Rain and rebirth

The next morning in London, everyone sobbed as Scharlachrot's casket was lowered into the grave. The skies themselves cried too as the rain only grew heavier.

"Heather-chan, you'll catch a cold if you don't get under the umbrella," Sorcha sighed.

Heather remained silent as she stood in the rain, staring down at Scharlachrot's coffin. Her hair now drooped down, soaked by the rain, yet she didn't care.

"He didn't even leave her pretty face. I can't even see my Scharlachrot's pretty face anymore... I'LL KILL THEM ALL!"

Now that Scharlachrot was dead, Heather's attitude had taken a turn for the worse. Gone was her lovable airheaded villainess persona, and in its place, a broken and angry one. It was like she too had died as well. Worse, Sorcha was the only Rainbow Executive left as the others were either dead or captured. 

"Heather, I know you're upset, we all are, but we can't just wage wars, it will only lead to more death and suffering," Sorcha sighed.

"I'll lead. I'm the queen, I'm strong. We rule a damn country, don't we? Then prepare our munitions!"

The grunts began shuffling uneasily. This was everyone's first time seeing Heather truly off her rocker. 

Heather glared at everyone before turning back to look down at Scharlachrot's coffin. "I called myself the queen of the fairies, but Scharlachrot was truly my fairy queen. Now that she's dead, so too is the magic that bound us together. Henceforth, I am Heather Spriggan, empress of the Spriggan league. Our goal is to eliminate those who took our fairy queen, Scharlachrot from us. And for her, we will make fairy chess the only way to play chess in the world!"

Sorcha let out a sigh, but smiled. "Alright, I'll do my best to support you. I'm no Scharlachrot, but they don't call me the Fairy's top recruiter for nothing. If you want to get the jump on the WWCF, why don't we take advantage of that secret puzzle cafe? We know now it still functions, so why not block it off like the chess center, but provide entry and exit only to grunts? Remember, we are all still WWCF members, so if we accumulate points, we could earn enough to say... warp freely to WWCF HQ?" 

Heather silently shifted her gaze to Sorcha. 

"No good?"

"No... good... Kill her."

Sorcha's eyes widened in horror as all the guards nervously turned their spears towards her. "Ara, ara. Heather, we need to calm down. Everyone, remember who your loving big sister-"

"You're a traitor... You and Melania both... All those who were truly with me, Plum, Bette, Vittoria, Medeucesa, and Scharlachrot... THEY'RE ALL GONE! TO HELL WITH THE WWCF! WAR! WAR! I DECLARE WAR ON THE LOT OF YOU!" 

Sorcha began to gape before her mouth morphed into a malicious smile. She grabbed her "hair" and chucked it to the ground, revealing a shiny bald head. She peeled off her fake eyelashes and tilted her head up into the down pouring rain, washing away her drawn-on eyebrows and makeup. Then slowly, she tilted her head back down and popped out her contacts, revealing a familiar hairless face; Ai Kamuro. 

"What gave it away?" Ai sneered as she gently poked one of the spears pointed at her. 

Heather remained silent. 

"What a shame. I was hoping you'd become dependent on me, but seems your delirium somehow forced my hand. But here's the thing. I'm with the WWCF, yes, but I'm not bound to them. And as proof-"

"Scharlachrot said you're a traitor. Kill her."

"Tch, blind loyalty to your girlfriend. When did she tell you?"

But Heather was not in the mood to entertain delaying Ai's execution any longer and grabbed a spear herself, hurling it at Ai. Naturally, Caïssa's blessing activated, preventing any harm from coming to Ai, and shattering the spear to bits. 

"No dice. Well, I'll be checking in from time to time at the chess center and secret puzzle cafe, so if you ever decide you want to collude, you'll know where to find me," Ai smirked as she warped away. 

"Y- Your majesty?" Baron von Borg trembled. 

"We need her not. Dismissed. I shall return to my study," Heather snarled. 

...

Wrapped in a regal robe, Heather sat at her desk, staring blankly at a set of papers before her. 

"To my beloved Heather. This is something you are never to open unless something other than natural causes claim my life. I assume something must've happened to me if you're reading these words, I had many enemies.  First off, I must list those you can truly confide in. I've vetted these folks thoroughly, and while they'll never hold a candle to me, they are ones you can truly trust and will always have your back, even if you skin infants alive in the streets for pleasure. These loyal subjects are..."

Following Scharlachrot's death the night prior, Heather spent all night reading through every letter Scharlachrot left behind for her. One of the big standouts was a warning regarding Sorcha. 

"Sorcha is the one that worries me most. One night she casually called out my Deep Blue connections, yet brushed it off as just a light joke afterwords. I interpret her words as a threat though, and thus, the first thing you must do if I'm out of the picture is get rid of her ASAP. Forget the WWCF, if she's with Deep Blue, that's even worse. Though they let me gain their power without asking anything in return, I assume they're the type to wait a few years before "asking to return the favor".  You were there with me when the masked freak bestowed the power to me, and as you know, that bastard has been roaming London every other month since, truly living up to his moniker of Phantom. Be weary of him. I know not the face that hides behind that mask...."

Heather stared once more at this section before closing her eyes and leaning back her head so her tears wouldn't drip on the notes. "Scharlachrot... Why couldn't you have thought of a way to survive?" 

The buzzing of the intercom slowly roused Heather from her sorrow as grabbed another note while answering it. 

"Your majesty, should we allow the prisoner we have to compete in the gauntlet?" the voice on the other end asked.

Heather glanced at the note in her hand. 

"If you capture a prized hostage, NEVER give them the chance for escape. They must be used as bargaining chips no matter what your villainess code says. Speaking of which, abolish it. I doubt you'll be able to maintain it without me or even smile again... I'm sorry." 

Heather leaned back her head once more to empty her tears before issuing her response. "No, do not let her escape, nor allow her to attempt the gauntlet. Our forces have suffered with all our Rainbow Executives wiped. We must rebuild first."

"Yes ma'am!" 

...

At WWCF HQ, Melania scowled as she confronted Ai in the halls. "Ai Kamuro... I knew it was you. Why'd you sabotage me by masquerading as me!? I wouldn't have been found out if it wasn't for you!" 

Melania began to tremble. 

"Better shave that head nice n' clean in repentance, otherwise everyone will go around thinking you're a spy for the Desperados."

"There are Desperado WWCF officials."

"But no Desperado executive board members."

Melania turned heel and stormed away without saying another word. 

"Ah, she really got pissed, but Scharlachrot, Scharlachrot really got us both. I thought threatening her with knowledge of her Deep Blue connection would give me leverage if I ever needed it, but I guess she left some kind of signal behind for Heather that led to it being my downfall. Oh well, "Sorcha Glas" still had an impact on some of the Fairies, maybe even enough to spawn a separatist faction," Ai thought as she shrugged and smiled. 

...

At Stanford college, Maria scowled as she found herself lathering her entire head and face in shaving cream. "Tee hee, why'd you have to make me do something sooo humiliating, you lazy pervert," she giggled.

"Cuz it helps motivate me to do my work," Skaberghast snickered as he lounged on a make-shift hammock.

"Oh, is that why you forced me to talk all cutesy-like too? I'm really pissed off. I still cry myself to sleep over my lack of hair," Maria pouted.

"You were always a sour grape, so seeing you acting like a cute tsundere is fun. But I guess since I can choose to turn that mode on and off, let's turn cute-mode off.

The playful grin that had been plastered on Maria's face instantly warped into a tearful scowl. "You motherfucker! I hate you! How could you subject a woman like me to such inhumane cruelty!? I'll report you to the college administration!"

"First off, you're the one that fully consented to subjecting yourself to the cruel mistress known as science."

"Bullshit! You use me and the others as nothing more than lab rats to fine tune your DESPER and fetishes!"

"Yet you enrolled in the science program. Well, I'm not getting in a prolonged shouting match, and you're stuck being a bald fetishist tsundere for life, so the scientific community thanks you for your sacrifice or whatever."

"Iyaa, You know I don't love doing this or being bald. I'm not that Ai girl you talked about," Maria giggled as Skaberghast re-enabled cute-mode.

"But it's been raking in the views on your channel, and the ASMR of you shaving yourself is quite calming. Even made my "Things to fall asleep to" playlist."

"Wow, you're such a pervert. But, luckily, I love you... WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST MAKE ME SAY!?"

"That's the tsun-tsun, not me. Guess you really dig me. Well, I dig bald girls like you."

Maria blushed before finishing the shaving and moving onto the wax. "Then I'll make myself all smooth and silky, just-for-you. Tee hee."

As Maria encased her entire head and face in wax, the other girls entered the room.

"Wow, you really are a sick pervert, forcing Maria to do all that shit," Mona glared.

"Hey, it's all part of the science experiment so you all still get credit," Skaberghast snickered.

"But forcing a student into a relationship with you?"

"Hey, she's clearly into me and we're both adults, so what's the issue? Besides, we haven't slept together yet or had s-"

"She's not the only one you force to do unsavory experiments. Just how long was I waddling like a chicken for? I thought you said Desperados couldn't attack each other." Abigail glared.

"Being stuck frozen in place at the airport for 4 hours was the worst! We almost had to spend another night in Tokyo thanks to that!" Jackie fumed.

"But are you 5 Desperados? None of you are registered with a DESPER."

"I believe you mentioned there are members registered with the league that don't have DESPERs, like Kuon and Peter Morphy."

"And when did you all register with the league? And even then, if you had, I'd just have you fight non-league members in other science departments. Plus Kuon's technically an associate like you all, so rules don't quite apply to her."

"Well you certainly wear your intents on your sleeves. But I'm curious about something; if there can be Desperado league members without DESPERs, can there exist non-Desperado league members WITH DESPERs?" Olga asked.

Skaberghast paused and scowled for a bit before rolling out of his hammock. "Well that's a bit up in the air. You know the story of the DESPERs already, so I'm not repeating it."

"But what if a Desperado with a DESPER left the league?"

"Now that's the convoluted part, if someone that never registered with a DESPER leaves the league, no big deal. But someone registered with a DESPER leaving? Impossible. As long as they got a working DESPER, they'll always be considered a Desperado. Of course, there is a benefit to that; Desperados can't challenge each other to DESPER matches. So if a member defected, we couldn't hunt them down and kill them via a DESPER match. Sure if they don't have a blessing, they could be killed normally, but you never know who Redfield's got his eye on, and that guy's the last person you wanna piss off. Especially since there's now DESPER keys to worry about."

"DESPER keys?"

"Yes, Redfield must have done it behind our backs. Even Kuon had no idea about them, and she's our double agent."

"Then how'd you learn of it?"

"Through an old connection. A really old one," Skaberghast mumbled as he pulled out his handheld monitor. "But thanks to an idiot, we can regain the edge. My replica worked like a charm, meaning we can hit the "mass-produce" button."

"Hmm, you said anyone with a DESPER is a Desperado, but weren't DESPERs created before the league existed?" Jackie asked.

Skaberghast scowled, but simply waved his hand as if to brush it off, yet in truth, he knew the answer to that question. "I know scientists aren't afraid to ask questions, but in this case, the less you know about Deep Blue, the better," he thought as he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

"Hey professor! Kuon's here to see you!" Olga called out.

"Guess this is my "no sleep for 24 hours" punishment in effect," Skaberghast grumbled as he got back up and trudged out of the lab.

There sitting in the hallway was a furious Kuon along with a trembling Nyoan by her side.

"And why are you so grumpy?"

"Hagemi... Hagemi got her dumbass kidnapped by the Fairies! HOW!?"

"Must've botched the rescue, or traded herself in. And speaking of pissed, how'd THIS slip under your radar?" Skaberghast smirked as he tossed a DESPER key at Kuon.

Kuon stared at the key for a mere second before swatting it away. "I only care about Hagemi!"

"Hagemi, Hagemi, Hagemi, all you ever think about... Why not take advantage of things?"

"How so?"

"She's a hostage right? So, why not collect her yourself?"

The gears in Kuon's head slowly began to creak as a nasty concoction began to brew. "Mimoko... Thanks to her, I'll only get pushed down the ladder further. But with this chance, I can not only beat Hagemi, but become a hero in the process!"

"Ah, gears are turning. Then how about I set you up with an old acquaintance that can make the deal of your dreams."