The younger of the male researchers raised an eyebrow as he leaned forward in his seat, "you look troubled" he said, "what else did HQ say?".

The woman sighed, "what I'm about to tell you can't leave this room, it has to stay strictly off record. I'm only telling you all because you deserve to know after what happened last night".

She took a seat at the table while everyone, including Jennie, listened intently. "Of course the first thing I told them was that Sandara was not only alive and well but behind the attack, I then asked them why on earth they thought she was dead in the first place, this is where it gets juicy". 

All the members of the Order leaned forward as far as they could to listen. The woman looked around her to be doubly sure nobody else was listening, "nobody ever saw Sandara get slain, the former president of the Eastern branch of the Order is the one who spread the message that she was dead and his only evidence was the claim of one slayer, who herself denied being responsible for Sandara's death. A decade ago researchers had located Sandara up in the mountains in the Himalayas, it was feared the vampire Queen had gone there to kill a coven of powerful witches, so the Order sent out a team of slayers to find the witches first and protect them. Well Sandara being as clever and as powerful as she is,  managed to trap them in the mountains, her clan covering all reasonable exit points so the witches couldn't escape. The slayers had no choice but to fight her, they joined forces with the witches and managed to track her to a cave she was hiding from the sunlight in". The elder woman paused to take a sip of water, the Order members all on the edges of their seats. 

"Well here is where things get bad, the plan was that the witches chase Sandara through the caves keeping her at bay with their spells, forcing the vampire to run towards the only other exit on the other side of the caves where the slayers would be, now of course Sandara wouldn't run out into the sunlight so the slayers would still have to enter the cave themselves but they didn't. They were too scared to go in and fight her so the witches were left alone to do it. One of the witches put a powerful curse on Sandara which would explain why she disappeared for the past ten years. These women were just witches, they aren't from the Order so without the research and experience of a slayer they had absolutely no way of knowing how powerful Sandara truly is. That's why the witch was so confident the spell had killed Sandara, because had it been any other vampire she would have been right".

One of the men scratched his head with confusion, "I still don't understand why the Order thought she was dead though, I mean why would they believe that?". The woman nodded, "precisely what my thought was. Apparently after a couple of years the Sydney branch of the Order launched an investigation into Sandara's death, so they had it all on record I mean taking down the vampire Queen is very exciting. They interviewed the slayer captain and after what she told them they scrapped the investigation and covered up the truth". "Why?" Rosé asked. "Because the truth is embarrassing" she replied. 

The woman took another sip, "when the witches emerged from the caves they told the slayer captain that Sandara was dead after a powerful curse. Now this captain had the choice to go into the caves and check for herself or take the witches at their word. She chose to believe the witches because she was too frightened to go after Sandara. In an earlier fight, Sandara actually forced her thumb inside the captain's left eye socket and blinded her, this young captain had reason to be scared. And if you know who this slayer is then you'll know why the Order were so keen to cover it up".

"CL" Jennie said suddenly, the first word she had said in a very long time. "Captain Chaerin Lee?" Tiffany asked puzzled. "Oh my God!" Rosé exclaimed, "that's why CL wears that eyepatch!". "Precisely" the elder woman replied, "she wears it because her eye doesn't look much like an eye anymore thanks to Sandara".

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