Eleanor slept heavily while Carrigan and Avery spent the day searching for their leads until her alarm echoed through the room shortly after noon, and she forced herself to sit up. A grumbling sigh left her as she rubbed her face before allowing her hands to fall into her lap, and she vacantly stared at them. 

    She noted every familiar crease, each earned scar, and the bandages so diligently done for her fingers that were injured by her fall, but nothing echoed inside her. She was sat deeply in the dullness of her being where emotions failed to disrupt her sleep, fuel her nightmares, and-

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

    Another alarmed blared, and she blinked before finding Avery’s watch on the nightstand.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

    It continued its soliloquy before she forced herself to move through her motions, finding it resting upon a note.

Hey El!

Don’t forget to bring yourself back to feeling!

~Love Avery.

    Eleanor sat staring at the note before she shook her head clear, and she took a deep breath, shifting the tempering of her powers. 

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Her emotions found her, along with the irritation that the alarm brought, but an amused huff left her.

    “Thanks Ave,” she couldn’t help the soft smile as she picked up the watch, and she turned off the alarm.

    Eleanor placed it on her wrist as her mind drifted through the countless times that Avery had her back. Carefully, she folded the note, and she safely tucked it away in her pocket before she paused. For a moment she chewed her lip before pulling another folded piece of paper out. Its crease was well worn from all the other times she had read it, and her eyes lingered on the red-stained kiss that was left upon it.

Can’t stick around!

It was great meeting you last night though.

hmu if you wanna hook up again

T

    A heavy sigh left Eleanor’s lips as she folded it back up, and she returned it to her pocket.

    “Are you…?” Eleanor dared to question Tianna’s support before she shook her head clear.

    The infiltrator pulled her shoes on before adjusting her coat, and she headed out the door, making her way to the bar. She was sure to order herself some food before claiming her very own booth.

    A yawn escaped her as she retrieved the report that Lumi had prepared for her, and she made herself comfortable. Eleanor slowly began reading through the paper that held familiar codes and doodles while she silently deciphered them in her mind. 

    Intruding eyes and minds could come from anywhere, but luckily for Eleanor there would be few that would care for what she was involved with in this part of town. The experiments conducted by Killrize had gained them plenty of notoriety, not only with the local dramelun, but with the impoverished aetherums as well in the way they were paid nothing to take part in their research.

Eleanor’s disdain and disgust for the lab in question grew since the first day she began working with Hale and his people. There were other insurgencies she had worked with as a freelancer when she thought she knew better than Jamie, but each time he was right; she was expendable to them or their intentions were not as swayable as she had hoped. Having the same enemy did not always put them on the same side.

It was only with Hale’s group that she found herself able to listen to them for truth rather than their thoughts. Each member had their flaws and each one brought their own flavor of chaos, but all of them cared in their own ways about the same things. They never argued if there was more value in saving or defending a dramelun or humur, they’d simply argued the best method to save them both.

Eleanor shook her head from the memories as she focused on her studies, pulling out her notepad. She made intermittent marks, finding several self-care reminders from Carter and Lumi in the report as she made her way through it. 

Eventually the day melted away with Avery returning for dinner with more concern than intel for Eleanor until he coaxed her irritation into a wrestling match. It was late by the time Carrigan rejoined them, but she did so with a full report. In the days to come Avery would start returning later and with more intel as he found confidence in Eleanor, and she would dig deeper into their found leads.

Every day Eleanor broke into a new home or apartment, pulling documents, copying files, all in the hope of catching any trail of The Innocent that would allow them to safeguard the destruction of Killrise labs. She swayed minds, invaded personal thoughts, and altered memories with a stoicism settling within her similar to Carrigan’s as she settled herself in the city of unending minds.

The days turned into weeks with several dead drops to send the information back to Lumi, but their mission was turning up far less than they had hoped, and Eleanor returned to the tavern with only frustration.

    The night was more than late with Avery already passed out in their rooms along with Carrigan, and Eleanor settled herself at the bar. A drink that nearly matched her sunset locks sat before her as she stared into its shimmering liquid, and a soft sigh left her. Slowly, she began sipping her drink, allowing the night to melt into its warm embrace, at least until a voice disrupted her.

    “Rough night?”