Ailsa Oak was a self-cantered bitch, James had always said that and it took Delia almost three seconds to realise that.
"Over the span of last six months since the call, the older recruits have found fifteen unknown in Orre, seven have been rescued by Grace and Charlus, one by Joanne and Fabrica and the other by Spencer Hale, Molly and me and the most recent one by Dawn and Serena."
Ailsa glanced at her from all the way across the conference room table. Both of them were at the headquarters located in the floating island of Hald fest which was completely untraceable since the position vectors changed every other second.
It also belonged to James's family, but it was never his. His father and mother had donated it as the headquarters of the Chamber before he was born.
After the kids had left for the academy, Ailsa had made Delia her personnel assistant. They only time she'd been away from the silver haired bitch was when Spencer Hale had personally requested that she tag along with him, the spikes in UER that they'd caught on was unique.
The existence of m-Unowns was said to be theoretical, it was the topic for her thesis for her postgrad work. Delia had squealed in delight when Spencer had shown her the spikes. Her theory wasn't just a hypothesis anymore, it was correct.
These unowns were the rarest there were, their signals were the hardest to trace. No only could they travel between dimensions, these UER could bounce off any surface which had even a tinge of reflecting capacity. They could transform into any form of radiation, they possessed the ability to mutate.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up when she realised what would be the fate of the world if they fell into the wrong hands.
Luckily, they were impossible to find. Spencer, Delia and Molly had started their search in Orre and ended up in the Orange Islands. Nevertheless, they'd found the son of the bitch. It came engrossed in a certain stelae with different shapes. The ones they had found had the words Beta, Delta and Gamma engrossed on it... leaving space for two more.
"Serena..." Ailsa was sitting sideways in her hair examining the fingernails of her well-manicured hand, "she's the daughter of your friend, isn't she?"
Delia nodded.
"Useless just like her father," she scoffed.
Delia frowned, "Excuse me?"
"What is there to be excused about?"
"Serena isn't useless, and neither was Mark." She argued, "if anything she's a wonderful human being who gives her one hundred percent at any task she's given.
Ailsa raised her eyebrows, "You amuse me, child... I wasn't referring to Mark."
"Well, he's her father isn't he?"
A smile wicked smile formed around the corner of her lips. Her eyes still refused to meet Delia's. She knew behind a shadow of doubt that there was something evil cooking up inside her tiny little rat brain, something evil and murky.
"Sure," she said satanically, "Her results at the academy were... poor. The reports speak for themselves."
This time, it was Delia who scoffed.
"I'm sorry?" Said Ailsa, "does the report not speak for yourself? Or has James's death taught you nothing different?"
"You leave James out of this," Delia warned.
"Or what?"
She clenched her fists.
"I liked James," she smiled, "such talent, such... handsomeness. It's a shame that he's dead, I hope your boy is half as good as he was."
"Don't," Delia's fist turned white as her grip tightened, "don't."
"You know you can't do anything, Dear." said Ailsa, "because you know the real reason he isn't siting on this table-"
"Don't-"
"It's you," she finished, "if you weren't with him that day, if you weren't married like the rules stated... he would be alive right now."
Delia let go of her grip, blood rushed to her tiny hands as soon as she did. Ailsa's words pricked her heart because Delia knew they were true. She had always known it, it just was easier to blame it on someone else rather than herself.
But nevertheless, Ailsa was as much at fault as she was. It was her job to protect them and she'd failed miserably. It was true that Delia wasn't welcomed at the academy, when she'd arrived, she was shunned and ignored like a common street rattata. She wasn't going to let it happen to anyone anymore.
"I know what you're doing to Serena," she said, "I read the reports... they're from Zaff."
"So?" Ailsa said casually. "He's an instructor."
"He's a hit man," she raised her voice, "he's a jailer... he was used to extract information out of captured soldiers... that's what he is."
Ailsa sighed as she got up, she dragged her feet towards the window which was right next to the conference room table, it overlooked the entire ocean, the roaring waves and all of it perks.
"What are you getting at?"
"It's a wonder she made it out alive." She said firmly, "Serena... she wasn't trained at the academy was she?"
"Of course she was—"
"She was tortured." She finished.
An ominous silence was spread in the room, Ailsa continued to stare out of the window. Her lips didn't move and neither his eyes, they were fixated on the ground below, the untamed ocean waves.
"Say it," Ailsa said with a sigh, "say what you want to."
She chewed her lip as she composed herself, Delia got up and traveled towards their leader. She put her hand on the glass window and sighed, "The last person you used Zaff on was Charlus... your own son."
Ailsa didn't speak.
"So, my question, why Serena?"
Ailsa didn't answer but her eyes seemed to scream the truth, luckily for Delia, she could easily read those eyes. She saw the same eyes in the mirror every morning she woke up, those were her eyes.
The pain, the suffering and the strength to compose herself through them.
"I have plans for her," Ailsa looked out of the window. "Big plans... but for now..." she grimaced at Delia, "you're the one I want."