At nightfall, Aurelius, Cade and Balgair watched from the roof of one of the many abandoned buildings in the ruins of eastern Wescaster. These ruins had apparently been left here when a gang war broke out, and after the gang's leader, Laen, had triumphed, he built his base in them. Supposedly, it was underground.

They had been scouting the place for some time now. Balgair said there was still an unresolved conflict going on that involved the taking of hostages. In other words, today was the perfect day for the kidnapping, as a few members would stay behind as guards while the others went home.

All they had to do was wait. And that's what they did. Aurelius leaned his back against the side of the roof and closed his eyes. He focused on cooling his mind. When he opened his eyes again, the blue would have to stay still as ice.

***

Finally, it happened.

Balgair grinned as a dozen men of various statures, all wearing the same types of blank, dark clothes, exited the abandoned building in the midst of the ruins. At the front of the group was a certain slender 29-year-old blonde male who looked like a prince of some sort.

'It has been too long, Laen,' Balgair thought with a hint of a smile.

Then he dove in a hurry as Laen turned to point his sly, sharp gaze all over the place.

Balgair didn't need to see anymore. He waited a few minutes in hiding, listening as his voice gradually faded, before looking to confirm that the gang had disappeared.

He looked to his sides, where both Cade and Aurelius lay, seemingly asleep.

Aurelius seemed to always be able to sleep anywhere. Perhaps that was his innocence at work. Balgair was surprised the heist hadn't had a more lasting effect. Maybe that was something to be worried about. Maybe his nature was actually capable of far more monstrous things, despite his pride in his morals.

It was rare to see Cade sleep, but Balgair didn't think that was because she had issues sleeping. She just didn't seem to need to do it a lot. She seemed more machine-like than human at times. To Balgair this day was larger than life. To Cade, it was Tuesday. Just another mission. What was taking a few lives when one's kill count was already close to four digits?

Balgair sat down and waited.

The gang was composed of creatures of habit. That didn't make them entirely predictable, as their animalistic selves contained a ton of impulsivity, but it was a gamble Balgair was willing to take. He decided on a time of two hours. Three hours would have been too much of a gamble, and there were lots of ways he could get things right even with an inaccurate prediction.

With that decided, Balgair started the count.

'1... 2... 3...'

With time, the stars moved.

'7200.'

Balgair stood up and went to shake awake his partners in crime.

Cade slapped his hand away after a few seconds and stood up, rubbing her eyes. Aurelius, on the other hand, opened his eyes wide the first second of being awake and looked straight at Balgair before putting a hand forward. Balgair froze for a few seconds. Those eyes weren't the same. What had been like a joke previously had been drained of all humor. Of everything except determination.

Balgair shook himself awake and grasped Aurelius' hand before pulling him up to his feet.

"How long since they left?" Cade asked.

"Tens of minutes. I wanted to make sure they weren't coming back," Balgair answered, with his gaze on the central building from where the gang had exited.

The trio then proceeded to make their way off of the rooftop silently, hopping from one roof to another.

They made it to the central building pretty quickly. Balgair stopped at the entrance doorway that was broken and painted around with the stylistic freedom of a druggy maniac. Balgair snorted before entering.

The building was ripped apart, like the others. The interior had marks of arson, the floor still being covered in ash like all those years ago. Blades had cut extensions to windows, and furniture had been shredded and crushed. The blood had dried into the wooden desks littered around the room so that their color had turned into a shade of maroon like the light brown and crimson had merged.

Three pairs of footsteps echoed as Balgair, Cade, and Aurelius walked through the ruined space in a triangular formation.

When they finally made it to the square-shaped metal staircase at the end of the room, they stopped in their tracks. It only went up.

Balgair looked to the side of where the stairs down began. There was a trapdoor under the fake concrete. A key was needed. Well, this time the key was in the form of compressed essence.

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Balgair walked forward and tapped his foot on a certain spot. "Right here," he said, looking at Cade.

"Are you sure?" Cade asked, unprecedented uncertainty in her voice.

Balgair waved a hand. "Yeah, don't worry. Just follow my lead. I've got it all down."

Cade gave a long blink with a tilt of her head before walking forward and tensing her hand. A mass of essence built up before she slammed it down, and the metal exploded.

Cade looked back with a hissing sound.

"They won't hear it," Balgair assured as he went up to the destroyed trapdoor and started descending the ladder made of bent iron rods shoved into the earth.

Everything was dark, but once he got down, the illumination of oil lamps in the room comforted him.

The main room was exactly as he remembered it. Oil lamps hanging by the low roof, so that one had to duck to not hit their head; cigarettes and booze all over the floor; and finally, the grand round table, which he had once feared. He walked up to it, and tapped his fingers on it a few times before lifting his gaze to the passageway in front that led down to the cells. He heard footsteps. And soon, two men came into sight.

"Who are you?!" One of the men yelled in a groggy voice.

Then a younger voice came. "F— Fox? But Laen killed you."

Balgair smiled. "Well, I'm back." He turned back to the ladder from where Cade and Aurelius descended. "And I brought friends."

The men saw Aurelius' hair color, and greed flashed in their eyes, before an immediate attack came. Aurelius held a palm forward as golden light from the lamps illuminated the blue in his eyes and made him look like a deity. A hazy, light blue wall flashed into existence, and Balgair watched as Cade rushed forth, jumping over the round table. Right as she was about to hit the wall, it disappeared and Cade assaulted the pair. With a few hits, both slumped to the ground.

Cade turned to Aurelius. "You sure it's believable for these guys to destroy a Numen branch?"

Balgair walked around the round table and headed into the dark passageway. "Those two are the weakest. Now we have some hostages to save."

They made their way down, and after kicking down some metal doors, they got to a pair of little children. One girl and one boy. They were both around ten years old, with the boy seeming to be the older one out of the two. Both were shivering in the darkness, their bodies bruised all over. The only light in the area was the faint blue ball that Cade had floating above her hand.

Balgair turned to his companions. "You two take care of the kids. They've been through a lot. I'll go check on the safe."

"There's a safe here?" Cade asked.

Aurelius grabbed his arm as he was about to walk past. "We didn't come here for money. Let's get out now."

"We need more funds, remember?" Balgair ripped his hand loose. "Besides, the gang isn't coming back any time soon. Relax."

Balgair then made his way back to the main room. There was a safe hidden here somewhere, for sure. Balgair didn't know where it was, though, and he didn't intend on finding out.

He sat in the chair and waited. It would take some time for those softies to make the kids feel better, and since they thought there was no hurry, it would buy Balgair enough time.

Balgair closed his eyes as he reminisced about the old times. After escaping, he had sworn off such a risky life, but he knew he couldn't keep to such a lifestyle. He knew he would die young. No matter what. So when he bumped into his two companions, he decided he would scratch that itch he'd had for a long time. Now, it was done. He would get his revenge. It was written in stone.

The ones guarding the hostages didn't work all night.

These people were flith. They had two turns based on their filthy habits. One during which the others went out to drink and do drugs, and the other for the rest of the night. In the first point, the gang didn't really care about the hostages very much. Their guard duty wasn't duty to them. They just liked beating the hostages throughout the night. Balgair guessed it was more fun while drunk, and after getting some fresh air. He didn't really know. All he knew was what he had observed during his own captivity.

After a while of waiting, Balgair leaned forward as his consciousness jumped and his face twitched. Chatter from the first floor of the abandoned building was carried down through the trapdoor opening.

Then the chatter came to a halt.

The gang had noticed the trapdoor. Soon they would be rushing through the entrance and there would be no escape for anyone. Not that Balgair wanted to escape. Of course not. He had been waiting so long for this.

It was time for a reunion.