Episode: 5.5

--- Ember ---

“You know I almost thought you were serious about pissing the cops off.” She commented, as Aiden held the door to a large grey building open for her.

“Trust me, I can’t take three steps in this place without pissing someone off.” Aiden laughed, following her into a large empty hall before waving his cane at a man in a suit sitting in a chair while reading a newspaper. “Like that guy, I’m pretty sure he hates me.”

The man groaned before pressing something on the wall next to him. “I’ll let the boss lady know you’re here Caine.”

Aiden nodded. “I appreciate it, guy-whose-name-I-can’t-remember.”

“It’s Ralph.”

“Mm-hm.” Aiden hummed, not actually paying attention to the other man, as he held the door to the main building open for her.

Inside was a large open space filled with desks and cubicles as people in uniforms, and sometimes military armor, flitted about with paperwork or pinning pictures to crime boards, or a number of other things while a handful of drones floated above their heads doing who knows what.

All in all, she might’ve been impressed with the setup. At least, if she hadn’t caught sight of a familiar logo of a sword surrounded by wings. A logo that made her face scrunch up in distaste at everything it represented. “Sanctuary…”

“Yep.” Aiden nodded simply enough.

She shot Aiden a mildly judgmental look. “And you… work for them?”

Aiden merely shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. “Occasionally, though I’m more of a private contractor. Someone who deals with the kind of things that give even their numbers a problem.”

She wasn’t sure how to feel about that given how Sanctuary, (is a bunch of racist assholes.)

“What kind of problems?” She finally settled on asking.

“This and that. Most of my jobs involve me cleaning up the messes of the various idiots amoungst the Deviant community.” Aiden explained, before sighing. “Honestly, my life would be significantly easier if Deviant’s didn’t have Arcane.”

Her eyes narrowed. “How do you mean?”

Aiden gave her a thoughtful look, as if just realizing where these questions were going. “Most Deviant’s have rules to their Deviancy, or they're reclusive enough that their randomness doesn’t cause any frequent problems. Arcane however, fall into this sweet spot of just unpredictable enough and just common enough to be a pain in the ass for people. Which is only exasperated by the fact that it’s also one of the three most common Deviancies.”

She frowned, because while she understood what he was saying, she didn’t necessarily like it. “So what? They should just lock themselves away like hermits?!”

Aiden ran a hand down his face, before sighing. “No. Arcane and M.A.D.s are the two Deviancies that need to stay around people for the sake of improving Deviant rights. The problem is that sadly both Deviancies lack a concept of self-preservation, an issue that tends to spread out to anyone in the immediate vicinity. Four out of five times, if Sanctuary isn’t just being a dick and are actually doing their jobs, they’re usually cleaning up a mess made by an M.A.D. or Arcane being irresponsible.”

While she didn’t want to admit it, she had heard of the infamous ‘Sparking’ the more technical M.A.D.s were prone to, as well as stories of criminal Arcane summoning monsters through the Rifts. Part of her wanted to write it off as warped statistics, but…

(He’s admitting Sanctuary can be the bad guys, and that it’s his job to clean up the messes… So of course, he’d have issues with the Arcane.)

She didn’t like it, but her mom always told her there were two sides to every story, so at the very least she could accept enough of his point of view to keep from picking a fight. (For now, anyways…)

As she came out of her thoughts, she finally noticed Aiden giving her an odd look. “You know I wasn’t really expecting to have that kind of conversation when I brought you here. Most kids your age would be more ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ at everything.”

She shrugged. “What can I say, I’m precocious.”

Aiden just blinked at her for a moment before slowly shaking his head. “Deja fucking vu.”

She raised a brow curiously.

He waved her off. “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing.”

“Oi, out of the way, out of the way!” A gruff but excited voice called from nearby.

She turned and nearly froze as she caught sight of a large round headed… creature stomping forward while pinning the arms behind another much smaller creature.

The large creature, the one shouting at everyone to move while wearing a wide smile that showed more teeth than most people had. It stood nearly ten feet tall with arms and legs like tree trunks and wrapped in the same metal that made up the creature’s kilt and half-chest breastplate, while still leaving the feet free and giving the hands a sort of mitten like appearance.

“What. Is. That?” She asked watching the giant brush a nearby drone away from its head as it bulldozed past the various office workers who had to duck and dodge out of its way.

“He’s an Orkin.” Aiden answered with an amused grin.

“Orkin?” She asked turning to him.

“It’s a race comprised of goblins, ogres, orcs, and trolls, or a few generations of cross-breeding anyway.” Aiden explained. “They’re one of the more common Nexus Contractors, because while most of them aren’t very good at spellcasting, they do make for pretty decent muscle, something most squishy Arcane need.”

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(That makes sense.) She nodded.

While she wasn’t too big on them, most of the video games she’d played, placed characters that used magic on the backline since they had to focus to cast their magic, and couldn’t risk getting hit during the process. So, getting someone else to tank those blows for you was just common sense.

“Oi, Bruiser!” Aiden suddenly called, catching the attention of the Orkin.

“Well, if it ain’t Aiden Bloody Caine!” The Orkin, Bruiser, laughed from his stomach, before giving Aiden a smile with far too many teeth. “What are you doin’ here, mate?”

She already knew the Orkin was massive, but as it crossed the office forcibly dragging its struggling prisoner with it, smile never leaving its face, she realized this Bruiser really was a… (Well, bruiser…)

“Came to check if Ash has any jobs available.” Aiden answered completely unbothered by the giant and his captive as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his vest while eyeing the Orkin’s prisoner. A being that had crimson skin and long scraggily black hair, hiding two glowing red eyes and a mouth full of fangs.

A shudder ran down her spine. She wasn’t sure why, but some instinctive part of her was screaming, to (stay the fuck away from that thing!)

She frowned at that thought.

(That’s not fair, it isn’t his fault he looks like a fucking abomination!)

“By the way…” Aiden paused, just long enough to slip a cigarette into his mouth and light it. “What the hell are you doing pulling a fucking Creep through the middle of the station?”

“Well, it was faster than takin’ the back way and I thought it might break in a few of the newer recruits!” Bruiser explained in a chipper tone before using his free hand to give a friendly shove to a nearby office worker who’d been trying to sneak by. Of course, given the size difference between an Orkin and a human, said friendly shove sent said office worker tumbling over a nearby desk, causing Bruiser to wince as something broke. “Oh, goin’ to want to watch you’re footin’ there mate, don’t want to break anythin’!”

Aiden sighed, completely unfazed by the Orkin’s by-play. “Thorne is going to be pissed you pulled this.”

“Nah,” The Orkin waved him off with a cheery grin. “The boss has been meanin’ to break a few of the recruits in, and this ain’t nothin’ compared to sendin’ ‘em after a Void-Creep like we usually do.”

(What the hell is a Void-Creep?)

She may not have known but given Aiden’s snort of amusement, apparently, he did.

“Would almost pay money to see them go after something from the Black Briar.”

Bruiser laughed. “Ha! And they call me a sadist?!”

Aiden simply shrugged.

From nowhere the Orkin’s prisoner lunged, its jaw ripping open wide enough to take her head off as it tried to bite her.

She flinched her eyes slamming shut as she turned away from the creature.

There was the sound of something smacking against flesh, and then a yowl of pain followed by a violent series of barks and growls.

When she felt no pain, she finally risked opening her eyes, to catch sight of Aiden standing between her and the snarling Creep with his cane in his hand, a patch of blood on its handle, one that seemed to match a bleeding wound now on the Creep’s face.

(He… he stopped it…) She realized numbly, as she caught sight of Aiden’s downright furious expression, one that intimidated even her after he'd just rescued her.

“I don’t know why you guys need a Creep,” Aiden ground out through grit teeth. “but I suggest you get it the hell away from me, right now.”

“Uh, right.” The Orkin blinked before nodding, once to Aiden and once to her. “Sorry, about that lil’ miss.”

With that the Orkin turned dragging the Creep through the station, though this time he seemed to actually have some trouble as his captive fought and struggled ten times harder than before their little meeting.

Aiden growled before pointing the handle of his cane at a nearby chair. “Sit put, I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Where are you going?” She asked him, suddenly apprehensive about being left alone in an unfamiliar place, especially if things like this ‘Creep’ were around.

“I’m going to go help Bruiser deal with… that idiocy, before it causes any real problems.” Aiden practically snarled out before stomping towards the Creep and the Orkin, only to pause after a few steps as he caught sight of her face.

He stood still for a moment, visibly forcing himself to calm down, before turning towards her. “Look, even if they’re not the standard police, it’s still a cop station. No one is going to try anything, and if anyone gives you any trouble just tell them you’re with me. Alright?”

A part of her didn’t want to him to leave her alone, especially not after what just happened, but after a moment she realized he was leaving to keep it from happening again, and nodded.

(Right, he was chewing out Bruiser for bringing that… thing here, so there shouldn’t be another one…and besides it’s not like I can’t watch myself for a few minutes…)

Aiden watched her for another moment, before nodding himself. “Alright, I shouldn’t be longer than five, ten minutes tops.”

She gave him another nod, before watching as he went to go clear up the Orkin, Bruiser’s mess.

With little else to do herself, she decided to take the seat Aiden had pointed to, and settled in to wait for however long it took Aiden to get back, while watching the various Sanctuary office workers, soldiers, and drones (of both kinds) drift around.

This was the first time she’d really been left alone since the case worker had picked her up from the hospital where she’d been with her mother. She could feel part of her wanting to spiral into depression, and the other part wanting to lash out over everything

The closest to either she could bring herself to manage was the passive aggressive attitude she’d given Aiden and Amelia when they’d first met, and the occasional bit of snark she’d thrown at Aiden on their way to the Sanctuary station.

She knew they didn’t deserve it, since they’d been thrown into this situation too, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t glad Aiden was willing to take it all in stride, rather than simply getting fed up with her and her attitude like most adults did.

(“Interesting.”)

She absolutely did not jump at the voice directly next to her, where a dark-haired man in a three-piece suit with a top hat was watching her through a blank full faced mask.

(A mask?)

She looked around. “Can I… can I help you?”

The mask tilted his head to the side, far enough that it was a wonder his hat didn’t fall off. (“Possibly.”)

She swallowed, forcing herself to remember that Aiden was probably right, and no one would actually try anything in a cop station, but just in case…

“I-I’m with Aiden… Aiden Caine…” She stuttered out, hating the

(“I know.”) The mask nodded, and she just knew that he had a smile as wide as the one on his mask.

“W-what do you want?” She asked as she subtly shifted away from him.

(“Nothing. Everything…”) The mask admitted in a roundabout way. (“Depends on the perspective really.”)

She climbed out of her chair, not caring that Aiden told her to ‘stay put’ so much as she wanted the hell away from the man in front of her. “Why, why are you talking to me?”

The mask tilted his head to one side and then the other, his blank mask twisting just a little more than human each time. (“A debt to a brother in another life, I suppose. I feel like reuniting them, since family should stick together.”)

“W-what’s that mean?” She asked taking a step back from the increasingly disturbing mask.

(“Everything, and nothing.”) The mask repeated, his fangs just a little too sharp beneath his half demon skull mask. (“Depends on the perspective really.”)

Before she could run away from the mask, he raised one hand into the air and snapped his fingers.

There was a large crashing sound from somewhere else in the building that had half the room shaking as a roaring laughter rolled up from down below.

“Damn it, Bruiser!”

She gripped her head, feeling a sudden migraine.

(What was I talking about?)

She glanced around her and found herself alone.

She paused and gave a confused frown.

(Why wouldn’t I be alone? No one ‘s approached me since Aiden left…)