https://youtu.be/RofD8wT0Otg

"Aha! I knew he was a mad scientist!"

The Blackstar Diner was as busy as usual, which, given it was past eight o'clock, was not very. At their usual booth, Silas and Azurine were sitting around, waiting for Inigo to arrive and discussing their day in the meantime. Accompanying them was Jude, listening to their discussion quietly and nodding along with a calm smile on his face. Iago's past with Apex wasn't unknown to him, after all.

"Yeah. It wasn't all that shocking once I really processed it." Silas murmured. "Still, to think Libera isn't even the greatest evil in all this."

"I say we take it with a grain of salt. Remember the source, Silas! Isn't it weird that we haven't seen anything this 'Apex' does?" Azurine declared. "Still...to think we're dealing with a mad scientist! You think he's created life yet?"

"Now, now, Azurine." Jude spoke up. "Everyone knows you have to commit the scientific sins in rough order, or else they don't count. I suspect he's on genetic engineering by now, and you can't just skip to creating life from there."

"If I were him and I could alter my genes, I'd make myself a little more muscular." Silas shrugged. "As is, I could snap that guy like a twig."

For a brief moment, there was silence, before Silas spoke up. "...on the topic of guys I could snap like a twig, where's Inigo?"

"You did say you usually meet at around eight, which..." Jude began, looking up to the clock on the wall. "It stopped being around ten minutes ago. Is he often late?"

"Yeah, but only by, like, one minute." Silas said, crossing his arms. "Do you think Libera's holding him up again?"

"They can't have captured him, can they?" Azurine frowned, getting out her phone to send a text message. "I'm gonna ask him where he's gone. If he was gonna be this late, he should've notified us!"

"True. I haven't heard a word from him, either." Silas shrugged.

"Perhaps he's setting things in motion for his grand plan." Jude suggested. "I can't say for sure, though - I know as much about it as you do."

"Maybe. Or maybe Iago's kidnapped him so he won't get in his way anymore!" Azurine theorised, her eyes suddenly going wide.

"That's unlikely. If I recall correctly, Iago quite likes Inigo." Silas pointed out. "There's no telling what he's doing, though. For all we know, he got a secret boyfriend or girlfriend."

Just as Silas said that, the door at the entrance opened up, and the three of them, Silas and Azurine wondering just what was up with the door opening so suddenly at these opportune moments, looked at it. There, they saw a familiar face walking in - the man in white who had attacked them in Aurum, looking around before locking onto them with his orange eyes and walking up to their booth. Silas and Azurine regarded him with no small amount of caution, while Jude remained calm.

"...but, you know, something else could've happened."

https://youtu.be/FWxT2NKw9go

"Do you two know this man?" Jude asked curiously. "You seem to be staring rather intently at him."

"He's...Inigo's enemy." Azurine sighed, deciding that was the best way to put it - sharing more details might be out of line, after all. "But he's not from Libera."

Makoto walked at a completely average pace, stopping in front of their table and looking down at the trio with a short, respectful nod. "Good evening, you three."

"Hey, Makoto." Silas said, a slight smile on his face to appear friendly without letting his guard down. "Have a nice day?"

"...yes, it was fine." Makoto averted his eyes slightly, clearing his throat. He opened his mouth to continue speaking, only to be interrupted.

"Before you ask, we don't know where Inigo is, either." Azurine frowned. "Unless...you didn't already get him, did you?"

Azurine's eyes went wide with worry, and at once Makoto felt compelled to reassure her, shaking his head. "I haven't. Not yet." he said. "And I'm not here to ask you where he is, either."

"How curious." Jude said calmly. "But if not that, then why are you here? From the way you approached them, you had to have sought these two out."

"That is odd. I didn't tell him about our meetings here..." Silas murmured. "Hey, Makoto, why did you come here?"

"Because I need you to tell me about-"

"He means, why here, of all places?" Azurine cut him off. "Did you know we'd be here, or what?"

"I've seen Inigo enter here a few times. I know he's a frequent haunt." Makoto said, unable to bring himself to lie. "You're his friends, so one of you being here was a lucky guess."

"So, then, what is the purpose of your visit?" Jude questioned, smiling softly at him. Makoto, at that, took a deep breath and faced the trio.

"I...need you to tell me about Inigo."

"We just said we didn't-"

"Could you please let me finish?" Makoto interrupted her interjection with one of his own. "I'm not asking for any information that could help me find or kill him. I want to know what kind of person he is. Asking his friends was the best way I could think of."

"...why do you wanna know THAT?" Azurine glared at him. "I don't get it. This won't help you kill him faster in the long term, will it?"

"I'm just...curious." Makoto sighed. "You can just sum it up for me, if that's easier for you."

"I suppose there's no harm." Silas replied, crossing his arms and looking up at Makoto while Azurine seemed to ponder briefly. "Now, where to start..."

"Well, he's a little closed-off. Kinda rude, too. He keeps making fun of me..." Azurine pouted, before shaking her head. "He doesn't emote much, so it's hard to get a read on him...but I don't think he's a bad guy."

"Guess I've gotta agree there." Silas shrugged. "He's irritable when he's not being sarcastic, but he's still pretty cooperative. It's always nice to have a third perspective, especially one so different to us."

"And his morals?"

"Well, he's involved in our battle against Libera. I don't think there's much to worry about." Jude replied coolly. "Although, he does seem to bring with him a strange aura of chaos and darkness."

Azurine nodded slowly, deciding against bringing up Inigo's tendency to steal from the criminals he fought. That wasn't too important, she thought. As Makoto seemed to consider these words, seeming oddly troubled by it all, Azurine felt her phone vibrate and brought it out, seeing that Inigo had replied to her text:

"Sorry for the late reply. I've got to meet up with some guys in Ruben."

"I'll let you know if I survive."

"Hey, Inigo replied!" Azurine exclaimed, looking up at Silas and Jude in excitement. "He said he's in Ruben..."

"Oh?" Jude raised an eyebrow. "Last I checked, the Libera members there have an active hit on him. I wonder why he would go there at this time."

"He said he's gotta meet up with some guys, but he didn't elaborate." Azurine said, continuing to look at the phone screen and quickly beginning to type. "You...don't think he's in danger, do you?"

"And here I thought he was a coward." Makoto said emptily. "I can't fathom why he'd do something like that, unless Ruben had something he really needed..."

Azurine nodded silently, letting the other three discuss among themselves while she stared at the messages on her screen.

"are you sure you'll be fine on your own?"

"Positive. In fact, it's absolutely essential that I do this alone."

"do you know what you're doing?"

"i don't know what you're doing"

"It'll make sense tomorrow. Don't worry about me."

She took a deep breath, frowning slightly as she continued to stare at the screen. Inigo insisted he had things covered, but she still couldn't help feeling worried for him - he was treading into an active warzone, essentially, and between what Jude said and the whole serial killer stuff just the previous day, she couldn't help but notice Inigo seemed to get into a lot of danger. She decided to send one last message before putting her phone away:

"alright, i'll trust you"

.........

https://youtu.be/bukQCWazDec

As Inigo's eyes scanned over that message, he sighed, putting his phone away and placing his other hand over his heart as he looked ahead, seeing the entrance sign to Ruben right ahead of him. Tapping his foot on the ground, he shook his head. "Basic self-preservation dictates that I shouldn't be doing this..." he murmured to himself, before taking another step forward. "...but we don't have time for that right now."

He was in the business of freedom. If all went well, he was going to break Ruben's shackles and give them the liberty they wanted. What was one man's safety in comparison? He just needed to investigate one last thing to make sure everything went swimmingly.

Once he was in, he sprang up to a nearby house, observing the town from a vantage point. He didn't think Galileo had any traps on the rooftops, and if he ever saw the man, he'd be able to spot him first from the vantage point he'd given himself. So, he began to traverse the town from above, looking for his mark. Fancy blond hair, mean-looking orange eyes, he was a fairly distinctive-looking man. Inigo was positive he'd know if he ever saw him.

As he searched the town, he made a few observations - he saw the florist's that had been blown up in his last visit was still undergoing repairs, as were many of the buildings that had caught fire. He also saw a man in a hockey mask hiding in an alleyway, who didn't seem to notice him as he leapt over the buildings he was between. Maybe the traps were still in place.

But alas, no Galileo. Not yet. Maybe he was just indoors, or maybe he was out of town. But given he had three witnesses to his crimes, two of whom were new, it seemed unlikely that he'd be gone at this time when he could be monitoring things. He took a deep breath, seeing the buildings becoming more scarce as across the road there seemed to be a metal fence covered in red paint, with green grass carpeting the ground on the other end.

A park. Galileo didn't really strike him as the type to take late-night walks in the park, so Inigo didn't consider that he might be somewhere there. And it was mostly secluded, anyway. Mostly. But who was that, sitting on the bench over there? Perhaps the other Monarich could be his trump card.

.........

Scarlett sighed, expressionlessly staring off into the distance. There wasn't a star in the sky - just the deep blue darkness, and a few wispy clouds. Fitting, then, that she laid eyes on it, her legs crossed as she mused on everything that had happened today.

It wasn't that she'd disliked saving Caerulus - quite the opposite. She'd loved it. It felt like a breath of fresh air, something she knew she wouldn't get to do in her daily life. But now that that was over, she didn't know what to feel. She could fondly reminisce about it, but it wouldn't change the fact that right now, she was a member of Libera. And it wasn't like talking to the others helped, either:

"If she really doesn't know what's up, then what she needs is a little introspection. She needs to figure it out on her own - only then can she truly begin to fight it."

She appreciated the spirit of what Creed said, but so far, introspection wasn't working. This whole thing started with the Caerulus incident, so it was unlikely to be anything that dated before that, but as far as she could recall, the rest of her day had been fairly normal. So what could the problem be?

"Hey, stalkee."

https://youtu.be/YBvCLZUM-7M

Hearing Inigo's voice speaking so suddenly yet so casually in her ear instantly gave her goosebumps, and she shivered in her bench, looking to her right to find him standing there, offering her a short wave.

"Inigo? That's you, right?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "How long have you been watching me?"

"Just got here." he replied, gesturing to the empty space next to her. "This seat taken?"

"Oh, uh, no. It's free." Scarlett shook her head quickly, shuffling aside so that Inigo could sit down next to her, which he did after closely inspecting it. Once he was seated, she stared at him in concern. "So...why are you here, anyway? You know Galileo's looking for you, right?"

"I'm aware." Inigo said simply. "Just thought I'd give this place a proper gander before I set off the bombs I planted behind his back."

"Uh, what?"

"Kidding. Bombs are more his thing, anyway." Inigo looked over at her. "By the way, I couldn't help but notice - is something the matter?"

Scarlett remained silent for a while before nodding in concession, lowering her head. "...is it written on my face or what? That's the second time today I've been asked that..."

"Well, I do pay a lot of attention to your smile." Inigo said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Scarlett gave him a wink in response, giving him one such smile.

"Oh? Is it a pretty smile?"

"It's pretty damn convincing." he snarked, briefly narrowing his eyes. "Back on topic, though, what's up?"

"I wish I could tell you." Scarlett said, looking away from him with a sad smile on her face. A smile that he thought looked more organic than usual. "But I don't really know, myself."

"Last time I saw you, you were in a great mood." Inigo commented, tapping his foot on the ground as he remembered how radiant her smile had been back in Caerulus. "Did something happen since then?"

"No! My day's been pretty normal, actually." Scarlett shook her head. Inigo hummed a little, eyeing her closely as he tried to read her.

"Then...how exactly do you feel?"

"Well, don't get me wrong. After Caerulus, I was happy. Maybe happier than I've ever been lately." she explained, sighing slightly. "After that, though, I just keep thinking...about how I'm in Libera. There's a good chance I'll have to hurt the people I've helped. And all this time, I've been hurting people, and it just feels so different now..."

"...I think I get it." Inigo nodded slowly, feeling a lightbulb going off in his head. "In short, you've Flowers for Algernon'd your moral compass."

"...come again?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow, clearly puzzled. Realising she likely hadn't read that book, Inigo took a deep breath, figuring he'd have to lengthen his explanation a little.

"You feel good about doing this, and in turn, that makes you feel bad about everything else you've done." he explained. "Is it fair to say that you feel guilty, Scarlett?"

"Yeah, that's about right." Scarlett nodded, listening intently to Inigo and facing him directly now.

"Thought so." Inigo spoke up, more confident now. "Now that you've tasted the light, you can't bear to return to the darkness you're used to."

Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. That didn't sound like him at all. He must've been spending too much time around Iago. Scarlett didn't seem too bothered by this uncharacteristic display of poetry, though - it seemed to stick with her, and she was visibly reflecting on his words. He cleared his throat, now spotting an opportunity.

"Look, Scarlett, you seem like a nice person. Despite all your smiles, I'm ready to believe you don't enjoy working for the Mikado." he said. "Feel free to correct me if anything I've said isn't true, but if it all is, then why did you join in the first place?"

https://youtu.be/jTQlTOjabH8

Scarlett's smile slowly faded into a frown as she looked down at the ground. "You're...not wrong." she admitted. "At the risk of sounding unoriginal, it's because of my father...who you may know as Galileo."

Inigo nodded, already knowing that last part but opting against letting that slip. "Galileo, huh?"

Scarlett nodded. "He's pretty high-ranking in Libera, but as I was growing up up, he always cared more about bringing ruin to Apex than he did about his own daughter." she sighed. "I couldn't entirely fault him, though. At a young age, my mother...well, they took her, and we never saw her again."

"Are you sure you're okay with telling me this?"

"Yeah. I feel like I can trust you, sort of."

"Odd decision, but go ahead."

She cleared her throat, looking over at him. "I could understand what was going through his mind, kinda...but it still hurt knowing he hated Apex more than he loved me." she continued. "I tried and tried all I could to get his attention - to get his love, but nothing seemed to work."

"So you turned to his line of work?" Inigo tilted his head slightly.

"Not immediately. I tried to win the love of others, too, through all sorts of means. I crafted my looks, my hobbies and skills so people would be impressed. And it worked! People liked me...but my dad still wouldn't give me the time of day." she said. "I was reluctant to join at first...but eventually, it looked like the only way to earn the approval I felt I deserved."

Inigo watched her closely, and she sighed, sitting up. "Yeah, I know, it's selfish. I won't pretend like I'm some noble soul or anything. I knew I was getting into something bad, so I just let my feelings go numb and focused on everyone else - I had to, or else I wouldn't get what I wanted." she shook her head. "...but I guess I can't do that anymore."

"...did it work?"

"Well, I think we're closer now..." Scarlett said, before placing her palm over her forehead and shaking her head. "But...I still don't feel any warmth from him. Still, it's not like I have much of a choice to leave."

"Why's that?" Inigo asked curiously.

"I'm in way too deep, and if I do, the Mikado will probably get me." she chuckled quietly. "I've heard of people who tried to leave Libera, and they all met their end at the Mikado's blade. I'm nowhere near strong enough to take her on."

"It sounds to me like you do have a choice, then." Inigo said. "But it's a dangerous one, and one you're too scared to make. But you do have a choice, Scarlett."

"Yeah, well, I'm not you. I'm not someone who throws myself into danger like it's my job or something."

"You literally are." Inigo snickered a little, giving her a smile, while she regarded his words with confused curiosity. "You ask me, if you're gonna live a dangerous life anyway, might as well do it while enjoying it."

"Oh, so this is fun to you?" Scarlett asked, half sarcastic and half genuinely curious.

"Not the fighting, no. But I do like having something to fight for. It makes all the danger worth it." Inigo explained. "Can you say the same? Do you think fighting for Galileo's love has been worth it? Because after all this, I've still experienced more of his warmth and fervour than you, so forgive me for struggling to see the point."

Scarlett remained silent at that, looking down to the ground in pondering. He looked over at her, briefly contemplating putting his hand on her shoulder, only to decide against it. "And, Scarlett? Don't worry about being in too deep, either." he said, getting her attention. "The very fact that you want out tells me there's still hope for you."

"...and what about Galileo?"

"What about him? Just because he's your dad doesn't mean he deserves your love. And if he's the type of person who'd be pleased at the stuff Libera does, you probably wouldn't want his approval, anyway." Inigo stated. "You should save those efforts for people you know will appreciate them."

"Like who?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the people you help along the way. Like me, for instance." Inigo said. "Sure, you got me into this mess to begin with, but you've helped me navigate it pretty well. So, thanks."

"...you're welcome. And thanks, too." Scarlett replied, a sunny little smile on her face. "That really helped."

"Think nothing of it." Inigo replied, stretching his arms. "Or, no, actually, do. I want you to think about it."

"I'll try." Scarlett gave a thumbs-up. "And, by the way...I don't think you told me what you're here for, in the first place."

"Ah, that." Inigo cleared his throat. "I'd like to talk to Galileo. Seen him?"

"Wait, why do you wanna do that?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow in confusion. "You, of all people..."

"He's an asshole, I know, but it's a grim necessity." Inigo replied. "Don't worry, though, I'm not gonna kill him. I just need to talk."

"He's not the one I'm worried about. Are you sure you'll be alright?" Scarlett asked. "I can't exactly come with you for safety."

"I'm aware. I'll be fine, though." Inigo shook his head slowly. "I survived one encounter with him. Hopefully, I can survive future ones, too."

"...well, if you're sure." Scarlett sighed, figuring he was set on this path. "Then...you're going to want to..."