Pt. 1: 

Luc rolls his eyes, watching as the men around him run around fearfully. Of course, the day he comes for the lanai, there are issues. General Dorius just had to send him. There were other people who were great candidates for going to pick up the prisoner.

“Where is the centurion?” he asks. One young soldier passes him, so he grabs his shirt and drags him closer. He asks his question again.

The soldier looks up and immediately, his face pales. Luc’s red eyes flash, hungrily at him. The fear he smells waving off him just begs for Luc to kill the man. “Where is Khail?” he snarls.

The soldier points to the control room. Luc focuses his ears and can hear the angry yelling and thuds coming from the room. Begrudgingly letting go of the man, Luc makes his way towards the room. These people all remind him of maggots. Useless, ugly maggots. Always wanting more power than they can handle. 

“Good day to you, Centurion Khail. Having issues?” he asks, a grin on his face. Khail looks back from men, annoyed at the interruption. Of course, it’s the General’s dog, Luc. Who looks a bit strange. Very pale in comparison to him, his skin almost looks translucent to others. It is a bit shocking, especially coupled with his bright red eyes. But he isn’t to question anything around here.

He groans,” We have no time for you today, dog. Go bother your General.” Luc holds his grin, having to restrain himself. All he wants to do is rip his heart and crush it in front of the man during his last breaths. This salgri does not know who he’s dealing with. He just doesn’t know.

Luc sigs,” Well, we both work under General Dorius, so that would make us both dogs, but I digress. However, I am here to transport the Eliarin. Remember?” This makes Khail stiffen. He forgotten that amidst all of the chaos today. He just showed up to work, ready to relax when suddenly the lights are flashing, and his soldiers are running around frustrated. So he was not focused on the impending visit from this… dog.

“I remember. We just ran into a… complication,” he snaps,” the girl has escaped.”

Luc guffaws. Of course, leave it to some maggots to fail at holding a child. It’s a wonder that they had lasted this long. He should just kill them. Kill them all and be done with it. “So, do you know where the lanai is now?”

One of the soldiers at the camera screens searches through each of the videos.  He pauses at one screen, noticing the movement. When he focuses in on that particular screen, his eyes widen. “Sir Khail, I found her.”

Both Khail and Luc move towards the young soldier as he stares at the screen, a bit confused. “Is there an issue soldier? You seem confused,” Khail asks, confirming that the figure is the girl.

“Uh, no sir. I just thought she was a child, but she is just a bit too… developed to be a child.” He answers, a bit ashamed. Luc smirks, almost nodding in agreement. This lanai is definitely no child. At least, not anymore. He had heard that she was imprisoned a long time, but he did not realize how long. He only has a few years on her.

Khail grunts,” Well, anyway. Let’s go apprehend her.” He gathers his soldiers and tells the one at the cameras,” Stay put and monitor where she goes. We will continue to be in contact.” He taps his ear as a device quickly forms around his ear. The others follow suit and then they all run out of the room, leaving Luc and the soldier alone in the room.

Intimidated, the young soldier decides to focus on his duty and continues to watch the screen as the girl looks around, confused and desperate.

Luc watches the screen. He has his own orders to carry out. Get the girl, no witnesses. “You fresh, soldier?” he asks, running a hand through his inky black hair. His red eyes glow with anticipation as the soldier nods, his brown hair flopping around. The nails on Luc’s hand extend into claws and he sighs, a bit bored. “You seem like you have promise.”

The soldier beams, proud that someone is acknowledging his potential. He glances up at Luc, but suddenly, he feels stuck. His body freezes up and he looks down at his stomach. Luc’s hand is pierced through his body, with no sign of releasing him. “Too bad you won’t live long to achieve it,” Luc snickers, amused as the light leaves the young man’s pale blue eyes. He releases the soldier, letting him flop to the ground and then looks back to the screen that is focused on the girl. “Maybe I will have some fun on this assignment,” he shrugs before disappearing into a puff of red smoke.

~

Aria groans, frustrated. How in the world of Allanus is she supposed to escape this maze? She has never been in any other room, other than her prison cell and the room where the doctors ran their tests on her. She is literally experiencing everything for the first time. It is almost like a sensory overload.  Aria moves down the hall, peeking into each room.

“Likai,” she swears, her eyes searching. Looking for any clue as to how to get out of the building, to no avail. She runs a hand, or at least tries to run a hand through her knotted black curls. They haven’t been let out of their braids for years. It is a bit traumatic how much she has suffered but if she ignores her time here, she won’t explode.

She suddenly comes to a room that smells… interesting. She pokes her head into the room, seeing a lot of weapons. Ones similar to the strange guns that she had known the salgri to use from the eradication of her people. Stepping further into the room, she takes note that it is more than just those weapons. There are swords, axes, hammers, gadgets. So many things that she hasn’t seen before. Intrigued, she begins to look around.

“Ay, anasi,” she sighs, amazed at the amount of machinery and things. She gently pulls a sword down. One that looks very long. It’s a bit intimidating, but she enjoys looking at weapons. Way more than using her own filthy abilities.

Suddenly, a sound reaches her pointed ears. It is very soft, but it sounds like talking. Whispering. She pauses in her admiration and focuses on the sound.

“She is in here, sir Khail.”

“Yes, but I would like to know why there is nobody guiding us to her location from the surveillance room.”

Aria growls at this particular voice, recognizing it as Khail. She continues to listen, noting that there might be some internal conflict or a miscommunication as there is one soldier missing now and the number of missing soldiers is starting to accumulate.

Suddenly she hears the door beep and dives behind a table right before the door opens, light pooling in from the hallway. Something whizzes through the air and she watches as it lands with a thud on the ground in front of her. Confused, she surveys the strange object. A medium size ball, slightly larger than her hand. It has little holes on the side of it and a large hole on either end. It blinks, a light coming on and suddenly gas floods the room, from this small ball. Aria gasps, breathing in a bit before suddenly coughing. She feels the effects almost immediately but forces herself to stay conscious and creates an orb of air around herself, blocking out the gas. She glares at the door. If they want a fight, she will be sure to give them a fight.

Outside of the room, the soldiers stand, waiting on her to stumble out, barely able to stand and fight them off. Sir Khail glares, annoyed at the issues that just keep increasing. Now he is missing soldiers. The first one being the soldier he ordered to stay in the surveillance room and then suddenly, soldiers begin going offline. He hasn’t checked the life meters of his men yet, but he suspects that they are dead.

One soldier leans against the door, trying to listen for any movement. Hearing no sound, he turns to sir Khail,” Maybe she passed out from the gas.”

On cue, a dent forms in the door, suddenly. This causes him to back away slightly, a bit fearful. This should be a child. How in the world of Galea did a child create a dent this big in the door? Then, the door breaks out of the wall slamming into the soldier and slamming him against the wall. The gas escapes from the room, affecting the soldiers closest to the room. Khail watches as they all begin to cough and waiver in their stance. “Stay alert!” he yells. He refuses to let this… savage child beat him. He was responsible for beating and destroying the Eliari Clan. This is one girl; he can handle it.

Aria steps out of the room, protected by the air shield she created around herself. she looks around at the soldiers before her eyes land on the man responsible for everything. She growls, her eyes glowing,” Amie ho kiroier.”

Khail, knowing a little bit of the olden language of the Elder Clans, gulps. He has been threatened before, but this girl’s threat is a bit more frightening. She is not so young and small anymore, especially now that she has escaped. Being taller than him, with sharper eyes and pent-up anger, there is no telling what she will do. Her grey eyes narrow at him and she begins to move towards him. His own soldiers move in front with their weapons, ready to defend and retaliate.

She only offers a smirk and stomps on the ground, sending the earth in the ground up through the floor and hitting his soldiers, easily. She speeds up, her fists warming as flames erupt around her hands. The soldiers… have no chance. She fights with the skill that rivals even an expert fighter and uses her abilities with ease. One soldier blocks and attack and begins to fight back but she blocks every hit, using shields of air. She grabs his shoulders and knees him in the gut, then flips over him. This brings is body backwards and she then punches him hard enough that his face hist the ground and blood pools out of his mouth as he lays unconscious.

Aria jumps to the wall and flips over the other soldiers to dodge their attacks, bringing her closer to her target; to kill centurion Khail. As she reaches him, she suddenly smells an unfamiliar smell. One that sets her alert. She stops. Her eyes dart around and she begins to internally freak out. What is here? It can’t be what she thinks it is. It isn’t possible. Khail, wanting to take advantage of this, pulls out his dagger and aims it at her. “I would stay where I am, girl. You’ve done your sight-seeing and had your fun.”

She glares at him,” Really?” The other soldiers gasp, not really sure how she would know common word. But Khail knows how shrewd the girl is. She observes and has picked up a lot. If she wanted, she could kill all of them, but she won’t. Which he will use to his full advantage.

“Oh, wow. She really did a number on you guys, didn’t she?” Luc’s annoying voice snickers. He silently and swiftly slices one man in half and the guts another as he makes his way through the crowd of soldiers. Nobody even notices. Khail groans, annoyed that this man would show up after they did the hard work of finding her. Aria, stiffens feeling his overwhelming darkness.

She has never felt danger like this before. This is… dark, terrifying. It is crawling up her back and wrapping its talons around her throat to choke her. How can Khail not feel this doom, this darkness that is so cold? She turns to see the man. A tall pale man with straight inky black hair. His skin is so pale it looks translucent, ghastly even. His eyes are a red so murderous that he could literally kill someone just by glancing at them. He has a wide grin on his face. One that makes Aria uneasy.

She faces Khail again,” What have you done? You stupid salgri, you doomed us all!”

Khail raises an eyebrow, confused. What could make this girl scared of a General’s dog? He looks over at Luc. The man has always made him uneasy, but he has never seen anything out of order with him. Luc glares back at Khail,” Yes, sir Khail?”

The centurion looks at Luc, trying to understand the girl’s fear. Aria takes a step away from them. She can’t believe the ignorance and stupidity of these salgri. They are so… unbelievably gullible. She kicks her foot up, knocking the dagger out of Khail’s hand and then raises her own hands in defense against the strange man. The man has a grin on his face at her fear.

Luc can revel in the fear he brings out of the girl, it is just delightful. But he senses something else. Something a bit… familiar. He doesn’t understand why her scent is familiar to him, but he is enjoying the situation at hand. Because she is cute, and he wants to toy with her a bit.

“How has it been living here, lanai hama?” he asks, stepping next to a confused soldier, who looks a bit intimidated. The soldier takes a small step away. He wonders how he got to this floor as fast as he did, because the ground level is a good fifty floors up from here. That speed isn’t possible for a faireborne. The girl doesn’t answer, terrified by his presence. She takes a step back. Luc snickers at the girl, who glances around. She’s on edge, her grey eyes searching for any way of escape.

Aria clears her throat, realizing that the question was for her. She glares at the man. He is trying to get a rise out of her. He feeds off of fear, like their kind always do. “Qui eries?” she asks, her lip turning up into a snarl.