Mia stood with her arms crossed as she circled the man they had caught. They had brought him to the interrogation room after treating his injuries, and she had been trying to get information from the man for six hours now.

"How many of you are there?" She asked for what seemed like the one hundredth time. The man laughed, struggling against his mana shackles. "How about I cut those filthy ears off, and remove your tail. Maybe then we can talk. You Demi-humans are filth vermin. A mistake."

Mia sighed and looked at the two way mirror. She could feel the anger rolling off Eric from inside the interrogation room. She noticed the operative stiffen.

"You can feel that powerful surge of mana too, can't you?" She said with a cheerful smile. "That's my husband. I don't think you leave this room alive if you keep insulting me."

The man sneered. "I am a caught spy. The best case scenario for me would be to live the rest of my life in a prison cell."

Mia opened a folder, not looking up. "True. But your imprisonment doesn't have to be absolutely miserable. We can work some things out if you cooperate. First of all would be to stop pissing my husband off by insulting me. I could always let him take care of the interrogation."

The man sneered again. "Please. As if that man could get me to reveal anything. You might as well kill me now."

Mia tilted her head to the side and wrote something down.

"Dear?" She said as she turned around. "Why don't you go get something to drink. I will be fine in here. This guy is only an operative. He is no real threat."

The operative stiffened. "I am one of the highest ranks you fool!" He shouted. "They don't jus-" his eyes widened and he shut his mouth when Mia turned back around to observe him.

"So they sent you here specifically because you are a higher ranked shadow. Interesting. Very well. I'll be back in a few hours. Try not to piss yourself."

Mia left the room and immediately entered the room with the two way mirror. "If you can't control yourself, I need you to go. He obviously isn't scared of pain or death." She murmured while glaring at Eric.

Eric sighed and leaned against her. "I know. I know. I'm sorry. I just get so sick and tired of hearing these empire goons repeating the same shit over and over. It reminds me of stories I read when I was little in my world of racism."

Mia smiled and began running her fingers through his scalp. "Go home, babe. Erica and I can handle this. Plus, if anything happens, we have Tryasche here. You don't have to worry about me."

Eric sighed and stood up. He looked over at Erica who was typing away on the laptop. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Alright. I know I am just making things worse. I'll have dinner ready for when you get home."

She smiled and kissed him. "I look forward to it." Mia said and hugged him tightly.

After Eric left, Mia's eyes darkened. "Now. How best to get more information out of this swine?"

Erica crossed her legs and observed the prisoner. "I get the feeling that I know him from somewhere. I think he trained one of the heroes."

Mia sat down and looked at the younger woman. "We have been working together long enough for me to know that you hated working for the Empire and wanted to escape. If I send you in there, will you be okay? I don't want to reopen old wounds."

Erica looked up from her laptop. "Yes. I am sure. You guys took Justin and I in when you could have killed us or imprisoned us. For that, I will always be grateful." Erica grabbed the hem of her dress. "If it means facing some of the people I hated the most, I don't care. As long as I can help in any way, I will."

Mia smiled and stood up, patting the younger woman on her shoulder. "Okay. We will take a break. We'll come back in a few hours. Let the prisoner marinate before we ask him anything else."

Later that afternoon, Mia and Erica walked back down the stairs from their office. After a talk with Justin, Erica realized the man being held captive was a captain in the Veil. They were high level operatives in charge of infiltrating and assassination.

Erica had spent the next few hours after her conversation with Justin writing down what she remembered about the Veil, and comparing those notes with what Mia had in her notes about "The Shadows." Soon, information that the two had compiled would be going out to all the leaders.

Erica opened the door to the interrogation room, and the Veil operative looked up. His eyes were wide. "Why are you her-"

"Shut up." She said coldly and sat down across from him. She crossed her legs and slid a folder onto the desk. "A veil operator failing? What was the punishment for that? Oh yes. I remember. You would be fed to the Lycaon feet first. After all, what use does the Empire have for a operative that had their identity exposed?"

The operative sneered. "I didn't fail."

Erica sighed. "Is sneering all you can do, Hisha? Even back in Brishan City, you were a broody one."

Hisha leaned back and laughed. The mana shackles around him tightened, but he paid them no heed. "You were nothing more than a tutor. A slave to the same system I was. You have nothing here to scare me. Not even a hero themself can make me talk. You will just have to kill m-"

"Is that so?" A young female voice said as the door opened. Hisha's eyes widened and he tried to break the shackles. Red crimson hair and green eyes stared at him from the corner. Erica turned around, frowning.

"I thought Jessica wouldn't come until later?"

Erica remained silent as Jessica walked over, her eyes lighting up with fury. "So you've managed to crawl your way over here, Hisha?" Jessica said, mana rolling between her fingers. He could feel the heat from where he sat. Sweat dripped down his forehead.

"So you lived." He growled, his eyes narrowing.

"It seems I did." She said with a smirk, pulling up a chair. "It seems like you might not though. What was a captain doing on such a doomed mission? Your plan was to... what? Mess with us for a little, maybe kill a few people, and then leave? Seems sloppy. You never do sloppy."

Hisha glowered at the two women, still struggling against the shackles. "How could we have known that the witch and Dragon King were here?" He growled. "It doesn't matter who you have on your side. You will fall. Even now, the Ark makes it's approach."

Erica slid a picture of the destroyed Ark towards the man. Even though it had split in two, the cannons poking out from the river and the half submerged woman at the front of the ship identified it.

"The Consortium." He muttered. "Impossible."

Erica laughed and leaned forward. "You have no hope, and no chance to win, Hisha. I suggest you start coughing up details."

Hisha looked down at the map, and shook his head. "I will speak no more. You can torture me. You can burn me with mana. You can do anything you know to do, but I will not talk."

Erica and Jessica tried to get more information out, but it was to no avail. By late evening, both women were tired of the charade. They looked at each other and shrugged. Without saying another word to the captive, they walked out of the room and into the room behind the two way glass.

Eric and Mia were there with Justin.

"He isn't talking." Mia said, rubbing her forehead between her hands.

Erica walked over to Justin and pecked him on the cheek. "What do you think, Justin?"

Justin looked at Eric. "Well, I am not an intelligence officer, but Master Sergeant has talked about interrogation to me before." He said as he wrapped his arms around Erica.

"We know that he wasn't here to kill or assassinate. I think that's a pretty big clue. From what I taught the Empire about asymetric warfare with Josh, I'm guessing they sent spies out before the merge. He didn't know about the Ark falling, so I'm guessing he's been here for a few weeks. They likely wanted Hisha to find out who the leaders were and where they are so that they could target high value areas with the Ark, had it survived."

The room went still as Mia wrote down notes. She underlined Justin's theory. "That fits with how they have done operations in the past." She murmured. "Do we pull what I did before with the other hero? Does he have a family? Maybe we can offer to rescue his family. In return for his cooperation, he can have supervised visits with them?"

Eric tapped his fingers against the desk. "That could work. If he does have family, Ricky and the team can save them, and then we can offer them shelter here. In exchange for information, he can have the supervised visits."

Erica looked through the window. "I think Justin should be the one to offer that. Hisha doesn't seem to take too kindly to us."

Eric rubbed his face. "I wonder why? Every one of us was antagonistic." He said with a weary sigh. "Including me. That fucker was pissing me off."