Relic

Chapter 11: Five Years Later

R gets to work, whipping up some coffee and placing it down before Jeanne. Now that she's 21, she's grown into a proper woman. Her silver sunglasses hang on her shirt, while her silvery eyes stare off into the distance. Her hair is tied back into a ponytail and she rocks a punk jacket and jeans. "Your drink madame." Jeanne takes another puff of her cigarette. "Can you please not smoke inside?"

"Hey, not my fault you retired from being a leader and dumped the responsibility onto us."

"Didn't you say you were willing to take the position from me yourself?"

"Yeah, well, you should've known I wasn't prepared for it. It's your fault I have to smoke to alleviate my stress."

"Hey, when I got stressed, I drank coffee."

"Coffee's bad for you." She says, sipping from it anyway.

"Not as bad as cigarettes."

Jeanne sighs. "Today's gonna be another long day of work. Man, you really did as little as physically possible when you were the leader, eh?"

"It's not like I was much of a leader anyways. I was smart and strong, but that doesn't always translate to running a district well."

'Thank god for me, right? You'd still be so hopeless if I didn't take your place."

"You're right. And now, I get to focus on making people smile with my coffee. That's all I ever wanted to do."

She takes another puff. "You ever think we'll make peace with the humans?" She asks in earnest.

"I do. But I may be being optimistic. It's gonna take a while, especially with all I've done to ruin our reputation. The Fontana bloom and the raid on the Peacekeepers did not help. But one day, I hope we can stand side by side as one people."

Jeanne takes another puff as Flare comes down the stairs. She wears a puffy, red jacket, while rocking to some music playing in her headphones. "Hey Flare! Ready for work?" Jeanne calls out to her. Flare can't hear over the music playing. "Flare!" Jeanne shouts louder.

"What?"

"Work?"

"I told you, I'll be off today."

"Right, you were gonna take Cerberus out for a long walk today, right? Have fun." Flare nods, putting the headphones back on and leaving the store. Outside, she finds Cerberus. The black dog towers over the café. Its three heads all kneel down and lick Flare simultaneously. Who knew animals could become Rels too?

"Come on boy, lets go for a walk!" She puts three massive leashes onto Cerberus and heads off. Back in the café, Jeanne finishes her drink. "You know where Ram is? I woke up and she wasn't in her bed."

"I saw her. She got up early to do some patrols."

"I see."

Somewhere in the district, a patrol of two officers approaches a female Rel. They try their hardest to antagonize the poor woman, trying to find an excuse to use force against her. Then, one of the officers feels a tap on his shoulder. "What!" He spins around.

In front of him stands Ram, still wearing the hat R gave her five years ago. This time, two gigantic swords float beside her. She clears her throat. "Is there a problem officer?"

"Of course there is, this Rel is loitering around and threatened a peace officer!"

"How exactly did she threaten you? She seems quite scared to me. I find that difficult to believe."

"Tsk, well... uh."

"If there are any issues, I believe you Peacekeepers know the arrangement, right? You let us know, and we'll handle our internal affairs. This isn't your district, officer."

The officer grimaces, but he knows he can't do anything out of line now that Ram's here. He angrily storms off, his buddy in tow. "Are you ok, miss?"

"Oh Ram, thank you so much! I don't know what I would do without you!"

"Oh please, I'm doing what anyone would. Try to avoid creeps like them from now on. They're not worth losing sleep over."

"I'll try, thank you." The woman scurries along her way.

Ram looks to the sky with a sigh.

"Alright, lets get to work."