Ronin began working in his private office more often soon after lessening Joseph's suffering.
He wasn't sure what had caused it, but he'd noticed that the sound he'd been hearing was following him and only him.
Nobody else on his team had heard the sound and he didn't even know a way to explain it to anyone else.
It was as though an massive spider had crossed with a praying mantis, the only two creatures he could even begin to mentally relate the sound to, and were following him around, scratching on all the glass around them as they passed it.
More so than that, was the overwhelming sense of purposelessness he had begun to feel following the sounds beginning. He knew that he held value, that he was important but felt...listless and antsy, as though he'd spent hours doing nothing and had only a few minutes to complete an unbelievably important report.
Tapping his desk, trying to pinpoint exactly how he felt, it occurred to him what he felt.
He felt small.
Insignificant, as though something or someone had shrank him and the world around him so that they were all tiny, but nobody else seemed to notice, and that concerned him.
The messaging system was still being fixed, so he walked to the group lab and stepped in, checking to see who was around.
As usual, Scalpel was there, her tiny hands moving rapidly over her computer, working on who knows what. Silas was there as well, but she seemed genuinely busy for once, and the same could be said of all of the rest of his team.
Sellius, who was usually content to have subjects test his designs, was working on a weapon he'd dubbed, 'The Shockwave'. Designed to utilize the movements through the air to generate sound waves and amplify them, it was Intended as a nonlethal weapon for large crowds.
More than any of the rest of the group, Sellius seemed more willing to show mercy in combat, something Ronin hoped might be part of a larger worldview, as opposed to just battlefield honor.
"Hey, Sellius you got a second?"
Looking up from his desk, Sellius responded gently, "For you, Ronin? Of course."
Smiling softly, Ronin walked to him and sat in the chair nearby, leaning into the desk as he did, asking, "Have you...had any kind of weird feelings lately?"
Sellius looked around the office and said, "Not so much a weird feeling, more of a...sense of something being out of place."
Ronin nodded and said, "I've had a similar feeling myself lately…"
Sellius touched his weapon and said "We're...we're the strongest here, one could argue that we may be a group the most capable researchers in the Bureau. Near constant success despite overwhelming odds…"
Ronin watched Sellius caress his weapon as he continued, "We haven't had anywhere near the level of difficulty the other groups have had, despite their overall general success. We were the first here, it does make sense that we're the strongest, but no major problems whatsoever? The other groups regularly have members incapacitated, they operate at a count of ten, but often times it's a team of six or seven that are available for missions. We face overwhelming odds, we're always prepared, and we're always the best. It feels wrong."
Ronin cocked his head and asked, "Why is that?"
Sellius thought for a moment and said, "Nobody is lucky 100% of the time, Ronin. Two of our fellow groups have been reported MIA, and we haven't even so much as had a broken bone."
Nodding, Ronin realized that his team, as skilled as they were, had faced no real bad luck or misfortune in action, something even the best plans can't prepare for.
Sellius continued, "In addition...I get the feeling that we've become...complacent, I guess? I've always considered myself gifted, it'd be idiotic not to, all things considered, but whether it be via my sword fighting or my design, I've always considered myself to be second best to someone I've never met. Lately though…lately I find myself wondering when I'll find a match for my blade, for my designs."
Ronin thought for a moment and said, "They say pride cometh before a fall…"
Sellius nodded and said, "Pride doesn't always mean boasting or showing off. Simply believing that you're untouchable, that you can't be beaten can be a form of pride as well, even if it's true."
Trigger grabbed Ronin's shoulder and said, "That's all garbage. There's nothing wrong in accepting your power as long as you know your limits. It's like a gun. It's ok to be proud to have the world's strongest gun, as long as you know that the thing will eventually run out of ammo."
Sellius touched his chin and said, "So you believe that pride is an acceptable sin so long as you remember your weaknesses?"
Trigger shrugged and said, "My older brother, before he died, was an unbelievable marksman. He could hit a target from miles away in the middle of a crowd without so much a grazing a bystander. It was looking down his scope that he died, stabbed by a man who'd recognized his face and gun from a wanted poster in the area. He never even saw the man who killed him."
Ronin leaned back into his chair, staring up at the ceiling as the skittering sound began again, so loud he almost couldn't hear his team talking to him. As they continued talking, their voices muffled as though they were underwater, the ceiling seemed to reach toward him, long feminine hands reaching out to touch him.
Trigger slapped Ronin on the back and started laughing, and Ronin snapped back to reality.
Shaking his head, Ronin said, "I think I'm losing it."
Silas responded from across the room, "Nope, not allowed. You've got at least six more years before you're allowed to 'lose it'."
Ronin ignored her and Trigger said, "You need some time away man. You work more than anyone else here, and that's including Scalpel, who I'm pretty sure uses her serums and research to stay awake 24 hours a day."
Absently, Scalpel responded, "Screw off Trigger."
"Kids should respect their elders, Scally," Trigger said, a smile on his face.
Scalpel responded by throwing a scalpel at him and said to Ronin, her voice surprisingly mature for such a young form, "Nonsense aside...he is right Ronin. You've never kept the 'best' sleep schedule, but lately it seems like you've been trying to run yourself into the ground."
Sellius asked, "Is there something going on that we should know about?"
Ronin shook his head and said, "Nothing all that much...I've just got this feeling...like...something massive is coming…"
As Ronin finished his sentence, the phone in the group lab began to ring, surprising Ronin so much he fell off his chair.
Everyone looked at the phone in silence as Ronin got up and walked to it, moving slowly.
LIfting the phone to his ear, he said, "Hello?"
The voice on the other end was the director in charge of communication and he said, "Oh good! I'm glad to see this line is working finally, I've been trying to reach you guys. I kept connecting to what sounded like clicking and running water for some reason."
Ronin's face scrunched up in confusion, "Clicking and water?"
The Director responded quietly, "Yeah, that's a problem that a lot of the other lines have been having. Ever since we phased out cellular phones, wired lines like this have been unbelievably helpful to keep teams organized or alert without having to risk the chance of that contact being monitored over V.U.I. communications, but lately they've been acting up."
He continued to speak, but Ronin found himself caught staring at the walls, watching another set of hands reach toward him, while behind them a face began to appear. The face opened and lips formed, feminine features appearing as though molded out of clay and as her mouth opened, Ronin heard the clicking start again, getting louder and louder as the hands got closer.
Just as they were about to reach him, they stopped as though held in place by some kind of invisible force, straining to reach him, but unable to make any progress.
From the open mouth a pure white liquid began to pour out, a slow trickle at first, but slowly forming two long streams that wrapped around the hands, binding them in place at first and then forcing them back.
As Ronin watched, unable to move, the face's eyes changed from the color of the wall, a dull gray, to what appeared to be a shimmering liquid silver.
Shaking his head and blinking, he realized he was in the middle of a black void, no sound, no color anywhere as far as he could see.
He turned and ran, desperate to find something, anything to cling to in the darkness, when suddenly the white water that had saved him from the face began to flood the area around his feet, a perfect circle of liquid forming around him.
The water, outwardly seeming cold and innocent, burned him wherever it touched his skin, leaving it blackened and dead looking.
As he recoiled from the burning water, it began to rise, rapidly filling his pant leg, burning a blackened path up his skin.
He tried to scream and a stream of the water rose from the rapidly increasing puddle and forced its way into his mouth, burning his throat as it began to drown him.
His mind began to muddle, dimming and blurring from the pain and the lack of oxygen as the water rapidly spiraled into his throat.
Against the darkness, he saw, barely visible, a black flame so dark that it stood out as an infinitely deep void among the darkness surrounding him.
As the flame grew closer, filling him with dread, he was suddenly outside his body, a glowing blue version of himself floating just beyond the boundary the water had created, so bright that he cast light even on the darkness around him.
From within the black flame, a pair of bright glowing red eyes floated toward him. From between the eyes a voice came, deep and faraway, hollow but impossibly heavy at the same time, "You?"
Ronin floated backward, putting space between the eyes and himself as he said, "Me?"
The voice came again, filling him with some sense of wonder and deep terror, as though he were seeing something, hearing something, that no person ever should, "Are you afraid to die?"
Before Ronin could answer the cryptic question, the flame spiraled around his body and the white water disappeared, evaporated by the icy heat of the fire that now questioned him.
The flame wrapped his body tight in its darkness and he was suddenly returned to his physical self, now wrapped by black fire.
Reaching up to try and scratch the flame off his face, he began to panic as he saw blood on his hands, his own blood, pouring from his scratches as though they were deep wounds.
The panic growing deeper, he scratched more frantically, throwing the phone away from him and falling off the chair he'd been sitting on.
Everyone in the room jumped as it slammed against the wall and Ronin sat, gasping for air as his team gathered around him.
Trigger put his hand on Ronin's shoulder and said, "Ronin, Ronin! What are you doing?!"
Panicking and jumping back, he grabbed the chair as he leapt, holding it between him and the people surrounding him.
"Where are the eyes?" he yelled, looking all around him to find them.
"Ronin, what are you talking about?" Silas asked, walking toward him cautiously.
"The eyes! The red eyes! I know I saw them, I was wrapped in fire, I was dying," he yelled, panic eating into his voice.
Scalpel came from behind him, grabbing his waist and pulling up his shirt while reaching into her coat for a sedative.
Distracted by Scalpel, he tried to shake her off, but Trigger and Sellius grabbed his arms and held him still.
He began to speak, "Activate!"
Realizing what he intended to do, Silas jumped forward and kissed him, shutting his mouth while Scalpel finished sedating him.
The world went dark around him as the sedative took effect and he heard the voice from before, tinged with sadness, "You will be."