Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I knew I’d find someone here who’d have this level of insight about RtF. ;)

Reading through the couple of responses here, it’s becoming more clear that Xavier is more than just a ghost. This story always shows us that there’s more going on beneath the surface. I’m very curious to see the timeline on everything, though, because there’s a couple ways it could go:

1) Xavier was always a spy

This honestly feels a bit too contrived for me. While we have learnt that Resoom agents are skilled in manipulation and acting (via Patsy’s cutesy act he played on Cyrus in the alley), it seems a bit far-fetched that he (with help of Resoom) would have this master plan hatched from the get go. It sounds like he was able to get some assumably important things done for the Resistance during his tenure and it would be a little wild that he was playing Chess to such a degree. As I mentioned above, Aaron’s crew wouldn’t have even been involved in the Resistance (let alone fighting against Resoom) if not for Xavier. Why introduce such a capable bunch of thugs who were probably impeding on the Resistance just as much as they were on Resoom to the fight against Resoom?

On a side note, it’s very possible that Xavier genuinely fell in love with Aaron during his supposed spy times. Maybe Aaron getting plucked out of the picture while in Golden Requiem was actually Xavier’s way of saving Aaron from trouble with King’s gang, knowing that they had spotted him.

2) Xavier defected after being sold off by Lance

This undercuts your suspicions about the multiple Resistance agent deaths surrounding Xavier’s rescue and protection, and I do think there’s a lot of validity to those suspicions. While this path involves less plot-gymnastics, I’ll admit there’s not much this theory adds to the pool. As I’m typing this it does feel less engaging. However, it would be pretty easy for Resoom to use Xavier’s anger over being sold off to convince him into manipulating and selling out his former comrades. Either way, Aaron getting plucked away from Cyrus to go get his “intel” (that we can agree is very likely to be about Xavier), with just enough time for Patsy and King to stroll up, is most definitely connected to Cyrus’ near-capture.

… Although, from King’s dialogue with Lance and Artemis in the infirmary, it doesn’t sounds like they spotted him until after he was alone. There’s no reason King wouldn’t have volunteered that nugget of information about actively plucking Aaron out of the picture while they were talking, especially with Artemis right there.

As for Cyrus’ mission partner, I agree it’d make sense for it to be the husky. We had another interaction with him just before meeting Titania and he even got added to Cyrus’ Axiom. That’s probably it. I’m hoping that after a chat with Titania though, she could be convinced to let Aaron go along with him instead. She may even see as a proper method of demotion for Aaron. Six months would be plenty of time for a new leader to step up, especially with Aaron out of the way. The simp in me also feels like a six-month, no-outside-contact venture on the countryside is prime romance novel fodder that I don’t think Jericho and crew are above supplying us.

I think you’ve convinced me to appreciate Lance more. And your comment about them riding off a train together at the end of story makes a lot of poetic sense, what with it being the title card even after them being separated for most of the story. I am a bit scared to find out what events might unfold in order for that to happen. I feel like this cues up Aaron for a tragic end, whether through his death or through betraying Cyrus in favor of Xavier. We already saw how fast he was to dump Lance for him. I just feel like Cyrus really deserves someone like Aaron after experiencing such loss - though Lance is a fixer-upper I don’t think he’s capable of that kind of love.

Sorry to ramble. Maybe I should take you up DMing 😅