Chapter Text
The Hunters Association has just welcomed it's new batch of recruits with only a handful who have been picked to join the UNICORNS sector, and as the newbies begin to rejoice in their newly assigned positions and get used to them, a new face emerged from the door.
Unlike the others who wore their assigned uniforms as is, the new face, solem in gaze, with dull metal eyes, only wore a lanyard around her neck with her ID attached as well as her bag. Her hair, ashy brown, curled outwards when they passed her shoulders. Yet it looked neet. And she wore a mask.
"Good Morning!" Tara cheerfully greeted her from the group of newbies in the middle of the place. "Are you looking for someone?"
The woman clutched her bag a bit tighter before nodding. "Have you seen where Captain Jenna went?"
"She's in her office right now," Tara replied.
Curtly, the woman thanked her before walking directly to her office.
Leaning over to the shorter fiery red haired woman, Tara whispered, "D'you think she's new here, Millie? She wasn't at the Ceremony like the rest of us."
Millie raised her brow at the idea. "Maybe she transferred from a different sector, she had a Hunter ID on her after all."
Nero, readjusted his glasses with his own thoughts. "According to some forums, the Hunters Association often moves around their old personel when a new batch of recruits from the Academy joins. She likely must be one of them."
"Really? This is the first time I've heard of it!"
A new person enters the large space, he's in a white version of the uniform and yawned as quietly at possible. "What's going on?"
"Not sure," Millie shrugged at the taller man. "A new person walked in. We think it's a transferee."
"This early?"
She shrugged again as a few more people from the other parts of UNICORNS filed in to their desks.
The door to Captain Jenna's office opened and the familiar attention grabbing clap reverberated through the UNICORNS workplace.
"Morning, UNICORNS. I'd like to make an announcement," she began, her voice silencing any chatter that occured before as she stands at the centre of their workplace. Beside her is that same woman. Maskless now.
Jenna gestured towards her. "Please welcome back a key member of ours, Suivielle."
She lightly bows before them. "Please just call me Elle," she introduced herself before smiling softly.
"She's also a member of the Alpha Team but she's experienced in paperwork. If you're struggling with any reports, she'll gladly help you," Jenna added on. Some murmurs emerge due to the sudden situation but her calm demeanour instantly faded as she glanced around.
Stepping forward, Tara quickly introduced herself, along with Millie as well as Nero. Elle tried her best to respond respectfully to them with but once Xavier extended his hand out to her, she nodded politely before going to her desk.
Visible confusion was etched onto his face, resounding another set of murmurs across the space, as he dropped his hand to his side.
'Isn't that the same face as her?' He thought before looking towards the new recruit he had resonated with yesterday in the warehouse going to her own desk. 'But she isn't her...'
Andrew sent you a message!
Andrew: You two know each other?
You: No. First time I've met him.
You: When did he join?
Andrew: A while back. Before you.
You: I see...
Andrew: I'm surprised you've never met each other.
You: Me too.
Xavier sent you a message!
Xavier: Can we talk?
No. You can't you piece of sh|
No. You can't|
No. I don't know you|
Did you just notic|
I h|
|
'I fucking hate this.'
Notes:
Pronounciation guide for the main heroine of this fic!
Suivielle is taken from the french words suivre (to follow) and elle (she).
It's basically pronounced Swivy-L. Which is funny if you think about it.
She's usually referred to as Elle by others though.
I can't wait to write this.
Chapter 2: EP 1 - Your existence
Chapter Text
Like many people from Linkon, the Chronorift Catastrophe from 2034 left a lasting scar. Suivielle was no exception. She could remember the excruciating pain as she struggled to breathe, her legs had given up running away from the monsters and destruction as her mind ran elsewhere. Her body was left there like the others who had tried to help her. She was sure there were other beating hearts crushed underneath the rubble at her feet but a strong pulse continued to amplify the pain, the tightness she felt as her heart tried its best to produce oxygen.
The last thing she could remember from that time was being quickly picked up by a man in white before she only saw nothing. Initially, she thought it must've been the grim reaper.
After all, why did he suddenly appear in her mind afterwards? Consoling her as she lost all of her energy, her life, her soul maybe. She could feel how quickly her life faded with each scene that popped up into her head that had him in it and for the last time she closed her eyes as his tears comforted her, she woke up in a hospital bed.
The doctors said it was a miracle that I survived, she wrote down in the new notebook her mother had given her. Slowly writing crooked letters with her left hand. Even if the side effect was short-term amnesia, I wonder who that guy was? He looked kind of cool.
What was his name?
Each night, something new yet mundane would be etched into her mind regarding him or what she was doing as complications kept arising for her.
"Miss Marin, I'm afraid it is necessary to keep your daughter on medication until she can control her Evol," the doctor explained to her mother. "The World Evol Government has deemed her power level to be dangerously high," flipping to the relevant report page.
We had the same master at some swordfighting school...
Her mother was in disbelief. "Didn't you say her Evol would stabilise once she fully recovered?"
"Unfortunately, her stable Evol level... is extremely high. Without medication and proper control over her stress levels, she could be deemed a high class threat according to the authorities."
We went out to have milk tea, and he kept being smug about his skills! I really hate that part about him!
"I thought Inhibitor Class Evols were considered the most harmless, Doctor?"
"While that is true, Suivielle's Evol is particularly rare. And due to her power level, it makes it extremely dangerous if left unchecked. I would recommend to homeschool her but if that's not possible, reduce as many stressful factors out of her life."
Rehabilitation took a lot of time and money from her mother. While the government tried to recompensate with aid programs, the high price of her hospitalisation was burdensome.
I wonder if that guy who saved me was him, she wrote down in her nth notebook as she waited for her mother to pick her up infront of the school gate. The sun dawned down upon her and only the school guard questioned her presence.
"Aren't you going home yet? All the teachers have left already." She shook her head. "Where's your mother, kid?"
"She's working! She told me she'd arrive around 7!" This response shocked the guard with lots of might as his face lost its vigour immediately. "What's so bad about that, mister?"
"What's wrong?" Watching as he immediately ran from her back inside the gate. When she turned around she could feel that same sensation take over her from ages ago as the creature, with a glowing core, howled an ear screeching sound.
She felt sick again as she clutched onto her notebook and continued to think about him. How he seamlessly destroyed these monsters without breaking a sweat, if she could also get rid of them... would that make him proud? Would that make him appear again before her?
A crunch was heard before nothing was left anymore and the familiar white sedan her mother drove came into view and she went back home.
A year has passed since the initial catastrophe. Things have changed. Where they found her has now been renamed as the N109 Zone, the concept of a Hunter (people who destroy Wanderers) seemed to have happened after the unknown hero, now infamous as Lumiere, first appeared on that day. Inspiring hope into a new and hopeful future for citizens of Linkon.
But for little Elle, barely turning 12 this summer holiday, most of it went over her head because she already knew a bit more about it.
Maybe it was because she believed in these memories from the future and the past. Even if they were filled with loneliness and regret, the trust she had in that person, that immortal, always made her content with the lives she had led. And writing these memories down and organising them by each second and moment she remembered... it felt soothing. It was as if she was preserving something that should have been long forgotten to time and deepspace itself. But she liked it. The fact she knew something most people didn't.
"At this rate, she doesn't need a strict regimen anymore," the Doctor commented on her report. "She doesn't need to do monthly checkups, quarterly checkups will do just fine."
This was a relief to her mother, worn down from her tiring work-shifts. After all, it was just the two of them left. The mysteries of deepspace had taken Marin's husband before she was even born apparently. She wasn't sure how he looked like anyway and felt nothing outside of the pain it seemed to cause her mother every spring.
"Thank you, Doctor," she gave a reassuring squeeze to the young teen beside her. Once they took a step outside, she saw another pair, a woman with grey hair holding onto a young girl waiting in the hallway. She gave a wave when the girl noticed her and received a bright smile in return before they left the hospital.
"Is there anything you want before dinner, my little Su?" Marin asked her. The girl pondered for a moment and looked around before her eyes landed on a rundown but lively little shop lot at the corner.
"Mommy likes popsicles, right?"
"Ofcourse."
"Then let's have some before dinner!"
The summer heat of the afternoon makes the satisfaction of a cold treat like this, which hasn't melted and run down their fingers yet, much better. Suivielle understood that her mother needed a slight escape and could only hope this alleviated her heavy mood even a bit. She wasn't sure what was running through her mind, it often seemed like everything did making it even more difficult for her to figure out what was wrong.
As long as she does her best at school, grow up into a nice cozy job, and doesn't cause trouble, maybe her mother would be a little happier. That's the only course of action she could come up with now.
Ofcourse, she still wanted to meet that guy.
That guy called Xavier.
But she didn't want to worry her.
After all, she just turned 12.
And as far as she remembered, Xavier was immortal.
He could wait for her.
Notes:
Yes, I know how much of a tonal whiplash the end of this chapter was in comparison to the Prologue.
No, I don't condone grooming if it's not the grooming you do for your pets with the trims and shaves and maintainence.
I'm just bringing your attention to the absurdity and insanity of the situation. She gets these memories when she's 11, that's the age you get easily influenced and the writing shows just how INFLUENCED she is BY her memories with him.
Spoilers not spoilers: They don't meet in person until she's 25.
This fic will enter uncanny territory regarding emotional and physical maturity stuff at some point but I'm still writing this stuff down.
Hope you enjoy my take and spin on the Xavier (and canon) lore. Oh and my take on multiple MCs.
Chapter 3: EP 2 - Overwhelming world
Chapter Text
New message from Mom
Mom: su wru
You: lib wbu
Mom: work 29 sry
You: ok
You: b saef
After sending that typo message, Suivielle shoved the worn out plastic pebble into her pocket as she entered the public library, a rustic building that she considered big even if it was overshadowed by smooth panned glass highrises. It was one of the few buildings to survive after all. School bag still slung onto her shoulder, another year had passed and this was one of the only places where she could access a computer without paying.
News these days was always on the websites which she found annoying in of itself. She didn't like being clueless when her classmates and even the teachers were talking about it in passing.
Protocore this, revolutionising that, Cloud this, book that... and the list went on. They limited how much time she had in the Computer Lab and always locked it up after school to encourage 'touching grass' activities as they called it, even though there was barely any grass on school grounds. And money was tight.
After the Chronorift Catastrophe, many integral things like newspapers were implemented and published through websites and applications. She'd later learn, with a bit of digging, that the most cost effective way for many businesses to continue at the time was... by investing into cloud-based services instead of physical media and production due to the severely damaged state of Linkon's infrastructure at the time.
Now that it's a technological hub... with so many optical fibres running underneath the Central Business District, these holographic screens have practically been integrated into daily life.
It has improved the amount of litter on the streets that occurs from advertisements wearing down due the unpredictable weather these days, and minor things that add up to waste management issues.
But energy doesn't just magically come out of nowhere. It gets transferred and used by... from a source.
Protocores.
Hailed as the newest renewable energy source. She wanted to scoff. It was still being actively studied at this point. Even if it became more refined over time... it was still finite. She knew it was.
That's how Philos dies.
And the reason the Backtrackers exist in the first place. Exist now.
Her memories, as they were now, tasted like dark chocolate. Fleetingly sweet yet a bitter aftertaste lingered. Moments were always out of context if she didn't record them and reintegrate them into the larger picture. Information on the world was important, as she swiped through another article regarding the so-called Thesis for new Prototists according to some online forums. It allowed her to understand the terminology Evangeline, the person she was, used before she typed up a word she didn't understand until her phone blared an annoyingly loud and obnoxious tune that caused the two heads in her vicinity to whip their heads at her in distaste. She hastily fished it out and picked up the call as she proceeded to clean up the mess she had made on the desk. Shoving all the papers back into her bag.
"Are you done, Su?" Her mother asked. She hummed her response, quickly shuffling through the rows of shelves towards the exit. "I'm waiting outside."
"Sorry, I was doing some assignments," she huffed, pushing past the door and closing the phone to see her mother, still in her fashionable beige and black uniform with a tinge of worry on her face as she put away her phone into her bag. Name tag was still on, Suivielle could only sigh as she broke a lighthearted smile.
"You didn't have to wait for me."
The two of them walked on the sidewalk back towards their apartment building, the city was still bustling even if they were the only ones occupying the street. Lights still illuminated all around them with advertisements.
"I like walking with you," Marin responded. "Even though I used to be tech savvy in my youth, always following the latest trends, I sort of... don't like where it's headed right now. All I do these days is stare at a screen and do what it asks of me. I give customers screens and let it ask for me." There was a glassy look to her eyes as she took a moment to breathe. "And then... when I see my little Su... I feel like those screens don't matter anymore."
She chuckled at her mother's words. "Who do you think I learnt from this behaviour? My classmates call me an Oldie because of you," she lightly jabbed at her, earning another short round of laughter.
"'You don't own a tablet, Elle?'" She mimicked a dramatic gasp, "'How is that even possible? How do you pass your time if you don't read comics, watch vids, or play something? You're crazy!'"
"I'm sorry about that, by the way," Marin held onto her arm and looked as a few cars passed by before she exhaled a breath. "Tech keeps changing too fast these days, and PCs are still the better option... but it's not something I can afford right now."
Her gaze softened at her mother. "It's okay. As long as the library exists, I can do everything I need there."
A loud growl escaped her mother's stomach.
"Now, what sort of dinner do you want? It's been a long day for you."
By the time they took off their shoes, Suivielle made a beeline for her room and then the bathroom within a mere moment compared to her mother who just sunk down onto the couch before picking up the book on the coffee table, provided by the owner when she moved in to the partially furnished apartment.
The First Question while not as popular as the writer's debut novel, resonated with her heart a bit more. It felt gratifying to be understood, she didn't understand how though.
The faint drumming of the water heater drummed from across the living room stopped, as she flipped through another page.
"You're not sleeping yet?"
"I can sleep in tonight," she sighed. "As long as I find a flower shop by the end of the week," she clutched the book to her chest before continuing.
"Good night."
"Sleep well," Marin sighed back.
Perhaps it's because the main character continually questions her surroundings which nobody bats an eye to. While not as much of a vision, the way it centred on the daily life of a normal nobody felt better than any piece of dystopian literature she was forced to read in high school.
After finishing merely one chapter, she closed the book and quietly walked towards her daughter's room and opened the door slightly. The lights were closed, nothing shuffled, and the sound of her breath was enough to satisfy her question before she closed the door again.
She walked over to her room and without having even touched the makeup wipes, her eyes held a heavy trace as she picked up a worn out shoe box from her closet before opening it. Her lips quivered at the messed up tones of blue and red from the photographs and the scorched remnants of important certificates in a dusty yellow paper in the container.
“Cali...”
“It will be okay,” she murmured under her breath. It happened over 11 years ago now. Her incompetence is no longer obvious…
“How did you two do it? How do people do it these days? Do they stop thinking deeply?”
She took them for granted. Would any of this have happened if she hadn’t failed to join the Academy?
But there was no point. She couldn’t change the past, and even if she did, there were too many variables to keep consistent for them to all stay alive.
“Su’s struggling a bit with some lessons,” she began to mutter to herself, “but her academics seem fine. I hope her Evol isn’t causing any issues with her teachers and classmates… so far she only uses it to protect herself from Wanderers…”
A hunter, maybe? She wasn’t sure.
As long as she could get flowers, and get promoted, maybe the fees wouldn’t be too much.
Notes:
This took a big detour than I planned but I really really really wanted to expand on the concept of daily life post Chronorift a bit so worldbuilding chapter!
The IB Geography kid in me sprung out a bit too much, I was thinking about how sci-fi the main story looked they had to have had a massive overhaul somehow. Sorry if it sounded too... fancy terminology there.
I might have to edit this chapter again because I haven't had the time to reread Xavier's lore, so I'm not sure how accurate those parts are because I lost my mobile data quota for the month TwT. It is ofcourse recounted through Elle's memories but she believes them as truth so I too must treat it with accuracy too.
Hope this was a fun chapter. I'll figure out some time to draw a concept sketch of Marin (Elle's mom) on my Twitter Acc sometime.
Chapter 4: EP 3 - A shop named Philo
Chapter Text
This one is quite funny. I lost a bet to Xavier on who can strike down a tiny pebble that Jeremiah threw in half. In terms of its mass. As close as possible.
And I nearly won. By 0.02 grams. But that Xavier is just too good! How did he cut it EXACTLY in half?! Like... I MADE SURE JEREMIAH RIGGED IT BECAUSE IT WAS LIKE A 20 GRAM PEBBLE OR SOMETHING AND HE GOT IT 100% IN HALF.
He's so smug about it too! Well maybe not smug, he just SHRUGGED IT OFF LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!! And we're both under the tutelage of the same master? It's so clear Master has a favourite but I don't think it's because he's the Crown Prince honestly. Maybe they've known each other longer than I have.
Picking up a post-it note, she scribbled something quickly on there. They use the metric system on Philos along with Kelvin and Celsius. As expected of a future society.
The year was... what was the year again? But I'm still at the Knight Academy so that means I'm not Queen yet, and Xavier didn't fully leave me yet. But did he travel back in time yet? Or has he not.
So many questions droned her mind. These memories always arrived during the night, as if to lull her back to a never-ending slumber, a never-ending fate.
He has this look in his eyes though but he doesn't seem to do much beyond that. And leaves me alone and goes to train with Master. I'm his student too!
How long have I been at the Academy for at this point?
Time in Philos and for Philosians lasted long. Her previous self before this life she was writing wasn't blessed with living forever. But neither was this life. This fate. She knew how it ended even if she hadn't dreamt it.
Shifting into her desk's drawer she pulled out her handwritten transcript of the signal called "Love and Deepspace." Other than the female voice and the fact that Traceback II was mentioned, she wasn't sure if that meant their first attempt failed. Was this their second attempt? The life where she was here, alive with these memories and present.
But a future like that is nothing but bleak. It might not be an all out nuclear war as people in the past were terrified about, but Protocores were more of an unknown that ever seen before.
The news articles she read from the library talked about the emergence of a new disease called Protocore Syndrome following humanity's research into utilising and extracting energy from the cores of these Wanderers, extra-terrestrial beings. Deaths and sickness increase. The gut punch? Modern medicine had no cure. It could only alleviate the symptoms. Philosians and their immortality was likely a similar case.
That's probably why her mother hasn't bothered buying any new products and opted to buy from the secondhand store near the Bloomshore District area. But she was't sure about her distaste with holographic screens still. Every time she passed by an ad on the street, her eyes lost their spark and she shrugged it off like nothing was bothering her much to Suivielle's concern. She kept saying she was fine but she isn't.
And it seemed like today would be no exception as her mother's grip on her hand tightened as they walked down the street. Her outdated smartphone in hand, showing the location of a shop she thinks will be the one to help her be considered for a promotion. If she remembered correctly. Additionally, her mother had tied a light teal satin scarf around her neck like a flight attendant. It was an interesting choice.
"How many flowers do you need?"
"The hotel requires about 100 bouquets per week. Give or take," she estimated, there was a clamminess in how she walked. "They used to supply from Chansia City but the cost for shipping was too much hence we're trying to pivot to a local business in the city instead," she yawned, covering her mouth with her other hand.
"And why do you need me to follow?"
"To choose the flowers ofcourse!"
"Wouldn't the management have already chosen a whole list?"
"Management isn't super picky about their flowers. The ones in the main lobby are all plastic anyways because of the heavy foot fall in the summer."
"But they still want fresh flowers," Elle repeated.
"Yep! That hotel had minor scratches following the aftermath so making it feel like you're connecting with nature a bit is part of the hotel experience they're aiming for."
'No wonder she decided to apply for it. Even though she had a degree in Accounting or something,' was all that went through her head when her mother blabbered on about her current ob. Marin was a bit of a purist but she didn't mind it.
It seemed to bring back the light in her grey eyes. And she liked that.
Marin suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked around the unfamiliar area and back to her phone. "This should be the street," she murmured. "But I don't see the shop anywhere. The pictures are on the mapso there should be a sign that says 'Philo'."
"Philo?" Did she hear that correctly? That means one of the backtrackers is here! It's so obvious! Are they trying to be seen by the others? Is it a meeting spot they go to?
She looked around and couldn't see the sign much to her disappointment. Before her mother tugged on her hand and pointed at a greenhouse. "I think it's that lot."
"I hope so."
'Calm down, Suivielle,' she told herself. 'Nobody's gonna believe you if you act like this and break down in tears infront of them. Mom's here on a mission. Fulfill her mission first and you can continue yours.'
'Remember,' she uttered to her head. 'They're IMMORTAL. They probably look the same as they do in those memories.'
Once they could see the shop, there was an industrial feel to it with naked bricks and cement instead of clean painted walls. Along with glass windows to accompany it. It was a bit cozy and there was the sign. The paint had faded revealing only the O at the end. But the sign on the door was open, so they entered.
"Sorry for the intrusion," Marin began before she looked around. A few cut flowers were already packed up in some bouquets near the counter but other than that, no screens.
"This place is nice, Su," she warmly smiled at the sight. But the shopowner or staff on duty wasn't in the room.
Suivielle simply walked further inside, past the door into what seemed like a bigger greenhouse. The sound of water trickled out, being sprayed across all the plants and flowers in the space, and there she saw him.
Light hazel fluffy locks and that familiar boyish candid face from her memories with matching eyes.
He's real, her mouth clamped up.
"Oh, I didn't hear you," he spoke up. "Welcome to Philo, how may I help?"
It was Jeremiah.
Notes:
Yayy! Jeremiah appearance is finally made!!
Chapter 5: EP 4 - I am the proof
Chapter Text
"Do you happen to have forget-me-nots?"
There's a hint of familiarity in his hazel eyes, likely because she looked like his best friend from years ago, before his lips formed a straight line and he nodded his head. "Anything else?"
"Not sure what my mom's list is, so you'll have to ask her," she gripped her hands tightly as she redirected his attention towards Marin who was still stuck at the front.
"Hello, Ma'am," he began, seemingly regaining his composure and catching the brunette's attention. "Welcome to Philo. Outside of forget-me-nots, is there any particular flower you're looking for?"
"Something calming I presume—but before that," she quickly took out a card from her bag, "I'm actually here on behalf of Solomon Hotel. My name is Marin, depending on how much and what you offer, we'd like to get fresh flowers from you from September onwards and have you as one of our partners."
"Oh, this is quite the honor," he scratched the back of his head. "The Solomon Hotel near Azure Square?" She nodded, he seemed to brighten at her engagement. "I've been there a few times myself... when I was a kid," he reminisced. "It's quite a calming place."
And they continued their discussion, consumed in it to the point where they would forget about Suivielle's whereabouts. Although, she was a good kid. She wouldn't have gotten far without telling her own mother.
Which is true, the young teen simply ventured and scoped out the greenhouse with her thoughts churning.
"Your daughter suggested forget-me-nots in particular so I initially thought it could be for a funeral,” he commented before quickly changing his tone, “Sorry if that touched a sore spot, it wasn't my intention..."
There must be something that confirmed he was linked to the Traceback or the Backtrackers in here somewhere. It was inconspicuous enough to go under the radar as a flower shop. But its industrial feel and painted walls were quite new for her standards for a cover. It looked better than where they lived at least. Unless he just moved in.
"How long have you been running Philo? It seems fairly new..."
But it's barely been 2 years since the Chronorift Catastrophe happened. This street got decimated when she searched up articles about the development of this side of Linkon.
"I only set up shop 2 months ago... it's always been my dream to run a flower shop here," he revealed.
That makes sense. Does that mean Xavier hasn't been in contact with him recently?
“I took a year off to figure out what I wanted to do with my life after I finished getting my degree…”
Quickly, she found a PC nearby with post-it notes of logins and snooped around to find his main four emails, phone numbers, and other points of contact she could also gain access to. Do people even SMS these days? Well, he should be old enough to use SMS anyways.
She just needed a way to get him to agree to meet her when her mother wasn't nearby. Probably tomorrow at earliest. The answers she seeked, the person from her memories, it was all in reach. She just needed to seize this chance, quickly jotting down as much of this information as possible with the post-it notes she grabbed.
For a greenhouse with technology, security measures were definitely needed. To be fair, the presence of safe internet use campaigns decreased after her mother’s time at school. Perhaps that’s why, she realised. Maybe the people of Philos also didn’t focus on internet safety either. Perhaps that’s why they were set to die, easily unable to distinguish falsehoods from truth, and the warped concept of eternity was doomed to begin.
Then… why didn’t they stop Linkon from developing further?
“Su?” Her mother called out to her from the front, startling her into quickly hiding her notes in her pockets. “Come take a look!”
“Okay!”
All the questions that poured into her tiny head had to be saved for later when she got access to the rest of her notes again, watching her mother hold onto a bouquet that Jeremiah picked out.
“What do you think of these ones?”
The bouquet she held mainly consisted of calming flowers like lavender, hydrangeas—she couldn’t remember the rest of the top of her head. Blues, purple, and white were there. And the smell was indeed relaxing.
“It’s okay,” she nodded.
“Okay!” Content with Elle’s answer before she looked back at the owner. “Hopefully I’ll get you a response from upper management on contracting you, Mr. Jeremiah. Have a lovely day!”
“You too, Miss!” He waved back.
New Message from Unknown Number!
???: Evangeline
???: That special child
???: I have her with me
You: Who are you?
???: If you want her back, close Philo tomorrow by 4pm
You: Soren?
???: Why would I care about him?
You: Then who?
???: An old friend.
???: If you don't
???: I kill her
Who in the world is spamming his SMS at 3 in the morning? The phone number wasn’t fake, and the name felt haunting to see. Yet there was no way to trace their location as they weren’t using a messaging platform like most people were. Even those in the N109 Zone use those for their dealings, rubbing his eyes he opened up his emails only to be greeted by an influx of them stating the same thing as in his SMS. He could feel his stomach crumple up. These were sent yesterday night… how did he not see them?
All of the emails traced to public access computers like from Internet Cafes and such, there was no way to keep track of them.
???: If you bring anyone else she’s also gone.
‘That’s just too much,’ his heart winced at the new message. ‘But if she really is in danger, after everything he put himself through,’ he took a deep breath. ‘He wouldn’t forgive me for letting it happen at all. He wouldn’t forgive himself.’
‘Calm down, Jeremiah,’ he told himself, barely being able to sleep through the rest of the night as he anxiously awaited for the time to arrive. ‘As long as the perpetrator reveals himself and he lets her go, it’s all good.’
‘But just in case… I should warn someone about this if the situation gets dire.’
And so he continued to wait in anxious silence, blade hidden in plain sight as the clock ticked to the awaited time. His shop was closed already and yet there was nobody at the door, until a girl entered. Her ashy brown hair flowed past her shoulders and she wore a school uniform paired with a bag and a mask. Her eyes seemed disappointed with the sight.
“I’m sorry, the shop today is closed,” he politely began. “I can take your offer tomorrow, though.”
She simply stared back at him with those stone-cold eyes from the entrance.
“You really give in easily to the littlest of things, still, don’t you?” She laughed lightly. “Has being around the rest of the Backtrackers without me taken a toll on you already?”
He froze at her reaction.
“E-Evangeline?” He sounded exasperated, slowly walking forward. “Is that really you? Who is trying to kill you?”
“Nobody.”
“That can’t be possible. You have to tell me!”
She pulled out her pebble of a phone, and he saw her eyes smile with the same screen as before. She giggled.
“You…”
“I’m an old friend, am I not?” Suivielle pressed forward, pulling down her mask. “Don’t tell me you forgot about our days at Astria Knight Academy? I was the Moonchaser prefect after all…”
‘Well this was going easier than expected.’
Notes:
This took a while...
Chapter 6: EP 5 - The Call
Chapter Text
“So let me get this straight, she remembers being the Queen of Philos,” Jeremiah and Suivielle nodded towards him. “She remembers everyone from the Backtrackers, she remembers… how Philos DIED basically when we weren’t there to witness it. And now she just wants to find us again?” Isaiah knitted his brows at the peculiar situation, before he saw the girl continue to do her school work again.
He huffed out. “Well, you’ve got some of us now. Isn’t that enough?” He yelped at a jab and grimaced at his colleague’s momentary glare. “What? You can’t expect the rest to believe you this quickly y’know? Imagine if you stated you were the ‘Queen of Philos’ point blank—you’d be called insane immediately.”
After the sudden scare turned-long-awaited-reunion, coincidentally, Isaiah had managed to walk into the store within the same week. Equally as surprised to see the familiar face that haunted their memories. Much younger and with a little less mischief in her actions. After reciting the Academy’s oath without hesitation, they knew it was her. Undoubtedly.
But the main person she wanted to meet hadn’t met her yet, she only continued on with her work.
“So how aren’t you being tracked—don’t you have a parent watching over you like a hawk like every other parent after the Chronorift Catastrophe?” Gesturing at how she was in her school uniform of all things. “This could be considered violating a law if you don’t go back home? Are you running away from home?” Isaiah seemed worried out of his mind much more than Jeremiah would be. Likely due to the absurdity of it all.
With the emergence of Wanderers spawning from practically anywhere with a high Metaflux Index, parents were more than ever vigilant of the routes their children took to get to school and back home, and yet here was a thirteen year old roaming freely without a care!
Suivielle quickly tapped her workbook with the back of her mechanical pencil with a prompt reply, “I told my mom that I was struggling with a few subjects and found him as a super cheap tutor, so she accepted it since they’re on good terms.”
“And… there’s no way I’m leaving my mom,” she gritted, offended at the very thought of it. She felt her fingertips numb as they gripped tighter onto her writing instrument. “I will be back home by 7. I can guarantee you that.”
While it was nice that her friend from the Academy quickly and easily believed her case, she still felt distant from him. Whether it was due to the fact he has been impersonating the same age range for over three decades without a hitch, the way he would instinctively call her Evangeline when her name tag was on display everyday—there was a quiet resentment that she didn’t know she built up over those weeks she stayed over.
After all, she wasn’t born into this life as Evangeline, the one they knew. The one that became the Queen of Philos for some hundred years. She was born as Suivielle. Called Elle in conversation. And even her Evol wasn't the Anhausen Class Evol as they remembered.
“But what do you want to do?”
What did she want to do with this new development? She had come so far but for what? Her mind was stubbornly glued to that one idea because more than anything, her memories always returned back to him.
In the sea of stars, it was Xavier who shined bright for her. She kept recounting memories with him more than anything.
“Xavier, huh?” Jeremiah scratched his head in deep thought at her request. “I haven’t heard from him for about 3 years now. Last time I saw him was when the Deepspace Tunnel opened again and he’s been quiet ever since.”
“So that means he’s still roaming around, right?”
“Yes.”
That’s good. If there’s someone who could help clear up the order, it was him. And she didn’t feel comfortable to share every recount she had ever penned in her room with these two.
But at the very least, she had reached a new point. Instead of droning to herself endlessly in her room. She had proof. She had them. Two members of the Backtrackers was more than enough to confirm her memories weren’t some form of escape she came up with suddenly in her dreams.
“Oh right, my mom wanted to invite you over for dinner next week on Friday. She was wondering what you wanted.”
Today, with Jeremiah tending to his new batch of flowers in the greenhouse, Isaiah doing whatever his current cover, and Elle doing homework, it was practically just another day. The air and atmosphere was earthy, with fertilizer and different nutrient packets swirling in the air as usual. Customers would sometimes stop by and she would quickly man the cashier and give suggestions before they left with something or nothing instead of calling Jeremiah. Sometimes he was in his own world, wearing over-ear headphones with ANC on them and she didn’t feel like struggling to get his attention each time a new customer showed up. She sighed, content with this current routine.
All of a sudden, a loud ringing noise was heard. It was rather familiar in it’s annoying ringtone. But it wasn’t hers.
"Elle!” He shouted from the back. “I'm busy right now! Can you tell them to call me later?" Jeremiah wiped off some sweat with his cleaner sleeve. “It’s probably a customer call!”
“Okay!” She went over to his phone, saw it wasn't a known number but picked it up anyways. After all, he received customers over the phone as well.
"Sorry for calling you out of the blue but I need another cover—"
"Jeremiah said he's busy right now so you have to call him later," she cut the caller off, ready to end the call immediately after.
"Who might you be?" The caller asked.
"His bestie."
"That can't be, right,” he uttered, white noise screeching a bit more than usual. “You sound too young."
"Yes it can."
"And what's your name?"
"What's your name, mister?” She retorted. “Miah has a big order coming up and can't do you any favours right now."
Hesitantly, the voice replied, "My name is... Bob."
"Really? You sound more like a Xander type of guy."
"Xavier actually."
"Hah! See? Your name wasn't Bob at all!” She cheered to herself. “Your name is actually—XAVIER?!" Her mind stopped in place as she focused on the caller’s voice again.
"What's so wrong about my name?"
It was polite… but the tone… she could hear it clearly. Yes, it was him , her heart pounded anxiously at her next step.
"That's a long story but just to check something... you have been to Uluru, right Xavier?"
He paused for a deafening moment. "Why are you asking?"
"Would it be alright if I could meet you at the flower shop? It would be easier to explain in person but the short story is that I have regained my memories from my time before and after being crowned the Queen of Philos."
"And what's your name?"
"Elle."
"If you really are the Queen then you know what your real title should be."
"And what would that be?" She could feel herself awaiting his answer at her seat.
She knew she originally was going to be a Grandis Knight if it wasn’t for the sudden changes. Maybe it was one of the nicknames he gave her? But there are so many… Or even the Chosen One from when he was King that time.
"The Queen of Fraudulence."
“Hah.”
She could feel his mocking expression filled with mirth from his voice. "I'm not sure what Jeremiah has told you but those adventures are all lies. He's a storyteller, kid. Don't let him delude you into thinking you're someone you're not. Because a title like that isn't something to be taken lightly.”
“But—”
“If you're done with your stunt and Jeremiah really is busy, I'll hang up now. I hope we never see each other ever again."
And the phone call ended.
Without hesitation, she dialed the same number again for a second chance. Any chance to clear up the misunderstanding. But it was fruitless. The number was a public phone. ‘I thought they discontinued those ages ago, that means he’s out of Linkon,’ she tried to distract herself from the drop in appetite she felt and the way her stomach lurched. But it didn’t work.
Ah.
‘This is why I regretted that time. He left me. And now he doesn't believe me. What have I been collecting for the last 3 years of my life?’
‘There's no way Jeremiah is lying to me.’
‘Why... why doesn't he believe me? How will he avoid me? If I'm constantly here, wouldn't I encounter him?’
'Is it because I said my name instead of hers?'
‘But that doesn't mean anything! Who in the world does he believe Evangeline to be then? If I remember those lives, wouldn't that make me her?’ She could feel the heat wash over her face and her heart swell and crash waves upon waves onto her short frame. It burned without sensation, it simply froze as she expanded, squeezing her as she clutched onto his phone without hesitation, barely catching onto the presence of Jeremiah who rushed over to her in concern.
But Xavier never stopped by afterwards.
He didn’t.
He never did.
‘And you said you’d always find me.’
‘Liar.’
‘You don’t even want to find me.’
Notes:
This was fun to write!
Yayy! 1-1 has finished! The origin of Elle's beef with Xavier btw.
Chapter 7: EP 6 - Who am I
Chapter Text
There must be a reason why he so adamantly believes I’m not Evangeline, she only looked up to her empty ceiling in her room. She was restless, similar to how her mother often was in the spring. It’s been a few months now since that call. Even if she went there everyday, 4 to 7, he was never there. Not even a trace. Not even a call.
Perhaps she wanted to avoid seeing his face again but she always does when she sleeps. It was unavoidable. But that same gaze, that same voice… called her a fraud. Delusional. Fooled by his friend’s storytelling. But none of the backtrackers were remotely decent at such a skill. Their tales and anecdotes read like a short summary filled with as little detail, little emotion as possible compared to how she wrote hers.
And he knew it. He had to.
And the only conclusion she could reach was that he found someone who fit Evangeline like a glove compared to her. Someone who without a doubt was her .
Compared to herself.
It was probably to do with how normal her heart was compared to her.
But that only formed more questions in her mind than before. Where is she? What happened to her? Did Xavier manage to save her or fail yet again? She could feel her heart ache at these thoughts.
‘Was he finding her instead of me?’
These thoughts consumed her for a Friday night.
‘But Jeremiah believes me still so that’s something,’ she tossed towards her left, remembering his concerned expression as she collapsed to her knees in pain. Hopefully, she didn’t have to relive that again. She didn’t like making people worry and after what seemed like forever in the blanket of the night, she finally shut her eyes.
And without a moment to spare, the air around her is eerily silent. The only thing that she can hear is her palpitating heart, surging like the waves as her figure trembled under the weight of something imaginary. Her ears felt stuffed full of cotton, compared to her eyes which saw her surroundings but didn’t register to her thoughts, and crashing into her like a wrecking ball was the sudden scent of iron which only made her more nauseous. It consumed her whole but she couldn’t see what caused it. Was she at the market? That can’t be… she took a short step forward.
The cold measured air felt familiar, but she wasn’t sure why… or was it just colder than her room?
Her bare foot touched something damp but it felt oddly warm and she looked down and she—she’s dead. The girl was dead.
A familiar, sweet voice fills her ears omnisciently.
“Did you kill her, sweetie?”
“You did, didn’t you?” She continued, heel quickly turning over the girl’s limp body, revealing a different face to her own. “ You killed Evangeline.”
Her heart plummeted instantly at the sight as she tried to figure out the cause of her bloodloss, holding onto her lifeless shell. She felt tears fall from her eyes, clouding her field of vision.
She had so many questions she wanted to spill out of her mouth. Why did you only give me part of your memories? Why didn’t you make me have the same heart as you? Why don’t you have the same face as me? But they were all lodged and stuck in her throat, unable to fluently communicate her words.
And yet for some reason, she felt the weight of her to be crushing. Increasing in weight and force on her limbs as she held tighter onto the girl. This was too painful. Why did she have to suffer through this? She could hear herself loathe and cry amidst the terrified screams and growls of monsters, crashing and burning, dececrating everything as needed. It was excruciatingly unbearable to hold on.
But then, she recognised this embrace, awkward yet firm and reassuring with a voice that matched with the action. “It’s okay, Mommy is finally here,” she slowly began, patting and rocking her amidst the more bearable chaos. Her voice cracked as she continued, “It’s okay, Su. I’m finally here. I won’t leave you anymore.”
‘I won’t leave you either.’
She woke up to her tear-stained face the next morning, and she laughed in her head.
‘There’s no way that she’s dead,’ she told herself, stepping off the bed and heading for the bathroom to examine herself and wash her face. ‘I couldn’t have killed an Evangeline by being myself, right?’ Recounting the absurd dream.
When she turned on the light switch, nothing happened. The door only led to darkness instead of somewhere she could see before she headed over to the circuitbreaker… but even that didn’t work or restore the power in the apartment. That’s strange. The power isn’t working.
The day continued as normal for her as the plumbing seemed unaffected by the outage and she quickly wrote a post-it note to stick on the fridge before heading out to Philo again. Jeremiah wanted to show her something.
It took a while for him to dig it up but he thought it would help her a bit.
By the time she arrived, he arranged a bouquet of forget-me-nots and told her to wear a mask before placing a cap on her.
“What are we doing?”
“We’re visiting a cemetery,” he simply stated much to her confusion as it was the middle of April and on the way, he began to explain as he pretended the umbrella he held was a walking stick to him.
“As I remember it,” he sighed, waiting for the traffic light to signal pedestrian crossing. “Xavier’s most recent identity… was a Special Task Force Officer.”
“For the Evol Police?” He hummed in agreement. “How… fitting…” she trailed off as they crossed the road. It reminded her of how he joined the Order of the Lightseekers but there must have been a catch. There always was.
“He only was one to get access to some old archives of his,” he added. “Nothing special really, he just wanted to get rid of his tracks and loose ends, some of which were still there in that one department.”
“Did he kill his teammates?”
“No?” He eyed her response as she just shrugged. “He died… heroically, while apprehending a criminal they were chasing on a New Year’s Eve. Almost 3 years after joining the team.”
“Is that so?” She trailed off again as they entered the fenced area, what littered the stones weren’t names. Just numbers until they stopped in front of one towards the corner on the far left from their entrance. “And this is…”
“His number as an officer.”
ST-1101.
It was simple to remember.
ST-1101.
She looked at him and only questioned him.
“Why are you telling me this? Why are you showing me this?” She clutched onto the bouquet a bit more firmly at the sight of the tomb.
“I thought it could give you some closure. To at least know something unrelated to your memories of him. We’ve been here for ages compared to you, so it might help give some perspective as well,” he said.
It’s true, she crouched down to her knee before placing the bouquet at his numbered tombstone. It did give her a new angle on the whole situation.
She only knew the Xavier from her memories. She didn’t know the Xavier that was the Captain of the Backtrackers, the Xavier who was part of the Special Task Force, or whatever new identity he was currently under. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t picked up any traces of him.
He had changed over the years.
What if she tried to find him instead?
She can start with ST-1101.
Notes:
This was also fun to write and remember, don't be scared to comment your reactions. This is probably where it all starts to get worse ngl in terms of pain.
Chapter 8: EP 7 - Familiar face
Chapter Text
Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the change in location where Marin worked being further to commute from their place in the Soaria District and the junior high school principal's recommendation, they moved to the Bloomshore District.
The difference in atmosphere felt refreshing as high rise apartments were replaced with a mix of semi-detached and standalone 2 storey houses. The sky held a bit less smog for more blue hues, and everything seemed a bit more green.
The last thing she remembered about their old apartment was the landlord's picture of a puppy near the TV. Jeremiah's shop was much more memorable by comparison to their own.
It was already October when she transferred over to Bloomshore Technical High School. There was a slight emphasis on STEM subjects but it was just like her previous school in all other aspects, as she adjusted her blazer, unlike her old uniform, there was no name tag to them, before she was called to enter the classroom.
After introducing herself to the class, the teacher made a boy, a brunette with purple eyes, raise up his hand. "He will be your guide for today." She could feel some of the girls stare at her with their judgemental eyes and mentally clicked her tongue as she walked over to sit beside him.
He was probably really popular or something as he seemed to mind his business during class, glancing towards the window occasionally when he finished his work. He hadn't introduced himself at all to her but teachers would always bring up his name anyways, so he likely saved the effort of making small awkward talk with her.
The lesson before lunch was a simple history multiple choice sheet that was required to be handed in if they wanted to go for lunch, which she did silently even though she could be exempted from them until she was settled. The schools should be similar in syllabus anyways, and she was a bit obsessive over it.
This time it was regarding the Evol Police. And within 5 minutes, she triple checked before standing up with her bag and handing it in to the teacher at the front much to their shock after examining her name. She only nodded before leaving the classroom.
Barely 10 steps out of there, another pair of steps exited the classroom and called out to her. "Hey," he called out. "I still need to show you around."
She turned and saw he had a duffel bag slung onto one shoulder before he jerked his shoulder in the opposite direction she went. She sighed and pivoted her heel towards him and followed him for the next 10 minutes around campus.
"How did you find the test?" He asked as they walked past more classrooms. "The class just learnt about it last week."
"It was fine," she shrugged before they entered the cafeteria which was almost ready for the lunch hour.
"Really?"
"I mean it's MCQ-style."
He stopped in his tracks before gesturing at the non-existent line for the food. She shook her head and patted her bag.
"Packed lunch as well," he hummed, as if reassuring her, before they walked out of the main building. He pointed at the higher and bulkier building as the gymnasium with the changing rooms inside, followed by the field, and the swimming pool towards the back which was maintained by staff.
"All our science lessons happen in the classroom right above us though so you won't be stuck in one place for too long."
"Is that all?"
"Yeah," he nodded.
"Thanks—"
"CALEB!!!" The voice of a guy resounds across the field much to her temporary fright. "I was wondering what the hell you were"—before being stumped at how quickly the girl beside him ran out of sight. Instantaneously so—the guy snorted and nudged him in the shoulder with a knowing look. "Did you reject another one?"
Barely catching her hair passing behind a building, he uttered back, "I think you freaked her out, honestly."
She could feel her fingers numb again and simply curled into herself against the wall in the shade provided by the trees as her heart thumped loudly against her chest.
She shouldn't have thought too deeply about how she interacted with that popular guy or ran away like that, she berated herself, more footsteps and chatter filled the ambience outside which only worsened her feelings. But if she didn't wouldn't they have gotten hurt? She promised not to get into trouble too.
'How did I even deal with these feelings?' She tried to recount. It felt like self-loathing or maybe she just didn't like feeling vulnerable over something stupid like what some girls thought of her for sitting next to that clearly popular guy called Caleb or whatever his name was!
'Oh just stop thinking of them already! It isn't that bad as thinking of Xavier every night, is it?' She argued. 'Comparing a guy I just met with the guy who called me a fake—oh isn't this just a great segway,' as her mind couldn't removed the image of that star.
How he smiled, and even carried her sometimes.
But it certainly calmed her down to the point her senses returned in full capacity unlike before, as if he was just a ghost that haunted her soul instead. With a deep breath and exhale, she stood up and brushed off any dirt from her skirt before heading back for the classroom to eat her lunch in peace and quiet.
By the time the next class started, her seatmate slid over a note on some scrap piece of paper.
Sorry if he scared you, he's always loud on the field. I had a match.
Ok, was all she wrote before concentrating at the front.
You're okay?
Yes.
Nurse is super chill if you ever need to rest there.
And the conversation ended as they did another round of practice questions. Before starting another one. It was simple questions.
Siblings? None. Favourite food, subjects, and everything the boy found relevant to know.
You'll have to pick a club soon.
Do you have admirers or fangirls?
Does it matter?
It will, she wrote down before sliding it over and finishing the last question she had left as she felt a few eyes bore holes into the back of her skull.
?
She pushed it back as she waited for the last class to begin. She could feel it acting up again and drew hash scratches at the edge of her pages to ease herself as much as possible.
'What benefit does remembering him even do to my life? He won't meet me, won't find me, won't believe me.' She could feel herself swell at these thoughts, and quickly she powered through the work assigned to take her mind off it. She needs to maintain her stress levels. That way she doesn't worry Marin and everything will be fine.
And the bell rung, signaling the end of the day. Shoving all her things inside her bag, Caleb gestured his phone towards her with a QR code readily shown.
"What is it?" She asked him, unsure of what to do with it. He only put it further infront of her.
"My wechat ID. There's a class group chat you should join, unless you don't want to."
Ah, she pressed her lips into a straight line, debating at how she should sound, drumming her fingers. Might as well rip the band-aid.
"I don't have wechat." That itself caused the rest of the class to look at her as a foreign entity, and she could feel those eyes from behind even more.
"And you've never downloaded it?"
"My phone doesn't support it."
Notes:
It's the arc where Caleb appears like crazy!
Her "I unintentionally became a not-like other girls fantasy because I stick to my beliefs." This is gonna be interesting :D
Hope you enjoyed his inclusion.
Chapter 9: EP 8 - Star student
Chapter Text
“What sort of phone do you have?”
Without missing a beat, she pulled out what most would consider ancient—obsolete even in regards to efficiency. It didn’t even have a camera which was even weirder if he assumed it was released in 2023.
“Even if it did have a camera, it wouldn’t be able to process QR codes,” she added, having a tighter grip on the phone before shoving it back into her bag. Tight-lipped murmurs rippled across the classroom much to her inconvenience.
Quickly she pulled out a sticky note, scribbling something down before pasting it onto his blazer with a shove. “I’ve got an email account I access at least once a day. So any important stuff can be sent through there if you can’t say it now. Have a nice day,” she waved, brushing him off and leaving him.
She winced at the scene she made of herself for something small, quickening her steps to head back home. Both the homeroom teacher and staff had already given her a rundown of everything in the morning so she didn’t need to stay behind. She wouldn’t anyway.
There were some more important things to think about like how she could commute to Philo. From their old place it was about a 30 minute walk but Bloomshore District was practically on the other side of the city, so it’d be double the time, she surmised. That means it would cost more to get to Philo for anything and she couldn’t afford that.
Jeremiah was too important. It also made it easier for those recruiters to intercept her on the way home. Just thinking of it made her skin crawl and her bones shake again at the last interaction she had.
“Hello again, Miss Suivielle,” the man adjusted himself in his straight-cut suit with a lifeless robotic smile. She was barely outside of Philo, in her school uniform with her name tag plastered on still and bag slung to her shoulder when this occurred. “I hope you’re doing well since last time. I’ve come to—”
“If you’re giving financial incentives such as a lifetime scholarship for becoming a living test subject for new Protocore technology or any form of research, I will have to decline,” she interrupted his spiel, gripping onto the strap of her bag tighter. She saw how his facade dropped into muted disappointment immediately but he retained his corporate smile but he didn’t move a step closer as he had a hand in his right pocket. He sighed.
“It is a shame, Young Miss, that you are unwilling to join us.”
“Under the law, I am still a minor,” she uttered. “If my mother also refused to give permission then that is final.”
He moved a step forward into striking range for his arm, and only continued, “Even if your Evol in its state is incredibly rare—”
If Isaiah hadn’t swooped her up in an instant, she would have been tailed by 6 other recruiter assailants had the man pulled out his tool.
“They really have nothing better to do but con themselves test subjects in the less camera heavy areas,” he huffed, dropping her off for a moment on a rooftop as the men walked off in confusion. He looked back at her who only gripped his sleeve tighter, dread pooled in her heart and core at the sight as she continued to look down until they were out of sight and out of mind but that feeling still lingered, that feeling she associated with danger.
“You, okay?”
She snapped up and dropped her grip before nodding.
“Also,” he added, landing them back in front of the flower shop. “Stop going to Philo for the next 2 weeks, will you?”
This puzzled her. “Why?”
All she got was a quick head ruffle from him. “So you and your mother won’t be paranoid. Jeremiah and I will deal with it by then.”
So that’s how it is, she formed a tight line. “Okay.”
‘They still won’t tell me much about the current Xavier outside of that number,’ she mulled, as he walked her over to the train station.
She couldn’t rely on them to save her all the time either, she ended her recount as she jogged back to their new home only to see a familiar mid-sized pickup truck parked at the side of the road with some cardboard boxes at the back. Speeding up in her steps, she pivoted her heel at the corner and saw the door was slightly ajar. 2 extra shoes were at the front. Too big to be either hers or Marin’s. She then heard a thud in the living room and saw the two men picking up the last of their things.
“Sorry for the trouble, lads,” Her mother’s voice finally made itself known to her.
“It’s nothing, Miss,” Jeremiah humbly replied as he went up the stairs before he noticed her presence, “Hello, Elle. How’s the new school?”
“It’s fine,” barely able to hide the grip she had on her bag. “I wasn’t expecting Uncle to stop by.”
“Oh, they ended up asking about how the move was when I visited in the morning,” her mother began to explain, “since I have the day off today, they offered to help!”
“Wow.”
She needed to discuss with them about how this would even work going forward. It felt like too much for them to appear here.
It’s been a month since Suivielle joined Bloomshore Tech, and as the girl who entered halfway through the term, she had the audacity to continue sitting next to the Caleb Xia without even “wanting to be next to him”? What a fake. Meg saw how they exchanged notes across from each other during lessons, her bestie on the other side of the room had a better look at their faces and it was damning.
Why did he seem mildly interested in her? There was a gaze he held towards her that suggested it. “But it wasn’t anything more than amusement, I’d say,” her friend added, looking at the bright side. Only to see how the blonde gripped her phone tighter as the app revealed nothing. Tracker has been disconnected. Even though she had gotten the girl a phone charm she hadn't taken off since. No signs of tampering. It was super expensive too!
‘How do I get her to back off? She’s clearly getting attention by using that crappy brick instead of a normal budget phone. How does she even do work?’ So many questions plagued Meg’s mind as she buried her head in her arms at the back of class when she remembered getting caught for spreading a rumour of that girl being a delinquent at her old school and did drugs. She was let off with a warning.
"The only thing that should concern you is if she uses her Evol on you. Her level is the highest in the school, so please ensure she’s a welcomed member of our community,” he stressed before letting them go.
And now school was practically finished after this self-study session but Elle, as she preferred to be referred to as, was still here. She was hunched over, writing something unrelated to her schoolwork?
‘It better not be what I’m thinking it is,’ as she walked over to loom over her. Quiet enough to not be noticed and saw a bit of what she wrote.
Why do I still like him?
‘Bingo.’
"Elle has a crush?” Snatching up the book while she jumped slightly from the sudden phrase. “Who is it? It can't be Caleb, he's way out of your league, you know that right?" Flipping through and glancing at the paragraphs upon paragraphs of entries in there.
"Please give it back."
Meg held onto the notebook to a certain page and leaned on a desk before looking at her horrified and slightly terrified face.
"Not until you tell me who you're writing about."
There was no name mentioned.
"It’s about some guy from my dreams."
"Dreams?” She snorted, “this is so cringe, you know that? Can you stop being weird, you're acting like a pick-me and it's an eyesore.”
Elle ignored her insults and stretched out her hand towards her, "Can I have my notebook back?"
"And if I don't?"
"Then you don’t. It’s as simple as that."
All that could be seen by Meg afterwards was pitch darkness.
‘A darkness Evol? You're kidding?!’
But it was impossible to feel where she stood. where anything was. Her ears were ringing, and her legs were consumed by an overwhelming numbness that she couldn’t feel anything as she crashed into a chair. The teacher's words ring through her head. That Evol didn't feel like darkness. It felt more suffocating than that. As if consuming all of her strength and energy within seconds.
‘Did I take it too far?’ Barely catching on to the girl’s terrified and cautious look on her face. ‘Her Evol level is the highest, huh?’
When she woke up again, in the infirmary with her bag and everything at the chair nearby. There was a note with a familiar handwriting.
Sorry for using my Evol on you. It was too much.
I don’t like Caleb much either. He just does his work well enough.
‘Hah,’ she huffed to herself. ‘This girl is built differently.’
Notes:
Meg is supposed to be a mean girl archetype but I just read some of the Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity stuff and I don't think it fits as much anymore to keep her having one-sided prejudiced beef so yeah. This definitely needs a 2nd rewrite some day because I might bring her up again later on.
I also ended up sprinkling in some stuff I had as a point but didn't think about in the earlier chapters. It'll make more sense in the next 2 chapters.
What do you think her Evol is?
Chapter 10: EP 9 - Double-edged sword
Chapter Text
What do you want to be when you grow up?
It’s a simple question. A question she never thought about after she assumed that she was bound to die when she turned 17 like that time in her distant memories. So she just put anything that was mildly interesting to her at the time. When she was 12, she answered with Archaeologist, at 13 she thought of becoming a manager at the Solomon Hotel with her mother, before she pivoted into wanting to become a Deepspace Researcher because she herself was intrigued by all the scientific articles she read about at the library regarding it. But when she brought it up with her mother, there was an unmistakable dread that formed. One that was filled with an incomprehensible but unbearable pain.
It was as if she struck a knife directly in her fragile but persevering heart and soul.
“A Deepspace Researcher?” She suppressed what Suivielle could only comprehend to be her rage as she weakly nodded before uttering, “You really do take after your dear father, Su.” She giggled before pinching onto her cheeks, hiding her pain, “Your cuteness is too much for me to handle!”
“I will still support you if you want to do that though,” she added on. “You’ve got the skills for it, after all!”
She didn’t like seeing her mother in pain and her interest in deepspace only started as a result of wanting to find out why and how the Backtrackers arrived here on Earth. Isaiah and Jeremiah never bothered to tell her the details of their journey, brushing it off as nothing happened because they were asleep in their pods.
The only person who could explain any of these burning questions was Xavier, the one person she badly wanted to talk to but didn’t have the opportunity to. And wouldn’t get the chance to ask. Because he didn’t believe in her existence.
Even in her dreams, and daily recounts, there was nothing that explained how they arrived here. She just remembered the loneliness that accompanied her on that throne, with eyes that scrutinised her decisions, and mouths that urged her to do something—anything—to keep the kingdom prosperous. Her star, dazzling and gleaming in the night, wasn’t there for her to see in the starry sea as she had hoped and prayed for. He promised to be there for her but at her lowest moments, he wasn’t. It was as if he was bound to break his promises with her, no matter what. But she knew he tried his best. Across all of the memories. He didn’t give up. He was at a stand-still, and held back by forces beyond his control even.
But that’s not the current Xavier.
The current Xavier was out there. Chasing for another girl. Protecting her to the best of his ability. And she couldn’t help but feel envious when the girl finally gets these memories and finally remembers him. Because all of the sweat and tears she has poured into trying her best to find him—will be irrelevant.
For she was never Evangeline to begin with.
So when Caleb, now in their 2nd year of high school, revealed how he wanted to be a pilot and considered joining the Deepspace Aviation Administration, she felt shocked. It was over a piece of paper in Biology after they had handed over their end of topic test.
What about you?
With some hesitation, she wrote, ‘An archivist I guess?’
You like history?
I like sorting through documents I guess.
Why a pilot though? And why the DAA? They’re still new and what if you died? Wouldn’t that make your family heartbroken? Plus the chances of you getting Protocore Syndrome in Skyhaven are a lot higher than in Linkon right now and there’s no cure for that either. Sorry for being too negative.
He didn’t give an answer to her and simply looked at her with some shock in his eyes. But he didn’t say anything more about that conversation. He didn’t elaborate on why he wanted to be a pilot but he still kept it on his aspirations list even after she hit him with those questions.
All she knew was that there must have been something worth risking. Although he boasted about terminology, there had to be a lot more to keep him going. One afternoon, after finishing her track practice for the upcoming athletics competition with some of the other schools, she saw it firsthand. What the classmates had constantly joked about in passing.
“Why you sneaky rat!” He pulled a girl, shorter than him in another uniform, into a half-hearted headlock to prevent her from escaping with his duffel bag. She struggled against his firm grip, thrashing for a moment before giving up. “Having the audacity to steal my change of clothes in broad daylight!”
“And you’re about to join this high school next year!”
After catching her breath, she pointed her finger at him. “Why can’t you let your sister have fun messing around with her brother before she has to grow up for real!”
“You’ll always be a rat to me, Pipsqueak.”
“Y’know, rats only grow up to be this big,” he illustrated with his hands and received another light-hearted beating from her.
There was something special about that interaction. She wasn’t sure what it was. Perhaps, the ache she felt made her want that, something she could only dream about these days.
It was envy. Green and creeping under her skin, every time she saw those two interact. She had nothing against them or how they acted, passing over his snacks and gifts to the first year student, bringing her lunch everyday, it was all normal by any means. What made her innards twist in revolt was at how much they reminded her of those moments with Xavier.
She didn’t want to think of Xavier these days. It always made her stomach drop, her fingers numb, and she’d cause the lights in the changing room to blink repeatedly if her heart rate rose above her typical running rate. But the more she didn’t, the worse she’d feel. It didn’t feel correct to continue thinking about him. He was practically a different person now. The Xavier she wants to talk to is gone .
Everything she could find out about him, from her time volunteering at City Hall or the Police Station, led her to a dead end. He didn’t fucking exist. She was basically chasing after an illusion.
ST-1101 was nothing but a dead number.
No matter how many times she returned to that stone, it gave her no closure.
As long as she kept dreaming and seeing him everytime she closed her eyes, she would never get closure. She could feel her eye-bags increase and weigh her face. She continued to stare at her convoluted and detailed shelf which she started years ago at this point. It felt like it surmounted to nothing.
She was nothing.
She didn’t deserve this.
These memories.
This life.
Maybe she should’ve died in the Chronorift Catastrophe instead of Evangeline. Then at least she wouldn’t be burdened with this knowledge.
She wouldn’t be burdened with remembering Xavier.
This familiar numbing pain surged again, burrowing itself in her trachea, squeezing it beyond its confines.
Did she even deserve this life?
Even if it wasn’t making her stomach twist beyond comprehension like those eyes, it was lonely up here.
He lied to her. He won’t find her. He won’t see her suffer like this. He’ll be gone to the depths of deepspace before she can even see him standing on his feet.
She didn’t like being alone but her mother trusted her to be able to take care of herself.
She wanted to speak but what came out was barely a scratch as her body grew colder. Her vision pooled in darkness.
Save me.
Anyone…
It hurts.
“I’ll make sure of it!” A chipper and sprightly voice of a young girl resounded in her mind. “I’ll be your knight!”
I’m sorry.
“..lle!”
I’m not strong enough.
We’ll never be together.
Notes:
Yeah.
Chapter 11: EP 10 - New shackle
Chapter Text
School Work + Get well soon!
from: [email protected]
to: you
Hope you’re doing better, I heard from the teacher you got a really bad fever.
I’ve taken some pics of my notes and put a pdf of the worksheets the teachers gave in class.
Get well soon for exams!
Caleb
She grimaced at the laptop screen before it was taken out of her hands. She had no will to glare and simply looked at Jeremiah from her bed, snuggling deeper into her pillow. He sighed again.
“Look,” he began. She filtered out their voices which bordered between concern, duty, and lightheartedness as it didn’t change the almost burning sensation that bloomed from her neck. What was bare was now accompanied by a collar.
One meant for her suppression Evol.
It would barely exist unless she forced it to use more than 85% of it’s power, forcing it to blare bright red. Right now it was. Crashing down the confidence she had in controlling it. She was going to see her mother in misery again over this mishap.
Her mother was currently on a business trip for 10 more days before she returned. And for that reason, she had asked Jeremiah to check up on her. Giving him the emergency key to access the house.
“Who knows what would’ve happened if we didn’t find you that night.”
“I can still control it,” she held onto her neck. “Please don’t tell my mom about this,” she looked at them both, her eyes stung from tears as she looked down, swallowing her discomfort as she felt the light around her hands disappear. “Whatever it takes, I don’t want her to be hurt by me. This life she worked so hard to give…”
“This is only temporary of course," Jeremiah pointed out. “We need the next month to make it better because we nearly died trying to make the first iteration of the collar. The current one has a mood tracker which will help with figuring out how to navigate and prevent another situation like this.”
“I might not be a doctor but,” Isaiah interjected from across the room at the door with a simple bowl of cereal in his hands, “it’s even more important now that you don’t spike your stress levels.” Placing it down at her desk before pushing over her wheelchair towards the bed. He nudged her and she slowly crawled out bringing along her blanket, and was brought over for a late breakfast meal.
“Whether it’s because of that bastard or even your finals, you can’t bottle it up.”
She simply stared at her spoonful of soaked cornflakes.
“So you just want me to run away?”
“No, not like that,” Jeremiah tried to de-escalate the situation but she didn’t let him.
“This is something I can’t even run from anymore.” She would be taken away from her mother if she couldn’t control it anymore. She read up on how they treated Evolver threats, they’d be isolated—incarcerated for life—forever in a place nobody but a select few would know. She’d be alone again. Her biggest regret?
“Shut off your brain for a sec, won’t you?” Isaiah cut through her thoughts, pushing the bowl and seat closer together. “Just eat and think about the food.” And she did. It was soggier than she preferred but focusing on the texture and the sweetness of the milk, eased her body.
“Think doing a lil’ road trip will get your mood up?” Isaiah asked once she finished her meal.
“But I have work to do,” she responded immediately.
“Only the finals really matter at this point and you’re out cold officially for the rest of the week.”
“Plus it’s probably the closest you’ll get to run away from everything.”
A short escape.
The breeze of summer was strong here as the typical Linkon she had grown up in was replaced by a sandy beach with some fields of flowers up on a hill. It took a while to reach this place, which based on the lack of people, was probably in the middle of nowhere.
“It’s a Protofield I found actually,” Isaiah commented, taking out a bucket full of plastic tools in his swim trunks and cotton shirt and heading down near the water in his bare feet. She followed suit, wearing her plain black swimsuit underneath her airy white summer dress with a sunhat strapped onto her head.
“How long ago?” She went to scoop up some water.
“A very long time ago,” he dug into the sand with the bright yellow spade.
“Does that mean Protofields and Protocores have existed way before the tunnel appeared?” Pouring the water to soften the sand a bit more.
“You could say so.”
And he didn’t elaborate any further than that, focusing on shoveling out as much as possible into the sand. It probably wasn’t his specialty then, she brushed it off as they began to work on making a moat as the few clouds in the clear sky moved along.
“Miah, did you know about this place before?” She asked him who was lounging under the cliff’s shadow. He shook his head.
“It’s new for me too.”
But no wanderers, surprisingly. Nothing screamed dangerous here. Nothing crept underneath her skin and even her heart felt at ease here. It was a pocket haven where time moved like normal. As if she hadn’t just committed a falsehood in her heart.
But an escape is an escape, and she felt like she could work at her own leisure. She could beat Caleb if she wanted to in one of the finals but as it is now, nothing weighed on her mind.
“Elle! Help me bring him over to the water!!”
“Nonono, Elle! I don’t wanna!”
“Miah needs to relax a bit more.”
And with a loud splash, the day continued in its calmness.
She knew this wouldn’t last and that the reality of how she used her suppression, consciously or unconsciously, would haunt her going forward. But atleast she didn’t feel alone. She didn’t linger on her loneliness for too long.
But that shelf was already a part of her. She couldn’t ignore it, she didn’t ignore it. An existence which if she erased it—cremated it—would damage her whole. And whether she wanted to or not, she always went back to it.
The collar itself acted as a reminder to stop that.
To run temporarily.
For if she didn’t, nothing would work anymore. From her thoughts to her heart to the people she cared about and the porridge she liked, it would all stop if she didn’t run.
“Congratulations Suivielle for winning 1st in the Interschool 10 kilometre cross-country run! Any remarks?”
“I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me."
"I don’t think I would’ve been here today without them.”
Notes:
I still didn't fully explain how her Evol worked TwT.
It's okay.
Welp. Caleb's appearances are now non-existent now from this point onwards for a while.
Chapter 12: EP 11 - Linkon City Hall
Chapter Text
“Your records are completely empty before 2034,” the interviewer muttered, scrolling through his holographic screen as he refreshed her page multiple times with some frustration. “What happened in 2034?”
“The Chronorift Catastrophe, sir,” she replied softly, in her simple suit. This quick response caused the man to hum with an epiphany.
“You must’ve been one of the people affected by the Chronorift Catastrophe,” he concluded. “That’s why it’s been empty and hasn’t been rectified like the others.”
She nodded. Her mother had explained briefly how many of the city’s files regarding its citizens were corrupted and burned in the process as a result of the infrastructure’s destruction. It marked a case in which many people were considered missing or non-existent as they were wiped from the system entirely. She was a bit more fortunate to still be in the system itself.
“That will be all,” he ended the interview. “We will contact you via email within the next week regarding our decision.”
And a week later in the middle of 2043, she was hired to join Linkon City Hall as she had hoped. It’s been a few months since then. The current buzz around the office was different than before. It was about a faceless figure called Lune who seemed to be in the shadow of the original inspiration of hunters Lumiere . Both figures have maintained public order in one way or the other.
Her colleague, Colette sighed dreamily at the coffee station just thinking about it. "I bet they're both handsome fellows. It would be a miracle if I ever got their Chat ID, don't you think?"
"Why would you want their Chat ID though?" Elle asked, adding three sachets worth of sugar to her cup of plain hot coffee. "Wouldn't it be better if you could help either of them?"
"Oh, you Oldie,” she smacked her lightly. “Have you never read stories revolving around secret romances between heroes? The chemistry and tension is beyond the roof! Plus I would be up there in the networks because I know one of them. Everyone would be competing to be my friend." Elle just stared at her in concern.
"That sounds extremely manipulative. Using someone's popularity for your own gain."
"The world's tough out there. All those OTTOs make it difficult for a bland resume to stand out," her coworker huffed. "That's why I'm stuck here in the meantime, but you're right where you want to be so I won't ruin your fun. Want to go out for drinks later?"
"I'll pass,” Elle waved, throwing her disposable cup into the bin. “I want to finish one last check through the archives."
"You better attend the one next week!” Colette reminded her. “Everyone’s been wanting to get to know you properly! There’ll be some cute guys there too!"
“Okay, okay.”
Lune, although rising in popularity, was incredibly inconsistent in how they do their heroism. Mostly limited to Wanderers and in the day. Otherwise there's nothing. Evol Detectors in the city cannot pin down who Lune is and many ended up theorising it was a team effort or a government stunt of sorts. At least Lumiere had a silhouette, she remembered the merchandise that littered some streets, the shows he inspired—yeah there's a lot. Barely able to look away from the ads which featured him when she commuted to the building.
As it stands right now, Lune was akin to a new urban legend more than Lumiere. Suivielle really doesn't care about these two figures though. If they keep the city safe, then that's what she will see them as.
There was nobody else present in the Archives. She took a sigh of relief and calmly walked through shelves upon shelves of information until she reached the one that dated about 10 years ago. Crouched down. Took out a bluelight pen from her pocket, and pulled out a file she had marked discretely with it.
It revealed a photo she was all too familiar with at this point and she smiled as she reread each detail again. She knew of 4 more of his files but they were so old it was deemed unnecessary to digitise their details unless they were still living, allowing her to change some should they ever catch on to his different professions and same name use that is. Finally finished with her routine, she tapped her card on the receiver before leaving the office. The sun was setting and she walked back home on her usual route. The streets were moderately crowded, walking with it instead of beating and weaving through like others, she had no reason to attract the ire of the masses. At least here, she didn’t stand out and nobody would find her again. She could just be free to exist. Her phone blared and she saw it was Jeremiah calling her, so she picked up.
"What is it?" She asked, going up to her tippy toes to see the traffic light. "Dinner? Is that so? I just finished my shift so I can pick some up. Anything else?"
Then the public system blared. Drowning out the voice of her phone, along with a shout from the crowd, “there’s a Wanderer here!”
‘That isn’t good,’ she frowned, watching as the crowd became agitated.
Some quickly called the Dispatch Center to get Hunters to the site as quickly as possible but the Wanderer had already formed. And the hunters were still far too slow in arriving, likely due to the Dispatch Center being overwhelmed at the amount of calls.
‘City hall doesn't have enough funding to recover these streets at this point either. What a waste,’ she sighed. ‘The cleanup is going to be such a pain to write reports with,’ she watched as people ran away from the biohazard continuously spinning its limbs as if in a dance routine.
Not wanting to be caught in its path, Elle lightly jogged along with the crowd, clutching tightly onto her bag before a sudden presence made itself known. Overbearing in nature with its shockwave, it forced her to crouch to her knee as the Wanderer was pushed to the ground. She can feel her heartbeat increase in the harsh situation but the thought of seeing the Wanderer's body nearby made her blood run cold. 'That was quite harsh,' she winced to herself, holding onto her bag still. She didn’t like wanderers at all, they only reminded her of it all. She wanted to run again before she heard a crisp clear crunch. This was followed by a collective sigh before some light hysteria in the crowd reverberated across the streets.
After a moment of deep breaths to recollect herself, she slowly stood back up and saw the Hunters finally arrive on the scene. 'I can't be late to dinner now.'
"No Protocores?" A hunter uttered to his colleague, flabbergasted at the sight. "It must've been that piece of shit Lune again," a Hunter cursed to himself. "He never leaves behind anything for us to pick up. We could learn more about Wanderers with it too," he bitterly commented.
‘I hope there’s congee today,’ she pressed on back home. Running in her sports shoes after tying her hair.
Notes:
I missed a few things in the 1-2 high school section but if I ever do a retcon/edit them again I'll add it in. This current rendition should have the main ideas if anything that I want communicated.
Colette mmm might do more with you maybe.
Chapter 13: EP 12 - Traces of you
Chapter Text
To my faraway star,
It feels delusional to keep writing to you unsent letters. But I saw you in my dream again last night. We were stargazing in a field of flowers. My head rested atop of your chest, it was soothing in the moment, hearing your heart beat rise suddenly after I placed my arm around your torso but my throat burned afterwards. I struggled to breathe for a while and you were fast asleep at that point. It felt like hands were pulling me down amidst my pain and your grip on me disappeared before I woke up in a sweat. And realised it was a dream again.
It would be better to compare it to a nightmare but then every dream I’ve had with you would be a nightmare as well.
I don’t like to admit it but a small part of me finds comfort when you are there. Even if I was faced with death, at least the grim reaper who would take me away would look like you.
I hope to meet you one day,
Su
Thankfully the collar stopped blaring painfully red immediately after she finished writing that entry, she huffed in relief, sealing the paper in a letter before leaving it to collect dust in a purple cardboard box she had bought impulsively years ago. Finally, she could get herself dressed for the upcoming day of work.
Today’s assignment was particularly big and a continuation from last time, mostly because they were in the process of moving out their database completely to the new system. They needed to sort through all the remaining old physical files that survived the Chronorift Catastrophe and dedicate various guides on how to access and read them as a backup measure. Today, she would continue with the former while some of her project members would continue the latter. The rooms with the physical archives were always cold, hence why she wore a turtleneck first and foremost today before she continued traversing further, and why she was alone in the large archive, sorting through her things.
The process of being here, keying in details from papers into the holographic terminal in her hand with the electronic device lighting up the cramped rows upon rows of shelves was an arduous feeling according to them.
“Don’t you ever feel like suffocating back there?” Colette once asked her last week, as they tapped out of the building. “Unlike the rest of the City Hall, they never bothered to upgrade that room. They don’t even really enforce us to even work on it but you still do it.”
“I just like sorting through things,” was her answer.
The continuous search, check, record, check, move on that was ingrained into her fingers since she was younger made her relax in such a cold place. Such numbing temperatures which didn’t spike her stress levels, information which could be useful if she ever encountered it, and most importantly, everyone did not take a stab at her. There was no sense of spotlight here, even in the office when she stood out, she could just be stuck to the background.
She didn’t want to be a star, at most she would reflect it. She didn’t want to be a light for someone. For anything. She couldn’t. All she did was snuff them out. Especially from her life. She stared down at the name she had automatically typed in without further thinking.
Xavier.
She cracked a short-lived smile before her eyes lost its vigour for a moment.
‘This is the 8th time I’ve encountered another mistake of yours in the past 2 weeks,’ checking the details and quickly adjusting them. ‘You just couldn’t decide whether to be a food critic or a product tester, this time huh?’
In the end, she decided to delete the entry entirely after seeing how he was marked as deceased and threw the file into another box beside her feet. He didn’t need to have such shining traces of his existence.
_ _ _
By the time she clocked out of the archives and returned back to her desk, Colette appeared a bit peeved in front of her. “Elle, remember what I told you last week? Tonight, you have to come! Everyone’s already there! They’re waiting for us!”
Oh right, they wanted to have drinks with her tonight. She could probably handle it, letting the older woman drag her to the restaurant the others were at.
You: out drinking 2nite
Miah: WHAT
Miah: NO UR NOT
You: alr promised
You: sry
“What’s the restaurant called?” She asked Colette.
“Big Bite!” She answered before looking over at how the younger woman typed on her pebble phone and smirked. “Who’re you texting?”
Miah: call me when ur done ok?
You: ok
“Backup,” she answered with a straight face before putting back her phone in her pocket as they finally arrived at the restaurant. What followed was party poppers and a hoard of people who congratulated her instantly.
After sitting down, Colette went on a tangent, pouring her a drink. “You’re always so strict and say no every time we go out and aren’t even in the group chat! So congrats on joining Linkon City Hall’s Team B! Would you like to say anything as our guest of honour?” Gesturing the glass drink to her as a makeshift microphone, she took it and looked around her.
“Thank you, Colette,” she held onto her glass tighter, unsure of how to continue. “Um, I’m not really that great at speaking but it’s been great working with you all. I know a lot of you might not see our line of work as anything special, tedious even with how much physical paperwork we deal with sometimes, but I appreciate every one of you for helping me since my volunteering days from my teenage years even.” A few familiar faces from back then cracked a smile while some were shocked by this sudden last minute comment.
“I hope everyone has a wonderful night.”
And they cheered and toasted together.
_ _ _
Amidst all the chatter and laughter as they continued finishing bottle after bottle, the colleague who sat to her left seemed to lean closer to her. Closing the gap she had established at the beginning as their shoulders and part of their arms fully touched. The guy coughed and looked away before glancing at her again.
“Who’s ready for another round!”
In the waves and waves of highs, all she could feel was that gaze. It never wavered, and she tried to clap along to whatever Colette was doing. Karaoke probably to distract her from the feeling, the sensation. It reminded her of what happened back then. The voice, one she recognised to be scruffy and slightly nasally in its awkward delivery, whispered to her with some content. “You tied your hair up again with that hair tie."
Point blank, slightly drunk but still sober enough, she looked at him before she replied. “I know you like me but I don’t. You’re pushing the line too much.”
“BURNNNN!!!” Colette yelled much to his embarrassment. “He just got burnt from the Ice Princess of the Archives, Everyone!!!”
Howls of laughter went through the area, and the almost suffocating presence from beside her disappeared as he stormed off. “Colette,” she tried to tell her off for making a scene but she was already in another world at this point getting ready to sing a song with the others. But for the rest of the night, the colleague was nowhere to be found. Maybe he went home already after that.
_ _ _
After safely getting Colette into a taxi as the others were gone she sighed as she looked around. She held onto her head, taking a moment to breathe and revel in the silence after that chaotic welcoming party. It was fun.
“I seek spring in the depth of the lush mountains.
There my spirit rises with every step.
My heart opens, basking in the spring sun like a peach blossom.
I feel it blooming like the first time we met…”
Her shoulders stiffen at the first stanza of the poem and she pivoted to see him still here. “Why are you reciting that?” Her sharp voice pierced through before he could continue.
“I’m adequate enough, aren’t I?” He asked.
“Yes, you’re great to work with–”
“I wanted to ask you out. I was supposed to ask you out,” he shakily drew a breath out. “But you shut me down. Why? Do you already have someone in mind like in those love poems you write?”
She wanted to scoff in her face but she could feel the nauseousness from drinking rise and swell within her in waves at his words. Clenching her hands, she calmly replied. “Let’s assume that is the case. That I do have someone I’m waiting for to like me back, why continue to try asking me out?”
“Because it’s better than having regrets,” he answered plainly. “But you still haven’t answered why you don’t like me that way.”
Without hesitation, she bluntly struck him. “Just thinking of dating someone I met at work is kind of tiring to me. All we’ll talk about is work in our free time.” She could see how his eyes, which could have been blinded by her beautiful and messy way she emoted back then during competitions, were shattered.
“You’re not giving me a chance to expand?”
“I haven’t seen a reason to.”
“I see,” he looked away from her. “Thanks for your answer and Good Night.”
“Get home safely,” she added, staring at his back before her face broke into a painful giggle at his words.
“‘Love poems?’ I don’t even write sonnets, what’s he talking about?” Her voice cracked under her whisper. “All I submitted in Uni was just messy emotional rambles.” It was pathetic. She was pathetic, feeling rain drop on her hair suddenly along with how a Myst appeared nearby. Ready to ram its way into the streets if it didn’t dissipate like mist immediately afterwards. The moon which shone brightly earlier, was covered by the crying clouds. She trudged back to Philo, the sign at the front was closed but she continued anyway.
“Miah, sorry for crashing over,” she drawled out after opening the door with a chime. This startled him from behind before he rushed to see her.
“I thought I told you to call me when you’re finished?” Before he jumped slightly at her state. “You didn’t bring an umbrella with you?! Trying to get yourself sick?! You don’t even like being sick!” He scurried to find a towel to dry her with.
“Prince O’ Heavenly Prince—from my dreams to my reality,
Help cast aside the fate set by the Astrals for it is mine.
Imaginary? It is not. Elusive? It is not.
Let your aide, steed, any-man-who-can help me fulfill this selfish wish
Of mine.
So selfish it is”
“Why are you reciting the acrostic poem you made when you were 15?” Finally tossing a clean towel for her to dry herself.
“There’s a coworker of mine who recited the poem I couldn’t recite for the poetry slam because I was too sick that day. One of my friends managed to get a freshman to recite it for me instead. I don’t know why he brought it up, but he was mad that I didn’t let him try his shot long enough but he did say something I find ironic.”
“He tried his shot because he didn’t want any regrets,” it was a bit funny. “All my poems are about regrets. Even in that poem. I bet he only remembers the first four stanzas, that freshman forgot the last stanza when she finished but it still manages to get used in Open Days,” she sighed. “I should request LinkonU to remove it from their promotional videos, there’s no sense of artistic respect really.”
And when the guy left the next day, all she could feel was relief and disappointment that her assumptions were correct.
_ _ _
Notes:
This took a while ahahah. Btw if you recognise it, I referenced Fragment of Time here teehee.
Chapter 14: EP 13 - Life update
Chapter Text
The air tonight feels classy with warm lights in this semi-banquet style hall that was rented out for their reunion dinner. Even if it has barely been that many years since they got their high school diplomas. Meg eyes the so-called “non-Bachelor” among them who was busy chatting away with his basketball mates. According to some comments under a post from Skyhaven University’s social media account featuring him, it was revealed that he had a girlfriend. The question was… who was it? How could she wrangle that answer out of him? Nobody else among the class went there, opting for international universities instead. Mindlessly, she played with the champagne glass in her hand as the rest of her friends on the table continued to gossip about incidents from their workplace.
What was she doing? Well, she’s been tirelessly working as a secretary for one of the richest if not the richest conglomerates in the entire world right now and it was certainly tiresome how many things she had to keep tabs on. This was probably the only free day she had left and honestly being with her high school class wasn’t a bad deal. But the lively cheery atmosphere suddenly came to a halt as everyone’s voices slowly started to quiet down. Firm clicks of heels were heard as they stepped on the shiny marble white floor, revealing an unexpected addition to the crowd.
“How are you here, Elle?” An awkward laugh escaped someone’s lips, breaking the silence.
“I got an email from Caleb about it yesterday,” she revealed before sitting next to Meg after displacing her small leather purse onto the table. She sighed with annoyance, as the other table seemed to get rowdier by the moment.
“Cut it out,” Meg heard Caleb mutter to the others.
She leaned closer towards Elle, who was styled as if she was at a business function rather than anything fancier, wearing her work tag from Linkon City Hall along with an all black outfit (including slacks) and whispered, “So you’ve been keeping in touch with Caleb during Uni, huh?”
“No, I was busy running around doing some competitions or internships to really meet anyone,” she responded, clearly for the other tables to hear as she poured some water for herself.
Diane from across the table gasped, “Not even a boyfriend with that pick-me charm you have?”
“Not even a boyfriend,” she hummed.
“But I heard they called you names though.”
“Like what?”
“The cold-hearted poet.”
She snorted at that remark. “That’s impossible, everything I write is sappy and cringe,” and their conversations went round and round while they ate, until it continued on without the sudden intruder. Once it did, Suivielle went back out, finally gone from the daunting spotlight.
She didn’t want the collar to blare again, watching as the moon could be seen clearly in the sky.
“The moon is beautiful isn’t it?” A classmate suddenly appeared beside her. Leon was his name, she recalled. She simply hummed before continuing to look up to it. And as if her eyes were playing tricks on her, a silhouette with a coat-tail zapped through the buildings and she could feel something in herself stir restlessly afterwards.
Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t have been worse as Leon clasped his hands and began a lengthy ramble.
“I really like how you don’t care about what others think of you and stick to being true to yourself. Plus the way you concentrate in class, and seem to effortlessly do the work and even the difficult questions from the workbook, you inspired me to persevere and continue with my dream of becoming an orthodontist. So… please go out with me!”
Leon, a classmate she barely remembered, liked her for being true to herself and praised her for many things she didn’t even care about. She wanted to laugh but didn’t have the energy to. She didn’t even feel sincere when she said her rejection.
“I’m sorry, I don’t feel the same.”
“Then,” he pursed his lips before asking, “do you have feelings for someone here?”
“I don’t.”
“Not even Caleb Xia?”
“Not even Caleb Xia.”
“I see. Thank you for hearing me out, I’ll head inside now,” leaving her to ponder a little longer to stare into the glimmering sea of stars.
Caleb Xia is the person she envied the most in the whole world. More than whoever was Evangeline, she envied him the most.
She would return inside for dessert, leaving her thoughts for the endless night to only know.
‘Nobody needs to know that I do.’
_ _ _
The night continued with mild chatter until they slowly left, content with knowing what everyone was up to these days. When everyone left, with careful assessment, she pivoted her heel to still see Caleb to her right.
It's just the two of them left and his posture which leaned to one side told her everything she needed to know. They hadn’t actually talked to each other the whole night and there was likely a hidden motive as well.
She began the conversation, taking out her dumbphone from her bag. “How's the DAA treating you?”
“Just fine, the routine is a lot more relaxed than you'd think. What about you? City Hall seemed more like a stepping stone than a destination to me.”
“And it is,” she opened her messages to see a text from nobody.
“Still using the same brick, huh?” He chuckled.
“Until it dies, I'll stick to it. Everyone knows I don't need much tech to function there.”
And they both snickered at the fact before recounting small snippets from when they were in class.
And after calling it a night and pivoting her heel, a question pierces through the planned end. “How was Millie when she was your junior? Was she okay?”
The voice was measured. Controlled yet so much intensity seeped through, she could barely hide how much it suffocated her to hear that name.
“She didn't tell you?”
“Nothing,” he replied curtly
“Then I don't know.” She wanted to run but she could feel how his Evol was itching to keep her in place.
“But she recited your poem for that poetry slam competition last year,” his voice gripped onto her soul. Piercing through any defense. “Surely you must have encountered her? After all, you both went to LinkonU, didn’t you?”
She could feel her fingers go numb again, and her heart rate spike at a frightening pace as his face scrunched up at keeping appearances. But she had to keep a hold of the situation, shutting off his Evol with little hesitation.
She sighed.
“If she didn't tell you then you have to respect her decision.”
As if clarity took him over, he stepped back, voice faltering in its certainty. “Right…”
“Well, see ya when you survive a crash or something,” she waved and walked away, losing her cool demeanour-like face for a scowl immediately after.
Did he even deserve such a sister? Having his affection returned at the level of intensity it is at—that devotion and dedication—what if she could kill or switch spots with him? What did he do in his past lives to deserve such a reward for his loyalty while she merely got scraps? Dust at best?
She could feel tears prick her eyes and she quickly rushed home before the collar could seize her again.
Life was unfair.
It was unfair to Suivielle still no matter how much she wanted to balance it out.
Notes:
Welp more Caleb tidbits here! And Meg!
Chapter 15: EP 14 - I should move on
Notes:
PART 1 SUIVIELLE
1-3 SWITCH IT UP
EP 14
Chapter Text
Meg after doing what she considered to be another tiresome week of non-stop scheduling and rescheduling and organising of papers upon papers and meetings upon meetings, her emotional and physical compensation was two invitations to the Nest’s Hunting Day coming up. She had no idea what it was about and assumed it was out in the countryside in a city like Verdantree where they were shooting boars and pheasants for sport, something relaxing like that, so when she found out the location was in the city centre itself she was shocked.
What was her Boss giving to her? Sure he’s like only the CFO or something but he shouldn’t have that many strings to end up here. Maybe Hunting Day is some sort of social networking thing? The Boss did bring up something like that recently and teased at her lack of enough social awareness.
But what stumped her was why she got two invitations. Not one. All the other girls she knew were already well connected anyway. She droned to herself at her desk about what to do with this and after encountering Elle randomly on the street, she decided to give it to her.
“What’s this?”
“Invitation to a Social Networking Party coming up, I got an extra invite so I thought this might be useful for you compared to everyone else,” she held onto her arm awkwardly as the woman assessed it.
“Sounds really suspicious to me.”
“And if it is, you can totally give them whatever you did back in high school, right?”
Elle seemed annoyed at her optimism but gave in to the invitation, showing up to… a bar getaway in a dress her mother had picked out for her. It was a backless silver dress that reminded her of a siren. And after meeting with Meg, everything seemed fine, conversing with all these random people, although they brought up trades and exchanges a few times.
“Miss, you look new around her, and with that pretty face, I’m willing to give you a sweet deal for some new Modified Protocores.”
‘Huh?’
The lights dimmed before shining the spotlight on Meg.
“Elle?” Meg quivered, barely standing as everyone locked themselves on her, their eyes salivating in delight at her being the prey. “Elle!? What’s happening? Help me!”
And the whole building blacked out, resulting in a cry of mass hysteria.
“What is this?! We didn’t even get a chance to have fun even? What a scam!”
Hidden in a toilet cubicle, Elle tried to calm her down as best as she could. “Look at me, Meg and calm down.”
Her voice shook as she murmured, “they were ready to tear me, Elle.”
“Well? I’m going to get you out of here,” untying the top of her dress.
“No, you can’t go acting as me,” she shook her head.
“Well I know there’s no way you’re getting out of there alive as you are right now so at the very least change into this dress,” she handed it to her. “Our hairs are similar enough under artificial light that they won’t be able to distinguish the difference plus these are sneakers. You can run back and make a police report much faster through the backdoor behind the bartender’s counter. So please, save yourself the trouble.”
“What about you? I’m sososorry for dragging you into this, I genuinely thought it was a social networking party,” her voice broke.
“I’ll get out of it easily. Don’t worry.”
Within moments of exiting the toilet in Meg’s white lace-hemmed dress and her updo, they started surrounding her like flies and before she knew it, she had entered the N109 Zone for the first time.
“Lass didn’t even bother to escape. Let’s sell her organs.”
“And I don’t get any compensation?”
They collapsed instantly and she easily got out of their restraints due to how they were using their Evols to do so.
‘Where do the exits and entrances even begin for a place like this?’
Was this the tallest building in the area? She didn’t know, she didn’t know anymore. Her head spun, and she couldn’t see the stars glimmering in the night sky. Instead, all that accompanied was the light pollution of holograms, advertising random products, wanted posters of criminals, and showcasing farfetched promises.
How fitting.
The darkweb forums made the N109 Zone look like some insane risk of a place where you could gamble your life for a second or even eleventh chance at life, but all she could see it was as a place where she could turn into nothing. No more chances would be spared for the miserable and unforgivable life she has committed herself to. She could feel her throat dry up as the collar lit up in its bloody glory before she screamed up here, startling the birds in the area.
Her vision blurred but she continued in this bloody white dress and began to recite the unnamed poem she wanted to recite but couldn’t. Her voice swelled but maintained its contained and controlled measure as she began to gesture out from the bottom of her heart.
“I commit my falsehoods
to you and you and you.
Past treacherous seas, faraway stars,
rigid trails underneath my boots.
Ablaze in the moon's gaze I commit my sins
to you and you and you.
From the ichor in my veins, the dust in my brain,
the incarcerated crime in my deeds.
I commend you dark knight
to you and you and you.
Fair mother, father, lover.
Approve yourself—appraise yourself. It is fair.
I commend your passion.
I loathe this heart to you.”
She felt so much lighter. It was as if nothing was forcing her to stand and bear the weight of her existence. The hair whips around her face as if sentient, as if making an illusion of a starry sea for her eyes only. With this, the faraway star will remain as such and her tireless pursuit—those dreams—can finally end.
It can finally end.
She can stop being reminded of him when she closes her eyes, feeling the memories both haunting and irreplaceable replay in her mind as she continued her descent into madness. It will end, was all she could think as it all flashed in her mind.
The end was near.
And it would close her.
Forever.
For she didn’t deserve it. After what she had done to her, after all that she had done to keep her here and alive, it would finally end.
And yet, instead of an instantaneous strike of insurmountable pain and nothing, somebody caught her 10 metres before the ground and still crashed down there due to the force she descended at being too much. The familiar voice groaned in pain before sighing, cushioning her fall tremendously.
“Just let it out,” he huffed, still holding a firm embrace over her as her whole body lurched, unable to curl into a cocoon by proxy of their positions.
“Please don’t do this to yourself. Your mother looks forward to seeing you next weekend, Jeremiah needs help with those new orders,” he slowly patted her as he recollected his thoughts, “and…”
“Xavier doesn’t deserve you.”
“Maybe in your memories you deserved each other,” he began, “but as it is now, it may be worth considering turning over a new book entirely.”
“For you and Marin’s sake, forget about him if he only brings you pain.”
‘Forget?’ How could she forget him?
“Even if he always appears when I close my eyes?” Her voice, hoarse, finally spoke up, unsure of how to continue from this.
“Dreams are meant to help you sleep,” he muttered under his breath, still patting her. “How you’ve been treating yours is more akin to mind experiments and documentaries. They’re not supposed to be prophetic. The fate of the world isn’t on your shoulders only.”
“It takes multiple people to dictate and change fates as large as the world.”
“Please remember that.”
Even with the possibility of him having broken his bones, she only continued to shiver. Isaiah had saved her. Again. She can’t keep relying on him to save her forever.
“I should really try to move on.”
So nobody else tries to save her again.
“For real this time, yeah?”
“Yeah…”
Chapter 16: EP 15 - Return
Chapter Text
It’s been a few months since she hasn’t set foot in the UNICORNS headquarters, a new year has passed and Lune’s become more active these days as well compared to before according to Jeremiah. Even on the Association’s forums, the sudden hate the mysterious faceless vigilante received was unheard of. It rivaled that of vendettas and bloody ancestral rivalry and those turf wars in the N109 Zone, an illegal body was jeopardising a whole job sector’s income.
That’s pretty bad, she thought, watching as the children at the kindergarten scooped up the warm congee she made with the staff by themselves with the ladle. Although their hands were shaky, she could see how dedicated and concentrated they were, furrowing their brows. There was another line for those who didn’t want to do it by themselves but it was a lot less as most wanted to try doing what the adults do.
After they had their lunches and then got themselves ready for their afternoon nap, the staff bowed, thanking for her time to volunteer again. “I didn’t do much though…”
“But you’re a Hunter, no? A lot of them look up to you! And I’m sure you’re protecting the city to the best of your ability with the others,” they gushed before guiding her outside the gate of the one story building.
“I’ll stop by next week again!”
She had to help out Jeremiah with the new batch of orders, returning to Philo quickly to put on an apron and some gloves before getting to work on checking, pruning, giving plant food, and fulfilling the required orders. These ones had to be maintained in a cool temperature which she could easily use her evol to maintain the level. Her precision was freakishly scary already according to him.
“Why are there so many Lillies this time?”
“It’s for the funeral for a well-known collector,” Jeremiah briefly explained, and she hummed.
“Raymond I’m guessing?” He hummed in agreement before they began to load the truck load of boxes of flowers to be sent to the funeral venue to be used in a few days time. By this point, after Solomon Hotel’s usage of Philo’s flowers became known, many businesses began to flock and order from him well in advance due to how much of a small business he was. And yet nobody could compete with how long and fresh the flowers lasted from him.
The secret was unreplicable by other rival flower businesses.
And that secret is well… a human touch you could say.
After they delivered the flowers, they decided to stop by the noodle stand where the old lady made value for the money meals.
“Back again after another run, huh?”
They only nodded, mouths stuffed with the yummy broth already.
“I hear the streets these days are getting a lot wilder, especially because of the amount of Wanderers that aren’t appearing here anymore,” she commented. “Sure I’m thankful there’s less of these hazards going around, but Wanderers are like those monster-catcher games, if you can run and not engage with them, it’s safer than having someone with a weapon just charge at you and relentlessly chase you… especially when these streets still lack surveillance,” she sighed. “Even the others in the neighbourhood have complained to the District Board about it but they’ve done nothing about it.”
“So make sure to watch yourselves okay?”
“What about you?” Elle asked the noodle maker, finishing her bowl with a thud. “You should also make sure you’re safe, you’re always open until really late into the night.”
“Nobody these days is desperate enough to charge at someone like me when I can just give ‘em a hearty meal without them spending the extra money at a mall! No service tax from me!” She giggled. “Plus if all else fails, I used to be from the first batch of arctic hunters, so I know quite a bit about how to deal with emergencies. Nothing really shocks me anymore.”
“I see.”
‘I’m not even sure what shocks me anymore,’ returning back to her apartment 309 of Garden South Peak (which ironically was the shortest of the buildings around the whole street actually). Unlike the building directly opposite of hers, which while just one floor taller was moreso reserved and prioritised for Hunters instead. After her mother changed jobs again and she got accepted into LinkonU, it seemed natural to just move again, this time it felt more permanent than the last of course as they ended up buying the space instead of renting it. Although it was a hassle, they managed to get it and it’s been rather peaceful since then.
Extremely peaceful as the sight of the same unmoving shoes were at the doorstep again. She took off her shoes and socks, letting her bare feet touch the cold smooth surface and after washing her face, she landed herself at the couch in the living room and began to doze off into sleep.
Her phone rang from across the room at the dining table. Incessantly, to the point that it took 3 repeated rings after a momentary pause each time before she dragged her feet back up before her neighbours started sending noise complaints to the building owner.
It was Jenna.
She had to pick up.
“Hi,” she began, holding onto her temple to stop herself from sighing. “Haven’t heard from you for a while… Captain,” her voice lowered.
“I thought you’d like to know about a promising new recruit who joined the Alpha Team about 2 weeks ago. She’s great and reminded me a lot about how you worked, and has helped us find some more information. After she entered the No-Hunt Zone with her partner they found modified protocores, and these devices seem to harness it.”
“Why are you telling me this in the middle of the night, Captain?” Barely holding herself standing.
She chuckled, “you insisted I bring you any new information regarding Protocores and I’ve just gotten a look at the data from Andrew. I thought you’d want to take a look at them tomorrow first thing in the morning before anyone else.”
“I know you’re on leave and it doesn’t matter when you’re back on duty but I feel like it’s better for you to see this in person before you decide. I’ll be in my office at my usual time tomorrow so come by then.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes, I hope you rest well.”
“You too.”
Modified protocores aren’t anything new but this must be a big deal, she drew out a huge breath before dropping herself back onto the couch. At this point, she was doing nothing and everyone seemed relieved at her occupation, even though she had never told them she wasn’t active right now. But new developments in Protocores, how much closer to the end is it going to get?
The inevitability she doesn’t want. Philos.
After running away from Death again, she had to swallow her pain of it all again. For the sake of the future where she can be happy again. She will return back.
The UNICORNS building is as it always was and for now, nobody had batted an eye towards her outside of how she wasn’t wearing the Hunter Uniform but instead her own clothes. But the Uniform, she wanted to cringe at her stupid reason of being unable to find it. Maybe she burned it, Jenna would surely laugh at her for this and use her own paycheck to buy her another one when she finds out ready to walk to her office only to be spotted by a bunch of new faces.
"Good Morning!" a bubbly young woman cheerfully greeted her from the group of newbies in the middle of the place. "Are you looking for someone?"
She clutched her bag a bit tighter before nodding, the mask hiding how terrified she was. "Have you seen where Captain Jenna went?"
"She's in her office right now.”
“Thank you,” she quickly went up to see Andrew and Jenna. The two of them were surprised to see that she had come in the first place.
“I missed the train,” she mulled, removing her mask as they finally got to business. The iris scanner opened to her right eye, verifying her as Suivielle, before allowing her access into the rest of the database through the use of the holographic glasses.
Jenna nimbly began to showcase the unnatural protocurves they picked up on in the modified protocore. “Thoughts?”
“It doesn’t really seem like the work of Onychinus specifically,” assessing the protocurves closer, “although it’s clear that they’ve been influenced by how they modify their protocores for auctions. Whether it’s for profit or notoriety—the aim screams as a test of pride than anything else. Where was this found again?”
“No-Hunt Zone 7.”
“The cosmic signal station one.”
Jenna only hummed.
“Testing,” she concluded. “This modified protocore was made with the sole purpose of testing something or someone, there’s a faint fourth protocurve but,” picking on a holographic pen tool, she circles the expected curve with a dotted line, “it’s too unstable to truly actually be one.”
“It has no monetary gain really so it was made in-house with an in-house purpose.”
“Not auctioned or traded or sold? Or distributed?”
She shook her head.
“No-Hunt Zone 7 is one of the worst places to test such a product if it’s for sale. Too much interference from space and on the ground, product can be easily damaged,” she huffed before taking off the holographic lens. “Thanks for sharing the data with me.”
“Now, the important question,” Andrew began and Jenna looked expectantly at her.
“Are you back on board?”
“Fortunately.”
After being reintroduced to the new crowd of recruits, it was as if her whole life spun on its head once again. After she had told herself to forget and let go…
‘Why is he right in front of me now?’ His hand was stretched out in a shake as he introduced himself.
“Hi, I’m Xavier, I look forward to working with you going forward,” he gave a simple smile and she felt everything unravel and simply hummed before heading for her desk.
‘Will everything I’ve done surmount to nothing again?’
_ _ _
Notes:
AND WE'RE DONE WITH PART 1!!!!
Funfun stuff, although I need to look back at this one again.
Chapter 17: INTERMISSION 1
Notes:
INTERMISSION 1
WORLD UNDERNEATH CHAPTER
"THE DREAMERS"
01 | After The Interview
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
She remembered it like it was yesterday how she met him. She was wearing a simple suit and handed out a copy of her CV to the panel of interviewers who drilled and assessed her as she sat awkwardly in the chair placed in the middle of the room. She held tightly onto her hands which rested on her lap as they began to question her. From skills to even her background, she had braced herself for this and simply wanted to get it done and over with at this point. With as much professionalism in her voice, she answered their questions unless she considered them inappropriate, and thankfully (unlike last time) they weren’t any.
“Thank you, we’ll notify you through email about your employment.”
She bowed politely before walking out the door and she felt her feet melt.
Who in the world has the bright idea to join an insurance company with a mere diploma in management. She wanted to laugh at herself, at how desperate she had become. Taking out her phone and checking her email, she felt dread pool in her gut as nothing had changed. No new response from the Academy regarding her carefully documented response to their own. It didn’t make sense to simply dismiss her well-researched thesis without properly examining her work.
It was as if they used a summariser—not even their own eyes—to assess the months of blood, sweat, and tears she poured into researching this phenomena (and LLMs weren’t even commonplace yet during the 2010s from what she remembers, that was a 2020s thing). And because she didn’t have a Masters in astrophysics and no accreditation in anything related to deepspace, they merely dismissed her ideas as fiction.
She couldn’t even afford to get a masters, let alone a bachelor's degree even, as she continued to walk down. Without even a chance to catch herself out of the situation, a man bumped into her and so many papers flew into the air as if Spring had begun again instead of ending.
“I’m so sorry for that!” He quipped, scrambling to recollect and reorganise his papers. One in particular had ‘Life insurance’ on it which made sense considering where they were. But there were so many legal papers she had never seen before, or rather, the amount of them was simply startling for one man to be carrying all by himself. She simply handed him back the rest of the papers which were missing and he sighed. “Now I have to reorganise this again,” he muttered.
“I can help.”
“Oh you mustn't,” he shook his head, “I bumped into you after all.”
“I didn’t look where I was going so it was partially my fault,” she replied, “please. I have nothing better to do.”
"Allow me to introduce myself then," he handed over his business card.
"Callaghan. Deepspace Academy Researcher," she read, scrutinising it. She cockily sneered and looked at him again, "you look nothing like your profile on the website."
Notes:
I actually wanted to drop the whole WU in here but I don't have the brainpower right now to write it down fully because it would be about 5 to 7 sections long. So unfortunately it will be done in installments.
Take a guess at who this is and why I dropped it here.
Did some minor retcons earlier so feel free to dig around again.
Chapter 18: EP 16 - It makes no sense
Chapter Text
Forgive me.
That phrase haunted him at the back of his mind as he stared at his screen, leaning back into his chair before clicking off the DMs tab after seeing her next message.
Suivielle: I don’t want to.
The ashy brunette sighed before she stood up from her desk, which was a few metres away from him and briefly glanced at him. Her eyes, coloured like dull pebbles, momentarily held bitterness as her brows furrowed before she walked out of the open office space.
Like before, when she first saw him properly, there was a look of acknowledgement that confused him. It was as if she already knew him before that. But with a face like that she would be unmistakable. It was as if he had been caught by the very thing that has been haunting him over the centuries. From his graveyard of memories.
But that shouldn’t be possible. Millie was the one with the Aether Core. He knew so. He saved her after all during the Chronorift Catastrophe 14 years ago. There’s no way he could forget her face, he wasn’t like the revenants—he knew her. He saved her this time.
But why did Suivielle spend so long just to type ‘Forgive me’ in the end? At worst he was expecting a ‘No’ but she also said she didn’t ‘want to’. The only conclusion he could conjure was that she knew something but wouldn’t give him the information willingly. Was she sent to test him? But she was already part of the Alpha Team for a while, so there’s no way she was sent by them. He needed to cool off but was instead called by Jenna regarding the findings of their new Protocore from last night.
Millie, the girl he had assumed was the one and was a newer recruit, suggested they do some training afterward. “I want to test out some new combos with the trials, is that okay with you, Xavier?” She asked, unaware of the disarray he was in.
Millie still had the Aether Core, so he wasn’t sure what was at play. But if he could just get an opportunity to talk to her, then maybe, maybe … it would make more sense why she had her face and recognised him.
“Sure,” he replied. “Why not.”
When they entered the training rooms, there were a plethora of booms and crashes beside the empty training room area. “Someone must be venting,” she commented, before they got started, wearing the holographic glasses which utilised AR technology to simulate battles with Wanderers. Getting his blade ready, the two of them easily breezed through 10 stages before calling it a day. He handed the fiery red-haired girl a clean towel which she gladly accepted as they checked through the training rooms leaderboard. It was in-house only and didn’t mingle with the rest of the Hunters Association.
In the Singles category for the Endless Run Mode, a familiar name showed up at the very top spot.
Suivielle - 1101
“Oh, it’s Elle! Our senior!” Millie smiled at the name before looking at Xavier. “I wonder how long she’s been doing this to get higher than Captain Jenna,” she wondered, pointing out how their squad leader was only at around 700 by comparison, leaving a large gap between the Top 2 Scorers of this particular module. He only hummed before the training room beside them opened, revealing the aforementioned woman. She held tightly onto a steel bat and sighed in relief.
“You use a bat as a weapon?!” Millie yelled across the hall, like a combat nerd. Stars were practically beaming out of her eyes and immediately ran to hound her questions and praises. “But how are you so high on the leaderboard? Isn’t the Endless Run Mode like… super hard?” She pointed out.
“My Evol,” Elle simply replied with a shrug.
“No protocores are in the bat?”
She laughed quietly before looking and playing at the bat as a mere toy. “This old thing is just junk I picked up from a flea market. It’s got nice weight and grip to it compared to the standard claymore and sword they have here.” It was certainly an odd choice.
“That’s so cool!” Millie beamed. “It’d be really cool if we got assigned a mission together, wouldn’t it, Xavier?” He froze at the mention of his name, and pointed at himself. Unsure of how to bring himself into the conversation. “Mission together, yeah?” He didn’t answer outside of a nod as he tried his best to assess Suivielle’s discomfort and mild apprehension at the sight of him.
It was minute, but it was there. From how she changed her grip as the newbie began rambling proudly with a hawkish tone. “My Evol’s really good for amplifying other people’s Evols, and some even called me a Bloodhound of sorts, so I’m sure we’d pair up really well!”
She only hummed at her before holding the bat in front of her. “Do you want to try it?” Millie nodded and held the bat with childish glee before rushing back into the training room Elle had used. Putting on the holographic glasses again, Elle began to key in the Endless Run mode in Co-Op.
While Millie continued to swing and bash them with so much glee, he noticed how she left a lot of blind spots wide open. Allowing for the nimbler wanderers to creep up from behind but before he could take out his blade, a shot to its head sent it dissipating into dust.
It was Elle who had done so, he realised, watching how she skillfully covered for the young Hunter with the Hunter Pistol. Without her realising it, a wanderer appeared behind her. Ready to unsheathe his blade and strike with lightning speed, his field of vision blared orange instead of its regular blue tinge.
YOU ARE NOT AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN THIS TRIAL
‘What?’ And he watched as his blade went through the simulated wanderer before turning towards the non-uniform wearing woman to his left. She simply looked at him without another word. Her short gaze was unintelligible to him unlike before.
“You having fun?” She asked Millie with a mere pivot.
Millie cackled maniacally, swinging the bat towards a simulated Myst with ease and knocking it down. “Hell yeah!”
At least she’s having fun and getting along well with Suivielle and unlike before, it seemed like he could finally get a chance to talk to her as all the wanderers hoarded around Millie who basked in the heat of the moment.
“About earlier,” he spoke up, getting closer to her. “Elle, why do you—”
Without warning the pistol she gripped was aimed directly at his forehead. Point blank. Her eyes held a deadly and concentrated look of contempt, as her finger was on the trigger. Unlike the simulation they were in, the weapons were in fact real and tangible. So if she pulled on it as her bloody gaze behind the lens suggested, then there was in fact something that she knew. He held onto the hilt tightly and looked down to see her lanyard still on her. “Do you hate me?” Fully bracing for the impact
A blast was heard behind him with a bird-like shriek. He felt his heart swell in relief at her sudden change of heart, noticing her sound more annoyed. “You’re in the way,” she uttered.
“In the way of training or... something else?”
She didn’t answer as the buzzer went off, and he wanted to intimidate and squeeze the information out of her but Millie, who was still in a cheery mood, noticed the tense atmosphere between the two and dramatically held out the borrowed weapon.
“Here is your prized bat, Miss!” She beamed, disengaging the tension like mere butter as Suivielle held onto the steel bat again before the young hunter dragged Xavier out with a wave and a smile on her face. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”
And she waved back with a faint smile before it disappeared as she locked eyes with him again.
Millie doesn’t beat around the bush at all once they’re out of earshot of the training rooms with her question, “you guys were ex-partners or something?”
“No,” he shook his head. “It’s the first time I’ve met her.”
“Well, it doesn’t look like it.”
Of course it doesn’t. But it was unmistakable. She knew him but wanted to act like there was nothing between them.
That bloodlust was intense, almost like someone he hadn’t seen and sparred with in years since the Academy days—no, not her.
He’d need to visit an old friend of his again. He needed someone to believe him. To believe what he saw first before anything else. That he wasn’t stuck in something broken yet never-ending.
Her voice was faint in its last moments of warmth he remembered as she uttered her final wish.
It did happen.
He had met her again. And again.
He had met Millie.
Not Elle.
Not until now.
Notes:
I'm in a good mood today so have the contrast. I guess. Pure Xavier thoughts on the whole ordeal.
Also Deepspace Trials Light Orbit 31-40 was what Xavier and Millie were doing while Elle was doing the Endless Run Mode in Training... if you wanted to know.
Oh right. I'm so happy I get to write Millie again! At some point this fic will have Gideon in it but for now, not yet!
The entirety of part 2 is gonna be heavy handed whether I want it to be or not. There's too much to unpack within the span of 15 chapters so... don't be surprised if it's more than that.
Chapter 19: EP 17 - Who is she
Chapter Text
His feet stepped with no hesitation towards the flower shop after completing the necessary paperwork with his partner. He didn’t see Elle after they left the training rooms, likely due to leaving early. “According to some of the other seniors, she tends to only be in the office until 12,” Mills had told him at the coffee break area, leaning closer to his ear. “Since it’s 3, she probably clocked out.”
“I guess so,” he could only respond before looking down at the latte the coffee machine had made for him.
“By the way, there’s a new tea place that opened a block away from here,” she added, shifting topic. “Wanna try it out with me?”
“I’ll pass for today.” Although she was bummed out by being denied twice from her colleagues, she wasn’t too mad about it. But the way Xavier was just gazing at the cup with a scrunched up furrow was odd.
“You really are something,” was all she uttered before she left him and now, he was within a block of distance away from Philo. Jeremiah’s shop.
But his feet stop as the unimaginable was before him. It was Suivielle again. The lanyard. The way some of her hair curled upwards. The same turtleneck from earlier in the morning. It was her, and she held onto a palm shaped device in her ear. A folding phone perhaps. Her pace was relaxed and without a second thought, he ran towards her.
“Yes, I’m doing fine,” he could hear her casual manner of speaking towards the caller and how she sighed in relief. “I’ll bring some pineapple tarts, okay? Rest well.”
“Elle,” he called out. She stiffened and he could feel something change compared to before. “What a coincidence meeting you here,” he trailed off as she continued to keep her back facing him and didn’t respond. It was as if the very air they breathed became heavier. He took another step forward. “Look, I know it’s barely been a day that we’ve known each other but can you—”
"Please,” her voice cracked barely above a whisper. “We're not even partners at work. Whatever I do outside of it is none of your business. Just leave me be." Her words shattered his will to continue chasing after her as she walked off and turned round a corner. But the glimpse of the face she made which could not be described accurately with mere words only made his heart ache in guilt. But if he had to, it was as if she was running after he broke down the fragile little glass globe she had held so tightly onto as a child, with glass-like eyes and cracks of streams on her cheeks.
Did he even have the right to know?
What he wanted to know wasn’t a Hunter or a colleague but whether the woman who walked with her face and voice was unmistakably an error in the universe. Or if she was in fact the one he couldn’t bear to call by name again. He felt unworthy to even utter her name which was already engraved twice in stone. What made him even worthy to have his current question answered immediately before him? Nothing.
As far as the rest of the world knew, the two of them were just Hunters assigned to the UNICORNS’ Alpha Team. The world didn’t know who Xavier truly was over the ages, from a scientist to a student to whatever he needed at the time. Suivielle was just your normal, everyday skilled Hunter.
That should’ve been all that he needed to know about her.
Worn down from the interaction, he entered Philo’s front door, shocking the fluffy brunette.
“Am I hallucinating a perfectly normal Xavier right now?” He exaggerated rubbing his eyes. “No window hopping entrances?”
“Did a lady with ashy brown hair, this tall”—he gestured with his hand—“with a lanyard stop by here by any chance?”
Jeremiah’s head immediately lightens up with a nod. “She helps out from time to time. Lovely lady, isn’t she?”
The gears inside his head turned, it all sounded too good to be true. "How long has she been helping out?" He probed the shopkeeper, who stared up and started murmuring incomprehensibly under his breath.
"It's been a while."
"Do you know anything about her?"
This question earned an odd look from Jeremiah. "Why? This is new for you to be interested in someone else."
"I don't like what you're implying,” he frowned, looking at the bouquet of forget-me-nots arranged neatly near the cashier. “She's... new at my office."
"I see..."
“Don’t you think she looks similar to her?” Xavier commented, picking up the bouquet and looking at Jeremiah. Unfortunately, outside of the shock, his words were nothing of value.
“Even if she does, you’ve already found her haven’t you?”
Grimly, he nodded at his fellow friend’s words. Although, they were his own.
“But it feels like she knows me and it makes me uneasy.” He couldn’t move around someone like that. What if she knew his weakness? Then everything he was working towards, would be for nothing.
“In what way?”
“It feels like she knows about Philos.”
Jeremiah’s eyes widened and his soiled hands trembled at it. “How does that even make sense? She was born in the 2020s, wasn’t she?” He nodded.
“If she does know,” he began, assessing Xavier’s words, “then why don’t you try and figure out what you know about her?”
“But she doesn’t want to talk to me.”
Jeremiah shrugged. “Well, someone has to do the icebreakers. And it’s certainly not me.”
‘Icebreakers, huh?’
“Xavier, you should’ve been there when me, Tara, and Elle went out for lunch earlier!” Millie gushed as they were currently on patrol in the Soaria District. “Immediately after I sensed the Wanderer form, Elle immediately struck it with a shot and it disappeared leaving only the protocore behind! Nothing was damaged at all! She did it so swiftly and smoothly, I wonder how long she’s practiced to have such great aim.”
With a regular hunter firearm at that, he added to himself. It must be her Evol doing the work.
“If it isn’t too much, I have a favour to ask of you Mills,” he began, scratching his cheek. “Could you find out why Elle doesn’t like me? I genuinely want to know but she won’t talk to me.”
“Aye-aye! But you’re going to let me win those matches in Super Hunters, ‘kay?”
“Sure thing.”
Notes:
It is unfortunate that Elle has no POV voice for a while. This is unfortunately on the shorter side but worry not I have most of 2-1 complete. Ep 20 is in the works rn.
Chapter 20: EP 18 - Girls' Night
Chapter Text
It’s been about a month since her senior who she looked up to returned back from her leave and it’s been the same amount of time since her partner, Xavier, has started being extremely friendly towards her senior and she just ignored him. The whole thing was so weird that the Association’s forums became invested in their affairs.
superhunters89: I just saw him get his large cup of milk tea rejected again. Take the hint! She doesn’t want you back!!!
tellme_more replied to superhunters89: I think he’s dense
superhunters89 replied to tellme_more: tell me ABOUT IT!
drinkmorewater: I wonder what they even broke up about…
ILUVLUMIERE replied to drinkmorewater: iirc the woman used to be part of HQ’s administration department so maybe they broke up due to upper management interference
drinkmorewater replied to ILUVLUMIERE: waitwaitwait you mean she’s the one who was rumoured to become head of admin last year but was instead transferred over to being a field agent in the UNICORNS Sector due to the data leak incident???
touchgrass101 replied to drinkmorewater: do you seriously believe everything on the internet? I’ve talked with her before when she was new so I’ll clear up some things. 1) She was never part of HQ’s admin dep and has always been in the UNICORNS Sector 2) She was on leave since last year so there’s no way it was over that data leak rumour 3) She’s never met the guy before so who wouldn’t be pissed if he kept hounding and annoying her? I would.
“You’re still looking at what the others are saying about them?” Tara saw her screen and leaned on her office chair. “Isn’t it all just the rumour mill turning? I honestly feel bad, it’s probably weighing her down more considering she’s just come back.”
“But surely other departments would have their fair share of news, what makes their situation that much more… important,” she stressed as she continued scrolling before she landed on a particular comment.
followmylead4now: I heard she was personally scouted by the Hunters Association due to her continuous involvement and helpfulness to them. According to a friend of mine who worked with her in the past she used to be called ‘The Ice Princess of the Archives’...
touchgrass101 replied to followmylead4now: It’s still shocking that she switched to being part of the Alpha Team from being an admin…
countonme2day replied to touchgrass101: That’s why her current nickname is ‘Admin Jack’!
followmylead4now replied to countonme2day: Due to her being a jack of all trades.
“Oh,” the two women were stunned by the comment thread. “That’s why Captain Jenna said to ask her for help on paperwork…”
But to be called ‘The Ice Princess’, she heard it from somewhere but she wasn’t sure where, all she could envision was her current doctor who could barely smile a few pixels with his sense of humour. ‘Curse you Zayne and your terrible snowballs! I wanna know what’s going on with my super cool senior!’
“You two are still here instead of enjoying an early weekend?” The voice made them jump from the seat as it was Elle who still didn’t wear the Hunter uniform yet. “It’s nearly 6pm already, is there any paperwork you need help with finishing?” She walked closer towards them and as fast and discreetly as possible she tried to delete the tabs she had opened but— “the forums are talking about it again?” She seemed tired of it, watching the newest recruit delete the tab.
As if caught, the two nodded sheepishly at her response. “Sorry about that…”
“But it’s not like we really believe any of it! From how you were gonna be head of admin to breaking up over a data leak–”
She dug her own grave and Tara only pitied her.
Her senior was sighing at her shallowness! Oh she wouldn’t recover from how much this would bruise her ego! She had to fix this somehow!
“I swear the headhunting company they hired to get me out of that promotion at City Hall did such a terrible job at cleaning up the mess,” Elle muttered under her breath. “I still had to go through the Academy and everything so I’m literally not that much different than you both.”
“A sleepover!” Millie bursted out. “Let’s have a sleepover. At my place. I don’t know how to repay you other than making you dinner and breakfast! But after everything that’s happened, you totally deserve a break!”
And for some reason. Her senior accepted with little reluctance. “Sure.”
‘I can’t believe I'm having a sleepover with Elle and Tara!’ Millie thought, bringing out the foldable mattress from her days at LinkonU. After a quick grocery run, and the other two getting their change of clothes for the night, she started quickly preparing them dinner while they took turns with the shower.
It’s been so long since she’s had something like this happen, ‘the last time was probably NOPE NOPE NOPE!’ Speedily throwing all the cut veggies into the hotpot. ‘You are not taking over my head tonight for it is girls’ night!’
“Make sure you’re on task and don’t get distracted,” Elle gently chided her, moving her hand away from the rim of the pot. Surprisingly, there was no searing pain of revolt from the heat.
“Oh, sorry about that.”
Her pajamas were a pastel purple with star patterns, it reminded her of someone but she focused back onto making dinner instead. She’d find some other time to figure it out.
“Is there a reason you’re so jumpy around my partner?” Millie asked, looking up to the ceiling before turning to face her. She was still sitting upright, against the sofa unlike Tara who was close to sleeping in the clay mask she had brought. The living room was spacious enough to cover them all and the woman in question stayed silent. “Xavier, I mean. He keeps trying to talk to you and you seem terrified sometimes when you encounter him.”
“Yeah, there is,” her voice seemed melancholic when she uttered that.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it…”
“The thing is,” she hugged her knees closer together before letting out a defeated chuckle. “The reasoning is so iffy. I’m not sure when it started but I’ve always ended up dreaming of a guy since I was young, and that guy… looks exactly like him.”
That certainly was weird. It reminded her of the eye she saw on her first day.
“Is his name also Xavier?”
She saw how Elle clutched tighter onto herself with her response, “... he never said his name.”
“That certainly is a very freaky situation.”
“Must be weird then to dream of a doppelganger and then see him in person,” Tara spoke up, empathising with her. “We get you. We’ll make sure to keep you safe! It’s important for the office to be a safe environment for its employees. Have you told Captain Jenna about it?”
“No, I don’t want these feelings to affect my work.”
“I promise, he won’t bother you without my permission from now on.”
As his partner, it made sense for it to be her responsibility.
“What are you doing?” Xavier asked Millie who acted as a one man barricade before Elle. It was still early in the morning so the others hadn’t clocked in and seen the commotion.
“Don’t freak her out!”
“But I’m only going to ask for her opinion regarding the new protocurve results we got.”
‘Why is she so worked up?’
“It’s fine if it’s about work,” Elle commented, gesturing her hand out. “Let me see the results.”
“Wanderer?”
“Basalt,” he promptly replied.
She looked at him sceptically. “Really? The Protocurves resemble that of a Knave instead but it doesn’t have an unstable or additional curve. Either Basalt ate a Knave or it fused somehow.”
“Damn, I forgot wanderers can eat each other,” Millie commented, watching her hand back the data to Xavier. There was still some sense of ire in her expression and tone but confusion pervaded regarding the results. Outside of that, it was civil.
“Thank you.”
Which was a relief.
And for a blink, she saw the corners of her mouth tug upward before returning back like Dr Li. That was weird. But she wouldn’t question it. She just had to tell Xavier about the reason and then he’d lose to her in Super Hunters for once! Maybe she should get a plushie for Caleb soon since he’s coming back to visit Grandma too.
“She knows about Protocores more than I expected,” he muttered to himself as he went through her profile in the Association’s database.
Full Name: Suivielle Liu
Hunter ID: 629579
Joined: 2046/03/14
Sector: UNICORNS
Designation: Alpha Team (former: Administration)
DOB: 2023/07/14 (Age: 24)
Evol Level: S
Evol Class: Inhibitor
Evol: Suppression
“Inhibitor Class?” He was sceptical of the Association’s profile of the woman. There was no way that would make sense. With that face, Anhausen Class would make more sense even with how stifling she was during the whole ordeal. Evolvers with Inhibitor Class were ranked C at most for their Evol Levels, this wasn’t normal. ‘A Suppression Evol, huh?’ His hand traced the ring of blue light around his neck before he stifled a laugh at a passing thought. ‘That’d be absurd.’
Remarks:
- Frequently cooperated with Hunters during her employment at Linkon City Hall
- Transferred to Alpha Team at Captain Jenna’s request
- Was on extended leave from 2047/11/03 - 2048/03/18
‘She’s probably more veteran than me at least in regards to employment here,’ he thought with a huff of discontent. It is unfortunate that very little information he wanted could be extracted from this information. Her in-depth knowledge on protocores was bizarre, especially considering her background in administrative tasks. Of course, he wasn’t dismissing her skills and years spent doing that but it was odd.
She could distinguish the protocurves from a Basalt Wanderer to a Knave easily when it took him years. Millie’s account of how quickly she immobilised a Myst with an unmodified hunter firearm as well. Maybe she was in the Black Market or the Nest? But if she was a frequent customer at the Nest he would’ve noticed.
Jeremiah had access to Linkon City Hall’s database didn’t he? He could just ask him about her.
Notes:
More questions than answers for Xavier. Fun fun.
Chapter 21: EP 19 - What a coincidence
Chapter Text
Philo. It took him a while to find Jeremiah again in the aftermath of the Chronorift Catastrophe. He remembered how the stars were when he left the shop for the first time from the front door, illuminating the sky in a world filled with motion. The world kept moving around him back then, nobody except him, stopped to see the way they glimmered.
Maybe he should pray for a star to fall tonight, he thought idly while walking back to the flower shop in his hoodie. The scent of flowers these days grew stronger as well.
“Miah,” he zipped through the greenhouse’s entrance which startled the poor brunette into nearly dropping a pot as he turned around. Immediately pulled down his wireless headphones.
“Don’t scare me like that, Xavier!” Pushing the pot further into his chest. “You could’ve given me a warning at least before coming here.”
“Well, you clearly ignore it as you see fit even if I do.”
“What’s with the visit today?” Jeremiah placed down the pot on the wood with the rest of its fellows. “Information?” He nodded. “On… ?”
“On Suivielle Liu. You have access to Linkon City Hall’s database don’t you?” He shrugged off. “I just need her education background, access to her medical records, interview transcripts–anything really. Can you do that for me?”
“No,” Jeremiah uttered without a moment to spare. Hesitation lingered in his voice. “The insider I got the information from all these years switched jobs a while back,” his voice lowered, “well, defected out of the city.”
“Can’t you hack it?”
"And risk ruining my next order from Solomon Hotel? HELL NO! My business boomed because of them!" Jeremiah exclaimed, picking up a clipboard and checking the time and orders on it. “I don’t have time to hack into the system, but you do if you’re just standing there.”
“No, I don’t. I’ve got a patrol in 30 minutes.”
“In your hoodie? Sure doesn’t look like it.”
“Look I just need to know more about her–”
Faintly, the doorbell at the front rang, indicating a customer had walked in. “Go check on them, I’m busy right”—it was Elle. She was wearing a grey turtleneck today with a white cardigan tied around her waist and froze at the doorway—“now…”
“Jeremiah’s busy, huh?” Her voice faltered as she slowly took a step back, looking down at the floor instead of him. It was as if she was acting as if he didn’t exist. “I’ll come by another time.”
“Wait–”
But she had already dashed out of the block, when he ran out the door.
Jeremiah sighed in relief when he entered, hearing the sudden change in footsteps.
"Why are you sighing? She doesn't know you do these jobs?"
"Unfortunately, she doesn't. Plus," Jeremiah began to angrily whisper to him after turning the shop’s sign closed, "you were asking me to get her file just as she was at the door, you know how insane you sound right now? Calm down a little"
"Also didn't I tell you to try to do Icebreakers or something?" He added on.
Xavier scratched his cheek in response, "I asked Millie about it and she told me that... Elle gets freaked out because I resemble the guy she dreams about… which is pretty weird..."
"That is pretty weird."
"And it's every night."
"Wow,” his voice was dry. “I'd go insane if I saw them in person too."
Xavier hummed in agreement.
It explained a few things but it’s already been a month and Millie hasn’t really been able to provide any particular details outside of how she was a private candidate due to being brought on by a headhunting company. That meant that whatever she offered while working as Linkon City Hall was deemed as ideal.
But her status as an S Rank Evolver in terms of Evol Levels was concerning, as far as he remembered, they were almost always heavily monitored. At best, she should’ve been A Rank. Not S.
Not with what she displayed.
Whatever she’s doing made her an integral part of the Alpha Team, remembering Jenna’s words from the beginning. If only he could find a way to ascertain why and how she was integral.
Well, he had nothing else to do here, so he left and did rounds around the area.
What if he assumed the unthinkable? What if he assumed that she had split into two in this timeline? But then why would there only be one now? He could understand why she had a different face compared to her previous iterations but then Elle’s existence doesn’t make sense. Elle has her face. And he couldn’t sense the Aether Core from her either.
No traces of fluctuant metaflux was in the area but there was a sudden shift in the air. It felt colder than expected of the spring air. Sure it’s nearly night, but the sun was still casting shadows upon objects and people.
A shot reverberated and he immediately headed over to the area, blade already summoned into his hand ready to strike. This area sometimes had cases of crime due to low surveillance which is still surprising to this day. At the scene, it was her again, she heaved heavily.
“I fucking hate these bitches,” she gritted under her breath, adjusting her grip on the bat and pistol she had in. He could feel his strength slipping tremendously, causing him to kneel to the ground like all these men in suits. “And backup arrived too.”
“What backup?” He mustered up the courage to look up as her shadow loomed over him. She was mid-motion to strike him before the heaviness that weighed upon him dissipated immediately, and she lost balance, falling backwards. She was shocked he was here and just in time, he managed to pull her back up by her wrist.
“What are you doing here?” She asked him, hiding the pistol in her holster.
“Patrol.”
He heard one of the fallen men groan and slowly crawl towards them and with ease, she used her heel to strike his back and he lost consciousness. She sighed in relief. “Is there a reason for such drastic measures?” He felt bad for them.
“They’re affiliated alright,” she responded to his query. “They always used that same bullshit ‘rare evol’ rhetoric since middle school. At least they still think I work an office job instead of being a full-time hunter. So they’re not armed with anything much but C03 neurotoxin at worst.”
“And you haven’t told the authorities?”
“You think they’d believe a 13 year old was getting harassed by a pharmaceutical company? Hell, even a full-fledged Hunter was always being ambushed in the same area? I’ve been dealing with them for a decade and they still come crawling back,” she walked out of the alleyway into the more well-lit street.
“Without surveillance they’ll throw it under the bus.”
She looked up to the sky, the stars shimmered in the dark sea. "At least the stars are pretty tonight.”
“There are, indeed,” he chuckled as they walked down the street to the station. After that, things were peaceful, and they walked in silence until he stopped in his tracks.
“So you don’t hate me after all.” He felt so much tension escape his bones at the realisation.
She pivoted her heel and faced him with a questionable tone, “What makes you think I don’t?” Her stance and tone were relaxed compared to before as she held onto her bat loosely.
“You’re not killing me.”
Maybe he spoke too soon as his hunter watch alerted him of metaflux, and without hesitation, she shot with her pistol again right behind him. “You really won’t warn me to watch out for my head, huh?”
“Mills said you had good reflexes, so I’m trusting her judgement,” picking up the protocore fragment it left behind and giving it to him. “You’re still on duty, so take it back to HQ if you want.”
“You’re not going to experiment with it?” Leaving his palm out for her to put on.
“I don’t like Protocores.”
She headed into the station first after that and he simply pondered her response, fidgeting with the small crystal for a moment. It was a translucent dark grey-like colour under the street light. It reminded him of her eyes as they were equally as dull.
‘Doesn’t like them but knows them well. That is something new,’ he noted. ‘She’s probably on their blacklist then, isn’t she?’
‘But the goal is different.’
Since the Hunters Association never kept information about an Evolver’s powers outside of name, class, and level, he didn’t understand what her Evol actually was. While most Evols are self-explanatory in their name, something like Suppression could easily be part of the Esthesia Class with the similarly named Memory Suppression Evol classified under it.
Inhibitor Class Evols often have limited applications such as dimming lights or stopping small objects from moving. Paired with how low their evol levels usually were, it simply made him wonder what she did with it. How does she use her Evol? What did she suppress? To him it looked like it was her emotions but he couldn’t feel much of her evol levels if that really was the case.
But at least it wasn’t a fully shut door.
Notes:
Please don't kill Jeremiah when you find out Xavier, I beg of you.
And yayy! I guess you'll find out about her Evol through Xavier.
Chapter 22: EP 20 - A night to do or drink
Chapter Text
“Elle, are you going to join the company dinner tonight?” Millie brought up the ash-brown haired woman who was doing another round of checking on her reports. “They’re going to be going to this place near Azure Square if I remember correctly?”
She seemed hesitant as she slowly replied, “I usually don’t go to company dinners.”
“It’s okay, I’ll protect you! I’m sure you can have fun, right?” The younger hunter tried to reassure her. “Tara will be there as well! So we can all have a blast without paying! I heard another senior was doing it.” And it was as if her eyes and maybe even her cuteness had pulled the reluctant and lonesome woman to agree.
“Oh, I better tell those airheads about it so he doesn’t suddenly interrupt the session,” she quickly pulled out her phone and messaged the two up in the clouds. “Wanna take a selfie? I bet they’re jealous I’m hanging out with someone as pretty as you.”
“Sure,” and with some awkwardness that diminished as she clicked the shutter button, they sent a picture of the two to those propeller-brained nuggets.
New message from Caca-brain!
Caca-brain: Is that the cool senior u talked about?
You: yuhhh
You: heading over to this place for a company dinner
Caca-brain: wow you’re already being more than a rat now
Caca-brain: rat hunter remi
You: I’ll skin you alive next time we meet if you pull that shit again
Caca-brain: okok chill n have fun
Caca-brain: Drink responsibly ok?
New message from GibbleNomNomers!
GibbleNomNomers: you look pretty
GibbleNomNomers: Don’t be reckless btw
GibbleNomNomers: Can’t save you from up here rn
You: aye aye captain!!!
“So who’s paying, exactly?” Elle wondered, as they stopped just outside of the restaurant.
“Um, some guy called Jordan.”
And for a fraction of a moment, her senior, looked bitterly at the door before reverting back to her muted willingness as she stepped through it and they sat down where she saw the rest.
“I didn’t expect you to come along as well, Elle,” someone remarked looking towards the empty seat opposite of her expectantly. Millie simply smiled while looking over the menu at what to get.
What would be the best way to make those two feel FOMO while flying? Grilled beef and lamb? But that was a given at this place, she droned to herself, tapping her feet as she continued thinking. Unfortunately, a familiar beam of light made itself known through the door as they ordered drinks.
“I’m not too late, am I?”
“Just on time!” A guy patted the seat next to him and her senior turned slightly inwards towards her. “We were gonna start the game without you if you were a moment too late!”
“Did you figure out what to order yet?” Elle asked Tara who was right beside her.
The brunette whispered back, “You want to switch?” She shook her head.
After all, that would intensify and confirm rumours without them actually being true.
“I didn’t expect you to join today,” he tried his best to strike a conversation with the woman in front of him. She simply nodded and turned her head to her left briefly. “Thank you for watching over them, you’re a kind senior.”
Under her breath, she muttered, “The propaganda from him is too strong.” Nobody else heard it apart from him as the rest of the table laughed over the leader of Data Analytic’s habits. And she seemed to be particularly bitter about it, playing around with her empty cup with her hands.
There’s a strained look she has towards it before she leaves momentarily for the toilet after whispering to Mills. “I need to buy a pad.” She nodded to her before continuing to dictate the flow of the conversation. It didn’t take long for them to finally begin whatever game the senior had prepared.
The man puffed out, “we’ll take turns in clockwise to spin the bottle and whoever it lands on will either do a dare or drink!” And the table cheered.
From what he observed over the last month or so, she didn’t like these gatherings and when she returned, she discreetly opened a plain can of soda underneath the table—not a sound of the pop or crack was heard—and poured it into her glass.
It looked like a shot just like the others and they cheered.
She watched as a bright red flush formed on Millie and Tara’s smiling faces and returned the same facial expression but it felt shallow. As if she deliberately fooled them of her own enjoyment in the moment as she looked at them.
She didn’t drink.
She could suppress noise.
Another new thing about her.
_ _ _
The game continued on with a few pauses in between. Tara couldn’t speak for a minute before Millie broke her silent streak with a mere sneer and erupted the table in a giggling fit. When Elle was the spinner, it landed towards the other side of the table and she simply hummed.
“Tell us Jordan’s recent kill count or drink,” a wave of snickers erupted and with a glare at the recipient who only smiled he revealed it with no remorse.
“2. It was Snoozers.”
And the table cackled much to Jordan’s embarrassment. His face flushed and he looked furious before looking at Elle.
He tried to make her aware of it but even without drinking, it seemed her stiffness mellowed out over time. Likely as a result of never being the recipient of the bottle and its spinner for a few rounds now. Maybe he should tap her foot, he debated about it for a while but she seemed relaxed and enjoying herself a bit. He didn’t want to ruin that.
Jordan smacked the table as the bottle finally faced Elle.
“Kiss Xavier or drink!”
The table’s liveliness soured into an unbearing and all enveloping silence at the end of the table, as the man snatched her shot glass and poured a drink before sliding it back before her. He didn’t utter anything else as he sat back down with that resounding smirk still on his face.
She’s disgruntled, face twisting between the shot to her left or to him across the table. And for a moment, there’s something that showed underneath the veil of hesitation. Something which she hadn’t shown before. It wasn’t hostile towards him or that bastard. To anything. It was as if she just couldn’t drink. No matter what. Whether it was because she didn’t trust herself to contain whatever she suppressed once she did, or simply couldn’t handle anything afterwards. She bit the inside of her cheek and slowly held the glass in front of her. Contemplating still.
He tapped her foot, resolute in covering for her. Was it against the rules? He’d just have to take a few more shots, nothing he couldn’t handle. And then she looked at him and placed the glass back down on the table and stood up. Grabbed him by the collar of his white jacket and with ease she pulled him up and pushed him a few steps away from the table. He could see the others watching and he could feel himself burn, ready to burst at the seams, as her cold fingers curled around his face. Palms pressed up against his jaw and she pulled him close. He almost stumbled from the force and felt himself lose his breath as he closed his eyes.
It wasn’t anything personal, he told himself. She just didn’t want to drink. But could she feel how fast his heart was beating? Was it too obvious? He didn’t want to think too deep into this yet, only her thumb brushed his burning cheek. Nothing connected or melded itself beyond her hands to his brightened skin and he opened them to see her steel grey eyes, holding a resolved shape.
“Don’t bring this up,” she whispered before drawing out a shaky breath and releasing her hands from him. He nodded, feeling his face continue to burn up as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before turning her heel back to the table.
Jordan howled like a hyena and the others merely were shocked and whispered amongst themselves as Elle merely glared at him before continuing the game. Millie whispered if she was okay and she merely nodded reluctantly. He could tell the two weren’t happy at the result of that turn but it already happened.
On Xavier’s turn it landed on someone else, and he made them impersonate Captain Jenna to the best of their ability and it got a laugh out of the whole table at how terrible it was and the game continued as normal. Although that would probably reignite the forums again.
When it reached Millie’s turn, the bottle landed on him and knowing her absurd dares he braced himself for a drink already. With a hawk she pointed at him, “Either you drink or… you can only chirp until someone calls out your name 3 times for the rest of the night!”
“Where do you even get these ideas from?”
“This lil’ noggin right here of course! I get to make fun of anyone with no consequence tonight!”
His fingers curled against his glass before he sighed, "Chirp? chirp-chirp."
The whole table burst into laughter, and for the first time, the woman across him laughed at him. Dramatically he sighed, “Chirp chirp…”
And the game continued on.
Nobody said his name 3 times for the rest of the night. Not even when they finally left the restaurant and uncharacteristically, after sending Mills and Tara in the same taxi, Elle was still here about 3 strides in front of him, completely sober.
“Chirp-chirp?” He could only ask.
She snickered before she undid the curse, “Xavier-Xavier-Xavier, there. I’m surprised you let her do that to you the whole night, and you kept going at it even though everyone left and the game ended.”
“You haven't left yet, though,” he countered as they began walking away from the entrance.
“But we’re not at the restaurant anymore.”
“You were more relaxed when I did that,” he explained. “So you really don’t like drinking, huh?” He looked at her as she threw away the soda can into a bin.
“Doesn’t mesh well with my Evol,” she replied.
“And I take it that this was the doctor’s suggestion?”
“Trial and error, actually,” she huffed, as she looked around the street. “I was 20 when I first and last drank.”
“So what do you do for fun then?" After all, it seemed like that’s what most people did these days anyway from observation. A cheap beer usually, if he remembered correctly.
A stray kitten mewled and he crouched down to pet it. Ripping open a sachet, the little critter stepped towards the ashy-brunette eagerly and gladly licked the entirety of it. Leaving no drop of food behind. Content, she quickly took out her water bottle and poured it into a nearby cup that looked to be maintained.
"Tonight's night patrol for me."
“Jenna’s orders?”
She shook her head and more questions popped up in his head. Then again, patrols were almost always accessed from the hunter’s watch and he knew none of hers were in the night. But he followed as she seemed unbothered by his presence currently. Very little occurred outside of her checking up on the birds, stray cats, and whatever other critter roamed around at night. She even fed the rats which poked their heads out of the sewage grills which freaked him out the first time in complete honesty.
But he could also sense it. How her evol levels would fluctuate intermittently. He could only assume it was to suppress sounds to make the two of them more approachable to these little gremlins. But a part of him thinks she wasn’t doing that for when it did fluctuate, he could hear their own footsteps and the ambiance of the streets were still there.
If it was a Herte Knave, he would’ve sensed its mind tricks already, and from the hunter watch, very little metaflux was along their route.
By the time it was 5 in the morning, she handed him an energy drink outside the convenience store. “Sorry for dragging you along the whole night.”
“It’s alright. I was just curious about you so I just followed along,” he yawned before looking up at her. “Is there anything I could do to help you feel more comfortable around me?”
“Just continue to do your work.”
“What about Jordan? That was clearly targeted."
“Don’t mind him. He’s just mad I rejected him because I think dating a coworker sounds mind-numbing,” finishing her bottle of green tea without a break. “He probably wanted to rub karma in my face assuming we’re exes.”
“Sorry about that.”
“What are you being sorry for?”
“Well, you wouldn’t have gone through that uncomfortable experience if I wasn’t there.”
“Well,” she mimicked him. “It already happened. Get over it. What matters is that I didn’t kiss you,” and he felt his skin burn again as he remembered the moment.
“But the others think we did,” he mumbled.
“And? If it means nothing to me or you it shouldn’t matter.”
‘But it did matter,’ he wanted to refute but it was stuck in his throat. ‘It matters a lot to me.’
“I don’t even know what’s going on in the forums unless someone tells me,” she leaned into the chair she sat on.
“Doesn’t the hunter watch give you access to the forums?”
“I don’t use it,” and he choked on his drink. Thankfully, nothing spilled onto his clothes as he regained his composure and continued the conversation.
“Isn’t it compulsory?”
“Not unless you’re on the Alpha Team specifically.” Even he didn’t know about that fact. “That’s why I agreed to be transferred in the first place.” Right, she was part of the Administration Division before.
“You sound like a Purist.”
“Well,” she bitterly chuckled. “Thank my mom for that.”
After a moment of silence, she stood up. “Go sleep while you can. I’m going back to work.”
“Hope these hours broke the ice between us or something,” she uttered before walking off.
It did. Sort of. He still didn’t know much about her in the ways that mattered but at least she was comfortable enough to talk to him this time. Unfortunately, it seemed like the news and social media started to buzz around how this particular night was incredibly safe compared to predictions.
ILUVLUMIERE: I think it’s Lumiere’s work!
ILUVELUNE2024 replied to ILUVLUMIERE: I think it’s Lune actually! I heard he’s been more active these days!
‘Well it definitely can’t be Lumiere,’ he thought. Lumiere tends to be more flashy and Lune is… well… messy. Effortless? He’d agree but she wasn’t clean and left too many traces behind. ‘I wonder how she’s doing?’ The moon was still up in the air and he imagined her pristine white dress fluttering atop the building in the distance. It's pretty. Like her.
Notes:
Fake out kissing is like my favourite trope to write at this point. A lot of bombshells if you look in the right places. Unfortunately the next 2 updates are gonna be something.
Yes GibbleNomNomers is Gideon
Chapter 23: INTERMISSION 2
Notes:
INTERMISSION 2
WORLD UNDERNEATH CHAPTER
"BOXED IN BITS"
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
01 | Apartment
Tonight was perfect to sneak into their house. Both members were far away from the scene of crime, allowing for the young man in a cap to enter without notice. Keys were in hand and he made a quick bee-line towards a bedroom and rumaged through every nook and cranny for those files.
He needed to read them for himself to verify it.
Unfortunately, all he could find were mere photos and certificates, burnt at its corners but fairly intact. No. He didn’t need these. What he needed, sifting through the box—his eyes lit up as he held up a hard drive.
Bingo.
02 | Precious Child
2024/02/28
I’ve been presented a child by my dearest friend with its large head and fast crawling capabilities. I didn’t know she had it in her to continue raising it! After all, her husband dumped her! And now, due to being jobless, she’s unable to continue providing and taking care of her only child. I asked her why she didn’t just take her to an orphanage and her answer was incredibly stupid.
“Then she would be picked up and I wouldn’t be able to find her again.”
That’s why she left it with me.
The name her mother gave her is so tedious to say so I kept it simple.
Three.
Her name is Three.
Maybe this time I could see how this child developed their Evol.
2024/03/14
Being a mother or babysitter is tedious work but Three is surprisingly quiet. Easily consoled by the night sky and stars. Maybe I should call her Stella instead. But Three just sounds better.
I bet your mother would be so proud of you Three.
Why don’t you grow up to like Deepspace too, huh?
Maybe you can fulfill her dreams.
2025/04/14
She still hasn’t stopped by the house. Her text messages stopped working already. Can she still access emails? I wonder if she’s even alive. It’d be a shame to have a missing mother this early into Three’s life.
But if that’s the case… is Three even registered?
If she isn't, that means she can join the programme! I’m sure she wouldn’t mind! She wouldn’t mind! It’s for the greater good anyways.
Her husband had an Evol, right?
That means Three will develop an Evol soon.
I can’t wait to know.
You’ll be my precious child and nobody at the lab can boss you around except me. Isn’t that great? You won’t have to wear those ugly white dresses, and we can still go shopping and play in the park!
You’ll love it just like your mom did!
Notes:
Yes that is the entirety of this WU. I recommend rereading WU 06 Sealed in Dust as well. Initially I was considering rewriting it but then I decided against it.
Chapter 24: EP 21 - Aftermath of the explosion
Chapter Text
Caleb died.
Her hands shook as she typed that message to him. He was still in Skyhaven unlike that cilantro-hating man now ground up into ashes from the wreckage. She didn’t know if it was a cruel twist of fate, or it was always the course that was bound to happen. She knew he always put himself in danger. She knew that he knew the risks of being a pilot and he didn’t even burn down like a falling star as she had dreamt of in her nightmares.
No malfunction due to the screens or wires or buttons not working upon landing, not even the engines stopped working. He just…
He bursted into bits along with Grandma. Instantaneously, after she finally returned from a grueling month of investigations and policing about her partner from her senior. After he closed that door, she was ready to tell them everything she did, especially Grandma. She just didn’t expect it to happen this quickly—All the memories she cherished in that house became mere cinders. Lost to the wind, forever.
Her phone rang violently in a familiar ringtone and she picked it up, the voice rushed in worry. “Where are you right now? I just got clearance for the next 2 days, I’ll be in Linkon soon.”
“The General Hospital,” her voice was hoarse. “I…” She felt her throat clog up, it was unbearable.
“What about your Gran? Is she–”
She could only muster a muffled disgruntled sound.
“Stay strong, call a friend to keep you company. I need to get my things ready for take off.”
When he entered the room, the dread which pooled in his abdomen lessened a bit. She looked so small on the bed, curled up to a corner with a few bandages and plasters on her skin. It all happened too quickly, brushing away some hair from covering her face.
“I can grab a chair for you if you want,” the woman offered.
“Much appreciated,” he hummed. He was still wearing his DAA jacket.
The woman lived right across the street from where Millie lived, so it’d make sense for her to crash over here. “Right, I forgot to properly introduce myself. Gideon, Caleb and Millie’s friend.”
“Elle, her senior at her job. She’s my friend too,” allowing him to sit on the chair she brought into the room. It was minimally furnished but the star plushie and moose stuffed animal she always carried around were in her arms. Squeezed tightly in her embrace. Elle probably grabbed it from her place then for her.
“Thank you for looking out for her,” he watched as she slept soundly. “I didn’t expect her to be dismissed so quickly from the hospital. But did they ever find out the reason behind the whole thing…”
The woman handed him a paper report and he looked through it as she began to explain a bit more. “The news covered it up as a metaflux explosion. However, the scene itself doesn’t indicate it and the security cameras were tampered with during the timeframe of the explosion itself.”
He turned to the next page which had images and written observations of the scene.
“It is likely that an Evolver planted a bomb discreetly from inside the building but the issue is the motive. So far there’s no motive for doing such an act,” her eyes widened in realisation and her tone shifted as she looked at him. “Did he… happen to be scouted by any organisations in Skyhaven outside of the DAA?”
“Only modeling agencies really.”
She clicked her tongue, “that seems like him.”
But there was no clear motive for their deaths. Maybe he knew something at the DAA? But their organisation was rather transparent about things, was she insinuating that the DAA were behind the attack? That wouldn’t make sense, nobody had a vendetta against him there—let alone anyone in Skyhaven.
Wait, how did she know Caleb was a pilot already? The report didn’t indicate that at all.
“I’m sorry for asking,” he began, “but how do you know Caleb?” He had never seen a trace of her in their photos before but she seemed so familiar with what Mills liked and needed as support. It took him more than a year to get close enough for that but it seemed almost too easy for her. It was as if Caleb Xia’s presence permeated through her completely, transforming her into an elusive piece of trust. An unbreakable pillar.
“He was my classmate in High School.”
“Oh.”
He didn’t mention her at all.
“You know how he is,” she sighed before she stood up. “You can stay here until she wakes up, there’s food in the fridge if you need it. I’ll be out until morning for patrol.”
“Right.”
Iron wafted through the warmly lit hotel lobby, with equally matching maroon carpet to accompany their walk across. It was a spectacle for the cameras, watching the two link arms with arrogance laced in each of their measured steps. The taller of the two wore a silver mask which only illuminated the piercing blue of his eyes while the one who wore white platforms but still stood shorter was most recognisable through her shimmering scarf which fluttered past the hem of her dress.
With a mere gesture of a gloved hand, the security room lost access to their only functional camera in the lobby.
“Scout team is down, sir!”
“Is backup on the way?”
“Yes, sir! They’re headed to protect the goods!”
“What? No! Divert backup to the front!” The leader of them snatched the communication device. “Under no condition can those wreckers get to it! You hear me!”
The sight of them was a death sentence for their businesses. And that’s because they always made them appear near the goods. Modified or not, protocores made good business here and there was no way they were going to lose their loyal customers because of this meddling duo!
“Backup has arrived!”
“Thank you!” The sounds of shots could be heard from down below, their only indication of the team’s progress in sweeping them in the lobby. Their current working cameras were all a fair distance away and so far, no trace of white in sight.
Static began to take over, and he hit his fist against the desk. “Where are they now?!”
“West Atrium!”
“East Annex!”
How were they moving so quickly through the floors? What is there aim?
“They’re right outside, sir! I think we should run!” The whole room turned pitch black as the door violently swung open to a crash against the wall.
“You all are useless!”
“That’s rude, don’t you think? They’re just doing their jobs.”
“And I’m not losing mine either!” He readied his pistol and shot at the two figures. However, the woman in white closed the gap between them and gutted him with a punch. He held tightly onto the syringe in his hand. ‘Surely with the best neurotoxins on hand there’s no way they’ll be able to get past me,’ the man thought. Ready to strike and he aimed for the woman’s upper arm. “Now, you’ll die alongside me atleast!” Successfully stabbing her, he could hear thuds across the room, indicating the other guy handling his subordinates. But atleast, his partner was a dead man. Nobody’s been able to produce a cure for this drug after all.
Yet the woman only cracked a serene smile at him. Not a hint of pain or discomfort was seen as she ripped the syringe out of her. His blood ran cold as red coated the syringe. He struck nerves of steel.
Was she even human?
She opened her mouth in shock yet nothing happened. Not a word escaped her lips. Waved her hands around before pointing at the syringe capacity. It was filled. His heart dropped. She tutted silently at him before he felt the strength leave his body immediately.
“I told you not to be rough,” was the last thing he heard before everything he saw was black. “Yes, you were very rough .”
The guy sounded more human than her.
“Let me inspect your arm.”
That was for sure.
She swung her feet over the ledge of the building as they assessed the damage below. The night sky, outside of the light from the buildings around them with their reds and blues, was particularly bright. A veil of stars shimmered with no end in sight. And yet what awed him the most stood amongst the dark sea like a beacon of light.
“The moon particularly is beautiful tonight, wouldn’t you agree?”
She simply looked at him in disdain before she hopped off the edge.
Without missing a beat, he caught her in his arms and landed on the next rooftop. “Please, stop doing that.” She shook her head after she dusted off her skirt.
Stop saying that.
“Okay, I will.”
Promise?
She held out her pinky and he returned the gesture as he uttered, “I promise.”
Notes:
Um, yessir. I thought I'd post this and EP 22 cuz 5 days have passed since the last update. That's it. From the hopeful turn out of the last chapter, this is like... ouch. Yikes.
Hope it was enjoyable though.
Chapter 25: EP 22 - Continue on
Chapter Text
“I wonder what happened to Xavier,” Tara murmured under her breath as Elle and Millie entered the office. He was often around those two in the mornings and they had antics happen to each other but there was something strangely off. It was as if the bright red brunette had her mind elsewhere, as their senior navigated her to the desk. It didn’t seem like the right time to ask so she just shrugged it off as him sleeping and after greeting the two, she went up the elevator to her section.
Millie couldn’t think about work today. She badly wanted to, staring at her screen in a daze as a result for who knows how long. She kept rereading the same report that he showed her earlier in the morning and nothing added up.
Sure there was a sudden metaflux spike but it was just a spike. Nothing in the neighbourhood had a prolonged jump in the index. She would’ve sensed it.
It was definitely related to that suspicious fellow she encountered after scouting the area. But who was he? All he carried was a briefcase but if so, Grandma would’ve called them? An Evolver? Invisibility? That would be the easy way out of this, feeling her hands shake. Why was she holding her breath? All the nerves in her body were jumpy. She needed to take her mind off things.
She needed to shoot something. Anything. She needed to kill wanderers. Simulated or not. She didn’t want to think of the absolute failure she was. She could’ve protected them if she entered that door first instead of him. She would’ve commanded—resonated with him and withheld the blast from ever damaging the house and then she would’ve apprehended the suspect by detecting them with her Evol. She would’ve saved them.
She could’ve saved them.
WARNING
ABNORMAL HEART RATE DETECTED
IMMEDIATELY STOP STRENUOUS ACTIVITY
IMMEDIATELY STOP STRENUOUS ACTIVITY
“I didn’t save them.”
The deathly grip on her firearm dissipated as she uttered those words.
She didn’t save them. She couldn’t save them. She wouldn’t save them. She couldn’t breathe, it felt as if something was lodged in her throat. She couldn’t swallow her despair, she couldn’t continue without the Sun.
He wasn’t soaring the skies anymore.
Grandma couldn’t visit Zayne anymore.
‘Why should I keep going?’
‘Calm down, Mills,’ she repeated to herself. ‘Everything is going to be okay. You just have to numb yourself to the pain, and work harder on being the best Hunter there is. I just have to be the best. Not just for me but for them. Linkon too.’
But she couldn’t take a breath. Her heart continued its vicious descent, pounding against her chest without a care in the world as she couldn’t move. She couldn’t do anything even though she badly wanted to.
‘Maybe if I wasn’t so dumb and caught up I wouldn’t have been left behind…’
Her vision blurred as she curled into herself, and she felt herself move uncontrollably in an attempt to breathe. She was already on her knees, and the floor of the training room made her body ache. Maybe it would consume her back to the earth where the other two were at.
‘Why wasn’t I smarter?’
WARNING
ABNORMAL HEART RATE DETECTED
IMMEDIATELY STOP STRENUOUS ACTIVITY
IMMEDIATELY STOP STRENUOUS ACTIVITY
She wasn’t even moving but it continued to warn her. She had to stop. She had to stop. WHY couldn’t she stop thinking?
Suddenly, a familiar warmth bloomed upon her back and comforted her. It felt surreal, it was a warmth she hadn’t felt for months now. A warmth which calmed the treacherous stretch of stormy seas her body was entrenched in with no way out. It was endless. It was like summer had just begun.
“I’m here,” the voice smoothened the wound. “I’m here.”
Her heart calmed down and she felt her body weaken slightly. But this soul was familiar, feeling herself enveloped by the warmth. She resonated with it before as if it was just yesterday. It was him. He was still resonating with her soul.
She tightly clutched onto him. “Please don’t leave me.”
Caleb.
“Do you need more water?” Elle asked her, Millie held onto the glass and simply looked at the table with a slightly stiff posture. Did she really do that? She bit the inside of her cheek as she nodded, handing it over to the older woman who left for the kitchen.
How could she confuse her senior for her brother like that? As far as she knew, they didn’t even know each other. But her actions, the fact she carried her to the infirmary to rest without faltering, forced her to clock out early, and even now, her focus was entirely on her—it was exactly like him. It was like he passed the baton on to her. She even called out to him like she was hallucinating him and that was actually embarrassing. Not just because she sounded insane at the moment but because Gideon was also in the apartment right now and that probably made him think that she was absolutely useless without her older brother.
Everyone knew how Caleb treated his little sister. Spoiled her with rotten sweetness beyond comprehension, coddled her— “that’s why she so dumb, it’s because he gives her the whole world without letting her earn it” —She felt pathetic.
“Here,” the ashy-brunette placed down the glass of water on the coffee table in front of her. “What do you want for dinner? Gideon’s offering to cook tonight.”
“Is that really, okay?” She looked over to Gideon who sat at the small dinner table. “You sure, Gideon?”
“It’s the least I can do after crashing over without notice,” he stood up and walked over to her. Gently, he cupped a side of her face with his hand for a moment, she gripped onto her pants a bit tighter at the touch. “Plus, you’ll probably miss it for a while and you didn’t eat much in the morning. Julia won’t be happy after you gave her that lecture last time, you know?”
He looked concerned for her and that only made her feel guilty for being like this.
“So what do you want to eat?”
She twiddled with her fingers as she uttered her request. “Stir fried mushrooms and… the usual…”
He chuckled which only made her more embarrassed. “Do you want to help me pick out the groceries?” She nodded.
Was she finally releasing a breath she had held for too long? Perhaps, she needed to remember who else was around her in the moment instead of being swept up under the crashing waves. Although, the ugliness and battle would continue no matter what. Her life’s new chapter was beginning after all. She just hoped she would remember in those times that she wasn’t alone.
Notes:
Elle thirdwheeled Gideon and Mills this chapter AND last chapter. I hope people are wondering what's going through Elle's mind because this is currently Millie's POV because Part 2 Xavier cannot be Elle's pov at all.
Nova (Guest) on Chapter 1 Thu 28 Aug 2025 06:44PM UTC
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AnsyuhaDzi on Chapter 1 Fri 29 Aug 2025 08:07AM UTC
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AnsyuhaDzi on Chapter 1 Sat 30 Aug 2025 01:21AM UTC
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