Oliver showed us the invitation, Shina seemed excited yet, all I could think about was Oliver, he seemed human, yet..he wasn’t...no… not just that, my memories of the old LC started to resurface, it started to make sense, why I cared about the abnorms so much, why I knew about them. I thought more and more until a certain thought came to my head...maybe...I wasn’t human either
“Leo!” Shina snapped me out of my trance “You listening? We can get anything we want, all the knowledge we want, we can finally understand how things came to be this way” Shina’s words made me more concerned, he never seemed to be the one to care and yet here he was, wanting all the knowledge he can grasp
“Wait just a moment Shina! You forget? An ordeal will await us and losing is a high probability, after all an agent with two clerks? That might as well be suicide” Suicide? Oliver...you know damn well what you’re capable of, you told me that incident was an accident, and yet, why do I feel like you did it on purpose. After I thought that, it began to make sense, the reason Oliver knows about that drug was probably because he used it before, no then, maybe I was wrong, maybe it was an accident and he just went through withdrawal, or maybe an overdose perhaps, right? He mentioned something about a meltdown that the previous sephirah had that affected him, if only I could remember, maybe, I was there as well, maybe that’s why Oliver treats me the way he does, because I was there. “Hey Leo, you alright?” I ignored him for the moment, never did I think this place and the abnorms would ever help me remember things “Le-”
“Yeah...yeah, i’m okay, just, this place reminds me of something” I interrupted Oliver, whether he knew or not was important, if he knew and is keeping me alive then maybe, it was an accident, but if he doesn’t, then it’s a major risk...and yet...I want to tell him, I want to trust him, maybe it’s just my stubborn loyalty but, I still trust Oliver even if the amount of trust I have for him is lower. I debated if I wanted to tell him, maybe i’ll look around first and see if I can find anything about that day
“Regardless, Oliver, if we strike now while it’s just an urban myth then maybe we’ll win! I mean, it’s not like we can’t fight, and me and Leo have guns and nowadays those are a commodity” Oliver sighed as Shina contested his argument
“We’re allowed to retreat, so if anything happens we bail, understood?” Oliver finally submitted to Shina, too exhausted to argue any longer “At least, i’m pretty sure we can leave, it’s not against the rules so maybe, no it has to be allowed” Oliver looked mad, but not at us, maybe at the sephirah he mentioned before
“So, what do we do? I mean it’s a piece of paper, sooo how do we know where it is” Footsteps sounded around us, the three of us looked at the door only to see Ao rifling through drawers
“Come on, he has to have some hiding somewhere” Ao tried mumbling but wasn’t silent enough
“Hey, Ao..what’re you doing!?” Oliver called over to him from a room away and Ao jolted up
“Oh, it’s you three, well I said it before right, those two “Sephirah” Ao sounded it a way to taunt Oliver for not saying there names “used it, so maybe, just maybe even after all this time there are more, I mean, I’ve looked here for the past few years and found some lying around” After Oliver sat back down he sighed once more looking disappointed at Ao “There we go” Ao pulled out something that resembled a syringe yet not quite “Hmm, it’s a new version of it, poor Netzach, couldn’t taste the new high” He put it in his pocket and walked towards us “ohhh, you got one too huh? How about we go together” He sat on the table facing us
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“Hold it, do you know how we get the-”
“You just sign it, riiiight here” Ao leaned over while cutting off Shina, he put his finger under the addressee, it made sense there was a decent gap under it and multiple lines for our names “Wait...I mean I was joking but, damn, you guys are actually going?” Me and Shina nodded while Oliver just sat in silence “Well then, i’ll tag along” Ao grabbed his invitation and threw it out the broken glass, after a moment of him looking through the window he talked again “Ahh... I remember when this place was underground” Ao leaned against the broken window making sure not to cut himself, he looked as though he was reminiscing “You remember Oliver? Who am I kidding you said it when you first saw me, that damned Hod meltdown” When Ao mentioned someone named Hod, Oliver looked away from him “One of the weirdest one's huh? Pumping a drug through the place, too bad that was when I wanted to stop Enk” Ao stopped talking for a while, we all just sat there “Anywho, we should prepare, ammo, weapons, armor, and stuff like that” We all stood up “Oliver?”
“What” Oliver glared at Ao
“Let’s all go look for stuff, the E.G.O gear should still be here after all, hmm” Ao looked stumped on something “I just realized, we’ll need an explanation for you guys, i’m already AWOL so I don’t matter much, but you three still have a chance”
“I already thought of one when I came here” Oliver stood at the door way “I thought one for you two as well, so it’ll be okay” After Oliver’s sentence finished I noticed something I should’ve asked earlier
“Oliver!” Before he went out the door I called for him, he looked over
“Hmm?” He looked back to his normal self, why? Why is he treating me differently
“I wondered, why..why did you come back here?” He looked ready to answer but paused
“I’ll...tell you later” I accepted that answer, if I wanted to know things, i’d have to be patient. We all exited the room and Oliver led the way “That day was one of the last for this company so maybe their stuff is still around” Oliver must have been talking about the incident that happened to him and I was right. We all made it to the main floor of the department, it most definitely has seen better days, same goes for the people, skeletons lied on the floor, different weapons and outfits were scattered ready to used, I saw Ao and Shina taking some of the weapons, yet when I looked at Oliver, he lay down a flower on one of the bodies and sat there for a moment
“Ahhh!” Me and Oliver looked over at the noise, Shina threw something across the room “Damn thing, felt like it was burning me” Oliver walked over to the weapon picked it up and went towards Shina
“Your LC card, may I see it?” Oliver asked with his hand out
“Su..Sure?” Shina reached in his pocket and took out the cards we were handed after our training
“Surley is different from an agent’s card...there, huh, makes sense, your fortitude isn’t great, therefor you can’t use this”
“Huuuuh? The hell does that work?” Shina looked angry, although I wanted to know too
“Dunno” Heh? “It just worked like that ever since I worked at either location” HUH? How the hell did that work “Anyways, we should just get this over with, the longer we’re here the more time they have to upgrade and what not” Oliver was right. We all grabbed weapons that our cards said we could, thanks to Oliver and Ao’s knowledge about this stuff, we didn’t have to get hurt by many of them “You all still sure you wanna do this?” Oliver still concerned for us asked,
“You bet!” Shina with enthusiasm shouted, I gave a soft nod, but before Oliver could continue
“Oooooh so this is where you went” A familiar voice sounded through the room, all of us, even Ao, stood in fear “Come on, at least look at me” I turned around to be faced with Taylor “You know, it was hard getting out tsuki kept harassing me about how it’s against the rules and to stay and work instead of going on some pointless manhunt, but...seems I was right, So! You’re all heading to the library huh?” Oliver gave a slow nod, “Then...take me with you” Taylor said while glaring at Ao, if even Taylor knows Ao, then he must be doing something to make himself stand out. “And don’t go asking why, I mean, if I die, you can just snatch my book as I die and bail, then you can read all about me, so what do ya say? Want your dear Sephirah to come with?” With hesitation I walked forward, even if either of the three go against him coming with, I put faith in Taylor, if he wanted us dead he could’ve just lifted a finger and got us killed
“Alright Taylor, you can come with” We shook hands
“Alrighty then” He looked over at the other three with the usual smile he held whenever he was around “Well then? Shall we?”