Chapter 2: Meeting Laice

[junkuroki]

Auria~

Before Laice could answer, the door opened once more and Reese slid in, shutting the door almost silently behind him. He gave a curt nod at Laice. A strange expression crossed her face, before she spoke. "Are you the last one to come in, then?"

"No." he said. "There are more."

"Oh okay. How many?" she asked.

"I don't know really, Laice." her eyes flashed dangerously. "About three...four?" he shrugged.

"Right." she replied. She turned to Terry. "I don't think it's any of your business how I got into DotNA. Why do you want to know anyway? Planning on turning your back on SeeD one of these days?" she raised an eyebrow, a smirk playing across her lips.

"Yes because betrayal isn't exactly uncommon these days." Reese said lightly, before taking a drink from the tiny steel flask in his hand. Laice purposely kept her gaze locked on Terry. Reese screwed the cap on the flask carefully before returning it to his breastpocket.

Laice cleared her throat and looked down at her wrist watch. "Well," she turned to address them all. "I hope the rest of your team decides to show up soon. I've only got fifteen minutes."

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Darkbluehated~

"No. It'ss nothing like that... I wass jusst currious." Terry said emotionlessly. Not really caring for Laice's attitude.

He was starting to see a pattern in being an expert of SeeD. Tiredly Terry turned away from the group to continue to study the the shapes of the room.

The night of the Ball was horrible...

Terry blinked. It was true, but he didn't think he would have thought it.

/I didn't think it was that bad./ Harmony thought out to him.

I guess...

Shutting out the rest of his mind from the group. Terry signed as he decided to take a rest.

[junkuroki]

Ani~

"Fifteen minutes?" As if by reflex, Stardust stiffened and said it out loud. She unfolded her arms, irritation creeping in her systems. "We're killing time here,"she said to Laice as she strode up to her. "You know the situation, what you're doing is unnecessary."

[junkuroki]

Auria~

"I'll be the judge of what is unnecessary." Laice replied boredly, eyeing Stardust with slight interest.

[junkuroki]

Ani~

Stardust turned back to Laice as soon as she replied to her. She could tell that the lady was looking at her with a hint of undervalue. Stardust became silent. Her face was blank.

"You better know what you're doing," she said in her neutral tone.

[junkuroki]

Spiffy Goddess of Death~

Xarin glared at the decor of the shop and let out a small sigh, watching the others as they disappeared into the gods only knew where. He hadn't been included in the assigning of teams to go and meet their contact, which annoyed him to no end. Silencing his anger, the blue-haired Xarin caught the eye of one of the few SeeD's left and walked to her side.

"I believe it is our turn, mortal," He sneered quitely to her and, pulling on her arm, vanished into the back room with her.

~~*~~

Sym saw the others leaving for the back room and shrugged her shoulders. She had, apparently, become invisable again and no one noticed the fact that she remained outside. ~Oh well, I'll find my way back there in due time. It's not like they left me all by myself without anything to do. . .~

Turning in an attempt to find another colour in the shop, Sym found her gaze resting on another member of the team. Xarin stood on the other side of the shop, apparently as disgusted with the situation as she was. She could almost feel his revoltion at being caught alive in such a place, but he tried to hide that feeling well.

He turned to face her as soon as she saw him and walked to her side, forcefully grabbing onto her wrist as he did so. His voice annoyed beyond belief, Xarin strained to keep himself relatively quiet as he dragged her away, "I believe it is our turn, mortal."

Sym glared, but kept as silent as possible so that the two of them could sneek noislessly into the back, away from the horrid inside of the shop, ~He may be an anti-social bastard, but at least he has good sense.~

[junkuroki]

Auria~

Zacke looked around and lowered his head slightly. "Alright, let's go now." he muttered. He took her hand and lead her down the aisle of dresses, then made a gradual turn left, starting for the door. Hope she doesn't mind me holding her hand.... He glanced over at her briefly, before pushing the storage room door open and motioning for her to enter.

He dropped her hand as she walked into the room, and followed her, closing the door behind them. He glanced around at the small room's occupants and soon figured out which was Laice. "Uh--one more outside." he said, refering to Wolfe.

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Seiferfetish~

Gaiea looked behind her, forcing herself not to roll her eyes as the saleslady jabbered on about some hideous dress or another. Only Wolfe was left. Well, then, he didn't need her to distract anymore.

She turned her attention back to the saleslady, eyes caught on the fitting room sign across the store-and away from the back. Picking a random garment from a rack(What a horrid color..., she thought), she handed it to the saleslady. "Can I try this on?"

"Oh of course! It will look fabulous on you," the woman gushed.

She must work on commission, Gaiea thought. Because there's no way that would look fabulous on anyone.

"Just follow me this way, I'll show you to the fitting rooms!" The woman began walking towards the fitting room, not noticing that her customer was no longer there.

Gaiea slid into the room, and took in the others. Laice looked slightly off-kilter and as if she was forcing herself not to look at Reese, who was staring at her almost in anger. Interesting, she thought, but said nothing, just nodded at the undercover SeeD.

[junkuroki]

ShadowFoxBlight~

Alaxia and Alaxzander entered the meeting spot confused. Alaxia looked around hopping they were in the right spot. Alaxzander leaned agents the wall and watched the other members of his team. " Alaxia, Do you have any Idea what's going on?"
Alaxia turned slightly "Well if you shut up I could figure it out'

/My. My Alaxia aren't we man?/ Lamara said with an innocent voice.

Shut up Lamara you have done enough. I don't want to here you at the moment.

/Aww, your mad how cute../

[junkuroki]

Bunny~

"Just follow me this way, I'll show you to the fitting rooms!" Wolfe snuck a look from behind a rack of lacy, pink slips and watched as the lone saleslady of the store made her way to the fitting rooms, away from the back of the store, chatting animatedly. Who the hell is she talking to, anyway? Wolfe thought. Maybe long hours working in this little pink wonderland have made her snap....

He stopped thinking and shook his head, walking with silent steps to the storage room in the back of the store.


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Tomoe heard footsteps and turned her head, nodding at Wolfe as he walked in. Then she focused her attention on the girl, Laice, the undercover SeeD. "I think that's everyone," she said softly. "Apologies for wasting your time."

[junkuroki]

Ash~

Blaze averted her glare from Reese as Wolfe walked in the room. Her head kept playing the same words over and over.

"Yes because betrayal isn't exactly uncommon these days"

Blaze had noticed how Laice purposely steadied her gaze away from Reese as she talked. This was a problem. Everything Laice was about to spill would be heard by Reese.

"Laice, wait." Blaze said abrupty before Laice could start revealing emerald secrets. "How do you.... how can you trust us? One of us could be a mole... how.. how can we trust you? I want proof that you're on our side before you tell us anything."

[junkuroki]

Auria~

Laice raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed by Blaze. "You must be the competent one." she noted.


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"More like the psychotic paranoid one..." Zacke muttered to himself across the room, his voice inaudible to everyone.


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"You have right to be suspicious, there's no telling who you can and can't trust. Not even within your own team." Laice said, staring straight into Blaze's eyes. "Which is why I came prepared." she sauntered over to a crate and reached behind, pulling out a small navy blue briefcase. She walked over to Blaze, set down the briefcase on the floor, kneeled down, and opened it.

As she ruffled through the papers, Reese spoke up. "How are you going to prove your loyalty with a piece of paper?" he said calmly.

Laice appeared to ignore him. "Here we are," she said, pulling out a piece of paper and straightening to her normal height. "Now, technically I'm still a member of DotNA. This is my profile registered with headquarters. You'll see just about everything is altered. My name, age," she handed the paper to Blaze. "I have different training specifications listed."

She handed her a yellow file folder. "This is registration with Balamb Garden. My complete personal record, from the very day I entered Garden. Complete coverage of Cadet days. You'll soon see my actual name is Laice, and my age is true to what the profile Xu showed you said."

"I became a contact for Garden at the start of the war, so I would have had no reason to create an alias when I entered Garden, which was years ago. Just look over things. You'll soon notice where my loyalty lies." she gave a wink.

"As for moles within your group...you should consider me just as concerned as yourself. I don't want to give a traitor valuable information anymore than you want me to. A pity I don't have a lie detector test around, I'd put you all through a good interrogation."

She bent down and picked up the briefcase, then closed it with a snap.

[junkuroki]

Ash~

"You must be the competent one." Laice nodded towards Blaze with a look of impressment on her face.

Reaching over a crate to grab a briefcase, Laice began to take papers out of it, handing each one to Blaze. "Now, technically I'm still a member of DotNA. This is my profile registered with headquarters. You'll see just about everything is altered. My name, age, I have different training specifications listed." She started to list off as Blaze's eyes scanned the paper. Laice's familiar face stared up from the papers but everything else in them was different.

"This is registration with Balamb Garden. My complete personal record, from the very day I entered Garden. Complete coverage of Cadet days. You'll soon see my actual name is Laice, and my age is true to what the profile Xu showed you said." Laice continued. Blaze felt over the Balamb files, searching them for any signs of forgery. They were all clear. Laice stood up and closed her briefcase after a few more words of advice.

"Ok." Blaze looked up from the files. "Although papers don't prove much, you have my trust. Lie dectector, huh? So.... about the emerald?" She asked, realizing that there was no way for Reese not to hear what was about to come.

[junkuroki]

Auria~

Laice nodded. "Well then, I suppose I should begin. Ten minutes left, afterall."

"Mind sharing those files, darling?" Reese interrupted Laice, addressing Blaze.

"I'm sure they'll get around to you Amaerick, just hold onto your pants." Zacke said, passing Reese and irritated glance.

"Hold your tongue Mercutio...unless you'd like me to rip it out." Reese replied calmly.

"Anyway," Laice said, interrupting loudly. " I'm a Rank 4 Defender, which means I'm in good with Adel, but not as good as some. It would be convenient to have a Rank 5 around, I suppose," she said, giving a split-second glance over at Reese. "but there doesn't seem to be any such person around, so everything I know will have to do."

She crossed her arms. "I was at Headquarters last night, at a meeting. DotNA holds regular Squad meetings, and this was mine. Half of us were moved to Esthar. I guess President Holquin--er--president of DotNA's defensive faction--is pulling half his Defenders off regular duty and moving them to this place in Esthar. It's a shame I wasn't moved, I'd know a lot more about everything, but anywho, Holquin moved them to this scientific lab. He wouldn't tell us very much, but he said they were holding a very special jewel in this place. Said they were running tests on it's magical values.

"Of course I immediately knew he was talking about the Emerald, but you'd be suprised at how many Defenders actually know about this whole Trinity thing. Rank 5's are the only ones they let in on all the dirty little secrets. So anyway, the address is 3498 Erple Way. It's not going to look very snazzy when you get there--Holquin mentioned this to the Defenders--said it'd look like some kind of run-down factory type of place. I don't know what kind of security precautions they have there, but if they're hiding the Emerald, I'm probably not wrong in assuming it won't be easy getting inside. I wouldn't recommend forceful methods, either."

She sighed. "I really can't give you any more info than what I've said, after giving an address he split us up, sent one half to Esthar and the other back here to Deling, he dismissed us. That, and I've nearly run out of time." she said with a glance at her watch. "I'll be risking my neck if I don't get out of here in the next minute or two. Any quick questions?"

[junkuroki]

QuistisTrepe002~

Frowning, Daniel thought over what he'd just heard. His lips pressed into a thin line as he realised he didn't like the sound of this--at all.

Moving cautiously over to where Sym sat, he whispered. "I don't like the sound of this, Sym....It sounds like it could be a trap."

Colum glared at Laice. "So, you're saying we're heading into Esthar?" he said, not entirely convinced by what Laice had to say.