726 Finding Hera

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Blue turned to Alex, who was hiding on top of a tree. It was the middle of the night, and they had to stay in the dark not to attract attention.

"Yes, this is the place. And she should come out today," the assassin shifted, making sure to cover the lens of the camera strapped to her body for a moment. The last thing they needed was for the moonlight to reflect on it and give away their position.

"Those things are so annoying," Alex huffed as she moved closer to the tree trunk to avoid the light.

"I know, I feel like I can barely move my arms," Blue tried stretching, but one of the straps on her back stopped her shoulder.

The guild provided those cameras, but they were far from being top of the line. They looked more like old body cams that the cops back on Earth used a few years ago. At least the quality of the image was good enough not to cause any issues. By itself, that wasn't a problem, but the harness that they had to use was a nightmare. It was made with very sturdy materials, but the drawback was that wearing it felt like you were constantly being strangled by some vines. The guild used the excuse that it was harder to recognize those cameras and that it would be strong enough to keep them together during a fight.

"Don't talk so loudly, and Blue, stop moving around so much. You are going to give our position away," Bonnie scolded the two.

"Helena made a soundproof bubble. Is not as good as Hera's, but…" Blue frowned, her face showing the conflict inside her mind.

"Look there! Someone is coming out of the dungeon," Alex warned everyone.

A person wearing a black cloak emerged from a large opening inside a massive tree. They looked around, walked over to a nearby broken trunk on the ground, and reached for the tree hollow. A soft glow covered their hand before the person pulled out a small piece of paper. Looking around to ensure no one was close by, the person revealed more of their face. Golden hair and brown eyes on a light pink skin and soft features. It was a face that all four women would recognize anywhere.

Helena was the first to rush over, making the figure jump back and pull a pair of daggers from under her cloak.

"Lena?" Hera asked with a confused expression.

"Hera! How are you? Are you ok?"

"Yeah. Well… No, but I'm managing. What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you! We heard you were involved in a prison break or some weird thing. What happened?" Helena asked.

Hera looked around, "I can explain all that, but we can't talk here. People might see me. Even if few people are around here, that doesn't mean they don't come to the dungeon. Come with me. Let's go inside."

"Ok, the girls are here too. Blue, Alex, and Bonnie," Helena gestured to their hiding spot.

Hera frowned, looking over, "I didn't notice them… I'm getting reckless," she shook her head and smiled, "But it will be nice to see you all. I'm getting a bit crazy being here alone."

"Where do we need to go? Back to the dungeon?"

"Yeah," Hera nodded, "Call them here. Since I don't have a tablet on me, we need to hold hands to get inside to be in a party."

Helena frowned. That wasn't the case. As long as they walked close together, they would get inside without a problem, and Hera should know that. Still, the mage felt it was better not to say anything. Going back to their hiding spot, Helena told the rest to join them. They greeted the Empress, but she didn't say much, only looked around to make sure there was no one else following them before grabbing their hands and walking inside the dungeon.

The tunnel inside a tree led to a small cave opening that would give way to a massive mountain range. Valleys hidden by the clouds spread out, forming almost a spider web around the tallest peak. The quest of this dungeon was to climb all the way to the top of the central mountain, using the rope bridges obscured by the mist, and then get the approval of the old master, who was at the very pinnacle of this place, both figuratively and literally.

"Can we talk now?" Blue asked after they all went inside the dungeon.

"Not yet. Let's move ahead a bit. Just to be safe. I don't know if the MAZE is going to consider that being here is enough for other people to get inside," Hera replied while looking around as if she was searching for someone.

They continued walking in silence for about five minutes, with the Empress guiding them towards one of the longer bridges that went directly to the inner circle of mountains.

"Hera, stop!" Bonnie called, "This is far enough. What is going on!" they could see the rope bridge going for a few meters before vanishing inside the perpetual cloud that covered that area.

"What? Why do you want to know?" Hera yelled, anger flaring up in her eyes. She looked at the group and took a deep breath before removing her hood, "Sorry, it's been tough. How much do you know?"

Everyone froze when they saw her. The Empress looked awful. She was never the type to spend hours on end taking care of her appearance, but she always cared about how she looked. Yet, now her hair was a mess. Not only was it cut in a weird way, almost as if she did it herself and without a mirror, but there was something stuck to it. Some type of mud or, the more worrying possibility, feces. Her lips were extremely dry and cracked, and her skin was somewhat yellow. Not to the point of showing something wrong with her liver, but enough to show that there was a problem.

"Hera…" Alex's voice was soft and full of worry.

"What do you know?" the Empress pressed.

The four looked at each other, and Bonnie stepped forward to speak, "We know you participated in a prison break. Getting the criminals out and running away with them. But we don't know why you did that."

"Because of what was happening inside there! And they weren't criminals, just people the guild wanted to get rid of," Hera huffed.

"And what was going on?" Helena asked.

"You wouldn't believe it even if I told you. I wouldn't believe it. That shouldn't be possible, and people were so hurt… There was so much pain," Hera looked down, her eyes seeming to stare into something far away.

"Tell us. You know you can trust us," Bonnie got closer and placed one hand on Hera's shoulder. Only then did she notice how the Empress' clothes were dirty. It looked like they weren't washed in weeks, maybe even months.

"Can I?" Hera looked up, "I'm sorry, but it's really suspicious. How did you find out I was here?"

"We were worried, so we came looking for you," Alex replied.

"OK, but how did you figure it out? The only one who would know the direction we took would be…" Hera stepped back, with one hand on her waist, holding her red dagger, "The guild."

"Yeah. The guild asked us to find you and gave us a general idea of where you and the fugitives could've gone. Apparently, they stopped in Crydonia for a while. When people figured that out, they were all gone, but there were signs in their safe house. Since we didn't have any other leads, we started scouring the rooms between there and the Gear Shift Nexus," Bonnie explained.

"You… You are working with the guild!" Hera yelled. That rage that was in her eyes, flaring up again.

"Calm down. We are on your side," Helena tried to speak in a soft voice, not to trigger any reaction from the Empress.

"Yeah," Blue put both hands up and walked slowly towards Hera, "Look, we didn't want to work with them, but we were worried about you. Your dad is too, especially after he was interrogated by th-"

Before Blue finished speaking, Hera's fist came crashing down on her face, "What the fuck did you do with my father!"

"Hera!" Alex and Bonnie gasped.

"Sweetie, please. We are trying to help you. Eridan is-" Helena had to duck to avoid a poison needle the Empress threw at her.

"Take my dad's name out of your mouth!"

"Ok, tough love it is," Blue huffed and moved in a flash, grabbing Hera's arm, "We are taking you home. You need help, Hera."

Hera let out a fire spray from her hands aimed at the controller's head. Blue managed to dodge most of the attack, but the tip of her nose was burned along with some of her hair. During the attack, the Empress slipped away, heading to the bridge.

"You are not taking me! The guild is not taking me! I'm not going to let them do to me what they did with Silah!" Hera yelled and started running towards the bridge.

Helena used her shadow grabbers, trying to stop her, but the Empress knew that was coming. Alex rushed after her, running in the air to cut her off on the other side of the bridge. Blue also started to chase after Hera, and her agility was high enough to allow her to catch up, but it would still take a few moments. Bonnie tried to use some spells to bind the Empress, but those were new and still not precise enough to catch a moving target.

Hera dodged all the initial attacks, trying to make stone walls rise from the ground to give her more time. She also sent a few poison needles towards anyone in sight. That was the most disturbing thing about her actions. The Empress only used poison when she wanted to kill her target. The stone barriers were enough to buy her time until she reached the bridge and continued running, vanishing inside the clouds. Alex tried to follow, but the moment she stepped out of the mountain, she bounced back. Whatever this cloud was, it would stop anyone from flying through. She had to go back around and walk through the bridge to continue following Hera. Blue, on the other hand, was right behind the Empress. They continued running for a few moments until the controller got enough of a feel for the place to have an idea. Using her Stormcloud legacy, she pushed parts of the mist away and made a barrier in front of her. Unfortunately, her first attempt took too long, and Hera passed her first cloud wall. Trying again, Blue sped up the spell, but the clouds still took too long to change. The issue here was that she wasn't using an already-made skill from her legacy; instead, she was trying to make an incomplete version. Giving up, she dropped that spell only to cast a skill called [Cloud Dome]. It would make the cloud shaped almost like a solid lid, stopping anyone from getting in or out. The only problem was that reinforcing the stopping power of the skill wouldn't change what was underneath it.

"Hera, stop!" Blue called again, but the Empress just slammed against the cloud wall, trying to break through. She slammed her daggers against it, only for the blades to pass through and be spat back out with enough force to make her fall back, dropping the weapons from the bridge. The controller continued getting closer, "Hera, please!"

Hearing Blue's voice approaching, the Empress jumped to her feet and got into a fighting stance, "I'm not going to jail!"

"Ok, that's fine. Just come out here so we can talk."

"Do you promise?" Hera's voice was shaky and full of fear.

"I do. We are just here to talk," Blue reached out, giving her hand for Hera to hold.

Hera dropped her guard a bit and cautiously took Blue's. She approached her friend with a more calm expression, but the camera on the controller's chest made a noise as if it was trying to change its focus.

"What's that?" Hera stopped moving.

"Oh... It's…. Er…" Blue hesitated, unsure if telling her was the right move.

"Is that a fucking camera?" Hera asked, point blank.

"Yes, but it's not-" as Blue tried to speak, the Empress pushed her hand back and kicked her friend on the stomach, trying to hit the camera. She wasn't able to even move away as the controller grabbed her foot.

"You bitch! Who is watching this?!" Hera yelled, trying to pull back, but Blue was too strong.

"No one! This doesn't have a streaming feature. It is one of those old models that just record."

"So you are recording me!" Hera yelled and jumped, trying to kick Blue's face with a spinning kick. As her foot kicked the rope bridge, it made it swing to the side, and her own body went in the opposite direction.

She was about to fall from the bridge when Blue grabbed her leg with her free hand, holding the Empress upside down as the rope bridge kept swinging, "Hera! Hold on! I'll pull you up."

"Let go of me! I'm not going to jail!" Hera yelled, her eyes bloodshot as she flailed around, trying to get free. The cloak she was wearing fell and was swallowed by the surrounding cloud.

"Fine, I'll leave. Just let me pull you up!" Blue pleaded, but the Empress didn't care. She continued hitting the controller until a powerful kick to Blue's nose caused her to let go.

Hera started falling, yelling as she vanished into the cloud of the valley.

"Hera!" Blue tried making another lid, but this time upside down to catch her friend. The problem was that it took a few moments for her current skill to disappear before she could use it again. By the time the lid was being made as far away as she could, a dull thud echoed as something slammed against the rocks at the bottom of the ravine.

"Blue!" Alex called with Bonnie and Helena right behind her, "Where is Hera?"

Blue closed her eyes, and with the bridge still swinging from left to right, she used her legacy to push the cloud away and see what was down there. There was nothing for around two hundred meters. But beyond that was the ground, and illuminated by the sunlight of the room that was able to pierce the cloud all the way to the bottom of the ravine, was a broken body with twisted limbs and a pool of red forming around her.

The four women stood there, staring at their friend for a few minutes. Without saying a word, they started to move towards the dungeon's exit. Every single one of them had a complicated expression on their faces.

Hera was dead, and they were the ones responsible.