Four years had passed since Marcus left the school under, at best, suspicious circumstances. The Bureau held their own counsel, but the official word from the government was that Marcus had left to join the rebellion.
Ronin, sat in a room surrounded by his fellow Directors, Silas by his side, and said, "The Ghosts have been investigating a disturbing trend that's been more and more common in the last year or so."
Director Vren, an older man who'd seen much and done much, said, "What is the trend you've noticed?"
"I've been waiting until I can confirm, but someone seems to be kidnapping people, posing as bandits or the rebellion, and torturing them in different ways," Ronin said, his voice carrying through the room.
Director Jerald tapped the table and said, "How frequently has this been happening?"
Sighing, Ronin motioned for Silas, who silently pulled up a list of all their missions for the last year, three hundred in total, and moved it so that it projected on the far wall where everyone could see.
"In the last year, we've finished roughly five hundred missions, most minor enough to be dealt with in the span of an hour to two hours. Of those five hundred, fifty of them have involved the torture I mentioned earlier. In and of itself, torture is not uncommon, especially among bandit groups, but the victims are, as a whole, saying that they were oftentimes not even asked any questions or had demands made of them. My guess is that someone is doing this to inflict emotional agony, and for little to no reason other than that."
Touching his chin, Vren asked, "Are there any other patterns involved?"
Nodding, Ronin said, "The only other thing that could be considered a pattern is that they only seem to be targeting places that have no relationship with the government, or places that are flat out ignored."
The other Directors sat silently for several moments, considering the implications of the news.
Vren spoke again and said, "Do you think it's the alchemists."
Ronin nodded and said, "Neyk, the city that rose in the fall of New York City, has long been the nest of many alchemists. With no government regulation there, Neyk has been a hotbed for the admittedly incredible results that alchemy creates, with little to no punishment for the crimes involved in creating them. It's distinctly possible that some alchemist is working to develop something new and is afraid that local alchemists might figure it out and beat them to the result, so they're doing their research out of the city."
Jerald scoffed and said, "If you can call that research. Bleeding people into open vats of Aether and running electricity through it to see if it does anything."
Nodding, Ronin said, "I've already had a couple of my team do cursory searches in the city, but so far they've found nothing that we didn't already expect."
Vren, leaned back into his chair and said, "Well, keep looking into it, I guess. We'll do what we can on our end to figure it out as well, I know the government has been pressuring you to put a stop to it as soon as possible."
Jerald laughed loudly and said, "Better you than me, Ronin. At least they're not asking you to try and figure out a way to teleport hundreds of pounds worth of matter like they've been demanding I figure out."
Ronin shook his head and said, "Do you think they'll ever realize how little we need them at this point?"
Vren smiled sadly and said, "I'm fairly positive they think that they regulate and control us."
Raising an eyebrow, Ronin said, "I can send them a message to disabuse them of that belief, if you'd like."
Silas tapped her datapad and a hologram of Trigger shooting wildly into open air appeared and Vren laughed and said, "Not at all. The longer they think we're some kind of tool for them to use, the longer we get to take money from them. The overwhelming success of Project Ghost has prompted other teams to be created, so after far too long, we have our own income being generated."
Ronin nodded again and said, "I'm still curious as to why Marcus was so adamant it be held off for so long."
Jerald said, "From what I've been told, he didn't think we had anyone who could make an initial team work, though I guess he found that person in you."
Ronin stood and said, "Speaking of which, I do have some new projects to get back to, if anyone needs me, I'll be in my group lab."
The other Directors nodded and waved him off as he and Silas left through the door behind them.
Silas let out a sigh of relief and said, "I'll never know how you talk to them so calmly."
Ronin laughed and said, "It's no big deal for me, I'm a Director, so it's a room of equals. I already offered you a seat at that table and you turned it down."
Putting away her datapad as they walked, she said, "Yeah, no thanks. I've got enough work without adding Director responsibilities to that list."
"Speaking of which," Ronin said, "Have you been able to work with Trigger on that datapad controlled combat machine?"
Silas nodded and said, "We've managed to get the basics up and running, but we're going to need someone with a better grasp on mechanical movement to take a look at it at some point soon before we can make it mobile."
"I'll see if I can find someone," Ronin said.
As they approached the lab, Ronin stopped and realized the time, well past midnight.
He waved her off and said, "I'm going to get some sleep actually, it's been a long day."
"Don't forget to eat," she yelled as he started heading to a nearby elevator.
He waved his hand in response and called the elevator, leaning against the wall while he waited.
He received a call on his V.U.I. and answered it when the elevator came.
"What do you want Liliana?"
Her voice was strained when she answered, "There's a problem I need your help with, Ronin, can you help me?"
He'd gotten many calls over the years from her, some her wanting to talk, some her wanting...more...but she'd never asked for help before.
"Where are you?"
She responded quietly, "I'm in my room."
Sighing, he ended the call and waited for the elevator to make its way to the main floor and hoped this wouldn't be a waste of time.
When he arrived, he was immediately aware that it wasn't.
Her entire room had been ransacked, and he heard her voice from the back of her bedroom.
Walking quietly, almost completely silent, a skill he'd perfected over the years, he arrived in her bedroom to see her being held by Joseph.
It was immediately clear what was going on, and he asked, "Joseph, what exactly do you think you're doing?"
Tears in his eyes and covered in scratches, Joseph responded, "She still loves you. Even after you've ignored her feelings for years, but she won't even look at me anymore!"
Ronin made an understanding sound and said, "Well, you did try to manipulate her into loving you. I wouldn't want you either."
Lifting a gun up and pointing it at Ronin, Joseph said, "Well now she won't have any other choice but to be with me. You can't dodge bullets, Ronin, I know THAT."
Sighing, unimpressed, Ronin said, "Why can't you stay out of trouble, Lily?"
Joseph shot, the bullet flying directly at Ronin's face.
Sighing again, he cocked his head to the side and the bullet missed.
Eyes wide, Joseph shot again and again and again, all of which Ronin dodged effortlessly, walking closer as he did.
When he reached them, he grabbed Joseph's hand and broke it, barely using his strength.
Joseph screamed and let Lily go and Ronin pulled her away from him.
Calling Silas, he silenced Joseph with the same device he'd used on Liliana years ago and waited for her to respond.
"You've got me," her voice rang out in the silence of the room.
"Hey, quick question, are you still working on that hallucination project?"
The sound of typing was loud over his connection and she said, "No, I hit a dead end when my last test subject lapsed into a deep sleep and never woke up."
"What happened?"
"According to my notes, his brain waves indicated some kind of incredibly potent nightmare. We've been keeping him alive for awhile now, but he's basically hopeless."
Smiling, Ronin said, "That's perfect. I'm bringing you another test subject."
Her voice curious, Silas asked, "Do you even sleep?"
Ronin shook his head and said, "Not often."
Ending the call and grabbing Joseph who was still screaming in silent pain, he passively waved at Liliana and said, "Have a good night Lily. Anyone else I should know about before I get this handled?"
Liliana shook her head and said, "Can...can I stay with you tonight? I don't think I want to sleep here tonight."
Sighing, but knowing he had no real choice, he responded, "Yeah sure. You've still got a key, let yourself in."
Liliana started excitedly packing clothes and he said, "As always, Lily, this doesn't mean we're back together. I shouldn't have to say this, but I just want to be sure there are no miscommunications."
Liliana nodded and said, "And you know I'll never stop trying to take you back for my own."
Ronin ignored her response and dragged Joseph down a hallway to the elevator he'd come out of.
At this hour, even the party goers were well past sleeping, dreaming about their adventures.
Pulling Joseph into the elevator, he punched in the code to bring him down to the lowest levels where the lab was and he injected him with one of Scalpel's pain eliminators, he'd started keeping them on his person a couple years back.
"Why Joseph?" he asked.
Joseph, the pain gone, looked at him and said, "Because she's mine, Ronin. The way you touch her...it's not what she likes, only I know it."
Shaking his head, Ronin said, "Truth be told, I don't know why she still loves me, but I guess I know why she doesn't love you."
Joseph tried to stand and Ronin just pushed him back to the floor.
"You're done. End of the line," he said as Joseph landed.
The elevator opened to the dark hallways of the Bureau's floor and he dragged him down the darkness to the lab.
As he walked, he sent Scalpel a message to meet him in Silas's lab area, figuring she'd still be working on a redesign for one of her projects.
The affirmative came instantly, as he expected and the lab door opened as he reached it.
Throwing Joseph into the lab, he said, "Silas, is the device ready?"
Her voice came from deeper in the lab space, "Yup, I've got it all set up. Hope you don't mind, I just moved my other subject over, they can share a table."
"Nope, not a problem," Ronin said, as he kicked Joseph over to the table.
"Ohhh, haven't seen this guy in a good while," Silas said, dialing her device to the correct settings.
"Yeah, we won't be seeing him again either. What's the settings your current subjects on?"
Silas checked his helmet, connected to the device which was hidden in the floor and said, "He's at about half strength."
Picking up Joseph and putting him on the table, he said, "Yeah...let's give old Joseph here the full treatment."
Looking at Ronin, she said, "Are you sure? At half, the nightmares are strong enough to endanger my other subjects life, at full he'll basically be a vegetable from the fear."
Scalpel walked in from the shadows, her face and body changed again, having taken the form of a young child, and said, "My guess is that's what I'm here for."
Ronin looked at her and just asked, "Why?"
Scalpel pulled out one of her tools from her heavily modded lab coat and said, "Because I can."
Silas put the second helmet on Joseph and said, "I don't think you remember the last time you and I met. Ironically, I was removing these hallucinations from you." She laughed as she finished speaking.
She turned to Ronin and asked, "What'd he do?"
Rolling his eyes, he said "Idiot broke into Lily's room and was holding her hostage and tried to kill me."
Silas whistled and said, "You certainly were ambitious, weren't you Joey."
Joseph started to yell, "You'll never get away with this! The school will find me, and when they do, you're SO screwed!"
Ronin stabbed him in the hand and said, "Fun fact, the school will not give a single damn about what we do to you, and even if they did, they certainly wouldn't dare to step in and stop us. See, we left you alone the last time because I had a clash of conscience. I believe you'll see that this is no longer the case."
Joseph continued screaming while Silas started up the device and said, "It might take a minute to get going."
Motioning to Scalpel, Ronin pulled up his vitals, to make sure he stayed alive during the initial process.
Scalpel climbed on top of Joseph's hips, straddling him, and said, "You get to be one of the very first test subjects for my brand new experiment!"
Fiddling with her tools, she said, "I never really got used to the whole inventory thing, just feels less...I don't know, real?"
Pouring a variety of ingredients into a vial, she began swirling it in her hand until the fluids all turned pitch black, and she sucked it into a hypodermic needle.
She looked into Joseph's eyes, dropping her body more and more onto his chest until she was almost close enough to kiss him and said, "See, by my calculations, this mixture SHOULD give you eternal life! The problem is, whenever I tried it on my lab animals, it just put them into a state of suspended animation, which is cool I guess, but for whatever reason, their brains remained fully active! Can you imagine that? Alive but unable to move or act? Just stuck, forever, your mind actively trying to find a way out of a situation that has no escape? I think that may be the worst torture I can imagine!"
Silas's device finally whirred to life and Joseph immediately began screaming about eyes when Scalpel injected him with the mixture.
He immediately fell silent, but his brain readouts showed him reacting VERY actively.
Silas hit a button on the table and it began to sink into the floor, and Scalpel jumped off at the last moment.
Ronin stretched and yawned as he said, "Well...I guess that's over. I'm going to bed now."
Silas touched his arm and said, "I'm tired too Ronin, can I sleep with you?"
Scalpel rolled her eyes and walked back to her desk as Ronin said, "Lily is already there. If you don't mind that, you're more than welcome to join me."
Silas touched her chin and said, "Hmm, another night with two of my favorite people, what could be better?"
Smiling, Ronin started walking and Silas followed, saying, "Did you ever think we'd all be like this?"
Stopping for a moment and looking back at the floor where his attempted murderer now lay, he put his arm around Silas, started walking again and said, "Nope. Four years is a long time."