Peace. Peace is such a beautiful word, yet so cruel said by the wrong set of lips. It is used as an illusion, a lure, a trap...A drug. A fantasy. But in small pockets of this world, between the constant crossfire between rival nations of Westania and Eastails, are those who wish to transcend this fantasy into reality. Erza, was that what she was called these days, was one of those people. One of those foolish people who believed she could change the competition of spite and cruelty between Westania and Eastails. I was stupid, she thought as the streaks of grey began to color her once rich billows of chocolate and the wrinkles creased her once blemish free skin. Stupid. So stupid. And yet, this fantasy has entrapped her. Just as it had so many before her, Erza was trapped. Trapped in this cycle of striving for something she knew was unobtainable. Chasing after shadows and Ghosts she knew deep down she could never grasp, yet, she chased them anyway. The promises of living in a war-free nation. The impossible notion of putting an end to human suffering forever. Because it had never been about that goal, it was the thrill of the chase. The hope that those ghosts could grant this tired middle-aged woman her lifelong dream.
The worst part? She had dragged about a hundred young lives into this chase as well. This addiction to righteousness and dreams of peace and freedom.
The Gardner, they called her. All of her agent. All of her dear children who she had tended to and grew since they were nothing but seeds in the pit of her hands.
The Gardner....Erza...That wasn't even her real name. Just another mask she had put on. All of her, from the cloths she wore to the words she spoke, were all full of deceit. All her agents, her children, her roses who trusted her with their lives as their Gardner...their leader, their mother, their nurturer...They were enthralled by the Gardner's charm, the Gardner's feats, the Gardner's words that commanded respect and admiration. In fact, there were only two people in the whole world who knew her as anything beyond the Gardner...As Erza Holmes.
It was nearing dawn and Erza was sitting alone in her office, reading a long memo that was slipping through her brain without leaving the slightest trace of meaning behind. How long had she been awake? Sitting there going through the endless warrant of emails from The Eastailian government and secret police who were both breathing down her neck again.
"Twelve hours, fifty-nine minutes and forty two seconds. On the dot." Erza thought, not feeling the need to double check with her wristwatch.
All of her agents always looked to her as if she were almighty, like she had no pressure or oversight, but the "Garden" was just a name of her organization, its true nature could be encased in three words...Eastailian Secret Intelligence.
Another lie, another mask and another day. Erza's preaching as the Gardner to her agents of their goal to bring peace was also buried under the gapping fact that they were funded and hence under the direct oversight of the Eastalian Government. The strife for peace and ambition for neutrality was a conspiracy and a secret mission withing the Garden and did not leak into Westania or Eastails. No matter the cost. Otherwise...They would lose it all. It would be all over, that just for her, not just for her agents...But the whole world. Westania and Eastails would stop at nothing to annihilate each other, and all the innocents withing their borders.
Erza felt her jaw set. Here her agents were, risking their lives every day only to have all their hard work trampled on by a game of ego between politicians. She turned over the second page of the memo, saw how much longer it went on, and gave it up as a bad job. The message was not lost on her. We need results. And fast.
Just then, a sharp noise pierced through her trance. Heated from her thoughts, Erza found the courage to get up from her chair, which had become oh so overly warm and comfortable from her own body heat.
Erza's figures found their way to the wall of pictures. Erza had pictures of each of her agents when they first arrived at the Garden as seeds. Most of them were in their twenties. But there was one frame which was so close to her heart it scared her. It was her, the young her, standing with her arms wrapped around two twelve-year-old. One boy One girl. The girl was scrawny and timid, her shoulders squared as she attempted to shield herself from the world, her tousled scarlet hair hiding away her chartreuse green eyes. The boy was the exact opposite, he stood erect with his chest puffed out, his cheeks spread in a wide grin, his pearly white teeth glittering against his oaken hued skin and raven hair, his stormy grey eyes glistering with childish excitement which was grossly betrayed by the long scars that graced almost ever corner of his face, dressed in stiches from the surgery that had taken place only a few week prior. And yet he still managed to smile, grin even.
'How you two have grown....' Erza muttered as she traced their smiles with her figures
'Ma'am,' Agent Nette Sprout called form out her door 'We are ready for you.'
'I'll be right out.'
Erza stood Infront of her long sash window, to find her own very tiered self-staring back at her. Erza's hardened fingures fixed her tie to her crisp collar, sliding on her black suit, letting her long oaken hued locks tumble down to her waist, dressed in curls and threads of aged silver. Erza pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose to be aligned with her sharp honey-coloured eyes, walking down the hall out her office, carrying herself with dignity and grace. Like she always did.
The large hall of wood and parquet floor, a mezzanine held up by wooden beams overlooking it. All her agents had assembled there, well, all except two. Two of her more precious ones.
And as competent all of her agents were, they were all eccentric in their own way. All of them had quirks and flaws which were always so flamboyant that whenever the entirety of the Garden was in the hall, they were fighting and throwing furniture at each other. Well, Erza did not mind. As long as it did not affect their work and their behavior towards her.
Erza took a deep breath, picking up a glass of champagne. A single tingle form it was enough to quiet everybody in the room and make them assemble mechanically into straight rows and columns according to their ranks. In the Garden, each agent attached the name of their rank to their last name and were addressed as such. The loEast rank was Seed. From there, an agent could prove their worth by succeeding increasingly higher difficult missions and scale the ranks. After Seed came Seedling, then Sprout, then Leaf, then Fruit, then Bud, Followed by bloom and finally, the highest rank...Rose. Each agent had a golden pin on their lapels indicating their rank. The only exception was Erza, the Gardner, The mastermind.
Just then, the large ivory door burst open and there stood Agent Snow Leaf, panting, his eyes wild.
'We've got trouble!' he said in a trembling voice, stopping for dramatic effect 'Agent Scarlet Rose...Is back!'
That's when all hell broke lose. The entire hall of about hundred agents who had gone through some of the most difficult training regimes ever invented, started screaming and trembling in their boots, some even bursting into hysterical tears.
But Erza, stood transfixed. She couldn't belive it. Yor was back? Her mission was to break into the highest security office in Westania...That of the President, and assassinated him. The blubbering old fool had been making threats to Eastails under pretense of dropping bombs for quite some time. Erza for one did not believe an impoverished nation as Westania would have the resources to conduct such research but had the East breathing down her neck anyway. That was why she had to put her number one agent on the case, One of the only two roses in the entire Garden...Yor Scarlet. Still, even for Yor who was so skilled and elusive that the local authorities had nicknamed her "The Scarlet Phantom", "The Scarlet Shadow", "The Scarlet Ghost and "The Scarlet Rogue" among many other aliases, she couldn't have finished such a task in only two days...Could she?
A large shadow emerged from the now ajar ivory gates, And there she was. In all her glory. Fearsome. Ever watching, Ever listening. She was the disembodied gaze that watches you in the dead of night, the unshakable presence that raises the hair on the back of your neck. Strong, silent, unwavering. Her sight stroked immobilizing fear in the heart of every agent in the room. Once she has her sights set on somebody, there is no escape. To be her prey means certain demise. Her form was oh so beautiful, reminding Erza of her own younger self: Graceful, tall, curvaceous yet ferocious in frame. Her bright scarlet mane bazed behind her, tied down in an elegant French braid, The striking nature of her fox like chartreuse green eyes rivaling the sharpness of Erza's. Her light skinned face bore a hard-blazing look and was framed by blunt bangs and longer ones that reached her chin on either side of her face. She was dressed in a bright red trench coat and a matching brim hat with a golden ribbon tied around it in a rose-bud knot over a black catsuit and black thigh-high boots. Golden thorn earing graced her ear lopes, her glittering golden rose brooch shinning at her coat lapel. Yor Scarlet, The Garden's pride and joy.
Close to her, Erza could hear the muttering of Bloom level agents along the lines of "I'm dead meat."
Erza didn't think that Yor could have heard that from all the way down the hall, but she turned, her eyes blazing in dancing flames, her entire being seeming to glow with the intensity of fire.
'All of you!' her voice boomed and Erza no longer had to work hard to control the crowd.
Every agent stiffened, shaking and trying to hold back tears.
'I heard a bunch of rumors while I was gone.' Yor said, fists on her waist 'The Eastern authorities are furious about how the Garden keeps causing problems.'
She turned to Erza, taking a bow of respect. She whipped around with such intensity that the air seemed to grow heavier and warmer.
'The Gardner may forgive you, but I certainly will not!!!' Her voice echoed across the hall.
She glared at a Bloom agent standing next to Erza 'Agent Waine Bloom!'
'Yes!' He fumbled, his jaw clenched tightly.
'How dare you drink in a public setting while wearing your batch?' Yor yelled 'How dare you disgrace us in such an undignified manner while you were representing us in the East last week!'
Waine blinked, as if trying to register how Yor had come to know of his personal endeavors in a whole separate country 'I-I was off duty ma'am...The conference had ended-'
'You were in our home country, in presence of our superiors all be in in an informal setting!' Yor's voice thundered 'You have bought dishonor upon us all! Another slip up and you will be sent right back to the East! Am I understood?'
'Y-Yes ma'am!'
'Agent Vistar Leaf!'
'Y-Yes?' Vistar seemed to be on the brink of tears.
'Stand up straight! Shoulders back!'
'Yes ma'am.'
'Agent Varien Sprout!'
'Yes!'
'Polish your shoes! I want not a grain of dust on them! This is a clear breach of professionalism! You are standing on thin ice!'
'Understood! I appolog-'
'Apologies are worthless to me,' Yor asserted 'Actions are what count. And do not speak unless spoken to. Agent Goyle Fruit!'
The poor guy just whimpered.
'We had to bail you out of jail!' Yor's face had turned as red as her hair 'You were caught by the Westanian authorizes! I honestly do not know why you are still here! You are an embarrassment! A fiend! A disgrace! You are here by demoted to Seed level!'
Tears brimmed to Goyle's eyes as he fell to his knees 'A demotion directly down to seed? That's the loEast level! I-I worked ten years to get to-'
'You should be thankful we didn't let you rot in jail!' Yor boomed, grabbing the poor man's color who was a good fifteen years older to Yor 'It is scum like you who are casuing such taints on the name of the Garden! It is because of you the Garden under stress form the East!'
She threw Goyle down the hall, brushing her hands together.
Her eyes shot at the newest crop of agents, fresh form the East. Seeds. She gave out a sigh, looking away. All the seeds burst into tears.
'Please say something Miss Scarlet Rose!'
'I don't even know where to being with you lot,' Yor sighed 'You are the saddest bunch I've ever met...And these are your superiors. So, evaluate yourself.'
She joined Erza, her lips fading into the smallest yet the warmest of smiles, hidden from everybody but Erza.
'Success, I presume?' Erza smiled at her.
'Yes.' Yor nodded 'It will be on the news in an hour and the Garden's informers will tell you in thirty minutes.'
'Excellent.' Erza nodded. The look Yor had in her eyes, however, was strange. It was hard as usual, yes, but something in her eyes quivered. Something was wrong.
'We need to talk,' Yor's smallest gestures like her dusting her lapel spelled out 'Privately.'
Erza felt the wind knocked out of her lungs as Yor tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, stroking her rose brooch.
"The one who wears this brooch is missing."
The only other person who had that brooch...Was Agent Radius Rose. Erza's pride and joy.