Eclipse - Act 4 - Cycle's End

Chapter 11 - The Train

"I don't know any Trivia, but I'll tell you this." He snarled, staring at her. "You try anything? I will crush your skull without a second thought." He promised.

Neo scoffed. "I'd like to see ya try, big man."

He gritted his teeth, snarling at her whilst she just grinned maniacally at him.

"She's fucking batshit, Deacon." Cardin stated.

"Alright, that's enough. We're all here for our own reasons, some more similar than others, but we can all help each other. So please... enough fighting. I've got an awful feeling there's gonna be plenty of time for fighting in the future, so save your moves for those fights, please?" The Deacon requested.

Cardin and Neo kept glaring at each other, then Cardin sighed, letting his mace retract back inside of his new cybernetic arm. "Sure. I can wait." Cardin answered, walking away from Neo. The short assassin cracked her neck, then stretched her arms, following the Deacon to the large table in the office, where the Deacon sat down at the middle of one side, Eryka facing him, Neo and Cardin taking opposite ends of the table as well.

The silence was agonising, as Eryka stared at the Deacon with her heart focusing on her morality, and unwillingness to hurt people she cared about. And Cardin, having no trust in having Neopolitan being in the group, and on top of all of that, Neo's internal madness could just be sensed by everyone in the room. Something deep inside her soul was broken, smashed apart from her time locked in that Black Cell.

And there the Deacon sat, waiting to find the words to speak.

"The plan is simple. Tonight, the C.C.T is scheduled to go offline for maintenance. In the time it is down, we will meet with Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long in their home, and we convince them to give up Jaune and Pyrrha's address." The Deacon explained, until Roman suddenly appeared in the corner, scoffing.

"Why so complicated? You can't just look up with all your contacts where the great Invincible Girl lives?" He questioned. The Deacon ignored the hallucination and looked right at Neo.

"She has Dutch on her side, and he's damn good at hiding things. He's not just Ex-Black Gallows, he was Killian's Right-Hand for a very long time. No matter how much I tried digging, he covered every inch. But there are people that he and Pyrrha trusted to give their location to... and Blake and Yang are in that group." The Deacon explained, bringing up a holographic map of Remnant, and he highlighted Menagerie.

He crossed his arms as he spoke. "As we speak, the two of them are fighting the remains of the Feral Ones, stopping a train. I have no doubt that they'll succeed, and they'll be home in time for bed. That's when we face them." He explained.

"And when Yang inevitably takes the first swing? We need some way to keep it quiet." Cardin stated.

"Well, I expect Yang will attack. So it may come down to you fending her off for us. Have fun, basically." The Deacon said, shrugging his shoulders.

"I always did wanna spar with Yang back at Beacon." Cardin chuckled, cracking his neck.

"Whilst I'm talking to Blake, Eryka will keep the storm raging so that the authorities don't hear our intrusion until we're long gone. And Neo? I need you to find their terminal and access it and find their address." The Deacon explained.

"And what if Belladonna doesn't fall for it?" Roman asked. "Chick's pretty sharp, even without her eyes."

"We'll come up with a counter plan along the way... I'd rather not let it come to that. But if we have to threaten them, we do." The Deacon explained.

"Gods..." Eryka scoffed, burying her head in her hands. "They're innocent in all this. Can't we just sneak in and do it? Without confrontation?"

"No chance, not with Blake in there. She'll hear us before we even get inside the Manor." Cardin stated.