"C'mon Jude, pick up..." Leia desperately dialed Jude's number again, hoping in vain this would be the call he finally picked up. She had to know Jude was alright- he wouldn't be caught in a disaster if she hadn't goaded him into boarding the Striborg. He'd been wary when Oscore went ahead with their plans in spite of Crown sending a calling card to steal the Striborg, but Leia begged him the whole week before the event to go in the off-chance Jude met Crown onsite. Jude eventually caved and promised he'd keep an eye out.

All seemed well the day of the event: the train arrived on time, Jude gave her a call before he boarded to express his surprise seeing bystanders trying to talk the station employees into letting them board the Striborg because Crown sent a calling card, everything went smoothly so far. Come a few hours later however, disaster struck the Oscore Ceremonial Event.

Spirius broke a story across every news stations Exodus had taken control of the Striborg and crashed it into the Oscore Plant. Disaster relief were searching the wreckage for survivors, though the company was already certain who orchestrated this whole scheme: the gentleman thief Crown. Leia's shock almost overpowered her worries, yet that didn't last long when Jude failed to pick up his phone several times.

She had faith Jude found a way to get off safely-his intellect and quick-thinking saved the day more times than Leia could count-but still... Leia's concern remained strong.

Her phone was going off! Leia picked up in seconds, "Jude, is that you?!" She didn't bother checking the caller ID before throwing out her question.

"Yes, it's me." Thank the Great Spirits, it was Jude! Finally! "I saw all your missed calls. Sorry if I worried you- I would've picked up sooner, but we weren't safe yet on the road."

"You don't have to apologize! I just couldn't stop worrying because I set you up to get on in the first place, you know?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I managed to get off before the train crashed." Jude assured her. "But speaking of that, remember the guy you wanted me to look out for? I actually met him."

"Wait, you metCrown?!" Leia temporarily forgot all about the train crash to immediately dig for answers, "Did you manage to talk to him face-to-face? What was he like? How did he look? Did he happen to tell you why he was there, or did he avoid letting you ask him anything? Tell me everything in painful detail!"

"I can't answer twenty questions at once, Leia." Jude's light scolding reminded her to take a second to take her energy levels down from their mountainous peak. Once he could tell Leia leveled out, Jude continued, "He looked about Alvin's age and height with a moderately deep voice. I can't tell you much about his face because he wore a mask, but he did have blond hair and blue eyes. I met him when he asked for my help in reaching the front car to pull the emergency brakes."

"Did you manage to get to the front car at all?"

"We did, but all the controls were jammed by the time we got there. We couldn't fix them either, so we both jumped off the train before it crashed. Crown left once we reached Duval on foot." Figures Crown wouldn't stick around longer than he felt he needed to be. But Jude's account of his encounter with him seemed... off in context with the news.

If Crown really was the conspirator behind the train hijacking, why would he betray his own plans to halt the crash? And say Crown was the culprit- why would he not have a concrete getaway already lined up for an operation he'd announced a week in advance? His actions sounded like a man making solutions on the fly rather than going through the motions. Leia's detective nose caught whiff of a smelly conspiracy...

"This might be a bit sudden, but do you think Crown caused the crash? Every news outlet so far's been saying the hijacking was a joint effort between him and Exodus." For the sake of solving this conundrum, Leia wanted to hear Jude's opinion as a first-hand witness.

"I don't think Crown's responsible. He was making a conscious effort to avoid using lethal force against the Exodus members while trying to protect me- I can't see someone like him wanting to murder innocent people."

And that was more than enough for Leia to consider herself on Crown's side; if Jude saw good in someone, she had reason enough to wholeheartedly believe in their character. Looked like Detective Rolando had a new story to chase: the truth behind who really caused the Striborg ceremonial train crash and their reasons for framing Crown!

First order of business, field research. She personally knew just bits and pieces about the (in?)famous thief from overhearing random conversations and snooping through old reports at the Daily Trigleph's office building; that had to be fixed before she could properly delve into his motives. The best starting point would be gathering a diversity of opinions from as wide a demographic as possible. Any city in Rieze Maxia wouldn't give her enough Elympion perspective, but she couldn't go too deep into Elympios lest she get the opposite extreme.

That left one place, Marksburg. None of the reports mentioned the stations locking down for safety reasons, so there had to be a train still running there she could catch-

"You still there, Leia?" Leia's shock had her scrambling to catch her GHS before it hit the ground. She was so busy working through her plan it slipped her mind she still had Jude sitting on the line.

"O-Oh, yes I'm still here! I was just thinking some things over." She laughed off her blunder, "And I've decided: I'm going to bust the real culprit of the Striborg Train Incident! If Crown's innocent or guilty, Ace Detective Leia Rolando'll reveal the truth in her greatest story yet!"

"I hope you're not shouting all this out in public..." Jude's worry was, unfortunately, a reality. Her rather loud bravado attracted a number of odd looks straight to her. In her own defense, she just couldn't help raising her voice when her passion came out! Sitting here wasn't doing her any more favors, so she shrugged off the blunder and headed to the station to enact phase one.

"Well I need to get working on this story pronto, so I gotta hang up. Just remember that if you're ever in trouble, I'm a single phone call away!"

"Likewise. Even if it looks like I'm swamped with work, I'm never too busy to help you." Typical Jude, always insisting he take on his friend's burdens in spite of the grievances it'd personally cause him. Leia appreciated the sentiment, but she'd rather try saving a hopeless endeavor herself than ask Jude to bail her out. Any problem she'd face was small potatoes compared to undertaking an entire country's energy crisis.

"I won't forget! Have a safe trip home, Jude!" Leia hung up her phone just in time for her to walk into the station. She spotted a group walking off another train, so her plan was ready for takeoff! She scanned her GHS at the ticket counter, boarded her train, and used her wait time to plan out her interviewer questions.

But of course, her assignment could never be so easy.

The first person she pulled aside (a Rieze Maxian man from the R.M. side of the city) and asked what they knew about Crown told her, "He's the guy who crashed the train into Oscore"; not very informative, but it established a baseline the news had spread across country lines. Then she found a young Elympion woman from the opposite side who said, "He's the thief who said he'd steal a train and crashed it into Oscore, right?". 0/2 for new information, not enough to lose courage though. And she grabbed another person, and another, eventually bringing her total to 34 in counting. All of whom told her the same exact thing just with different ways of wording it.

Leia had to take a seat on the closest bench to de-stress once she could feel her enthusiasm beginning to crack. She was so sure there'd be at least one person who followed Crown's activity farther back than the Striborg- Crown's activity dated back to over a decade ago based on the stray police reports she'd read at the office. There had to be someone-another detective, a reporter, a long-time fan even-out here who knew something useful!

Maybe her line of questions were the problem...? But if that were the case, what exactly were the right questions? And say she did ask the right questions, would that really change anything? All this uncertainly was bumming her out. Stewing here clearly wouldn't do her any good.

In a moment like this, what she needed was a good pick-me-up! Get the good vibes back in, start the search over in a good head space. A moment like this called for a woman's greatest weapon in the face of life's hardships: sweets. Leia flipped open her GHS and tried searching for the nearest sweet shop.

"Um... Excuse me?" Leia looked up from her phone and saw a somewhat nervous-looking older man standing in front of her. "Were you... asking about Crown earlier?"

Did the man follow her back here after he saw her asking questions on the street? A bit odd, though she certainly wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth; she wouldn't pass a willing interviewee! "Yes, I was! Do you know anything about Crown prior to the Striborg Incident?"

"I-I do! I'm actually... a long time fan of Crown..." The older man's eyes fell off her as his pale face burned a bright red.

The best news Leia'd heard all day. Persistence paid off! "That's perfect! Tell me everything you know!" Pen and notepad in hand, she eagerly waited for the man to go on. "Oh, but first, could I ask your name so I can properly credit you?"

"My name's Ludger. It's nice to meet you, Leia if I heard right?" Ludger visibly relaxed once they got a first-name basis. "Anyway, I first remember hearing about Crown when I started 1st grade. He'd been active before that, but he didn't start making headlines until he busted an illegal weapon smuggling ring..."


Hey there lads, guess who made a new AU?

To explain this one briefly, instead of being a reporter, Leia is a Detective for the same paper she works for in Xillia 2. The Kresnik family meanwhile all have something to do with thievery, namely Julius acting as the (in)famous gentleman thief Crown. Also (almost) everything related to Fractured Dimensions and Origin's Trial is tossed out the window; a few elements are still in play, but those'll be plot points down the road. ;U

That's all for now. Hope this AU may pique your interest!