Merit stumbled upon each crossed shoulders of each walker in the crowded city, carrying nothing but fear and madness. With each step a tear fell down nourishing her dry dusty cheeks and prayer was sung through her wounded red lips. Walkers wouldn't care less about a madly terrified child.

Merit pushed through the wooden door of Viribus hideout in struggle as her shaky hands felt powerless but her will pushed her through. "I-I am b-being chased!" Merit trembled as she gasped for breath holding her heart in pain. Looking around her, she found Andres standing in front of her in surprise as he held her bag on his back, he reached his hand for Merit to help her sit on a chair by the window.

"What's wrong?" He asked as she finally started to take control over her restless mind, the conflict inside her was unresolved but at such time only being calm could help her.

"There was a m-man! The one I told you about before, b-black suit and hats!" She said while looking back into his eyes confronting him, a silent scream echoed through her mind as she felt choking deep inside, "It can't be" she whispered to herself. To her surprise, not only the necklace she threw away re-appeared, but the strange events took a bizarre turn once Andres blue eyes turned green, his freckles lessened and his eyes looked much narrower, how in the world could ones face change features in a matter of hours?

The air around her was thin, her sweaty palms stained her gray dress, and she grew even more skeptic once she saw what an eye could ever believe. A reality glitch.

"I-N-nevermind, Thanks for the bag, Andres." Merit quivered as she decided to keep her thoughts this time for herself.

"It's almost midnight, you can't go now. Stay for tonight! We have a spare room!"

"I can't..I don't know that place anymore.."

"Merit, it's still the same! What happens beneath this workshop is nothing to be scared of! Besides, what were you blabbering about earlier?"

"It's nothing! Don't think of it!"

Merit hid her face away from Andres' strange eyes, wondering in which world she drifted in. So many questions floated in her head, the danger was imminent. The agent was bound to find her once again at any moment and he won't spare her life unless she tells him where Forger is, but it was already night and she knew she couldn't leave, and so, she accepted Andres' offer.

"There's it, this little room fits you!" Andres smiled as he led her inside a small room which had a different decoration than the rest of the reception.

It was a dark blue room with white strips on the cracked walls, a small bed was placed in the far right of the room beneath a half opened window where the white light leaked peacefully to cover half the bed in its whitish clarity, Merit tried to lower her violent breathing sound to divert Andres away from her panicking.

The room contained small teddies and toys, it belonged to a child as it seemed, Although Merit is familiar with the place, she never went inside any of these rooms as she was busy with Mr. Forger's work, helping him in the workshop with Ross. Eventually, she was all by herself, alone in the room facing the cold light leaking from each corner in the small room.

Merit rushed her tiresome body beneath the thin blanket on the small bed. Her bag deeply buried within her small arms, she sensed an irregular belonging inside of it, she twitched he head in an alerting move and opens her bag fetching for this item, her eyes look calmer now that she had her hands on what she had forgotten, Jackson's diary.

Merit looked at its crimson red weary cover and smelled its perfume-sunken scent that blew away her nightly worries. "Should I read it?" She whispered, asking Mechi who climbed beside her and took a look at it.

"Go for it" He said, pushing her into reading it.

"Alright then" She said, "but not now, I feel so ..tired" she sighed, she let down the book beside her.

Merit starred at the blankness of her resolve to her issues, lying awake for hours on her bed restless wondering where is she and how she got into such a mess, she was skeptical, her memories got more disturbed, the flashbacks she had of the black hats agent rushed in and out of her mind sequentially, can she doubt her memories?

"Maybe I have to put it behind me, for real." She sighed, starring at the leaking white light coming from the dusty window beside her bed.

"But If I do so, I'll be aimless, again." She said as she let down a warm tear caressing her cold cheeks as she slowly surrendered to the night's luring call, she slept with tears drowning her pillow, her heart racing her mind.

Few minutes passed by, a shadow appeared on the walls and the sound of the wooden door screeching spread through the room, yet Merit was still in deep sleep.

The shadow slowly slipped into the room walking on his tiptoes and made sure no sound would disturb Merit.

As light as a feather, the shadow dragged the camera out of Merit's bag, with his eyes fixed on hers and his ears hearing nothing but her snoring, "She snores?" He whispered to himself as he starred at her calm face weirdly, he then retreated to the door and closed it again slowly, Merit never blinked.

The shadow was now a clear, it was Andres. Carrying the camera in his hands and walking through the corridor, he murmured few words of anger, "This is a pain in the ass." He muttered as he climbed the stairs all the way to the attic where someone was waiting for him.

Knock, knock. A familiar voice allowed him in.

The attic was dusty and old, in the far distance beneath a window was a man sitting on a desk with lamp light illuminating his vision, it was Ross.

"I got it for you" Andres said with a voice tone indulged with confusion and sadness.

"Come here, let me see it. Do you have the battery?"

"Yes, I do."

Andres rushed to Ross while holding the camera with both hands steadily; he then put it on Ross' desk who quickly investigated it with curious eyes.

"There goes the battery" Ross said as he inserted the battery, Andres seemed to be none caring to whatever was inside that camera, he sat on the rocking chair across the room waiting for Ross to explain to him what's he doing.

In a matter of seconds after only few clicks, Ross face frowned and his jawline grew tense, his eyes focused on an image for long enough to make Andres worried.

"What's it?" Andres asked as he left the chair and went closer to Ross.

"I feared so.." He sighed in melancholy, he put down the camera and took off his glasses, "Andres, call George and tell him to come immediately"

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"Is there som-"

"Hurry up boy!"

Andres ran out of the attic heading towards the reception where he would find the man named George, Ross sat down on his desk with a suspicious eyes and muttered words of confusion and cursing, whatever he saw it didn't affect him the same way it affected Merit, Ross knew something.

Andres ran down with his boots generating a noise down the wooden stairs alerting those in the reception, the door to Viribus was shut down and sealed by concealing it behind the walls of the house, three men and two old women sat around a table with tons of papers aligned equally in front of each of them, at the front, a man in a black Victorian suit wearing a monocular, he held a certain paper in his hand and examined it carefully, his silver hair indicated he was a man of age, his outfit indicated he was a man of rank and elegance, such clothes were only known to the higher class, it was as if he was one of the president's courtmen.

As an argument went on, the man wearing the monocular did nothing but examine papers, the attendants argued for a period of time until Andres' appeared.

He let down the paper revealing his old face with darting eyes that was alerted by Andres' noise.

Andres gasped in front of the table notifying the busy attendants with his presence, the old woman on the right eyed Andres with sympathy, "What's it my boy?" She asked as the argument settled down and all eyes were on Andres.

"I-I came here f-for Mr. George" Andres trembled nervously; the man in the monocular raised his sight to confront Andres who seemed to have interrupted an important matter.

"Mr. Ross wishes to see you, in the attic." Andres continued as he broke the silence the man in binoculars imposed, he was George.

"Fine. We can discuss this tomorrow, goodnight." George said elegantly as he got up and followed Andres back upstairs, Andres breathed heavily as George Walked behind him, it seemed as if Andres rather feared George or respected him greatly, the door was half opened but Ross' voice burst through the doorway, "Go sleep now, Andres" He said, Andres nodded his head and left as George entered.

"Ross, you never said you'd give us a visit." George said as he closed the door behind him, as his pointed black shiny shoes emitted a crackling sound on the wooden floor, George's tone implied that he was not pleased with Ross' presence, there was a spark between both of them, not a good one.

"Come. Have a seat." Ross said.

"What's it you had to come all the way here for and interrupt our meeting?"

"It's an important matter, put aside all your troubles with me for a moment" Ross said, he knew George was here for trouble and so, he had to alert him.

"Don't waste my time and tell me."

"Fine, I'll go straight into the matter. Almost twenty years ago, Forger was pursued by a number of strange men, remember when he mentioned them?" Ross said, from the desk's drawer he took out a small box with a locket on it, George took off his monocular and slowly his eyes turned suspicious and curious.

"Black suits and hats, right?" He said.

"Exactly, the ones we never saw and the ones who are also in his diaries"

Ross opened the box with a small key he had, inside it was a weary blue book, Ross flipped the pages till he reached a certain one.

"They were lifeless, eyes were bursting with unnatural evil, they hid their pale faces beneath the black hats, but all of them were split images of each other, I saw them in each corner in the street, either reading a journal or staring at me boldly, I can never know their intentions"

Ross read through the page as George lent him his ears listening to each word carefully until Ross stopped.

"I know that story, but why mention it after all these years?"

"Unfortunately, it something I feared" Ross sighed, he held the camera in a hand and opened it, he showed it to George who put on his binoculars inspecting the images closely.

"These must be fake!"

"Look, black sky? What's that? It must be fake." He continued, George was confounded by the mystery of the image rather than the man himself, Ross sighed and decided to dive deeper into it.

"I have no particular explanation concerning the events in the image, all I can say is that the camera is quite old and it can be a minor mistake, however, the girl who had the camera which I'm sure you know her, the one who used to follow Forger around, talked earlier to Andres about being chased by a man exactly like that in the image."

"I see your point, but what in the world could these bastards be seeking? Forger isn't here and I'm sure they're aware of that, and that girl surely doesn't know anything about Forger whereabouts, if there's something they're seeking, I feel it might be this eerie image."

"True. But for the sake of the child, I think you understand what she means to Forger, I ask you to let her join Viribus." Ross asked, his voice implied he was not begging, he was rather forcing George to grant his wish, George sighed and remained silent for a few moment.

"It's true we are looking for more people to join us, but this one, if they've been chasing her all the way her I'm sure they'll eventually find our hideout in Izora"

"I'll take care of that, she will be unconscious, take her by sunrise and I'll keep the camera with me until we manage to have a full meeting discussing this strange matter, she can no longer stay in the capital"

"Alright then, I'll sure be fast. She might fit in as a chaser or a seer, we'll see about that. Anyone is handy for us these days, However, Ross. I know something else is on your mind, you wouldn't just help a penniless child for absolutely no reason, am I right?" George said as he suspiciously tightened his eyes with a wicked smirk implying that Ross after all has something in his mind.

"Oh, George! You got me" Laughed Ross faintly as he opened the drawers once more, he took out a slightly damaged image which seemed to be a decade old, it smelled of the familiar fuel scent, George grabbed his monocular and focused his eyes on the image.

"Menda?" He gasped as his jaws dropped and so did his monocular; his old face turned grumpy and in minutes he had a tightened grip hitting the desk violently, he finally had a grasp on Ross' intentions.

"I can't believe it! That's what you've been digging recently, haven't you?" He asked as he gritted his teeth nervously.

"Yes, of course! You thought I'd let her go so easily like that!"

"That's just filthy, Ross, that's dirty play!"

"It's the only option we have, we have millions of eyes on us, once these black hats men and the government agents divert their eyes to her, Forger will eventually climb out of his hideout, the girl will be safe and sound, the evidence of their existence will be with us but their chase will no longer be Viribus, it'll be Forger and Menda, that's all we need"

The image showed a woman in her fifties wearing her silver hair in a ponytail and dressed in a long black dress with her bubbly wide blue eyes starring onto a street vendor camera,Menda's identity was an enigma to everyone but Ross, George, Forger and some of the council leading Viribus, in fact, her existence itself is questionable as she was believed to be killed in a fire accident almost twenty years ago, Ross' mind forged a wicked yet reasonable plan to remove the agents' eyes off Viribus, it was believed if their current victim vanished into thin air only leaving this image behind would eventually leave a trace into a two –decades old mystery, reopening the past will keep Merit and Viribus safe, but it'll only trouble the two fugitives who are nowhere to be found, and at last, black agents might show their true selves.

"It's like sacrificing a none existing victim, George, It's all we have now, we won't lose until our airships soar above Ilusia's skies and sail into foreign lands, and I won't die before that! You think making such a decision is easy? No it's not! But it's reasonable"

"Hmph,I cannot assure you I'll cooperate if we eventually kill both of them, it's a dark path we walk, Ross, Corelight, Viribus, Ilusia's black secrets we always feared to approach, I don't know for how long will this serenity will last. We're approaching a dead end"

"Don't think of it that way, follow my plan and we'll make it out, I promise."

"I'll give it a thought" George said, "As for the girl, I'll take her in." He continued as he rested his annoyed face and tensed muscles, Ross grinned and hid the camera, the box and the image back in the drawer.

"Just make sure she's safe or else, it won't be just me coming after you, George" Ross eyed George in a menacing tone, George smirked arrogantly, "It won't be me to fail us this time."

Merit suspected no danger yet she slept with her distress haunting the air she breathed, the cool room's atmosphere gave her a sort of resting divinity she hadn't felt in years, sleeping in the alleys with her back resting on the icy walls of each crumbling house in the suburbs with rodents chasing her ease have been quite a dreadful, smelly and exhausting journey.

It was about time Ross and George took her somewhere far beyond the smoky sky, somewhere far from neckties and steamy air, she will be at last acknowledged as a human being with a purpose, but, her restless mind with countless possibilities concerning the mystery she encountered will be held back, it's price she had to pay, the young one must spend the rest of her years wondering how these events occurred, how Andres eyes' turned, how her necklace came back, her clouded mind won't be cleared, it'll only be distracted, till the stars guide her to answers, her head will finally reach serenity.