Alex stared at the note in horror.

"What's wrong, Alex?" Kat asked.

"Is it an eviction notice or some shit?" Delirious smirked inside his hockey mask.

Alex turned to his friends, well, his 21 friends and one enemy.

"This note says that one of us is an Inquisitor." Alex grimly announced.

"What?!" Weiss gaped in disbelief.

"I can't believe it. We all just got Hoodini'd." Vanoss blinked.

Alex wasn't sure how Vanoss got the inanimate owl mask to blink, but he figured he couldn't be bothered with it.

After all, stranger, and occasionally, more embarrassing things have happened.

Ruby grabbed the note from Alex's hands and read it carefully.

"It also says we have to turn Alex in, or this 'Zodiac' is going to kill us all one by one." She announced.

"Wait a minute! We can respawn, we'll be fine! Nice knowing you Alex and the rest!" Wildcat waved goodbye before he was nudged by Twilight, who levitated the note and read it.

"It seems like they planned for that." Twilight grimly stated, showing Wildcat the note.

"Well, shit."

"Anyone have any bright ideas?" Alex asked.

"I have one-" Vanoss said before Dash covered his mouth, or rather, beak.

"No, you idiot! If one of us is a bad guy, announcing the plan to that bad guy is a terrible idea!" She whispered.

"Can we talk about this somewhere else? This place literally stinks!" Blake covered her nose and gestured to the dead body.

"Fine by me." Alex nodded.

"But I'm hungry!" Vanoss pouted.

"I need FOOOOOOOD!" Delirious announced.

Alex face-palmed, grabbing a wallet and looking inside.

"It's empty. No thanks to Yang's quote-unquote 'training exercise'." Alex rolled his eyes in her direction.

"Hey, you're the one who decided to ask for directions in this town!" Yang retorted.

"I'll pay, if that's fine." Kat said.

"Sure, where do you guys want to go?" Alex asked.

-4 mystery pizzas and a 10-piece bucket of Cluckin' Bell later-

"Okay, now that we've spent, like, $250 of Kat's money on food and drinks, let's at least try and figure this out." Alex announced.

"Hello! Earth to Alex! Bad idea! Villain in the room!" Rainbow Dash waved a hoof.

"Oh, please, you know as well as I do that they're all going to be talking about any topic other than this one for, like, an hour, right?" Alex gestured to the rest of the group.

"And Alex was all like; 'AAAH! I didn't mean to do that!'" Yang told them all about his embarrassing moment.

"Nah, Ah've got a better one, so we were at Sugarcube Corner..." Applejack begins to tell the others about the party all those weeks ago.

Rainbow turned back to Alex, waving a hand at the small crowd sitting on his couch.

"Huh."

"Case in point." Alex muttered, still upset they they were talking about him.

Rainbow went over to join in the conversation, leaving Alex with some time to think.

'Now who could it be?' Alex thought.

He looked at Twilight and the other Elements. Given their recent reconciliation, he was going to give them a pass, for now at least.

Vanoss and his crew? No, they weren't clever enough to plan that far ahead, and they had promised to pay Kat back.

Kat? She had trusted him from the start, and he regularly spoke with her, even more so than Yang.

Team RWBY were already out of the question, they had taken an oath on not working with people they knew were evil, and he was sure that included the Inquisitors.

Who, then?

"Something wrong, Commander?" Zera asked.

"Trying to think about who among us could be this 'Zodiac' person." Alex sighed.

"This could be, in itself, a lie. A mind game designed specifically that we would all destroy ourselves without the inquisitors themselves actually having to lift a finger." Zera explained.

"How do you figure? I trust most of the people on this team with my life, and I'm pretty sure this isn't going to change anything in their situation." Alex gestured over to the crowd.

"...And then my brother walked in and saw it." Nogla said, telling them an embarrassing tale of his own.

"Did you even close the door on your way in?" Kat laughed.

"...Ya got me there." Nogla admitted.

Alex waited until Zera looked back at him to continue the conversation.

"If this Inquisitor really took the time to at least try to know all of us, that inquisitor would probably defect by now. If a fifteen year old pubescent idiot with a bad history can manage to make the same bond with everyone here, then so can a highly trained warrior for hire." Alex nodded, pride encompassing his voice.

"So, what you're saying is that, you can't bring yourself to accuse anyone, guilty or not." Zera concluded.

"Pretty much." Alex replied.

Zera sighed.

"Are you sure you're not putting too much faith in your comrades?" Zera asked.

"I know, they can be idiots, but hell, even I have my moments." Alex admitted.

"Are you talking about that incident with Ms. Xiao Long?" Zera asked.

"And a majority of my decisions. Including joining the Militia." Alex replied.

"Nobody can blame you for that. You were desperate, inexperienced, afraid even." She elaborated.

"I'm not denying it."

"Well, then I'm not denying my identity." Zera replied.

"Come again?" Alex asked.

"I respect your dedication to your comrades, but I am not forgetting my mission." Zera continued.

"No way." Alex backed away.

"Alex Gabriel Walker, under Article XIII of the Kalos Accords, 'If an undercover agent bonds with multiple targets, that agent is obliged to duel with the leader among them. If the agent wins, the agent will take the target and spare the others. If, however, the target is the victor, the agent is to be permanently associated with the group, the agent's status as Inquisitor is to be decided by the current Alpha Inquisitor.'" Zera announced.

"Zodiac." Alex gaped.

"There is more to this arrangement. 'I; Neither the agent nor the target is to receive any assistance from their allies. II; The duel is not to the death, both must remain alive. III; the terms of the duel are to be discussed between the agent and the target until an agreement can be reached. IV; The duel is not to be announced to either party, though if the duel is discovered by Inquisitors or the target's allies, neither party will be penalized."

"Sounds fair for a cult of assassins." Alex admitted.

"'V; to ensure a fair fight, both duelists are to inform one another of their known abilities, augmentations, and equipment, if an ability unknown to either party happens to manifest itself during the duel, neither party shall be penalized.'" Zera finished.

"Of course. I accept your challenge, let's discuss this further somewhere where they can't hear." Alex figured.

"Glad to see you have respect for the law. Let's take this to your garage." Zera announced.

Once both Alex and Zera arrived inside the garage, Alex sat on the hood of a sedan, while Zera continued to stand.

"Okay, let's start with a decent location." Alex figured.

"I have to go with the Helipad on top of the Maze Bank, no obstacles, nothing in the environment either of us can use to our advantage." Zera decided.

"What if either of us is launched to another building in the process?" Alex asked.

"Not to worry, one of my ablilities includes shield spells and active cammoflage. Neither of us will be able to leave, and the others will not be able to see us." Zera replied.

"Intresting, does it take an extended period of time to set up?" Alex asked.

"Yes, it takes a full 30 minutes to fully deploy anything of that magnitude." Zera replied.

"Okay. So what time? Tomorrow at dawn is good for me. Your offer starts at 1:00 pm, before you are obliged to kill my friends." Alex asked.

"I accept, dawn is about 6:38 tomorrow." Zera announced.

"Great, I'll be there at 6:08 so you can set up." Alex agreed.

"Deal."

"What else? Oh yeah, abilities. Androids first." Alex nodded.

"Ah, yes. My model is outfitted with long-range radios, Internet capabilities, and advanced shielding."

"So none of that is useful in the duel." Alex wondered.

"No."

"Good, continue." Alex wanted this over with, he had an idea of what Zera was capable of.

"Due to my model being mostly used for performance, enhanced for combat by an Inquisitor called 'Delta'. This allows me to summon bladed weapons using only my voice. Such weapons include a Katana, Zweihander, dual short swords, and a Magnum Research Desert Eagle .50AE, modified with such attachments as laser sighting, a scope, extended magazines, and full-auto firing."

"Jesus. A full auto Deagle." Alex gaped.

"I am also able to leap about 93 meters, punch with three times the force of an average human punch, and due to my Internet capabilities, I am an unofficial expert in Kung Fu, Silat, Krav Maga, The Atlesian offensive form Arcamida, and the Minstraili defense form, Okira."

"Well, shit."

"What about you, Commander?" Zera asked.

"Ah... I carry a primary Atlean Battle Rifle-"

"Two things; One, the proper term is Atlesian. Two; please state the model of your rifle, as well as any attachments you may have." Zera corrected.

"Sure. As a primary, I'm carrying the Atlesian KMG-157 Battle Rifle, equipped with a Ver-Kai sight and an A-17 grenade launcher. As secondaries, I'm carrying a heavily modified Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum pistol, able to fire iron pellets at the target, as well as Electric Fury, with four forms; a .499 Kaiser revolver, a rail gun that fires all six rounds at full auto, a long sword, and the blades of the sword separate and spin fast enough to cut through steel. My armor is composed entirely of Equestrian Steel, and is outfitted with rockets, jump-jets, and at one point, a Shoulder-mounted Browning M2 .50 BMG machine gun. My semblance is Electricity Manipulation, I can just fire regular electric bolts, condense them into balls of lightning, use them to augment my weapons, and temporary sedation if I'm injured. If I have enough Aura, I can also fully heal my wounds. Since I activated my own Aura, I can grow more powerful once I'm mad enough." Alex explained all of his abilities.

"What combat forms have you used?" Zera asked.

"A combination of Arcamida and Voikara, though I only trained for a week or so. I was also a red belt in Kung Fu when I was about 13, not sure how well that stuck, though." Alex admitted.

"Very well then. That checks out." Zera nodded.

"Okay then. I can't exactly wish you 'good luck' without sounding masochistic, so this is as close as I'm able to get." Alex admitted.

"It is not a weakness to wish an opponent luck before a duel. The only reason I am doing this is so you may have a chance to stay with your comrades." Zera replied.

"A damn small one, if you ask me. You've got much more experience than I do! I'll probably die!" Alex lamented.

"The rules state it is not a fight to the death." Zera stated.

"You don't seem to understand. The Inquisitors want me dead more that any target they've been given." Alex elaborated.

"I am fully aware of your situation, and you have defeated countless inquisitors before." Zera stated.

"Not without help."

"True, but when you fought Beta, Sigma was wounded. And when you last fought Sigma, you fought her to near death."

"I can't fight an inquisitor!"

"There is more reason to this than you think."

"Like what?! Dealing with failure, torture for dummies; the sequel?!" Alex exclaimed.

"I shouldn't tell you this, but I'm doing this to make sure you are ready for any challenge."

"Explain to me how me possibly dying is going to prepare me for anything!"

"I did the math, and you may have a slight advantage." Zera answered.

"What?!"

"I am not telling you in which field this advantage lies, I'm only telling you it is there."

"Fine." Alex relented.

As Zera left the garage, she turned back.

"You will understand. You just need to look." She said as she closed the door.

Alex didn't understand what Zera told him. All he knew was he was probably going to be handed over to te Inquisitors and killed.

He needed something before this whole mess went down.

Alex walked out of the Ammu-Nation store with new grenades for his KMG and some spare parts needed to repair the shoulder mounted MG.

Should he really be going through with this? The whole reason he even had the thought to take another life was because of his will to preserve his own.

But he had other lives beside his own to protect.

He couldn't stand to watch any if his friends suffer more than they already did.

No matter the cost.

Author's Notes:

After watching a few youtube videos of people reacting to fanfiction, I'm starting to reconsider my options.
Imagine that, someone like, I don't know, The voice actors of MLP reacting to your fan fiction. Yep, Cringefest 2015.