Chapter 10: The Task

Slavica was reading the report that they managed to gather while Gwen was still inside the comfort room facing herself over the vanity mirror. She was crying about what she read over Slavica's energy. It was telling her too many stories that were the same as her dreams but that wasn't the only case.

"She's in love with her queen…" she mumbled as she tried to control the tears from falling out from her eyes.

"I already know that…she told me that earlier…but why…this one is very too soon…" Gwen's free right hand went to her chest where her throbbing heart was beating madly for a reason that was too soon to happen.

"...my heart was beating madly and now, I just can't let it go…I can't stop this anymore." Gwen cried with a broken voice but she also admitted the sudden feelings that blossoming inside her heart.

It took her a few minutes to collect herself once again before heading out of the comfort room. She just took a while in there since she doesn't want anyone of them to take notice of her sudden tears. She even splashed some water from the vanity sink before heading out completely from the comfort room while wiping her wet face with a clean cloth from the comfort room.

"Why feels like heavy?" Gwen suddenly asked herself as soon as she got out of the comfort room.

She noticed everyone who was with her was totally busy dealing with something that she didn't want to be bothered by. But with her curious side kicked in, she went to check what they were talking about and caught a glimpse of what they were talking about. She saw a very familiar place that she once went to with her parents while they were around there.

"Larouve." Gwen mumbled when she noticed the huge land on the picture that was on the small table next to the couch where Irina and the others were sitting.

"You know them?" Tacker wondered.

"Not the entire family but my parents knew someone there." Gwen answered that catching their attention.

"Name?" Slavica's voice rang in Gwen's ear which made her shiver before she took some courage to answer.

"Alwina Jae Larouve." Gwen answered the name of the person that her adoptive parents knew.

"Same." Yui mumbled which Gwen caught it.

"What's going on? Did something happen to her?" she curiously asked what just happened to the person she just mentioned.

"She died on a mob of rotten night creatures in their land." Tacker answered that caught her attention even more.

"Can I see?" she was eager to know if the person they were talking about what the same person she just mentioned.

"Here are the images of her dead body and those are the rotten night creatures that she managed to kill." Gwen couldn't believe what she saw in the photos because it was the same lady apart from the wounds that made her face distorted and bloody. Then the next photos that she looked at were the rotten night creatures which made her eyes glare at them.

"Did you encounter them before?" Irina noticed the sudden change in Gwen's air aura.

"Falix Sonoda was her beloved and those men were their bodyguards." Gwen answered Irina which made her grab the other photos over the table and out of the blue she arranged them in some flow that none of them realized.

Gwen put them together like a puzzled. The flow of the victims' wounds over their bodies looked like they were being hit in one shot. It's totally impossible to hit a sniper within the woods where every corner of tall trees were too close to each other. Also, because of the trees around the woods, it was more possible to put traps that could lead anyone to die in instant.

"Whoever did these things to them, they knew the time, or how many they are, and when they were going to this place." Gwen informed them what she could see through this case.

"How could you tell just by looking at these photos?" Irina curiously wondered how Gwen could put it so quickly.

"I am not sure how but when I looked over their wounds and the familiarity that I had with them plus Vica already informed me slightly about the existence of you guys. I have to think outside of my usual self of mine. I have to think like them if I'm going to have prey." Gwen just shrugged her shoulders but never left her sight over the photos on the table.

"Also looked over their wounds, they were all hit in one blow and it was coming from such close range. Trap." Gwen informed them of what she could see that none of them could easily see. She even pointed out the flow of the wounds that the victims gathered from a trap that they couldn't see. They all looked being sliced by one weapon.

"Strings." Yui said as she looked carefully over the wounds of each photo.

"Are there any very thin strings that could cut anyone?" Gwen curiously wondered since she never has seen or heard it before.

"Yes, a spider web." Tacker answered Gwen which made her thoughtful.

"A spider did that? Possible." Gwen agreed and Yui and Tacker couldn't believe what they were hearing from her made them look back at their boss, Slavica. She was smirking and really proud of Gwen's intelligence.

"Not this perfect though." Gwen added.

"What else you could see?" Slavica decided to ask her carefully which made the others wait for her to think about it.

"Assassin. No, it's a rather skilled assassin, and whoever this person was being hired to kill them." Gwen answered and turned around to her right and she didn't expect that Slavica's face was close to hers since she was also looking over the same images that she was looking at.

But instead of being red and embarrassed all over her face, Gwen punched Slavica's cheek out of the blue which made her stumbled and fall on her butt. Everyone gasped at the sudden event as they were also holding their laughter within.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you? First, you hit me with the pillow twice in a row and now you punch me. What next so I could be prepared?" Slavica tried to ease the pain over her cheek that made a cut at her corner lower lip and slightly bleeding from the sudden punch from Gwen.

Gwen didn't know what to say when she heard that from Slavica but there was an apologetic look on her face because she seriously didn't mean it. She has that reflex which was one of the reasons nobody could come so close to her, especially being too close to her face which Slavica experienced from doing that.

"She really could hit you, boss." Tacker chuckled as he noticed that since they couldn't manage to hit her even once whenever they were training together.

"Can you join us, pretty please?" Yui pleaded like a little kid to Gwen who just smiled at her sweet character.

"Tacker, Yui. She just got out from the operation." Slavica warned them and both of them shut their mouths quickly.

"And she's healing pretty quickly." Irina added which caught Gwen's attention. She knew it already but she couldn't help but wonder over the point that she could heal really fast.

"What's wrong with it?" Gwen still wondered about it.

"Nothing wrong with it. It was just that if any human or scientist found you being different, they will take you in and experiment on you. That's one of the reasons why we're recruiting people like you." Irina explained which made her nod in consideration.

"So there are others?" Gwen was a totally curious cat that made Slavica smile within her thoughts.

"Plenty. But some of them already know how to handle them that's why we're watching them. Just for the safety of the people around them." Yui added to Irina's explanation since there were indeed others out there who could control themselves already yet the DIP organization won't take it easy since it was for the safety of both parties.

"Some of them didn't know that they had it, like in your case." Irina added which made Gwen realized that she was one of those people who still didn't know or have enough knowledge of what they were capable of out of the blue.

"I understand." Gwen fully understood it as she connected everything that Slavica explained to her earlier.

"If you do, would like to join us?" Tacker wondered carefully at Gwen.

"Vica told me that I could take my time and I'll be in her surveillance." Gwen politely decline as she informed them that Slavica already took responsibility for her – personally to be exact.

"Boss did?" Tacker was surprised but quickly his mouth was covered by his mate, Yui.

"Glad that boss offered that to you." Irina smiled at Gwen's confused looked written all over her face. She was worried that it was not totally fine for their organization.

"Seriously, is that okay with you guys?" Gwen really wanted to know if that was fine with them.

"It is. It was just surprising for our boss to offer it." Irina patted Gwen's shoulder. She didn't say anything and she just let her eyes look once again over the photos on the table.

Gwen grabbed the photo who has the image of a dead familiar lady from Larouve that she once met before. She kept staring at it until there was a sudden flash of memory hit her head that made her groan and automatically touched her head. It kept flashing in such fast forward movie clip before her eyes and her mind couldn't keep it up. It was hammering her head with a very heavy sledgehammer that made her wobble and loses her balance, good thing Slavica was still standing beside her when it happened.

"Are you alright?" Yui quickly asked before Slavica could.

"I am not sure. Argh…" Gwen still groaning as the pain over her head kept bugging her.

"Look at me. Breathe with me, Gwen." Slavica cupped her face with her both hands and let her look deeply into her worried orbs. She even forgot that she was not wearing her mask when she did that gesture to Gwen.

"I am alright, Vica…it was just that…something suddenly flashed in my mind…" Gwen reassured Slavica who guided her to seat on the single couch.

"Can you tell us?" Tacker curiously asked as soon as Gwen managed to take a seat on the couch with Slavica holding her hand tightly.

"Argh… it's about meeting her one time…I'm with my parents when they introduced me to her…" Gwen tried to recall what she just saw but it brought a slight hit over her head again.

"And? What else you could remember?" another curious voice from Yui asked Gwen who held Slavica's hand tight which made her kiss the forehead of Gwen.

"She's not human. I saw her eat raw and bloody meat while she was having a conversation with my parents." Gwen answered as she tried her best to ignore the sledgehammer hitting her head each time she tried to recall that moment.

"Can you tell us about their conversation?" Irina asked in her consideration of what Gwen was telling them which she also noted down on her pad.

"I…argh…it was about…hiring someone…she asked if my parents knew someone that they could hire to be her bodyguard or something who could hunt…" Gwen tried to remember more as the pain kept hitting her.

"My parents…they work at…an agency…" She added that it was getting too much for her to handle them.

"What agency?" Tacker asked which Gwen tried to recall but it was already making her nose bleed from recalling too much – more on forcing her to remember everything she just saw in one go. It only does no good to her.

"Enough. Gwen, enough. You're just getting healed." Slavica made everyone stop as she was very concerned about what was already happening to Gwen's body. Gwen needed to keep its slow pace and a lot of patience was needed for it.

"I am healed." Gwen weakly responded which made Slavica just roll her eyes as she was being stubborn.

"Not until you're being released here." Slavica firmly pointed to her that she wasn't in her hundred percent even though she was a fast healer until she was fully healed and out of the hospital.

"And please, don't force yourself from remembering them. Let those memories just flow into you. Don't panic over it. Breath. Control them at your will." She even calmly advised her which made her sigh in defeat. She knew that whatever Slavica was telling her at the moment was for her sake and she was right about that as well.

"Fine." Gwen managed to say Slavica's advice while her savior went on wearing her mask again.

Slavica smiled and leaned over Gwen's forehead to kiss it even though she has already her mask on. Still, Gwen could feel the care in that kiss and she can't help but show that with her smile. The team hasn't said anything about what gesture those two were showing to them but they understood already what was revolving around their boss and their rescued patient. Until their attention was caught when Slavica commanded them to their new task.

"Irina, go to Larouve estate and find Hugo at Lone Countess estate. He will bring you to the Countess himself. Just tell him it was me who sent you there and both of them will understand why it's urgent." Slavica quickly dropped their assignment as soon as the issue has been laid and talked already. Irina understood it already whenever their team leader, their boss; Slavica acted like this which only meant investigation.

"Yui, stay here since you're going to locate that assassin's whereabouts or who hired them, or who their next target is. Tacker, be with Irina and assist her." Slavica gave their tasks individually which made Tacker sigh in defeat.