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It would have been so tempting to just storm out the door then, or to sock him across the jaw and hit that stern expression right off his face. That would get her expelled for sure, but Mr. Wright looked like he could benefit from a little humility. She could be a bodyguard, a trooper, fuck, even a teacher, but she sure as hell wasn't going to be some mindless grunt. Who the hell did he think he was? Was he too high-and-mighty in his fucking principal's chair to share his secrets with her? He'd go out of his way to recruit her, but wouldn't answer the first and biggest question she asked him? How could he expect her to react in any other way?

If he was used to teacher's pets like Hosa Corvina, then he was sorely fucking mistaken in trying to treat her the same way. She wasn't going to bend over and follow him like some kind of fucking machine.

But she never moved. No, she wasn't going to sit down, but she wasn't going to storm out either. At least not yet. "Yeah, and what do you have to say?" she spat at him.

He watched her reaction for a moment, studying the way she stood defiantly still and the crude, angry emotions that rolled all too obviously off of her. To be honest, her composure didn't bother him in the least. He might've smiled in the slightest, if he didn't know that would only make things worse. The way she was acting now to him was like watching a child throw a fit... Well, because she was a child, he had to remind himself - near the same age as his youngest. He stared at his hands thoughtfully. Nate could hear Harper's voice echo in the back of his mind. She certainly didn't deserve this, but this was what things had come to...

Reading up on her history and records with the teachers, he supposed it was too much to ask of her to have some blind faith in him and his motives, especially after everything that had happened. She was certainly right in one matter. Miss Croft was nothing like the Prefect Hosa Corvina. When it came to the later, once they'd decided on starting her training, they came to the agreement that she'd learn everything after graduation - and she'd been completely alright with that. For Kayla, he'd need a completely different approach.

"How about I cut you a deal?" Nathaniel said finally. "I can't tell you everything yet," He put emphasis on the last word so she wouldn't miss it. "But I will tell you who the people posing threats are. In return, you will be fully cooperative in any training you are assigned - missions included. The more you do for the school and the more progress you make in training, the more information you'll have... Up until your eventual graduation." He paused, thinking on the future. "By then though, if you do well, I don't imagine there will be much left to tell."

Kayla glared at him, blue light reflected in her eyes, jaw clenched in barely suppressed anger. Training, missions, assignments... all in exchange for information, and for her cooperation as a future Guardian. Information he owed her. She swallowed back a sharp remark and plopped herself back down onto the couch. "I just want to know why this all has to be secret in the first place. What are you keeping from everyone?"

"Do you know the reason why this school was founded?" Nathaniel asked, leaning back in his seat. He didn't give her much time to answer. "As a safe haven. There are of course some students here, like yourself, who know their own potential. They come, push themselves and their gifts, join in missions. It's incredible... But this wasn't made for them." He narrowed his eyes. "The majority come from being freaks and outcasts in their own homes. This school was meant to give them a sense of normality. The same with Rosebury. It's a fragile world, but it works."

The Headmaster looked solemn. There were few other places in the world like Beata, and he'd give almost anything to protect it. "If you were to become a Guardian, it'd be your job to uphold that peace. I need be certain those sworn to protect it would do so with their lives - that means taking anything they know to the grave if needed."  He lifted his gaze up to her again.

All this talking and talking and talking and he still wasn't saying a god damn thing. Kayla's mouth tightened, her gaze wandering over the room as he spoke, sparks crackling over her head. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she finally muttered once he'd finished. Freaks, outcasts, she knew the sort too well already. "And what's all that supposed to mean?" She wasn't one for these long-winded diplomatic answers to set up for suspense and drama. "'Upholding the peace'... Whose peace am I protecting by taking your secrets to the grave?" She paused, chuckling under her breath. "Is this one of those cliches where the bad guy's hiding something awful to keep order? Are you gonna tell me something that would cause a riot?"

Small electric ripples zipped down a lock of brown hair peeking out from under her cap. She smiled. It was a predatory grin, bitter and mocking and melancholic all mixed into one small smirk. Kayla leaned in. "Because you don't have to worry. I'll listen and cooperate like a good little dog, but remember that I'm going to get this info out of you one way or another. And you're naive if you think this place makes anyone feel normal."

Nathaniel paused, amused by the small twerk in her anger, and finally allowing the smallest smile. He let you a deep sigh, that sounded vaguely like a laugh. "Is that what you make me out to be? The 'bad guy'?" Though even from the inside, he knew, he must not appeared to be exactly a saint either. He stood up, walking over to a few files already on his desk, pulling out one and a few pictures with them.

"You're very bold for your age." He mused, pondering on the last thing that she'd said, weighing the truth in it. Of course, he'd have to take into account mire than the words of a friendless, stubborn girl trying to get under his skin - sometimes, he seriously wondered though if he was doing his dream right.

He shook the thoughts away, turning away and tossing the sleek photos on the coffee table in front of her - each one with a different face; he counted the former gifts teacher most easily among them, along with a woman with long, jet black hair and cold blue eyes. "Recognize these faces?" He asked, though doubted she would.

Bold. She couldn't help but smile at that. Yeah, that was the nice way of putting it. Most principals Kayla had known would've thrown her out in the first two minutes of a 'conversation' like this, but Mr. Wright kept on that diplomatic facade. Much too patient.

Kayla raised an eyebrow as the files came spinning across the table to stop in front of her. Some tool in sunglasses, some blue-eyed chick dressed all in black, her long raven hair cascading down her back in a sheet... "Nope," she answered. The girls she'd met in Japan had been younger, school-age... The one with the gun had been a bit older, maybe in her early twenties at most. "Should I?"

"You should now." Nate said, folding his arms behind his back and staring down at the pictures as she shifted through them. He eyed the picture of the raven-haired gifted, staring dangerously back towards the camera lens. "That woman, she goes by the name 'Agrona'." After an old Goddess of slaughters, war, and death. She had quite the taste for dramatics, he couldn't help but think. "However, we believe her true name to be Phoebe Rivers." His gaze fell on the picture of the man next. "And Barret Spion, her right hand man - and formerly our gift mastery teacher." He'd more than left his mark at the school. "They've formed an organization and have been wreaking havoc on the world for years now, with Beata and other establishments. They hardly ever leave behind anything after completing their work and are only truly known for dressing purely in black uniform."

Argona... That was a stupid name, but she guessed it sounded more menacing than "Phoebe." Did she think she was some kind of supervillain or something? "Why?" she asked, meeting those cool blue eyes staring back up at her. Wreaking havoc for what? Money, power, just for kicks? She thought back to that building in Tokyo, but the ghost girl's words all blurred together in her head. Kayla hadn't really been paying attention then anyways. "What's stopping you from just killing them?"

"It would be easier to do just that if we could actually find them." Nathaniel said, frowning and glancing out the window again. "They stay under the radar well, and what information we recieve comes too late. They're always moving. Other schools run into the same trouble." A look of irritation showed on his face for a moment. They had ways of getting information around the continent, but it was used for seeking out potenital students and portal leaks - not enough to successfully pin down Phoebe or any of her close associates. As for the other schools, instead of sharing what information they had and worked with him, more often than not they insisted on dealing with the problem themselves.

"They have been increasing their recruitment exponentially over the years, near doubling their numbers, that we know of." Nate explained, "We've captured several grunts before. Their reasons for joining were nothing worth wild." If you had the power and the backings to do whatever you wanted, what would you do?

He glanced down at the photos. More than anything, the growing number of people she was controlling troubled him.

Kayla was silent as she stared down at the pictures, but her thoughts were back in Japan, not with the Headmaster as he managed his frustrated explanation. She let her head fall back against the cushions, pulling a hand out of her pocket and holding it high in front of her. A coin was held between her fingers, tiny blue sparks coursing down its ridged metal edge. "So you're saying you don't even have a clue," she murmured dryly. "Sounds like my kinda gig."

Nathaniel near laughed under his breath. "We know that whatever it is their planning, they need an army to get it." He muttered, concern flickering in his golden eyes as he glanced up at her, staring momentarily at the coin in her hands. Whatever army they were raising, Beata sure as hell didn't have one of it's own to fight back. He dismissed the thought, moving to attend to other manners. "Now, you work with my wife in the infirmary, don't you?" He started, fixing a few stray papers between them as he talked. "For now, I'd like you to volunteer there more often alongside Mr. Riley." The Headmaster said. "In addition, I'll be assigning you to a Guardian to help kick-start your training. Any objections to that?"

Kayla raised an eyebrow. "I've volunteered once or twice," she muttered. Being honest, she probably just got in the way more than she helped, and that was just on the slow days. She didn't even know why she signed up in the first place. It'd been a stupid dream of hers when she was younger to become a nurse, but that dream had died a long time ago. Since then she'd learned to hate hospitals. "But it's been awhile. I thought they'd forgotten about me. What does helping in the infirmary have to do with becoming a Guardian?"

She wrapped her fingers around the coin and slipped it back into her pocket. "And what kind of training do you have in mind?"

'It might teach you some discipline and humility.' The Headmaster thought to himself, thinking that those probably weren't the best words to use with the girl exactly. Instead, he tried to take a bit more pleasant approach to the answers. "They're always needing help over there," Nate said aloud with a small smile. "And knowing how to treat yourself and others in emergencies is always a useful skill to have. Don't worry, they still remember you."

The man stood up again, shoving his hands in the pockets of his coat. "Control of your gift. You've nearly set my room on fire several times now, after all." Nathaniel walked to the desk, picking up the phone on his desk and muttering something to the secretary on the other end of the line.

A few moments of silence passed before the door to his office opened again. The shape of another man walked in, who couldn't have been a few years older than the headmaster himself. He had tired blue-green eyes and short brunette hair that ruffled in different directions.

"This is the guardian, Taylor Andrews. You'll be working with him from now on."

Taylor offered an all-too kind smile and a somewhat awkward wave. "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Croft."

She grimaced, but didn't complain. Volunteering in an infirmary wasn't her idea of a good time, but if that's what he really needed out of her, then so be it. Although at this point, Kayla wasn't sure if there was anything more he could tell her about these 'mystery killers' of his anyways. He'd barely told her anything to begin with, not even the name of their group, and admitted that he didn't know what the hell they were even planning. Was it worth it having to go through all this when they might as well have been swatting at shadows?

And her gift... Ha. Kayla couldn't help but crack a small smile at that. She knew what she was doing. A small ripple coursed over her head, bending and snapping in the air with a crack, like a broken baton. A few people had told her something to that effect, once or twice. Mr. Wright was just lucky that he had her cooperation for the moment, and lucky enough that he had the power to expel her, or else she might have shared a few choice words about what she thought of that.

That's when he walked in.

Kayla glanced up at him, and immediately her eyes began to narrow. Andrews, Andrews, Andrews... He was a bit taller, and his eyes were a lighter shade, but with a snap of sparks over her head, she was immediately able to put a name to a face. She didn't wave back, or bother to stand up. "...Pleasure," she muttered through clenched teeth. Taylor Andrews didn't have the cocksure swagger, the bored looks, the lazy smiles, but she could see right past that.

He was in for it, even if he didn't realize it yet.