Morrigan grunted in disgust as she moved the rags from her nose. “These reek you know?” she complained about their disguises. The Eskarii decided their best bet of staying hidden was a trick he used to hide in plain sight, disguising as a homeless person. The Eskarii had stashed their disguises in an alleyway where he led her as they fled the school.

“Quit complaining,” the Eskarii hissed as he moved her rags over her face again. “you’re going to get caught.” She grimaced as she allowed him to cover her face. She tried to focus on something else to drown out the smell. Unfortunately, her thoughts turned to Taylor, she was worried and scared for him. She knew deep down Taylor would be okay, he was smart, strong and resilient, however that did not remove the worry she felt. He was the only person in her life she felt any true connection to, the only person that understood and accepted her outside her parents.

Psh, I understand you better than he does, I can see every inch of your core being. She groaned loudly. Now was not the time. She noticed her groan had drawn the attention of the Eskarii. His body was hidden under heavily tattered clothes and soiled rags, but his gaze met hers with annoyance.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she demanded. She watched the Eskarii’s head jerk in a snort. Morrigan was miserable. All she wanted was for things to be normal, to go home after graduation and spend time with her parents. Now she was a fugitive for draft dodging and targeted by the military for who knows what. Not to mention murdering several marines, which was a capital crime; a death sentence, life in prison at best.

Well, at least you’re consistent hahaha. Apollyon seemed to be enjoying itself which did not help her mood in the slightest.

“So what's the plan?” she asked the Eskarii as they walked. Citizens paid no mind to the two homeless versions of themselves. Historically humanity paid little attention to homeless, easier to ignore old America’s problems rather than work on a solution. With the gov-subs throughout the country, poor conditions and dirty people were at an all-time high and it became more of a norm than before, even in upper class areas like downtown Denver.

“We get to the subway, then figure out how to get you out.” The Eskarii said.

“What do you mean get me out?” Morrigan grabbed his arm pulling him to a stop. She needed to know what she was getting herself into before diving any further down the proverbial rabbit hole.

He grunted with irritation, “you cannot obviously stay.” He jerked his arm out of her grasp and readjusted the dirty jacket he was wearing. “you will be hunted relentlessly, destined to be their prey. If you do not leave, you will get captured.”

Boy can he kill a mood eh?

Morrigan nodded internally as she watched the Eskarii snake his way between people. “There has to be something we can do,” she thought to Apollyon.

Well aside from murdering a city full of people, running and living on the lam, which by all means I'm for, I guess our only option is to follow this creature’s plan and put down anyone who stands in our way.

Morrigan shook her head, “must everything end up in bloodshed?”

Remember who you're talking to kid… besides, you wanted power and power comes at a price, Apollyon all but hissed in delight. She did have to remember who her new internal partner was, Apollyon would probably always favor violence, it was after all its entire essence of existence to bring things to an end, and violence was the ultimate form of snuffing out existence. However, that was not what she wanted though. Morrigan wanted peace among races; peace for humanity.

She could hear Apollyon chuckle in the back of her mind, no doubt finding her desires foolish. She did not care, she would prove the entire galaxy wrong one day.

First, she had to get out of being in the military’s crosshairs, which meant following the Eskarii’s plan to get her out of reach and off their radar. After that she would need to figure out what to do. She could not deny that her life sucked at the moment but she would make the most of her situation. She reached forward to ask her companion a question only to hear him grunt something in his language, likely cursing as she moved closer to see what he was looking at. She stood next to the still Eskarii to see several police making their way down the road stopping everyone for an ID check. That was definitely bad news for them, “I take it you don't have an ID?” she inquired.

The Eskarii hissed through his teeth at her ignorance, “I do, fake but real enough. But they are looking for you.” She had put two and two together at his remark and blanched. He was not wrong. As soon as someone saw her ID, they’d arrest her and probably hand her over to the military. She frantically started looking around to find an escape, her body in full flight mode.

Her companion grabbed her by the arm, which she nearly tore out of. “This way!” He hissed as he dragged her along an alley way that led to the street over. Morrigan’s anxiety was through the roof at the notion of being so close to being caught once again, this time without weapons seeing as her companion claimed it would be easier to conceal themselves without weapons. Of course she had the abilities Apollyon gave her, but she knew very little about them and felt it was better to keep them hidden for as long as possible. It’s unheard of for a magic-less to suddenly develop “magic” abilities and she was intelligent enough to know that would put a bigger target on her back, unless that was why they were after her?

That’s impossible seeing as you never told anyone.

Apollyon had a point; her powers have been completely hidden so what else could it be? Her thoughts were torn away from the great question when her and her companion broke into the next street to find a crowd of people. People were beginning to question police intentions behind their random search which told Morrigan that the events unfolding have not been disclosed to the public. She did not find that surprising though. The country did rather well at covering up and burying any notion of insurrection, she only knew of any because that was the primary role her father played in society. The concerning part now was that the police were much closer, and upon closer inspection of the area, Morrigan spotted three D.S.T.U. officers as well. She grabbed the Eskarii’s forearm for comfort as she stared down the D.S.T.U.

The Eskarii looked to her in confusion before following her gaze. Spotting the special police, he knew as well that they were in trouble if they were seen. Eskarii knew the elite police were trained for specifically this kind of thing. To him, it appeared she knew as well. From the report given to him it was not surprising since her father belonged to the regime of law enforcement. He agreed with her expression, their situation was not good. He looked around to see another alleyway on the other side of the crowd. Grasping her hand he said, “come on.” Leading them through the angry crowd.

Oh, this is nice. All these souls slowly boiling up to a mob. How long do you think until the first stone is cast? Blood is just asking to be spilled. Apollyon seemed to be enjoying the unrest. Morrigan saw his point, the citizens were becoming restless with the police. It seemed they refused to let people through down the street until they saw IDs and the common folk were no longer taking kindly to that. It was only a matter of time before either side lost their temper, however, it did make good cover.

“You two! Halt!” came from their left. It seemed they were easier to spot than they hoped as two police officers began shouting at the disguised Morrigan and Eskarii as they forced their way through the crowd.

ΩΩΩ

Simmons had her attention drawn away from the angry and belligerent crowd as she spotted two street officers break rank, appearing to have spotted something. “Hey lieutenant, I think we may have something.” Santiago had just finished handing back IDs to select few who were willing to abide by their instructions and waving them through as he followed Simmons’s line of sight. He was not necessarily comfortable leaving the line of cops five men down while they chased after ghosts, however knowing this possibly involved their little Clarke, it was one he was willing to allow. He tapped James on the arm and signaled for him to follow as they made their way through the crowd.

“What did you see?” James asked, thankful they had closed circuit comms. He slung his rifle from over his shoulder which caused several civilians to give them a wider berth. As frustrated as they were, people still valued their lives and an elite officer shouldering their weapon was a universal sign of trouble.

“Two cops following what I’m guessing is a man and a woman given their heights, but they were covered in dirty rags. Could simply be homeless trying to avoid law enforcement,” she replied. Santiago nodded with a grunt. There was truth there, homeless did their best to avoid officers, and if they were not able to, they made everything as difficult as possible.

The trio made their way into an alleyway that the cops trailed down, each cop had their handgun drawn as the perpetrators rounded the corner within the alley, disappearing to the right. James and his partners cautiously made their way forward as they watched the cops. One moved around the corner while the other stayed within view, weapon raised to give his partner cover. Both of the cops shouted standard commands as one likely moved forward. It was curious as to why the other cop had not moved but James began remembering the layout of the block, it was a dead-end alley. If he had to guess, there was a back door to one or two shops that were likely locked. He heard one cop order someone to remove their hood and to turn around. There was a muffled remark, quiet enough that even his helmet could not pick it up before the cop in view panicked, “No, no, no!” he muttered firing two rounds off before an enormous spectral crimson hand shot forward, piercing the cop with two of its large talons and impaling the officer to the wall behind him before fading from existence. James, Santiago and Simmons all looked at each other. Despite not being able to see each other’s faces, they all knew they wore the same expression; what the fuck was that?

Santiago gave them a wordless nod before they rushed and stacked up to the corner. Santiago counted down and they quickly spread out in the dead end as they had been trained to do.

ΩΩΩ

Pain. That’s Morrigan felt in that moment as she watched the body of the cop fall from the wall with a damp splat. The two massive holes in his chest made for excessive bleeding. However, the two holes in her chest felt like an even trade off. She felt her chest through the now bloody rags, pain screamed in response to her prodding and made it even harder to breath.

Stop touching shit! Apollyon warned her firmly as she slowly began losing control of her legs. She had to have been bleeding profusely but her difficulty to breath was more worrisome as she began to wheeze. Yeah, you got a hole in your lung, just chill the fuck out.

“Can you fix it?” she asked in her head as her breathing became more labored. The entirety of her chest hurt enough to bring her to her knee.

Yes but you have a bullet stuck in here, its taking me a minute to figure out how to get it out. As soon as Apollyon finished it’s thought, part of her chest seared in pain as a bullet began forcing its way out of her body.

The bullet clattered to the ground as Morrigan heard sets of feet shuffle into the alley. Her head shot up to see two things. One was the Eskarii pulling the blade he had buried into the officer’s collarbone out with a wet sound, spraying arterial blood. Immediately that blood snaked its way towards Morrigan for her to absorb. Good, cuz that took way more energy than I would prefer. Before she could question that, three armed D.S.T.U. officers blocked the exit of the alleyway. That was the other thing.

There was a moment of pause, the subtlest of motions coming from everyone as they took stock of the situation. It was painstakingly tense until Morrigan spotted a name tag on one of the suits of armor she recognized. “Dad?”

James Clarke looked at the young woman in rags, his rifle not moving from the Eskarii with the large dagger. “Morrigan?”

Morrigan stood confidently, her wounds feeling significantly better and even having energy to spare. She reached up and pulled the shawl from her head to reveal her brown hair with blue streaks, dirty and in disarray from the day’s events. Her light green eyes met the reflective helmet he wore as the small smile turned into a huge grin. She ran towards him and nearly tackled him in a hug. Out of the corner of her eye, she could Santiago’s shoulders ease with relief as her father hugged her tightly in return.

“I am so glad I found you,” her father said. Her hold on him tightening.

“Yeah Little Clarke, but I do have a question. What in the ever-living fuck?” Santiago asked while looking back at the cop she had killed.

She could not help but chuckle, torn between relief and regret at being caught in whatever mess she was in and everything that entailed, especially the powers Apollyon gifted her. Simmons chimed in herself, “I’m with the lieutenant on this one girl, what the hell happened?”

Morrigan released her father even though he did not seem ready to let go himself. She turned to see Simmons having her weapon still drawn on her Eskarii companion. The Eskarii now stood stock still, his blade still drawn and watching Simmons carefully with a hint of hatred in his eyes. Morrigan quickly moved and placed her hand on the barrel of Simmons’s rifle, gently nudging it lower. “Both of you relax, Jen, he’s the one who saved me earlier.” She then turned to the Eskarii, “it's okay, it’s my father and his squad… well most of it.” She noticed they were down two members.

The Eskarii raised his chin in defensive defiance, “I am aware, does not mean I trust the elites here.” Morrigan rolled her eyes, she guessed she should have suspected that. She turned to her father and Santiago, her eyes pleading for either one of them to do something helpful in this position. Both the men looked at each other for a moment, Santiago giving James a stern nod before her father turned back. Despite Santiago being the senior of the three, he seemed to be giving her father the lead.

“Simmons stand down.” James commanded. Simmons looked over for a second and sighed before lowering her weapon. Her father slung his rifle over his back and pulled at the releases to his helmet. He held the helmet under his right arm as he stepped up to the Eskarii, “you must be the one my wife mentioned, what’s your name?” her father held out his left hand seeing as the Eskarii held an assassin’s blade in his right.

The Eskarii eyed James suspiciously, between looking at the man’s hand and the stern yet friendly demeanor on his face. After a moment the Eskarii reluctantly took the man’s arm in a warrior’s grip, “Torvil.” The Eskarii responded.

Morrigan’s eyes widened at the fact she never bothered asking her companion’s name before she stepped forward and tried to mimic the greeting she has seen in videos. She crossed her arm over her torso and brought her hand back over her heart in a slight bow. “That is a lovely name.”

Torvil snickered at her before sliding his knife back in his sheath. Meanwhile Simmons looked between the Eskarii and Morrigan, “wait, you didn’t even know his name?” her finger sliding back over the trigger of her weapon.

Morrigan blushed in embarrassment, “we uh, haven’t really had time to talk seeing as we were being shot at and trying to avoid being caught.” Torvil shrugged and nodded towards Morrigan as a sign of agreeing with her assessment of their situation. Simmons eased up as she chuckled and shook her head. She found the situation unbelievable in more ways than six. James smiled at the awkwardness of his daughter, it was something normal in this unusual situation meanwhile Santiago came over and gave Morrigan his own hug.

James turned to the Eskarii, “do you have any idea what’s going on? My wife mentioned the military targeting my daughter.” They both frowned at each other, the Eskarii scratched the back of his neck with a sigh.

“Yes…Why? We do not know Patriarch Clarke. We were given orders to keep the young Clarke from your Federation military and that she believes in our cause.” Torvil admitted with reluctance. Everyone turned to the Eskarii with curious cocked heads.

“Whose we?”

“What cause?”

“Who sent you?”

“What is your plan?”

“Who gave you this information?”

Torvil was bombarded with other questions that he tuned out with a subtle shake of his head and muttering softly under his breath. It was not until Morrigan stepped to him and grabbed his hand softly. He looked down to find eyes filled with wonder and curiosity that caused him to give her a small smile. It appears the information he received about the young human girl was correct, instead of seeing the Eskarii as aliens and creatures to be shunned and hated; she saw them as wonders and mysteries to be known. He let out a breath that was filled with satisfaction.

Looking into her eyes he began, “your words and actions have caught the attention of the Eskarii people young Clarke. It is your belief and admiration of my people that I am even here helping you.” He looked up to the D.S.T.U. officers, “as you can guess, I belong to a faction of… insurgents… from your perspective. We fight for equality and a chance to thrive among Terrans all the while hindering Terran forces from killing our kind in battle throughout the galaxy…”

This was a shock to Morrigan, not only because Torvil was more or less incriminating himself in open admittance of terrorism to three officers of law, but also the fact that there were, as he put it, insurgents on Earth. She knew there were groups of Eskarii fighting against Terrain forces in the galaxy even though things were tame as long as everyone stayed in the corners, but she never would have believed their efforts reached as far as they did.

He's a sneaky one, certainly one to keep close. I bet he would do wonders for your planetary politics in the right position. Ya know, bring down your mages and free the “magic-less”

Apollyon had a good point. Morrigan always considered the Eskarii as equals despite their uniqueness amongst Terrain worlds. However, the rest of the world saw them one notch lower than magic-less Terrans and treated them as such. That did make her wonder why the Eskarii would try so hard to move to Terran controlled planets and integrate with a populace that shunned them. She concluded that she knew very little about the Eskarii and their own planet other than it was said to be a desert planet like Mars. She guessed there had to be benefits she did not understand. This left a final question though; did she truly share the same opinion of their cause? She hated the mages that reaped the reward of the majority of their species, living rich while those who did the hard work to make all of their planets sustainable and prosperous. She hated that both magic-less and the Eskarii were mainly in slums or run-down neighborhoods only being able to scrape by. And that night…

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Her father's voice brought her back from the black hole of her memory that threatened to drag her under. “Okay that’s fair, Morrigan would hate us if we held that against you. But that doesn’t explain why you’re helping my daughter, or who sent you, or more or less what your plan is.”

Torvil shifted on his feet, becoming more uncomfortable the longer the conversation went on. He had already taken a leap of faith divulging what information he had and Morrigan could see that. She stepped between the D.S.T.U. and the Eskarii like a shield to both sides. She watched as everyone grew tense though she noticed Simmons dragging the body of the cop Morrigan had killed out of view of the main alley. “and this? What the fuck what this?” Simmons demanded. Morrigan could hear the anger in her question. Despite being on an entirely different level, law enforcement was still law enforcement and there was a bond of comradery behind that she knew all three of them sensed. She could not deny the modicum of guilt she felt for taking the life of a police officer.

To be fair, the guy had it coming, and you're getting so good at your craft hehehe

“Not now Apollyon, please.” Morrigan truly did not want to think of herself as a killer. It was bad enough she has killed several times already, to be told she was good at it was something she did not need. She was lost in her own thoughts as Torvil’s eyes flicked over to her, which drew everyone’s attention to Morrigan.

“They described you both as a man disguised as a marine and a rogue mage…” her father trailed off watching his daughter intently.

His words broke the stress of recent events that clouded her mind, realizing all eyes were on her for an explanation. The anxiety of the spotlight had her sheepishly swaying on the balls of her feet as she tried to shrink inside herself to escape having to tell her father how she is a deadly mage whose abilities were given to her by a near timeless being that she did not even understand. Oh come on, it’s not that hard. You literally just had this conversation in your head. It’s not like that have to understand it, the truth is still the truth no matter how it’s looked at. All you have to do is open your mouth and let those words out.

Easier said than done as she stammered wordlessly. The insanity of the situation made her chuckle as all her reservations began to leave her body. The day was already insane, why not just pile it on.

Her father and his squad looked at Morrigan as if she was about to lose it when she started to laugh. “Okay…” she said as she blew a breath meant to relax her nerves. “This is going to sound psychotic at best but bear with me. Do you remember when—” Torvil's head jerked up as he reached for something in his ear. He began speaking rapidly in his language, too fast for anyone to follow. Within a moment he addressed everyone.

“Story time will have to wait; the city falls to chaos.”

ΩΩΩ

Lieutenant Colonel Amaranthe stood around the bodies of marines as an armored convoy arrived to provide back up and clean up the dead. It was a peculiar scene, multiple dead by precision aim of a sniper, several dead by controlled bursts and one dead marine with her torso nearly torn out completely in a gruesome display. He would have to pull the recording from the woman’s helmet when he got the time.

The local law enforcement throughout the city were given vague details of the girl and marine recounts of who aided her. It was just enough to have the law enforcement help triangulate her location, allowing him to bring the hammer down on her. Though it did seem strange that the marines who survived the incident swore on their oaths to the Federation that the young girl was a mage. None of them made sense when they described what it was she did, a burst of red lighting that caused the marine’s chest to explode? He just chalked that up to hysterical perception. “Perhaps she was given a weapon that was never searched for?” he wondered.

A phone ringing broke his attention. He dug in his pocket to retrieve his phone and smiled at the number of who was calling. Of course he did not like reporting bad news, but he was certainly curious as to what may come of it. “Colonel Sanders sir.” He greeted.

“Do you have the girl? I am hearing of civil unrest in the city.” The colonel’s voice is gruff with a hint of impatience.

“I am sorry to report that the girl has slipped through our grasp sir.”

A grunt of pure annoyance came over the line, “and how in the fucking hell did you let a 19 year old girl fall through the cracks with two retinue of highly trained marines?”

Amaranthe held his smooth, nearly sinister composure as the colonel took a stab at his abilities as a commanding officer. It was true, Morrigan Clarke did manage to escape custody, not by herself though. Among the survivors and the dead, he was a marine short. That meant there was either a traitor in their midst, or someone infiltrated the retinue, both being very deadly conclusions.

“It seems our girl had help escaping sir, not only has she escaped but we have a casualty count of 11 marines, sir.”

“Are you fucking…” the colonel let out a groan of frustration, “okay, so she had some kind of help, any idea of what could be helping her?”

Amaranthe hummed in thoughtful amusement as he began to look over the dead bodies. He did not want to divulge the information of the possible infiltration. That would cause many unnecessary headaches until he came to a conclusion of what had worked its way into the ranks of his men. Not to mention the panic throughout the regime, as well as the paperwork. Oh he loathed paperwork, it was far too tedious for him to bother with.

“No particularly, who or whatever it was had to be well trained. My marines noted that it was a single person in the area seen helping her.”

There was another groan, “well, I highly doubt it was CoU, there was no way for them to know about our dealings today. That leaves some kind of freelancer whose head I want on my desk. As for Miss Clarke, I want you to take whatever measures you need to secure her. Is that understood?”

Amaranthe smiled in an evil grin, “of course sir, with your permission, I would like to deploy the 3rd regiment. A little Martial law should be enough to break up whatever unrest the civilians have as well as choke the city enough to cause the girl to come up for air.”

“That's fine, though 2nd battalion has been deployed on another mission, you'll have to make due with 1st and 3rd.”

Amaranthe nodded to himself, “that won’t be a problem sir.”

The colonel breathed deeply in relief, even if it was still holding onto the stress of this operation, “good, at least we are also getting some new recruits out of this as well. Is there anything else you wish report?”

Amaranthe replied, “no sir, however I am curious, is there anything in the reports saying there's a possibility that she’s a mage?”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone call, “no. From everything we've gathered the girl hates mages with a bloody passion and has no capabilities herself. Why do you ask?”

Amaranthe smirked, there was no way he was giving up the evidence of magic just yet, not until he was certain of it at least. “Just curious sir, I find it hard to believe a 19 year old girl evaded our forces even with the aid of one other person. Thought maybe it was a possible explanation, regardless, I will let you go and see too that she is brought in.”

“Very good, I expect results.” The colonel said before hanging up. Sanders was not a courteous man, which suited Amaranthe just fine. With that out of the way, he could move onto locking down the city. He scrolled through his phone before typing an order to those necessary to dispatch the 3rd regiment as well as sending the military’s Communications to broadcast Martial law to everyone in Denver.

Within half an hour, the city would be closed off and settled into Marine control. Amaranthe decided he should visit the police headquarters and speak to the commanders, perhaps posting wanted ads for Miss Clarke could be a fun way to smoke the girl out. Not only would it limit the help she receives, but it would destroy her already fragile reputation.

He could not deny that he enjoyed the hunt; the more elusive and mysterious the prey was, the more fun he had, similar to hunting Saurian pirates and all their little subspecies. However, with the girl being such a high value target, he conceded that he should understand what it is he’s hunting.

Amaranthe knelt down and pried the blood stained helmet off the lance corporal who was missing her back before turning to a pair of marines standing guard. “You! Find me something to pull the data out of this helmet,” he commanded. Both the marines looked at each other, torn between following orders, and doing their job at keeping the lieutenant colonel safe. Amaranthe saw this, he knew asking a marine to give up a high priority task was futile, loyal to a fault the marines are.

He drew a heavy caliber revolver from behind his back as he stood up straight and aimed it between the two marines. “Do what I say or I will execute you both where you stand.” His voice dripped with toxic promise.

The marines quickly nodded to each other before taking off to complete their task they were given. It was a shame to Amaranthe, it had been over a decade since he had been able to execute someone for insubordination. Such memories of his time as a martinet left him feeling nostalgic, “oh well, we’ll see how much fun I can squeeze out of the girl.”

Amaranthe touched the comm on his ear, “Alright! Listen up, we're moving out!”

ΩΩΩ

James was first to question the situation with a cross off his arms, “what is your plan? Even if there is the start of a riot in the city, every single officer has been dispatched to find the both of you.”

Simmons stepped forward balancing her rifle on top of her shoulder plate, “I think you would be better off coming back to D.S.T.U. From there we can figure out the illegitimacy of all this and get Little Clarke cleared of all this bullshit!”

Torvil shook his head sharply, “no, they will not stop hunting her. I am Eskarii, I would not get treated equally, but she is their target and the Federation is above your Terran laws. You three would be charged with aiding terrorism, I would be executed at best and young Clarke…” Torvil’s eyes drifted to meet her terrified gaze, unable to fathom what it was the military even wanted with her. He knew of the Federations cruelty of prisoners of war, he had little doubt there was an exception for the young Terran.

Santiago let out a strained breath, he saw the wisdom Torvil spoke. “He’s not wrong. We may go above and beyond for each other but that's where the loyalty stops. There’s no way we could get them into headquarters much less off the radar of the commander.” He began pacing in a small circle in thought before making a decision, “okay, if we're going to help, we need to help Torvil get both of them out of the city.”

James growled under his breath; he did not approve of abandoning his daughter to the care of an alien terrorist. He surprised himself with that, he was never one to think negatively about the Eskarii people, however the stress and demand of the situation made him feel that he was less useful than Torvil. His lieutenant was correct though no matter how he looked at it. “What’s your plan?” his question dripped with venom at Torvil. The Eskarii picked up on the discontent of her father and gave a small meek smile. Torvil understood the drive to protect blood relatives, he had brothers and sisters he worried about from time to time whenever the Federation made moved against his people.

“You won’t like it,” he admitted truthfully before stepping next to Morrigan. The look of worry on her face made him frown, he knew it was warranted since she had no idea what it was he intended to do either. This was not his original plan, but with three elite officers with them, it increased the chance of success if they were escorting a victim to safety. He looked into her eyes and saw the fear, but behind that fear was determination, “do you trust me?”

Morrigan looked to her father and his partners, her little side family she forgot she had for a while. Despite two of them wearing helmets and her father’s obvious discomfort, she could tell they were all on edge. It made her more on edge as well, however, despite not knowing Torvil long, she felt like she could trust the Eskarii, and that she should. She turned to Torvil and nodded firmly, believing she was ready for whatever was thrown her way. I have the feeling…

Before Apollyon could finish its thought, Torvil grabbed Morrigan and turned her into a human shield before her father. Torvil was only slightly taller than the girl, so she covered the majority of his body as he blindingly drew his knife. Before anyone could react, he plunged half the blade into Morrigan’s stomach.

Morrigan’s body discharged crimson electricity as she screamed in pain. Torvil held her firm, partially to keep her from letting the blade dig deeper, as well as putting her between her and her father. “What the fuck!?” Yelled the D.S.T.U. in unison as they raised their weapons.

Torvil snarled, “stop moving!” he demanded of Morrigan then rolled his eyes at the officers typical response, they obviously have not thought through every contingency like he had, “don’t just stand there like araf'wch, one of you come wrap her wound before I take my blade out!”

Morrigan ground her teeth as she did her best to remain still. “Apollyon… can you fix this? I can’t believe he stabbed me…” There was hurt in her thought to the ancient spirit, she trusted the Eskarii and right now the painful reminder of her misplaced trust made the realization even worse.

I can… but I won't.

“Seriously?” she growled as her anger spiked, her eyes flared with brief crimson energy as it spread across her body. She could feel Torvil tense as the energy pushed against him, painfully she could guess as he grunted while trying to maintain a firm unmoving grip on her and the knife.

Yes, I understand his plan, not that I want you to bleed, just go with it and trust me. I won’t let you die.

“You’re an asshole!”

Well, to be fair you just got shot twice, so a little stab wound is nothing in comparison

“Says you, dick…”

“It would be appreciated if you would stop that,” he hissed in her ear as he glanced at the dumbfounded officers. “Come on! Before she causes more damage.” James, Rigo and Jennifer all looked at each other before James stowed his weapon and pulled out a small medical kit. A scowl was permanently fixed on his face as he moved over to kneel in front of his injured daughter. Torvil let out a breath as James knelt, keeping an eye on the other two officers who still had their weapons trained on him, “my deepest apologies James Clarke, there’s no way you would have let this happen to your child if I had told you the plan.” James shook his head with a hard snort to confirm his suspicion. Morrigan could understand why Torvil did not tell her father, but she still felt betrayed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked through clenched teeth, feeling every millimeter the blade moved as her father began to wrap her stomach below the knife. Torvil merely chuckled softly at her which made her feel disrespected.

Torvil leaned over her carefully to see her father’s progress, “would you really have let me do this if you had known?” Morrigan sighed in frustration as she tried to focus on something else other than the pain. She considered the possibility she had been told; would she have said yes? She sighed into a wince as Torvil gently slid the knife out of her abdomen, her father doing his best to wrap the white bandage around her stomach.

“No, probably not…” she forced herself to admit, “but why stab me?”

Torvil did something she did not expect, and that was hug her over the shoulders. “Did he actually care about my wellbeing?” Morrigan asked herself as she began to blush to the roots, her frustration turning into fluster by the confusion. Not only because her father was right in front of her tending to the wound Torvil caused, but so far Torvil had been a serious hard ass, devoid of emotion and working towards a singular goal.

“I am… sorry, for having to do that to you, but with three elite officers, it would be easy to get wherever we need if they were to ‘escort’ an injured civilian to safety…” he told her explaining the reason rather than making it an acceptable excuse. She could hear the genuine uneasiness in his voice. She also noticed Santiago and Simmons ease up on their weapons as they looked to each other, they apparently saw the desperate logic in his plan. Even her father paused for the briefest of seconds before returning his work with a scoff. They all seemed to understand that she was the most viable option since the Eskarii did not bleed red. “I promise I did not hit anything vital, and I have medical equipment I can use to repair what I’ve done.” Torvil released her and took a step back with his hands up as Santiago and Simmons snapped their weapons up again out of reflex.

Morrigan was bewildered by Torvil’s shift in personality. Originally, he seemed as if bothered he had been ordered to get her out of the city, but now he seemed more like a concerned friend and felt guilt for what he had to do. Your assessment is right, he’s bleeding guilt and concern alright… but his plan is good, once we reach where you need to be I will fix this. She was surprised Apollyon could read Torvil’s emotions as she turned and eyed him, nodding to both him and Apollyon internally. She understood the plan now and determined it was not out of animosity, to her this could be forgiven in time. All the while everyone’s phones alerted them of an incoming message. Santiago and Simmons looked at theirs while James finished up bandaging his daughter, a series of expletives came from both officers which piqued everyone’s interest. Simmons looked at James as he went to stand up, Morrigan doing her best to relax despite the tight bandaging. She looked down to see blood slowly bleeding through the bandages.

“We have a big problem,” Simmons’s stress echoed in her words as Santiago nodded. James looked to his team with an inquiring look.

“What’s going on?” he asked as he reached for his own phone.

It was Torvil who answered though, “the city has been locked down, the unrest seems to have become uncontrollable.” He repeated what he was hearing through his communicator, “something your kind calls Martial Law?” All four Terrans looked perturbed by that information. Torvil looked to James, who checked his phone to confirm, then to the other two officers, one of which checked down the alleyway back to the street, the other checked her weapons and readied to move. Torvil looked to the young Morrigan who held her wound gently while biting her lip in anxiety. “What is it?” he finally asked.

“It means no one is getting out of the city, and anyone caught outside aside from law enforcement and military are to be arrested,” Simmons replied as she slid the magazine back in her rifle and looked at James for options. It was apparent to Torvil that the officers were out of their element, it was their job to uphold human law after all. Torvil on the other hand was the exact opposite, his expertise excelled at chaos. Before he could come up with an alternative Morrigan spoke up.

“Let’s go everyone,” taking charge over the situation. Everyone turned to her with questioning looks as she struggled to put her disguise back on. She noticed everyone pause and sighed before turning to everyone. “We don’t have time to come up with another plan, so we’re doing this and making it work,” she said with determination. Her father frowned, obviously not liking the situation, but Torvil placed his hand on her shoulder with an approving smile on his face.

“Now you’re thinking like a Cys’wyr young Swyn'wyr,” his word holding pride towards her. She would have preened at that though she was not sure what a Cys'wyr was, but she did not have time to accept compliments regardless.

“Well, I’ll be damned if I got stabbed for nothing,” she noted brushing him off and pulling his hood up over his stark white hair before moving towards the alleyway.

Torvil shook his head, knowing he would not live that down, but he was relieved to see her resolve strengthen, he began to wonder if his sister was right about her. Before he could take a step forward, James slugged Torvil in the face hard enough to knock him back.

“Dad!” Morrigan exclaimed in shock and anger.

James ignored Morrigan and stared down the Eskarii in front of him, “you owe me that much for this bullshit.” His words were stern and irrefutable to the Eskarii. Torvil rubbed his jaw with the back of his hand before giving James a nod. Given how often any of the three officers could have killed him, a punch to the face was an easy price.

Morrigan gave her father an incredulous look as she watched him put his helmet back on. Her eyes shifted to the Eskarii who gave her a blasé shrug as he looted the side arms off the fallen officers and scrounging their respective ammo. She could not keep from rolling her eyes and accepting the tension between Torvil and her father was over for the time being. She was relieved no one shot the Eskarii for his actions, that was a blessing at least. Santiago stopped halfway down the alleyway as he watched civilians smash windows across the street before fleeing the scene.

He turned to the group as he double checked his supplies, “alright everyone, we need to make this…” he was cut off by an armored truck speeding down the road in apparent chase of the rebelling civilians. He did not see the truck, however everyone else caught the detail of the military vehicle identifying with the Federation marines. Morrigan looked overhead with wide eyes as three combat drop ships screamed across the sky. Santiago let out a hard breath before regaining his composure, “we need to make this look authentic as possible people, Simmons you’re with me on point. Clarke brings up the rear. Torvil where are we heading?”

Everyone turned to see Torvil inspecting the human pistol in his hand, making sure it was something he knew how to use. “Any of the subway systems on the north west side… that is one of many places we operate.” He stated with caution. “With the city shut down, it will be suspicious for us to go there.” The officers all watched as Torvil went to hand Morrigan one of the pistols and the two spare magazines with it. Morrigan watched as Santiago and her father looked at each other while Simmons nodded at her.

“You're a good shot, take it.” She told their Little Clarke with enthusiasm.

Morrigan smiled as she accepted the gun and slid it into the small of her back and stuffed the magazines in her front pocket. Santiago on the other hand sighed before giving her an agreeable nod.

“Let’s just hope you don't have to use it… alright lets go.”

With that said, Torvil hooked her arm around his neck and leaned lower to pretend to be supporting her. Morrigan caught on quickly and used her free hand to hold the bloody bandage as she feinted being injured. She noticed it did not hurt nearly as bad as before and bled minimally though she could feel the bandage squelch beneath her fingers. You're welcome. I figured I could start repairing it while you get to where ever we are going.

“Thank you…” She thought as they began making their way into the city street.