Heading to the Supernatural Sector: Etarni, Mercedes fidgeted and grumbled, sitting inside a private jet for hours. The Etarni Supernatural Sector was another Supernatural sector in the Western part of the country. It was tiring for Mercedes to be traveling across the country, no matter how many times she had done it. The young woman was, at least, relieved that she did not have to do recruitment work for a while.

Mercedes’s major focus was to find those traitors, which proved to be a hard task, even for Natasha to do! Next to her was Leticia’s older brother, Raphael, the curly-haired woman sighed in frustration. The man glanced at her, then tapped her shoulder to get her attention. Mercedes turned her head and hissed at him, “What is it, Raphael?”

“You seem on edge,” the young man said.

She scoffed at his response and snapped, “Of course I am! It’s because of your run-on-the-mill sister and her shitty friends!”

“I’m sorry about my sister. She seemed to be fine with everything once she learned about our powers. I thought Leticia would be fine with joining. I take full responsibility for her behavior.” Raphael apologized for his unruly sister.

However, it was not enough to calm the stressed out the young woman’s nerves. Putting her elbow on the chair armrest, Mercedes put her hand against her head to rest. In a funny way, Raphael’s relationship with his younger siblings reminded her of how she and her brother, Daniel, were. Of course, now was not the time for Mercedes to reminisce about the past. So she pushed all those lingering thoughts away for the rest of the trip.

The two of them kept quiet throughout the entire flight, waiting anxiously to land. Once the jet was about to land, Mercedes breathed a sigh of relief that all this long air travel was almost over. She felt suffocated being inside a small private jet and could not wait to get off! The landing was rough with the two of them, bracing themselves for impact. The turbulence pushed the jet a little, but it was not serious enough to be an issue for landing.

After all, Mercedes knew the master hired the best pilots, so she trusted his judgement. When the jet landed, she got her carry-on from the overhead bin, then followed Raphael to the exit. The warm air hit the girl once she got out of the jet. This California humidity and heat was going to mess with her hair! So, she pursued Raphael to a white limousine where two bodyguards in black suits were waiting for them.

Once they got everything settled and entered the vehicle, Mercedes looked out the window to see the hustle and bustle of passengers around the airport area, trying to get to their next destination. She sat back in her seat, letting the cool air from the air conditioner hit her skin. The curly-haired woman did not care what Raphael was doing throughout the rest of their ride. All she wanted was to stretch her legs out after being cramped in a private jet for so long. It took about two hours to get there, due to all the traffic they have to deal with in the city of Los Angeles.

Finally, they arrived at a white building in an area of the city as the bodyguards opened the doors and led the two of them through it. Following the guards, they went downstairs, heading to a long, gray, bricked hallway with bright white lights. Mercedes stayed close to the guards, until she saw two big, black doors at the end of the hallway. The guards pushed open the doors, as she heard some loud voices before Raphael and her entered inside of a large conference room.

A voice boomed, “These three children are crucial! We have to work harder in finding them in order to keep our cause alive!”

Mercedes observed the room where she found many people sitting at rectangle tables in a circular form. The woman recognized some people, such as her father, Chris, step-mother, Benita, some of the other, older high-ranking members, and there were two boys that she knew: short, black-haired and mid-length, dirty blonde haired young men. Both of them were wearing black business suit attire, sitting at the table. The black-haired one Mercedes knew was her half-brother, Zachery, or “Zach”, which is what she called him. While their relationship was awkward, she still thought of him as a friend somewhat.

She sat in the area where Benita and Chris were sitting, which was close by Farris with his wife and son, Rose and Peter, the same dirty blonde-haired man she saw. Mercedes played with her curly hair ends, feeling bored with the higher up talking amongst each other. Her eyes drifted to the far corner of the room where Roxy was sitting with another man, who is Darren’s older brother, Mark and her girlfriend, Casey. The young woman could only hope that this meeting would not put the attention on her lack of failure on finding Leticia, Darren, and Chantel.

“I hear all your concerns about the 'runaway' lost ones. I feel we should keep business going, as usual. Keep going with our recruitment efforts and maintain our other business operations to support the complexes. I’m not too concerned about our three lost ones. Mercedes has been working on finding their locations. Isn’t that right, Miss Castillo?” Farris asked.

She gulped, then eyed Roxy, who stared at her intensely. Mercedes added, “Um… Roxy and Natasha are working on finding them. We’re getting some leads, but not strong ones. Roxy, um, has some clues about where they are.”

Roxy gets up from her seat to speak more on Mercedes’s behalf. The young curly-haired woman hoped that this diva sticks to her end of the bargain on helping Natasha and her. Mercedes sunk down into her seat even more. In her mind, the young woman prayed that Roxy does not make her look back in front of all these higher up members.

“Master Farris, we believe we could coax information out of the band, The Hexes, to the whereabouts of the three troublemakers. I know this is a group that I couldn't bring into our cause. I believe they can be useful to pull information out of them,”  the diva explained her points in confidence.

A roar of laughter came from Mark, which made Mercedes coldly glare at him. The annoying mage got up from his seat and remarked, “Really? The Hexes? Roxy, honey, that is a terrible idea! My dumbass little bro and his asshole buddies shouldn't be so hard to find!”

“How about you shut the fuck up, Mark? Let Roxy speak!” Roxy’s girlfriend, Casey, spat at the man.

“Continue, Roxanna. Mark, silence.!You will get your turn for updates on your side,” Farris waved his hand for Roxy, gesturing her to continue.

“As I was saying…. The Hexes are a little suspicious, and I don’t think they are staying completely out of our business. I noticed them at the recruitment event months back at the Scarlet Cavern in Underwood. If my suspicions are correct, that band has been helping them all long, so I believe we have to go to City Square,”

Everyone whispered together when Roxy said this. Mercedes knew asking the master’s permission to go to this city would be tricky. City Square was the only Supernatural city they could not gain an immense influence over. Sure, Roseland and Downland were easy to trick and manipulate around the rules, but vampires who lived in City Square ruled the city with an iron fist. Even the city’s suburban town, Melicona, was a no go as well. Despite having a couple of vampires in their ranks, the Rise of Light failed to gain influence in those areas.

“Roxanna, you know going to City of City Square is tough. Both Mercedes and you will need someone smart enough to push your way into the town. Give me your reasoning and it will be up to you to figure out how to make this a success,” Farris told both of them.

“Natasha dug up stuff about each of the members of The Hexes. Two of them, Tobias and Amelia Alecsandri, have parents, very well known in the Supernatural community because of their successful hospital system. Their mother, Mara Alecsandri, also has a side project that I believe the place, the Midnight Retreat, is what they call it? We believe that the three of them may be staying there. So, may we try looking for them there?” Mercedes explained everything to Farris carefully.

“And how will you all get there? Undetected?” Farris questioned.

“May we use your loving wife, Rose?” Roxy smirked.

“Me?!” Farris’s wife, Rose, exclaimed in fright.

Mercedes noticed a hesitate tone from Rose's voice. She always knew that Master's wife was always awkward in meetings like this. But this was the first time that the young woman ever heard Rose's slight resistance in their suggestions.

“Mark, you have told me that your sister, Olive, has seen a vampire that helped The NorthEasters escape the Rockwick’s concert, correct?” Roxy added, shifting her gaze toward to Mark.

The mage rolled his eyes and answered, "Right... What are you getting at?”

“Honestly, it’s not a secret that Rose has a relation to a vampire. Am I right, master?”

Rose interrupted the conversation between the two of them. She blurted, “Wait! Marieum doesn’t work with… well… anyone easily.”

Mercedes huffed in frustration as everyone else was taking over things, which was supposed to be her mission! However, she had to keep her mouth shut, so she could let Roxy do her thing to convince her master to bring in his wife. With all the talking back and forth, Rose had to give into working with them to get Leticia, Darren, and Chantel out of hiding. Just when they finished making a deal with Farris, Mercedes watched her step-mother, Benita, get up from her seat, then slammed her hands on the table.

“What is the plan B in all this?! If that doesn’t work, then what will?!” the older woman exclaimed.

Mercedes grinds her teeth in fury at her step-mother’s disapproval. She hated how her step-mother would undermine her. She ignored Benita, clearing her throat. The curly-haired young woman then suggested, “Natasha has some information about Leticia’s boyfriend and since we already have Robert, that outsider band manager of The NorthEasters. I suggest we kidnap Leticia’s boyfriend and use those two to sic them out of hiding.”

Her eyes moved towards to Rose once again. She saw the woman's eyes looking down at the table, not saying a single word about the "Robert" issue. However, there was no time to ponder over Rose's odd behavior throughout the meeting. Then she turned her focus back on the conversation again.

“What?!” The woman heard Raphael’s voice, which caused all eyes to see him. Mercedes quickly watched the man quietly sit back into his chair and mumble a “sorry.”

Now the attention focused back on her once again.

“Very well. You can proceed with your plan. However, if you fail, I will demote your rank and strip you of your privileges. Am I clear, Miss. Castillo?" Farris warned the young woman.

All Mercedes could do was respond to her master back with a nod, ignoring all her terrified feelings about the consequences of a mission failure.

"As for precautions, I will have my son and Zach oversee your work. Now that issue is being dealt with, Mark, let’s hear on your side what Nico wants from us before we move to our next phase to prepare for the Second World Order event...." Farris continued on with the rest of the meeting.

When the meeting adjourned, Mercedes was glad that everything went accordingly. Before she was about to leave, the curly-haired young woman felt someone pat her shoulder before getting from her chair.

“Can I join your little plan, Mercedes?” She looked up to see Mark, who was grinning at her.

“Why?” the young woman asked with a puzzled face.

“Because it’s my brother, and it’s personal,” He answered sharply.

“Fine, whatever,” the young woman got out of her chair to leave the conference room.

She did not care if this man wanted to join in on helping her; Mercedes needed all the help she could get. This helped her confidence in completing this mission as well! Walking out of the room, she hoped to wait to hear praise from her father. She watched her father walk out with her step-mother at his side, then glared at Mercedes and only mouthed a few words to her: “Do not disgrace me.”

With those words, the young woman felt a sense of dread when she saw that. She has done everything to please her father and the master, but she cannot fail this! All Mercedes had to do was execute this plan well, so the master and her father cannot ignore her! The endgame was clear: Failure was not an option.