“Eclipse?” she whispered. “Correct,” he replied. Skyler sat on her creaking bed, clenching her crop top. “Now you have a difficult choice before you,” eclipse said while his voice grew louder in her ear. “You can follow the bandit and go against Justin,” he began to giggle mischievously, “or tell him what you heard.” 


“But I know what you’re going to pick…” his voice reverberated in her head like an ear worm. After was just silence, just Skyler with the creaky bed under her, while the wind blew onto the curtains. 



She lifted her hand above her, reaching for the ceiling, she saw shadows there tempting her to use them. “No I can't,  I won't!” Skyler declared in her mind before turning her head away. She closed her eyes and began to breathe slowly and softly.


***
At the bandit camp, the masked bunny went to a cloaked figure and knelt before them. “Sire, how many more cores do we need?” The cloaked figure hummed. “Oh, you thought I wanted the cores? Times change.” He walked to the cage where many people were held. “We have the right people and the right stage for our next scene,” he finished. 


“What do you mean by stage?” The bunny asked. “The moonlight Sinatra type.” The cloaked figure held a compass with a crescent moon pointer. “Finally, I can meet the face of the next user,” he thought while he walked to a different room and pulled down his hood. 


He looked down at the compass and saw his reflection. It  showed him his charcoal blonde hair along with his green mad eyes. “You will be mine and I shall bring forth the ashes for a new dawn, mark my words. I, Lucas, will see the new eclipse!” 
He closed the compass and set it down on a table, which was covered with old maps. He sat on a chair, putting his hands under his chin, his arms supporting him on the table. “The location where  the last document is housed” he muttered and looked at the maps. “But where?” 


He felt  annoyed and ashamed for being unable to find the blade for his master. “Damn it!” He gripped his hair, pulling on it, frustrated. “I followed a lead from the dark market.” 


He let go of his hair and grabbed the sheets of maps. “They told me that there was actual documentation of the eclipse blade…” 


A knock on the metal door and Lucas looked up. “Come in!” He yelled, annoyed that he was interrupted. He saw the bunny mask bandit again. “What is it?” He asked calmly. “There’s something going on with the hotel.” The bandit came closer and put a laptop on the desk. “Our surveillance cameras went offline.” He began to switch through the many different channels of cameras but the only image was static. 


“It’s like someone else is watching the same hotel?” He said and closed the laptop. “Then fix it,” Lucas raised his voice a little.”I  told you before, don’t interrupt me!” He yelled and slammed his hands against the desk. “I’m only here, due to a common objective” he moved some sheets to reveal a building plan of the Aqua lawyer firm. “That is the robbery that you’re planning to do.”


 He sighed “so, do whatever you need to kill, kidnap I’m not part of your gang, alright.” he finishes. The bunny masked person looked at Lucas’s eyes “we have a deal remember you provide us with equipment and we let you interview our captives so you are apart of this like the muffler” he retorted


He slammed a collar with holes around the collar and a button on the right of it with a tiny needle in the inner lining of it. “We especially stole these for you.” He grabbed the back of a chair, gripping it. Annoyed  by Lucas’s attitude “to hack it and make it work without the thumbprint of a protector” he said while gripping the chair tighter and the straw started to break. “So don’t give me that bullshit that you're not a part of this” the masked bunny finished.


***
The next morning Skyler got out of her bed,stretched and went to the bathroom to wash herself from the sweat that she accumulated from last night. “God it’s hot,” she sighed while splashing cool water onto her face “why is it hot in the aqua sector?” 


When she got out of the bathroom, she changed into her clothes which included a black crop top, grey shorts and some white sneakers. “I don’t dislike this colour scheme but oh well,” she thought.  and went towards the door when she reached for the handle. She heard a rapid knock. “Skyler, l hope you’re bloody up, it's nearly 12:00” a familiar voice said with a hint of displeasure.  


“Oh primordial sake, I’m at the door.” Skyler said while opening it and stared at Justin annoyed “what’s the matter?” She asked, crossing her arms “well,there’s something going with the receptionist. He's injured” he said while breathing heavily like he was running.


“What?!” Skyler said pretending not to know “do you know what happened?” She said and Justin shook his head “No I don’t, he doesn’t want to tell me what happened” he said and started to walk with Skyler trailing behind “he just kept saying that he tripped and fell” he sighed when he said that annoyed that he’s not getting straight answers.


“I know that he’s lying because he’s covered in bandages” he finished while pulling his hands into his trouser pockets. “It might be those bandits that the request mentioned, right?” Skyler said, trembling with excitement and concern. She felt bad for not saying what she saw.




“Possibly” he muttered and stared at the doorway of the entrance of the hotel. “Why are you looking at me with that look?” Justin asked curiously at Skyler’s expression “oh no, it’s nothing.” She turned to face him  “I was just thinking about the different ways he could be injured” she said and then nodded with agreement “okay” he replied to her


“While we are here Justin to keep up our facade we need to do stuff instead of staying here right?” She asked, pointing to the door where Justin was just staring at. “True” he said back, yawning and rubbing his eyes “like what?” He said and Skyler grabbed a letter out of her pocket and unscrunched it. 


“This I need to do because the government will get it” she said and Justin just nodded and walked to the door and opened it “okay then time to go to the firm” he said. She breathed in shakily and went out of the door to her bike. 


***
When they arrived to the lawyer firm it was completely made with liquid and the walls of it  refraction and made beautiful artworks on the floors of the pathway to the entrance to it


Skyler was mind blown while Justin just went through the watery veil of the door of It, Skyler followed behind him. The hall was filled with many gold pillars and a desk. 


Which had a person with greyish white hair with black eyes. Who smiled at them calmly “good morning how can we help you today?” She said while writing on paper with a feather dipping with ink. 


“I’m here to see Hannah Nightingale? For my inheritance.” Skyler said softly and then the woman smiled “of course let me fetch her for you, just wait over there” she explained and both Justin and Skyler nodded and went to the lobby where many people sat. 


“Are you happy to see your girlfriend again Justin?” Skyler cheekily said and Justin rolled his eyes and glared at her “shut it” he said. “Aw come on” Skyler said with puppy eyes “it was just a little joke” she said with a chuckle. 


A few moments passed by and footsteps echoed through the lobby and  a woman with violet hair,  purple eyes, came closer to them “hello again miss amberlight” she  gave her a death glare “why are you with him” she said calmly while crossing her arms. 


Justin sweated and quickly said “I’m training her” Hannah looked straight at him growling at him “you aren’t allowed to talk mister” she said, Skyler blushed at the dominant tone that Hannah gave to Justin “god that’s so” she thought before slapping her cheek. She winced quietly. Hannah coughed and gestured Skyler to follow 


She obliged and followed Hannah down the hallway, up the winding stairs. And down another hallway. “So Hannah I hear you are getting married to Justin” Skyler said, Hannah looked behind her “yes I am how did?” She said,  “Justin” Skyler replied quickly back. 


Hannah raised her eyebrows “normally Justin is quite a private person” she said. And they got to a door. “So it’s unnatural for him to say anything about his life” she followed up.


Hannah flipped through keys that were on her skirt. “How long have you known him and when did he ask you for your hand?” Skyler asked. “Well, one day when I was in the city there was a fragment attack” Hannah began to smile while she reminisced 


“And I saw him, with his brave face and those pretty ruby eyes of his,” she inserted the key into the key hole. “He was trying his best to stop fragments from turning more people into statutes” she said and Skyler nodded 


“I see” Skyler responded uncertain how she felt “oh don’t get me wrong I wasn’t in danger I saw it from the fragments” Hannah replied “how did you?” Skyler said while her eyes widened “I get that a lot,” she turned the key and a click was heard “that uncomfortable look, like I’m a crazy person” Hannah said while having sad eyes.  


“Wow” Skyler thought, while the door opened, and she saw a room with many drawers with key holes. “Let me get the code to your drawer.”  Hannah said and she walked off to a partition of the room.  When she came back she had a piece of ripped paper with some numbers written on it. “Here you go,” she said while giving it to Skyler. 


“Thanks” Skyler said while taking it, “but where’s the place to enter it?” she continued and looked at Hannah confused, “ah sorry” Hannah said.  Hanah placed her hand on the ground and bubbles rose and began to create a stand then, buttons with numbers carved into it glowed. 


“Why aren’t your eyes glowing?” Skyler  asked while looking at Hannah’s eyes closely. Hannah stood back frightened by Skyler’s sudden reaction. She coughed and pointed to the pipes “Sometimes places, buildings I mean, use their own imaginary core to use magic” she said. 


Skyler nodded “cool” she said “just let you know these imaginary cores are different from ours in our body” Hannah said quickly “I know we use pure ether and it uses the crystals that come out from dead fragments right?” Skyler questioned 


Hannah nodded “yes” “is that how these buildings in this sector work” Skyler asked and Hannah just nodded again. Skyler walked to the padlock and started to type in the code from the paper. 


***
Meanwhile while Skyler and Hannah was away Justin just sat on a watery couch with his watch projecting a fencing Match “let’s goo” he thought as he sees his favourite athlete going toe to toe with their opponent 


The athletes were extraordinary with their positions of their blades, trying to get the other to fall. Justin was devastated when his favourite athlete got defeated “damm it” he yelled 


With his frustration he turned off his watch,  And cupped his head in his hand. “Why did he lose!” He thought and then he heard a commotion “not now” he complained and looked up to see many people wearing different types of animal masks holding spears, swords, bows. 


“Of course why couldn’t my day get even worse” he muttered, annoyed by this ruckus of the robbers. He stood up and slowly walked to the wall and looked into the lobby. 


“You’ll better stop because I’m not in the mood for a fight” he grabbed his badge from his waist and showed it off “please  put down your weapons and surrender.” He exhaustedly said, the group looked and smirked “a protector eh,” the main person spoke up with their bunny mask. 


“Can you take us all on without us killing these people here” he said while pointing his spear at the crowd with their bunny mask eyes glowing dark blue. Justin noticed it “of course” he grumbled, he sneakily looked at his waist counting how many cartridges he had left “I only have, strength and intelligence left” he thought worriedly since he used his speed cartridge to calm Skyler in the hospital and hadn’t restocked. 


“So protector, what are you going to do, fight and let innocents be killed or wear this muffler I have here” the bunny masked man showed off a collar with holes and a needle in the inner lining. “How can you use it? only fingerprints of protectors can make it work!” Justin asked “I had a little help from a guy” he replied.


Justin looked around the lobby looking for some exits for the civilians to get out of this mess. But the other gang members are blocking all the exits.


“Well protector, what are you going to do?” He asked again, while wiggling the collar in front of him and also his spear at the group of people. “Damm it” Justin thought,clenching his fist and lowering his head. “Put it on” Justin whispered, the bunny mask put his hand to his ear “what was that” he yelled  “put it on me!” Justin retorted, looking at him with anger. 


“You’re a coward I see” the bunny mask said smiling thinking that Justin was a joke. Justin’s eyes flicker dark green from his usual crimson eyes. He looked to his right and smirked “oh I’m no such thing” he whispered to himself then as he was about to move a large amount of smoke poured into the lobby with very heavy winds.


Two single purple eyes pierced through the veil. “Skyler?”