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Strawberry Princess      SAINT-RAPHAËL, HAITI, 6:33 PM

     This facility is built like a nuclear silo; heavy metal doors fixed in concrete walls, set into the side of a mountain. It might've been one, in some other life. 'Metal and concrete' is the aesthetic of the city it quietly overlooks, too: Saint-Raphaël has the unmistakable look and feel of a place built overnight to some deliberate pragmatic plan, not organically emerged.

     The distinctive hourglass-shaped cooling towers of a nuclear power plant in the distance, billowing steam into the blue sky, hint at why.

     Even in an artificial place like this, the branch of the Reignition Project is more foreign and artificial still. The armed security guards, dressed in dark blue uniforms, aren't locals. Relaxed as they are, there's a sense of unease about the entire place. Even so, Lezard has been granted an audience here with remarkably little quibbling, finagling, or run-around.

     Either they think highly of him already, or they're desperate for help. Either is advantageous. It's probably both.

     Through white-tiled corridors, past bolted rooms and warning signs and concrete bulwarks, one eventually comes to an unremarkable-seeming office. DIRECTOR LUCIJA VELT, the copper nameplate says. The director herself is sitting behind a heavy wooden desk in a heavy wooden chair: a tired, middle-aged, dark-skinned woman with long straight hair, a labcoat, and old scars. A 'window' in her office displays a peaceful countryside, but not the one outside- they're hundreds of feet into a mountainside anyhow. Trinkets and bookshelves spruce up the fundamentally bleak concrete room; maybe make it a little warmer.

     She looks up from her tablet; smiles an effortful smile. "Mr. Valeth," she says in decent English, before remembering the nature of Multiversal communication, and continuing more fluently in what sounds like a Slavic language: "I do hope you're feeling well after Tallahassee. Please, have a seat. Are you thirsty?"
Lezard Valeth     After the end of the Onyx Witch incident, Lezard calmly and politely requested a meeting with some of the groups involved with the magical girl situation here. The Reignition Project, naturally, being the primary target. He waited to see if he would get a response.

    To his pleasant surprise, he did. Clearly, they were not put off by the conflict and the inevitable reports on what happened in said incident. This is actually promising for a change.

    A beam of light appears outside the reinforced base, Lezard Valeth manifesting within it at a polite distance. He is, of course, dressed as he always is, looking like a Harry Potter cosplayer more than anything else if it were not for the aura he projects around himself.

    He behaves himself, following the directions as he walks through the building, assenting to whatever security checks they see fit to inflict upon him. Eventually, he arrives in the Director's office, and Lezard stands before the Director, examining her intently. His eyes glance over her appearance, noting the clothing and scars, glancing to one side at the trinkets and books, before they focus upon the woman herself.

    There is a smile on his face as she speaks to him, and he nods. "Greetings, Director Velt." Lezard says, executing a bow with a flourish of the cloak he wears, as if he was standing in court, not an office. He smoothly stands, adjusting his stance as she inquires after him.

    "I am well. The damage was not particularly significant." He looks to the chais and sits, easing back into the seat, and gestures with one hand. "Thank you for the offer, but I am fine, thank you." There is a short pause. "So, you must have many questions. Both as to why I am here, and perhaps other topics. I am prepared to answer them as you like."
Strawberry Princess      Most of the trinkets are benign- a potted cactus, a bowl of hard candies, a snowglobe. Some of them are weirder. One is a fist-sized chunk of glassed dirt, presumably from an Endling attack or seething high-energy experiment. Another is a statuette of what looks like religious iconography, but not from any familiar religion: a spindly, almost organic thing in marble surrounded by fine rings of gold. Last is a sketch of some bristling, twisting abstract shape that loops and folds in on its own center; white paint on a dark background.

     The books are comparatively mundane, and in fact entirely nonfiction. World factbooks, history, nuclear physics, guides to learning a few different languages, and- most numerous of all- excruciatingly and impenetrably academic papers about mahous, most written by a "Dr. Martov". One or two of her scars look 'normal', but the rest seem unnatural in origin; burns in the shape of razor-thin cuts, like the aftermath of a dissecting laser healed over.

     "Strawberry informed me that you had some nonspecific desire to 'help' our world," Lucija says, politely impassive under his searching gaze, "and your actions so far have borne that out. On the topic of the broader Multiverse, of course I have questions- but I needn't burden your or my time with them. There are other people, with more time and less to do with it, who will suffice to research that."

     "So, let me begin plainly. What steps have you taken to help this-" she performatively checks her tablet- "'Mikoto Shimizu', and to what extent do you believe that methodology will be applicable here?"
Lezard Valeth Most of the objects are mentally discarded. The final two are noted for later inquiry, however. But he'll get to that when the situation calls for it.

    For now, the Director cuts right to business. Lezard nods, steepling his fingers before him as he rests his arms on the chair. "As you might have been informed, I am called the Sorceror of Midgard. I possess a multitude of talents in the magical arts, and have been working to deal with some of the unique problems faced by Mikoto Shimizu. She, as you know, is also of the 'magical girl' styled magic-users. Her power is contained within an attuned gem that resonates with her mental state. I will not burden you with the specifics unless you truly wish to know of her specific brand of tragedy, as they are not relevant... At least, I currently do not believe so. Still, I had developed a method to provide new energy to her to allow her to continue to use her abilities without concern."

    He gestures with a hand, then. "What is relevant that I have unique abilities to interact with the spirit. I can separate it from the flesh, diagnose and analyze issues, and reunite it with their body... Or others. I am also highly skilled in alchemical treatments and studies of the nature of the body."
Strawberry Princess      Director Velt starts to scribble on her tablet in some illegible stylus shorthand as Lezard speaks, flicking her gaze down towards the screen every few seconds but otherwise holding eye contact. "'Had developed'," she reiterates, but doesn't give any further running commentary. "The 'spirit' is generally outside of our paradigm- before Unification, we had no understanding that such a thing existed. I'm not inclined to believe that the problem is rooted there. But, for precisely the reason that they are foreign, such techniques are valuable to us."

     She pulls a thermos from behind her desk- coffee, by the faint smell when she opens it- and takes a sip before setting it back down next to the tablet. "The body, too. Every test we've tried. Zero physical distinction between a magical girl and a normal child. The Project's early tests were with medications, regimens, psychotherapies. One or two seemed to extend the burnout phase by a few weeks, a few months. But we couldn't be certain without a larger trial. And the side-effects..."

     She takes another swig of the coffee; gestures toward Lezard's chest with a hand. "Our present work, I'm sure you know, has settled on the same avenue you mentioned: 'new power sources'. It has its own obstacles. But we've achieved our first real successes with it. Now, with foreign resources and foreign techniques available... perhaps some of the old routes are worth another try."
Lezard Valeth     Lezard nods. "It is not surprising that you had encountered issues. If there is no physical distinction, one requires that there be a distinction of the mind or the spirit. There must be an anchor for the difference. I wish to plumb the truth of the nature of the 'mahou' and the Endlings. Such discoveries may allow me to improve not only the lot of those here, but to finally bring a more permanent resolution those such as Mikoto."

    The mention of 'new power sources' brings a nod from Lezard. "I have heard of the work of the Reignition Project with Strawberry Princess." He taps his fingers together at that. "It is a solution. Whatever solution is settled upon, if you provide me with the opportunity to apply my skills, I will provide you with the fruits of my work."
Strawberry Princess      At the mention of an 'anchor for the difference', Director Velt's eyes flick up to the abstract sketch on her wall before glancing back to Lezard. "So there must be- and yet, thus far, it's largely eluded us. You've already largely answered my first question: what it is you intend to get out of this arrangement. And that leads us nicely into the second, I believe."

     She spreads her hands, palms-up. "Resources are limited. Most countries want to look as though they're searching for a solution, but few really want magical girls to be anything but manipulable teenagers- only those that are willing to see the status quo overturned. I'd scammed them when it looked like we were a cute pipe dream, and now that we have real results, they're trying to pull the plug without being obvious about it."

     She clasps her hands back together; leans in with a tired, conspiratorial smile. There's no arm-twisting that needs to be done here, but it's easy to see how she could've badgered and wheedled diplomats into cooperating thus far. "But. Even so, you're promising enough to be worth an investment. Let's talk: what is it you need to get started?"
Lezard Valeth Lezard flicks his eyes to the sketch when she does, and his eyes flick back to look to the Director, smiling.

    "Fascinating. So you see yourself as a way to overturn the status quo."

    It is at this point that he adjusts his glasses. "What are you willing to pay for independence? What do you see the magical children to be? Are they the heroes this world needs? Soldiers in a seemingly neverending war? Or pawns for the greater powers? Something else entirely?"

    His smile vanishes, however, as he looks directly at the Director. "What I need, Director, is simple: Test subjects. I know you have engaged in extensive examinations already, but I am going to begin from the basics once more. How far you are willing to go to answer these questions, what prices you are willing to pay is entirely up to you. I am a master of alchemy... And if there is one thing that is a universal constant, that is that all things require an equal exchange. What you are willing to accept will determine how useful I will be to you."

    This part is obvious. It's time for the gut check. Lezard might have looked kind of dubious on the surface, but there is going to be no mistaking things now. There will be no proclamations of ignorance on his watch.
Strawberry Princess      "'What I am able to accept'," Director Velt reiterates. She stares at him and his glasses for a moment, and it's apparent in her eyes that she hasn't misunderstood him in the slightest. Then she pushes herself up to her feet, both hands in her labcoat pockets, and walks around the desk and past him. "They're neither the heroes this world needs, nor mere soldiers. They are children, Valeth- and it's reprehensible that we expect them to be anything else."

     "They fight for us, and die for us, not because it's good- not because it's just- but because they're the only ones who can." She pulls a plain wooden case out of a bookshelf; pops it open. "I hate that. I hate it with all of my heart- that the world we live in is watered with their blood."

     Lucije Velt turns around to face him again. In her gloved hands are the crumbling, shattered fragments of a wand; one with the appearance of gleaming metal and white feathers. The gem is missing, but it's unmistakable. "They are so brave these days, Lezard. So terribly brave. They suffer, already, for their fellow man. They would suffer more greatly for an end to that suffering."

     "Don't kill them. For anything else, I can find you a willing volunteer."
Lezard Valeth Lezard is quiet as the Director gives her view of things. He waits as she opens the wooden case. He knows what is inside. Not because he looked, but because the wounds, the passion made it obvious. The Director of the Reignition Project is, of course, a former magical girl herself. This is no surprise, no. It is the proof of her pain. It is the summation of what brought her to this point.

    "There are many reprehensible things in the world." Lezard states. "My world is no less cruel than yours, for no better reason. Endless tragedy, endless suffering, all for the sake of a war that the Gods are never intended to survive in the first place. I am not willing to simply accept my place in such an order."

    Lezard stands, then, and nods to Director Velt. "But remember that hate. Let it steel your soul for the days to come. The ground is watered with their blood for now... But in the future, you will be given alternatives."

    He adjusts his glasses again, looking away. "They will not die. Perhaps they might wish they would, at times, but they will not die. In the end, however, they may find themselves with gifts beyond comprehension."

    He turns, flourishing his cape for a moment. "Stay the course, and I will give you the power to break the order of this world over your knees, and forge it anew. I will look forward to seeing the shape of the world you would create."