Loki raised a brow at the woman's bad mood. He looked intently at her to figure out what happened because he wanted to know. After a while, he decided to just humor the woman.
"Oh wow, you'll develop wrinkles faster than me with that frown on your face. How will you have a boyfriend if you always look like that? You'd surely scare all the men to death." He joked in an attempt to lighten the mood but as usual, he miserably failed to do so.
Aliyah was already in a bad mood and Loki's joke made her more agitated. With swiftness, she held her gun on Loki's face. "Stop bothering me or you'll find a hole in your skull."
"Woah, woah, woah! Okay, okay I got it!" Loki backed off and didn't bother Aliyah anymore. He still wanted to live and he knew that Aliyah was not joking either.
They continued their patrol and encountered some Chimera Tenebrae. Their number was greater than the last group Aliyah encountered. "Why are there so many chimera?" She asked the other enforcers who were with her.
Most of the time and according to the records of the Enforcer Information System, chimera groups didn't usually exceed ten members and each group wouldn't stay in the same place to hunt. This was unprecedented.
"We also don't know. For the past few nights, we have been encountering more and more Chimera, they're like cockroaches that breed too fast. The Headquarters has not sent any information regarding this matter and regarding the incident with the Vampiric. What we received was just an order to eliminate all Tenebrae that may appear in the city." Loki explained. He was also confused as to why the Headquarters didn't give them more information on what was really happening. All they could do now was to wait and see.
Although the general and the chief were there to plan out everything, it was still not foolproof since they didn't know what they were facing or what they were about to face in the future. The situation wasn't escalating for now but nobody could tell what may happen for the next few days or even weeks.
"Tsk, you can't really trust those people in high positions. Let's just investigate on our own and gather all the information we can rather than waiting for them to respond. We might suffer a backlash if we keep on waiting without an assurance of a definite answer." Aliyah was dismayed by how their superiors were managing the affairs of the enforcers. In her view, they don't really care about the people or their enforcers. What they were thinking was how they could profit from everything.
They stopped talking when they noticed the large group of chimeras moving. They nodded to each other and formed two groups to surround the chimeras. With her anger that didn't subside, Aliyah went on a killing spree.
She wasn't bothered by all the blood sticking on her clothes and skin. She was like the grim reaper, merciless and cold. With every bullet that shot from her gun, a chimera would fall to the ground. Loki and the other enforcers became onlookers at the bloody sight. They didn't dare to step in or help Aliyah in fear that a bullet might hit them too.
After the Lieutenant's rampage, the place was saturated with the metallic smell of blood mixed with gunpowder. "Wow, you are really pissed." Loki couldn't help but exclaim. Aliyah shrugged her shoulders and didn't give an answer. She was in a good mood after she vented her anger.
She casually wiped her bloody face and asked one of the enforcers to call the clean-up team. The enforcer nodded. Aliyah bid them goodbye after she made sure that there were no more Tenebrae to deal with.
She needed a long bath and a good night's sleep because she was sure that the next day would be an arduous battle and she needed the energy for that. She wouldn't let the general or any of them deceive her again into doing things that she didn't want.
---
The assassination attempt failed, General Aryster was glad but an existing problem was yet to be solved. He was currently sitting inside a very quiet room waiting for the other person to wake up.
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Aizel slowly opened his eyes and saw an all too familiar ceiling. He slowly sat up and saw his father on a seat not far away from his bed. He remained silent and waited for the general to talk.
Leroy Aryster had been a military man since he was a child. He was brought up in a military family. His father taught him to be cold, merciless, decisive, and not to be dictated by his emotions. But ever since Aizel appeared in his life, many things have changed. He suddenly became a father and was clueless as to what he should do especially because Aizel had a very unique background.
If he was a second late in coming to the scene of the assassination, he didn't know what damage Aizel would have done. The young man had a very unstable emotion and if these emotions were to overwhelm him, he could cause quite a destruction.
"How do you feel?" Leroy asked in a soft voice that he only used when speaking to the young man.
Aizel took a deep breath before he answered, "I'm fine."
He knew what happened, he almost lost control. It was one of the things he didn't want to happen so he always had to check his mental state. He needed to control his emotions if he did not want to cause any disturbance.
"I'm glad that you are okay. Stay in the house for the meantime while I sort things out." Leroy stood up and moved closer to Aizel's bed.
"You don't have to worry too much. I will speak with Enforcer Walker and explain to her what happened." He patted Aizel's shoulder. He saw his son nod and he made sure that he was really fine before he left him to be alone for a while.
Aizel took this time to meditate while Leroy left the manor and went to the Enforcer Station to see Aliyah waiting for him in his office. He did everything he could to hold on to his emotions all that time even if the consequence of it was him becoming something he did not want to. Aizel had no choice but to reign them.
"I'm not going to be your son's bodyguard anymore. He's a grown-up man, he can protect himself and according to what I have seen last night, he is very capable of doing that." She got straight to the point without even waiting for the general to sit down.
"I understand," Leroy nodded. Well, he couldn't possibly deny what Aliyah said. He was sure that forcefully coercing wouldn't work on his or his son's favor too.
"Do whatever you want but don't include me in this charade. I'm serious about my job and having someone like you meddle with it is disgusting. You've lost all my respect, general." She gave a special emphasis on the word 'general' to show her disdain on what the general had done.
She stood up and before she left, "Tell your son to stop acting because it doesn't suit him." Aliyah was referring to Aizel being all weak and childish.
"Don't you want to hear an explanation first before you leave?" General Aryster spoke before Aliyah was out the door.
"No need." Aliyah left the room without looking back.
Leroy leaned on his seat and massaged his aching head. That was clearly a failed attempt. It was to be expected, he admitted to himself that he was lousy at these things but what can he do? There were many things that he couldn't say nor reveal. Originally, they planned on making Aliyah comfortable with them or at least be used to their presence but with the unexpected turn of events, the plan was now in shambles.
Still, this was a good chance for Aizel to collect himself and to form a new plan. He would also have the time to investigate who was behind the attempt on Aizel's life. It was a common occurrence for assassins to hang around Aizel due to the general's position but to send Tenebrae as assassins were out of the ordinary.
He couldn't think of anyone that would do something like this because the Tenebrae were difficult to control since they didn't recognize anyone as their master. Just thinking of this was already giving the general a headache. There was so much on his plate right now that he could only assign the investigation to his second in command. He needed to focus on the evolved Tenebrae which was more urgent in his perspective as a general.
He took out a phone and dialed a private number. "How's the headquarters?" He asked the person at the end of the line.
"Still doing what pleases them. They don't have any intention to inform the public or the Enforcer Stations about the evolution of the Tenebrae. I suspect that someone is pulling the strings from the shadows, especially now that talk of a new weapon that can deal with any Tenebrae is floating around here." The other person explained. General Aryster frowned at the information he heard. A weapon? It was the first time he was hearing about this.
"Do you have any information about this so-called weapon?" he asked while racking his brain for any possible weapon that can be used to deal with any kind of Tenebrae.
"The only information I have is that the rumor started from the Ministry of Research and Development," the voice answered in a whisper.