Rachel picked out black low riding denim shorts, making sure they fit just under her tail.
This is going to be so annoying in the future … having a tail messes up my whole wardrobe.
She picked out a black sports bra and underwear with a white button-up shirt that seemed to just barely fit her, but she didn’t have many options with her height.
Scarlet returned with a bag of pads and blue heels. “Look what Serah found!”
Serah’s brow furrowed as she looked around the space. “Where’s Bree?”
They explained the situation before following them back to the footwear area they’d been, and Rachel picked out some decent sports shoes with Maria.
After checking out the items, they stopped off to grab some shampoo and conditioner from another agent Serah knew before they were led to a bathroom with a shower inside.
She kept track of Bree as she met with David, and she felt like the conversation went well. David questioned her about what abilities they’d found out but sighed and cut the discussion short when she told him about her hearing.
Naturally, he’d feel frustrated; knowing someone could be listening in on you at any time is a hard thing to swallow, and in a building holding a lot of secrets, that can be scary, but what can he do?
“This is the best we have in the building,” Serah apologized.
Rachel examined the shower with a small smile before everyone dropped off their items along the wall. “It’s fine; we used something similar at the hospital.” She looked down at the sink, catching Fiona studying it. “What do you think, Fiona? Can you use the shower?”
Fiona shook her head, hair flinging around before she floated to the sink. “Absolutely not.” She stated, pulling her white hair back behind her ears. “I changed into a Fairy when I was in the shower … it wasn’t pleasant. I think I can use the sink like a tub, though. Could you cut off a piece of soap, and add some of the conditioner and shampoo on the side that I can use?”
Scarlet moved to comply. “Yeah; I can help you while I shower
—
if you like.”
Nodding, Fiona sat at the sink’s edge, wings vanishing as she glared down at the drain. “It really sucks being so weak and small,” she whispered.
Rachel tilted her head to Maria and Serah; they left the bathroom to Scarlet and Fiona, shutting the door behind them. Moving across the hall to a small lounging area, Rachel and Maria sat; they looked up at Serah as she hesitated, standing a few feet to their left.
“How’s Bree doing? You can hear her, right?”
Rachel smiled. “Yes, she’s on her way back with some pillows and blankets. The talk went well, David’s a little annoyed that I can hear so far, but he seemed pleased with Bree’s report. He’s talking to the Colonel that’s in charge of that area; from how it sounds, it looks like they’re discussing the details. There’s some question to Maria’s healing ability, but the SEALs report and information they have from the hospital is hard to refute.”
“Damn straight,” Maria yawned, eyes drooping. “I worked my ass off for those people.”
Serah was silent a moment. “Your healing’s really that good?”
“Apparently,” Maria shrugged, rubbing between her eyes. “I mean, if you want me to heal your cramps later
—
if you want.”
Her face reddened, and she cleared her throat. “So
—you can tell all sorts of medical problems with people … no medical privacy.”
“Whatever,” Maria muttered, lying across a couch; her silver eyes followed two male agents that walked around the nearby corner, glancing their way.
Rachel smiled, trying to ease Serah’s discomfort. “Thanks for your help, Serah. From what I’ve heard, the psychologist won’t be here for several hours; they’re flying her in from Virginia.”
“That right,” she mumbled. “I understand you’ve been through a lot recently; I’m sure it will be nice. Is there anything else?”
“Yeah,” Maria sighed as she stretched. “Pillows … pillows would be nice.” She yawned. “I feel so tired…”
Rachel’s lips fell. “She’s already bringing pillows … Maria, until the sun rises, you shouldn’t fall asleep. You’re really low on energy…”
Rubbing the top of her left eyelid, Maria groaned. “Yeah, yeah, I get it … what if I fall asleep and don’t wake up, but,” another yawn left her mouth. “I don’t think it’s that bad
—I’m just jodidamente cansado…” She mumbled, eyes drooping.
“You haven’t even taken a shower yet,” Rachel pushed.
If Maria dies … it’s bad.
She masked her displeasure with concern.
This skill that separates my emotions makes me feel like a serial killer; I’m just thinking about how she won’t be able to return me to my fighting strength and how it would mess up my plan for increasing our image. It’s not like I want her to die, but it would be inconvenient to me as well … that’s not right.
Taking a deep breath, she actively turned off the skill, wincing as she became more aware of the pain; the separation of her emotions had helped mitigate her body’s reactions to her sore muscles.
“Is something wrong?” Serah asked.
“No…” She grimaced as Maria grumbled next to her, eyes closed.
“Maldito mentiroso ... eres un desastre.”
Serah’s lips pursed. “I don’t understand; what does she mean, you’re lying and that you’re a mess? Is it worse than you told us before?”
Of course, she speaks Spanish.
“I just stressed my body a little; I’m more concerned about Maria though,” Rachel said, brow creased with concern as her emotions surfaced. “As far as we know, she could die if she doesn’t get sunlight. Maria, do you know how low your energy is?”
She poked her back when she didn’t answer. “Huh? ¿Qué carajo quieres?” She mumbled.
“How much energy do you have?”
Maria swallowed, shifting to her back; she groaned, using her elbows to lift herself and pull her hair over her front. “It’s like, point eight or some shit.” She moaned a little as she shifted, head drooping to the side, she seemed to fall asleep.
“Point eight,” Rachel clicked her tongue.
She’s probably falling asleep to conserve energy, like Scarlet when she fainted.
Serah shifted nervously. “Is the only way to keep her alive sunlight?”
Bree turned the corner, following some directions she’d received from a few other agents that saw them.
“As far as we’re aware,” Rachel muttered. “How soon until sunrise?”
“The sun should be rising within the hour,” Serah said, looking toward the massive windows, showing the tinted glass of the opposite side of the FBI building and a center walkway below, running between the structures.
Rising to her feet, Rachel picked Maria up as Bree joined them; Maria muttered something unintelligible, but only wiggled a little in her arms before going limp.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Bree asked with concern.
“Bree, can you take me to the east windows, and Serah, can you stay here to tell Scarlet what we’re doing if we don’t come back?”
They both nodded, and Bree set down the blankets and pillows in her arms to lead the way; they passed many agents that gave them questioning looks but continued along with their duties. She glanced down at Maria’s limp form in her arms.
If she dies after everything we’ve been through to get her brother back … she can’t die. Why didn’t she tell us she was this low on energy? What were the signs?
She told us she was getting low before healing the SEALs, but I was too focused on … on what? Saving the kids was an objective, but … it wasn’t the goal or reason why I did it. Why did I want to fight Terrell and his group? Why am I even asking that question … the answer’s pretty clear; I wanted to impress my parents, I was pissed they got away, to throw it in Nam’s face or Alexa’s. That’s petty, so petty…
Her chest burned with her muscles, causing her arms to twitch; Maria wasn’t that heavy with her current enhanced strength and full Lunar Pool, but she could feel the effects of the Debuff, and flexing did increase the pain.
Even if it is petty … it’s not like I don’t want it. Why is it so important to me?
“Should we hurry?” Bree asked, brow creased with concern as she looked back at them. “You seem really worried about something.”
I’m letting my emotions show … why is my tail wagging too and my ears are twitching? Stop!
She took a deep breath as she slowed a little, looking out of the window, the hint of light beginning to brighten the sky.
Should I use Emotional Detachment again? No … if I rely on it too much, then I’ll become dependent upon it. How long have I been using it to begin with?
Groaning, Rachel forced a smile that she knew Bree could tell was fake. “No, I’m just being … a little overwhelmed. I have a lot on my mind. It’s not like hurrying will make the sun rise faster, and I’m pretty sure Maria sleeping is a good thing. It will at least slow her energy use.”
“Huh,” Bree slowed to match her pace, agents moving around them. “This is you overwhelmed? I mean, your ears are twitching a little, and you look a bit concerned, but you’re calm. Is that a part of your change?”
“I suspect it is,” Rachel said, repositioning Maria in her arms to better support her head.
If only you understood how I felt inside … Scarlet would know.
“Could you pull her hair up? It’s almost dragging along the floor.”
“Oh, yeah.” She complied, studying Maria’s white hair a moment. “This is all so surreal. Yesterday … nevermind.” She pulled Maria’s hair between her legs to keep it in place and started walking back down the hall.
Rachel’s smile turning soft. “No, I completely understand. This has been a massive change for everyone.” Her wide field of vision took in every face that passed them. “Do you see their glances?”
Bree slowed a little to look at several agents that looked their way before quickly turning to go about their own business. “What about them?”
“I can see—a lot slower than I used to, like in slow motion; I can see a lot more too, like a wide-angle camera, and all of it is in focus. Smells, it’s different than Scarlet’s senses; she can sense actual emotion, but I can smell the fear released from the skin, hear the locking of joints and constriction of muscles that tells me someone’s on guard. Yesterday, I never thought someone would fear me on sight … to feel less than human.” She whispered.
Why do I suddenly feel this way? It has to be because I deactivated Emotional Detachment. This will be rougher than I thought, but I can understand why they fear me, the knowledge, but … it still doesn’t make me feel better. I can still think calmly though; has my mind gotten used to being more detached or has it been like this since my change? There’s so many things to figure out.
Bree was silent for several seconds; she seemed lost in thought but continued at the same pace. After turning down another hallway, she took a deep breath, running a hand through her hair. “I can’t imagine how the world’s going to turn out in a week … how many relationships will be broken or changed forever from this.”
“Yeah—families changed forever,” she mumbled. “I didn’t—going up against Terrell and his gang. It helped me not think about any of that … I was able to just focus on one thing.”
They stopped at the east side of the building, facing Southwest 145th Avenue; they were on the second floor. There were cushioned benches to sit on against the glass; Rachel set Maria down on one, part of her legs hanging off the end.
She took the seat next to Maria, moaning as the pain returned; she pulled her hair over her left shoulder and leaned up against the glass, closing her eyes, Bree stood in front of them, arms crossed.
I’m scared still … what will my parents think about this? What if they disown me? Can you even do that in the U.S.? It doesn’t matter; they could just refuse to see me anymore, and then what? What would I do? They … no, that can’t happen, not after I freed South Beach; I took care of terrorists. Although, Alexa...
Bree spoke up, sitting down on the opposite side of the bench. “Is that one of the reasons why you did it?”
Shifting her head against the glass, she shook it. “Who knows,” she yawned. “Maybe I’ll learn more about the reasons when the psychologist gets here. Everything just happened so fast, but … how did the report go?”
What if another Carter sympathist decides to pull off the covers while we’re sleeping? Yeah, screw that. If he has friends in the National Guard and even one of them has a friend in the FBI … I’d rather not take that risk. If we do sleep somewhere, then Scarlet and I should probably sleep somewhere closed off.
She smelled Bree’s nervousness increase as her scent became more musk. “It seemed fine; you heard, didn’t you?”
“Honestly—yeah, I was listening. It seems like David reached an agreement; they’ll be sending them here.”
“That’s good,” Bree whispered. “I hope you can help them.”
Rachel pursed her lips, opening her eyes to study Bree; her muscles were loose, but she was shifting her feet and staring at her lap. “Something wrong?”
“Just worried about my boyfriend; listening to your feelings … it makes me wonder how he feels about all of this. Will people hate him?”
She closed her eyes again, lips lifting slightly. “Possibly, but it could go either way on the drop of a dime. Most citizens I hear think it’s scary or cool, but most don’t hate people that are changed. Military and Police forces though … they’re split, and it’s understandable; they’ve seen the ugly side of those that were changed.”
“That’s true,” Bree sighed, rubbing the side of her head. “I’ve got a headache.” She took something from her pocket and swallowed them. “They’ve been handing out aspirin like candy…”
Rachel moved her head to look out the window but knew the moon wasn’t in sight.
This sucks … I don’t even know if normal medication will work on me anymore. You wouldn’t think so; I don’t think I have the same biology anymore.
Chuckling softly, she drew Bree’s attention. “What?”
“You know—I found out something really strange recently. So, my blood, it tastes like mint.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, mints; I licked my blood to stop the bleeding, and it tasted like mints.”
“That’s is really odd.” Bree giggled weakly.
They both fell silent, and Rachel retreated into her mind.
Start at the beginning; if I’m being honest, I know I did this for my own gain, but it’s not like I didn’t want to help Maria or any of the people we saved. I brought Zoe with me; I defended Scarlet ... really like Scarlet, and Maria’s growing on me. Fiona’s sweet, and it wouldn’t be bad to have her around … what am I even thinking?
Scratching her left eyebrow, she groaned at the pain and shifted to massage her left shoulder and tight thighs, trying to relax.
Scarlet wanted to be friends, and I said I’d like that. It’s such a simple concept; everyone had friends, but … I tried to avoid connections. Be courteous to people, but never get close; focus on my schooling, release stress with training. It was all so simple and I never once regretted it … hated Alexa getting in the way of it all. She disrupted my rhythm … now, this has.
I can’t lie to myself and think I can just return to school. I can only plan for the present and what little information I can gather … no wonder I subconsciously put so many points into my hearing; my hearing is the one thing that can get me through this crisis. What I need is information, but I don’t hear anything really new or pressing to us.
Maëlle and Kyle are asleep, while Anthony's practicing some kind of spear moves in a room by himself.
She listened to a few conversations, but it wasn’t anything she hadn’t already heard or puzzled out; there were just reporting information that she’d already uncovered. After a few seconds of filtering between voices, she stopped on Scarlet and Fiona.
“... do you mean, Brion’s going to be hungry? Is that a pet you have?”
“Yeah, he’s my cat … he freaking almost killed me at first. Apparently, I don’t smell like I used to; that’s one thing I’ve noticed about animals, they focus more on smell than sight.”
“That’s right; I remember Rachel told us that you were controlling rats to break you out of that fish tank.” She giggled. “The infamous Fairy breaking out of her glass prison.”
“Poor guys,” Fiona whispered. “Two of them were pretty rude, but the rest were nice.”
“So,” Scarlet’s tone dropped an octave. “Animals have different personalities and can understand a lot of stuff?”
“Kind of,” Fiona paused. “How do I explain it? They can learn things; like the rats were pretty easy to train with my commands, but it’s not like they had the imagination to do things themselves. It’s like how you can train a dog to do certain things, but they actually don’t understand a lot about it
—
my skin and hair are so soft.”
“That right? What’s it like seeing people now
—
being so small? Is it like Jack and the Beanstalk or Thumbelina? Everything’s super big and intimidating, and we’re giants?”
“Kind of … I really liked Thumbelina, and now I know what it feels like. I mean, when you’re looking at a cat that’s the size of a house or you
—I mean, you’re as tall as like—like a skyscraper! I’m three inches tall, and you’re like sixty-two inches tall.”
Scarlet hummed as she washed her hair. “Yeah, I can see that—I’m five-one, actually … so, I’m more than twenty times your height. That’s like me looking up at eleven or twelve-story buildings … Rachel must seem massive with how big her ears are, and people that are six-foot-plus.”
“See, this sink is like a full-blown swimming pool that’s about three and a half to four and a half meters deep. Plus, I’m super weak; cat treats that I used to think weighed nothing are now like five or fifteen-pound bricks … it’s discouraging.” She mumbled.
“Maybe we can fix that; don’t think I’m making fun of you, but we could get a toothpick and some marshmallows. Maybe you can work up your strength a bit?”
Fiona chuckled mirthlessly. “Thanks for the thought, but I don’t think adding one or two marshmallows is going to make much difference; it won’t help me push that door open and closed.” She breathed a deep sigh. “I just need to accept that my life’s changed—I have to learn to deal with it; fixating on what I can’t do anymore will just drive me insane. What about you?”
“Me? What about me?”
“C’mon,” Fiona huffed. “You always talk about everyone else; tell me how you’re feeling about your change. I got small and weak, but I can use magic, and my main source of food is sugar … what girl wouldn’t like that? So—what about you?”
“What about me,” Scarlet trailed off. A soft laugh escaped her throat. “It’s different; I mean, I can do this.”
“Oh, holding the showerhead with your blood; that’s cool.”
“I guess … it takes some concentration since I’m manipulating my blood manually instead of using a preset weapon type, but since my Blood Manipulation proficiency is maxed, it’s easier.”
“Proficiency? Do I have … holy snapdragon—my skills have proficiencies? Wait … you’re just trying to distract me! Tell me how you feel—then tell me about these proficiencies.”
Scarlet’s laugh was sad. “Yeah—I’m dodging the question. How should I even answer? I don’t see the same; my vision is tinted red. I can smell odd things that I couldn’t when I was human. My teeth ache … it’s hard to describe; as I use my energy, barbs stick under my fangs and stab me, over and over again. It’s not bad if I drank a lot of blood, but as my energy drops, the pulse increases—digging, jabbing, and clenching my jaw just makes it worse.”
“That sounds terrible … I just get really weak when I’m low on energy. I feel a little numb, and my mind starts to drift.”
“That’s just one thing, though,” Scarlet mumbled, shifting her hair out of the way to wash her body. “Emotion—well, just negative emotion—it pokes me, jabs and tickles my skin, and it feels good … weird kind of good. It makes me want to taste it—that’s another thing, how blood tastes. Every person’s blood smells different, tastes different, and it’s—it’s intoxicating.
“I can taste and feel their temperament; it’s almost like all five senses can be experienced in just absorbing blood. I can convert that experience into energy though or let it filter through me in a strange mixture of emotions—I can even tell if people used drugs … that part of the taste is—different. It’s not bad, but not great … just kind of numbing.”
“Sugar’s a bit different for me; it’s more … colorful. When I eat it; it’s like color is exploding in my mouth … it sounds less odd than it feels. Kind of like that commercial,
taste the rainbow
. I can tell the difference in the sugar I eat; how refined it is, the size of the grain. It’s actually pretty complex; every bite tends to have something different.”
“Sounds magical,” Scarlet giggled, but it dropped a bit as she rubbed her arm; water splashing around her. “I’m cold, but I don’t feel cold. When I touch my arm, there’s no heat; I know that, but the cold doesn’t affect me. It was the same when I was near this ice-guy; it was super cold around me, but I wasn’t affected. I’m sure—yup, I have some Cold Resistance.
“This Lizard-guy told me I don’t have any body heat … how is that going to affect relationships? I mean—how can I even think about that when—it’s stupid.”
“No, it’s not!” Fiona yelled, heat in her voice rising. “I’m worried about relationships too! It isn’t fair; not at all! We both don’t know how this will affect the rest of our lives…”
“Yeah,” Scarlet breathed out a long breath. “You’re right—I just—don’t want to focus on all the bad things, because there’s so much. I hate it—I hate being a Vampire, but—I loved being a Reaper.”
“Huh? Reaper?” Fiona asked, rubbing her body with something, likely soap.
“When I fought Relica, I needed something to hide from her sunlight.”
“That’s right, Rachel did mention that you had a shadow ability that helped you fight the sunlight Relica used.”
“Mhm, but I think Rachel was trying to hide a lot of my fight—there was a lot of information that could scare people. Like—Guise of the Reaper; it’s an ability that basically turns me into a baseline Grim Reaper. I can see Life Force—steal it even; I have a reserve of Life Force, but I can’t use it because I don’t have an ability for it. I stole the Life Force from the people Relica mutated … those poor people.”
“Wait—those monsters were real people?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Scarlet muttered, swallowing hard. “Relica experimented on them—broke them mentally and changed their bodies; she linked them to her own Life Force to act as shields. She was—if I hadn’t faced … she’s the second scariest person I’ve ever met. Obsessed with knowledge and willing to do anything to get it. I was so scared—she was so close—that close to turning me into a slave—like those...” She trailed off.
“I’m glad you’re okay … I haven’t met many people since moving here—I don’t make friends that well.” Fiona whispered.
“What? I thought you were a Streamer and YouTuber, and what about Erica?”
“Yeah, but that’s different … that’s just a bunch of names that I talk to. I don’t know any of them, not really—and they don’t know me. They’re a great community, and I’m happy to talk with them, but it’s not the same as like—like being with my sister.” She swallowed, sniffing as her voice cracked a little. “I didn’t even want to move to the U.S.”
“Then why’d you leave Ireland?” Scarlet asked, shutting off the water and drying herself off.
“My parents thought it’d be good for me to get away—see the world more. Erica was moving here because she was offered a position with a firm and she handled almost all my legal stuff … so, I kind of convinced myself to come over. I was making enough money to support myself and had enough savings—but I just didn’t want to go out.”
“I get you,” Scarlet said, standing a bit away from the mirror as she combed her hair. “A bunch of my friends graduated high school and went off to college or got jobs, but—I kind of hid up in my room and focused on—on annoying my parents. I just didn’t feel like doing much—I draw, and I liked drawing, but I was just kind of floating.”
“What kind of…”
Rachel opened her eyes, breathing a long puff of air as she heard someone break away from the flow of agents to stand a few feet away from her. He was a dark-haired man with a standard suit without the jacket, blue tie held down by a gold-colored clip. He was at least an inch or two taller than her.
“What are you doing here? You’re the Lunar Hare, and that’s the Unicorn next to you, correct?”
Running a hand through her hair, Rachel resisted a wince as the movement irritated her sore muscles, but Bree answered before she could. “Don’t worry about things that don’t concern you; if you want answers, go talk to Special Agent David.”
The man’s muscles tightened defensively, but he nodded and walked off.
Smiling at her, Rachel chuckled weakly. “Thanks.”
“Well, it was none of his business,” Bree whispered, leaning back and closing her eyes.
That was pretty brisk, but I guess she’s stressed too.
Rachel looked up as she heard a helicopter enter the airspace, landing atop the building and the name spoken piqued her interest.
General Dallas just showed up? He’s a four-star general; why would he come here and not the other major military bases with the Colonels or Majors nearby? There are people in this office that have been sending him information about us and the other Mythickin and Legendkin.
She leaned back again, sighing as she closed her eyes and listened to General Dallas. He exited the vehicle alone, meeting someone on the roof that saluted him. Dallas’ voice seemed aged, and his tone was hard but cheerful.
“Special Agent Johnson, it’s been too long. Last time I saw you, you were leaving Iraq a war hero.”
“Thank you, General; it’s thanks to you that I managed to transition back in the States, and it was your recommendation that got me accepted into the department.”
“Nonsense, your record speaks for itself; so, you have those files I requested.”
“Yes, General. I’m a little shocked the President signed off on your involvement. I heard that your program was shot down?”
“Well, you don’t make it as a four-star General without a lot of friends,” he chuckled, taking some files as he was escorted into the building. “By the way, has your office heard the good news about Special Agent David?”
“No, what good news?”
“I see,” he muttered. “Well, you’ll all hear soon enough,” he laughed. “So, I take it that Assistant Director Kelley knows I’m here?”
“Yes, she’s awaiting you in her office.”
“Excellent, lead the way.”
This could be trouble … his proposal was shut down by the President, but he has something else brewing.
* * * * * * * *
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