits and everything else that is involved in creating alcoholic drinks are gathered, where drinks and special ingredients are made.

As she gets to the first street of the brewery district, Amelia hears a loud, sudden explosion. She looks around startled, and sees a group of Beheaders running beyond the first street, passing the first row of breweries, further into the district. Ducking close enough to the gondola, she moves in that direction by pushing the gondola with the water she just tamed.

One, two, three streets go by, following the sounds of Beheaders and what can only be a fire. Looking up, she starts seeing pillars of smoke raising into the sky. As she keeps moving forward, she finally sees the destination of the Beheaders: A big brewery, at one of the ends of a street, with a bunch of Beheaders clamming outside its big doors.

Out of nowhere, another sudden explosion can be heard. The front doors suddenly open, letting a stream of flames come through and sending flying down the stairs the Beheaders that were close. The Beheaders behind group together in order to combine their Auras into a more effective barrier, with a bunch of Red Auras and some Yellow Auras being engaged, as other visibly tired Beheaders remove their peers that just fell of the stairs. Raising her eyes, she sees that it is from this brewery were the pillars of smoke she saw appear just before comes from.

“You bastards! Die!” can be heard from the inside.

“The flames are too hot! We don’t have a visual of the enemy!” one of the Beheaders yells.

“Resist! Stand on your ground and start moving forward, one step at a time!” says the captain of the Beheaders, the one in charge right in the middle of the front row.

As Amelia sees the Beheaders moving in, she stands up, moves the gondola besides the brewery, engages her Yellow Aura, and with it, climbs the house from the water channel.

“No windows uh? Fear of the competition maybe?” she says to herself.

Reaching the ceiling, she searches and finds one of the few windows that are set in order to let the light enter the brewery, which isn’t already covered completely by a pillar of smoke. From there, she can see the one doing the damage, without any particular kind of equipment, but there was no doubt about it: A Fire tamer, who has her hands forward, sending the constant flames that are born from the burning hydras being burned forward towards the Beheaders. She sees the rest of the room, and is able to asses five Beheaders, all on the ground, and half of the brewery already on flames.

“Another one…” Amelia remarks.

Giving the room another look, she decides to enter, using the window on the ceiling as the entrance point, enhancing her body with her Yellow Aura in the process. As she lands on the floor, the Fire tamer hears the fall, and turns, meeting Amelia eye to eye.

The Fire tamer then turns her body, with her right arm pointing at Amelia, in order to move the flames to attack her, but a bit too late for her: Still being enhanced by her Aura, Amelia plunged forward and closed the distance of about ten steps in three seconds. Being at her arms reach, the Red Aura of the Fire tamer came up, common reaction for when someone with Aura is taken by surprise together with fear. Amelia then puts her right hand forward on her belly, and making a concentration of Yellow Aura inside the Fire tamer’s Red Aura in an instant, and then releasing said concentration of Aura, dispersing the Fire tamer’s Red Aura completely and making the Fire tamer lose balance. With no defense left, Amelia takes her sword, still in its sheath, and hits the Fire tamer right on the stomach, sending her flying outside of the brewery.

As the flames disappear, Amelia walks outside, only to see the Beheaders taking the numb Fire tamer in custody. The captain comes closer to Amelia and says:

“Hey there! Thanks for the help.”

“It is my pleasure captain” says Amelia, with a smile on her face as she gives another look to the two yellow stripes that hang from his neck.

“Was it easy?”

“Kinda. A bit extreme for my taste. Decided to disperse her Aura so I could finish it with one clean blow.”

“And what a blow!” says the captain, letting a chuckle escape “doubt she will be able to regain her senses for at least two days.”

“I hope so” says Amelia. Getting a more serious tone of voice, she then asks “With this, how many it makes?”

“Can’t be sure the total, but for my squad, it makes the sixth one.”

Amelia takes a hand to her chin, then adding “Can I ask your opinion about it captain?”

“My opinion? Girl…” he says, now him being the one taking his hand to his face, this time his nose, with his eyes turning more somber “I don’t want to believe in it, but I guess we can’t deny it, not anymore with this.”

“Right” says Amelia, casting her eyes down to the ground.

“Still though” adds the captain, at which Amelia rises her eyes once again “I think we are prepared for any kind of invasion. We aren’t a small city or anything like that. We can handle our own.”

A slight smile appears again on Amelia’s face “If it happens to come true, I’m ready to deliver a world of pain.”

A loud laugh comes now from the captain, hitting Amelia’s shoulder lightly “If it is you, then I believe it little girl!”

Amelia lets a laugh come out too, and then says as she is getting back to her gondola “I need to go captain, need to report in the main plaza.”

“Sure little girl! Take care!” the captain says as he waves to Amelia, already moving away.

Amelia continues moving down the channels, back to the main plaza, where the main center of operations is set up. Turning left, then turning right, then right again, there are many, many water channels in the city, that it would be a labyrinth to move using them if they were to be the main streets of the city instead.

Getting to the main plaza, Amelia again comes off her gondola and crosses the camp to one of the buildings that are to the sides.

As she enters, she says with the most loud voice she can muster “Beheader Amelia reporting in!”

She steps to the side, and lets the Beheaders and Aquamarines that are going in and out go on their way. Some people are handling paper work, others are distributing weaponry and supplies to the Beheaders that are going out on the streets. Others are attending the questions that many wondering Aquamarines have.

From deep the building, loud steps can be heard. Amelia, raising her eyes, can see a familiar figure to her coming forward: Oscar, wearing standard light weight armor with four yellow stripes hanging from his neck.

“Follow me Amelia, lets go outside.”

“Yes!” she answers.

As both leave the building, they cross the camp and base of operations, and start moving up the main street of the city.

“Shouldn’t you be there inside master?”

“Need a breather. Been there from before the sun went up, and now it has done half the way to the top” they stop, and Oscar looks up, further beyond the farmlands, all the way to the Stardust forest, to the dark clouds that are on the horizon “please tell me that you have better news than the clouds that are gathering all the way over there.”

“Can’t say if the clouds brought the news, or the news brought the clouds.”

“For everything that is sacred” Oscar answers, taking a hand to cover his face “how bad it is?”

“Helped three squads with the rise of the sun until this point-”.

“Give me the total number girl.”

“Yes. In my search around the city, The total number of Fire tamers caught or killed is about sixty six.”

Silence. For someone who is usually reseved and calm, for a moment Amelia found him too calm, almost too stern. Looking at his face, she could notice his face turning a bit pale.

“Every second that passes, the supposition of Lady Aquamarine is coming more and more possible.”

“You believe so too?”

“Yes. The only thing that can disprove now the assumption of an invasion is Tomoe’s group.”

A knot ties itself on Amelia’s throat.

“Wipe that face of concern Amelia, look around” says Oscar, moving his hand pointing around her.

As Amelia pays more attention to her surroundings, she can see a couple of feet away, many Aquamarines paying attention to her.

“We don’t want to make them feel worried” Oscar says, coming closer to her ears “If we are going to face a large scale battle today, we need all the Beheaders and Aquamarines in their highest spirits, so wipe that concern out of your face and put a face that tells them that not even one hundred hydras could destroy all of us.”

Amelia brings both of her hands to her face, and pushing against it, she says “I’m sorry, I’m just worried for Cotton and the others. But you’re right.” Then, she brings her hands back down, having put her expression of confidence on her face… some may say she was being smug about it.

“Now that’s more like it. That smug face that you had when we meet for the first time will work wonders.”

“Thank you, master” Amelia answers, letting a chuckle escape.

At this moment, one of the Aquamarines comes closer. An old man, small, with a large white beard, with a cane in his right hand, wearing a blue vest, leather bottoms and sandals. He says “Excuse me…”

Oscar turns to him, and answers “yes? How can I help you?”

“I was wondering, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, tell me” Oscar says, as he puts his right hand on the old man’s shoulder.

A moment of silence. The old man keeps touching his nose, while Oscar says “Sir?”

“Be honest with me lad: are we ready?”

Oscar and Amelia are taken aback, Amelia opening wide her eyes and her cheeks turning a bit pale.

“Don’t try to deceive me lad, I have far to many years over you, and I am a historian too, worked as a butler in the Aquamarine mansion for a time in my younger days. Tell me it straight: Are we ready?”

Recollecting himself, Oscar sees the old man to the eyes, and answers “We… we will be, for when the moment comes.”

“Hmm…” lets the old man escape, having delved deep in thought “how can you be so sure? Look at this mess around us.”

“I apologize for that, but don’t let your critical eye deceive you, all the Beheaders here are more than ready to fight, and if that isn’t enough, we have our secret card right here” Oscar says, as he puts his left hand on Amelia’s shoulder.

“I see…” says the old man, taking a closer look of Amelia “thought that it may be another person at first, but it is indeed you, girl.”

“She can handle about five hundred by herself and still be on time for dinner.”

The old man lets a chuckle escape, and says “maybe so, maybe so. It is a bit hard to tell since she is so petite and small, but looks can be deceiving, especially in this era of Aura that Lord Hazuki established more than eight hundred years ago” then, looking at Amelia, directly to her eyes, he adds “I’m counting on you, girl” and walks away.

“Please, all third age personnel and Beheaders must move back towards the lower plains. Go there and wait for further orders!” Oscar yells, as the old man waves back at him, without turning his body.

“Master-” starts saying Amelia.

“Wanna know why I said all that about you?”

“I mean, Master, it has been years…”

“It all comes down to the spirit Amelia, what I told you before. No one knows that you can’t go all out like you used to anymore, so, we are going to use that fact to our advantage, and keep the spirits high. We all have a role to play, and this is yours.”

My role, uh?… Kinda sleazy if you ask me.

But she couldn’t deny those words. For how much she would like to continue helping around, she has to keep in mind that she is the last line of defense. She has to keep her eyes looking forward into the future, so she can be the best of use to everyone around her.

Putting her hands over her ears, she pushes against herself. She can’t keep running around, she needs to trust her colleagues.

Don’t hear. Look forward.

Yes, they are capable enough. Amelia has seen them, almost all of them are reliable. She can be at ease, it is part of her job after all. She knows that she can’t save everyone, and trying would only in the end make her unable to save most of the people she could save and protect in her entire life.

I don’t do this job alone. Remember that.

A breeze went through from behind, cooling the ruthless heat that the sun is constantly delivering for a moment.

Taking a deep breath, Amelia says “I understand, master.”

“Now, go back and rest at the camp. Recover all the Aura you can, you… we will need it.”

“And you, master?”

“I’ll go to the Aquamarine mansion. Need to clear some things with Lady Aquamarine about the state of alert, before coming back.”

“I see. I’ll go back then.”

“Go rest, take the chance and eat something too.”

Smiling, Amelia answers “will do.”

As Amelia starts going back to the camp, the view of the now militarized Aquamarine Port City greets her together with another gentle breeze. Looking back once more, she looks towards the Stardust forest, to the gathering of dark clouds, and says “Keep yourself safe, Cotton, Titania, Lacus.”

Then, the petite girl starts her walk back into the camp.