—Zenesha General POV—
After her meeting with Rachel Zenesha was in a bad mood for the rest of the week. She suspected that Rachel and the other Condor's would soon drag her into some kind of meeting to discuss Laura again. Which irritated her.
Good news, she tends to focus when irritated, using work as a way to distract herself. Bad news, she hasn't had a proper night's sleep in a while. She needed her top commanders to be on the same page as her but their doubt about Laura has her worried.
She was sure they would pull her into a meeting eventually to speak about the void wolf. Zenesha just hoped it would happen after they took down the White Ash and New Veroso. She honestly had very little patience for that discussion right now.
And she was right. She was in a normal meeting with the Condor's, including Iris who just arrived early that morning. Just as the regular scheduled meeting was ending Danial cleared his throat. Zenesha looked in his direction and motioned for him to speak.
"Ma'am, can we discuss… Ms. Underwood?"
Zenesha scowled, it was a small shift in her expression, but it was a clear one. She moved to stand up. She's had enough of their pestering about Laura. The fox couldn't even repeal their relationship because that'll just add fuel to the fire of them thinking she's being manipulated.
"Ma'am please, we're not going to… fight your choice, we just want to know why you chose… her." Xavier spoke.
"What does it matter? I'm not stupid, and when I chose her as my personal bodyguard, I didn't trust her."
"Similarly at the time Laura was only offering help because it was in her nature, she didn't really care about me." Zenesha continued. "I was also desperate, I had a traitor in my ranks, and she was offering free help. So long as I didn't make any deals afterwards that help wouldn't end badly. That's how it's recorded and that's what I banked my survival on."
"Something changed?"
"... Yes." She answered hesitantly. "I won't tell you what that was just. I need to ask if it's okay to reveal that info first."
All four frowned when they heard their Queen, the absolute power, talk about asking permission first. She shouldn't need permission to give away intel in her own domain. Their relationship seems extremely intimate.
"What do you want me to say?" Zenesha asked, exasperated seeing their faces. "If you must know, Laura has given me something that can remove her from my life if needed. So, stop worrying."
Before any of them could speak up again however a man in a tracksuit walked through the door. The Queen and her four Condor's stared blankly at the intruder and the still very much closed door behind him. The black-haired man smirked at them.
Zenesha recognized him immediately. She slowly reached for her phone under the table. Keeping her eyes on the Forsaken in front of her. The human male also seemed to recognize her as his smirk turned into one of amusement.
"Ah. I see now." He said obviously enjoying himself. "The both of you lied to me. She was who I was looking for right?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about." She answered while opening up her messages to contact Laura.
"Don't play dumb mortal, where's the wolf?" He asked, stepping closer before pausing and giving her a frown. "You have Ather on you. She told you what it does?"
The man looked incredulous. Meanwhile the Condor's all trained their weapons on the intruder. Their Queen seems to recognize them but based on the tension and the underlying tones in their voice, it wasn't friendly. Whoever they were, they posed a threat.
The man paid no attention towards them as he tried to process the fact one of their species told a mortal how to kill them. He needed to deal with her now. Teleporting behind her, he attempted to grab the woman and use her as hostage.
*Bang*
Before he could, Zenesha had dropped her phone and turned her Ather infused revolver behind her. It hit the man in the arm, causing them to cry out in pain as they staggered backwards. If looks could kill Zenesha felt like she would already be dead.
"You stupid mortal." Sheathed the man as he held his arm, black blood flowed down his arm and hit the floor.
Zenesha didn't lower her weapon and kept it trained on the monster in front of her. "Iris, pick up my phone and press send on my text to Laura. Now!"
Keeping a close eye on what must be another void creature, Iris moved to Zenesha's side, crouched down and picked up her phone. She pressed send on the single word message, and before she turned the device off, noticed the nickname used for Laura's contact information.
"What? Calling for-"
*Bang*
Zenesha shot again, but the Forsaken must've noticed her intentions somehow because he moved out of the way, just in time. The Ather infused bullet grazed his cheek causing him to wince in pain, but he was otherwise fine. Zenesha didn't stop shooting and the man kept moving.
She quickly ran out of bullets. Thinking he was fine to attack he lunged at her, but was bludgeon in the head instead and staggered backwards. He glowed at her as blood flowed down the side of his face. His gaze fell to her hand where she held a chunk of Ather.
"You're not good in a fight, are you?" Zenesha asked with a clear mocking tone.
The void human frowned. He wasn't sure how he should proceed anymore. What if she had even more Ather on her person? The fact she was not only talked about Ather, but the rogue even let them create weapons with it, baffled him. The wolf needed to be put down because she was clearly insane.
"Iris, there's spare ammo inside under my coat, grab it and reload the gun." Zenesha ordered, and the blond woman complied.
When she picked up the gun she didn't really see anything different about it, other than the gold accents and brass coloring. The weapon wasn't made from brass, but still, it was odd. The creature didn't pay any mind to their guns, only this one.
Iris didn't dwell on those thoughts for long as she reached into her Queen's clothes, fished out the spare ammo from the belt across her chest and reloaded the gun. When she finished, she handed the weapon back to her Queen.
"You're not firing." The man noted with a smile. "Looks like you only have a limited number of shots left."
Annoyed Zenesha pulled the trigger, which only grazed him again. If she had two guns, she could probably lead him into one her shots, but she didn't have a second one.
"I saw you arrive here on your own, and I'm assuming you haven't made a deal with anyone since that would keep you from hunting Laura." Zenesha started suddenly.
"Yeah so?"
"That means you're relying on essence to keep yourself here. Otherwise, you would've done something far more drastic by now.
"What do you know?" He spat.
"I know a lot actually. So, I also know it's taking everything you have not to fade back into the void. I know that all I have to do is wait for you to run away or disappear. If you came here with just a slightly stronger hold on reality, I'm sure you could've easily handled me."
"They speak too much." He spat. "But that's where you're wrong. This is a stand still. The Ather is affecting me, but I'm not going to fade any time soon."
"Yeah, well I can fix that." The distinct voice of Laura said behind the man.
"Yo-" The man started as he turned around.
He was cut off when Laura grabbed his throat and slammed him into the ground.
"What do you think you're doing?" She growled.