"How long have you been sitting there?" Juliana attempted to roll over in her cot only to bump into someone sitting on the side of it. She didn't even have to look up to know who it was. 

"Only, like, five minutes," came Chase's soft response. "I didn't want to wake you up- you looked so peaceful." He'd almost felt guilty when he pulled back the thin white curtains that marked off Juliana's makeshift bedroom to see her laying on her back with her hair covering her eyes, her chest rising and falling in a slow, easy rhythm. Although it made sense to see her totally passed out after the previous night's events, it was so rare to see the uptight queen sleeping so deeply. 

"Peaceful," Juliana scoffed as she sat up, instantly grabbing the back of her neck in pain. "This thing was not made for sleeping in," she observed as she ran her hand down her black gauntlet.

"Yeah, I had Mrs. Montgomery bring up some of your clothes and stuff." Chase set down the large messenger bag he'd been carrying at the foot of the cot. "So you don't have to stay in that suit all day."  

"Thank goodness," Juliana let out a sigh of relief as she reached into the bag, pulling out an off-white blouse and a pair of black skinny jeans. "What time is it?" 

"5:30." 

"Why'd you wake me up at... Harry's here, isn't he?" Understanding dawned in Juliana's eyes as she rubbed them with her fists, fighting to wake herself up after barely four hours of sleep. 

Chase nodded. "I thought you'd want to be the first to see him."

The thing was, he was right. Juliana had been born into power- she was a natural at wielding it. She'd attended and conducted countless interrogations in her life, and not once had she let a prisoner get the better of her. She was tough, and she was capable of looking even tougher. As a twenty-two year old woman leading one of the world's most important countries, she had to be.  It was expected of her to be up and ready to question a suspect at 5:30 in the morning. But Harry wasn't a suspect, no matter what the law said. He was a child. A child whom Juliana had already hurt enough. 

"Yeah, I want this nasty business over with before everyone else is awake. Would you be able to get your dad?" 

"Oh... sure," Chase looked a little surprised at this request. An independent worker by nature, it was rare for Juliana to explicitly ask for the Prime Minister's presence, but she couldn't bear the thought of putting Roy's baby brother through a difficult questioning session without at least one friendly face to comfort him. She hadn't seen him much in the past four years, but some part of her remained fiercely protective of him. He was the second son. The safe son growing up in America. The one who wasn't supposed to have to inherit an Order position. How quickly all of that had been turned on its head. 

"Great. I'll meet you guys outside in five," Juliana said, glancing down at her sleek fitness watch. As Chase left the room to find his father, she deactivated her suit, letting out a sigh of relief as the skin-tight fabric fell away from her body. She pulled on her new clothes and straightened her hair, placing the bag Chase had brought her on her cot before picking up her purse and heading out of the room... if it could even be called a "room". Just last night, she had been sleeping in a palace. 

Juliana stole through the silent warehouse, avoiding the curtain divisions that blocked it off into different sections. Pushing open the heavy door, she was met with a blast of cold air from the blades of the helicopter that had landed outside. Chase and his father already stood in front of it, waiting for the blades to come to a complete stop before they stepped inside. Juliana followed their lead, taking her seat beside Chase in the front of the helicopter as Lord Hewkin motioned for the pilot to exit. Both rows of seats faced the front, forcing Juliana to turn around and sit awkwardly on her heels to face the boy sitting quietly in the back. Harry was dressed in a pair of Iron Man pajamas with a gray blanket wrapped tightly around his torso. All of the helicopter's inhabitants realized that it was hardly an ideal place to conduct an interview, but it was the closest thing to a secure location that they would find out here. 

"Hi Harry," Juliana said softly reaching over the back of her seat. She was surprised to see a small, bony hand emerge from the blanket and reach out toward hers. As soon as their hands touched, something seemed to break in Harry. He whimpered softly, a look of pure horror on his face. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he sniffled, snatching his hand back as he pulled his knees up to his chest. "She was so nice to me. I didn't know they were going to burn down our house. But now they burned down our house, and it's my fault! I don't want to be the bad guy!" 

These words struck Juliana at the core. "Harry, listen to me. You are not the bad guy," she said with as much self-assurance as she could muster. "You're not here because you did anything wrong. You're here because something big is going on, and I need your help. Will you help me, Harry?" 

A long silence followed and Juliana almost expected Lord Hewkin to intervene, but Harry eventually gave a slow nod. 

"Thank you," Juliana exhaled in relief. "In Ravenna's video montage, there was a clip of your voice. I need you to tell me how she got that clip. Start from the very beginning." 

"I didn't mean it!" Harry shouted emphatically. "I don't hate you, I promise! She was just so nice to me and she didn't tell me what it was for."

"No one is blaming you, Harry," Lord Hewkin said patiently, smiling a soft, fatherly smile. He shot Juliana a disapproving look, clearly not happy that she had jumped right into the hard questions. "We just need you to be honest with us." 

"Okay," Harry looked down at his lap, composing himself. "A few days ago, I was walking home from school. The bullies were following me again. Ravenna showed up out of nowhere and beat them up so hard they ran away. It felt nice... she made me feel safe again, just like my brother used to." 

Juliana wanted to scream. She was the Queen of Arcana. It was her job to ensure that the children of her country felt safe going to school. It was her job, and she had botched it, creating the perfect opportunity for her conniving sister to step in. It was her own fault for refusing to look at the Evarbors straight, for brushing the uncomfortable feelings under the rug instead of facing them like a real leader. Where was her Order courage when it really mattered? 

"What happened next?" Juliana forced herself to go on. She would never turn away from Harry Evarbor again. 

"We started talking... about Roy. I had figured out who she was by that time, but I didn't really care at the moment. It just felt nice to talk to someone who knew him like I did. And then she asked me a question: 'will you help me honor his memory?' It was so vague, it seemed so innocent that I... I said yes. So she started walking, and I followed her. I didn't realize it immediately, but we were going in the opposite direction of my house. After a while, she said she would need to blindfold me- she promised that she trusted me and it was just for security reasons. She was so convincing..." 

"You don't have to justify yourself. I understand." Juliana remembered how she felt every time she thought of her parents' death, how badly she wished she could resurrect then-leader of the Jackers Redface Joe just so she could kill him herself. If someone had given her the chance to take revenge, she would've seized it in a heartbeat. 

Harry nodded, now a little more confident. "When she took off the blindfold, we were in a dark little room full of boxes and stuff. It looked like a basement. That's where we recorded the video." 

"A basement..." Juliana trailed off, thinking. "Did you walk the entire time you were blindfolded? Or did Ravenna lead you into a car or something?" 

"No, we just walked." 

"Do you remember how long you were walking?" 

"Not long- maybe ten minutes?" 

"Alright," Juliana nodded. "Thank you, Harry. You've been very helpful. Now, you've had a very long night- I think you should find your parents and go get some sleep." 

With the blanket still drawn around his shoulders, Harry moved to exit the helicopter. Before he jumped out, he looked over his shoulder and smiled. "I hope you get Arcana back." 

"Oh!" Juliana laughed. "I haven't lost..." The smile dropped off her face when she realized the implications of what he had said. She watched in silence as he ran toward the warehouse with a spring in his step. 

"Houses with basements within a ten-minute walking radius of the Evarbor place. There can't be a lot of those, can there? Do you want me to start going through our mapping data?" Chase offered, snapping Juliana out of her thoughts. 

"Yes, that would be great. We need to find out where Ravenna and the supposed Red Knights are operating from- that's likely also where Maddie is being held. Poor Max has been worried sick." 

"Right," Chase nodded curtly, making his way around Juliana to the helicopter's door. 

"A bit of positive news in the midst of all this: the riots have been suppressed, and there's some semblance of order in Arcana City. You were right about the Jacking being very short-term- a lot of the instigators are recovering from the manipulation and don't even remember what they were doing last night."

"Wait..." Juliana gave Lord Hewkin a confused look. "Who suppressed the riots? We were all busy fleeing out here..." 

"That's the part you won't believe," the Prime Minister chuckled. "It was our good friend Ambassador Nelson! He sent his personal guard out to restore order in the city. I reckon people were more willing to comply with someone not directly involved with the Arcanese government. We're expecting a phone call from the American president at ten today- I hope you will thank him for his timely help in the most unequivocal of terms." 

"Of course," Juliana nodded, baffled by the Americans' sudden and robust show of friendship. They had been stingy at best with their foreign aid in recent years, and for them to help a first-world European country globally renowned for its technological and social advancements...

"It should be safe for us to return to the capital this afternoon. I'm sure it will be much easier to find out who exactly was behind last night's events from the comfort of our own base," Lord Hewkin added. 

"Right. It's been a strange twenty four hours, hasn't it?" Juliana shook her head in disbelief as she scooted toward the helicopter's exit. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to be relieved. Something about Ambassador Nelson saving the day seemed way too good to be true...