Chapter Seven

What's Been Forgotten

Kenjiro Shirawatari sighed, monitoring the screen with dissatisfaction. The girl had left just as soon as they witnessed that boy being killed. Why was she so inclined in staying with them? She wasn't supposed to feel sorry for these creatures, nor was she supposed to feel anything at all. How could she even think about staying with them at all?

Merikuto had his head on the desk, slamming his tightly clenched fist over the surface of it several times until it was nearly to the point of bleeding, hating himself for what had happened. "You don't suppose that the Henkeis weren't strong enough, do you?" he asked Kenjiro a while after calming his own self down. He had not expected and condolence from Kenjiro, he was not that kind of person to show compassion towards others like what they would have wanted from their guide.

He shook his head slowly, uncompassionate towards the self-hatred he'd clearly felt and witnessed from Merikuto, but he just could never bring himself to care. "Get Etsuko on the job. Maybe she can come up with something strong to take on the job. Maybe some more hounds would suffice. It's her job to make sure the Henkeis are healthy enough, no?"

Merikuto nodded emptily, confirming his inquiry. "Sure, sir," he pulled his glasses up so that he could peer at his superior through the edges of the top, looking at Kenjiro with some sign of concern for him. Kenjiro's arm had been acting quite peculiar lately; Been quite fidgety. "Will you be alright, by the way?"

Kenjiro shot him a death look. "None of your business."

"Right," Merikuto replied, then turned back to the computer. "I just hope we'll be able to hold off those feds before they come in and bust those investigator's asses. Because the Lupis is with them," this was what he had been dreading too. If the FBI were to find some way to arrest those investigators from their sister project, then there would be no way they could hack into their computer systems. However, they had the sister as well as outside support and canvassers at a disadvantage. All what they have to do is make sure no one finds them before they do.

"I'll be heading off to the lab and meet up with Morita for my medication," Kenjiro said. "Keep watch while I am gone. Tomorrow we'll track the investigators. Make sure you keep a close watch on where they are heading," he told Merikuto in his constant obstinate tone. "Contact Etsuko while you are at it."

"Yes sir," Merikuto said, picking up the phone and dialing Etsuko's office as soon as Kenjiro left.

***

The light brown-haired man stepped into the disarray room that had once belong to a comatose girl, noticing the broken window that was next to the bed as he put back on his dark sunglasses and sighed. The place altogether was a mess, plus there was the minority of survivors. The aftermath in which the outlook had become of the entire place made the man think of the troublesome transition this place must have gone through in order to reach this much of a horrible condition.

Jake Gears was on the other side of the hallway, picking up whatever he could find of the patients, after he was done he, too, had entered the room where the light-haired man had stood, holding up a clip with some information on a patient, pushing up his oval glasses up to his eyes so that he could read it.

"Damn, I never figured anything could do something like this," Westwood said with a sharp sigh.

"Really.... Not a single life around here that I know of. I don't even see any bodies, just...blood."

This whole case came into just as a surprise as it had with Westwood. "Yeah, well it's not exactly everyday when some sick asshole would attack a hospital. As a matter in fact, I don't believe there are any recent reports of one that I know of so far. It just seems inhumane." He sighed again, turning around to face Gears after looking out the window real quick as though searching for something in particular. "Have any leads as to where the girl went?"

"Not really," Gears said in a low tone, the edge of his lip twitched skeptically. "Just saw this name and it caught my eye. It was in the room that seemed to have been most damaged. Seemed like whoever was here, came here to find someone. I am guessing that it's this person right here," he held up the clipboard.

"Well? Who is it?"

"Uh, Mi-ya-ko...Shi-ra-wat-tar-i...." Gears jerked his head back in a slight surprise. "Huh. That's an odd name. Sounds familiar though."

Westwood barked out a chuckle for the fact that Gears had made a rather poor attempt to try and make a pronunciation of the name. "Well, most people are choosing odd names nowadays. Why can't anyone go with something simple, anymore? Like Joe. That's simple, and easy to remember," he smirked, turning his head sideways so he could get a look at Gears and the clipboard, a hazel eye focusing on the man's standing position, "you said that it sounded familiar?"

"I meant that it caught my eye," Gears shook his head, focusing back down on the clipboard. "I just thought that there was something strange about this one."

"Why? What were the patient's conditions?"

Gears scratched the side of his head, eyes narrowing. "That's the funny thing. I mean, it just said that she was under secure care, but nothing really unusual. Head trauma, that doesn't sound very good. Other than that it seems like she's just another regular human being," he scratched the back of his head, quirking a brow in contemplation.

"So that means there is nothing left on this floor," he took out his cell phone, calling back at the station. He was going to have to inform Madison of what was happening here...not that there was much to tell, they would need to leave soon anyway once their next orders and destination was set out. Westwood honestly hated his job.

***

Teji's eyes opened. What happened? He couldn't remember anything up to the point of him running down the corridor. What happened to the Galahad? Was it taken out? Was it secured someplace so that it wasn't taken? He couldn't think about having to redo it after all the hard work he'd used on it. Almost aggravated him.

He sat up from his bed back at the shelter. He was lying down in his white bed in...his room? What was he doing here? Had be blackened out or something? In spite of the rushing thoughts, he felt like he'd been missing something, though he was not entirely sure what it might have been. Everything was a blur. Only seen as a shadowed figure, had Teji realized that someone was sitting at the edge of the bed, watching him as he woke. Teji blinked, trying to get things back into focus.

"Uri," he whispered. "How...long have I been here? Taj...where is he? Is he alright?"

Uri's face grew into shock. "Taj? But weren't you...?"

Tilting his head, Teji was left confused. "What?"

"Don't you remember anything that happened last night?"

"So I've been here over night?" he stood up, his back against the wall of the bed. Teji placed his hand over the left side of his face, looking at Uri with one eye. "I am not sure if I even know why I am here?" He told her about what he remembered, then asked her where the Galahad and Taj were at, but he surpassed her hurt and confused expression all the while he spoke.

"Taj has-"

"-gone away for a while," said Xaden, who'd just entered the room. "For the rest of the summer, to be exact," Xaden stuffed his hands into the pockets of his long coat, shooting a glare over at Uri whom instantaneously returned the same expression. "He decided to stay with your mother for a while, get off your tail for a while. So he went back home. Taj is fine. There is no need to worry. He told me to tell you that he will be alright and to not worry about him."

Bekah entered the room, standing in perplexity at Xaden's side when she felt the composure of the air in the room. No cries, no shocked news. Nothing. Like the other two, she also stared at Teji. They wanted to say something, or at least Bekah and Uri had, but Xaden showed no emotion. His eyes...they just glared at him in the same way that he always had. Did Teji do something wrong and they just decided not to inform him of it?

"Teji, you alright?" Bekah asked.

"Fine. Never been better, thanks," he smiled a warm smile. By now he seemed to have thought that it had been a good thing Taj was gone for now, then that would mean no little brother to constantly hanging around him and intervene with his concentration as well as work order. No more begging or relentless queries to "play" with the guns, and even more, he wouldn't get into anymore trouble. It was much better that he stays home with their mother. He should also continue with school since the month would be drawing itself to an end, and he should have been using all his summer time to have fun. Though he remembered Taj's words, saying that school was pointless, Teji had tried to encourage him to resume his attendance. Reminded him very much of himself, the way he used to be.

Still, the way everyone looked at him bothered him. It hurt to know that they were hiding something and didn't feel like letting him know, Teji knew it, he felt it in the very air and upon their dispositions. He saw it all in the way they looked at him, like they expected him to burst into tears and at least Uri would be the first to console him. But now the only question there was.... Why?

What was wrong with them? Was there something wrong with his face maybe? No, nobody around here would really bother about that, except for Fia of course. Then there has to be something important, because he never felt so nervous before in his life.

It was Uri who would have made the first attempt to save his troubled mind.

"Come on, I think Teji just needs some rest," she got up, shoving Xaden and Bekah out of the room, shutting the door behind them. She turned around, looking at Teji. "You sure you're okay?"

Teji nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine, don't worry."

Something was most definitely not right.

***

Rei leaned against the wall outside of Teji's room after Bekah had entered that room. She waited for them to come back out, instead, it was Xaden and Bekah again, Rei was hoping that it would be Uri. At least she was able to talk to her without Uri turning the other way. No matter what, Uri always was there to help her out. Even Fia was being more of a help than the others were. They were angry because they thought that Rei had done something bad to Teji.

"What did you do to him?!" Bekah hissed, grabbing the cuffs of Rei's jacket, jerking her forwards and slammed her against the wall. She felt a thud, that was her spine. Bekah obviously was never known for being a gentleperson, was she?

"I didn't do anything wrong," Rei said, in a toneless voice.

"Like hell you didn't! He's completely out of it!" Bekah yelled, her breath beating against Rei's face. She couldn't give it a distinctive smell, and she hadn't found it rather pleasing. Though she held back on the comments and sucked in her breath, holding herself back from saying anything that may make her think even less highly on her than she already had.

"I just took away the pain. Teji asked me to," Rei told Bekah within the same, monotonous voice, eyes staring at Bekah like she had the ability to see right through her. Something was different about Rei, she wasn't like she had been before; Not the helpless little girl that she thought she knew, but somebody completely and utterly different. More headstrong and serious, rather than dainty and weak. Bekah didn't like it.

And it had been because of her distaste for the girl's capricious nature that convinced Bekah the given reason to slam Rei's infighting body once more violently against the wall in a brutal manner, only this time it was much rougher than before, further aggressive, a pleasurable feeling to see Rei in pain, even if she was stoic towards the sensation, Bekah saw it in her eyes. Rei gritted her teeth, wrinkling her nose in pain while she gasped for some air between her teeth, feeling winded and hyperventilated to the point that the world spun.

Taking a step back, Bekah had then compacted Rei's cheek with a balled fist, her side crashed into the metal wall, face stinging with lack of sensation and pain. And yet in spite of the pain, Rei's expression had not altered towards the newfound sensitivity swelling through her head, and it was because of the lack of emotion she'd shown that had made Bekah even more furious.

"Don't you even start to feed me that heavily loaded pile of shit," Bekah shrilled, rushing up to her and taking Rei by her collar again, jerking her in a hostile technique. "I know you did something-I saw it! I was there! You did something to him and I want to know what you did! Tell me or I'll beat it out of you!"

"Bekah!" Xaden yelled, pulling back her arm that was going to be used to strike Rei again with, his grip over her wrist had tightened to the point that her arm started to flush violet. Though all the while he appeared to have been having some minor difficulty by doing so with his left arm, seeing that his right arm was out of commission, suppressed within the splint. "She won't be able to talk unless you give her a chance to speak!"

"She doesn't deserve a chance!"

"You don't know it was her!"

"Like hell that I don't!" Bekah turned around, her anger all on Xaden now, her cold stare had transferred their sight from Rei to Xaden. "Like I said, I was there! I watched her touch him! She did something to Teji to make him disregard all that had happened and I demand to know what it was that the bitch had done to him!"

"Even if Rei had the power to do that, it was a good thing she did," he said, Bekah gave him a perplexed and outraged look. What was Xaden talking about? "What I mean, is that I don't want Teji to know what happened to Taj right now. You want to lose him right when the attacks have reawakened themselves again? Bekah, are you sure you'd want to lose Teji, just like we all have lost something? Teji will be gone if he finds out what happened to his brother, and he'll leave and never come back. If what you say about what Rei did was true, then I would have to also say thank you," he turned to Rei, though he had not given her a gratifying smile like what some had expected, though judging by the look on Rei's now bruised face, she didn't look like she was much in the mood for any recognition, either. "Was it you who did that?"

Rei didn't answer for a moment, she remained the same position as she was when Bekah punched her, staring at the closed door. He might not remember, but Rei sure did, but she wished she didn't. Faces...so many faces, they all popped up last night. She couldn't catch them all, but before she fell, she saw a little girl in a gold dress going down to her knees and black hair, she stood at the end of the hallway, her hands behind her back. She was smiling, rocking backwards and forwards with a wide, angelic smile on her face.

Who was that girl? Rei had asked herself many times, yet neither name nor memoir had come into mind. Instead, she was left in the mists of ambiguity, like always. Just like her name, and who she really was.

"Teji wanted to run away," Rei finally said after the elongated silence. "He wanted to forget what he saw and what he knew. He escaped his fear and succeeded."

"Hold up," Bekah snorted. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"His brother's death would have caused him too much pain. He had already lost another person he loved, he didn't need to lose another. What's more, the one person he looked at more as his responsibility as well. He told me it would have been too much for him to bare. So the pain was gone."

She had been completely, utterly outraged. The whole nerve the girl had that made her speak of Teji like she thought she knew her for her entire life. It made Bekah's blood boil with such anger that made her want to scream. "Just who the hell do you think you are?" Bekah snapped, getting up close to Rei's face again, pressing Rei up against the wall again with her hand against the girl's shoulder, jabbing her forefinger into her skin to make Rei feel only more pain. Only now the pain was gone from her face, she just looked at Bekah, staring into her eyes.

Of course she felt pain. There's no such being who could ever withstand such a thing, but it was just that Rei had a hard time showing it. Plus, Bekah thinks that she can toss Rei around as much as she'd like, she didn't want to give the woman that kind of impression. So Rei just gave her a cold, expressionless appearance. Bekah was such a nice person for a while last night, what was happening in her mind now? What had she been thinking about the Rei now that she'd seen what she could do?

Bekah backed away from Rei, timid. Rei could feel it, Bekah was afraid of her, too. Her fear made Rei want to scream, she didn't want to be feared. She never asked for it. She never asked for a lot of things, and all she wanted was to take them all back.

***

The room was filled with silence. Reuel, Ragnar, and Fia sat down on the couch, waiting. Thinking about how Teji was going to feel that his brother was dead. He had seen the body, smelled the blood. And he didn't like the way the atmosphere was, nor the peaceful look on Teji's face as he was brought in. Still, it wasn't like it was any of his business to pry into.

Reuel reached into his breast pocket, pulling out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes, causing Fia to suddenly jolt out of her self-entrapping contemplations, turning to stare, appalled at Reuel. "You're not going to light that here, are you?"

Popping the cigarette into his mouth, Reuel shrugged. "Yeah. Why?"

Fia shook her head, her fiery red hair rolled over her shoulder as she shook her head repetitively as well as obstinately. "Nuh-uh. Not here, Reuel. Take it somewhere else. I can't stand the smell of those things. You should know better than to smoke out here."

Reuel's mouth dropped. How could Fia be more worried about secondhand smoking at this kind of time, rather than worrying about more important matters that were at hand, anyway? Though he wasn't one for contention, he took the cigarette from his mouth, holding it between his fingers, and patiently stood back up. "Fine then," he said sharply, scowling coldly at Fia as he walked by, "I don't need to hear your lectures right now, okay. If I can't smoke here than I might as well do it in my own room." He turned away from them, getting out of the pit and walked towards the door to his room. He opened the door to the hallway, closing it so Fia does not see him, then leaned against the wall, putting the cigarette back in his mouth, and lit it with the Zippo in hand.

"Can you believe it?" Nickoli said, standing right next to him.

Reuel jumped, the stick nearly falling from his lips. "Sorry, I didn't even see you there."

Nickoli waved his own cigarette in the air. "Feel a little uneasy."

"Understandable."

Nickoli snorted. "Seriously though, don't you think its amazing?"

Reuel turned and looked at Nickoli and blinked observantly, bewildered almost to the point where his cigarette had almost fallen from his lips this time. The tone in Nickoli's voice was much more solemn then usual, something that was rarely seen in Nickoli and in these occasions such phenomenon was considered a rarity. "What?"

"That he's gone...I never expected something like that. Guess when you get to know someone around here it's hard to realize that someday they'll be gone. It hurts," Nickoli sighed and looked down, his teeth gritted over the edge of the cigarette to the point that it released a rather unpleasant odor.

"Strange," Reuel said, taking the stick from his mouth, blowing hot white smoke through his flaring nostrils, "I don't feel much. It's the exact numb feeling I had when I found out Serine was killed in that explosion." He dropped the cigarette, looking over at Nickoli. He'd forgotten, in all the years that he had been present, Reuel never mentioned a single thing about his family. As far as they knew Reuel never even had a family at all, which was why he never did send any letters, used the phone, or had any time off. He was constantly seen at the shelter, at E.R.O.S., day and night, always the first one to run into a fray and the last one to leave the fight.

However, Nickoli didn't share Reuel's sincere expression. He only looked at him in pity. It was pity, right? Reuel hated it, he loathed receiving the sympathy from others, something that he'd always expected that he would receive should he had ever spoken a single thing of his past, hence why he never had told anybody of his family. "I never knew that you...." Nickoli stumbled on the topic of the sentence, furrowing his brows and questioned, "Whose Serine?"

"...just a widow," Reuel said quietly.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay," he shrugged, almost impassively. Reuel knew what the story was going to be like when Nickoli had merely started to bring it up. Nobody around E.R.O.S. had ever expected Nickoli to have as much of a past like everybody else around here, thus making conversations more difficult to relate to when creating one with him, he just never seemed to understand the pain of others as much as he should have. "As you know, I never lost anyone in the City of Tears, but that never meant that I wasn't angry about it. Of course, a lot of people were and all, but you-"

"Taz, could you do me a favor and shut the hell up?" Reuel said, putting his hands in his pockets and smashed the active cigarette on the ground. He stood up straight, and walked away from him. He couldn't believe this, he was actually taking pity from someone, and his own partner, none-the-less. Although it was his own damn fault that he was here, alone.

Everybody here was so alone. So lonely. And yet some had not shown, but their loneliness was clearly seen like one standing in a glass house for the world to see naked. Everybody around here had their own issues, and even though they lived in such a place with other people, they were always alone.

His thoughts then ran towards Teji and Taj, it all came back to him. He remembered when Teji first came to E.R.O.S., at first Reuel thought that Teji was looking at this more as a game or an act of revenge, his father's death was for his revenge. But when he got to know him more, he realized that there was more to that young man than he first perceived there to be. He reminded Reuel so much, it pained him to think about it, too. Then there was Taj, who always hung at Teji's heel every now and then. Reuel never looked highly upon the boy, but he was there, and he wanted to be a part pf the "team."

Funny the way things work out. Who would have known that Reuel was ever going to drag himself into being apart of such an organization? But now Taj was dead. Still, his face burned Reuel's eyes. The sight. It was bad enough Serine was blown up with the rest of their home, it was even worse to actually see Taj's face, so cold and vacant, bloodied. He couldn't even think or feel anything when he saw Taj. Xaden took the remained of Taj off somewhere, but he wasn't sure where.

Just don't think about it, Reuel told himself. He walked in his "dorm," sat down on his bed to think.

***

Fia had sighed and shook her head as Reuel took his leave, recalling the many times that she'd had to decline his persistence to have a smoke in the middle of the room. Fia hated everything there was to those cigarettes. The smoke, the smell, what they did to people. The fact that they made people obsessed with their routine in order to have one troubled her, hence why she never decided to pick up on the nasty habit to begin with.

Then there were those who were present in the room as well. Ragnar, who hadn't spoken much since they'd gotten back, was sitting down on the couch, listlessly looking upwards at the ceiling with a vacant stare, his mouth slightly agape. His fingers flexed frequently, twitching as though he was holding something and triggering it with his index finger. What was he thinking?

"Want hot cocoa?" Fia found herself asking Ragnar.

Ragnar woke from his trance, turning to her in slight bewilderment. "Huh?"

"Or maybe some tea? Coffee?" She fidgeted with her hands agitatedly. Her hands wished to work, to do something to make herself feel useful, and as of the moment Fia wasn't feeling like she could do enough, and by now she'd had it with feeling useless. "I'm sorry, but I have to be doing something when I am thinking too much about things that I want to forget. I mean, I don't like thinking much right now, and you just...get what I am talking about, right?"

"Um, I'll have some coffee, thanks," Ragnar said while avoiding the conversation in general (at least if he didn't want to talk about it, then Fia wouldn't have to worry about the thought that she had been trying to forget bothering her.), then leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, sitting in silence. Fia walked over to the china hutch, taking out two teacups, then to the counter next to the wide television. It was a hard counter to see, but it had a microwave oven, and a beaker of hot water. Hot for the moment. She didn't know when it was last made. Fia took out some coffee grounds, and a tea bag in the box under the counter, putting it in the cup. In a matter of minutes she was complete, giving Ragnar his coffee and sat her tea down on the seat beside him, still getting ready for the inner herbs within the cup to mix. At the same time Ragnar seemed to have lost interest, staring upwards once more and tuning the world out as though it never existed to him.

Just then, the door behind them had opened. The door to Teji's hallway, and within it exited the girl who called herself Rei. She looked like she was going to cry, but in a way, she seemed like she couldn't, not in the fighting way like what some people do when they try to keep themselves from crying, but almost like she had forgotten in some way. Fia held up her cup of tea, looking over at Rei with curiosity, trying to find some way to make the depressive atmosphere to leave as soon as possible, no matter the costs. "Want some?" Fia asked her.

Rei looked up and blinked, bemused. "What was that?"

"Tea? Cocoa? Coffee?"

"Oh."

"'Oh' what?"

"Um...I guess...cocoa sounds alright," Rei replied. She sounded so cold, yet, confused at the same time, even though Fia could read that it wasn't about making the silly decision about what to drink. There was something different about that woman. Not strange, but different. She was always good with judging people at first glance, but Rei was like a book written in some unknown language. How was she ever going to get to know Rei if the woman always pulled herself away from others?

"Alright then, cocoa it is," Fia said, setting down her seat upon the coffee table. Within moments, Fia had Rei's cocoa done, and her tea was completed with the sugar that she felt was needed. She handed Rei her new blue cup of hot chocolate and herself, strong mint tea. "You can sit down if you would like."

"Thanks," Rei said.

"I didn't know you were the drinking type," Ragnar said at last, gulping his coffee.

"Well, I think...someone used to make me hot chocolate."

"Oh really?" Fia asked, not very interested, but still had to keep up a conversation. If she made one slip she would let Rei fall. She didn't want that, especially since Rei seemed like the kind of person who didn't talk much about herself, like she was a mystery even to herself, and that interested Fia more so than the topic itself. "Who?"

Rei looked down, gazing into her drink, watching the liquids swirling and reflecting on the dim lights overhead. Fia could see the reflection clear from where she sat, a bright beam from within the brown fluids from within. "I'm not really sure. I remember someone I knew, think I lived with her. She made me a cup every night before I went to bed...jeez, I don't know where that came from." She shook her head and closed her eyes, acquiring a pensive look as she furrowed her brows.

"Is there something wrong?" Ragnar asked.

"...no, not really."

"Really?" he raised his scarred eyebrow.

"Really, really."

What was this woman getting at? Why was she always trying to push herself away from the others? Sure, Fia was no professional on human behaviors or anything like that, but she knew that Rei was trying to hide something somewhere in her head, whether if it be inadvertently or not. Either that or was there just something that she didn't know herself? The way she got that look in her eye, it was like a stray child.

There was a memory that was triggered in Fia's mind. She remembered when she was six, she saw a lost child wandering the streets of Los Angeles. She knew that little girls shouldn't be alone in such a big city, but what was the child to do? She was crying, lost, and Fia didn't do anything, because her mother took her hand and pulled her away, and for some reason she would always remember the spinning soda can and the Coca-Cola paper add twirling itself in the air, rushing passed her vision of the girl like a tumbleweed. She didn't know why, but Rei reminded Fia very much of that lost little girl. Rei seemed so much like she wanted to cry, but for some reason she was holding back her tears, even though right then she seemed as though she could have used a good hug.

"So...uh," Rei looked over at the china hutch. "What is behind there, anyway?"

Fia nearly dropped her tea. How did Rei know that there was something behind that door at all? "Well, um, th...that is the field. An addition that Xaden added a couple years ago. He worked on it months until it was finished. He barely got any sleep at all until it was done. It's supposed to be a place where we train. Not just with plain guns, but with other weapons as well. Blades and hand-to-hand combat training, as well as other techniques. You get it, right?" Fia then raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "By the way, how did you know there was a room behind there, anyway?"

Rei turned, staring at Fia with her bright green eyes. Those eyes were the only thing that made Fia believe that the girl had the ability to see right through her in spite of the naivety seen on her exterior facial materialization that seemed akin to that of an angel's demeanor. "I remembered seeing Bekah walk out of there with some others."

Fia could have kicked herself right then for not considering such a thing. How else was the girl supposed to have known of it otherwise? "Okay, well, um...." she sighed, then looked over at Ragnar. He was too quiet right then for her liking, even though he had a brooding look to his face that caused him to zone out once more. What was he thinking about?

That man must be very devastated, as she remembered Taj always hung around the computer room, pestering him and Teji all the time. Thinking of which, what was going on with Teji? Xaden and Uri must be trying to explain to him that his brother was dead, being moral support. Then again, with Xaden being in there also, that couldn't be a good sign, as that man was never a good emotional guidance. This was bad, now she was starting to worry.

Xaden was never the kind of guy who would always be there to help someone if they had any physical problems, like helping them if they were in need for backup within a fight. He never seemed to comprehend the fact that there were other forms of helping people other than making sure that they were in need of substantial care, anyway. For years Fia recalled that Uri had tried to make him open up more and more, trying to get him to realize this issue, but she remembered that one day Uri had informed Fia that she'd given up on Xaden. Even though she didn't believe her words, Fia knew that one day Uri would be back with the same routine as she had once before. Uri would never give up on Xaden. Ever.

Though Teji was very important to Xaden. He was always the one who hacked into computers with Ragnar and such, making Teji a valuable player in the structure of their hunter system. The two of them were always into mechanics as well. It was very unlike him to go to the hospital to fight, but if Taj wasn't there, then he would have stayed back and helped them through the phone lines. The computers in this place were capable of going through any kind of power cables in the country. To Teji it was like baking cookies in order to get a simple recording in the capital government.

So delicate, everyone was. Even Reuel had his weak points; his past in this matter. No one could see it, but surely it was there. Right in front of them. It was just buried under many layers, that's all. Xaden's dog, sure, Nook was a weak side of him. Xaden never seemed like the animal type, but when anyone got near his dog, then there was hell to pay.

Again, the door opened. And this time it was Uri and Xaden who walked out. Uri looked furious, while Xaden didn't seem at all pleased with the way she was yelling at him. He had a sour look on his face that made Fia almost grin when she thought about him eating a lemon. His bitter scowls had always amused her, especially when they were the expressions he'd always given to Uri whenever she'd given him another harangue.

"...not telling Teji is not a good idea!" Uri exclaimed at Xaden, her arms gesturing to him with outrage and infuriation. "Besides, he'll find out sooner or later, there's no way you can keep something such as a death a secret, Xaden. You're going to regret this sooner or later."

"What's up with her?" Ragnar wondered, as Fia and Rei had always joined in on the listening.

Despite Uri's screaming and yelling at him, Xaden didn't seem to be responding. As a matter in fact, he wasn't saying anything back in a way to defend himself. Fia pictured herself yelling at Xaden, and he would have smacked her upright or hit her, just as well as everyone else here, but he would never do so with Uri.

Fia and Ragnar exchanged looks, then watched the "fight" between Uri and Xaden. Rei had turned away, as though fearing to see the outcome, and that somewhere down the line something was going to be directed towards her standing point.

"Think we missed something?" Fia wondered.

"Oh yeah, we definitely missed something here," Ragnar said, nodding and not taking his eyes away from the real action. Indolently, he sighed; That man needed some rest, or he'd end up killing himself from such a consistent lacking of sleep.

They had missed something again right then, something that Xaden had muttered to Uri. Just then, she smacked Xaden with a stiffly folded hand. Clearly it had been a hard blow, for the reason that it left a large purple discoloration on the side of his cheek, clearly visible from even all the way across the room. His eyes remained blank and cold, as if he knew that he deserved it.

"He needed to know the truth, Xaden, not to eat such lies from your hand, that is taking advantage of him and you know it isn't right!" Uri said in a utter deep voice. It was quite frightening, Fia had never seen Uri this mad, and seeing such a scene made her realize how it was just unfitting for her. "You had no right to keep him away from what he needed to know. It was lame to come up with an excuse, and your reasoning doesn't support the fact that you'd just made a complete ass of yourself. What was it all for, huh? You told him that Taj went back home to live with their mother?! Someday, Xaden, someday Teji will find out, and when he does, he'll hate you so badly, he'll take it to your grave."

"If so, then he'll be with us a while longer," Xaden said in an emotionless voice. He was a zombie, senseless to the pain that stung his face. "I don't think that you would want him to leave, now, would you?"

This time it was Uri's turn to not answer. Ever since the day she joined, Uri had always been in close touch with the others around here, but she would lose it if someone were lost. Fia never figured out why, but it was like Uri was afraid of losing someone in a way that it's already happened. This made Fia even more interested in the woman, but also hated her even more as the way she was always depressed at times.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Xaden said. "Teji will become angry, and he'll never be the same again. I will risk keeping him here for a while longer, even if it means that he'll hate me for the rest of his life when he does find out, and even if it does come to the consideration that I am merely using him until he is no longer needed in this group any longer. But right now we've just been attacked, and they will still come, so we still need to have him around."

It wasn't everyday when Xaden was seen like this. But that was when Fia looked over and saw Rei, that the girl looked like she was about to cry. Her eyes had begun to swell, although the tears remained on the lids of her eyes.

Rei set down her cup of cocoa, sitting up from the sofa she was sitting on. "I'm tired. Is there a place where I can rest? I'm really tired...." she asked Fia in a quiet voice, trying to ignore the silence between the two couples behind her. Fia knew that was the reason, she could see it in her eyes. There was something about Rei that Fia didn't understand. It frightened her to think that there was ever something wrong with the poor girl, but she couldn't help but wonder.

"Yeah, sure. Xaden made this place for that kind of reason: To fit more people inside. So we have plenty of room," Fia whispered back with a warmhearted smile, understanding completely of the girl's timidity. Although Fia had taken it as somewhat of a clue as to what was hidden behind the vacuous disposition of Rei, a key that she'd left behind for somebody to unlock her morale, however, Fia did not think that she was the right person to open the door. Not yet, anyway.

"Oh.... Okay, thanks," Rei said, setting down her cup, seeing as Fia had done the same, setting it on the table. Ragnar just sat there in silence, his attention averted from Xaden and Uri's quarrel and the other two's compromising. Fia watched him for a quick moment, wondering what he was thinking about, then veered, grabbing Rei's shoulder amiably and guided the both of them from the room. Fia was now wondering what Ragnar had been thinking about all this time, but the thought really didn't stay there.

"Rei, I want to ask you something," Fia said with a light sigh, stopping them both and standing in front of the closed door. The way she looked at her when she turned to her was earnest, something that was barely even keen to what Fia had been used to feeling and showing to others.

"Yes, what is it?" Rei asked.

"I want to know if...you are going to stay," she finally said. "I don't know why, but I just don't want you to leave. It's just that with Taj gone and all...." Fia swallowed. "...well, it feels like it has been a while since you came here, and-"

"I don't want to get anymore involved with you, or the rest of the E.R.O.S.," Rei said flatly. "I can't."

Perplexed, Fia asked, "What? Why?"

"Because. I don't know...how to explain it, but I just can't stay here," her timorous green eyes had shifted, looking away before turning back to Fia with a troubled look, something that made her look like she was about to break into tears, but that look vanished as well. Slowly, it was as though it never existed. "Bekah...won't look at me the same way again. She's already angry with me, I don't want to cause anymore damage around here."

So this was it. Rei was going to leave too, just like that? She'll be gone just like the rest of them...those people. Fia held her head low, looking at the ground, watching her feet shuffle. Rei was leaving. It was like she had been here for years and she was leaving, right when she had begun to grow onto her as well, she wasn't that bad after all, anyway. How could she do this?

What was it with Bekah anyways? That same Bekah, the one that she was so used to seeing everyday. The same Bekah that she had always looked up to like a sister. The same Bekah who had always treated her like a sister back. And now Rei was going to leave her, just like Bekah. She now felt just like that little crying child she had seen on the streets fourteen years ago, an alienated feeling in her chest in which Fia had not liked.

But all that Fia did at that moment was nod. She nodded like she understood...but she didn't. She didn't understand Rei, what she thought about, the nature on how she acted...nothing. Fia was so fascinated in her too, because Rei seemed like a true blue one-of-a-kind human being, nothing more, nothing less.

"Alright," Fia said to Rei quietly, "...okay. But if there is anything you need, you can-"

"I don't think I should be anywhere near here. Something's telling me to head as far away from here as I can, maybe east. But Fia, don't tell anyone else. I don't want to cause a burden here any longer." The way Rei looked at her, her deep green eyes, they demanded Fia to comply with her request. They told her that she couldn't.

Fia wouldn't tell anyone.

***

Fia had shown Rei her room, although it wasn't much. Just a bed, a closet, and some empty dressers. Fia had told her that she'll add some clothes into the suit cases that was displayed in the closet next to the entryway door, before Rei leaves.

When Rei told Fia that she wasn't going to be staying, there had been somewhat a hint of hurt in her expression. Why was she so concerned about her? It wasn't like she had known Rei as long as everyone had known Taj, there was no special value that the girl had compared to the boy who'd just been killed. As a matter in fact Rei believed that she could have died in the hospital and people could care less.

What ever happened to Teji was beyond Rei, as far as she knew, she couldn't remember much of anything. Just whispers. And yet even those whispers that spoke to her had been unclear, like the sound of a million bees buzzing within their hoard.

Rei lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling with her hands behind her head. She felt like she was going to die she felt so bad, the strange feeling of needles jabbing into her skin was almost too much for her mind to bare, and yet she was stoic to almost all pain she'd felt. Then there was this peculiar feeling of deep mysterious guilt had itself built up inside of her, making her stomach churn. Right then Rei had felt like the churning was going to cause her to vomit.

Slowly, as her thought began to diminish from her brain, Rei closed her eyes, and dreamt, hearing a song....

***

Opening her eyes, only to feel much, much smaller. She looked up, and saw a woman hovering over her. Who was that woman? She had short, blonde hair that touched her jaws and dark, amber eyes. Her eyes had created an image of her that made the woman appear like she always smiled. She looked down at the little girl, the smile grew. The dimples on her cheeks made her look so much like an angel. The child even could have sworn that there was a white aura surrounding her.

The woman was driving a car, seatbelts attached to both the child and herself. The child looked at the dashboard; there was a calendar on it. She squinted, reading the date. A circle around the date, October the 25, 2024. She looked out the window, black hair flung itself over her eyes, surpassing that actuality while looking out to see tall buildings and sky scrapers, standing high like giants from beyond the glass window of the car. The little girl's eyes lit up, watching all the lights pass her by. She never remembered the last time she was actually able to see things freely like this.

"So you're awake," the woman said warmly. Not exactly a question, but it had been moreover a general statement. The little girl rubbed her eyes with her small hand. Child hands, thick fingers yet a small palm. She looked up with her big, green eyes, blinking as she stared at the woman for a while as though trying to remember her, and why she was where they were. "Don't worry, everything's going to be all right from now on."

"From...now on? I'll be happy...right?"

The woman smiled. "Yes. Happy."

The little girl smiled. She was young, and had no idea what was going to happen to her in the future. Unaware, and unwilling to know. Being young was such a strange necessity. She would not understand why she walked on the road she had, or what was awaiting for her in the distant future.

"Are we almost there?" inquired the girl.

The woman looked at the child in a side-glance, shocked. "How did you...?"

The child cocked her head to the side. "How did I what?"

"Nothing," she said, looking at the window, checking the mirror.

"Is there something wrong, Undine? You look sick," the little girl said casually, but there was also the subtle tone in her voice. The girl then cringed, as though expecting a sudden blow to the head or something akin to that brutal matter, she seemed like a whipped dog, and now was suffering from the consistent abuse. "Did I say something wrong again?"

"No, it's just that I don't remember telling you where we were going," the woman said.

"Oh," the little girl looked out the window. "I did it again, didn't I?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Scared you. I scared you again, right?"

The woman looked at the child, her eyes full of tears. She pulled the car over on the side of the road, putting her hands on her face and she began shaking, and sniffled; There was the hint of a tiny whimper that lasted for a moment, like she was fighting away something that apparently the girl had not seen. A sound that the little girl never heard before. What was wrong with her? Was she alright? She didn't look so good, but what was there that the child could do?

Instead, the woman took her hand over, and pulled the little girl close to her side, and rested her head on top of the child's head. Stunned, the little girl wrapped her arms around the woman's stomach, trying her best to make the woman stop being sad.

"Undine, are you okay?" the little girl asked.

The woman didn't reply. Hot water dripped onto her hair, the little girl closed her eyes.

Try not to think about it, she thought, just don't think about it.

"Please, sing the song," the little girl said, thinking of the first thing that came into her mind. The first thing that always came into her head was some way to make her forget the bad things, the simple events that still, and always will, haunt her. Haunting a child like herself forever. "It makes me feel better, maybe it'll make you feel better. Like what you said, right?"

"Rei, I...can't. Not right now. I can't even get the words right."

"Then just come up with words," the child tried to smile, but only managed a tiny one, unable to complete a full one. She had not much of a reason to smile for a long time. "They don't have to be the right ones, just think of words that you can think of you head."

"But...." the woman sighed. "I guess you won't stop talking unless if I do."

Sleep little child, don't you fret

About your fate, of who you'll be.

Fly high on the first night,

Reach for the light until you are there.

The Darkness that blinds you,

The Fold that holds you,

Take my hand

That's all you have to do....

Come little dream child and you can see

The person that you were meant to be.

That sweet tune. Yes, what comes out of your mind.

How did you know...?

Know what?

Never mind.

***

All you have to do is open your eyes

Find for what you've been looking for.

For soon my child shall grow silver wings,

To see the world for many things.

She was standing, below her feet was a canyon. Ahead, she could see a woman on the edge. The wind blows passed the two of them, but she remains transparent and doesn't move, her hair and body inanimate even through the blowing wings that lifted Rei's own hair up.

Rei tried to call out to her, telling the woman to back away from the edge of the canyon in which she had been walking further towards, but for some reason she can't even hear her own voice. She screams, but even Rei hadn't an idea as to what she was trying to saw. All the while the woman is singing. Such a sweet tune...so nice. Rei stops screaming, then falls. She's falling now...but to where? Where is she going?

The next thing Rei knows, is her stance within the same place, only it's not like it was before. The canyon, which used to be bright and incandescent within the bullion luminosity, is now dark and ominous. The clouds overhead are formed into a waving circle. The woman is now gone, and all she can hear is a crackling sound.. There is something at the bottom of the cliff. She walked over to it. She then yells out something....

***

Her heart skipped beats, then picked up it's pace, as Rei rushed to sit upright in her bed.

"STOP!" she screamed. The words came right out of her mouth without her even thinking, for she had been accustomed to the silence, the darkened images, but not to the feeling of having a suspended image, a future corpse dangling over the edge of thousands of feet from the ground that would crush the body. Rei wiped her face with her hand, pulling away some sweat that ran itself across her forehead. Something was over that cliff, below her feet, but she didn't want sleep anymore to find out.

***

There had been a call from the office that had concerned Westwood and Gears, a word in relation to the aftermath of what had happened after the brawl at the Renaissance Hospital (which wasn't much, actually. Just like always, Madison wasn't very please with that fact that they had failed to obtain their objective.). There had been a gathering from the superiors of the tower that they believed that their target was directly taken from the hospital, most likely willingly. The security tapes regarding the matter had been destroyed during the attack, coming out as nothing but static.

Like always, Madison had suspected that the mutineer hunters, E.R.O.S., were somewhat involved with the removal of their objective. He'd suspected that it was either killed or currently taking refuge with the rogues, either one was unknown until they'd proven one or the other.

However, they had managed to recover a body that was somewhat familiar about the matter of one of the members from E.R.O.S., the mutilated figure of a young boy who had later been identified as a Sato, a kin supposedly of the same Sato that had hacked into the system mainframes of Neo Angeles and started a west coats wide blackout. Although they had the name figured out, it was discovered hard to believe that such a young boy could be capable of doing such a complicated hacker technique. His punishment was not entirely exploited to the publish, so Westwood had no recollected as to what happened to the boy.

Madison had questioned Westwood and Gears as to where the location of the target might be currently, it was Gears who informed him of the cameras displayed throughout the city, the safety measures of Neo Angeles was a pretty high rate. However, it was regretted for the two of them to allow Madison to know that the cameras in the Hospital were down, thus they had no lead as to where to start looking for the objective first.

Westwood alone had come to the idea that there may had been the single possibility that those people were taken somewhere else, the ones that were missing. Either that or they were dead, since there wasn't all that much blood found in the hospital, but shredded or missing bodies.

There was one last thing that Madison had questioned the two investigators of, and that was how many people they believed to have been involved with the attack. There had been the estimation between six to ten, but neither of them was sure. From what was heard behind the static of the security tapes, there was a hint of voices coming from the background, and various indication of gunfire.

After they were dismissed, Orion and Gears had left the office, walking out onto the streets in which had shining concrete smiling from beneath their feet. Gears slamming the door behind them, sending Westwood a spiteful glare. "You had to tell him about the voices, didn't you?"

Westwood shrugged. "What does it matter?"

"Because. That's overtime, jackass!"

"Hey, at least it's extra pay, alright?" Westwood shrugged again. "Besides, that just more visits to the brothels for you," he grinned, knowing how prudent and insecure Gears was with his perversity, something that Orion always took to his own advantage. "So, you wanna get this over with or what? We have time to kill at the moment."

"The sooner we get this done the better," Gears stretched and sighed.