Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It started, as many things did with the two of them, with an observation and an off-hand remark while no one else was thinking to pay attention to them. Even though not paying attention to Maínomai was not in your best interests if you wanted to keep what was in your pockets out of his, Pýř thought.

"Captain's more upset than he looks about things."

He was, and he had his reasons. "Stress." Pýř suggested, letting his partner think it over further as the Mist chased the line of thought to its inevitable conclusion. There were other factors, always were but that was the first one that came to mind.

"Partly?" Maínomai clicked his knitting needles together instead of finger tapping. "He's leading the Varia, his Sky's still detained, the Varia's getting slandered by Nono and Sawada to all and sundry halfway around the world, he's still a teenager, Boss' other Guardians don't really have the Alliance connections or the inclination to enable a counter PR campaign while he's away, and our future retirement plans basically depend on who gets to become Decimo, Boss, one of the idiots or Nono's rotting skeleton!"

Pýř turned that over in his mind, poking at other angles. What he knew for certain, what he believed and more data pointing towards certain actions. All the many varied reasons for that and other issues. "I don't think Captain's been allowed to visit."

"I don't think he has either, which is so unfair. Boss was sanctioned with the Varia and the Varia sanctions are over and have been for over a year!" Or else Captain wouldn't have been on his recruiting tour, and neither would they.

"Then unless it's said otherwise and kept hush at the higher levels, Boss is being illegally detained under Nono Vongola's orders."

"And Nono Vongola doesn't care to do anything more than hold him hostage for Captain's obedience. And for the forbearance of the Varia so we don't off him directly, he's not really doing anything other than what he's already been doing, the slander and the political distance and it's not like either is really effecting the Varia's bottom line. The sanctioned year was pretty slow, but not really terrible-terrible in terms of business."

"No, he wouldn't directly slash the pay himself, too direct." Pýř said, thinking it over as if he was Nono Vongola, from what he knew of the psychological profile. "He's afraid to take strong direct action against the Varia. The sanctions ultimately weren't strong or direct, just a slap on the wrist. People will still continue to buy our services because we are the best. However Nono Vongola is old, he's arrogant and thinks the Underworld laws are for his lessers." That they don't apply to him. Or else he wouldn't be holding his own son hostage so as to keep Captain in line. Through Captain, that was the rest of the Varia more or less in line.

"Oh, you have a plan!"

"Research first."

And that's how it started.

And now here they were, a few months and a lot of discreet research later, committing what some philistines would call treason, as if the Varia swear oaths of loyalty to the Vongola. The Varia, as a House, has the freedom to act against external threats and has latitude with internal ones as well, so long as they're discreet. It's why they don't swear loyalty oaths. Contracts signed, not oaths sworn. Precise and clearly defined terms.

And as everyone knows, the devil is in the details. How is one defining the Vongola? Nono Vongola and his orders, or the community and people he's supposed to serve?

"So you'd think security would be better here, if he's keeping Boss locked away in the basement. Hey, do you think he's rotting down here? Hopefully not, Captain would be so sad."

"There's other ways to keep people contained." Not good ways for anyone's health, but they're taking the back way in; it is bound to be less travelled than any other route, especially today.

"Hmm-hmm. Nono's not creative enough to bind Boss' Flames to his bones and make a fake out of Boss still existing. Also if he were doing that he'd know it was temporary and would have tried to kill Captain and Bel and Mammon by now. Well, at least one of them. Or the reverse." In that they would have killed him. The Varia made a living off of killing seemingly untouchable targets.

"Boss is his son," Pýř pointed out. However warm and fuzzy family memories didn't prevent family from acting heinously towards each other. As he well knew.

Another locked door down here, but not for long. He sidestepped to let his partner get at it. He had better night vision, and more tricks to deal with any potential security. No electronic sensors here, which he told his partner.

"And yet, detained still and oh, now we're getting somewhere. Oh, really now, what's with these lack of alarms?" His partner complained as he opened the door. No trip wires, no hair triggers to show the door had been opened.

Pýř took point again, noting the changes in the air. "Helpful. Keep sharp." Let's not get found being somewhere we're not supposed to be. Even with the Vongola busy, couldn't be too careful. In they went, closing the door behind them and reengaging the lock. This room had poor air circulation.

"I'm really doubting Boss' health, that air tasted old like no one even visits down here and my trace said Boss hadn't left so if he's been turned into some sort of frost lich in this basement, I'm going to be very disappointed, mostly because we didn't know that was possible and we really should, we're the Varia we know stuff-"

"Found a possible hiding spot," Pýř said, his Flame senses pinging off of a void, his partner falling silent. The lack of Flame based security was so odd this close to Don Vongola, given they were directly under the main building of the Iron Fort, but it left him free to use it to sharpen his hearing for any technological sensors. No electrical humming except ahead. "Light," he warned, first flicking on a torch and sliding the beam over everything around that void. That looked like a computer and a mystery. Then he let a drift of Cloud circle the flame void and the box within it. Two ball wisps per side, so as to provide steady light.

And then they both circled it looking for other indicators that the area was trapped with anything, anything that could possibly give them away as having been in the area, the computer bank set up nearby and the whole arrangement. Certainly evidence of something, but what? Pýř took a few pictures; they'd be black and white, but it meant they could develop the film in-house later.

Preliminary scouting done. No electronics other than the computer bank, no tripwires, no other signs that would alert anyone who visited that someone else had been here. Sloppy. "Impressions?"

"That's a makeshift freezer and it's not even a good one. Where's the insulation, the temperature seals? Why do they have such a shoddily made prison? Where's the workmanship? Let's just stack steel blocks on each other and not be arsed to make sure they'll stay standing properly. See, the cord there, further shitty workmanship, the weight of these steel freezer walls is gonna break that cable in time. Let's wrap this structure up in chains, really make it obvious we've got something locked away and we're not even bothering to do anything half decent with the security on the way down here."

"Recommendation report later, computer data." The computer was left on, so it was just a matter of waking it up. Pýř tapped the mouse with a gloved hand.

"Oh yes, that might have answers and uh please tell me that they at least password protected this." His partner begged.

"A login."

"Finally something!" Maínomai cheered, leaping over and then looking at the keyboard intently.

Pýř took that as his cue to look into the usual suspects in terms of places to hide notes and yes. That was a login name and password on a sticky note in a drawer that wasn't even trapped. Absolutely negligent. "A fake-out?"

Maínomai looked between the paper and keyboard, as his Flames gently touched the keys. "No, that's a legit log-in, but it would actually get recorded in the system as accessed here by whoever this is, so I'm just gonna go and create a new admin account, and use that, give me a few this computer is probably older than the both of us."

Pýř was thinking implications and consequences when he noticed everything get dimmer, as the computer did a soft reboot -now willing to accept the authority of the new admin account- and Maínomai got to access the data. His drifting Cloud wisps providing light were also getting dimmer. Interesting implications, with the void. How would the math work out?

"And in with glorious access, so the data. And... Looks boring to me."

"Hmm." He agreed, reading over his partner's shoulder. Not super interesting data. "Humidity, temperature of the prison. Day, times. Very static." Underground and isolated meant that it did not vary much in the day to day. Some yes, but not a lot.

"So the ice lich theory is looking more likely. Kuchisake will enjoy that anyway."

Captain could go either way. Depending on if this was, what he suspected it was.

"Done doctoring the data?"

"Do that later. Gotta see what we're working with first."

Because it could be someone -or something- else locked up in an ice prison in an area of the Iron Fort's basement that had pockmarks in the supporting pillars. Pockmarks cut sharp and smooth as only the most controlled and precise users of Storm Flames could manage or when vaporized by Wrath Flames. Maybe a congress of Storms got stoned on club drugs, used the basement as a rave site and started going wild with Storm Flames because of a shared spider hallucination. Then they locked up the spider. "So getting the chains off next and opening the box." And if necessary, chaining it back up, should it be some other Vongola secret in the basement that wasn't their business.

Doubtful, but possible.

"I have extra lockpicks!" Maínomai assured him as he brought out Pýř's set and his own. Then it was a few quiet moments of unlocking the chains, Maínomai confidently working the length of them loose enough to slide off the roughly assembled box.

"How much do you think this weighs?" How much Flame to use to pry it open? Too little and he'd hurt himself. Too much and he'd fling them into a pillar and then the Iron Fort might come down on them.

"Maybe a quarter ton? Per block?"

"Wild guess or estimated?"

"Walk in freezer door weight, higher side."

An educated guess then.

Then it was his turn. Pýř used a touch of Cloud -steadily increased- as he pried open the box, because they really had used metal thick enough that each panel weighed around half a ton. Maybe. At a certain point of Flame Enhancement, it really hard to tell anything exact in terms of weight. No one went around juggling freezer doors and adjusting the steel panels was awkward due to size.

Once thoroughly cracked open, he stepped back and turned his torch back on.

And swore, as he got a proper look at the ice.

And who was inside it.

"No touchy."

Maínomai withdrew his lockpick and cocked his head. "Oh that is nasty ice, is it really-?"

"Nibbles on Flames, probably drains ambient Flames based on the void I sensed coming in. Likely only going to melt when Boss' Flames and the ambient ones can no longer keep the ice stable. Data shows a slow decline." Minuscule really. He'd have to take pictures of the numbers to crunch later but it was doubtful it would collapse within the decade. Maybe not even two decades later.

"So the ice existing is a sign Boss is alive." Maínomai said flatly.

"Probably. Melting him might still kill him, once we know how to melt it." Pyr took the moment to fully remove the lid, pull back the other panels further and snap a few more pictures, while his partner went back to the computer -and more importantly, out of touching range- to theorize. That prevented those wandering hands from accidentally touching the ice. He didn't have to tell his partner to think.

"Thermal shock being very possible. So how exactly is it working to do that Flame wise. Is it doing Ice because the Flames were told to be Ice, like Conjuring an ice sculpture or from some other principle of Flames? Depending on how it functions, there's options because to me that looks like Sky Bullshit -Boss was supposed to be fighting Nono and well, all the damage in the room says he was but the lack of accuracy is concerning- but hmm. I think it's likely a technique that's more mindset -more Will- than technical or scientific foundation, so the solution is gonna be some form of brute forcing it off. Less key and lock and more chemical reaction perhaps. With the drain function.. might take more. Overload the Flame absorption function? Possibly."

His partner crouched down and tilted his head, looking up at an angle to just above the ice. "Harmony to enforce stillness? Temperature is just rate of vibes, really. No, that's not what was done. Stillness would be lethal. Everything moves until you get down to absolute zero and this isn't near close to cold enough for that. The ice isn't about momentum specifically, just an inverse of Flames. Reversing propulsion? Skies are supposed to be speedy. Stasis as a foundational idea? Theoretically, no time will have passed for Boss, assuming Boss gets defrosted now, if we had a Sky to counter this Bullshit. How much would strength matter?"

His partner's tapping indicated he had switched to problem solving. "I think I could do a half decent imitation of Tyrant's Flames. Don't really have a lot of references for Skies and leaving Boss frozen, even though he's out of the box now, would be sloppy of us. High risk, even if nobody's come down here before there are definitely occasional checks. One sec, gotta find... and there. Looking at the log-in activity on this terminal and, and got it. Not to any specific schedule either but those dates did look familiar somehow... Oh! Vongola events, the big twice-yearly ones Captain attends; checks after a Varia on the premises, really?" His partner's theorizing is as ever, illuminating.

Good news that Lussaria did not want to go to the Solstice Ball tonight, while Captain was still on tour.

"Can't take him to the Varia," Pýř stated.

"Yeah, that ice would just grow because it'd feast on Mammon's Territory."

And leaving Boss here is unacceptable. For reasons. So Boss and his icy bed are going to have to be moved. "Delaying a defrost because we want medical services on hand and even after he's defrosted, Boss might not be stable enough to move. Obscure and secure location." One that wasn't a Varia safehouse, was nearby and still secure. "Tesla's?" 

"The hunting lodge? There's some room there. Not a lot but enough. I'd have to clear out some furniture. I'd also wanna nab Luss because Boss is most familiar with him as a healer, which means telling him and with Captain out and Mammon probably following that's ew, Ottabio left in charge by dint of seniority. Nevermind he should have retired already. He's how old now? And he'd be a thorn in the side about the rest of things, tattling so he's gotta go."

"Maínomai."

"What? You know you've been wanting to for years!" His partner knew him far too well.

Pýř only nodded the once, as he thought about it. There was always a price to pay, but this one came with perks he could enjoy. With time. Consequences... he could get away with it. With some assistance and a little luck. Double down and more in terms of commitment in the immediate. Having come this far now, the only way out was through.

"Well, I think Cloud Officer Pýř does have a nice ring to it, do you think we -"

"If Levi's a bother later he can have an accident with your security because he's bothering Boss."

His partner visibly cheered up at that news before he turned to him. "So how are we going to get Boss out without the Flame Munching Ice nomming my Flames in transit?"

Pýř tilted his head. Cursed artifact handling protocols would probably work. Sure the ice prison ate Flames, but not as quickly as it could have. They had a time frame to work with. "Flame insulating tarp? And wrap that up, so he's a package." A whole discrete unit to pocket in Flames instead of individual pieces that could get lost in the pockets or eat their way out.

"Wrapping paper! Present for Captain! Be right back, I know there's a linen closet nearby-"

Pýř took a few moments to see what traces they might have left with their passing and clean up. Maínomai would pick up what Flame traces he had shed as he always did, but Pýř took the time to take pictures of the data, then faked out the data the computer would display upon being checked. Not quite a loop of last year's data, but shuffling everything off not quite a week from now until the end of next Quiet Week would be more than sufficient. Upon discovery -which was inevitable if they succeeded in releasing Boss, eventually- it would be impossible to prove when they have broken in, with months of data faked out. They had been locking things up behind them as they went, because his partner could slide in and out of Vongola security like it wasn't even there, and more to the point, there wasn't any in this part of the basement.

"And back!" his partner bounced on his toes. "Do you think Captain will like his Christmas present?" The Alteration specialist showed off his bounty. Silk. Altered to become silk, but it would still work as an insulation layer.

"It'll be the best one he's gotten in years." He was even contributing. "Lever please." One was produced and then put to use.

"Oh yeah, so we can really wrap it up," Maínomai giggled, as the silk as pulled at the corners by thin strings of Mist, under and then over their frozen Boss, once the other side was also lifted up and knotted smartly at the top. "Are we putting a fake ice cube in after?"

"Data's looped but that means nothing if it's warm enough that they do a visual check." Boss may decide to lie low for a bit. Plus health complications could arise. Theoretically they had six months if Boss laid low long enough for that. Potentially less than twelve hours if Nono Vongola decided to be paranoid.

"Ah point, so uh-"

"Shoo." He told him. His partner grabbed the silk and vanished from sight. To Tesla's.

Pýř took a few moments to consider his options. How would you make an ice decoy? Especially to keep Flame absorption as an effect? He needed an effective decoy. The Flame void was as distinctive as the chill in the air to his senses. He needed both.

The answer, of course, was to keep it simple. Cloud Flames held the property of Propagation, which most used as a means of Multiplication, generally of physical properties, physical abilities and quantities. The inverse of Propagation is usually used for more abstract feats. Miniaturization, working off of the concept of reduction. The concept to keep the voidlike feeling would have to be Depletion of the ambient Flames.

So if he was going to do it, the core of the technique needed to have his depletion-ice grow with Flame and temperature exposure. Two new tricks to make function together -feedback loop it into one?- tricky when Cloud Flames liked to work exponentially and not in linear functions. The again, if he was already bending the nature of the Flame towards concepts, what was one more kink?

And the resulting trick was not something he'd like to keep in his hand while attempting, because it would be so easy to lose control of it and lose the hand. And then Maínomai would have two ice cubes to juggle. That would be rude, when he had just gotten back.

"What'cha thinking Pýř?"

"Need a sacrificial Flame focus, got a trick to test."

"I think I saw one of Boss' hair feathers lying around which might work, since your knives aren't really sacrificial." It was quickly retrieved and examined; it had fallen out of its clip. It didn't carry any of Boss's flame traces, but transferring that was a different trick, to amplify the echo of those traces lingering in the wider room despite the prior presence of leeching Flame void. And now it did hold a trace of Boss' Flames. Not exactly, but close enough. That would befoul tracking attempts, presuming he could preserve it in his new and untested trick. The ice would just be corrupting that feeling. Hopefully.

Pýř held the feather and did a couple of quick tests for velocity, and then sacrificed a pen so that the feather could be tossed while accounting for feather physics. In this case, the weight of the pen pulling the feather to where Pýř wanted it to go, when tossed.

And then it was time to actually try his Cloud-ice theory out, the tiniest he could to ensure it worked. He could try again if he failed; the depths of his partner's pockets were bewildering. He would prefer not to sacrifice knives to the attempt though.

Tossed it.

And good start -ice bloomed before the pen hit the ground. A smaller bloom than the ice Boss was wrapped in, but plenty sufficient as the giant and growing hailstone bounced across the floor, skidding into one of the standing steel walls he hadn't moved. It cracked into chunks, reformed like some malevolent ice spirit reaching for them and made Pýř exceedingly glad that they were not on Varia property testing this. Nastier than he thought, even with the echoes of Boss's Flames inside it. For now.

His closest wisps winked out. His new ice-trick crackled and reformed slightly larger.

"Inspiration stuck and wow, that is pretty but also scary and we need to wrap it up so as to help Boss. Quickly. I think your new trick looks a leetle too hungry."

Pýř agreed. This trick he'd happily leave behind in this fake freezer. Factorial, not exponential which was not that much better. It would grow fast. He played the part of muscle once more to rebuild the rest of the shitty prison and then they chained it back up, keeping an ear out for the growing ice. He had felt the temperature drop as the lack of insulation in the former prison made itself known, but it would do for now. Once he had more practice, they could come back and replace it with something more in line with the data the computer had been tracking.

Maybe he really could get into the holiday spirit this year.

Better to give than to receive, as they said.

Chapter Text

Maínomai drops his partner off for a spot of well-deserved murder and heads for Medical. They'd be the ones most likely to know where Luss is at, and if he is awake because the Sun Officer woke up petty and cranky compared to Captain's Loud. But Luss would understand, if Maínomai explains it right. He should still be up, but with half of Medical out on holiday, schedules would have shifted so who knew what he'd have to tell a possibly cranky Sun Officer?

Oh shoot, he didn't have an explanation prepared so he is just gonna babble and no, that really isn't good. Besides, most of the rest of the Varia is already off for winter holiday vacations -exceptions for half of Information and Medical- and yes, the timing was kinda the point of why he and Pýř had picked now to go snoop but it is still inconvenient given they needed help now! Less watchers here and more chaos there and how to explain how things went?

What would be short and to the point and professional sounding? He really should have asked his partner before splitting up!

He is going to explain things so badly...

His feet drag him to Maghirabi before he could come up with an explanation. Oops! She looks at him suspiciously. "What brings you here looking so sheepish this evening Maínomai?"

Don't babble, don't babble- "Eh, it's kinda complicated and convoluted and I kinda need to get help for someone, was getting Captain a Christmas present and things got complicated and I really need someone that's able to treat frostbite because I don't really know how but the other stuff is fixable! Probably. Put it all back up properly and everything!"

She side-eyes him. Justifiably. "Just frostbite?"

"Eh no. Kinda frozen solid. But alive! Probably!"

Oh, that sounds so! Much! Worse! It really is awful to think about! At least she was willing to help...

"Let me tell Luss, he's in his office here, actually come with-"

Maghirabi is the best! Even with his awful explanation! A friendship worth getting poisoned in Medical for! Now words, how to word?

"Sure, I can do that." And well, it seems like he blinked while trying to compose the right words -or even just better words- and then they were in Lussaria's professional Sun Officer office and then he was babbling as soon as the door is shut behind him, "Hi Lussuaria! Pýř and I stole Boss out from the basement Nono Vongola was keeping him in and we can't bring him here because he's trapped in Flame Ice Sky Bullshit that eats ambient Flames and we have an idea of how to defrost him but I'm not Medical so I don't wanna defrost him without someone there who knows how to do that safely and-"

"Breathe, and say that again?"

Maínomai takes a deep breath. More report than explanation? He can do that, a bit slower is fine for reports. And Luss is -had been- doing paperwork, so needs a moment to adjust focus. Understandable. 

"So a while back Pýř and I noticed that Boss' continued detention was aberrant because Varia sanctions had been lifted and had been for over a year. And there was no documentation that outlined anything specific for Boss to make him an exception, because as part of the Varia, especially as Head of the Varia, if there was a reason, it should be in his file and documented and also under sanctions that the Vongola actually uses, like a legit house arrest. So we did further research, found a lot of Vongola Law violations and then also Boss while spelunking in the Iron Fort's basement! Boss who's frozen in some Sky Bullshit Flame Ice that eats other Flames, so it'd eat Mammon's Territory, so we wrapped him up in silk and dropped him off at a secondary location and I'd rather not leave him frozen for longer than I have to, since the process is -"

"Okay, that changes things," the pharmacist to his side sighs. Wait did she think that he had- well. Yes, he could have! But why would he freeze someone when there were other means methods that were less obvious and messy? Ice preserves evidence! He isn't that sloppy!

"Yes, yes it does honeybun. Let me go grab supplies, Mags-"

"On it!"

"Do you need me to grab anything?" Maínomai asks.

"No, I'll just have Mammon grab a whole suite -oh no, that wouldn't work, you said the ice eats Flames so we're going to have- Mammon! Darling! Maínomai's given us an early Christmas present!"

Mammon floats out of Lussaria's shadow. "Mu, I heard. Fetch. Faster or I'll charge you."

"It's not like Boss is gonna notice a few extra minutes. The ice has him in stasis, so he hasn't even noticed this whole past year." And a half, the half is also important- no, longer. Sanctions levied first, then the lifting of them on the Varia letting Captain go on his sword and recruiting tour almost a year later. A year into his world tour is when Maínomai was with Captain for long enough to see that something needed doing and then it was research! So two years! And change. 

Does that make him and Captain the same age now? He'd have to go through and count the days. 

Captain might be older than Boss now.

What was the difference between them anyway? A couple years maybe? No, he remembers hearing about Boss turning sixteen, so with Captain at fourteen- this is really not the time for that!

"What?" Mammon asks, dropping slightly lower in the air.

"So Flame Ice is kinda bullshit and Pýř had to figure out how to make Cloud Flames do the same so no one notices that Boss' prison isn't cold and eating ambient Flames anymore, we'll have to clean that up eventually and that's going to need some practice time but since the Boss Ice-crystal was Nono Vongola's doing, it's some sort of Sky Bullshit to invert-" well, Skies could do a lot- he knew a Sky he could ask- he bounces on his toes.

"What?"

"I should grab Tyrant, he's a Sky so would be better at figuring out how to undo a Vongola Secret Technique™ if he's seen Ottava do it before-"

"Oh that would be helpful dear!" Lussaria agrees as he tosses more supplies onto the examination bed. That is a nice blanket, looked soft and focus! Tyrant!

Seeing that Mammon is there to be the pocket for all that, Maínomai decides it was best to go fetch Tyrant when Mammon turns to face the Sun Officer.

"What exactly is going on Lussaria?"

"A rescue Mammon-sweetie!"

Pýř ambushed Ottabio in Ottabio's own rooms and then walked out of them, wearing the badges of his new Office.

That sort of security was supposed to work to slow and alarm anyone? Better than what he'd seen out of the Iron Fort's basement -there had been nothing there, for all that above ground was formidable- but Ottabio's was still lacking for all it existed.

Maybe his standards were skewed.

Maínomai was very good at nudging most security into letting him through.

Ottabio was aware of his death for all of a split second when Pýř applied enough of his own Flames to multiply the internal forces of Ottabio's heart, effectively causing at least a massive aortic hemorrhage and the associated massive internal bleeding. The internal blood loss then caused the former Cloud Officer to pass out and effectively perish; still a few minutes before the brain used up the last of its supply but Ottabio was effectively dead.

He brought up his phone, waited the two rings for Tàjna to pick up.

"Pýř?"

"Got a fresh brain for you, Ottabio's room." He said, letting the Interrogation specialist of Information Squad know where to go.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

With that done, his partner more useful in the defrost operations as transport and smart enough to keep out of the way of Medical's work, that left Pýř at more of a loss of things to do, beyond notifying Housekeeping that Ottabio had been terminated -with prejudice- and his rooms needed clearing out before the year was out. No, all the blood stayed inside the body where it's supposed to be, yes someone else was going to pick up the body, so the cleaning can be put off till tomorrow.

And since he was feeling the holiday spirit, he was going to spread joy, to the other Varia Officers at least.

A little fear and terror to everyone else in the Alliance.

He would update his personal paperwork within the week, taking it out of Mist Division, but for now he really only needed to speak Lawyer -a language he spoke fluently and was not on any of his Varia paperwork, accredited to his real name- and send a missive to Vongola Legal, to get there right before that Office closes for the holidays. The Solstice Ball was tonight, hence their selection of today as one of the best moments to go nosing around. So many people were in and out and busy, focused on making sure the event went off properly.

Tomorrow was traditionally a half day at work in the Alliance, so as to give more time for enjoyment of the holidays. It was time to clean up and lock up the office until it opened again for normal business.

Thankfully, the laws within the Alliance mostly follow the same formulas as normal law. He had already drafted the missive in his head, wrote it, then got Varia Legal to review -a small role in Housekeeping mostly dealing with inheritance law because of regular Varia deaths but still accredited- and had it set up to be dropped off as a milk-run for an Apprentice in the morning.

That done, he decided he needed a moment to think.

Boss' basement freezer prison required some speculation. How did that happen and why? Less the prison -that was extra and shoddy, the ice alone would prove sufficient for containment- and more on the events leading to and of the imprisonment itself.

Pýř had thought Boss leading that raid had seemed off, Information agreed even afterwards, but it wasn't his business because back then he had missions lined up already, so he hadn't thought to investigate when he had actual work to do. It was informally agreed if not said however that Boss had underbaked the planned raid. Planned for success assuredly, but also planed for things to go wrong. Even with the Officer turnover at the time, there were veterans who would say something about the sloppiness or just adjust in field. The Varia skewed young and capable, but not for cowardly when it came to Squad Leaders and Officers.

If Boss could plan for sanctions afterwards, why couldn't he plan for more back-up than Captain when he ran after Don Vongola? Even getting sold out and the Iron Fort having the support of the CEDEF did not change the fact that Boss had certainly tried to murder his father. And failed.

Especially as he had fought hard enough that Pýř had genuine concerns about the structural integrity of building above.

But despite the amount of damage to the room, it wasn't quite certain that Boss had been trying to incinerate Nono Vongola. It was more than concerning that Boss had missed so many times when Pýř knew Boss had the handgun accuracy to pass Varia certifications; as one of the Varia's generalists, he could sign off on a number of qualifications and he had done so for Boss' small arms qualifications.

And at closer range, like hand to hand, it would be absurd to have missed so many times, when his target was an old man in his sixties who had effectively been riding a desk since he was made Don Vongola.

Either the misses were intentional or something happened to make Boss miss.

He'd have to look at the paperwork again, because he thought Boss had the sort of Flame senses to make illusions a non-issue. So why follow Nono away from the rest of the Varia in the first place? The guns had range and following anyone down to a prepared secondary location was always tactically unwise. Boss would have known that. What was the focus there? Revenge? Anger from having lost his head? A moment to think tactics through would have just blown out the supporting pillars and let the Iron Fort fall on Nono's head.

Those were all answers he was unlikely to get until Boss was awake and coherent.

So now all he had to do was survive through the holidays and he'd be established as Officer to those returning from holidays. Especially with the gratitude of the other Officers cementing his position as well earned.

Maínomai is happy that the plan is coming together! A leetle more ad-hoc, but Tyrant is coming along! The Sky's following him along to Medical, where Luss is waiting with more people.

"How many are coming with? Because there's only so much room in the room, even after I pocketed the furniture, and I'd rather not transport a lot of people directly into the room filled with nasty Flame Ice but there isn't much other space."

"Some of my lovely minions are remaining here on standby, for once we do have Boss stable enough to transport, in case he needs more attention." The Sun Officer gestured the standby medics to step back, which left a team of three medical minions in addition to Luss, Mammon and Tyrant to take over. Seven then.

"Oh, that makes sense, can't move him unless he's out of the ice and stable enough to move."

"Take us on over sweetie," Luss orders, so Maínomai does and drops them at the front door of the hunting lodge.

Which is locked when Maínomai goes to turn the knob and then he tells it that it's not locked with a touch of Mist and it opens on the second go, and then he flicks on the lights so the medical team can see the recently emptied room so as to make room for the Flame Ice surrounding Boss and the silk around the ice prison.

Everyone breaks into laughter as they get out of the entryway and are able to see the whole of the recently emptied room.

Oops, he had forgotten he'd done that!

The wrapping paper! Well, wrapping silk because silk is isolating the ice!

With its dancing damasked sharks!

"Sharks!" One of the medical minions giggles, almost bent over. Luss' hand is on their face and he is trying to be professional and serious and yet, he's laughing.

Maínomai is sure it's fine, because even Tyrant is chuckling and wow- he hadn't thought it was that funny!

Captain is sure to love the wrapping paper then!

After a few more minutes -where poise is regained and boggles are made because Tyrant is sporting an itsy bitsy smile if he is no longer laughing himself, the patient bed is set up and the Flame Ice Package is placed on the bed- Maínomai has everyone take half a step back as he took a tendril of Mist to untie the damasked silk and yanked it back before the silk fell.

Lussaria sneezed and then swore, so Maínomai pointed him to the kitchen sink to wash up -same for the other medics because cleanliness is important- as everyone else got a look at Boss in the Flame Ice.

Now that he had much better light, he could see the expression on Boss' face and oh, that icky Flame Ice did not go up instantly. And then Nono Vongola left him on ice for over two years? That's just awful! Terrible parenting and from Maínomai that is saying something! Pýř would agree and that'd say worse.

"Boss," Mammon says quietly, all previous levity vanishing faster than uh, he was drawing a blank. Something fast. Sunk. Anchor? Lead balloon? No, focus.

The rest of the Medical team also instantly sobers up.

Mammon sounded so sad.

"So, explain this Flame Ice, how you think it works," Mammon demands. Because I want my Sky out, going unsaid very loudly.

Oh, so theory crafting! "As far as we could sense and experiment with considering our time restraints and location, the Ice works on an Inversion principle for the composite Flames known as Sky Flames. Not always opposite to the classical attributes associated with individual Flames, but also plausibly in reverse color order. So start with Cloud and invert the Propagation for Depletion, Mist is less Construction and more Direction. Rain's tricky because it's not really working on Tranquility, so much as ensuring clear movement of energy which makes it more like Flow. That's the base of the technique and is basically how it's eating Flames because it feeds Flames into holding its structure. Lightning Flames to make it brittle in a specific manner, but that's so it can be torn down later. Sun Flames turn Activation into Preservation and Storm flames are used to pull it all together as one cohesive whole. I'm not really sure how well you can place concepts and invert attributes on Sky Flames, but there's probably something there that makes the technique..."

And then Maínomai is aware that no one is liking any word he's saying because yes! That is a lot of things going at once! But Sky Flames have the Harmony attribute so they always have a lot of things going on to their techniques! Even if it's just Tyrant doing what he does to his coffee! It was an interesting study!

Also he's not allowed to drink it without permission because his caffeine tolerance is pretty crap, but he can drink it. A little anyway! And be fine! He's managed to fall asleep twenty minutes later for a nap even!

"How would you go about breaking the technique then?" Lussaria muses. "Or melting it."

"And how and to what extent too," Maghirabi points out. "Do we blaze through from one direction or do we undo it layer by layer, if that's possible. We know it's cold, so we are looking at complications depending on how we defrost Boss, and also in how he got frozen. As soon as that ice is gone, we're going to need to get Boss dry, assuming he even gets wet from it." Flames makes that easy, but it still needs saying. Since the ice could have accumulated humidity.

Maínomai lets Tyrant pass him, so the former Head of the Varia could examine the ice himself. "Maínomai's explanation is quite good, if incomplete."

Wha? Praise? From Tyrant.

"With practice a group of individuals could eventually manage something akin to the Zero Point in theory. He is however missing two points for having only seen this example less than an hour ago. One is that each aspect can further catalyze each other, transforming into a more coherent whole. Second, the principle underlying the Sky inverted property is that of Isolation," Tyrant explains. "Ottava experimented quite thoroughly after she had retired, when not doting on her fosterlings or socializing within the Alliance for the advancement of the Vongola. It appears that Timoteo's work here is unstable and he needs to practice, if the Flame Ice is absorbing ambient Flames to maintain its integrity."

Maínomai bounces on his toes.

Tyrant had said his explanation was good! "That's what the computer was monitoring for! And why they had placed the walls and chains! Don Vongola didn't manage to do his technique properly, knew it and so had to rely on external aids to further isolate the ice from the environment! And then they put chains on top of that!"

"What?" He ignores the chorus of voices there.

He is absolutely going to have to write up a proper report for all of them.

"We took pictures! We were doing recon, following a Trace on Boss to see which property he might have been kept in, to see if he knew Varia sanctions were lifted. And we couldn't just go in-in directly, so we had to go spelunking in the basements and cellars as a roundabout route, which their security protecting was absolutely terrible and I'll write a report about that separately later. So bad! I was happy to see on the computer that at least the log-in had a password, even though they wrote the password down and it was in the desk! They were keeping Boss in the basement so as to limit ambient environmental factors from melting his prison and freeing him!"

"This implies we can safely transport Boss-honey back to the Varia, for the defrost once we're packed up again. So long as the rate is-"

"Maínomai, did Pýř make the diagnosis on the technique?" Mammon lands on Maínomai's shoulder.

"Yeah, he said no touchie, so we haven't. It ate his will o' wisps." Which if his partner were here, he'd be able to sense his own Flames in the ice, like Maínomai can see them with a leetle trickery to help. There were pretty distinct to his eyes, as Pýř's flames are known to be nasty and they always seem to make Lussaria sneeze.

"How long did that take? And distance?"

"Uh, eight wisps, eye sized, maybe ten minutes at variable distance from one to three meters."

"We're defrosting here." Mammon orders. 

"It would be better to do so in Varia Medical," Lussaria argues back. "More supplies, more space, not having to ensure he's stable after the defrost so as to move him, when we can move him when he's already stable." In the ice, he doesn't add.

"And Pýř has Flame Senses on par or better than Bel. Just because Don Vongola is capable of using Zero Point doesn't mean he spent the required time to perfect it and those technical flaws can have consequences." Hence the freezer aid.

Pýř would not be amused to have his secrets out and about in the open here. Or impressed at the squabbling of the two Officers.

Valid points on both sides though, even as he tunes further squabbling out.

And then Tyrant steps up, equally annoyed, hands faintly glowing and frees Boss from the ice. Just like that!

Well, not just like that but semantics! He made it look easy!

The ice doesn't just melt, it sublimates, so there's haze of condensation as Boss' ice prison steams under and around him, depositing him gently onto his gurney and raising the ambient humidity of the room to uncomfortable levels. Probably should open a window for them.

Maínomai can feel Boss is alive and aware with his own Flame senses. "I think I'm hallucinating," the Sky mumbles right as he actually passes out, as everyone medical takes it as their sign to focus on Boss and his condition. Mammon's just hovering there though, worried about Boss and his health. 

Maínomai takes it as his cue to go investigate Tesla's little kitchen, even as he hears Tyrant say to Mammon, "Mists used to use Territories to keep their patients alive during the war,"

-that's not his business.

Nope, he should celebrate! Goal accomplished, Boss found with bonus defrost mission successful!

Did Tesla have ice cream here? No? Darn.