[AuroraSky]

"There's a front gate with four guards positioned, two up top and two down low. The two down low shouldn't be that difficult, I think our best bet would just be to run them over, but the two up top will be a little trickier. Now, these aren't exactly the best of their soldiers, this base is one of their smaller ones, really just to stow all of the Imperial junk and give the shitty army men something to do so they feel important, but-" Tati looked up from where she had been tracing the road of the map with her finger. Constance had been perched on the ledge of the window, staring out at the street down below, not hearing a word that Tati had been saying. "Constance." The older woman called impatiently. But she didn't stir.

"Constance." Tati tried again, to avail. Reaching into her waistband, Tati unsheathed a dagger. She flipped it in her hand once for good measure, then hurled the blade towards Constance's head.

Just as Tati had expected, Constance's hand flew up to grab the dirk of the dagger before the tip had cut right through her temple. The Columbian woman stared at the tip curiously before turning to look at Tati bewilderingly. "You could have killed me, Tati." Constance whined.

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[AuroraSky]

Tati rolled her eyes. "Then it would have been your fault because you weren't paying attention." She said as Constance removed herself from the window sill.

Constance pouted, twirling the dagger in between her fingers as she made her way over to the table where Tati had been stationed. "That's still no reason to try and knife me, Tati." She said, her Columbian accent shining through. She stabbed the dagger into the table, at one of the corners of Tati's map, and the older woman scowled at her. "I don't even know why you're getting yourself so worked up about this mission. It's not like it'll be a challenge or anything."

Tati pulled the dagger from her map, ran her finger over the damage, and tucked the dagger back from where she had pulled it from. "These are trained soldiers, Constance. Soldiers who are willing to give their lives to protect the base. We shouldn't underestimate them."

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[AuroraSky]

Constance pulled one of the chairs from the table and collapsed backwards into it, then rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Tati. Like you said before, this base just has all of the reject soldiers." She settled a little deeper into the chair, pulling up her knees to her chin and wrapping her arms around them. "Worst comes to worst we kill them all, and at least they die with whatever awards they give soldiers for dying. It'll be the only awards they ever get."

Tati turned her attention back to the map to trace the route they were to take one more time. "Be that as it may, it's still only two of us this time." She reminded Constance, who's carefree expression suddenly turned very worrisome. Frowning, Constance hugged her knees in a little tighter. "Where do you think she is? Do you think she's okay?"

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[AuroraSky]

"Leaving us one woman short for our missions for the past week? Arcane better be in the fucking morgue." Tati snarled, pushing her weapons list beside the map. On the other side of the table, Constance only looked to be more worried. "Don't even joke, Tati." She said gravely, turning away from the woman. Though Tati might not care much for Arcane's life, or at least pretended not to, Constance was worried sick. "Who says I'm joking?"

Constance ignored that. "It's not like her not to check in with us. Since when does she just fall right off the grid like that?"

Tati snorted. "Arcane? Constance she's off the grid every fucking week."

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[AuroraSky]

"Maybe Command's grid, but not ours." Constance insisted. "She never just...disappears without saying something to either of us." She bit her bottom lip, staring out of the window again. "Maybe Bauer might know something-"

"I already checked with him; he doesn't know where she is." Tati cut in swiftly. Constance looked at her, pleasantly surprised that Tasha had at least taken some interest in their missing friend. Constance watched Tati scribble down some more notes and mumble something about needing a rocket launcher. As she did, a very unsettling though crossed Constance's mind. She uncrossed her legs to lean forward in her chair, gripping the seat. "Tati, you don't think that Seeksoul might have gotten to her, do you?" Constance asked, terrified.

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[AuroraSky]

Tati remained nonplussed, scribbling down another thing at the end of her list. It was almost finalized by now, and the artillery was more extensive than she would have liked, but being one woman down always took its toll. Tati sighed; this mission was turning out to be more of a pain in the ass than it was worth. But then again, it did beat babysitting the Archduke's shitty kids, didn't it? "No." Tati answered impatiently. "Seeksoul could never get the drop on Arcane. She's been tracking him for weeks; it's almost an obsession."

She dropped her pen, satisfied. "Why don't you stop worrying yourself to death over this, Constance?" Tati asked her, grabbing one of her guns on the table to check for its ammunition. "Arcane is fine." She finished firmly.

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[AuroraSky]

Constance opened her mouth to argue, but decided against it and closed it back up again. If Tati was worried, which Constance couldn't really tell, she was doing an excellent job of showing it. It wasn't as if Constance didn't trust Arcane to take care of herself, Arcane was only one of the two Special Agents of S16, but Arcane was still the youngest of all the agents at S16. And Constance couldn't really help herself.

But Tati didn't look to be in the mood to discuss the matter any further, and Constance knew that she too should have been more focused on the mission ahead. She went to stand at the table, looking over everything that Tati had laid out for the two of them: identifications, money, maps, guns, lists of things Constance didn't even to think about, packets and folders of intel, rifles, grenades, knives, daggers, binoculars, night vision goggles, blast goggles...Constance had to give it to Tati, the woman did always come prepared to kick some ass.

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[AuroraSky]

"So," Constance said, placing both her hands on the edge of the table and relaxing forward on it. "Think we'll be able to manage with just the two of us?" She asked, her eyebrow raised. Sure, Tati had been prepared, but it was still the matter of being one agent short. Plus, as far as either Constance or Tati knew, Command didn't know that Arcane had gone MIA, so She had planned the mission for three. The mission wasn't impossible, no, but having the extra set of hands to be holding those extra pair of guns was always good. "We'll manage."

"So what's your game plan?" Constance asked.

Tati explained to Constance once again about the four soldiers and how they were planning on taking them out. The two at the top first, and then the two at the bottom. Tati would be in charge of the top two, and Constance the bottom. "And then from the gate-"

"That'll never work."

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[AuroraSky]

Arcane closed the door behind her, sliding her lock pick back into its place on her belt. Constance, as predicted, squealed and ran to jump into the younger girl's arms, wrapping her own arms around Arcane's neck and holding on tight. Arcane coughed and grimaced, patting Constance's back until she found the good sense to let go.

When she did, Constance grabbed Arcane's shoulders and began to look her up and down frantically. "Are you okay? Did Seeksoul find you? Where did you go? Are you hurt?" She asked. "Why didn't you check in with us? Or Bauer? Oh, I should call Bauer and tell him your safe! But are you safe? Do you-"

"For fuck's sake, Constance." Arcane said, pulling the Columbian's grip from her. "I'm fine. Everything is fine...as fine as they could be. I have a lot to tell the two of you." She looked towards the dining room table, to where Tati still hadn't looked up. Arcane could tell that she was in quite a bit of trouble. "Hey Tati."

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[AuroraSky]

There was a noticeably long pause. Tasha's head was still held down, her gaze focused firmly on the map, and she had made no movements to greet Arcane or acknowledge the fact that the girl had returned. In fact, if it hadn't been for the very sour scowl on Tati's face, it might have seemed that Tati hadn't even heard Arcane come through the door at all.

Arcane pushed Constance off of her and made her way to stand at the dining table, standing opposite Tati, who still had her head down low. Arcane scanned the table's contents, and frowned with realization. "We have a mission." Arcane said flatly. It was only then that Arcane had managed to command Tati's attention.

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[AuroraSky]

"Well would you look at that." Tati said through gritted teeth, still not looking up from the map. "It seems we do." She began to once again scribble something down on the weapons list. Arcane crossed her arms defensively. "I didn't mean to be gone for so long, Tati. And I didn't know we would get an actual mission. The agency has been so focused on the assassination plot that I-"

"That you decided to shirk your duties in favor of what?" Tati asked her, still scribbling. "Some sort of fucking vacation?"

Arcane could feel that familiar heat rising in her face that meant she was getting very angry. "A vacation?" Arcane repeated in disbelief. She would have hardly called having to go through miles of fucking swamp a vacation. She had even been there on S16 business! "I wasn't on some fucking vacation, Tati."

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[AuroraSky]

"Oh really?" Tati asked, slamming down the pen she had been writing with. She folded her hands on the table and leaned forward towards Arcane, a challenging grin on her face. "Then if you weren't protecting the Archduke, who you've just been so worried about, and you weren't here doing your job, then where were you?" She demanded.

Arcane leaned forward towards Tati as well, not backing down from the older woman. Constance slowly made her way over to the dining table, the same worried expression returning back to her face. Constance always enjoyed a good fight, she had started quite a few on her own, but the arguments between Arcane and Tati were always too much for her to bear. Mostly because she was terrified one of these days, one of them would end up killing the other.

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[AuroraSky]

Arcane maintained the eye contact. "I was in the Baian Swamp." She answered. Constance could see she was trying to be calm about it, but the way Arcane's jaw was clenching Constance knew Tati's accusations had gotten to her. Yet, Constance couldn't help but to add in a, "Is that what that smell is?"

They both shot her a look. "What the fuck were you doing dicking around in the fucking Swamp when we're over here planning a fucking mission?" Tati demanded, her expression angrier than before. Arcane rolled her eyes. "I wasn't just dicking around, Tati, I went to see the-" Arcane paused them, and Constance could see what might have been a blush against her dark skin.

Her pause had been too long for Tati. "You went to see the what?"

[115][23][23]

[AuroraSky]

Arcane thought then about lying about the Voodoo Queen. But looking into Tati's eyes, ablaze with a mint fire, Arcane knew that Tati would be able to see right through her if she did try to deceive her. The bitch was good at her job. "I...I went to see the," Arcane paused, and then exhaled sharply, letting her eyes close. She didn't want to see Tati's expression when told her. "I went to see the Voodoo Queen." She said quickly, in a tone much lower than her one before.

At first, there was silence. Such a silence that Arcane thought that Tati and Constance may have just left the room altogether. Arcane breathed, and then opened her eyes again.

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[AuroraSky]

Tati's laughter, a sound that was rare from the woman, came so suddenly Arcane almost jumped. When Tati began to laugh, it was a good, hearty chuckle that soon had tears forming in the woman's eyes. Next to her, Constance soon joined in, her mouth wide open in silent laughter. The two women both gasped at the same time, and then broke out into two guffaws so loud the people on the streets surely must have heard them.

While Arcane looked upon them in embarrassment and anger, crossing her arms, the other two women wiped there eyes, slapped the table, and held their ribs from the pain.

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