The air was thin because of the cold but that didn’t stop the red head from going on. The sun was shining but not warming up the road at all. She was dressed in a thick winter jacket and casual clothing, which was definitely a better comfort than the Rune Knight uniform that she mostly didn’t wear either. The red head was Alice Baskerville together with her faithful companion Jupiter, now in human form, the two of them walking back towards Baska. They had actually taken the train but that one had stopped before reaching Baska,t he last station to the west of Fiore. The reason the train stopped was because there had been a plague going on in the town of Baska and at the moment, the train and most people in there didn’t want to get in touch with the virus. Which was a pretty good reason to think, that meant that Alice and Jupiter were the only two that got out of the train that stood in the middle of nowhere and made their way towards the town. Even her companion, normally a fierce yellow creature called a Jolteon was huddled in his coat as the wind pulled on their hair and clothes to get them away from Baska. They wouldn’t because the two were on a mission. Alice had the idea to disembark on her own with Jupiter and Hecate watching over her child but Jupiter had not agreed at all. And even though Hecate had wanted to come around too, she couldn’t afford to bring the little girl with them as well and Hecate accepted that she had to stay behind in Orchidia.

Even though Alice had sworn to not work for Doctor Gerard again, a letter had reached her in Orchidia, and it had informed her about the status of Baska as well as asking how she was doing. It was a perfect timing off the letter and that’s what bothered her the most. But they could do this in one day and with that she decided to do this quest that the doctor had put upon her. She could hopefully figure out what he wanted and solve it quick enough and catch the train back to Orchidia, she had inform the machinist. He would wait if she would be back before sunset. That gave her plenty of time since it was the beginning of the afternoon. Now all she had to do with Jupiter was find the doctor and see what this job would do. There were a few things on her mind, the doctor had known she was in Orchidia, the only one who should know were the Rune Knight as well as Midas as Kon had said it the moment Midas stood next to them. The second thing that was that the timing of the letter was too perfect, as if Doctor Gerard had kept an eye on her due date and or no better! Had heard that her giving birth had happened earlier on.

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So someone was informing him and she dabsolutely didn’t like that. There were only a handful of suspects and een they didn’t make any sense and she was getting rather agitated by the whole ordeal. So she didn’t think too much about it and focused on putting another step forward while making her way through the cold weather towards Baska. She really preferred Orchidia compared to this. With a groan from Jupiter she looked up at him, he seemed to be bothered by thoughts as well, they kept going on in this travel, both very silent. She felt slow and still not up to the speed she had before, but that made sense. It was about a week, perhaps a little more, no it was a few days more and she was training hard to get back into shape and with that this quest came at a very right time, she actually wanted to hit the poor doctor again, now able to moving at least quick enough to probably do that. It was something at the very least, she would cross that bridge when she got to it. It felt strange to go back to Baska, feeling more energetic and yet super tired because of other reasons now, she had slept a lot in the train though. She felt very guilty for leaving Orchidia even if it was for a couple of hours but still, she better get used to it. Next time, when there wouldn’t be a dangerous virus, she would be able to take her little girl and boy with her but at the moment that was no option. If she had known that the train would wait for her, she would have brought Hecate along but as she looked over her shoulder to look back at the small train because of the distance, Jupiter seemed to understand her way of thinking, ”They are saver at home.” And she turned her eyes back to his and nodded. ”Let’s clean up this issue.” She said and she turned her golden eyes at the first houses from the outskirts of Baska that showed up. She could see the Giant Tear ducts and the hills on the other side. It felt very quiet for the town that she had visited weeks ago and she felt a shiver go down her spine. She moved her hand to the back of her jeans to grab the Vash’s White, she should have worn the armour but she was afraid it still didn’t fit yet as she wasn’t yet in her good shape. ”Why did we listen to this letter, we should have gone and find Kon.” she said through gritted teeth but no answer came. Which she had expected. She stared at the houses but nothing moved and the two of them walked on albeit slowly to be ready for all surprises. The power that the Holy Knights had given her at least gave her the ability to guard herself and Jupiter very well, as also for the ones at  home.

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The last thing might more be her motherly instincts than anything else. Finally Jupiter and Alice were surrounded by houses on both sides. Their footsteps barely made any sound because of the little bit of sand and such on the stones of Baska. She still kept an eye on her surroundings, not just accepting the fact of her Geass, she didn’t want to make a mistake. The two of them stopped in their motion as the both of them heard footsteps running towards them. She pulled Vash’s White out of the waistband of her jeans and pointed it forwards looking at the direction where the footsteps came from. They were quick yet didn’t give off a hostile feeling, which made her look shortly at Jupiter to give him the indication that at the moment it was fine. That’s when she was hit with a wave of hostile thoughts and she turned her face back. She recognized the front runner as Doctor Gerard and noticed some crazed people behind him, looking as if they were hungry and aggressive at the same time. Living zombies? But they had to protect the doctor because this had to do with the cure and she needed him for that, she looked at his expression while he got closer, apparently glad to see her and feeling more safe, ”Let’s do this.” she said and she moved forward, since the towns people were innocent and she simply guessed that these were citizens of Baska, infected by the plague she decided not to shoot them down, instead she quickly moved her right hand back to the place where she kept the pistol and moved her left hand up to create Canis Major spell and simply shooting it at the person left from Gerard, where Jupiter used his Thunder Roar, by opening his mouth, he shoot a beam of lightning towards the man on the right from Gerard. Not even trying to not hit Gerard as even Jupiter was annoyed by the man. The two guys went down and Alice pulled the doctor towards her, noticing again no sound or noise around this parts apart from the ones that the living zombies and Gerard had made. She kicked open the door and pulled Gerard with her and let Jupiter follow before closing the door again, ”You better start explaining Doc, I don’t feel like joining the party.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest and watched how the doctor first needed to catch his breath before he would be able to tell her more. She watched Jupiter shortly as he seemed to be looking around the house. It looked like people left in a hurry, it would probably be because of the plague. She felt again this chilly feeling going down her spine and she didn’t like anything about Baska at the moment, but that’s why she was here. To fix that within the hour range of four hours, a little bit more but she needed to head back towards the train as well. Else she would walk.

There was no way that she was staying in Baska overnight and away from her child. She already longed to go back but she tried to deny that thought in her mind, ”Well Doctor, we don’t have all day.” she said, getting impatient on how long the doctor needed to get back into shape and catch his breath, but what felt like more than fifteen minutes in her mind by over thinking, had only been a matter of seconds. The doctor stood up straight again, he should have known better not to bend forward to catch his breath, she only didn’t feel the need to inform him. So he finally looked up at her and frowned at the sight of Jupiter as her companion returned next to her. She waved it away to get the doctor to focus on the matter, so he started to talk about what happened with Mattoro. The Doctor explained that the leader guy had poisoned more of the water and thanks to that the whole town was now infected but him, as he had not drank any water or used any water from the normal water sources and she wondered shortly how he had managed for that long, but she had no intention to ask. She wasn’t that curious about the answer. Gerard explained that now everyone in town was going crazy and wanted to kill everyone that wasn’t infected, which happened to be him only. He had heard on the stolen radio that the train had tried to approached but had stopped to let a knight off and he had risked his life to get here to find her; albeit also hoping it was her. He explained that the rest of the town, if he wasn’t there, was like an arena where the insane fought the other insane in the most strange way that they could to try and kill the other and win. He simply explained that the sight of the once beautiful Baska hurt his soul. ”At the moment, the three of us are the only sane people in the whole of Baska.” It was good that she had not brought Tanya with her in that case, as she had already suspected.

”Than what’s the plan doctor? You don’t think I came here for you right? I came to save the town, if there is no way, I will leave and inform the Rune Knights to clean this place up.” Which she wouldn’t or well not the Rune Knights, but she was sure she got this letter thanks to Midas allowing it to reach her, ”But before we do anything else, I need a few more answers.” Because he needed to explain how he knew he could count on her right now. So she leaned against the empty and lonely table, the chairs were stolen and probably used as weapons. She had no idea what the strength of the infected people could be, perhaps the table was too heavy. She would never know.

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Jupiter stood just as hostile and distance as she did, she already told the doctor that she didn’t came here for him. So he probably got a little hurt by his ego. But he had ruined quite a lot for her, his stupidity in talking things out with Mattoro had paid off in the infection of the whole town. If he had let Kon and her arrest the man, nothing of this would have happened. But it didn’t help to dwell in the past, she needed to change it now. So the man started with the first question; what the plan was. She had not much to say about it, the plan was set up by going to three points with detonators and setting it off to be able to spread the cure over the whole town immediately. At least she was a little glad to hear he had thought off the plan beforehand. So that they could actually do something instead being stuck here for days trying to figure out how or what. The cure needed to hit the town all at once so no one would keep going on and infect others, she nodded slowly. The doctor told her that he would tag along to install the detonators and he even made the mistake to give a nervous giggle telling Alice that they were his bodyguards practically.

The ginger haired woman didn’t laugh at all and only stared at him, which seemed to make the doctor even more nervous and Jupiter complaining that they couldn’t use a nervous man to travel through town, especially if they had to go to the east and to the west of the town without being spotted, ”You better keep up. I don’t like to walk slow.” Especially not now that she was training again to get back in shape. But before the three of them would leave, she wanted a few more answers and she simply gave the questions towards the doctor to demand an answer. To which the doctor at least embarrassed, there was a red blush on his cheeks, that he had asked the healers in Orchidia to keep him up to date. The location was given by the place where Lycoris had rented the carriage that would help them with their belongings. It was a bit of a point that she was so easily traceable that it made her nauseous for a few seconds. But this wouldn’t stop her, she told him very well that he would never contact her again and that she would be the one to contact him if she needed anything. She mentioned the price she wanted for this and said it might change depending on the danger and he shouldn’t complain and simply listen to her, she wanted to be out of Baska and home as soon as possible. She turned to give him her sarcastic smile and mentioned that he of course he would understand why. He stalked her after all, not the other way around.

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Alice took the vial with the cure from the doctor and made it secure taped on her body. That would be the best to protect it and no one would be able to spot it nor take it without her consent. They would need to be too close and she wondered if they attacked her because she was healthy, if they would focus on her if they knew that she was holding on to the cure. She looked shortly at Jupiter who nodded at her. So with that and everything secure, she made sure she could reach for Vash’s White soon enough, the three of them headed out. She first, than the doctor, than Jupiter. They needed Gerard now after all and that was to the both of them quite a hindrance, but she made sure to be first because her Geass would be able to protect her and Jupiter. She had no idea if it worked for Gerard right now because she didn’t count him as one she wanted to protect but one she needed to protect because of the guest and with that the saving of Baska. The three of them were trying to be so silence as they could be. Making sure to look around every corner before quickly making it to the next street. Alice counted on Jupiter to make sure their backs were covered. If it was just her and Jupiter, she would try and walk over the roofs of Baska’s town but now she would have to figure out another way to get past the mobs of infected people. The first few streets, at the outskirts no one was around them. They had made sure that the two that they had knocked out before, were still knocked out and that they wouldn’t be afraid of them at their backs. She heard strange noises when they were a bit further into the town, it would still take a few minutes to be out of town, they were a little past half of it. It was a shame that they would have to cross through the whole of town. The three of them hid and she watched the three insane citizen walk on to another part and jump on other citizen that came around the next corner, she whispered to the doctor that they had to be very quick and make sure that they wouldn’t notice them because of the fight that they were having and they quickly crossed the street and ran shortly on to be away from that point. As the insane living zombies made a lot of noise and attracted only more of their so called friends. Finally they reached the end of the town and they walked towards the point where Gerard wanted to place the detonator, but she quickly had to push him out of sight when she noticed the townsman too late. They had no hostile intention to her at the moment, so she had missed them with her Geass.

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She turned her eyes quickly at Jupiter and he made sure that nothing would happen with Gerard and guide him to the point of where the detonator had to be. She quickly grabbed Vash’s White again to make sure to have an extra weapon in case but she first moved up one hand to use her Velpecula and shot with a steady right hand the other man in his left lower leg and turned to look at Gerard, ”That’s healable right?” she said once she was closer to him and he mentioned it might take a while but it would be okay, better than shooting at the upper body, too many things to be able to hit, splinter and shatter and thus bleed to death. She made sure Vash’s White remained in her hand because that would be smart. She quickly moved on and made sure her Velpecula would keep the other citizen strongly tied to the ground. The three of them quickly sped back into the town, hiding between the buildings and making sure they wouldn’t bump into any of the fight thirsty people that wanted to fight them, being more secure this time, they yet moved a little faster surprisingly. She stopped this time on time to see again two people, infected people standing near the spot that Gerard wanted, ”I’ll distract them, go quick, I believe they come after the sound of gun shots.” She stepped forward and waited for the living zombie citizen to get close to her before she walked away, they were apparently healthy enough to get to her and she quickly shot the both of them, when she was far enough away to stand still, she had to hit them below the knee after all and she didn’t want them to get up too soon again. She reunited with Jupiter and the doctor soon enough and hurried with them to the middle of the town. Trying to avoid most of the people again, yet they couldn’t avoid the six in the middle of the town square. She put the Vash’s White back and would use magic again but this time Gerard would be on his own, she and Jupiter would take care of the people here and where Jupiter fought hand to hand combat by using his lightning spells on his body, she would try to use most of her own solar spells to keep them at bay, using her Solaria spell and Ursa Major to the three that she was fighting, having her hand close to the waistband of her jeans to grab Vash’s White if it was needed again. But it wasn’t needed as the six dropped on the ground and didn’t stir yet again. She heard footsteps though, ”Hurry!” It didn’t matter if they heard her now, they had already heard noise anyway. She watched how the doctor finished putting up the last detonator. She took the cure and Threw it up in the air where it exploded when the detonators went off.

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She looked up at the cure raining down on them and she heard footsteps and turned to look towards the amount of living zombies coming towards them and she backed away a little and looked at Jupiter, getting the pistol ready again to shoot again, ”Why doesn’t it work?” she shouted at the doctor because these were too many people for the two of them to handle. But the living zombies stopped walking and doubled over and seemed to be gasping for air or something that Alice couldn’t really place and she looked at Jupiter shortly again. The people made crying out sounds that almost broke her heart as it sounded so painful but nothing happened, no one attacked them, their expressions turned a little sharper but they looked tired and confused how they got into that and in such dirty clothes and Alice finally took a breath again, not noticing she held it. Finally she was able to get the stress away from her shoulders and she relaxed a little. Hugging Jupiter and turning to look at Gerard, she wouldn’t stand too close to him but she accepted the jewels that he offered her and she said she had a train to catch, she really wanted to be home now. She pointed at Gerard and made him promise her that he would check at the three man that she hit with the pistol. He promised and she and Jupiter made their way through the fallen bodies and look at the people that talked to each other and looked very confused, she didn’t feel the need to explain, Gerard should do that as well.

The two of them had to hurry, it was later than she had expected as she finally made her way out of Baska, where it at first had been empty and silent, it was now bubbling with a lot of people, standing in the middle of the road in big groups and talking and they had to make their way over a couple of times and once out of the town, they could quickly walk on and even take a short run when they finally spotted the train. She was free of this hateful job and get back home to Orchidia to fix the last ends and go to Crocus, she felt quite tired when she reached the train and she couldn’t wait to sleep a bit again before the whole thing would start again, yet she missed the children already, this was going to be tough when she was finally able to take jobs again and they might take more time. She didn’t think about it too much, she simply grinned at Jupiter as she jumped on board of the train, now empty for people had decided to walk, ”Let’s go home.” Which was easily done and she almost immediately fell asleep again, happy to know Baska was basically saved, it saved everyone a lot of trouble. She had a little bit of pain in her legs but it would go away as she made sure to use Jupiter as a pillow for the trip home.

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