January 26, 2007, 22:00
Beijing, China
Reema is on her way home after work when she sees a group of teenagers beating the shit out of a kid, roughly their age, but with a smaller built.
She approaches them smoothly, getting the attention of some of the kids.
"may I ask what has he done?" she asks with her shoulders relaxed, hands in her pockets.
"fuck off, bitch." One of the kids spits on her boots.
"Your mother forgot to teach you manners, I see." She casually says as she comes closer. " you shouldn't do that to each others." She gestures with her head at the boy curled up next to the wall.
"Listen to me you fucking whore, you're in no place to us what we can and can't do, so piss off you f-" Reema punches him in the face. She kicks another boy in his belly, making him fly to the wall and hit the back of his head, losing consciousness.
The rest of the kids back up and run away, leaving behind the two injured ones. She doesn't care for them, but rather the boy that was being bullied. She walks up to him and squats before him, as his shivering body slowly uncurls from where he's been hiding in vain.
He perks at her face and instantly goes to hiding his face behind his hands.
"What's your name kid?" Reema asks softly, hands reaching out to remove his hair off his face.
The boy shakes his head and hides his face between his knees.
Reema sees the bones popping out of his body, bruises and wounds all over his body, fingers blue as fuck from the coolness of the weather.
She takes off her coat and places it over his body, then her gloves and slowly fitting it on the boy's fingers.
Reema doesn't think the boy wants to talk much, and so she doesn't say anything. She goes to sit beside him on the side walk, cross legged and back stuck to the wall behind them.
She's wearing a white crisp shirt with a black tie, black suit pants and high heels, not necessarily the warmest set of clothes to be worn by in this weather, but She's a wind elf, she can take it.
They just sit there. Like that. Just like that, for forty minutes, before Reema gets up. The boy stands up sharply after her, and whispers under his breathe something that Reema's ears didn't exactly catch.
She pays the delivery man and he hands her the two take out bags. As the man drives Away, Reema goes back to sit where she first did, patting the place beside her while smiling at the boy. The kid sits back down, trying his best to cover his whole body with the coat. Reema hands the boy a bag of take out, and he watches her in confusion as she opens up hers and starts eating what seems to be a noodle soup.
She looks at him as she slurps the noodles, nudging the bag of food in his hands for him to open and eat.
The boy does just that, warming up his hands around the food container. He grabs his chopstick, but his hands are way too shaky to hold them steadily. Reema puts the lid of her food on and shifts to look at the boy. She grabs the chopsticks from his hands and the food. She opens it and holds a dumpling between the chopsticks, carrying it all the way to the boy's mouth. At this point, the kid just goes along to whatever she makes him do, and so he eats.
"I brought you crab dumplings. I wasn't sure what you would like, but everyone likes crab." She smiles at him as he chews, hands griping the coat like its the last drop of sanity he owns.
"I've never tried crab before. I like it." The boy almost inaudibly murmurs, but Reema's ears catches it, and she smiles at him like he's the most precious thing she has ever encountered.
She keeps of feeding him until he's done with his food. She gets up and he stays put. Reema dusts off her pants and looks back down at him.
"Where is your home kid? I'll drive you there."
The boy doesn't answer, but rather avoids her face entirely. She squats back down to be on the same eye level as him.
"Do you have a home?" she asks in a soothing voice, and the kid shakes his head, eyes going glassy.
Reema reaches out her hand to him with a smile, helping him up. She holds his hand as she walks to the other side of the road. Reema turns on the car by the car keys and opens the passenger seat for the boy, but he doesn't go inside.
"I don't want to dirty your car." He whispers, but she ruffles his hair and asks him to just get in, a smile played on her lips.
She enters to the drivers seat, fastening off her own and his belt. She drives slowly and calmly, given the currents weather, the roads could be a tad sleepier than normal.
"So, who were those kids? Do you know them from somewhere?" she tries to make conversation.
"We were at an orphanage together. We were all kicked out at the age of twelve." The boy says, trying his best to melt into the coat. Reema turns on the heating system of the car.
"Let me guess, they had their way with robbery while you were too naive for it?" Reema predicts. This isn't the first time she encounters orphanages, on the contrary, she sees a lot of them in her field of work. Kids neglected at a very sensitive age and left to deal with the monsters of the world on their own.
"Pretty much, yeah." The boy smiles for the first time since she saw him. Its a sad smile, but a smile.
"What's your name kid?" she asks again.
"Andy. My name is Andy. "
*
July 15, 2021, 2:01
Thomas's castle
"We need to evacuate, now." Thomas is fumbling around the rooms of the castle, bringing out every weapon he hid in the walls of the castle. "We can't take the same route, we need to minimise the loss as much as possible and deflect their formation, we'll use four different secret passages." Thomas is stuffing his guns with bullets, ready and all geared up for a fight. "I know four undisclosed ginnels and passageways."
"I'll take the first group." Evdokia chimes in, checking the sharpness of her daggers. There isn't that much of time to treat her wound, and so Valodya wraps her torso with a cloth to stop the bleeding. For now this will do, it has to.
"I'll take the second then. YuNing, you're with me." LiQin volunteers.
"Alright, I'll take the third." Robin is tightening his chest rig.
"I'll join Evdokia. " Valodya adds.
"Me too." Says Jean.
"I'll take the fourth group then, the aqua marines, along with Ufuk." Thomas nods at Ufuk, fastening off his harness.
"Reema, you're on which team?" Thomas asks but she doesn't answer back.
Reema is resting her hip onto the window seat, hands resting against it as well. She's in her head, and she can't get out of it.
Andy.
The kid she saved off the streets.
The kid she gave a home and a family.
The kid she took in and took him as a son.
She knows Evdokia would never lie, and she knows well what him being seen with Markian means, but she can't digest it, no matter how much time they give her, she won't believe it unless he screamed at her face that he has stabbed her in the back.
"Reema?" Thomas calls out.
She doesn't answer.
"Reema." Robin calls out this time, putting his gun down. Robin walks up to her and holds her waist tightly.
"Reema, I know this is hard to accept, but not everything turns out the way we need it to, and right now we need to g-"
"I don't believe it, Andy would never sell me down the river, never." Reema yells at Robin's face, making him take back a few steps.
"Reema I understand but please this isn't the time for this conversation. " Robin begs.
"No, no I can't leave without him, I'm going after him." Reema says as she wipes her frustration tears off, going to put on her harness.
"you can't, Reema. This is fucking suicide. " Evdokia stands before her and plants her hands onto Reema's shoulders.
"Get your fucking hands off me." Reema pushes Evdokia backwards, making her hit the back of her legs to a table.
To say Evdokia is in shock would be an understatement. She has never, never seen Reema out of line or overwrought.
"Reema, you need to calm down, we seriously don't have time for this." LiQin goes to say but Reema stares him down like a hawk ready to jump onto his prey.
"You don't understand, they must have bribed him some way with a lie." She shakes her head hysterically, too distracted to think rationally by the fucking blazing storm of fire of betrayal and hurt.
Before she sees it, Jean chops her down with his elbow on the back of her head, knocking her out. They don't have to worry about a possible concussion he has caused for now, but it's better than having her running around the lands looking for someone who has possibly pointed the bone at her.
Jean carries her on top of his shoulders like a sack, "I'll take her with me, I think I'm best to carry anything. "given his size, yes, he's not wrong. But does Robin trust him enough with the life of his wife? Honestly, yes, and he has no time for considering other options.
"please take care of her, and treat her head once you reach the dungeon." Robin says as he stuffs his gun into the harness. "let's get moving then."
They put what just happened behind them and get moving, because quite honestly, they have no idea what to expect at this point, but all they know is that they need to avoid Markian and his enforcers at all costs.
Evdokia leads the first team out. Thomas pulls an old heavy and dusty carpet off the floor in one of the office rooms. They find a secret locked door that leads to the dungeon they're all supposed to meet at some point. She has Valodya and Jean with her, along with twenty other men and women. She also takes the entire staff of the castle, given that they're three great fighters on top of the team, regardless of Evdokia's injury.
They take the stairs one by one, minimising the noises of their steps, as not to expose the passage in case Markian was already in the castle. Thomas stays behind, closing the door after them and returning the carpet to its original position.
The security alarms and sirens that Thomas have had planted start ringing, and Thomas realises they have way less time than he anticipated.
He goes then to show LiQin his passage way, where it lied secretly behind a bricked wall that opens up with a twist of one of the lamps in a huge living room. They could hear the loud bangs of spells and force used by Markian and his enforcers in attempt to break the gates and it only ups the anxiety even more.
Thomas takes Robin to a long tunnel that stretches out from the basement to the dungeon. Robin leads twenty-six men and women through it, as quickly as possible, given that their passageway is the most uncovered one of all four.
*
All Evdokia could do when she arrives at the dungeon first is pray for the rest to reach her safely.
Valodya is moving his fingers delicately over the back of Reema's head as he recites a healing spell, while Jean is treating her wound.
The bullet has came out of the other end in the field, and having an opened wound from both ends is not a pleasant feeling.
Evdokia whines and moans in pain as tears fall off her eyes, a pain getting to her.
She feels light headed due to the blood loss, but she tries keeping it together, they don't need another knocked out person on the team.
"How is it?" she asks in a huff, her chest rising and falling a little too paced.
Jean doesn't answer, but she can tell it's bad by one look at his face.
"Jean!" she says in a pained whine when she feels pressure on the wound.
"Valodya, it's refusing to regenerate. " Jean calls out for Valodya, worrisome painted all over his face.
Valodya leaves Reema's side who has woken up and goes to squat next to Jean.
Evdokia releases an animalistic scream when Valodya plants his hand on to the opened wound, her body shaking in agony and sweat.
She's out of breath and can barely block out the pain. Evdokia jerks forward and vomits blood onto Jean's lap. And it hurts, it hurts so fucking much.
She can feel her insides eating itself, and she can tell that bullet was bewitched with some magical shit that is reversing her regeneration.
Evdokia tries her best to keep her eyes open, but it's way too tiring at this point, and so she lets go. She thinks she hears Valodya and Jean yelling at her to stay awake, but she can't, she can't, not with all her ghosts staring down at her like she has finally got to taste a bit of what they have.
*