The last rays of twilight painted Novaria's skyline in deep purples and blues, the city's festival lanterns beginning to flicker to life far below the rooftop where they stood. Wind whipped around them, carrying the mingled scents of cooking food from street vendors and the metallic tang of approaching rain. Neiva hugged herself against the chill as she tried to process what she'd just witnessed, her eyes darting between Angelo and Blue as they explained their unique existence.

The pristine concrete of the office building's roof formed a stark backdrop for their impossible conversation. Blue's azure aura cast dancing shadows across their faces while Angelo's orange glow pulsed gently, their competing light sources creating an otherworldly atmosphere that seemed fitting for such an extraordinary discussion.

"This is..." Neiva's voice trailed off as she shook her head, her brilliant red hair catching the mixed light of their auras. "I mean, I want to believe you, but the implications are staggering. Three distinct consciousnesses sharing one body? It defies everything we know about Auron abilities."

Angelo's jaw tightened, a muscle twitching beneath his skin as familiar frustration welled up. His evolved aura flickered more intensely, reflecting his agitation. "Believe what you want," he said, his tone carrying the weariness of someone who'd had this conversation too many times. "My reality doesn't depend on your acceptance of it."

"Angelo," Blue interjected, his cultured tones carrying the patience of a long-suffering mediator. "Her skepticism is both natural and logical. Even you would question such an extraordinary claim without evidence." His perfectly maintained posture and careful gestures provided a stark contrast to Angelo's barely contained irritation.

"I suppose," Angelo conceded grudgingly, his boots scuffing against the rooftop as he shifted his weight.

Blue's expression brightened slightly as inspiration struck. "Consider this - Professor Goldstein's recent publication of the 'Components of Pure Energy Theory' provides empirical validation of our condition. We're credited as the primary subjects of his research."

"Wait, what?" Angelo and Neiva spoke in perfect unison, then exchanged startled glances. A distant rumble of thunder punctuated the moment as Angelo added, "I'd completely forgotten about that."

Neiva's fingers flew across her phone's screen, the device's glow illuminating her face as her eyes widened. "It's true! You're actually mentioned by name - all three of you! To think you're the focus of Albert Goldstein's groundbreaking research..." Her voice filled with genuine awe.

A blush crept across her cheeks as she lowered her phone, hesitation evident in her posture. "So that red one earlier, the one who..." She trailed off, clearly uncomfortable with the memory of Red's crude behavior.

"Red," Angelo supplied, his expression darkening. "Our third aspect. And no, we have no explanation for his... personality quirks. I'd say he was dropped on his head as a baby, but that's technically impossible." His dry tone carried equal parts exasperation and resignation.

"Aw, you're making me blush!" Red's sardonic voice echoed through their shared consciousness, making Angelo's eye twitch visibly.

"When you..." Neiva swallowed hard, forcing herself to continue, "when you beheaded him... did you actually...?"

"Kill him?" Angelo finished, shaking his head. "Unfortunately not. They can't die - their forms just reconstruct when I use my aura. They don't sleep either. In fact," his expression soured further, "Red's commenting on this conversation right now."

"That's..." Neiva appeared to struggle for words, her understanding of Auron abilities clearly failing to account for their situation.

"Perhaps we should return to more pressing matters," Blue suggested diplomatically, his aura casting steady light across the rooftop. "Were you able to obtain any useful information during your... investigation?"

Neiva's shoulders slumped as embarrassment colored her features. "No," she admitted, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I couldn't crack their security. I was looking for written passwords, like in movies and games..." She trailed off, realizing how naive it sounded.

"Why would they-" Angelo started to ask, then caught himself with a weary sigh. Instead, his expression shifted to something more calculating. "Fine. Tomorrow I'll send Red back in. He can observe in smoke form until someone enters their password."

"What?!" Blue and Neiva's shocked exclamations echoed off nearby buildings.

"You can do that?" Neiva breathed, fascination overtaking her previous embarrassment.

"This is completely unethical!" Blue protested, his usual composure cracking. "You're an officer of the law!"

Angelo turned to face his more logical aspect, his orange eyes blazing with sudden intensity. "I'm an Auron division officer," he corrected, his voice dropping to something dangerous and cold. "My job is stopping Aurons who abuse their power to terrorize innocent people. I never swore an oath to uphold every letter of the law." The festival lanterns below cast shifting shadows across his face, making his expression seem carved from stone.

"I agree with Angelo," Neiva's voice had transformed, matching his coldness. The frightened girl from the records room was gone, replaced by someone harder. "The law didn't protect my parents. It didn't catch their killer. Sometimes justice requires... alternative methods." The wind picked up around them, making her borrowed business attire flutter like dark wings.

Blue studied them both for a long moment, his analytical nature clearly wrestling with their perspective. "It is not my place to judge, but I cannot endorse your methods," he finally said, his tone carrying philosophical resignation. "But I understand the pain that drives them." His form dissolved into azure smoke, streaming back into Angelo's body as the first drops of rain began to fall.

"Come on," Angelo said, his evolved aura brightening as he extended a tendril of forged energy. "Let's get you home. Unlike Red, I'll at least give you warning before we jump."

"I'd appreciate that," Neiva managed a small smile, though her eyes still carried shadows of darker thoughts. "Red's a bit... intense."

"Ungrateful brat," Red's mental voice dripped with theatrical offense as Angelo secured Neiva with his energy construct. Together they stepped off the roof, descending into the glittering maze of Novaria's festival-decorated streets, leaving behind the stark reality of their conversation for the dizzying freedom of Auron travel.

Festival lanterns strung between buildings blurred past as Angelo's forged energy tendrils carried them through Novaria's nighttime skyline. The autumn wind whipped through Neiva's hair, carrying the sharp bite of approaching winter. Despite the exhilarating sensation of flight, a shadow seemed to hang over her thoughts.

"I suppose this means I failed you," she said quietly, her words nearly lost to the rushing air. The borrowed business attire fluttered around her like dark wings as another of Angelo's tendrils adjusted its grip. "I couldn't get you that lead..."

Angelo's evolved aura pulsed steadily as they arced between towers, his movements carrying the fluid grace of someone who had made the city's rooftops his domain. "Don't write it off just yet," he replied, his voice carrying unexpected warmth. "Tomorrow will give us our answer."

"But it won't be me finding it," Neiva protested, guilt evident in her tone. "If you and Red discover something..."

"Who said you had to be the one to physically uncover it?" Angelo cut in, his orange eyes flickering briefly toward her. "Our agreement was that you'd help me find a lead. This approach - targeting old construction records - that was your idea. If we find something tomorrow, it's because of your thinking." The logic seemed to lift some weight from Neiva's shoulders, a small smile playing across her lips.

The moment shattered as Angelo's police radio crackled to life, static-filled desperation cutting through the night: "Any...one... C..n Anyone... ear... me..."

Angelo's reaction was instant. His tendrils latched onto the nearest rooftop, bringing them to an abrupt halt that made Neiva's stomach lurch. She hung suspended in the air, wrapped securely in glowing orange energy as they listened.

"I need reinforcements!" The voice fought through waves of static.

Angelo snatched his transceiver, his evolved aura intensifying with tension. "Copy, what's your location? Over."

More static crackled before: "East of town square... please hurry, I don't know how long-" The transmission died in a burst of white noise.

"Shit," Angelo's curse carried the weight of painful memory as he spun mid-air, forged energy tendrils launching them toward town square. The festival decorations that had seemed cheerful moments ago now felt like mocking witnesses to another potential tragedy.

The attack site announced itself with a column of thick smoke rising against the star-studded sky, lit from below by the eerie glow of clashing auras. Angelo touched down in a street that had become a battlefield - shattered windows and scorched walls telling silent stories of violence. A police officer lay crumpled nearby, while in the distance two luminous figures traded devastating blows that lit up the night like deadly fireworks.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Angelo rushed to the fallen officer, his own aura casting orange light across the man's ashen features. "Talk to me!" he demanded, checking vitals with practiced urgency.

The officer's eyes flickered, barely focusing. "Angelo..." blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he spoke. "Stop him... he already... mother and child..." His trembling hand pointed to the side, where two still forms lay twisted on the pavement, their silence more devastating than any scream.

Rage transformed Angelo's features into something terrible as he rose, forged energy robes materializing around him as he took his first step toward the distant battle. But Blue's azure form materialized before him like a voice of reason given physical form.

"Have you lost your mind?!" Blue's usually measured tone cracked with urgency. "You brought Neiva into this chaos!"

The words hit Angelo like a physical blow. He spun around to find Neiva still suspended in his energy tendril, her face pale with fear and confusion. "You finally noticed," she managed, her attempt at indignation barely masking her terror. "You haven't responded to anything I've said..."

"Damn it," Angelo's fury warred with responsibility on his face. "Blue, protect her. I'm ending this." His evolved scythe began to materialize in his grip.

"Look out!" Blue's warning came with action as he shoved Angelo aside. A beam of purple energy tore through Blue's materialized form, forcing him back into smoke that streamed into Angelo's body.

The source of the attack approached with measured steps, his purple aura crackling around him like contained lightning. The raw power radiating from him made the air itself feel thick and heavy. Angelo carefully set Neiva down, his expression hardening into the mask of the Angel of Death.

"Neiva," his voice carried deadly calm as he positioned himself between her and the approaching threat. "Get the officer to safety. I'll handle this." He caught her eyes for just a moment, his next words carrying absolute conviction: "I won't let anything happen to you."

The purple Auron halted within earshot, his aura crackling around him, casting twisted shadows across broken glass and scorched concrete. Behind him, the bodies of his victims lay as silent testament to his brutality.

"You've got a special kind of nerve," Angelo's voice carried the chill of a morgue, his evolved aura pulsing with controlled fury. The orange glow of his forged energy robes seemed to intensify with each word. "Tell me something - are you genuinely brave enough to challenge an Evolved Auron, or just too stupid to know better?"

His opponent's response came as a guttural snarl, deep voice filled with the kind of malice that spoke of a mind long since abandoned. "Cut your crap, boy!" The purple Auron's aura flared wildly, his sneer revealing teeth bared like a feral animal. "You think I can't see energy levels? That fancy orange glow doesn't fool me - I can see exactly how weak you are. You're nothing but dead meat walking!"

The festival lanterns above dimmed in comparison to their competing auras - Angelo's steady orange radiance against the purple Auron's crackling fury. The air between them grew heavy with the promise of violence as two very different kinds of monsters prepared to clash in the heart of festival-decorated Novaria.

Angelo finally opened his mouth "If staring death in the face doesn't change a man... nothing will. And now, now you are staring straight into the face of death. Change your heart and surrender. Or attack, and seal your fate." The purple Auron looked at Angelo, his face twitching. Finally he spat at Angelo's direction.

The purple Auron's defiant gesture hung in the air like a challenge. Without warning, he lunged forward with murderous intent. Angelo settled into a combat stance, his scythe humming with barely contained power as forged energy tendrils erupted from his body like living weapons, each one moving with lethal precision.

Their clash lit up the night like a contained supernova. The purple Auron unleashed a devastating combination - one hand projecting a beam of concentrated energy at Angelo's scythe while the other launched a punch wreathed in crackling power. The beam caught Angelo's weapon in a deadlock, purple energy grinding against orange forged energy with enough force to make the air between them distort and shimmer. The sound was like a thousand pieces of glass being crushed simultaneously. Angelo's grip tightened on his scythe, but the beam held it immobile, the competing energies creating spider-web patterns of light in the air between them.

The punch came next, enhanced by concentrated energy, but Angelo's forged energy gauntlet met it with equal force. The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the ground, rattling any windows that had somehow survived the earlier exchange.

"Almost ready to join the party, Angie!" Red's anticipation crackled through their shared consciousness.

"Stay out of this," Angelo's mental response carried deadly focus. "He's mine." His energy tendrils whipped through the air like living weapons, forcing his opponent to break away or be eviscerated. Each tendril left trails of orange light in its wake, creating a deadly dance of illumination.

"Time to end this," Angelo's cold declaration carried absolute certainty. "ENERGY WAVE!" The attack erupted from his hands like a river of pure destruction, turning night to day as it screamed toward its target.

But the purple Auron stood his ground, matching the attack with his own energy beam. Their collision point exploded into a nexus of competing power, creating a shockwave that sent festival decorations flying in all directions. The air itself seemed to groan under the pressure as purple energy began to push back orange, the difference in raw power becoming devastatingly clear. Even with evolution on his side, Angelo's fractured nature put him at a disadvantage in pure energy output.

"Raw power isn't the answer here," Blue's warning cut through the chaos.

Angelo ignored the advice, his eyes locked on his opponent with grim determination. "Energetic fissure," he whispered, and the street beneath them came alive. Energy coursed through the ground like liquid lightning before two tendrils erupted like twin geysers of forged energy that caught the purple Auron's arms, yanking him skyward. The sudden restraint broke his concentration, leaving him helpless against Angelo's energy wave. The impact created an explosion that lit up half the street, but when the light faded, their opponent remained conscious - battered but still radiating defiance through his flickering aura.

"Yes! Finish him!" Red's bloodthirsty glee pulsed through their link.

"Angelo, don't!" Blue's measured voice carried urgent warning. "Remember the consequences!"

Two more tendrils of forged energy joined the first pair, wrapping around the purple Auron's legs and tightening their grip. The criminal struggled against his bonds, his aura flaring wildly as he tried to summon more power, but his injuries had taken their toll. His desperate attempts at resistance only made the restraints constrict further.

Red and Blue's opposing urgings created a war in Angelo's consciousness until a dark epiphany struck him - if death was forbidden, perhaps there were fates that would make death seem merciful.

The energy tendrils began to glow with ominous intensity, their grip inexorably tightening. The sound of straining joints filled the air as Angelo slowly stretched and crushed his opponent's limbs. The purple Auron's scream of agony echoed off nearby buildings.

"STOOOOP!" The plea carried raw terror.

"You will taste a fate worse than simple death," Angelo's voice resonated with cold purpose, his evolved aura casting everything in shades of orange and shadow. "Surrender now, or I will make you beg for oblivion."

"I SURRENDER!" The words burst from the purple Auron between screams as the pressure increased. "PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!" The sickening sound of cracking bones punctuated his desperate cries.

"Deactivate your aura." The command carried no mercy, no emotion - just the absolute certainty that compliance was the only path to survival.

After an agonizing moment filled with the sounds of straining joints and cracking bones, the purple aura finally flickered and died. Angelo's tendrils released their prey, letting the broken man collapse into a whimpering heap on the cracked pavement. As he secured the subdued criminal, the night seemed to exhale around them, as if even the city itself had been holding its breath.

The Angel of Death had delivered his judgment - not through execution, but through a demonstration that some fates could be worse than the grave.

Angelo's evolved form dissolved like morning mist, the forged energy robes and halo dissipating into particles of orange light that faded into the night air. His movements were methodical as he secured the handcuffs around his groaning opponent's wrists, the metal clicking with grim finality. He sensed rather than saw Neiva's approach, her footsteps hesitant on the cracked pavement behind him.

"You probably think I was too harsh," Angelo said without turning, his voice carrying a weight of pre-emptive defense against expected judgment. Festival lanterns swayed gently overhead, their cheerful light seeming obscene against the tragedy that had unfolded beneath them.

Neiva's gaze drifted to where the mother and child lay, their stillness more devastating than any violence. Her expression hardened like ice forming over deep water. "No... He deserved it." Her voice carried an edge that made her sound older than her years. "Maybe you weren't harsh enough."

The cold approval in her tone made Angelo turn, their eyes meeting in a moment of shared darkness. Something passed between them - a recognition that they both understood how justice and mercy weren't always compatible. The moment stretched until Angelo finally broke away, turning back to his secured prisoner.

"We'll wait for the police to arrive," he said, his voice softening slightly. "Then I'll take you home. Okay?"

"Okay..." Her reply carried the exhaustion of someone who had seen too much reality in one night.

The aftermath unfolded with practiced efficiency - police cars and ambulances arriving with their competing lights painting the street in alternating red and blue. Medical teams moved with gentle urgency around the injured officer while others performed the grimmer duty of attending to the night's innocent victims. Through it all, Angelo and Neiva stood in silence, witnesses to the routine of tragedy.

Their journey back to her apartment was equally quiet, the city's festival preparations continuing below them as if nothing had happened. When they finally landed, Angelo's forged energy tendril lowered her to her doorstep with surprising gentleness.

"Tomorrow," he said, breaking the long silence. "Where should we meet before getting that information?"

Neiva blinked in surprise, clearly thrown off balance. "Y-You still want my help? But how? Red's doing all the actual work..."

"Red can barely operate a smartphone," Angelo replied with matter-of-fact directness. "We need someone who knows what they're looking for - someone to guide the operation." The effect of his words was immediate and dramatic.

Joy bloomed across Neiva's face like sunshine breaking through storm clouds. "Really? You mean it?" Her earlier darkness vanished beneath pure enthusiasm, making her look her age again.

"I... yes," Angelo managed, slightly taken aback by her transformation. "You probably understand the records better than we would." He paused thoughtfully. "Well, Blue might help, but he's taking a moral stand on this one."

"That is correct," Blue's internal confirmation carried philosophical disapproval sharp enough to cut glass.

"You got it, boss!" Neiva was practically bouncing with excitement, but she froze mid-motion as Angelo's expression suddenly transformed. "What's wrong?"

"Please..." His voice carried an echo of recent grief. "Don't... don't call me boss." The weight of memory seemed to press down on his shoulders like a physical force.

"Oh..." Understanding flickered across her features as she remembered the news about his fallen trainee. "Right, um... how about 5PM tomorrow? You can pick me up here?" Her attempt to redirect the conversation was obvious but welcome.

"That works," Angelo nodded, grateful for the change of subject. "Good night, Neiva." He turned and launched himself into the night sky, his orange aura briefly illuminating the street before he vanished between buildings.

As he traveled home through the festival-decorated city, his mind churned with the day's events - Neiva's attempted infiltration, the brutal fight, the darkness he'd seen in her that matched his own. But most of all, that word - 'boss' - echoed in his thoughts, carrying with it memories of an earnest smile and unwavering faith that would never greet him again.

The moon hung low over Novaria as another day drew to a close, while somewhere in the city's heart, festival preparations continued for a celebration that seemed increasingly distant from the reality of their world.