Operation Reconnaissance

0100* The Four Friends

The brown-haired girl had completely ditched her painting, consecrating her time to regale the little girl, whose name was Ruby, with stories and tips on how to pickpocket. Jocelyn had found herself fairly enjoying the company of the little girl, even though she had seemed a nuisance before.

Ruby came bounding over to the spy, sitting down happily with her basket of flowers. The spy had congratulated the younger girl when she thought of selling flowers as a cover-up. A hole was dug in front of the basket, masked by cloth. Ruby had skillfully weaved the basket in a way that made the hole seem like it wasn't there, the disconnected pine straw shrouded with the complexity of the whole object. Jocelyn couldn't help but see herself in the meticulous girl.

Jocelyn ruffled Ruby's hair. The younger girl bounced with excitement. "Miss? Can you tell me more about planet Andromeda?"

Andromeda, discovered in the astronomical texts that Jocelyn had studied, was a galaxy dear and beloved to the spy. Naturally, that was the first thing that came to mind when she needed to name an alternate world instead of simply telling Ruby that planet Andromeda was the exact copy of Earth. She had also made up names for the different countries. For one, France was named Eos (a belt of asteroids); another, England was parallel to Deimos (a moon of Mars, another planet that Jocelyn was fascinated with.)

"I suppose," said Jocelyn, "I'll tell you about the four friends that lived on that planet very, very far away."

Ruby vigorously nodded, beaming. The spy smiled as well. She had found herself smiling much more than normal around the charming little girl. A serene breeze blew along her words, and her hair flew behind her back.

"Once upon a time, there were four friends. They were named after their personalities, Intelligent, Wanton, Charming, and Meticulous. Intelligent and Charming were born in Eos and moved to Deimos, while Wanton and Meticulous were locals.

Intelligent loved cryptography. He would spend days and nights studying codes and testing his friends with secret messages. He was super down to Earth, always wearing his heart upon his sleeve.

Wanton loved to tell jokes. He loved to laugh, to hear others laugh. The boy never failed to execute things perfectly during raids. He had a tendency to hide his feelings cooly, but never from the other three friends.

Charming... was charming. She was the most gorgeous girl that existed on planet Andromeda. She could charm her way through trouble but never abused her ability. Charming loved to play the piano and had gladly taught Intelligent and Meticulous on request by the latter.

Meticulous was the mother of the group, always making sure that no one got hurt or left behind. She would be the one to always carry around bandages and medicine, ensuring that no one was left hurt or wounded.

The four loved to cause trouble and chaos around planet Andromeda as Team Jackal. They were inseparable, working like one. Whenever something important went missing, the townspeople blamed it on the four friends. The townspeople weren't wrong in doing so either, for it really was the four friends stealing, trashing, and crashing paraphernalia. Once, they stole a whole cage of chickens, and accidentally trashed the whole market by allowing those chickens to escape the cages," Jocelyn paused, listening to Ruby giggle. She couldn't help but laugh as well.

"However, during the only time they were in different places, when Intelligent and Charming were earning money in Eos, and Wanton and Meticulous were playing football in Deimos, a revolution erupted between the two quarreling bodies of Earth. Deimos was fighting Eos. Intelligent and Charming ran as fast as they could across the bridge to try to get back into Deimos, but they were pushed back. The two were still puny children, after all. During the commotion and in the crowd, Wanton and Meticulous could only scream for Intelligent and Charming as they were being pushed away.

The split of the friends broke all of them, changing them drastically. Meticulous became Haste, no longer as careful as she was. Wanton became Bitter, never smiling, laughing, or joking again. Intelligent became Falsity. He became a man of lies, rarely ever telling the truth. Charming became Deceitful, using her charms for more bad than good. They-"

Jocelyn cut herself short, craning her neck to watch the London official interact with another man. Ruby gently tugged the spy's shirt, urging her to continue. The older girl shook her head.

"Sorry. I've got important things to do. Wait a moment," said the spy. She took out a small round mirror, lined it up with the sun, then flashed it to Lancelot's direction. Vaguely through the dark window, a flash returned.

"Miss, it's okay if you don't finish the whole of the story. Can you please just tell me what happened to the four friends in the end?" Ruby asked, voice full of hope. Jocelyn froze, for she hadn't thought that far yet. She'd been making up the story impromptu, and therefore never once thought about an ending.

"Well, Ruby," replied Jocelyn, "In the end, the four friends united. Deimos and Eos stopped fighting, and Team Jackal was able to exist once again."

Ruby clapped happily. "I'm so glad!"

Jocelyn silently nodded, hoping, just hoping, that the situation on Earth would end in the same way.

---

In Karavine Institute, an emotional piece of music emanated from the small concert hall. The pitch resonated with the performer's heart, saddened and broken.

A girl's fingers left the keyboard. Her fingers clutched the chair until her knuckles were devoid of color. A single tear slipped down her cheeks.

The boy listening to the piece stuck his hands into his pockets, standing up from leaning on the piano. He frowned at the sobbing girl.

"It really does hurt a lot more when you know they're in reach, does it not?" Tristan asked. He went forward and sat down beside his partner, fingers lightly tapping on the chair as his eyes glanced around the concert hall.

"Miss them?" asked Intelligent, turning back to Charming.

"It hurts," she rasped.

:I