The next few weeks flew by and Rift found himself excelling in training. So much so that he felt like this had always been his life. The Wu’s, Houston, his foster family; they were all things in his past that were beginning to fade away. It was odd that there was no sense of longing for home, but he figured that it was because he had finally found a purpose. That was until it came time for his first mission.

Everyone had a mission to carry out that would mark the end of their training. All he had to do was sneak into a bandit hideout and obtain an important document that had been stolen. Weiss had protested it by saying that it was too soon for a beginner, but the others dismissed her concerns.

“Certainly, this should be no challenge for the wielder of Excalibur,” Kuruu had stated.

------------------------------------

He remembered the overwhelming anxiety he felt during the whole thing. Without much trouble he had made it through to the end, thanks to his training, but when he got to the vault they were waiting for him. The leader of the bandits stood in front of their stash, where the document was, with six of his men. Rift removed Excalibur from its hilt and that’s when it suddenly changed from a large sword into two pistols. It threw him off, but he had been trained to use a variety of weapons just in case he was ever separated from Excalibur. The pistol had been his favorite weapon and now, thinking about it, that may have been why Excalibur changed its shape.

The bandits closed in on him and he chose to take out only their ability to do him harm by shooting them in their arms and legs. It was made very clear that the bandits would not hesitate to kill him, and he should share the same mentality. Still, he’d never killed anyone, and he figured if he could take them out without killing them, he would. As he pulled the trigger a pellet of light blue light emitted from the barrel and hit one of the bandits in the arm. Even though the pistols had barrels on them it appeared as thought the bullets themselves were pure spiritual energy instead of metal.

He managed to take out half of them, but the others switched from swords to their own pistols. Quickly, he ducked behind a rock as they began to open fire. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. As he stood and aimed his pistols, he counted backwards from ten.

“Ten, nine, eight….” He placed a bullet in the arm of the one on the left.

“Seven, six, five…” The one on the right went down as the bullet pierced his leg.

“Four, three, two…” He shot the one on the far right in his shoulder.

“One…” He pointed both pistols at the leader, who stood with a rifle pointed directly at his head. They were about six feet apart, so the rifle’s rounds would hit and he wouldn’t be getting up from it. Though the Grigori were supernaturally strong, they were in no way immortal. A blast from a rifle made from stolen mythantium would be more than enough to kill him, and you could bet that people in this line of work would definitely have weapons like that.

The leader grinned, exposing his long-rotted teeth, and cackled, “Well done kid, I’m impressed! It’s almost a shame to put you down, so I’ll make it quick.”

Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the bullets were propelled from the bandit’s rifle. With unnatural agility, even for a Grigori, Rift ducked out of the way of the shot. The bandit dropped the rifle, pulled out two daggers, and began slicing at him violently. Rift used his pistols and countered the bandit’s slices hit for hit then spun himself around, landing a kick on the side of his head. While the bandit was stunned Rift grabbed his arm, propelled himself onto his back, and kicked him hard in the back of his head, causing the bandit to fall face down. Rift then pointed both of his pistols at his head.

“We’re done here. I’m taking what I came for, and you get to live another day, got it?”

The bandit nodded with tears pouring down his cheeks. Rift kicked him in the back of his head; knocking him out.

—————————————————————

Now, Rift was in deep shit and he knew it. He sat nervously outside the war room while listening to the leaders argue with one another. He had barely finished his training to become a member of the Hallowed and already he was at the center of controversy.

“He’s dangerous, this has proven it,” Kuruu murmured.

Despite Kuruu’s age, many people feared him within the Hallowed. Even Weiss seemed uneasy around him. Word was that he was crazy, but Rift was thankful to not have had many encounters with him while he had been in Araphel. Hopefully, he could keep it that way.

Malicieux’s voice wafted through the air like smoke. “I agree. Should we risk the lives of all our little ones just to keep your prodigy here?”

She always wore that metallic mask over her mouth but, from the sound of her voice, she had removed it in the meeting. He always wondered why she kept it on. There were tons of rumors surrounding the reason, but Weiss refused to come clean about it. All she would say is that “gossip serves no purpose.”

After a few minutes of them going back and forth, a voice he had not heard before chimed in. It caught him off guard because he hadn’t even considered that anyone else had been in there with them, especially since it had only been the three of them arguing the entire time.

“I’ve heard enough, and I’ve made my decision.”

It was a soft female voice that was authoritative at the same time. Rift didn’t know quite why, but it made his skin crawl. It was probably since with one sentence she was able to instantly force the others into an attentive silence. It lasted for what seemed like forever, but she finally spoke up just as Rift felt like he couldn’t bear it any longer.

“The boy will stay.”

“Lady Corazone, surely—” Malicieux began to protest.

“Mal, Kuruu-san, I understand your concern, but I agree with Weiss,” Reina said gently. “The boy is our responsibility, and it is better he stays under our supervision, where we can monitor his progress.”

Rift was shaken from his thoughts when a nearby door opened and Weiss stepped out looking flustered. There was a commotion coming from the room she exited, but she quickly turned and slammed it shut.

She turned to face him, “I do apologize for the wait, now if you would follow me–“ Without another moment’s beat, she made her way down the hall.

Rift quickly made his way after her, and after a few moments of the two of them walking in silence, he decided to speak up.

“Umm, Weiss. What happened?”

She glanced over at him, “Never you mind that. I would, however, like to congratulate you on the success of your mission. After much deliberation, we have decided that you will be allowed to join the Hallowed.”

Rift stopped in shock. He had trained vigorously for this day, and he had finally succeeded. All of his worries suddenly faded away and instead they were replaced with a sense of pride he had never felt before.

“Ahem… time is of the essence dear boy, please don’t make me waste my time. You know how much I despise it.” Weiss called from the doorway she had entered. She turned, with a huff in her step, and quickly disappeared down the hallway.

Rift suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and jogged after her. “Oh right, sorry Weiss!”

The two of them walked into the R.A.B.I.T. hole chamber where the other members of his team were waiting around for them. As they entered the room all eyes were on them and their gazes switched from Weiss to Rift in anticipation.

Weiss smiled brightly. “He’s officially a member of the Hallowed!”

Yuki and Kira ran over to Rift and hugged him. The guys patted him on the back and everyone was excitedly congratulating him. Suddenly, someone cleared their throat from across the room. Rift hadn’t noticed her, but at the control console for the portal was a woman. She wore a beautiful light blue sari with silver trim, and she wore her hair tied up with a silver jewel dangling in the middle of it. She had a pipe in her hand that was connected to a long piece of tubing. It wrapped around the console a bit and eventually connected to a dark blue hookah. She took a puff from her pipe while giving Weiss a raised eyebrow.

“My apologies Neela, dear. They should be all clear now.” She smiled nervously. “By the way, Rift this is Neela Kamala. She acts as mission control and will be the one you check in with if you need a R.A.B.I.T hole opened.”

Rift made his way to her and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Kamala!”

She looked him up and down a bit before replying. “Charmed, I’m sure,” she said while blowing a ring of smoke his way. It smelled of herbs with a hint of something sweet and floral.

Weiss shot her a pointed glare before walking Rift over to a lady he hadn’t noticed or seen before. “This lovely woman is Asha Kifo. She hails from Cairo, Egypt!” She explained.

Asha was about as tall as he was, her skin was a beautiful dark brown, and her hairstyle was almost like a mohawk. It was shaved on the bottom, but the top was filled with beautiful black and light brown curls. She had a warm smile spread across her lips, but he could feel the power she held radiate from within her. He shyly reached out to meet her hand which she had already extended to meet his.

“It’s nice to meet you, Asha.” He managed to say confidently despite his nerves.

“Great to meet you, Rift! I’ve been told lots of promising things about you!” Asha said in a welcoming tone.

Weiss continued, “Asha is a seasoned warrior who just returned back from leave. She will be acting as your team’s leader, and we are very happy to have her with us!” She beamed.

“Now if we are done with the introductions, I’d rather not have Commander Corazones breathing down my neck.” Neela groaned from the control panel.

Weiss rolled her eyes before giving Rift a wink, “Well then, I’ll leave you to it.” She turned to face the others. “Good luck to all of you. May the blessings of Helena be upon you.”

“Everyone ready?” Neela called out.

Rift turned to face the others, “As I’ll ever be.”

Yuki yelled from the other side, “Yepp, yepp! Kira and I are ready too!”

“Think we’re ready too,” Asha said as she joined the others and gestured to Zephyr and Anzu. She turned to address the whole team. “If you haven’t used it before just know that first travel by R.A.B.I.T. hole is a little crazy, but just focus on something stable and the effects will wear off soon enough.”

Neela pushed a button on the console and typed in a few more things before a sudden whooshing sound could be heard and the ground in the middle of the room began to break apart. Soon, a big hole appeared followed by a spiraling vortex. Asha jumped in first and instantly disappeared and next it was Anzu’s turn. He hesitated a bit which caused Sebastian to shove him in. He chuckled before he walked to the edge, turned to face the others, and gave them a smirk before he dove backward.

“What a showoff.” Kira giggled before grabbing Yuki’s hand. Both of them did a cannonball into it together.

This left just Rift and Zephyr. The two of them smiled nervously at each other, but neither one seemed to want to go first.

Neela rolled her eyes. “Today people!” She groaned impatiently.

Zephyr grabbed Rift’s hand and gave him a warm smile. “Together then.”

Rift smiled back at his friend and took a deep breath as they made their way to the edge. Looking down, he couldn’t make out an exit, and all he could see was spiraling wind and electrical currents.

“Here goes nothing.” He thought before hopping in, Zephyr gripping his hand tighter as he to jumped in with him.

Like before, it didn’t feel much different than falling. Then he started spinning around, and suddenly he felt like he was caught up in a tornado. He half expected to see a cow and a picket fence fly by him at any moment, but just as he felt like he was about to hurl he launched out of the vortex and tumbled along the ground, having lost his grip on Zephyr’s hand somewhere in transition.

He kept himself pinned to the floor, trying to wait out the dizziness. The feeling definitely made his insides feel jumbled around, and he imagined this was what a snow globe felt like being pawed at by kids. Asha stepped forward, placed her hands on her hips, and took in a deep breath.

“Welcome to Dutour!”