Meet us where you first met us, she had said. What did that even mean? Where did they first meet? And did she really meet them both before?

Anna ponders on last night’s events as she strolls the perimeter while Abelardo, one of her subordinates, watches the camera feeds for anything suspicious. She doubts they’ll see the Zeevonks here, much less catch them stealing from a low-class businessman like Adrian Calvynn Linthaym. Whoever gave them that tip probably mistook some petty thieves for the Zeevonks, but it’s the only lead they’ve got for now. And Anna can’t disclose her lead. Not yet.

On the bright side, they have a win on their hands today. They’ll see the thief coming.

“Do you know anything about these barrels, Billy?” Anna asks her colleague over comms. He’d been in this department dealing with menial cases longer than she has. “I don’t understand. There are machines here, some of which not even Simon has a prototype of, and we’re protecting barrels that probably just contain some shady substance.”

That last part was absolutely true. Adrian is the last man you’d expect to disclose details and when he did, it was always questionable. Anna had interacted with many a businessman to spot the likes of him in a crowd.

“I’m sure you can give me answers, Mr. Magtanggol.”

“Ms. Verloren, are you … asking me to do another check on the businessman?”

No. That’s outside her field. Her target is the Zeevonks: two sisters that stay out of the network. Thieves that don’t use the same communication lines that they do. Anna shouldn’t even be hinting at making him infiltrate a citizen’s system. It’s not part of the protocol. Hell, it’s illegal.

She should say no.

She won’t.

“CCTV’s picking up nothing. Let me, uh, check somewhere else, yeah?”

Anna can’t help but smirk at Billy’s nonchalant (dis)obedience, but she never gets the chance to ask for updates. It would have been nice to have her mistrust towards Adrian be validated before an obnoxious alarm blares.

“Hey, Verloren.”

Anna turns to the sound of the voice, noting doors and windows and other ‘exits’ that only a Zeevonk would consider.

It’s the Zeevonk. The one with the warm voice and kind blue eyes.

“Little menace,” the cop mumbles.

“Aw, a pet name. Don’t you think it’s a little early for that?” Anna can hear the simper in her voice. Was she being flirty or just arrogant?

“What? No, that — I mean —”

“Oh, you’re so cute when you’re tongue-tied.” The Zeevonk inhales sharply, feigning dismay. “That won’t be good if we wanna have a conversation though, would it?”

Anna feels the urge to hit her. The rifle’s long enough to give her skull a love tap. If she’s lucky, the mask might even fall off. But who knows what kind of ninja skills this woman could be hiding? Having seen her scale walls, having chased her herself, and looking at those arms, Anna believes she must have at least some skill, at least enough to give her the confidence to have a chat when she should be busy securing those barrels.

That, or this thief was becoming reckless.

(No, Anna is totally not worried about the poor girl’s recovery. Last night’s interaction is definitely not the reason she hasn’t hit her yet.)

“You’re not leaving with that,” the cop states matter-of-factly.

The Zeevonk laughs. “That’s funnier than ‘freeze’.”

“Are you … making fun of me?”

It was a stupid question, yes. Anna regrets it immediately, but that was better than saying ‘You can’t possibly carry something that heavy, especially with a stab wound still fresh.’

The Zeevonk paces, chuckling behind her triangular mask.

Fuck.

She’s annoying. She greeted and complimented Anna, and now she’s doing impressions? Terrible impressions to a Verloren’s face. Ketherian. Upper class. Law enforcer. Politician’s daughter. Methuselian. And this Scrapper was making fun of her.

“I don’t speak like that.” Anna argues indignantly. But what was the point? To buy her backup some time? Maybe get some information about the Zeevonks or the barrel or Adrian? And what about the instruction last night?

“Yeah, it was more like FREEZE.”

Alright, that was actually a bit better. A little bit.

Was it also quite funny or was that sound just contagious? And it felt nice too. It felt light. But Anna is not about to admit that.

“Despite that improvement,” Anna begins with a stifled smile as she inches toward the Zeevonk to block her path, “I can’t let you get any closer to the barrels.

“Ohh, cupcake,” she shakes her head. She sounded almost offended, but Anna couldn’t be bothered from dwelling on that pet name.

“Did you just call me ‘cupcake’?”

Meanwhile, the Zeevonk couldn’t be bothered from dwelling on the cop’s perception of her craft. “You think I would be after some goo? Come on. You know me better than that.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Because you’re lost.”

Meet us where we first met.

“I hate to see you waiting for some low-level criminal when you should be after me.”

Anna scoffs.

“You’re better than the previous one, Verloren. You’re smarter. You’re made for much more than watching over Linthaym’s drugs.”

Who did she think she is? She wasn’t wrong about Anna, but what does she know about Anna? They had only spoken once before. Barely.

And sure, Adrian Linthaym has been smuggling drugs and weapons in the guise of cheap medicine and disassembled machine parts, but she was an officer of the law. She can’t allow something she was instructed to keep from happening, to happen. She has to stay for those barrels, and if the thief comes, she’ll catch them. Then, she’ll see if Billy discovered anything about Adrian so her unit could ruin his day the legal way.

Semi-legal way.

“This is his building.” Anna declares.

In fact, it’s the only building in Kether that a Scrapper owns.

“All of these are his, then?” The woman challenges Anna, tracing a gloved finger down an edge of a metal frame that must be for a rifle. But nothing like the ones the cop had trained with. “Would you use a gun with this frame?”

Alright. Anna can admit to herself that she’s intrigued by this woman. Clearly, she’s more than a thief. More than a high-profile criminal, even. The Zeevonks had always been mysterious and strategic, but she didn’t imagine them being this smart and …

Anna can’t tell if it was the hope in her eye or implicit dislike of Adrian, but Anna is ready to get answers. And she knows the Zeevonks didn’t need to hack anything to know it.

“Fine. Whose is that then?”

Something of that quality isn’t meant for Kether, or at least not for a law enforcer in the capital.

“Can’t tell you.” The Zeevonk lifts it without effort and hides it under her cloak. “You might go after me again.”

Again?

Anna tries to retain her sense of certainty and adds false confidence into the mix when she warns, “If you take that, I’ll take you in now.”

There’s no again after this.  Abelardo stayed at the entrance and has presumably called for backup the second the alarm went off. Adrian has his own security scattered around the building. The Zeevonk’s likely exit is now behind Anna. She has no way out.

 But she just … waves her hand dismissively.

What the hell?

“We both know that’s not true.”

“We do?”

“We do,” she stresses. She puts her free hand in her pocket, and continues, “We’ll let you in on it in three, two, one —”

Smoke erupts. Sparks fly. A few seconds of disoriented shouting and floundering erupts before someone grabs her. Then the smoke dissipates along with any sign of them having been there, aside from Anna’s rifle sitting where the stolen frame once was before it was, well, stolen.

“Really?” Billy exclaims through comms. “They’re also magicians now?!”

“I can show you some real magic if you want,” the Zeevonk’s voice follows from the same earpiece.

It sounded different, as though the mic had been damaged but not broken. It made her sound young.

Young and … familiar.

“You know, like the sea sparkles where we met. Didn’t you say they were magical?”