Chapter Eight

Captivity and Residual

An hour had passed when Nickoli had parted from Reuel. Considering his petulance when Nickoli had brought up something so lightly, things like that made him seriously vexed about the very thought of Reuel sometimes. His aloofness. The cold, russet gaze, his inability to speak clearly and open himself up long enough for a decent answer whenever somebody asks a simple question as to how his day had been.

Upon the final thought that he'd decided to consider before he concluded his contemplations about the man, Nickoli snuffed out his dwindling cigarette, throwing it in a trash can beside the foyer, and decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. He might as well do something while he is waiting, plus he didn't feel like just standing around while doing nothing.

Picking up his jacket from the hanger next to the metal doorway, Nickoli advanced towards the exodus, in need of some air was one of the things he craved currently. Making sure that the door was tightly closed and secured behind him, Nickoli designated himself onto the morning streets of Neo Angeles.

Things had changed as the years passed in this city. The large buildings grew even larger, new hospitals created and even completed with numerous embellishments for the reason concerning the various natures causing the casualties that have been committed these days. One thing about that was now there were less people wandering the streets alone or unarmed anymore, especially at night. But then again, there were less people wandering around in the daytime as well. It was like living in Hell with this kind of life. Living in a society of mice. Cowards that would much rather lurk in the shadows then the face their adversaries. They preferred to live as cowards when they turn their cheeks from the giant, yet some still persisted to have the mere nerve to call themselves men.

He walked through the streets; the night was cold, of course. It was always cold outside, and he was quite used to that by now, as it had always been that way, at least since he was a kid. Nickoli watched as he passed countless homeless people out on the streets. Box inhabitants, alleyway walkers, trash swimmers, scavengers, bench sleepers; Each and every one was basically given a name to Nickoli's vocabulary, finding it hard to forget once he'd given a homeless a precise title. There were many people who lost their homes over the occurring decades, since the government used up most of the citizen's money for other purposes instead of using it for the care of civilians. Nickoli would have been one of them if it hadn't been for Uri.

Nickoli sighed through meditation, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he obtained his pensive glare while continuing down the street. It was pointless trying to resist anything these days. So he figured as much that people would much rather live in this nation as cockroaches, rather than living amongst human beings; A race whose intellectuality should have taken pride to, but instead was neglected.

Cars passed him like he didn't matter, each time a gust of smoke would glaze across his path, he would choke every now and then, but he was used to it, since he smokes himself, what makes cars any different? Nothing would matter; Whatever would reach into his lungs and caused some sort of cancer, whatever stirred within his body meant nothing to him. Sooner or later he would die anyway, whether if it be of old age, as he lied decrepit in bed, alone in a nursing home, or in battle. It just didn't matter much to him anymore. At all, as a matter in fact.

However, as he walked on so far, he couldn't really remember where he was going, where his designation had been from the start. For now Nickoli didn't care, because just as long as he was able to feel the impure fresh air, no matter how polluted it may be now, it was still a way to get away from the isolation of the shelter.

Just then, as he was passing an alleyway between a bank and a closed, empty coffee shop, Nickoli hear a crash coming from inside. For a while Nickoli thought it was just him, either that or a stray cat or perhaps some homeless alleyway walker, trash swimmer or scavenger, but that theory had depleted itself when he heard something coming from the alleyway. He took out his handgun from his holster located on the inside of his jacket, glancing from side to side at the empty ghetto street until he heard something came out through the shadows. There was the sight of pointed ears, silver teeth, and red, glistening eyes. Its blackened essence, the camouflaged appearance towards the milieu made it look like it was a shadow itself.

"So you must be trying to take over this place too?" Nickoli said to it, taking out his gun and ready to shoot the creature he'd now denitrified as another Henkei, perhaps a rat, because of the rounded shape of the ears and snout. "Well, not unless if you get through me, you're going to just have to postponed you're pointless invasion."

The massive rat, however, hadn't been looking at the speaking Nickoli, but behind him. It hissed, a high, metallic screech, as a gunshot went off, coming from behind Nickoli's back. Nickoli spun around, seeing two men standing in front of a jeep. One was holding an assault rifle in both hands, while the other leaned again their red, flashy car.

Nickoli turned around, setting his gun at his side. "Thanks."

The man leaning against the jeep waved his hand. "Your Nickoli Olsen, right?"

Now wasn't exactly a good time for praising. Something within his gut churned and he knew then that something wasn't quite as right as he first hoped for it to be. Nickoli took a slight step backwards, sending the two men a suspicious glare. "Yeah.... Why?"

He took his hand in his pocket. "Gears? Go call Carner and tell them we found one of them," he told the man with the assault rifle, who nodded and dropped the rifle at his side, heading for the side of the car. He turned to Nickoli, then pulled out a pistol, aiming for Nickoli. "Sorry about this, buddy."

"Wha...?" Nickoli couldn't believe this! After all that had previously happened to him, how he was being hunted himself? What sort of gratitude had the government shown for simple people who just wanted to help, after all? Nickoli would have beaten himself in readied for a run, but he knew that by now it had already been too late.

The gunman inched towards Nickoli, the pistol designed towards his forehead. When he was standing a foot from Nickoli, his face illuminated by the streetlight, the gunman's face was visible. He looked into his soft, brown hazel eyes, and glared. It had become more than just apparent that this man wasn't his friend, so he was clearly and unfortunately his enemy. The gunman squeezed the trigger, and as he felt the sharpness pierce his side, Nickoli collapsed to the ground.

***

"Hey, has anyone seen Taz...?" Bekah asked, opening the door to the living room. No one was there. "Hm, that's strange," she said to herself, looking around, although she grinned upon the absence of Fia and Ragnar, whom she'd sworn could have been present in this room just a little while ago. There was only one possibility where they were located out of this entire subway shelter.

Bekah made her way to the computer room, opening the door to find Ragnar and Fia standing around Teji's computer. Little then thought, there he was, Teji sitting at his desk, inclined forward towards the monitor with the other two leaning over his shoulder, both watching with equal vigilance upon what he was performing on. "Teji? What are you doing out of bed?" Bekah asked him. "You shouldn't be playing with the CPUs right now."

Teji pulled the brim of his sunglasses down to his nose like he always does when first facing another in the eye, leaning over the monitor so that he could get a full view of Bekah. "Oh, it's just you. I feel fine, Bekah. Don't worry about me...."

"Just me? What do you mean by that?" She sighed, disregarding the entire statement as well as thought as she ran her hand through her hair passively on the topic, deciding it best that she just keep her head as well as nose out of the irritable topics anyway, they had always been quick to irk her. "Never mind. ...has anyone seen Taz?"

Fia looked up and shook her head. "Nick? No, I don't think we have."

"Funny.... Why don't you ask Reuel? Taz was always hanging around him," Ragnar suggested.

"I have a little while ago, that was the first place I checked," Bekah said, scratching the back of her head with a timid smile. "He didn't seem to notice me, but I figured Taz wasn't anywhere around there because he wasn't chattering away to Reuel. I don't know where else to look." She shrugged. "Maybe he went out somewhere. I don't recall him ever doing anything like that, but you never know. By the way, has anyone seen the halfwit, either?"

They all stared, bemused. Teji was the one to speak. "Halfwit?"

"Yeah. That crazy girl...Rei."

Ragnar blinked, clenching his teeth irritably upon Bekah's acknowledged ignorance. Most likely he didn't really like Bekah's term of calling Rei the "crazy girl," seeing as he was never one in favor for name-calling and anything of the sort. Bekah was close to kicking herself for crossing the lines with that one. "So you gave her a nickname already? Beck, I'm impressed. I didn't think you could come up with something so...unoriginal so quickly."

"Go screw a cow," Bekah snapped acrimoniously.

"Alright. But in return, how about this nice ass-mangled lonely sheep, while we've seemingly stumbled upon the agricultural topic here?" Ragnar shot back, grinning, while Teji leaned forward to conceal his face behind the computer screen and Fia pierced her lips to repress her wide smile, forcing herself to battle the outburst of the mirth she felt rising from inside.

Bekah smiled sweetly. "Cute."

"Isn't it?"

With a sigh, Bekah ignored the whole happening of the hilarity and turned around so that her back was facing the trio, "Well, I'll just go look for either one of them. Maybe someone will show up. The place has been dead since we got back." She stopped and flinched at her poorly choice of words, and then quickly continued without looking at the others. "Uhhh, I'm going," Bekah swiftly added, and started walking out, leaving the three alone to do whatever they were observing in peace.

Bekah headed back for the foyer, when the main door opened, although nobody came in right at the moment, the door just remained ajar. Bekah stopped dead at the doorway between the hallway to the entrance of the vacant lounge. Hopefully she could withdraw and no one would noticing, knowing well that whoever was behind the door was probably armed (just a hunch, but moreover supported by the strong sense of paranoia that Bekah had acquired over the vast amounts of years she'd seen.). The only question she had now was, how did somebody get the information to unlock the door to get inside?

Bekah made a step back, closely seeing both of the men carrying a gun at his side. Bekah turned around to walk away stealthfully, about to tell the others when she heard the man draw out his gun, and a fire was made. Pain in her back, and Bekah slammed herself against the wall on impact reaction before she felt herself slipping to the ground, blood stained the wall.

***

"Oh my god...." Teji whispered, his sunglasses falling down to the edge of his nose, staring at the screen of the CPU in shock, hands frozen upon the keyboard and shaking all at the same time, unknowing how to react upon what he'd just seen on the security surveillances.

"What is it?" Ragnar asked him, now leaning on the desk so he could see over Teji's shoulder. He squinted as he looked over the screen, but due to his poor vision and his desperate need for aid to his vision, Ragnar would find it difficult to see the screen without having supported eyes to tell him what was there. "Something wrong?"

"Somebody got the codes to get inside," Teji whispered forebodingly, wishing for Ragnar's silence. "I don't know how, they must have gotten a hold of somebody.... Didn't Bekah just say that Nickoli was missing when she came in here just now...?"

"Speaking of which, doesn't that look a little like her?" Ragnar squinted a little more, pointing to the screen. Teji promptly pulled off his glasses fully to take a look at what was going on through the full radiation painfully meeting his eyes, and stared at the screen. Indeed, it was Bekah. And by the time he watched her make a turn to beat a run for it, she jerked. His eyes shifted and saw that one of two intruders had their weapon held upright, smoke emitting from their gun.

"Beck...."

"Son of a bitch," Ragnar hissed vehemently, clenching his teeth while biting his tongue so hard he nearly drew blood. "We should tell the others and tell them to get the fuck out of wherever they are at, either that or shoot those bastard's asses out," he growled, picking up the phone at the side desk.

"Better hurry," Teji warned.

Before he dialed Xaden's cell phone number, Ragnar blinked and wondered. "Why?"

"Because, it looks like that guy is gonna call for his buddies as well."

***

Outraged, Orion Westwood yelled in warning at first to the woman, and then threateningly towards Gears, who had just shot the woman that had instinctively turned and was ready to bolt a quickened retreat. "You bastard!" Orion bellowed at Gears, before running to the woman, kneeling at her side and pressed his hand at the side of her neck. There was a small hint of a pulse....

Gears shrugged it off easily, the edge of his lip twitching as though he was fighting to repress the smile that started to grow over his mouth. "No big loss. We were told to bring back these members and take them in for questioning, they never said all of them."

Infuriated, Westwood stood up, pulling out his gun from his waist holster, but before he could react, Gears had already had his own gun out. Without vacillation he turned to Orion and sighed wearily, pulling the trigger without compunction for his action. A bullet whistled through the air, and sunk into Orion's shoulder bone, cracking the marrow and splitting the marrow internally. He felt the metal rip through his skin and go out through the other end, like a knife shredding through warm butter. Westwood hadn't even been given the chance to reveal any sign of pain, his teeth clenched as he grasped his hand around the wound, blood dripping through his fingers.

Gears fired again, and this time it hit his other lower arm. Orion felt the bullet skim passed his upper wrist, sliding across his skin. And then there was his shoulder, a bullet slamming its metal head unswervingly on the upper bone of Orion's side arm. And lastly, with his final bullet that he was allowed to fire with, Gears aimed for Orion's leg, allowing him to collapse to the ground. Blood spurted out, the pain made Orion stagger, and his weakened state made gears pleasingly grin.

With pride of arrogance upon his dominance of authority, Gears lowered his gun. Westwood's handgun slid across the floor the second time Gears had shot him, and slammed his back into the wall, glaring at Gears. He took out his phone. "Hey, Phin, get Carner on, I have some unfortunate hearsay for him," he said, his eyes followed up darkly at Orion. "Yeah, sir. Westwood was shot down in action. Right now he's delirious, needs medical attention but he won't seem to make it in time." He smiled and nodded, listening in for a while. "Okay sir, I'll dispose of him before I resume the mission. Send backup by the way, we've made enough noise as it is. And Mister Olsen has been taken into custody as well. I'll be sure to have those at Force to have him questioned as soon as possible about his past link with out association."

Orion screamed in frustration, standing up but swayed within his stagger, his hand clenched over his arm as he stared at Gears, livid with a wild gaze. "What did you just tell him?!"

"Oh, that was nothing," Gears continued talking to their superior, mentally shrugging Westwood's rage from his mind and conversation, like they were completely oblivious to his overhearing of their supposed gossip. "Agent Westwood is just being a little rebellious, that's all." Gears nodded and then preceding to hang up the portable phone before he moved his attention back to the severely wounded Westwood, putting his phone back into his coat pocket. "Well, Westwood, the good news is that it seems that we're going to have our backup arrive soon. The bad news, at least for you in whom this case applies, is that you won't be seemingly be alive to see it all."

Before Orion could retaliate, Gears moved over to him, pulled out his gun, and with the side of it, crashed the metal butt of the gun into his cheekbone. With a crack, Westwood slipped from the wall to the ground, slipping into unconsciousness almost instantaneously. Gears smiled; He would have killed him, but he didn't want the man to be awake when he shoots him, since he didn't want to hear Westwood's petty excuses to live. There was never anything worse than to hear a man's whining, begging for their insignificant life to be spared. Incline the trigger to his gun, Gears raised the end towards Westwood's head.

A metal clatter.

Gears looked up, something was coming. He withdrew the gun from his take aim of the unconscious Westwood. He would deal with the sad excuse for a man when he gets back.

Drawing his firearm to his chest, Gears entered the hallway, looking around, passing the woman that he had shot, indeed she was still alive, muttering something under her breath although Gears paid no heed to it at first. Most people would be feverish should they had lost as much blood as the woman had as quickly as she had.

Suddenly, the woman's hand stretched out, grasping onto his leg, stopping him from going forward anymore. Then something flashed from the roof, it moved too quickly for Gears to have perceived, but by the time his thoughts rambled on as to what it could possibly be, all thesis's were proven wrong.

Unexpectedly, something had stabbed into his gut. Gears looked up from his bewildered gaze at the woman, enough to see a colossal machine standing in front on him, wielding a sword...a sword? And there was a man inside something that looked like a cockpit within the machine, pointing a pistol at him at the same time. He didn't care...he couldn't care...everything slipped into darkness from then after....

***

Everything seemed to have gone by much too quickly for anyone to have realized what was going on right then, as Xaden and Uri had pulled themselves out of their own rooms and met each other in the hallway after receiving word from Fia by the phone about what'd just happened. Luckily they were given the time to figure out where they were going to go.

"What about Rei...and...the others?" Uri asked Xaden inquiringly.

"I asked Fia to call those three around, too. I am sure you get influence Rei to get out of there, I'll meet you in the front," he said, making a turn for the southern tunnel, as Uri headed east to where she had Fia give her that room. But when she looked into the room, it was as if no one had ever been in it. Uri could have sworn that she had Rei stay in here.

"Rei?" she called softly. "Rei, we got to go."

Silence. Maybe someone had already come through and got her, or that might have been the most likely assumption, if yet the easiest, for her to consider. Uri shrugged and closed the door again, leaving the room and started off to meet back with Xaden to get the others.

Little to her knowledge was that Rei was crouched inside the closet, muttering while rocking herself to and fro, hugging her knees as though making an attempt for self comfort, "They're in the wires. The others are coming. They'll come. It's too late to do anything now. The wires.... They're in the wires...." she spoke vulnerably within a childish tone.

Uri headed for the front room, however, as soon as she entered she didn't expect to have a Uzi shoved in her face. "Uh." That had been the only word she could manage, seeing that the sudden event had caught her completely and regrettably off guard.

Her eyes shifted upwards, and saw a well suited man with blonde hair, and within his grasp he held a gun aiming directly at Uri, and at the same time he was waving at her while his brilliant, unnatural blue eyes glistened mischievously. Uri glared, whilst standing behind the man was Bekah (Bandaged by the lower ribs, blood seeping through the white texture of the cloth that secured her wounds.), Xaden, and Teji, with the Galahad was far off in the back of the room, trashed more than it already was (from what had happened on their hospital jaunt, the machine had lost it's gun arm. All that seemed to be left of it was some of the controls. As Teji had described once, that the leg was jittery as well, making the controls harder to maintain.).

Xaden shot her a look, of concern and compunction that things had turned out this way. At the same time her gaze followed towards those who occupied the quarters; Bekah had been sitting on the couch, while Teji was looking her injuries over discreetly, whispering soft to her as she gritted her teeth in pain. Uri had never seen Bekah shot, whether alone shown any agonizing expression on her face before. She supposed that there was always a time for a first.

"Get over there," the blonde gunman snapped, Uri held up her hands, heading towards Xaden and stood beside him. He seemed like he'd most certainly been enjoying himself throughout the entire ordeal, watching their pain and their inability to retaliate with pleasure, since should anyone try to make a move in advance towards him, he would most certainly shoot to kill one of their own.

"What's going on?" she whispered to Xaden.

"I was never authorized by the state to run such an agency like this, the government is pretty angry as it is." Xaden explained to Uri in a calm tone. "I got a call not so long ago about it, and they just recently contacted me again. Now they are holding us accountable for the damage and the casualties for what happened at Saint Renaissance's."

"What?!"

Xaden smirked. "Yeah, exactly what I said too."

"So what're we going to do?"

"I don't know, really. What with being unarmed right now and all."

With that, another man walked out. With red hair and dark brown eyes, though he looked a little more stunted then the rest of the men that were around here. "This is all we can find," he said, pointing at Uri, Xaden, Teji and Bekah, who glared at him as though to hate him with a pure passion. "I think the rest are either gone or they are around here somewhere, in hiding."

"Alright then," said the blonde man that had Uri at gunpoint, his tone taken into that of disgust. "This is all we need, I guess. Cuff them and let's get out of here."

What about Ragnar, Fia, Reuel, Nick, and Rei? Uri thought. Where could the possible have gone?

"Sir," said another one of their men, "what should we do with Westwood."

The blonde man gave him a toothy grin, his teeth seemingly sharper than what a standard human's would have been, like they'd been sharpened into fangs. He thrusted his Uzi over his shoulder and looked at the man with the pleasure of giving the order. "Leave him. He's been shot a few times, and it'd be a waste of medical attention. Besides, like everyone else, he, too, die eventually."

***

Pulling open the door, Rei gathered the energy to austerely slink her way out, standing up straight so that she could take a clear look around the room, brushing off the musty material from her clothes. The room had been unoccupied, excluding herself.

With one last glimpse, she turned to look at the bed roughly made, before turning around and heading out of the room casually until she was now standing out in the middle of a cold, dead hallway. And the instant she turned to make her way down the corridor, she found herself startled when she discovered a gun pointed between her eyes.

Rei yelped with a jolt, only to find that it had been that one black man whom she'd recalled to have been named Reuel. He jumped back as well with startling reactions upon seeing the girl unexpectedly, flinging his gun to his side to avoid his first intentions of inadvertently shooting to kill her. He sighed in relief, his eyes widened with distress, the sweat on his face clearly visible, revealing that of the strain upon his entire tremulous form.

"Oh," he said, sounding almost thwarted, "it's just you."

Yeah, just me, Rei thought, irked, although was decent enough not to show it on her face. Instead, she'd had her normal, stoic appearance. "What are you doing here?"

"Good questions, I got a call from Ragnar telling me that something came up, someone was breaking into the shelter, and asked for us to keep our guard, that's why I brought this," he said, holding up his hefty handgun. Rei remembered him mentioning something about it earlier, that the handgun was a special designed weapon called the Mongoose.

"Yeah, I know."

"What do you mean by that? There is no way they could call you!"

"They came through my room," Rei said, as though it were obvious. "That's why I hid in the closet."

"Wha...?" Reuel barked, giving her a mocking expression like the girl was insane. Chances were likely that she already was, however. "You mean to tell me that you hid in that tiny closet and they didn't find you? How?"

"I secreted myself on the ceiling."

Reuel stared, eyeing her like she was a puzzle, then again, most likely to him she was. Rei didn't even fully understand herself when it came to the bizarre things she was capable of doing. He pointed at her almost accusingly. "You are one strange girl, you know that? Right now I don't see how that could be humanly possible, but I won't worry about that right now. If there is an intruder around here, then-" he froze, his eyes dazed as though he was looking right through Rei, all other emotion was shadowed with pain, which was much worse.

He fell forward, and instead of letting him fall, she caught him in her arms, his upper body hung limp over her shoulder. From over Reuel, she saw at least five or nine men in uniforms, one which had fired the innocuous dart that was aimed at Reuel and punctured the back of his neck. Rei looked down at him, and then at the men.

"Yeah, that's her," said one of them evenly from a distance, making it hard for Rei to understand what they were saying at the same time as she was focusing on sustaining Reuel. Something grazed passed her ear, and she apprehended that it was not a bullet, but some sort of sedative dart that caused him to go into a transient comatose state. Another headed right for Rei, but swiftly she jumped into the open door where she had been, with Reuel hung over her shoulder, and closed the door before they could get in, locking it tightly and securely.

Bullets rushed by and penetrated the door's barrier, leaving scar marks on the secured metal blockade. She jumped, cringing slightly at the sound before she looked back up and noticed that the bullets were unable to get through the door. Those who wanted to come after them would have to find an alternative method to capture her and Reuel.

Reuel coughed weakly, squinting an eye before completely shutting it as he looked at them from the corner of his gaze with disdain. "I am guessing those are the intruders." Rei's grip around him tightened, even though he'd been too heavy for her to sustain, seeing that he'd brought themselves down onto their knees, his fingers loosely flexing.

"Yeah, more or less," Rei told him quietly, smiling a little.

"Where is my gun?"

Rei tossed it into her grasp with a smirk. "Right here, you nearly dropped it."

Holding out his hand, Reuel folded it. "Give me the gun."

She couldn't believe this! He was treating her like she had never handled a firearm before, as if what had happened at the Renaissance's wasn't good enough for him. Must she always have to prove herself upon these measures in order to be accepted?

However, it finally came to her, the answer that caused their distrust in her. Teji and Taj. What had happened between them, and what Rei had done was enough to lose anyone's expectation that she was capable of doing anything without getting someone hurt, no matter what the results might have caused. Of course there was many things about Rei, herself, that she didn't understand as it is, but losing the faith of others in her made it even worse, if yet more difficult. However, it seemed that she at least had Uri's conviction, and yet it just didn't seem like it was enough.

Chagrined, Rei finally took the gun from her side, and put it in his hand. His large fingers folded around the handle, then stood up. Reuel was so much taller than Rei, and much bigger and obviously much more powerfully built. It made even Rei wonder how she was able to carry him the way she did, and not comprise any hassle.

Reuel noticed that too, she could see it on his face.

"Okay, then, Rei. You stay here, hide while I-"

He was doing it again! Rei was frustrated upon his ignorance and ability to sound like an idiot with his choices of stupidity. "No." She told him flat and coldly. "I am not going to hide in the shadows again. I want to help this time. Do something good."

"What is it that you are going to do that won't end up hurting any of us?"

Now that really jabbed directly into her heart. Rei was taken aback by his vulgarity, feeling even worse than she had before, being told that she had really hurt them made her feel remorse. Reuel glared at her as he had said that. Thus it was confirmed, he was with them, too, to be against her. Rei didn't have anyone else on her side. It didn't matter how many people she was with, no matter what she had never felt so alone before in her life, being with a group of people who don't even have any trust for her.

"That's what I thought," Reuel snapped, brushing passed Rei.

"Wait," she protested. "They're still out there, if they had shot you, then shouldn't you be resting?"

He turned around, staring at Rei as though she were senseless, but then he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck where the dart had perforated him. "That tranquilizer was barely enough to put me to sleep, so I don't have to worry, I feel fine."

Something didn't seem right about the way he was saying things like that. If there wasn't enough in the tranquilizer to knock him out, then what exactly was it aiming for to begin with? Rei ask to tell him this, but for some reason she believed that he wouldn't really understand anyway.

Reuel had his back pressed against the door, gun in his right hand as he opened the door with his left, and swung it around and started shooting, using the door as a shield. He didn't give Rei a second look when she had flitted out of the room and down the hall, she ran as fast as she could, making her way towards the from area. The entrance couldn't have been so far away, she just had a few more large steps to go and she was there.

Click.

A gun was pointed at the side of her head, Rei turned, the end was pressed, touching her forehead now, and the one holding the firearm was a light-haired man upon a cold, distant demeanor. However, he wasn't like Rei; He was more ready to kill. To fire at Rei, but for some reason there had been something pushing him away from the notion.

Other than the two of them, the quarters had been vacant, though she could have sworn she had seen something stir from the corner of her eye, though she paid no attention to it. If only there was some way of having the man's attention become averted, focused onto something else other than herself. As unlike as it may have seemed at first, Rei held out some hope that there might have been a little tiny glimpse of a possibility somewhere.

"Rei Emiko, am I correct?"

"What for?"

"I have orders to take you in custody. We'll explain along the way, but you can only make this either easier or harder for yourself," the edge of the man's lip twitched into a malicious grin, like he'd either been wanting to say that for a long time or he'd said it many times before.

"And I am guessing I go whether if I want to or not, right?" she snapped sullenly, crossing her arms and tossing her head defiantly in a way so that her hair would flip over her shoulder. "No, I don't think I want to."

"You do not have much of a choice, miss-" his face twisted from the nonchalant performance to the agony Rei had caused by swinging her foot out and pummeled him as hard as she could in his lower region with her steel-toed boot that Fia had fiven to her. She grinned with satisfaction, dropping her leg to stand up straight, prepared to beat a retreat.

"You were saying?"

Without a reply, just a whimper, the man fell down to his knees, grasping his blatter region until he shifted his weight to wallow in pain upon the ground. Rei stood over him, shaking her head at the dismaying sight of what was supposed to be a man, turning to resume her destination to the foyer. The place seemed completely inert, not a single familiar essence in sight. She looked back at the man whom she had recently kicked in the groin, seeing that there wasn't much he can do to harm her at the time being for he had been too busy thinking about his own pain.

All at the same time, there had been a burning feeling on the back of her head that told her that she was being watched by a set of eyes from the distance. Stroking the back of her head, Rei walked backwards into the room, checking down the hallway, when she heard a groan. Swiftly, Rei spun around, her black and silver streaked hair flung over her shoulder when she saw a pare of legs revealing themselves from the corner of the couch.

There was a faint sound from the distance of a groan. With stealth, Rei walked attentively en route for the edge of the couch, kneeling down to peer over the corner, that was when she saw a comatose man, whose hair had reminded her like that of a chestnut. He'd been breathing heavily, coughing a little. The way he slept was a peaceful rest, seeming like he was near death but attractive nonetheless. Through his shoulders and legs there had been damaged by bullet wounds, blood spreading itself throughout the man's body. At the rate of his rapid blood loss would go, the man would most surely not last long.

Quickly Rei jumped over the couch and kneeled down next to him, her hand pressed against his chest to feel for a beat. His pulse was alive and beating rapidly. She searched him over. Three holes. Three bullets shot right through his skin. Powerful ammunition. Softly, Rei touched one of the wounds, and instantly the man woke right consciousness. His eyes, hazel shaded, opened and stared right at her. For a moment they ogled each other, unsure on how to react.

"Um...." Rei blinked, unsure how to react, only to subsequently waved, "...hi."

The man didn't reply, he just watched her in bemusement, yet unable to speak.

"Okay, I am going to need to take care of those lesions, so...." she looked around, uncertain that she had been the right person to perform such a task without the knowledge medicinal care, and then back at the man, her eyes narrowed. "I'll be right back, please hold on."

Rei stood up and started to rush back into the room that Fia had dubbed to have been her own, when she remembered that Reuel was taking care of the prowlers. She hesitated, the turned into a different hallway, towards the corridors in which she recalled to have been computer lab. She slammed into something soft, tumbling backwards. Rei didn't even get a chance to react, when she looked up and saw Ragnar towering over her, though held himself up in a stagger as well. Behind him stood Fia and the dog of Xaden's, Nook.

"Well, what a sudden surprise to see you here, Rei," Ragnar said, standing upright.

Rei stood back up onto her feet, brushing her sleeves. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, avoiding his eyes, pretending to be too engaged by dusting off her black jacket. From the corner of her eyes she could see how disgruntled both him and Fia really were. Each of them had showed their own signs of abhorrence except for the dog, which looked at everyone else and then turned to Rei also. All eyes watching her now, like they expected her to do some sort of trick. She didn't like this.

"I mean that these things hadn't started happening because of you," Ragnar snapped, clearly seething with rage from within his face. "Ever since you got here, nothing but trouble has come to us, including the death of one of our friends."

"Ragnar, don't put that on her," Fia softly told him, leaning against the wall now.

"Please," Rei begged, hoping that at least someone like Fia would understand. "There is someone out there...he's hurt real badly. I need something to hold in the wounds."

Giving her a acerbic nod, Ragnar glared, walking up to her and staring her straight in the eye, glaring at her with demeanor that seemed like he was ready to kill. "And I suppose that he happens to be on your side, otherwise you wouldn't be trying to help him."

"No!" Rei lividly yelled. "I am helping him because he is hurt! He's been shot!"

"And maybe Teji did a good job."

"Look, if I am not going to get help from you guys, then I am going to do it myself. But I am not going to just let him sit there and die!"

"Fine with me," Ragnar replied callously. "And we'll be the ones saving our friends. You know, the ones that probably wouldn't be in this fucking quandary if it wasn't for you, Rei," he sneered, not averting his attention from her until heard a rustle in his pocket. Before she even had a chance to look, he pulled out a large handgun, and aimed it at Rei's forehead.

Fia gave side looks at Rei, who stood there, failing to be phased by Ragnar's threat, and then turned to Ragnar, her hand on his arm, wrapping her fingers into a strong hold just in case if needs be. "Ragnar, don't. We don't have the time right now, we have to take care of the situation," she told him earnestly, trying to calm him down by lowering his aim.

"But I have time to pull the trigger," he muttered vehemently, elevate the position of the gun to get a better aim for a killing shot. Rei jumped, trying to back away if it had not been for the quivering sensation in her ankles and knees, preventing her from fleeing or making any sort of escaping gesture. "I saw Bekah get shot on the scanner. I saw them group around Teji like he was some sort of ant in a different farm. And when I saw Taj's absence when they returned...when Bekah came back with you...."

"RAGNAR!" Fia screamed, making both Rei and Ragnar flinched, and Nook stopped growling and sniveled. Rei saw the look on Fia's face, and from what she had seen, incensed. Quicker than he could have reacted, Fia pulled the gun out of Ragnar's hand, holding it like a mother would do when she takes a toy or candy away from their child. "I don't want you going around shooting people, okay? Rei isn't posing a current threat, and we have others to deal with right now."

For the time being, Rei couldn't have been any more grateful for Fia at that moment. Ragnar stuffed his hands in his pockets stubbornly, lowering his head as the young woman had scolded him, although he'd stared at the ground in a way that made Rei know what he was thinking about the entire time. What he thought of her.

Fia turned to Rei, holding the gun so tightly in her hand it shook. "I told you we were going to be there for you," she said apologetically. "I promised you that, and I always keep my word. Show me where the man is, and I'll help."

Ragnar wasn't very thrilled about that. Rei could tell, because she heard him mutter something under his breath about Fia picking favorites, or something akin to that. However, as much as Rei thought that it would have been possible, she doubted that it would have been the thing that she would do. However, she wasn't so sure if Fia heard him, because she didn't seem to show any sign of intimidation. It was like she decided to forget he was even there.

Rei shifted her designation, Fia followed her towards the injured man, his eyes closed tightly once more, clenching his teeth while whimpering in undertone with pain. Rei stood on the other side of the man, as she hadn't felt very comfortable standing next to Ragnar at the moment, who was busy talking and petting Nook for his own self comfort. She heard him say something about Xaden, though Rei couldn't really tell what he had said exactly, he was talking to the dog in hushed coos.

Obviously Fia knew what she was doing, instantaneously she tore pieces of her skirt that reached to her knees, sheering them into three thick, leather straps, which brought her sarong up to the middle of her thigh to her knee. "Rei, help me hold him up, and take a look and where all of the wounds are. Did the bullets go right through him, or are we going to have to pull them out?"

Kneeling down beside the man, Rei lifted his torso up, holding him close to her as she looked up her back in the direction where she had seen the hole go through his shoulder, she pulled off one side of his jacket, and easily unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off so that she could get a good look at his back, to inspect for anymore injuries. Indeed there was another hole coming out of his back, with a silver bulge sticking out of his skin, refusing to come out. Gingerly, Rei used her index finger and her thumb to gently pull out the bullet, making the man twitch and drone in soft misery.

"I got it," Rei told Fia, dropping the silver, blood-stained bullet down to the ground.

"It's okay," Fia said softly. She used one of the straps, lifting up his left then wrapped it around tightly, making sure that it was tightly around the cut. She did the same with the other foot. And finally used the last strap to wrap around his chest, arm pit, and his back. Rei got a good look at his face, he was silently out of it, without being able to say a word, as she watched him sleep.

"Okay, I am sure that's it," Fia reassured.

"Alright now," Ragnar hissed, irritated, "so now what are you going to do with him after you two just gave that guy you don't even know some TLC?"

Fia turned and glowered at him, her eyes showing nothing but anger at the snide remark of bitter sarcasm. Rei didn't really understand why she was so angry with Ragnar's remark, but she felt that she better best leave it be, she didn't want to make Ragnar get any madder at her than he already is.

"Take him to the couch," Fia said, disregarding Ragnar and his mere presence now. "Help me, I'll take the legs and you take his arms."

Rei nodded obediently, leaning forward to grab the man by his upper limbs on either side of him, while Fia took him by the ankles, the two threw him onto the soft couch. Fia gave him a final look before she sighed and found a seat on the opposite side of the pit to rest herself down upon.

"I don't believe you two!" Ragnar yelled.

Giving him a friendly wave, Fia only smiled. "We did it for the good of the cause."

"What good?! We-"

"-better get going."

Ragnar quickly turned around. "I knew there had to have been a reason why we didn't see you on the surveillance cameras," he said to Reuel, who had just entered the room. He looked badly trounced, there were slash marks on his sleeves, and some scratches on his face. It was good to see that Ragnar realized this as well. "Man, what happened to you?"

Wiping off some blood from his face, some were from his own but most was clearly that of his opponents. Reuel nonchalantly continued, taking no notice of the blood and pain that was clearly revealed on his face, "The bastards brought in some of their freaky monsters. Never would have thought that they could have been used as pets, but I guess they were trained or something, either that or they are controlled by some means of machinery. They followed orders."

"They actually got them trained? Is that humanly possible?" Fia wondered.

"No worries. I while I had been attacked, I managed to put a transmitter in one of those freaky dog's ears," he said, pulling out from his pocket a radio source, holding it out like he was in some sort of show-and-tell, then held it up into the light to get a better look before placing it back into his pocket.

Ragnar raised an unkempt eyebrow. "And you just happen to carry one of those things around why?"

Reuel shrugged. "Hey, you may need many things when you are in the most uncertain situations. I just make sure that I am prepared. Living for thirty-eight years will do that to ya."

"What? Make you old and insecure?"

"I should kick your ass for that...but I won't."

"I feel special," Ragnar replied apathetically.

Taking a final glance around the room, Reuel turned sideways facing the doorway. "We better hurry, these guys know how to move fast," his tone had been one that nobody was hesitant to take heed to, since Reuel was most certainly the type of person would didn't make very many hoaxes.

As for Rei, who stood there without a clue of what to do, being torn between two notions of whether to stay or go. She had been with these people for one day and already she had to risk her own life to save them? However, that gunman had told her that they were take her and the others into custody, or was it just her? She tried her best to scan back to the memory, but soon lost it with the chattering about the room, distracting her concentration.

And it had been Fia who'd been the first to do so. "Rei, I think you better stay here and hold the fort. Make sure that this man wakes up, and when he does, begin asking him questions."

Rei shrugged, not very well with interrogations. Something in which was to be expected from someone like her, what with Rei being the kind of person that she is, naive and not very offhandedly intimidating whatsoever, interrogations would never be held up for future requirements for her. "Like what?"

"Like.... Uh, what were they doing here and what for? Ask those first. And why they took the others, there has to be a good reason behind that as well. They had to have been after something, so you make sure you figure out what that is, okay? We're counting on you for this one," she smiled and placed her hand over Rei's shoulder, whose eyes followed Fia's hand, looking at it tentatively.

The three left, leaving Nook behind with Rei, the canine stood at her side, as she sat down on the seat next to the couch, watching the man intently while waiting for his awakening. He slept so soundly and with that looked so serene. Then again, doesn't everyone?