~

“No! No! Don’t leave!” Evritt’s voice cries out. Aria is stuck looking at the boy, a bit more than annoyed at this point. It was only supposed to be a slightly teary goodbye in the morning. They had grown a bit closer than what she expected. Even Elias had let her in, slightly. At least, he now makes her laugh a bit.

But why is it that Evritt is now glued to her leg, preventing her from leaving? That isn’t what is supposed to happen! “Ev, please let go. This is unbecoming of a ten-year-old. I said I was leaving in the morning,” Aria tries to reason. That effort was in vain because he was not hearing any of it.

Elias groans,” Evritt, you have got to let her go.” He moves to grab ahold of his legs and begins to pull in the opposite direction. Very quickly, this turns into a tug-of-war.

“I changed my mind, Aria. You can’t leave! Let’s just travel together.” Evritt begs. Maybe he has an attachment issue, but that isn’t really the problem here. He doesn’t want her to leave. Something keeps nagging him. Telling him that Aria needs to stay with them. So he is gonna fight.

Aria sighs,” Likai. Please let go, Evritt. This is childish.”

Evritt huffs only tightening his hold,” I am a child, so this is right in line with my behavior!”

Elias groans. This is not how he wanted this to go. Sure, he’s a bit sad that Aria is leaving, but he isn’t going physically stop her from walking out of their lives, possibly forever. It quickly becomes a tug of war between the three.

“Let me go!”

“No! You can’t make me!”

“Evritt, stop being so difficult!”

They keep pulling and tugging on each other, until suddenly they hear a loud thud on the door. Everybody freezes, trepidation filling the room.

Elias glances at Evritt, then at Aria. It can only be one thing… Civics. Oh, gods.

“It’s Civics. It’s inspection day!” he whispers, fear showing on his face. Oh, gods… they are done for. Evritt is ajin, he has hacked the Citadel’s system at least ten times in the past week and Aria? She is the freaking fugitive!

You’re going to have to answer, Elias. Aria’s voice sighs in his head. He looks at her. Of course, she’s correct. That doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t want to, though!

He scoffs, Do I have to? If we be quiet, they’ll go away. The slight pinch he feels answers his question as he winces.

If either of them answers the door, they’re basically throwing away their lives. He sighs. Leave it to the powerless fairborne to stand up to the authorities. He releases his hold on Evritt and clear his throat. With his eyes, he directs both of them to go towards the bedrooms.

Evritt nods, Aria, you can go through the window in my room. It faces the back of the house. Aria pierces her lips and follows him while Elias braves himself to be questioned.

He strolls towards the door, seemingly unfazed, but internally, he’s sweating bullets! As he opens the door, his fear increases. Automatically he can tell that this is going to be different than other inspections. Call it gut feeling, or instinct. Plus, the fact that they have collars on. Only ajin are forced to wear collars. Oh, no. This is not good.

“Uh, goo-good morning, civics,” Elias greets, a wide grin on his face. The three civics stand in front of him, towering over his stature like a menacing wall. He takes a deep breath. This is not going to go well at all.

Two men and a woman. One man has deep brown skin with a low cut. His dark brown eyes have flecks of gold in them, and he looks more lean while the other man is wide and burly. His long coils are pulled into a ponytail, hanging against his upper back. His skin is a warm sepia color, that seems to bugle with muscle. The woman has light brown skin with light brown eyes that twinkle dangerously. Her long nose adds to her height and makes her look a bit haughty.

The woman narrows them at Elias, who barely reaches her nose. Elias gulps at the sheer intimidation they are exuding but keeps his composure. Externally, at least.

She rests her hands behind her back and clears her throat,” Good morning. This is the Prium residence, yes?” at Elias’s nod, she offers a robotic smile,” Well, I ask that all habitants of the home be present. I count an extra presence in the house.”

Elias struggles to not look shocked, or worried. Of course, these people are ajin! This is just their luck. He glances back at Evritt, who had frozen in his journey to hide at the order. He looks at Elias with fear. What do we do? He asks.

We gotta follow it. We need to buy time for Aria to escape, Elias explains.

Evritt walks towards them, readying his mind. He clears his throat and tries to make himself seem as unassuming as possible. Which isn’t that hard since he’s adorable! Slowly, he peaks out from behind Elias. “Hello,” he smiles. The woman raises an eyebrow. She then looks back at the man with a low cut. His dark umber skin glows in the morning sun, but his eyes look as if they’re on fire, which does not bode well for either of them.

“I am Ilo, Level 1 ajin Civic of the New Order. We are taking over the inspections due to complications and updates on the investigation. As we have been informed, your parental figures are on a lab assignment in Logi, but you have not been assigned a temporary guardian. This is dangerous, especially since we have a dangerous fugitive at large.” The man explains. He crosses his arms, his muscles bulging. Which makes Elias feel even smaller than normal. These people could rip his head off if he crossed them the wrong way.

He nods,” Of course. That is understandable. I must ask what is the age to be a temporary guardian? I am 18 of course.” The three Civics all look at him and snort. Of course, it could be viewed as a very dumb question to ask, given that this is common knowledge.

The woman sighs,” It is common knowledge that the age is 21. However, we have more pressing matters at hand. Such as the fugitive.” She crosses her arms, her eyes narrowing at them.

Elias and Evritt glance at each other, a bit nervous. Do they know? They couldn’t know!

Uh, does this seem a bit too much like an ambush? Elias asks.

Yeah… I’m a bit on edge. I hope Aria made it out ok. Evritt sighs in their link.

The woman then smiles,” I am Nali, Level 1 ajin Civic under Ilo’s division. Can I let you know what my abilities are?” Both of the boys look a bit surprised at the offer. She continues,” I am able to detect and see the natures of different people. Able to identify species and other things of the like. Which means I can also detect ajin as well.” At this both of them tense.

“I would like to know how you got away with hiding an ajin for so long,” she asks Elias.

He blinks in shock before quickly schooling his face,” What are you talking about, Ms. Nali? Ajin? No, not here. As you can see, the only law we have violated is the one requiring us to have a guardian assigned for the time being. Maybe your ability’s broken?”

The large man that has been standing behind the two growls, crossing his arms,” I’d watch how I speak, shrimp.” His brown eyes catch a whiff of the gold as he glares at Elias.

Elias gulps,” Uh, don’t worry, sir. I am just explaining how she’s wrong, and it is very upsetting that she is accusing us of something we didn’t do.”

Nali smirks,” You are in no position to try and hide. We know that there have been instances of intrusion on our system at the Citadel. The signal always originates from this location.” That revelation makes Elias tense. How did they figure out his screen’s signal? That should be near impossible for these fools. They have no knowledge of this.

Evritt gulps, his eyes darting to Elias. Who looks shook. Because if they know that he is the one behind the hacking, then what else do they know?

“Wow, you actually advanced enough to know where the location of a computer signal comes from. How very… elementary of you,” Elias scoffs. He might as well buy time. Even at the expense of his face, because the wide man with a head of kinky curls pulled back into a pony tail looks as if he is going to commit murder. He chuckles,” Fine. You caught me. I was the one who hacked into the Citadel’s mainframe. It wasn’t difficult, so can you blame me?” he shrugs, cheekily.

The man growls, his eyes glowing gold,” Why you little…”

Ilo sticks his hand out in front of the man, stopping him,” Michaela, calm down.” This man probably just saved Elias from certain death and destruction.

Elias smirks,” Yeah, calm down. You wouldn’t understand since you seem more brawn than brain, Sir Michaela.” Inwardly, he keeps scolding himself. Why on Allanus would he continue to taunt the man?! He is literally taller, wider, and stronger than him. Plus, Elias has no actual combat skill. His fight or flight response has only one option: flight. Before, he could say anything else, the woman Nali steps in.

“What would you have us do, sir?” she asks.

Ilo glances at the two, his eyes narrowing at Elias. When they flit over to Evritt, he sighs,” Take them in. I have an inkling which one is the ajin. Plus, if the other one is smart enough to hack into the Citadel, he probably has more information about the prisoner than he’s letting on.” Both of the boys blink, before realizing what was going to happen. Oh, no.

~

Aria could only watch, warily as Elias and Evritt get carted off into a large machine. She has to get them out of there. If they get anywhere near the Citadel, it would be hopeless for all of them.

Evritt? she calls out to him through their bond link.

Yes. His voice answers. She sighs in relief. The woman seemed to be able to read minds, from what she heard but that isn’t the case.

She gulps, contemplating her actions. She can’t just leave them, but this is going to be a risky gamble. She is going to have to fight to get them out. I’m going to distract them and you two get away while you can please.

She could feel the confusion from both Evritt and Elias as she pulls her hood low over her head. Her grey eyes glow as she takes a deep breath.

It’s now or never. She stands up on the roof, making sure to mask her presence, then quietly moves closer. She only counted three of the civics, but all three seem to be ajin. Aria sighs. This shouldn’t be too difficult. Right?

~

Nali pauses. Her eyes dart around, almost nervously. What is this presence? she could feel Ilo glance back at her in worry, but she ignores him, focusing on the presence and the sheer power it has.

“We aren’t alone,” she says, pulling out her weapon. Her admission makes Michaela and Ilo go on alert as well. Elias and Evritt look around, knowing that they’re looking for Aria. They both tense as Michaela glares at them. Nali turns to Ilo,” We should be ready for any attack.”

He snaps,” Do not leave this truck!” Both Elias and Evritt nod, not wanting to upset the man any further.  Michaela steps away from the van. His brown eyes dart around, looking for any sign of an ambush.

Nali suddenly gasps,” Michaela! Move!” the man looks up, startled to see a figure right in front of him, with a fist engulfed in fire raised. He barely manages to dodge the fist, only to get tripped by the sweeping feet.

He growls, looking up at the figure. The grey eyes glare down at him, her gaze burning. His own eyes spark gold as he readies himself. No way is he going to let some child best him. “Who are you?” he snaps, standing to his feet. Both Nali and Ilo aim their own weapons at the girl.

Ilo steps around,” I order you to explain why you put your hands on an officer? That is a crime against the Order.” Aria scoffs.

“Ok…? What care do I have for this order?” she sighs, her fists clenched. These three don’t seem like they will be too challenging for her. She smirks,” You know, pointing your weapons at me is futile.” Aria then focuses on the strongest one, the wide man with angry gold eyes. “Maybe you can entertain me for a bit.”

At that, Michaela growls, his blood pumping. This… this child waltz in and just completely dismisses them like they’re not worth anything. Oh, how he wants to prove her wrong. He cackles,” You know what? Nali, I think we have found our escaped prisoner! Let me handle it.”

Ilo glances at his squad member,” I do not think that is wise, Michaela. You tend to get tunnel vision in a fight and she needs to be detained, not challenged.”

Nali nods in agreement,” Plus, she isn’t as weak as you may think. Remember, everyone but the General’s dog died in her escape.” Michaela scoffs, cracking his neck.

“It’ll be fine.” He straightens up, standing to his full height. As he rises, Aria’s eyes widen. He’s… taller than she expected. She gulps. She knows she’s pretty tall, but this man is massive.

She gets into her stance, her grey eyes flickering,” Bring it then, salgri.”