Narcissist

Narcissist is the eighth chapter in The Coming Storm.

Reflection in the Mirror
"You idiot! What would happen if you were saying all this to Whinter right now?!"

---

A few days after that, Professor Wolfgang couldn't remember what happened after Leilani brought up their former teammate and friend. He slammed the doors to his office behind him, trudging to his office chair where he slumped and swiveled around to face the windows. He let out a grunt, dragging his clawed hands down his face.

"You idiot..." he muttered, looking up to the ceiling. The previous headmaster had for some odd reason hung a large mirror up there, and he never bothered to take it down after his passing. All he saw was his reflection in an empty room, a distraught look on his face. Years ago, he could look up and see his closest friends with him. But now...

He was all alone.

He reached over into his desk drawer and rummaged around, feeling for something particular. Laminated print met his fingertips, and he yanked it out, raising it to his eye as he took a look. There they were—him and his old team as teenagers. The photo was a bit discolored and crumpled up, but he didn't care. It was one of the few pictures in his hand he had left of him and his friends. Professor Wolfgang shuffled through the stack he held, letting the images flash by one at a time in a steady stream—their whole team, him and Leilani, him and Eden, Leilani and Eden going at it over homework, their team on graduation day, him and- ...

He stopped on the last picture in his hand, gazing over it mournfully. One of his nails raised up, grazing the face of the woman standing next to him, wearing an engagement ring.

"Whinter..." he whispered.

---

Knock knock knock.

''"Come in..." he groaned, hesitant to look up towards the door. Guadalupe was much too absorbed in his work, trying to make sense of the paperwork on his desk. It'd only been a month since his inauguration as the new headmaster, and yet he still couldn't figure out what a 'social contract' was.''

''"Need some help there?" Finally, he looked up from his work and stared at the redhead smirking before him, blinking twice before remembering why she'd come.''

''"...Maybe..." He bit his cheek in frustration as she approached his desk and leaned over it. "Don't you have some baddies to arrest or something?"''

''"Not recently. I thought I'd drop by and make sure the school isn't falling to pieces~." A light chuckle followed behind her speech, as his right eye twitched in irritation. It was only tamed by a kiss on his forehead, and a hand on his own.''

"You spoil me," he retorted.

''"Hey. You do the same thing from time to time, too, you know." She poked his nose with a hearty smile and reached to brush his bangs back, but not before he caught her wrist with a soft grip.''

"You love it, and you know it."

''"Maybe~." Guadalupe pulled her over his desk and onto his lap, engagement rings overlapping as their fingers intertwined and they kissed.''

---

"...lfgang? Professor Wolfgang?"

"Whinter...?" He answered in a low hum, apparently still in dreamland. Silence hung in the air for a few seconds, before the same voice spoke up again.

"...Guadalupe!" Professor Wolfgang snapped out of his reverie and bolted upright in his chair, swiveling around to see none other than Saige standing before him.

"What in the- How'd you kids know what my first name was?" An eyebrow raised in suspicion as he sat back in his seat, folding his arms behind his head as he waited for an answer.

"I, uh..." Saige looked awkwardly to the side as she raised the book to his line of eyesight, catching a look of surprise on his face as she set it down on his desk.

"Where the hell did you-"

"Professor Kristen." He growled, knowing his colleague would evidently do something of the like behind his back.

"What do you want, Ms. Cristallo?"

"Well..." She let a moment of silence slip by, before inhaling a deep breath and opening her mouth once more. "I want to help. I know it's been a stressful week—with the Black Talons blowing up a hotel, and clashing with another teacher. And I've been thinking..."

"Woman, there's a consequence for snooping through a headmaster's private stash without permission."

"But Professor Kristen said we-"

"Look." She shut up on the spot when he spat a command, watching as he took the book and shoved it into a desk drawer. "This isn't your game to be playing. My personal life is none of your business. And- ...Wait."

"What?"

"You said we."

"Yes."

"Who else read Eden's notebook?"

"...All three of my teammates."

"Motherf-" As he cursed the rest under his breath, Saige sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Listen, Crissy. You four keep your mouths shut, or I'll come and find you. Kapeesh?"

"...Kapeesh. But Professor-"

"What?" She flinched again, shaking as she reached for a piece of paper she'd tucked into the book.

"...I found where she is."

His eyes widened in shock as he snatched the paper. On it were equations and computer calculations, as well as grid coordinates and a list of contacts. "What the hell is this?"

"Your fiancee's coordinates. I went to the school's communications center and did some research. She-" She paused again as he snapped his head up to her, expecting him to lash out after her attempts to track down someone he had such a close relationship with. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it, breathing a heavy sigh through his nose.

"...Do you know what place this is?" he asked her.

"No. I just found the numbers." Immediately, Professor Wolfgang grabbed at the projector remote on his desk and pressed the button, moving across the room as the holo-screen popped up. He reached out and started tapping at the screen, moving icons and numbers this way and that. From what Whinter saw, he was decoding the matrix. ...Well, maybe not, but the man certainly had some experience under his belt. Finally, after a painstaking moment of clicking and dragging, a map of Remnant popped up, and he pressed a button, watching as grid coordinates popped up all over. They started blinking, before disappearing one by one. One thousand turned into one hundred, and one hundred turned into ten. Then, the ten turned into one.

And there it was.

"What in the name of..." Saige stared in awe at what he'd done.

He looked back at her with a smirk on his face. "Impressive, ain't it?"

"So, where is she?"

He looked back to the map and tapped the one coordinate. A window popped up with several photos of a city, as well as another school they both knew pretty well.

"Vale," he replied.

"Vale? Why even-"

"Does Beacon Academy ring a bell?" Something immediately clicked, and she let out a light gasp. "Yup. She's somewhere near there."

"Wow..."

With the tap of another button, the screen shut off, and a piece of paper printed out of a slot beneath it. "Here."

"What's this?"

"Directions. I want you and your team to go find her." Again, she could only stare, as Professor Wolfgang put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "If it weren't for you, I'd still be moping around. If you do this, I guarantee you guys won't be facing the Black Talons alone anymore."

"Wha? But, Professor, I thought you..."

He sighed. "Well, I'd go find her myself, but I've got stuff to do here. Plus there's no telling what'd happen if a terrorist group found out the school's headmaster was absent."

"Fair point."

"Now go. I'll get an airship ready for your team tomorrow morning."

Saige nodded, giving him a smile in return before she turned and left the office.

Well, it looked like they had a new assignment—albeit their first international mission.