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Chapter Text

It started, as many things did with the two of them, with an observation and an off-hand remark while no one else was thinking to pay attention to them. Even though not paying attention to Maínomai was not in your best interests if you wanted to keep what was in your pockets out of his, Pýř thought.

"Captain's more upset than he looks about things."

He was, and he had his reasons. "Stress." Pýř suggested, letting his partner think it over further as the Mist chased the line of thought to its inevitable conclusion. There were other factors, always were but that was the first one that came to mind.

"Partly?" Maínomai clicked his knitting needles together instead of finger tapping. "He's leading the Varia, his Sky's still detained, the Varia's getting slandered by Nono and Sawada to all and sundry halfway around the world, he's still a teenager, Boss' other Guardians don't really have the Alliance connections or the inclination to enable a counter PR campaign while he's away, and our future retirement plans basically depend on who gets to become Decimo, Boss, one of the idiots or Nono's rotting skeleton!"

Pýř turned that over in his mind, poking at other angles. What he knew for certain, what he believed and more data pointing towards certain actions. All the many varied reasons for that and other issues. "I don't think Captain's been allowed to visit."

"I don't think he has either, which is so unfair. Boss was sanctioned with the Varia and the Varia sanctions are over and have been for over a year!" Or else Captain wouldn't have been on his recruiting tour, and neither would they.

"Then unless it's said otherwise and kept hush at the higher levels, Boss is being illegally detained under Nono Vongola's orders."

"And Nono Vongola doesn't care to do anything more than hold him hostage for Captain's obedience. And for the forbearance of the Varia so we don't off him directly, he's not really doing anything other than what he's already been doing, the slander and the political distance and it's not like either is really effecting the Varia's bottom line. The sanctioned year was pretty slow, but not really terrible-terrible in terms of business."

"No, he wouldn't directly slash the pay himself, too direct." Pýř said, thinking it over as if he was Nono Vongola, from what he knew of the psychological profile. "He's afraid to take strong direct action against the Varia. The sanctions ultimately weren't strong or direct, just a slap on the wrist. People will still continue to buy our services because we are the best. However Nono Vongola is old, he's arrogant and thinks the Underworld laws are for his lessers." That they don't apply to him. Or else he wouldn't be holding his own son hostage so as to keep Captain in line. Through Captain, that was the rest of the Varia more or less in line.

"Oh, you have a plan!"

"Research first."

And that's how it started.

And now here they were, a few months and a lot of discreet research later, committing what some philistines would call treason, as if the Varia swear oaths of loyalty to the Vongola. The Varia, as a House, has the freedom to act against external threats and has latitude with internal ones as well, so long as they're discreet. It's why they don't swear loyalty oaths. Contracts signed, not oaths sworn. Precise and clearly defined terms.

And as everyone knows, the devil is in the details. How is one defining the Vongola? Nono Vongola and his orders, or the community and people he's supposed to serve?

"So you'd think security would be better here, if he's keeping Boss locked away in the basement. Hey, do you think he's rotting down here? Hopefully not, Captain would be so sad."

"There's other ways to keep people contained." Not good ways for anyone's health, but they're taking the back way in; it is bound to be less travelled than any other route, especially today.

"Hmm-hmm. Nono's not creative enough to bind Boss' Flames to his bones and make a fake out of Boss still existing. Also if he were doing that he'd know it was temporary and would have tried to kill Captain and Bel and Mammon by now. Well, at least one of them. Or the reverse." In that they would have killed him. The Varia made a living off of killing seemingly untouchable targets.

"Boss is his son," Pýř pointed out. However warm and fuzzy family memories didn't prevent family from acting heinously towards each other. As he well knew.

Another locked door down here, but not for long. He sidestepped to let his partner get at it. He had better night vision, and more tricks to deal with any potential security. No electronic sensors here, which he told his partner.

"And yet, detained still and oh, now we're getting somewhere. Oh, really now, what's with these lack of alarms?" His partner complained as he opened the door. No trip wires, no hair triggers to show the door had been opened.

Pýř took point again, noting the changes in the air. "Helpful. Keep sharp." Let's not get found being somewhere we're not supposed to be. Even with the Vongola busy, couldn't be too careful. In they went, closing the door behind them and reengaging the lock. This room had poor air circulation.

"I'm really doubting Boss' health, that air tasted old like no one even visits down here and my trace said Boss hadn't left so if he's been turned into some sort of frost lich in this basement, I'm going to be very disappointed, mostly because we didn't know that was possible and we really should, we're the Varia we know stuff-"

"Found a possible hiding spot," Pýř said, his Flame senses pinging off of a void, his partner falling silent. The lack of Flame based security was so odd this close to Don Vongola, given they were directly under the main building of the Iron Fort, but it left him free to use it to sharpen his hearing for any technological sensors. No electrical humming except ahead. "Light," he warned, first flicking on a torch and sliding the beam over everything around that void. That looked like a computer and a mystery. Then he let a drift of Cloud circle the flame void and the box within it. Two ball wisps per side, so as to provide steady light.

And then they both circled it looking for other indicators that the area was trapped with anything, anything that could possibly give them away as having been in the area, the computer bank set up nearby and the whole arrangement. Certainly evidence of something, but what? Pýř took a few pictures; they'd be black and white, but it meant they could develop the film in-house later.

Preliminary scouting done. No electronics other than the computer bank, no tripwires, no other signs that would alert anyone who visited that someone else had been here. Sloppy. "Impressions?"

"That's a makeshift freezer and it's not even a good one. Where's the insulation, the temperature seals? Why do they have such a shoddily made prison? Where's the workmanship? Let's just stack steel blocks on each other and not be arsed to make sure they'll stay standing properly. See, the cord there, further shitty workmanship, the weight of these steel freezer walls is gonna break that cable in time. Let's wrap this structure up in chains, really make it obvious we've got something locked away and we're not even bothering to do anything half decent with the security on the way down here."

"Recommendation report later, computer data." The computer was left on, so it was just a matter of waking it up. Pýř tapped the mouse with a gloved hand.

"Oh yes, that might have answers and uh please tell me that they at least password protected this." His partner begged.

"A login."

"Finally something!" Maínomai cheered, leaping over and then looking at the keyboard intently.

Pýř took that as his cue to look into the usual suspects in terms of places to hide notes and yes. That was a login name and password on a sticky note in a drawer that wasn't even trapped. Absolutely negligent. "A fake-out?"

Maínomai looked between the paper and keyboard, as his Flames gently touched the keys. "No, that's a legit log-in, but it would actually get recorded in the system as accessed here by whoever this is, so I'm just gonna go and create a new admin account, and use that, give me a few this computer is probably older than the both of us."

Pýř was thinking implications and consequences when he noticed everything get dimmer, as the computer did a soft reboot -now willing to accept the authority of the new admin account- and Maínomai got to access the data. His drifting Cloud wisps providing light were also getting dimmer. Interesting implications, with the void. How would the math work out?

"And in with glorious access, so the data. And... Looks boring to me."

"Hmm." He agreed, reading over his partner's shoulder. Not super interesting data. "Humidity, temperature of the prison. Day, times. Very static." Underground and isolated meant that it did not vary much in the day to day. Some yes, but not a lot.

"So the ice lich theory is looking more likely. Kuchisake will enjoy that anyway."

Captain could go either way. Depending on if this was, what he suspected it was.

"Done doctoring the data?"

"Do that later. Gotta see what we're working with first."

Because it could be someone -or something- else locked up in an ice prison in an area of the Iron Fort's basement that had pockmarks in the supporting pillars. Pockmarks cut sharp and smooth as only the most controlled and precise users of Storm Flames could manage or when vaporized by Wrath Flames. Maybe a congress of Storms got stoned on club drugs, used the basement as a rave site and started going wild with Storm Flames because of a shared spider hallucination. Then they locked up the spider. "So getting the chains off next and opening the box." And if necessary, chaining it back up, should it be some other Vongola secret in the basement that wasn't their business.

Doubtful, but possible.

"I have extra lockpicks!" Maínomai assured him as he brought out Pýř's set and his own. Then it was a few quiet moments of unlocking the chains, Maínomai confidently working the length of them loose enough to slide off the roughly assembled box.

"How much do you think this weighs?" How much Flame to use to pry it open? Too little and he'd hurt himself. Too much and he'd fling them into a pillar and then the Iron Fort might come down on them.

"Maybe a quarter ton? Per block?"

"Wild guess or estimated?"

"Walk in freezer door weight, higher side."

An educated guess then.

Then it was his turn. Pýř used a touch of Cloud -steadily increased- as he pried open the box, because they really had used metal thick enough that each panel weighed around half a ton. Maybe. At a certain point of Flame Enhancement, it really hard to tell anything exact in terms of weight. No one went around juggling freezer doors and adjusting the steel panels was awkward due to size.

Once thoroughly cracked open, he stepped back and turned his torch back on.

And swore, as he got a proper look at the ice.

And who was inside it.

"No touchy."

Maínomai withdrew his lockpick and cocked his head. "Oh that is nasty ice, is it really-?"

"Nibbles on Flames, probably drains ambient Flames based on the void I sensed coming in. Likely only going to melt when Boss' Flames and the ambient ones can no longer keep the ice stable. Data shows a slow decline." Minuscule really. He'd have to take pictures of the numbers to crunch later but it was doubtful it would collapse within the decade. Maybe not even two decades later.

"So the ice existing is a sign Boss is alive." Maínomai said flatly.

"Probably. Melting him might still kill him, once we know how to melt it." Pyr took the moment to fully remove the lid, pull back the other panels further and snap a few more pictures, while his partner went back to the computer -and more importantly, out of touching range- to theorize. That prevented those wandering hands from accidentally touching the ice. He didn't have to tell his partner to think.

"Thermal shock being very possible. So how exactly is it working to do that Flame wise. Is it doing Ice because the Flames were told to be Ice, like Conjuring an ice sculpture or from some other principle of Flames? Depending on how it functions, there's options because to me that looks like Sky Bullshit -Boss was supposed to be fighting Nono and well, all the damage in the room says he was but the lack of accuracy is concerning- but hmm. I think it's likely a technique that's more mindset -more Will- than technical or scientific foundation, so the solution is gonna be some form of brute forcing it off. Less key and lock and more chemical reaction perhaps. With the drain function.. might take more. Overload the Flame absorption function? Possibly."

His partner crouched down and tilted his head, looking up at an angle to just above the ice. "Harmony to enforce stillness? Temperature is just rate of vibes, really. No, that's not what was done. Stillness would be lethal. Everything moves until you get down to absolute zero and this isn't near close to cold enough for that. The ice isn't about momentum specifically, just an inverse of Flames. Reversing propulsion? Skies are supposed to be speedy. Stasis as a foundational idea? Theoretically, no time will have passed for Boss, assuming Boss gets defrosted now, if we had a Sky to counter this Bullshit. How much would strength matter?"

His partner's tapping indicated he had switched to problem solving. "I think I could do a half decent imitation of Tyrant's Flames. Don't really have a lot of references for Skies and leaving Boss frozen, even though he's out of the box now, would be sloppy of us. High risk, even if nobody's come down here before there are definitely occasional checks. One sec, gotta find... and there. Looking at the log-in activity on this terminal and, and got it. Not to any specific schedule either but those dates did look familiar somehow... Oh! Vongola events, the big twice-yearly ones Captain attends; checks after a Varia on the premises, really?" His partner's theorizing is as ever, illuminating.

Good news that Lussaria did not want to go to the Solstice Ball tonight, while Captain was still on tour.

"Can't take him to the Varia," Pýř stated.

"Yeah, that ice would just grow because it'd feast on Mammon's Territory."

And leaving Boss here is unacceptable. For reasons. So Boss and his icy bed are going to have to be moved. "Delaying a defrost because we want medical services on hand and even after he's defrosted, Boss might not be stable enough to move. Obscure and secure location." One that wasn't a Varia safehouse, was nearby and still secure. "Tesla's?" 

"The hunting lodge? There's some room there. Not a lot but enough. I'd have to clear out some furniture. I'd also wanna nab Luss because Boss is most familiar with him as a healer, which means telling him and with Captain out and Mammon probably following that's ew, Ottabio left in charge by dint of seniority. Nevermind he should have retired already. He's how old now? And he'd be a thorn in the side about the rest of things, tattling so he's gotta go."

"Maínomai."

"What? You know you've been wanting to for years!" His partner knew him far too well.

Pýř only nodded the once, as he thought about it. There was always a price to pay, but this one came with perks he could enjoy. With time. Consequences... he could get away with it. With some assistance and a little luck. Double down and more in terms of commitment in the immediate. Having come this far now, the only way out was through.

"Well, I think Cloud Officer Pýř does have a nice ring to it, do you think we -"

"If Levi's a bother later he can have an accident with your security because he's bothering Boss."

His partner visibly cheered up at that news before he turned to him. "So how are we going to get Boss out without the Flame Munching Ice nomming my Flames in transit?"

Pýř tilted his head. Cursed artifact handling protocols would probably work. Sure the ice prison ate Flames, but not as quickly as it could have. They had a time frame to work with. "Flame insulating tarp? And wrap that up, so he's a package." A whole discrete unit to pocket in Flames instead of individual pieces that could get lost in the pockets or eat their way out.

"Wrapping paper! Present for Captain! Be right back, I know there's a linen closet nearby-"

Pýř took a few moments to see what traces they might have left with their passing and clean up. Maínomai would pick up what Flame traces he had shed as he always did, but Pýř took the time to take pictures of the data, then faked out the data the computer would display upon being checked. Not quite a loop of last year's data, but shuffling everything off not quite a week from now until the end of next Quiet Week would be more than sufficient. Upon discovery -which was inevitable if they succeeded in releasing Boss, eventually- it would be impossible to prove when they have broken in, with months of data faked out. They had been locking things up behind them as they went, because his partner could slide in and out of Vongola security like it wasn't even there, and more to the point, there wasn't any in this part of the basement.

"And back!" his partner bounced on his toes. "Do you think Captain will like his Christmas present?" The Alteration specialist showed off his bounty. Silk. Altered to become silk, but it would still work as an insulation layer.

"It'll be the best one he's gotten in years." He was even contributing. "Lever please." One was produced and then put to use.

"Oh yeah, so we can really wrap it up," Maínomai giggled, as the silk as pulled at the corners by thin strings of Mist, under and then over their frozen Boss, once the other side was also lifted up and knotted smartly at the top. "Are we putting a fake ice cube in after?"

"Data's looped but that means nothing if it's warm enough that they do a visual check." Boss may decide to lie low for a bit. Plus health complications could arise. Theoretically they had six months if Boss laid low long enough for that. Potentially less than twelve hours if Nono Vongola decided to be paranoid.

"Ah point, so uh-"

"Shoo." He told him. His partner grabbed the silk and vanished from sight. To Tesla's.

Pýř took a few moments to consider his options. How would you make an ice decoy? Especially to keep Flame absorption as an effect? He needed an effective decoy. The Flame void was as distinctive as the chill in the air to his senses. He needed both.

The answer, of course, was to keep it simple. Cloud Flames held the property of Propagation, which most used as a means of Multiplication, generally of physical properties, physical abilities and quantities. The inverse of Propagation is usually used for more abstract feats. Miniaturization, working off of the concept of reduction. The concept to keep the voidlike feeling would have to be Depletion of the ambient Flames.

So if he was going to do it, the core of the technique needed to have his depletion-ice grow with Flame and temperature exposure. Two new tricks to make function together -feedback loop it into one?- tricky when Cloud Flames liked to work exponentially and not in linear functions. The again, if he was already bending the nature of the Flame towards concepts, what was one more kink?

And the resulting trick was not something he'd like to keep in his hand while attempting, because it would be so easy to lose control of it and lose the hand. And then Maínomai would have two ice cubes to juggle. That would be rude, when he had just gotten back.

"What'cha thinking Pýř?"

"Need a sacrificial Flame focus, got a trick to test."

"I think I saw one of Boss' hair feathers lying around which might work, since your knives aren't really sacrificial." It was quickly retrieved and examined; it had fallen out of its clip. It didn't carry any of Boss's flame traces, but transferring that was a different trick, to amplify the echo of those traces lingering in the wider room despite the prior presence of leeching Flame void. And now it did hold a trace of Boss' Flames. Not exactly, but close enough. That would befoul tracking attempts, presuming he could preserve it in his new and untested trick. The ice would just be corrupting that feeling. Hopefully.

Pýř held the feather and did a couple of quick tests for velocity, and then sacrificed a pen so that the feather could be tossed while accounting for feather physics. In this case, the weight of the pen pulling the feather to where Pýř wanted it to go, when tossed.

And then it was time to actually try his Cloud-ice theory out, the tiniest he could to ensure it worked. He could try again if he failed; the depths of his partner's pockets were bewildering. He would prefer not to sacrifice knives to the attempt though.

Tossed it.

And good start -ice bloomed before the pen hit the ground. A smaller bloom than the ice Boss was wrapped in, but plenty sufficient as the giant and growing hailstone bounced across the floor, skidding into one of the standing steel walls he hadn't moved. It cracked into chunks, reformed like some malevolent ice spirit reaching for them and made Pýř exceedingly glad that they were not on Varia property testing this. Nastier than he thought, even with the echoes of Boss's Flames inside it. For now.

His closest wisps winked out. His new ice-trick crackled and reformed slightly larger.

"Inspiration stuck and wow, that is pretty but also scary and we need to wrap it up so as to help Boss. Quickly. I think your new trick looks a leetle too hungry."

Pýř agreed. This trick he'd happily leave behind in this fake freezer. Factorial, not exponential which was not that much better. It would grow fast. He played the part of muscle once more to rebuild the rest of the shitty prison and then they chained it back up, keeping an ear out for the growing ice. He had felt the temperature drop as the lack of insulation in the former prison made itself known, but it would do for now. Once he had more practice, they could come back and replace it with something more in line with the data the computer had been tracking.

Maybe he really could get into the holiday spirit this year.

Better to give than to receive, as they said.

Chapter Text

Maínomai drops his partner off for a spot of well-deserved murder and heads for Medical. They'd be the ones most likely to know where Luss is at, and if he is awake because the Sun Officer woke up petty and cranky compared to Captain's Loud. But Luss would understand, if Maínomai explains it right. He should still be up, but with half of Medical out on holiday, schedules would have shifted so who knew what he'd have to tell a possibly cranky Sun Officer?

Oh shoot, he didn't have an explanation prepared so he is just gonna babble and no, that really isn't good. Besides, most of the rest of the Varia is already off for winter holiday vacations -exceptions for half of Information and Medical- and yes, the timing was kinda the point of why he and Pýř had picked now to go snoop but it is still inconvenient given they needed help now! Less watchers here and more chaos there and how to explain how things went?

What would be short and to the point and professional sounding? He really should have asked his partner before splitting up!

He is going to explain things so badly...

His feet drag him to Maghirabi before he could come up with an explanation. Oops! She looks at him suspiciously. "What brings you here looking so sheepish this evening Maínomai?"

Don't babble, don't babble- "Eh, it's kinda complicated and convoluted and I kinda need to get help for someone, was getting Captain a Christmas present and things got complicated and I really need someone that's able to treat frostbite because I don't really know how but the other stuff is fixable! Probably. Put it all back up properly and everything!"

She side-eyes him. Justifiably. "Just frostbite?"

"Eh no. Kinda frozen solid. But alive! Probably!"

Oh, that sounds so! Much! Worse! It really is awful to think about! At least she was willing to help...

"Let me tell Luss, he's in his office here, actually come with-"

Maghirabi is the best! Even with his awful explanation! A friendship worth getting poisoned in Medical for! Now words, how to word?

"Sure, I can do that." And well, it seems like he blinked while trying to compose the right words -or even just better words- and then they were in Lussaria's professional Sun Officer office and then he was babbling as soon as the door is shut behind him, "Hi Lussuaria! Pýř and I stole Boss out from the basement Nono Vongola was keeping him in and we can't bring him here because he's trapped in Flame Ice Sky Bullshit that eats ambient Flames and we have an idea of how to defrost him but I'm not Medical so I don't wanna defrost him without someone there who knows how to do that safely and-"

"Breathe, and say that again?"

Maínomai takes a deep breath. More report than explanation? He can do that, a bit slower is fine for reports. And Luss is -had been- doing paperwork, so needs a moment to adjust focus. Understandable. 

"So a while back Pýř and I noticed that Boss' continued detention was aberrant because Varia sanctions had been lifted and had been for over a year. And there was no documentation that outlined anything specific for Boss to make him an exception, because as part of the Varia, especially as Head of the Varia, if there was a reason, it should be in his file and documented and also under sanctions that the Vongola actually uses, like a legit house arrest. So we did further research, found a lot of Vongola Law violations and then also Boss while spelunking in the Iron Fort's basement! Boss who's frozen in some Sky Bullshit Flame Ice that eats other Flames, so it'd eat Mammon's Territory, so we wrapped him up in silk and dropped him off at a secondary location and I'd rather not leave him frozen for longer than I have to, since the process is -"

"Okay, that changes things," the pharmacist to his side sighs. Wait did she think that he had- well. Yes, he could have! But why would he freeze someone when there were other means methods that were less obvious and messy? Ice preserves evidence! He isn't that sloppy!

"Yes, yes it does honeybun. Let me go grab supplies, Mags-"

"On it!"

"Do you need me to grab anything?" Maínomai asks.

"No, I'll just have Mammon grab a whole suite -oh no, that wouldn't work, you said the ice eats Flames so we're going to have- Mammon! Darling! Maínomai's given us an early Christmas present!"

Mammon floats out of Lussaria's shadow. "Mu, I heard. Fetch. Faster or I'll charge you."

"It's not like Boss is gonna notice a few extra minutes. The ice has him in stasis, so he hasn't even noticed this whole past year." And a half, the half is also important- no, longer. Sanctions levied first, then the lifting of them on the Varia letting Captain go on his sword and recruiting tour almost a year later. A year into his world tour is when Maínomai was with Captain for long enough to see that something needed doing and then it was research! So two years! And change. 

Does that make him and Captain the same age now? He'd have to go through and count the days. 

Captain might be older than Boss now.

What was the difference between them anyway? A couple years maybe? No, he remembers hearing about Boss turning sixteen, so with Captain at fourteen- this is really not the time for that!

"What?" Mammon asks, dropping slightly lower in the air.

"So Flame Ice is kinda bullshit and Pýř had to figure out how to make Cloud Flames do the same so no one notices that Boss' prison isn't cold and eating ambient Flames anymore, we'll have to clean that up eventually and that's going to need some practice time but since the Boss Ice-crystal was Nono Vongola's doing, it's some sort of Sky Bullshit to invert-" well, Skies could do a lot- he knew a Sky he could ask- he bounces on his toes.

"What?"

"I should grab Tyrant, he's a Sky so would be better at figuring out how to undo a Vongola Secret Technique™ if he's seen Ottava do it before-"

"Oh that would be helpful dear!" Lussaria agrees as he tosses more supplies onto the examination bed. That is a nice blanket, looked soft and focus! Tyrant!

Seeing that Mammon is there to be the pocket for all that, Maínomai decides it was best to go fetch Tyrant when Mammon turns to face the Sun Officer.

"What exactly is going on Lussaria?"

"A rescue Mammon-sweetie!"

Pýř ambushed Ottabio in Ottabio's own rooms and then walked out of them, wearing the badges of his new Office.

That sort of security was supposed to work to slow and alarm anyone? Better than what he'd seen out of the Iron Fort's basement -there had been nothing there, for all that above ground was formidable- but Ottabio's was still lacking for all it existed.

Maybe his standards were skewed.

Maínomai was very good at nudging most security into letting him through.

Ottabio was aware of his death for all of a split second when Pýř applied enough of his own Flames to multiply the internal forces of Ottabio's heart, effectively causing at least a massive aortic hemorrhage and the associated massive internal bleeding. The internal blood loss then caused the former Cloud Officer to pass out and effectively perish; still a few minutes before the brain used up the last of its supply but Ottabio was effectively dead.

He brought up his phone, waited the two rings for Tàjna to pick up.

"Pýř?"

"Got a fresh brain for you, Ottabio's room." He said, letting the Interrogation specialist of Information Squad know where to go.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

With that done, his partner more useful in the defrost operations as transport and smart enough to keep out of the way of Medical's work, that left Pýř at more of a loss of things to do, beyond notifying Housekeeping that Ottabio had been terminated -with prejudice- and his rooms needed clearing out before the year was out. No, all the blood stayed inside the body where it's supposed to be, yes someone else was going to pick up the body, so the cleaning can be put off till tomorrow.

And since he was feeling the holiday spirit, he was going to spread joy, to the other Varia Officers at least.

A little fear and terror to everyone else in the Alliance.

He would update his personal paperwork within the week, taking it out of Mist Division, but for now he really only needed to speak Lawyer -a language he spoke fluently and was not on any of his Varia paperwork, accredited to his real name- and send a missive to Vongola Legal, to get there right before that Office closes for the holidays. The Solstice Ball was tonight, hence their selection of today as one of the best moments to go nosing around. So many people were in and out and busy, focused on making sure the event went off properly.

Tomorrow was traditionally a half day at work in the Alliance, so as to give more time for enjoyment of the holidays. It was time to clean up and lock up the office until it opened again for normal business.

Thankfully, the laws within the Alliance mostly follow the same formulas as normal law. He had already drafted the missive in his head, wrote it, then got Varia Legal to review -a small role in Housekeeping mostly dealing with inheritance law because of regular Varia deaths but still accredited- and had it set up to be dropped off as a milk-run for an Apprentice in the morning.

That done, he decided he needed a moment to think.

Boss' basement freezer prison required some speculation. How did that happen and why? Less the prison -that was extra and shoddy, the ice alone would prove sufficient for containment- and more on the events leading to and of the imprisonment itself.

Pýř had thought Boss leading that raid had seemed off, Information agreed even afterwards, but it wasn't his business because back then he had missions lined up already, so he hadn't thought to investigate when he had actual work to do. It was informally agreed if not said however that Boss had underbaked the planned raid. Planned for success assuredly, but also planed for things to go wrong. Even with the Officer turnover at the time, there were veterans who would say something about the sloppiness or just adjust in field. The Varia skewed young and capable, but not for cowardly when it came to Squad Leaders and Officers.

If Boss could plan for sanctions afterwards, why couldn't he plan for more back-up than Captain when he ran after Don Vongola? Even getting sold out and the Iron Fort having the support of the CEDEF did not change the fact that Boss had certainly tried to murder his father. And failed.

Especially as he had fought hard enough that Pýř had genuine concerns about the structural integrity of building above.

But despite the amount of damage to the room, it wasn't quite certain that Boss had been trying to incinerate Nono Vongola. It was more than concerning that Boss had missed so many times when Pýř knew Boss had the handgun accuracy to pass Varia certifications; as one of the Varia's generalists, he could sign off on a number of qualifications and he had done so for Boss' small arms qualifications.

And at closer range, like hand to hand, it would be absurd to have missed so many times, when his target was an old man in his sixties who had effectively been riding a desk since he was made Don Vongola.

Either the misses were intentional or something happened to make Boss miss.

He'd have to look at the paperwork again, because he thought Boss had the sort of Flame senses to make illusions a non-issue. So why follow Nono away from the rest of the Varia in the first place? The guns had range and following anyone down to a prepared secondary location was always tactically unwise. Boss would have known that. What was the focus there? Revenge? Anger from having lost his head? A moment to think tactics through would have just blown out the supporting pillars and let the Iron Fort fall on Nono's head.

Those were all answers he was unlikely to get until Boss was awake and coherent.

So now all he had to do was survive through the holidays and he'd be established as Officer to those returning from holidays. Especially with the gratitude of the other Officers cementing his position as well earned.

Maínomai is happy that the plan is coming together! A leetle more ad-hoc, but Tyrant is coming along! The Sky's following him along to Medical, where Luss is waiting with more people.

"How many are coming with? Because there's only so much room in the room, even after I pocketed the furniture, and I'd rather not transport a lot of people directly into the room filled with nasty Flame Ice but there isn't much other space."

"Some of my lovely minions are remaining here on standby, for once we do have Boss stable enough to transport, in case he needs more attention." The Sun Officer gestured the standby medics to step back, which left a team of three medical minions in addition to Luss, Mammon and Tyrant to take over. Seven then.

"Oh, that makes sense, can't move him unless he's out of the ice and stable enough to move."

"Take us on over sweetie," Luss orders, so Maínomai does and drops them at the front door of the hunting lodge.

Which is locked when Maínomai goes to turn the knob and then he tells it that it's not locked with a touch of Mist and it opens on the second go, and then he flicks on the lights so the medical team can see the recently emptied room so as to make room for the Flame Ice surrounding Boss and the silk around the ice prison.

Everyone breaks into laughter as they get out of the entryway and are able to see the whole of the recently emptied room.

Oops, he had forgotten he'd done that!

The wrapping paper! Well, wrapping silk because silk is isolating the ice!

With its dancing damasked sharks!

"Sharks!" One of the medical minions giggles, almost bent over. Luss' hand is on their face and he is trying to be professional and serious and yet, he's laughing.

Maínomai is sure it's fine, because even Tyrant is chuckling and wow- he hadn't thought it was that funny!

Captain is sure to love the wrapping paper then!

After a few more minutes -where poise is regained and boggles are made because Tyrant is sporting an itsy bitsy smile if he is no longer laughing himself, the patient bed is set up and the Flame Ice Package is placed on the bed- Maínomai has everyone take half a step back as he took a tendril of Mist to untie the damasked silk and yanked it back before the silk fell.

Lussaria sneezed and then swore, so Maínomai pointed him to the kitchen sink to wash up -same for the other medics because cleanliness is important- as everyone else got a look at Boss in the Flame Ice.

Now that he had much better light, he could see the expression on Boss' face and oh, that icky Flame Ice did not go up instantly. And then Nono Vongola left him on ice for over two years? That's just awful! Terrible parenting and from Maínomai that is saying something! Pýř would agree and that'd say worse.

"Boss," Mammon says quietly, all previous levity vanishing faster than uh, he was drawing a blank. Something fast. Sunk. Anchor? Lead balloon? No, focus.

The rest of the Medical team also instantly sobers up.

Mammon sounded so sad.

"So, explain this Flame Ice, how you think it works," Mammon demands. Because I want my Sky out, going unsaid very loudly.

Oh, so theory crafting! "As far as we could sense and experiment with considering our time restraints and location, the Ice works on an Inversion principle for the composite Flames known as Sky Flames. Not always opposite to the classical attributes associated with individual Flames, but also plausibly in reverse color order. So start with Cloud and invert the Propagation for Depletion, Mist is less Construction and more Direction. Rain's tricky because it's not really working on Tranquility, so much as ensuring clear movement of energy which makes it more like Flow. That's the base of the technique and is basically how it's eating Flames because it feeds Flames into holding its structure. Lightning Flames to make it brittle in a specific manner, but that's so it can be torn down later. Sun Flames turn Activation into Preservation and Storm flames are used to pull it all together as one cohesive whole. I'm not really sure how well you can place concepts and invert attributes on Sky Flames, but there's probably something there that makes the technique..."

And then Maínomai is aware that no one is liking any word he's saying because yes! That is a lot of things going at once! But Sky Flames have the Harmony attribute so they always have a lot of things going on to their techniques! Even if it's just Tyrant doing what he does to his coffee! It was an interesting study!

Also he's not allowed to drink it without permission because his caffeine tolerance is pretty crap, but he can drink it. A little anyway! And be fine! He's managed to fall asleep twenty minutes later for a nap even!

"How would you go about breaking the technique then?" Lussaria muses. "Or melting it."

"And how and to what extent too," Maghirabi points out. "Do we blaze through from one direction or do we undo it layer by layer, if that's possible. We know it's cold, so we are looking at complications depending on how we defrost Boss, and also in how he got frozen. As soon as that ice is gone, we're going to need to get Boss dry, assuming he even gets wet from it." Flames makes that easy, but it still needs saying. Since the ice could have accumulated humidity.

Maínomai lets Tyrant pass him, so the former Head of the Varia could examine the ice himself. "Maínomai's explanation is quite good, if incomplete."

Wha? Praise? From Tyrant.

"With practice a group of individuals could eventually manage something akin to the Zero Point in theory. He is however missing two points for having only seen this example less than an hour ago. One is that each aspect can further catalyze each other, transforming into a more coherent whole. Second, the principle underlying the Sky inverted property is that of Isolation," Tyrant explains. "Ottava experimented quite thoroughly after she had retired, when not doting on her fosterlings or socializing within the Alliance for the advancement of the Vongola. It appears that Timoteo's work here is unstable and he needs to practice, if the Flame Ice is absorbing ambient Flames to maintain its integrity."

Maínomai bounces on his toes.

Tyrant had said his explanation was good! "That's what the computer was monitoring for! And why they had placed the walls and chains! Don Vongola didn't manage to do his technique properly, knew it and so had to rely on external aids to further isolate the ice from the environment! And then they put chains on top of that!"

"What?" He ignores the chorus of voices there.

He is absolutely going to have to write up a proper report for all of them.

"We took pictures! We were doing recon, following a Trace on Boss to see which property he might have been kept in, to see if he knew Varia sanctions were lifted. And we couldn't just go in-in directly, so we had to go spelunking in the basements and cellars as a roundabout route, which their security protecting was absolutely terrible and I'll write a report about that separately later. So bad! I was happy to see on the computer that at least the log-in had a password, even though they wrote the password down and it was in the desk! They were keeping Boss in the basement so as to limit ambient environmental factors from melting his prison and freeing him!"

"This implies we can safely transport Boss-honey back to the Varia, for the defrost once we're packed up again. So long as the rate is-"

"Maínomai, did Pýř make the diagnosis on the technique?" Mammon lands on Maínomai's shoulder.

"Yeah, he said no touchie, so we haven't. It ate his will o' wisps." Which if his partner were here, he'd be able to sense his own Flames in the ice, like Maínomai can see them with a leetle trickery to help. There were pretty distinct to his eyes, as Pýř's flames are known to be nasty and they always seem to make Lussaria sneeze.

"How long did that take? And distance?"

"Uh, eight wisps, eye sized, maybe ten minutes at variable distance from one to three meters."

"We're defrosting here." Mammon orders. 

"It would be better to do so in Varia Medical," Lussaria argues back. "More supplies, more space, not having to ensure he's stable after the defrost so as to move him, when we can move him when he's already stable." In the ice, he doesn't add.

"And Pýř has Flame Senses on par or better than Bel. Just because Don Vongola is capable of using Zero Point doesn't mean he spent the required time to perfect it and those technical flaws can have consequences." Hence the freezer aid.

Pýř would not be amused to have his secrets out and about in the open here. Or impressed at the squabbling of the two Officers.

Valid points on both sides though, even as he tunes further squabbling out.

And then Tyrant steps up, equally annoyed, hands faintly glowing and frees Boss from the ice. Just like that!

Well, not just like that but semantics! He made it look easy!

The ice doesn't just melt, it sublimates, so there's haze of condensation as Boss' ice prison steams under and around him, depositing him gently onto his gurney and raising the ambient humidity of the room to uncomfortable levels. Probably should open a window for them.

Maínomai can feel Boss is alive and aware with his own Flame senses. "I think I'm hallucinating," the Sky mumbles right as he actually passes out, as everyone medical takes it as their sign to focus on Boss and his condition. Mammon's just hovering there though, worried about Boss and his health. 

Maínomai takes it as his cue to go investigate Tesla's little kitchen, even as he hears Tyrant say to Mammon, "Mists used to use Territories to keep their patients alive during the war,"

-that's not his business.

Nope, he should celebrate! Goal accomplished, Boss found with bonus defrost mission successful!

Did Tesla have ice cream here? No? Darn.

Chapter Text

Maínomai settles into the tiny kitchen, digging through three cabinets and two of his pockets in search of supplies and is now sipping the good hot chocolate mix; not as good as properly made hot chocolate, but it's a little odd to think of, much less see Tyrant drinking hot chocolate too. With him! Socially!

Everything is better with a cup of hot chocolate in hand.

"What are your plans for the silk blanket?"

"The wrapping paper," Maínomai corrects before his brain catches up. "For Captain's Christmas Gift."

"Wrapping paper? Then perhaps it should be shaped into a dressing gown or other sleepwear, so Boss can be 'wrapped' for Captain," Tyrant suggests, to Maínomai's amazement. The sheer mischief! No one would ever suspect the ever poised and always scary Tyrant of being mischievous! 

No one will ever believe him if he says anything! Except Pýř!

And here Tyrant is doing so with hot chocolate in hand. He's gotta giggle because of it! And yes, a pair of pajamas is easily made out of the excess silk, because Maínomai also makes it so he can undo and redo his own Alteration work. Sometimes the brain is bad at math and weight and mass need redistributing, but fabric? Fabric is so easy. It's just twists all the way down!

What were Boss' sizes? He's going to have to check. He writes down what he saw size wise, as an rough estimate. Easier to hem a bit and pajamas were supposed to be loose so he had room to work with, wait he's still going to be sixteen, he's gonna grow more so have to factor that in. Does he have anything for buttons or no, if he's gonna do buttons, they need to have sharks too. Might be too much with the sharks there, could get tacky. What else could he do?

Dreaming up schemes for seams and biases, he only notices time has really passed when his hot chocolate is gone. He looks across the table and makes an absent note on Tyrant's sizes before he realizes what he's doing. Oops! Or well, no. Shelve that thought for later!

"I think we need to investigate what supplies are in the pantry if we wish to feed the medics at some point."

That is an implied order if Maínomai has ever heard one. "Good idea!" 

Telsa's hunting lodge kept mostly shelf stable things, so perhaps cookies? Are there chocolate chips? Stew?

Pýř's bored. 

Not quite the word that fits, but feels closest. Bored and restless.

This usually wasn't a problem for him. When bored, it was easy to find something to fill the time: furthering his education, research, doing training, practice, teaching, hobbies, traveling, seeing places and people. 

Preferably something useful to fill the time with.

Hence why he was going through Ottabio's office, to see if he could find evidence of anything else the rat could have been up to since before backstabbing Beowulf. If he had cared for justice more than the consequences of plotting with his partner, he would have secured the office rooms more thoroughly first; if he had cared for retribution more, Ottabio would never have survived his first month as Cloud Officer.

Pýř hadn't. Cared. At the time.

Too choked with grief, too new to the Varia, too overwhelmed with adjusting, learning, surviving and then thriving to care to upset a social order that would eventually end one way or the other within a decade. The Varia only accepted the best and most Varia were retired or dead by thirty. Why put in the extra effort when he didn't want the work or stress that would come with it?

Ottabio's rule as Cloud Officer was never as solid as that wall that had come down, his power and respect dwindling year by year. Pýř had long defanged Ottabio's authority over him, could easily outlast him and then later... He could hunt Ottabio down at his leisure later, when doing so meant he'd no longer be on the hook for having to actually lead or manage the rest of Cloud Division.

Being Cloud Officer was a lot more commitment to the Alliance than he felt the Alliance deserved. Because being Officer would mean vastly more time behind the Varia's castle walls.

He hated the idea of that. Too long behind the walls was a surefire way to get him irritated.

He doubted he would find anything too incriminating in the Cloud Officer's office as that would be Dumb if not outright Stupid, but he might find something to investigate later instead of worrying about his partner. Who was exceedingly capable and also prone to forgetting about his phone existing.

It was probably still off from their explorations earlier, to prevent tracking.

He wasn't a Mist, couldn't tap on Mammon's Territory for answers but he still did have his Flame senses and Mammon was out, had left with his partner even, so he let himself enjoy having his senses unfurled without feeling like the Arcobaleno was on his back, trying to choke him out for money. He could enjoy feeling how alive the Castle was with echoes of those that live and had lived within it. With Mammon out, the Territory was on Standby, with yes, Lethe had control of it for now.

Lethe who was coming his way.

He had wondered who out of Information would pick the Territory up while Mammon was out. Half of Mammon's work was just monitoring, so the transfer made sense.

Lethe knocked twice, two soft taps and -that was tea. With a savory pastry. Bribery.

He set aside the pile of reports, tested the offering for poison out of reflex and accepted the bribe.

"Tàjna's already working on this, so what brought this about Pýř?" She asked, as she settled in a chair she pulled up. She tactfully left off the, 'Because I know you actually didn't want to kill Ottabio while he was still Officer. Not when tormenting him was more fun.'

Information had been apprised of their research project so far. Deniable research project, because yes, the sanctions against the Varia as a House were over. Which meant they should have got Boss back, or paperwork he signed for his retirement as part of his 'punishment,' if he was going to be held individually to further accountability. That was one of several legal irregularities discovered.

Something that he was wanting to hold Nono Vongola to account for himself.

Going against the longest reigning Vongola Don was not without risks. Hence the plausible deniability angles. Lone actors etc.

"Our research project had expanded into investigative field work a few weeks back. We had already hit a couple of Vongola and Alliance properties that would be suitable for a prolonged House Arrest and found no sign of Boss. So the idea was to go to Boss' last known location and follow where that would lead, using a combination of techniques to obtain a less corrupted sample of his Flames to act as a compass. Instead we found Boss. Still in the same room he had fought his father in, frozen in the Vongola's zero-point technique. Boxed up behind steel panels and those held in place with chains, like ribbons on a gift box."

Lethe blinked. "I see why plans changed."

"Ja." He bit into the savory pastry. It was warm; Housekeeping must have already started to bake snacks for Information's observation of the Solstice Ball. It was a reoccurring battle to get Information as a whole to eat more than junk food and snacks when busy. The leftovers would be left for any grazers before breakfast.

"You have a plan."

He shook his hand in a so-so gesture, as he washed down his bribe. "Half a plan. Salvaging parts of it would require my partner to remember to turn on his phone so we can coordinate our plans further."

Lethe huffed at him. "You could ask me to call Tyrant."

"Choices are what makes a person." He responded. He handed over his phone, a blank contact screen showing.

The Information Squad leader looked at the phone, paused to think. Lethe doesn't look like someone who stole a kill from the Varia with a nail file before getting into double digits. Part of Lethe's charm was Lethe didn't look like anyone or no-one.  "You'd just borrow one of Housekeeping's phones otherwise, wouldn't you?"

"Don Vongola has someone check on his son's prison after the Varia's visited the Iron Fort with checks after any Varia visitation and some but not all major events. If pattern holds and my decoy works, we've got up to six months." The Summer Solstice Ball or after Quiet Week at the end of June meant the first week of July usually had someone check.

"If it doesn't?"

"As little as twelve hours, no matter what we do."

"Hence Ottabio." Because yes, they knew he was a leak, but a leak you knew was a leak you controlled. Which ultimately included shutting it off.

Pýř said nothing in response to that. If they didn't want Nono Vongola stopping by before year's end to enforce consequences...

"I'll put the call on speaker."

Maínomai has made cookies with Tyrant, which is an activity he has not thought about Tyrant doing ever previously. He has also helped start a stew of canned veggies, made a list of what was used and in what amounts so as to reimburse Telsa later and now he's nibbling on his cookie, making notes for all the reports he's gotta write later. Otherwise all the data could get lost in his head and well. It's important information!

Such as, how to break into the Iron Fort again and a time table as to when that's easier, so Maínomai can help his partner figure out what to do with that hungering ice-trick before it eats the Iron Fort. Which it shouldn't, but scheduling the practice time is going to be hard, since all their various plans got upended and now they're going to be playing damage control.

Hence Ottabio.

Not that it wasn't overdue or uncalled for. But it would be helpful to keep things quiet longer.

Maybe.

Two years was enough data points for a suggestion of a pattern but well. No one would call it statistically strong with only a couple sets of data points. 

And they're probably going to have to talk to Mammon about their Territory, so it's not provoking Pýř's temper. Half the reason they're out as much as they are is because of that so they probably should do something about that. Especially if they're going to be in more often with his partner riding a desk part of the time.

It's not like holding and maintaining the Territory like Mammon does is infallible security anyway. Doors are always a weak point and even with an unbreakable door, are the walls equally unbreakable? The hinges? Mammon's Territory is more about information control and any significant wrongdoing means Mammon can come down on them anywhere on the castle or its grounds. And fine them for their Stupid.

He's also writing down measurements, because Tyrant also deserves shark-damasked silk pajamas if there's enough left over or maybe a different pattern -he has enough material in his pockets surely, he looted half the linen cupboard- and he's halfway through sketching that out when he hears Tyrant answer his phone, and Maínomai tunes that conversation out so as to focus on a tricky equation of Flame Science as he maths out the Vongola Zero-Point. The Storm Flame is acting as a catalyst means these numbers are more like- he writes that down and zones back in as Tyrant puts his phone back into its discreet pocket.

"Lethe was asked to remind you that your partner cannot contact you if your phone is off, Maínomai." So Tyrant is passing on a message which is so nice of him. He's still scary, but the wedding ring makes a lot more sense when you know that Tyrant is secretly nice. And the cookies make more sense if Tyrant was married.

Maínomai takes the hint and turns his phone on to call Pýř, who picks up on the first ring.

"Hi, sorry, I forgot I still had it off from our spelunking earlier. We're talking plans then?"

"Yes. Salvage and spin."

"Oh and congrats for the promotion!"

"Information is picking through Ottabio's brain now."

"So what else have you done as Officer?"

"I do have opinions about illegal detainment and they're to be shared with Vongola Legal in the morning, to give them warm thoughts over the holidays with their families. As Cloud Officer, to give that complaint some weight."

"Ah, so we're being open about Ottabio's death, relatively." Maínomai flicks to a new page in his notebook. "We got an official reason for the change yet?"

"A lack of holiday cheer?" Pýř suggests, the echo suggesting that he's on speaker phone.

Maínomai giggles, as he writes that down. "So we're looking at a smear campaign on Ottabio? Or just leaving it as Lack of Quality? Delayed revenge maybe for Beowulf. It's not like Ottabio has had Officer Duties once Captain ran away with Recruitment, but we're uh, if you're there and making moves with Legal, it looks like you're picking up Politics while Captain is out on tour. Are you?"

Maínomai knows that politics is not something his partner is looking forward to. Being an Officer means at least some exposure to Alliance politics and being the Officer with the Political Duties means more of them. So time to distract him! "Hey Pýř, Pýř! We pulled off a princess rescue!"

That was not just his partner laughing there. That was Lethe! So that was who called Tyrant!

"Great Christmas presents for Captain, he gets Boss, shark pajamas to match Boss and freedom from Politics! No one is ever going to top that!"

Which if they could, Maínomai wants to see by what criteria!

"Shark pajamas?"

"Gotta do something with the wrapping paper I used on the ice and I made good quality silk for it, so might as well use it. And since it was so big because of all the ice, I've plenty of fabric for it and it's not like sewing is that hard. Besides, Boss might appreciate having something to wear other than Medical's pajamas when we shift him over; I've not been paying much attention there because not my wheelhouse and Mammon's fretting."

"Provisional planning for politics?" Pýř asks.

"Well, with your notice to Vongola Legal wrecking Christmases all over -you Grinch! Anyway- Nono is not going to want to let anyone see where Boss was undergoing his 'house arrest' and that's includes Legal, which is going to be sooo suspicious. Think we can get the Alliance to lean on that, especially in light of the Holiday season? Is anyone going to visit at all?"

"And his brothers?"

"Oh sure, lean on them too in the gossip. Extra leverage. Extra dirt. What sort of brothers don't even visit their leetlest brother when he's been detained? Can rile up some of their supporters to yell at Nono first thing on New Years, that'll be helpful but if those supporters were worth anything Nono Vongola would have already bowed to the pressure of choosing a Decimo. So we can discredit them after with the lack of family feeling but their existence should be discredit enough."

Did Tyrant just snort? He much have imagined it.

"Ideas for Sawada?" Beyond murder. Maínomai usually isn't so bloodthirsty, but Sawada's an ambitious bootlicker and eager yes-man with some skill and some brains. Much like his pick-ax he's not really one for subtlety but he's a solid and hefty tool.

"If he makes trouble his lack of family feelings can also be used against him. When was the last time he visited his silly little Tunafish he brags about in his Office? He's supposed to be an Outside Perspective and a Director of an Intelligence agency, not Nono's primary toady and errand boy. He's out of the succession, he should stop sucking up. How embarrassing."

"Is he angling for his fish to be Decimo?"

"Uh huh, it's likely. Doing all that for his Uncle is excessive, especially as CEDEF's been suffering in management because he likes to play field agent. Think we could do a quick smash and grab of their funds? Make his rule look very bad and oh, no probably better to let Mammon do it for a larger payoff. They'd know how to falsify the books better for money and politics. But yeah, most of the things he's been doing for his Uncle are also for his personal power and to extend his influence since being CEDEF means he's not allowed to actually, officially interfere in half the things he is doing. Overstepping a lot under the idea of close family."

"CEDEF's a political sop."

"Yeah, not quite an Exile, very little power outside of emergencies but Firmly Disinherited from the actual succession and barred from actual power within the Alliance. So how in line is his behavior with the letter of Vongola Law or does it not actually apply to him because of the CEDEF thing? Abuses of personal power because of nepotism and the like? That reflects back at Nono too."

"Variable. He's basically like the Cavallone, Allied-"

"Not Alliance. But allowing that sort of behavior to continue, well that further cracks at Nono's leadership or lack thereof when it comes to settling the succession. The only thing he's done certain for that was put his nephew out of it and that's debatable because his nephew is doing more for him than his own sons are. Plus some people see the direct descent from Primo as a benefit, others remember that Primo left a mess to Secondo and ran halfway around the world so that's divisive. He's at least working."

"Lack of family feelings for the Alliance, succession's been in question for well over a decade." And no one is getting any younger. Or better qualified, with Nono's three older sons not taking on actual positions. 

"No, not nice at all. We really want to hound on that? Do we have more evidence of that?" Because if they really want to push that, they'd need a chain of evidence. Patterns! Point them out and people will start seeing them!

"Coyote's a Superbi," Lethe says.

"Really? Well the name should be a clue but I'm pretty sure he and Captain really don't get on and that the Superbi would rather follow Captain than Coyote, previous events we've watched in Information show Don Leone likes Captain. Do we know what happened there? Would the Superbi be willing to share? Captain at least talks to his family, Coyote is old enough to have grandkids, so where are they at? Or did he stay an old maid to dedicate his life to the Vongola? Which okay, his life, but the Vongola's structured around social and family support so how is he really supposed to understand what those needing that support are going through without-?"

"So for more dirt, we look at services that Nono Vongola has cut." Pýř notes. "Bound to be some scandal there."

"Oh, that's good. The Vongola was set up as a socialist -well community- cooperative because Sicily was basically going through consecutive issues all at once and the decay of nobility's power and their decadence meant they weren't really dealing with the more minor issues killing off swathes of the peasantry." Minor things like outbreaks of disease and the deaths of tens of thousands! Lots of things that killed off people by the dozens and hundreds is so much more survivable today! Or not even a problem because of modern plumbing and medicine.

"The Tale of Two Kingdoms is required reading for Apprentices," Lethe adds.

"I remember skimming that book, basically inconvenient royalty politics set the countryside on fire and then the Vongola, at the time known as the Alliata, emerged to restore local order, even without legal authority and because the Sicilian government in whatever form has always been a money sieve to political pockets, and then when they later rebranded as the Vongola -clamshell piety so the government didn't interfere with Church doings- they stayed in local power and had to deal with more or less successful imitators who didn't even bother with half the things the Alliata did, some of whom were in it just for the power and to collect wealth. And now having power blocs that aren't in official authority, in conflict meant swearing a lot of it to secrecy and eventual Underworld in general for security for image and the whole transition from nobility in power to elected persons just meant more secrecy because of class, heritage and so on."

"Boss was for more meritocratic positions in the Alliance," Pýř states, bringing to mind the points that Boss was wanting to work on for the Alliance. "That'd be unpopular for some."

"And elicit rabid support from others who've seen the Alliance stagnate and fragment for uh, yeah, a whole generation of time. So if Nono's sons are basically just following Daddy's lead, no wonder they can't pick up widespread support as people. If they can't find the strength of character to fight for the rights of those under them much less their own rights, they're not going to agitate for any other cause. No leadership where there's no will and if they've not got the will, will they even have the strength to wear the Vongola Ring and not break as Don? "

"Boss did fight back," his partner agrees. "But he did not succeed."

"He at least tried! And may get another chance to actually take him down, properly this time. Legally if we can swing it, but natural causes, if he doesn't get the memo is always on the board. Or an accident. A nice public one. Really crank the succession crisis into high gear and force everyone to think and move fast."

"Bloodthirsty today."

"Well, yeah." The whole shoddy prison on top of terrible security is offensive! "Anyway, will talk to you later. Will update you in person once Boss is stable enough to be moved to Medical, they're busy saving his skin because Nono was sloppy with his technique, Tyrant said so and see you then. Tyrant's getting out more cookies from the oven, so gotta help him wash up and -"

"Furniture."

"Yes, I'll remember to put it back! And lock up after! I've even got a shopping list to replace things used here and I'm fine. See you in a few hours."

Chapter Text

Pýř ended the call with his partner and looked at Lethe. He knew this was likely ever since he had decided to murder Ottabio. Consequences were easy enough to predict and he could have stayed his hand.

He didn't.

Ottabio was dead by his hand.

And he had known as he had done that deed specifically that it would lead to this.

He had repeatedly indulged his work-partner and followed through with his choices. Initially on a whim, yes, but weeks of research was no longer a mere whim.

There would be consequences, but also rewards.

Would the pay off be worth it? Possibly. Risks and more choices. His own choices and those of others.

Could he? Would he? What if?

And how to tilt everything in his favor, of course.

Pýř enjoyed his challenges.

"I need social capital to burn fast."

"Solstice Ball is still going on," Lethe suggested, because, yes it was; they won't even have sat down for dinner yet. That wasn't for some hours yet. Still early in the night.

Even if going meant Nono Vongola would check on the ice decoy all the faster. Less than twenty four hours before the data said he'd have someone check on Boss' prison anyway. Unless he was busy elsewhere. Depending on how much he, as Cloud Officer, destroyed the Vongola family Christmas and inflamed sentiments against him. How much effort would Nono spend on political damage control? What topics would people let lie over the holidays compared to what would destroy their own holidays and turn their ire towards Don Vongola?

"Can sneak you in." She offered.

Pýř thought about it. It was a political event that was right there. Would let him make all the connections he needed and fast. Capitalize further on surprise, because no one was actually expecting either of them. Target a range of people over a numerous points to rile them over, spin it enough to point towards the Alliance and Nono Vongola.

Subtle goals, not demanding Boss be presented. He didn't have the leverage for that. Let others be a proxy for that.

They'd have more weight, authority and connections to make their actions count. His job was to stir up the mob and step back to watch them run riot.

This was about deposing Nono Vongola because he had locked his son in a lonely little prison, breaking more than a few Vongola by-laws, traditions and also lying to everyone around him in the process. There was a difference between secrets for security and secrets for personal convenience. Little things called principles.

Inconvenient perhaps, but fundamental.

He did care about those. Family was accountable to Family.

So, to infiltrate. If he's going for social gain, he should take it seriously.

He'd hear Lethe's take and adjust on her input. She knew them better than he did. "If infiltrating... Goals, appearance, persona."

"Crack the faith the Alliance has in Nono Vongola to lead them in a crisis at his advanced age, the stress might get to him. Force the succession issue currently lurking in the periphery forward. Lack of real candidates for a successor. Raise concerns about Sawada going to try and force his son in as Decimo for lack of major candidates. As the Vongola and the Alliance relies more on CEDEF intelligence, all he's got to do is have a few mishaps and the path for his son is cleared, despite his son being an outsider, if he even exists. He'd be how old? Who knows him? Long game for Sawada, but plausible. Barred as Sawada is from Decimo, he's still clinging to his uncle, Don Vongola and that sphere of unofficial influence, but with his outsider son, he'd have far far more leverage in the Vongola and the Alliance." Because no one would know this son of his.

Sawada may not actually be going for a power behind the throne route, but as a political angle to tar him with? He had plenty of behavior to show for it. Solid angle, vague enough to make people think and come to their own conclusions.

"Furthermore, there's more Skies than just Nono's sons in the Alliance that are possible candidates as Decimo or as Decima, if his sons are not suitable. And they aren't or else they would be named heir or Decimo by now. So will the Skies with smaller support bases, over time have accidents too if they put themselves forward for the Family's sake? Are those other possible candidates even interested in being Don or Donna Vongola and if they have potential, why is nobody talking about them seriously? No chances to prove themselves? Have they the skills beyond what Nono's older boys have shown or not shown in the ample decades afforded to them? Press the succession in another way for different people." 

"And for Xanxus, since he's officially on House Arrest?"

"We don't want to press hard for Boss back, but we also don't want to appear as overtly against him. The Varia's very merit based. We'll represent the Varia, not Captain's personal agenda, but not to the point of undermining Captain's work there. We can't press on Boss being released, if he's still being sanctioned after Varia sanctions have been lifted for a whole year and change after that mess then surely he's done something else to have displeased Don Vongola, as this would be the third Solstice Ball and third Christmas he's missed. Generate some interest there, especially in light of his background; where is he from, aside from the Vongola? Surely someone knows who his mother is. Leave that a mystery. Family is what the Alliance is based on, so that's a lever for some. Appearance is going to be tied to persona, which means it needs to be comfortable for you." 

Because you'll be wearing it for however long until retirement or death. A warning unsaid.

"And you."

Lethe choked on her tea, then wiped her chin and set the cup aside. "I see. Can't go stag, not when divide and conquer will work so much better and no one needs to remember that the Varia did not send a representative earlier, when the doors officially opened. Manipulate Housekeeping and backdate things; they keep spares and extras in case of accidents or last minute drama. Captain's out, Lussaria refused to go, so that meant it fell to another Officer to take up the political drama. Levi is not politically trained and Mammon said no."

"And Bel has a bedtime." Or more accurately, a birthday he wanted to enjoy in the morning.

"And Bel has a bedtime," Lethe repeated, smiling wider. 

"Professional, less formality for those tolerable. Principled and legal minded. Cares that things work."

"Too stiff for politics."

"Irritated at how this night has turned out is too honest." Pýř complained. He hadn't expected tonight to go this off the rails since finding Boss, but Quality can adapt. He had already committed, so it was time to follow through. "Irritated at my co-workers for being childish, because I, as a mature individual of all of my twenty-four years-" Lethe snorted, exceedingly ladylike, at him and his pretensions of maturity. "Quality is Quality. We can play least in sight until the meal, cast doubt on Nono's inability to spot Varia who have been talking to people since early, don't you remember, even though he knew someone Varia would be coming with a plus one. Housekeeping did. Did he forget? He is getting to that age. Play visual hide and seek some more. Sow doubt. Feint political aims and feint attention at each other's discretion for space. Look mature, settled. Professional. Hammer wedges into the cracks of his authority."

"Glorious and simple on our parts." Lethe smiled and then sighed. "The Varia uniform counts as military dress; that's acceptable for white tie if you don't have a suit."

He made a face at that. "I'm already wearing this year's." He explained. His uniform very much looked like last year's, an action deliberately done by Maínomai because burning the disaster pretending to be a uniform worth wearing would be a waste of money. So his partner had Altered it instead. It otherwise couldn't be saved in any fashion.

Even so he couldn't and wouldn't wear the previous year's uniform to this year's ball, not when it's common knowledge that the Varia swaps up the uniform annually. There were reasons for that beyond wear and tear, like preventing copycats.

Lethe eyed him, but nodded in her understanding of everyone's collective hatred of this year's uniform, that as far as he was aware, no one had ever seen her in. With Captain out on his recruitment tour, no one had provided Lussaria feedback on said uniform before it was too late to not make the entire Varia suffer the Sun's enthusiasm. It was a valuable learning experience for the Sun Officer, because no one wanted to wear it if they didn't have to. The knock-off effect of that made the Varia look unprofessional under his command, and pissed Mammon off, because a uniform not used was a waste of money.

"I've got a tailsuit, dress it up with a shirt or waistcoat with personality under the coat. Whichever. Tie more of a suggestion a little after the meal. Gloves stay on, gentleman behavior otherwise. I will dote." He warned. Political thoughts on wearing a proper suit. "Suit contrasts Squalo's young punk in uniform, more polite of us to dress for the occasion."

Probably a subversive shirt under the waistcoat, meaning one in the correct cut but a different colour or fabric. There's a fine line with white tie, and the wrong kind of subversion looks juvenile, ignorant or as though he couldn't afford to buy the required garments. Which is not what he wants to project at all. Classy and deliberate; his tie and waistcoat will be white, and even the right kind of white. A lilac shirt with the required upturned collar will add a little fun without shading into outright mockery. Faintly allude to the Vongola color scheming for Flames. A little warning.

"Stomp subtly over the traditional white tie, while still looking mostly appropriate and doting." Lethe smirked. "How will I ever survive?"

He had lost them again. That was an interesting trick to blend so seamlessly into the crowd. Being properly attired for a white-tie event instead of in the Varia uniform helped, but perhaps that meant he should make sure his nephew had a proper suit for events like this. Suits even. Wearing the Varia uniform on all such occasions was permissible, but wearing nothing but that at events would reflect poorly back on the Superbi. 

That dark blue hair should have been easier to spot with the practice he had at spotting his son's, but the Cloud Officer and his date had once again vanished after speaking to someone for a few minutes. He could have sworn that was one of Ottavia's last fosters on his arm. She had been at the funeral, with, with the many other fosters and their families. What was her name? Little Miss Wallflower was what Polare had called her, but she wasn't being a Wallflower at the moment. She was someone that would have got a family invite having been raised as part of the family, but here she was, on the Cloud Officer's arm as his plus one.

The Cloud Officer who was not Ottabio who had been the last one from Tyr's generation, but someone else but clearly trusted enough to represent the Varia in Squalo's absence.

Which was interesting.

His nephew was out somewhere in the world, shaking it for Quality to bring home, leaving the Varia mostly represented by the Sun Officer.

Was this a new aspect of Squalo's continued drumming for support for his Sky or had things taken a different turn at the Varia in his absence? Some new bit of factional upheaval he might not be aware of yet?

Leone had questions and he'd like answers, but that didn't seem to be in the cards if he couldn't catch them to talk to them.

Maínomai flips another page in his notebook, because he's going to fill out so many reports over the night! Boss is safely ensconced in Medical after a little work to save his skin from frostbite and in his new pajamas, due to wake up sometime earlier than not, so Maínomai might still be up! Regretting the lack of sleep, but awake!

Sleep could ambush him still! He is aware he's had more than a few naps after coffee back in his apprentice days, while they were testing out how various stimulants worked on his ADHD. Coffee got put on his list of controlled substances which is fine because he didn't like the taste of it. Bleh.

He's not alone in writing reports, because the rest of Information is also watching -thank you Wanhope for letting him know he was going to be late otherwise- but that's because while Maínomai was cleaning up after feeding the medics and before remembering to return the furniture, and then transporting himself and Tyrant to the Varia, while Pýř went off to do a social capital collection and cash out with Lethe at practically nothing-notice, leaving his poor partner behind!

He could follow the logic, with a window as short as twelve hours it at best, to cause a lot of upheaval as a distraction to buy time. One distraction alone wouldn't be enough, so there needs to be multiple people making a ruckus at all kinds of intervals, over something they felt was important enough to swing for over the holidays and New Year's. Really end the year on a string of disasters for Nono Vongola.

Twelve hours would be enough time for Boss to sleep off the worst of his exhaustion from the ruckus way back -and all the damage to the basement did say he had invested a lot of energy into directing or herding whoever he was aiming at. No one really misses shots that much without purpose otherwise. Then whatever healing Medical did to save his skin is sure to be exhausting too; he really needed a week. The human body only heals so fast, even with Sun Flames boosting it. A few days would be Christmas, which doubtful that Nono Vongola would see his youngest son on that date, because he would be busy with his other sons. Getting to Christmas would give Medical time to make sure Boss was healing well and everyone had time to maneuver or brace or whatever. Come up with a few new tricks as distractions.

Getting to Christmas meant that he and Pýř would have time to practice his partner's new Flame-ice trick and refine it as a much better decoy. Getting to New Year's would mean they'd be far more likely to get away with it for far longer. Because having delayed the check-in and caused irritation since the Solstice, all kinds of minor and major unpleasantness could make whoever sent to check far sloppier about it. If they got to New Year's they could really get away with it until Boss decided to take point and show his face to the Alliance.

Possibly at his father's funeral.

Maínomai would order that done, if he were in Boss' position once he is awake. He isn't though, but he had Cursed his father to suffer to death as his first and unintentional act of using Mist Flames while going Active. In a verbal argument. Kind of the reason he doesn't argue! Way way too easy for him to accidentally Curse someone as reflex!

Boss not killing his father means he is a lot more forgiving than Maínomai is, if he didn't order it.

Pýř is even less forgiving, because he commits hard when he made any commitment. Case in point, now and the past season or so. All this extra work they weren't even getting paid for, a lot of extra hassle and future complications. Political plausible deniability hoo-ha. Later they might have Boss or Captain bully Mammon into paying them for their time and efforts, but that's assuming Alliance politics don't skew into wanting their heads on the chopping block! A possibility worthy of a leetle panic.

His partner hadn't been looking at the Alliance as a long-term retirement thing, because he had felt that he had committed more towards the Alliance with his work at the Varia over the past six or seven years of being Quality than they ever did back to him. Especially with the sentiments at the top being as they were. Now they'd be tangled in it for years, even if he starts extracting himself out now.

Oh wait, yeah, not so bad. Hard to remember sometimes that the blue hair isn't natural. Much easier.

Sure it helps he is with Lethe, people would forget naturally anyway. It would be a leetle aggravating though to be better known in the Underworld, but the world is a big place and is full of all kinds of things to explore far away from a stuffy ballroom. Sicily was still just a small island on the scale of the world! Tiny even!

Pýř and Lethe appear like they're enjoying the ball, from what the screen shows, but appearances were very much meant to create an impression to further their goals. Chaos being the plan for later. Maínomai can't wait to see what will happen! Who will they kick into gear about what?

They probably took more time talking about goals, who to leverage and how to do that, than picking out clothing after having made a plan for it, with Lethe having to paint on a face that people could remember and recognize, after getting that fancy dress on. All of the clothing likely Altered at practically no notice, which makes that Mab's work. She had to have been the one, otherwise he'd have been called back to the Varia to do it and he'd have forgot about putting the furniture back! Tesla would revoke the open invite if he did that!

Probably. Maybe.

Not the point.

His partner is out there, enjoying spinning Lethe around in her fancy dress for fun and to attract attention before fading from said attention and then appearing elsewhere! To talk to other people and repeat, breaking up the pattern of what they were doing when doing it!

Maínomai knows that technique! Usually it's to minimize potential witness complications by Minimizing the attention something was worth, by making actions not worth paying attention to. That this person is worth less attention than drying paint. This is the next level of it, tricking the brain with repeating the pattern enough so that they'd just fade from notice, they're just background, nothing special, ignore the murder right in front of you.

Speed running Pavlov conditioning for brains! Not important, very subtle and doubtlessly Quality!

With Lethe there as well, they might have well as been ghosts when they didn't want to be seen. How to play up the paranoia of the old guard and have fun! With one easy technique!

And they left him behind!

And since he is analyzing the technique being used as it's being used and how, it's important for them to be sure to always be seen together. Muddle the accounts of the attendees. When they were seen, not that they weren't seen talking to whoever and whatever. Put them together in the brain as a unit, let the attention wax and wane and then-

Surely they were together all night, say the witnesses, even if one or the other didn't contribute much to some of the conversations. Why yes, the Cloud Officer has to be besotted with his date, she's one of Ottavia's last fosters. No, I can't remember her name, but I remember this technique. Ottava had teased her as shy and now she's got a beau! Look at how well he's seen to her every need and want! Absolutely besotted!

Which okay, not impossible to believe if you've ever done an infiltration with Pýř. He really went for it when doing that sort of thing. Commits to his role and so on. This would just be a much longer-term infiltration. For politics! Captain really ought to appreciate that when he gets back.

More conversations elsewhere, mostly boring. Yes, they have data, but will it be relevant? Who knows? Who is currently having an affair with who is boring. His focus is kinda crap from being up so long already. Scouting, breaking in and exploring, breaking in again, breaking out and then in again. He needs something to -oh, yes good, that's Housekeeping with snacks!

With snacks now being nibbled on and his attention returning to something he can listen to without tuning out -remember the previous Cloud Officer, he came sometimes instead of Tyr. Blond with glasses, kinda made you want to take a shower after. Oh the one previous that? His name was Beowulf, like the story. Oh it was, why was I thinking Grim then? That was the Cloud Officer previous Beowulf. Lethe's fingerprints were all over that conversation. History, politics and establishing a narrative through old lady gossip! You know, backdating the conversation to before they had spoken to said old lady who remembered more Varia Cloud Officer things while talking to them. Looks so very natural to turn to talk to said old lady.

It was all going so well, surprising some of his fellow Varia. Pýř's not the most social, and he generally did not want to do social things outside of a few people. Usually didn't like or trust people enough to let more of himself actually show for too long. Pýř is known to be an ice cold bastard of a Cloud with a temper. A loner that only likes his claimed people.

And here he is playing! With Lethe!

Maínomai wants to join in! Make his partner laugh!

Sure, he'd probably cause a disaster somehow with his focus for the day having been spent, but it'd be fun. Probably. Like how he had acquired his- nope! Not thinking that.

"Afraid your partner's replaced you?" Susi asks, no teases, because he is a terrible tease. The vibes and voice said teasing! Not because he thought he was funny or was being mean.

"Uh no, he's having fun! I wanna go join in!" He complains, drawing some attention away from the screens.

"He's engaging in high stakes psychological and social manipulation at no-notice because the two of you stumbled upon Boss, got him to Medical and that's fun?" Sombra doesn't have to sound so skeptical. That's what prior preparation is for! They had done research! Enough that they could probably get away with things, like a teacher writing test questions on a book you didn't read -read the wrong one oops- but done in such a way that you could appear like you had, if you read the test questions. 

"What do you meant that's not fun?" Maínomai whines. "It's a test of Quality; he gets bored otherwise."

Maínomai ignores Sombra's mean comment of 'and now their everything makes so much more sense.' He didn't have to say that or follow that up with more mean comments. Not very smart with most of Information here to watch the screens and not deaf, but Sombra's friendly with Mantis, who is unrepentantly mean.

Really, some people are blind and Dumb if they don't know what friendship is! It's a commitment much like any other relationship! Sure, most friends don't half live in each other's pockets, but best friends do! If they want to.

Hrrmph.

Guess he won't warn him about Tyrant not leaving the room after helping to deliver snacks, then.