Episode 11: Enough is Enough

[Xavier Turano]

Xavier knew this was about to blow up even further, so he had to do something to end this confrontation. Considering Damian and Deon already had enough of him, he wasn't going to bother defusing anything with words. He was going to change things by force.

"Lace, silence the room, then give me a memory-reading device," Xavier ordered.

"Done," she acknowledged over the intercom. A wave of energy poured into the throne room that prevented noise from being generated. This was to make sure that everyone was absolutely quiet. Xavier then had a mechanical helmet materialized in his hands. He was going to place it on both Tabitha and the person she was escorting.

[Father Lyles]

Lyles was getting very concerned now. He knew that this device wasn't just for show. If he stays the way he is, Tabitha will be exposed, and she could potentially be killed. In fact...

"The Vestals are worse than we thought... We can't take them head-on..." Lyles acknowledged to himself. "It's about time for me to go..."

As Xavier was moving to put the device on his head, Lyles disappeared in a puff of dark smoke and returned from where he came.

[Xavier Turano]

Xavier was a little bothered by the Gundalian running away, but they'll find out where he went soon enough. He decided to put the device on Tabitha's head instead. Hopefully, the Spartans can find definitive proof of Tabitha's treachery so they can put this issue to rest.

All of her memories were being sent to Lace so she could identify anything that could link her to being a succubus.

"Analyzing," Lace proceeded to do. It took her ten seconds for her to process all of the information she was getting. "There is nothing here that links to her being a succubus. No signs of any memory lapses or traumatic events. Everything seems intact, which contradicts the earlier findings of there being another personality."

Xavier saw all of what Lace said typed up on his BakuMeter. When he read that, he waved his hand in the air to give Lace the cue to end the silence. He then took the helmet off of Tabitha's head.

"Lace's analysis shows nothing in relation to what happened with the guards," Xavier reported to the Spartans. "We also don't seem to have any definitive proof of her having other personalities."

He then turned to Damian who seemed to always have a problem with something. "Whatever you do with that is on you, Damian. Keep her or let her go. Your decision."

[Dasia Turano]

Tabitha didn't say a word. She just walked out of the throne room before anything else was said. Her face was sorta red, so she was likely one word away from really hurting someone. Dasia could see it when Tabitha walked past her from the throne room's entrance. She was hesitant on trying to talk to her, but she realized that may not be the best idea, especially when Lace was the one who brought her character into question.

"Oh no..." Dasia groaned. "Things just can't ever go right..."

"My apologies for speaking out of turn, but I believe that following the rules will prevent this from happening again. Damian was well within his right to reject Tabitha. The law requires for an applicant to be accepted before the King or Queen is allowed to rule on whether or not they are accepted. I fear that this violation has tainted the relationship between the royal family and the Spartans."

"...You might be right..." Dasia accepted.

[Damian Knight]

Damian took a few deep breaths before outlining what was going to happen next. He was one word away from hurting someone as well.

"I will be reporting this incident to the council. Good luck explaining to them why you're so shit," Damian wished with a sincere 'fuck you' smile. "If Dasia rejects the throne, there will be no one left in your family to take it. That'll mean the head of the council will take your seat. It should've been him from the start anyway. Whoever's bright idea it was to put a businessman/scientist in the most powerful seat on the planet is beyond me."

"As for Tabitha, I'm pleased to inform you that our local regicide expert, Deon Irvine, will be on the case and will be sure to show you and Lace why the Master Blaze was about to wipe her ass out. Don't call me at all." With that said, Damian walked out of the throne room and went on about his business.

[Jamal Armstrong]

Jamal was about ready to go himself. He was just about done with all of this. "I don't mean to pour salt on the wound, but...I told you this would happen," Jamal shrugged. "I don't know about anyone else, but I'll still do my job of protecting you and this planet. Just know that what you did makes me not want to."

With that said, Jamal took his leave as well. When he got out of the room, Tec wanted to weigh in on what was about to happen.

"We need to call a meeting with the entire Royal Guard. We need to figure out if the person doing this is close to the king or not, and we also need to find out why any of them are having relations without notifying any of us." As intrusive as that sounded, there was a reason why this was done. Considering they are protecting the king/queen of the entire planet, their respective family members, AND the Spartans, the people above have to know if this relationship could have an impact on their ability to do their jobs. As an example, a Spartan being intimate with a Royal Guard member could be problematic, because if something goes south, no one will know if that member will want to bring harm to the Spartan or collude with someone to bring harm.

"Deon knows what he's doing. He has done this before, so we're in good hands," Jamal trusted without a doubt.

[Noland Hardy]

Back on Earth...

During the evening hours, Noland was cleaning a cool mist humidifier. When he finally got done with it, he put it in his room where Darius was happily waiting for it. Noland was too...

"There we go. That should help us," Noland presented. He turned it on so the air quality could improve. A nearby trashcan had a punch of tissues with blood on them. Based on what Noland just said, both he and Darius must be getting nosebleeds from dry air.

"Don't mess with your nose anymore, alright? This humidifier will take care of it," Noland assured the kid.

[Darius Hardy]

Darius looked at this humidifier with a lot of curiosity. He was mesmerized by the cold air it was blowing. His wide smile perfectly displayed his excitement to sit right in front of it to take it all in.

"That's an interesting device..." Vladitor realized upon seeing what it does. He rolled around the humidifier in his ball form to see how it worked."Aquos and Ventus Bakugan were used for this purpose back then. I'm impressed."

"Did you all brawl back then?" Drago asked him from the bed in his robed form.

"No. We were instruments of war rather than a way to sharpen our skills," Vladitor answered.

"Ah... Makes sense."

"Hey, Dad. You brawled, right? What was your best brawl?" Darius wondered.

[Noland Hardy]

"..." Noland didn't have to think too much about that. It was quite easy. "The best brawl was against a guy from Vestal. His name's Damian Knight."

"Really? Him?" Drago asked as if he disagreed with the choice. "What about Maria and Hydra? We weren't supposed to make it out of that one alive. Or Vince and Apollonir during the Trial? We lost, but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't fun."

"Damian and Helios pushed us father than anyone," Noland believed. "Yes, a majority of that was because of how annoying and dangerous they were, but they were the perfect rivals. I wanted to be better than them the most. It was so satisfying to see all of our training with Dad and Apollonir help us so much against someone who - and I hate to say this - was more powerful than we were. Even now, I still can't believe we beat them. I don't think we'd be where we are if it wasn't for that brawl."

"Hmm...yeah, I can understand that," Drago admitted. "...It does feel a little weird that I miss Helios acting like that... I don't know why, but it was a hell of a rivalry. I wonder if we'll ever get anyone like that again or if he ever got back to where he was...or even better."

"I wonder about the guys who made those abilities we used. I don't remember the owners of Free of Regression or Dimension Dweller, but those abilities were super strong. Those guys sound like they'll be ridiculous."

The doorbell was rang after Noland said this. Sandra went to open the door. "Oh, hey sweetie! Come on in!" she gladly accepted.

"That was quick," Drago recognized.

"I thought she was going to Montai's. Why is she here?" Noland questioned. He went downstairs and saw her sitting on the family room couch. "...Is something wrong?"

[Alana Cortese]

Before anything could be said, Hydranoid took on his robed form and went upstairs. He didn't say anything nor did he show a reason why he was leaving. It was a little awkward to see that, but that's what he did.

"Nothing's wrong," Alana assured Noland. "I was wondering how you were doing after the battle. I didn't see you at the hospital, and no one knew where you were, so... I thought I'd see if you were okay."

[Noland Hardy]

"..." Noland knew Alana was probably worried about what he said after she was allegedly hit. He didn't know how to express what he was actually thinking though.

"I don't know if I'm okay. I've never been this mad before. I really want to hurt someone," Noland admitted. "I haven't fallen off the deep end yet... I don't think I have anyway. I just need a better outlet or something that'll calm my nerves. It has been really rough lately."

"At the same time, I'm more than happy that we avoided a complete disaster. I - well, we - could've lost you... I didn't know what else to do after I saw that..."

[Alana Cortese]

"..." Alana had enough time to process Noland almost losing himself after seeing what he saw, but it was getting more surprising every time it was brought up. She didn't know how to respond to it immediately, but after a couple of seconds, she was ready to say something.

"I know you might think otherwise, but...don't," Alana insisted. "I...always have that fear that you'd lose yourself again. It really broke me when I saw that... Don't make me - US - go through that again, okay? I don't want to lose you again..."

[Noland Hardy]

"..." Noland had a thought about what Alana said. It was something he should've thought about. "...I'm sorry..." Noland apologized. "I haven't considered how I was making myself look to you all... I was only concerned about how they were coming after you and I. I'll do better next time. I promise."

"And you'll never see me like that again. None of you will. A lot of that has to do with how Duality works, but I'm committed to being at peace with myself. I have a lot of good people around me. As long as you all are here, I won't go back to what I appeared to be."

[Alana Cortese]

"...I'm not entirely surprised you can access Duality willingly, but...you could've told someone... Allen was honest about his training..." Alana pouted in her mind.

"Alright," Alana accepted, ignoring what she was thinking. She shot straight up and hugged Noland. Their embrace lasted for a few seconds. Alana pulled herself back quickly after she felt like she got enough.

"There's another pre-season match coming on tonight," Alana mentioned. "Wanna watch?"

[Noland Hardy]

"Under one condition," Noland prefaced. "I won the bet last time. That means you and Hydranoid have to cough up some embarrassing secrets. Just don't let it be about periods this time. You went into enough detail about it when you had to talk about something that made you cry in front of people."

"Amen," Drago said from upstairs.

"What are they talking about that made you say that?" Hydranoid wondered.

"Periods and why you shouldn't talk about them," Drago plainly answered.

"Amen," Hydranoid agreed.