Nocturne
April 5, 2021, 11:30
Beijing, China
Case 99-89-60
Jean doesn't necessary think they're that fucked when he thinks about it from his other side's perspective. Yes, he has been pretending to be a human for half of his life, but he also happens to be a war elf. He's got an immortal phoenix and a winter elf on both of his sides, put the two together, they actually have the upper hand.
Fast regenerating bodies, stupendous skills in all kinds of martial arts, and, well, magic.
The three are currently taking cover behind a wall, while the seven, maybe eight, are firing at them with machine guns.
"Can we throw you out as a distraction?" Jean asks politely like the good boy he is.
"No, for the last time, man, dying hurts like shit." Valodya acts offended. This isn't the first time they try tossing Valodya to the danger zone for fun. Yes, Evdokia used to ask him as a child to kill himself and rise from the ashes before her eyes. No wonder that kid grew up into the person she is today, Valodya thinks.
This case has been assigned to them by both the FBI and the CPA, which means those aren't humans, and Valodya isn't surprised, because no human can carry a machine gun for this long without taking a break.
They're probably Iron elves, or maybe werewolves, Valodya guesses.
"Call for back up, those robbers are maniacs. " Robin shouts over the noise of the machine guns.
"Ira and the task force should be here any second now." Jean shouts back.
"For fuck's sake, are they wearing soundproof headphones? This is so loud."
"FBI, raise your arms and place your hands behind your heads!" they' think they hear someone barging into the bank, but quite honestly, they can barely hear shit from all the white noise ringing in their ears at this point.
Its Ira and Mizuki with a backup squad. They're handcuffing the robbers when Mizuki gives out his hand to Jean to help him up.
"Thanks, next time try not delaying the raid before our eardrums pop out from where they're tucked." Jean dusts himself off, adjusting his chest rig.
"Sorry, they played with the signal, we got the message pretty late." Mizuki cards his hand through his dark blue hair, orange eyes as sharp as ever.
"Sup' yall." Ira a-skips to where they're standing, pink hair bouncing with every step like a little puppy's ears.
"very professional. " Jean says as he puts on his glasses.
"Coming from a sniper who takes off his glasses when he's on a mission?" Ira snorts.
"oh, fuck off." Jean swats him with his arm, easily pushing him back with their different sizes. One gigantic ear elf and the other a small, petite if you will, cecaelia. Quite the combo.
"Where is Evdokia? I couldn't find her this morning, I thought she was with you?" Jean asks.
"oh no, she got a job from the CPA she needed to get done on her own." Mizuki answers as he takes off his gloves.
"cool, drinks on me, then." Valodya announces, cracking his neck.
*
April 5, 2021, 11:30
Beijing, China
YuNing and QinYu's dorm
Against his own will, YuNing is back at his dorm in Beijing by the end of the week. He needs to present his final full album due two weeks from the last Sunday, basically not enough time to edit five songs, record and compose three for your graduation project.
The dorm is an utter mess to say the least. There isn't a single nook in the house that doesn't have a melody or lyrics paper stuck onto its wall whether it's his or his roommate's, QinYu. He's trying his best to keep his work intact to his desk so it wouldn't get missed along with QinYu's, but he doubts that won't happen with how messy they both naturally are.
He's engrossed in playing a part of a song on the piano when he hears QinYu's arrival at the dorm's room door. QinYu chooses not to disturb YuNing and goes right up to the kitchen to unpack the groceries he got on hand. YuNing keeps playing, too involved in the melody that he almost feels like he's been taken away from reality. He's exhausted, his wrists feel like they're on the verge of falling off but he also knows that he'll be losing all his hard work over the years if he didn't manage to get done and over with this one last step before his graduation.
YuNing rechecks that his phone is still recording, his brain so out of function that he can't afford losing this demo. When he's done with the track, YuNing unplugs his phone from the keys, turning off the recording mode and taking away the notes papers to his desk. It doesn't take too long for him to start recording the lyrics, voice broken and harsh but as elegant and majestic as ever.
The song is one of his favourites, he feels like a proud father every time he's adding something to it, be it a beat or even an alteration in the lyrics. That makes a good reason on why he chose it to be his title track for the album, and he's more than glad that he's also collaborating with a ZiYan from the dance department to choreograph a dance for it as his graduation project too. He checks the dance again on his phone and plays it along with the song on his pc, more than satisfied with the final results of both of their hard work and sweat put into it. He makes a mental note to send it to his father right after he adds the audio to the final dance video, that ZiYan should send by Friday according to him.
He slowly shuts down his laptop and folds the screen, making his was to the kitchen to snack on something because as always he forgets how to survive when he's overworking. He sees the bathroom door open on his way to the kitchen and closes it for his own sake because he knows QinYu is showering but has no sense of human privacy at all and YuNing isn't excited for seeing his friend's jones thank you very much.
The kitchen is well stacked with an awful amount of processed food that they should stop buying because he's very well aware of how a human body isn't supposed to function with such a horrible diet. Realising he won't find anything that would actually satisfy his hunger, he only grabs a can of beer to drink while he watches some trashy tedx talks just for a good laugh and fun, maybe even to get his mind off reality a bit. He finds himself out of focus at some point during the fifth one he's watching, and he could also tell that QinYu has already left the room again, possibly to meet his girlfriend. So he gets up, puts his earphones on, and plays Within Temptation music. he starts swaying around the room to the notes of the music, the swaying turn into walking, the walking sometimes turn into sprinting, his mind takes him to a fairy tale of the girl with the white hair, far away from his reach, so close to his mind. And so his favourite part of his days begins.
*
Its dim and stuffy when he opens his eyes. The screams are back and so is the stench of blood.
He's not alone with her today, there are multiple people in here too, chained to the walls and pills of the room. A man with a metal stick, clearly fired up with how glowing it is, walks around and moves the light up part onto the chained people, drawing lines of sizzling and eventually dead skin across their abdominals. They're screaming, loud and suffocating, and YuNing feels acid rise in his throat, his head becoming lighter with every scream and prayer for mercy.
She's right beside him, head low, probably unconscious. A man walks up to her, his figure larger than any human YuNing has ever encountered in his life. The man. The guy takes a fistful of her hair and raises her head so that she's facing him as he bends his knees and comes on eye to eye level with her.
"I wonder where your little ostrich is at right now instead of saving your ass." The man says smugly.
"Fuck off." She says with the strongest tone she could muster and spits on his face.
The man grunts in anger, and he sees red.
He starts kicking her in her ribs and stomach with her knees. YuNing shouts at him to stop, to let her be this one time, but as always, he's unheard, and he stays to watch it all unfold before his eyes without him being able to interfere and saving her.
*
April 19, 2021, 17:54
Beijing, China
It's almost 6pm when they've all successfully submitted their final projects and gathered to celebrate. QinYu insisted on them gathering at his and YuNing's room, which is kind of rude on his behalf because YuNing never approved of it. He does get why he wanted it to be at their dorm since it's relatively emptier than the other's, and they were definitely not going to the girls section because they would rather not get expelled at the last week of school.
YuNing, however, is way too worn out to be around more than one person, but he pushes through it because he knows part of this gathering is to cheer him up a bit. He's just sitting on the coach chilling out and observing all of them, playing truth or dare. QinYu dared ZiYan to do squats with one of the girls on his back, and he definitely wasn't going to let his girlfriend ride another dude so it's on XiangHua, who's afraid of heights so yeah that was just a bad choice of a dare. YuNing eyes NianZu and he looks like he's having a little too much fun watching the two of them struggle, good old NianZu. He's the closest member of this group to YuNing, given that they were neighbours since YuNing saw the light of the day. They went to elementary, middle and high-school together, and they've always had the dream of starting their own band one day since they were seven when they listened to Within temptation for the first time. Now here they are, two grown men from the outskirts of Fenghuang, almost graduating from Beijing contemporary music academy and everything in their lives set up for success.
YuNing know they'd have been now auditioning for spots of trainers in entertainment companies if it wasn't for YuNing's loss, however NianZu never mentioned it, and YuNing is grateful for him for it.
*
YuNing is on his phone talking to his father about the final presentation and all that when he hears someone knocking on his room door, he bids his goodbye to his father and shouts for the person to come in.
And of course it's XiangHua.
"Hey, thought you needed some company. " XiangHua says with an apologetic smile. Or a flirtatious one, quite frankly YuNing isn't in the mood to know. His father just told him about his financial crisis due to the money they spent on AiLin's treatment before she left them. YuNing isn't mad about it being fruitless, because he'd pay every last jiao he could find to spend one more minute in his mother's warm arms, and he knows his father feels the same way.
"I was just talking to my dad."
"Oh, I hope I didn't interrupt or anything. " she smiles sympathetically, and YuNing hates it.
YuNing is very well aware of how much she's into him but he's also aware of how much he's not into her. He kind of feels bad for letting her hang on some hope of him just being dense as fuck or just as oblivious as most men can be. She's a decent girl, but YuNing is out for something else. It's out of his reach and out of this world, YuNing thinks dreamily, but he believes he deserves some hope too, maybe even a miracle.
"You didn't." He lies.
Okay, he should seriously stop doing that around her.
"so I've been thinking.." she's playing with the ends of her hair, and YuNing knows its a reflex action and she's not trying seduce him or anything, but it still makes him feel bad anyways.
"that's dangerous. " he says. She lets out a cute giggle, and nudges her shoulder against his.
Before she gets to express what she was thinking of, NianZu barges into the room with full force and drags them both by the arm to the living room for starting the karaoke part of their night, which is of course a lie because YuNing knows the only reason NianZu said that is because he knows how YuNing feels about XiangHua and he's always there to save his ass when needed.
*
April 19, 2021, 23:45
Beijing, China
Evdokia and Jean's
apartment
In Evdokia's defence, she never loaded her gun to begin with, she doesn't know when and how someone managed to load it because she's sure the gun has been in her belt since the morning, and all the bullets are present on her chest rig. It's normal in their field, to kill a target from time to time, but they're usually creatures -humans- that have done pretty fucked up shit. She doesn't enjoy it, and she shouldn't have pulled the trigger, but it was a warning, a discipline to one of the target minions, but the bullet came out anyways.
She's a bit nauseous since the morning from the moment the cold body landed flat onto the ground. Someone knocks on the door and it's probably Jean. She gets off the couch to open the door, where she's half watching some horror show about vampires which she finds comedic because no matter how much they try, humans are quite funny when it comes to representing creatures, mythical if you will.
"you look like shit." It's Jean and Ira.
"Right back at you. " she replies to Jean.
The petty dude he is sticks his tounge out at her, but the gentleman in him beats it in seconds and hands her the same bucket of ice cream that solves all of her dilemmas.
" it wasn't your fault you know? One of-" Ira starts.
"I know." She mumbles with an ungraceful mouthful of ice cream.
"will you hear me out?" Ira slouches down on the couch in annoyance, "they did their investigations, he killed one of his members family and the guy wanted revenge. "
"so he decided to ruin my career and day, how nice of him." Evdokia doesn't think she'll let it go at least in two weeks, but she does empathise with the guy's loss, so be it.
"first of all, you're a secret agent, killing one of the henchmen isn't a big deal." Ira starts, points a finger out and all like the knows all person he is. "secondly, you killed a serial killer."
"He does it because he has to follow the orders thrown at him probably because he's being threatened in some way." Evdokia argues in one breath.
Ira rolls his eyes at her, and gets up to cook them dinner. Evdokia doesn't enjoy killing that often, unlike beating the shit out of them, now that's fun. Evdokia always likes to have a little bit of faith in humans, they're simple minded creatures, swept off by the mere power and fortune they can get their hands on. She petties them, to some extent.
"He was a bad person, you did the right thing even if it was by accident. " Jean whispers from where he's sitting on the arm chair, he knows her too well. "Mizuki checked his records, he's got his hands dirty with worse shit than just murder.
"Thanks Jean." She replies contently, and Jean knows she means it with all her.
"By the way, have you heard of the Billie incident?" Jean leans back in the chair.
"nope, what about him?"
"he almost blew up his human cover."
"No way!" Evdokia puts down her ice-cream and stares surprisingly at Jean. And maybe she's a little frightened as well.
Creatures have long agreed on keeping their identities in secret, to never shift to their real from in the humans world. And it scares Evdokia, especially at this age of technology that human have managed to get their hands on. If one creature messed up, it can cost a thousand lives and maybe every creature's life in the human realm. That's why they're all double agents. Every creature that works for the FBI also works for the Creatures Protection Agency. For obvious safety measures, the pioneers of their world have come together and built the CPA for creatures own good, and Evdokia could have been more content with it. If you ask her, she would say she enjoys the work at the CPA much more than the FBI.
"yeah, he used a freezing spell on a human. He killed him, but he violated every rule the CPA has put up." Jean continues.
"Is that what chief FanHeng wants to summon us for tomorrow? Ugh." Evdokia grunts.
"Hmm, probably. " the iron elf affirms.
They both head to the kitchen, realising they left Ira alone in the kitchen for longer than they should have because they just heard him dropping something that sounded like a mini bomb explosion.
It isn't long before Valodya, Mizuki and Robin make it to the apartment, their little found family gathered for a dinner once again.
They all fall into a comfortable conversation, good enough to keep Evdokia's mind off her gunshot sound ringing in her head. She's enjoying this little gathering while she can, because its only a matter of time before they're all sent on their way to take on new assignments. Evdokia locks eyes with Valodya across the dining table, and he smiles softly at her, and it feels like a parental hug she hasn't had in what feels like forever. She smiles back at him, and just like that, she prepares herself for the next tackle.
*
April 20, 2021, 01:03
Beijing, China
RiXin road
Its raining heavily and YuNing is drunk as fuck on their way back home. They all have gone together to the nearest bridge by the river to burn fake money for his mother. They're aware that it isn't the new years yet, but YuNing has been wanting to do this since he came back from Fenghuang. They lit up the money with vodka, and it was supposed to stop there but YuNing downed the rest of the bottle in one go, justifying it that he's doing it in honour of AiLin, but they all knew it was to block his mind off just for one single night, and so they didn't stop him. He doesn't have the best alcohol intolerance to begin with, so here they are, one drunk to death, two sleep deprived and three babysitting the rest.
The smell of rain fills the air around them as they walk up the street, NianZu carrying YuNing over his shoulders to make sure he doesn't chock if he started throwing up. The pattering of the rain droplets sounded therapeutic in some way and so did the smell of petrichor, contrasting the loud roars of thunder and the lightning chopping its way through the sky like an axe. The streets are empty and quite at this hour, the only sounds being heard other than the rain is cars on the highway and people inside their homes.
"who's idea was it again to do this today?" NianZu complains with a huff.
"you? You're literally the one who ordered the money and bought the vodka." XiangHua throws over her shoulder as she and ZiYan walk ahead the rest of them. She's on her phone, probably texting one of her friends about something regarding YuNing.
The streets lights are burnt off due to the water leakage into the electrical wires, and its leaving them almost walking blindly in the middle of the night.
Eventually, NianZu gets too tired and he passes YuNing to QinYu, who gives YuNing a piggyback ride instead of having him over his shoulder like a potato sack.
The road seems to be stretching on the more they stride towards their destination. They're a few miles away from the dorms when a full sized van pulls over at the side of the street next to them. ZiYan is instantly wary by it and he murmurs to the girls, XiangHua and Liling to get behind him and NianZu.
A man opens the door of the van, his umbrella emerging before him stepping out. He's wearing a black suit and a grey shirt under the blazer, with a black mask on. His figure is lit up by the red hue of the car headlight.
"Hi! Sorry, we're looking for a building around this area but we're kinda lost over here." The man says, dusting off some of the water droplets that managed their way from the edge of the umbrella.
"What building are you looking for?" Ziyan steps forward, fishing his phone from his back pocket.
"Wang YuNing. " a woman comes out of the van, short black hair, black suit and gloves, and is that a gun in her hand?
"What?" is all Ziyan managed to say before the woman launched on him and tackled him to the ground.
Before ZiYan realizes what's happening, five other men emerge from the van and go after the rest of them. Ziyan tries to squirm in the woman's hold but to no use. He looks up and he sees QinYu falling to his knees and his eyes shut. He sees NianZu kicking a guy in the crouch and taking out another one with a head lock, however he's out numbered in no time and he's put to sleep in a blink of an eye too. ZiYan only registers what's happening when a gas mask is pushed at his face, it's too late. Before he blacks out, he sees one of the men holding a torch to YuNing's face and checking for a pules. He thinks he hears someone saying we need him alive and the torch guy confirming that he is indeed, and just like that, ZiYan blacks out.
*
April 20, 2021, 01:03
Beijing, China
The world around her is as lively as it could get at one after midnight.
Evdokia is out running in the rain when she feels a shuddering knot at the back of her head forming.
She had a nightmare. One so real it woke her up in cold sweat. It was closer to a memory than a nightmare. The ones that actively make her avoid sleeping for as long as her body can take it.
She stops to take her breathe after a thirty minute sprint, back bent and hands on her knees as she catches her breath. She rubs her palm at the back of her head only to feel something warm and wet on her finger tips. Its just water, rain droplets.
She stands still for a while, taking in the atmosphere around her. Tall buildings of the capital towering over her like giants. Evdokia takes off her hood and allows water to seep onto her face and hair as she bends her neck backwards and opens her arms to the sky.
Its a peaceful night, she thinks.
She looks around her, counting the cars passing by. She sees three sport cars, possibly teenagers racing behind their parents backs. Two black SUVs are driving relatively slower than cars normally do on this street, a black matt car with tinted windows.
For a second she hears a cat meowing. She thinks about detecting where it came from and to warm the cat in such a harsh night.
She refrains herself from it.
She doesn't have the luxury of a normal person to raise pets with how unsteady her schedule of work normally asks of her to leave the house, sometimes the country.
She wishes the cat a good luck, puts her hood back on, and takes off the light jog to home, ignoring the throbbing pain shooting electricity at the back of her head
*
April 20, 2021, 07:35
Beijing, China
The First thing YuNing registers when he wakes up is that his clothes are awfully, dully, uncomfortably wet. He tries stretching out his arms but he feels them being tied behind his back. He thinks for a second its a silly little move his friends pulled up on him to stop him from doing any death dewing acts while he's drunk to the brim, until he feels a piece of cloth over his mouth and nose. His eyes fly open in panic and that's when he sees where he is, where they are.
ZiYan and QinYu are tied to a single wooden pill, hands cuffed behind their backs, eyes and mouths covered with duck tape and clothes, while NianZu, XiangHua and Liling are tied up onto sharp handles over the wall, arms stretched upwards, and they're all put to sleep.
YuNing tries screaming for them to wake up, petrified of the worst case scenario. He stays like this for a good half an hour, trying his best to move the chair he's tied onto, which was all fruitless since the chair is built into the ground of the room and his hands and legs are tied onto each side of the arms and legs of it.
YuNing is about to fall asleep from tiredness again, the hungover headache getting the best of him, when four men barge into the room with a loud bang from the door hitting the wall, which caused the rest of the hostages to wake up. And YuNing is instantly relieved to see them all alive in one piece.
YuNing takes the men in, making mental notes about them.
One of the four men, their head, YuNing supposes as he leads the men in, is a tall mid forty year old looking man, with a visible scar running from his jaw line till where his neck reaches by his shirt's collar. He's wearing a sharp black suit, wine red tie and his hands behind his back, with a smug look drawn onto his face. YuNing thinks he doesn't want to deal with this man if he ever saw him walking casually on the street. His skin is pale and dark at the same time, eyes are a deep orange colour and they look way too real to be artificial lenses and it unsettles YuNing in the worst ways. The other three men, who look like his pawns, are all wearing white crisp shirts, black pants and boots. One of them is white and blonde while the other two have dark brown hair, one with freckles all over his face and the other with fine tanned skin. They're all carrying different types of weapons, and quite honestly, YuNing would love not knowing what each one of them do. Two other men follow the four, each carrying buckets of what seems like Taser or a torch, YuNing doesn't want to know about them either.
"So, YuNing" the man in the suite and tie walks up to him, hands coming out from his back and inserted in his pockets, "how much do you know about the war your father started?"
First of all, What kind of question is that, asked by your kidnappers? Second of all, what the fuck?
Huh? is all YuNing could say, or release off his held back mouth if you will.
"pretending you don't know now, aren't we?" The man barks out a dark laugh. His face changes in a blink of an eye to anger and he reaches for the back of YuNing's chair and fucking breaks it in his fist. To say YuNing is scared for his life would be an understatement. What kind of a normal person can break a sheet of thick wood with their bare hands?
Liling screams out from shock and it makes the man shift his attention towards her.
"wakey wakey, kids." The man looks up from YuNing's face to the rest of them, a psychotic smile playing on his lips and eyes. "Did you finish their blood tests?" he asks no one in particular, but from what it seems two men fly out of the room to grab whatever information the man wants.
With how close he is from YuNing now, YuNing can read a name pin pinned to the side of the front of the suite jacket, and it says Markian Lazarus.
In no time, the two men are back with a woman in a laboratory coat leading them, holding a tablet and a binder in her arms.
"Sir, the tests are complete. " the woman says with a stern voice. Something about the way she carries herself makes YuNing feel more uneasy about this whole situation.
She hands Thomas the tablet and file papers, "Thank you Deebti, you're dismissed." Markian spits out coldly. The woman bows and leaves with no other word.
"One half fairy," Markian points at YuNing with a pen that was inside of the binder, "full merman, "pointing at ZiYan, "and the rest are pure humans." He says, regarding the rest of the friends, with disgust. "Which means you're lying to me when you pretend being oblivious. " YuNing flinches when Markian abruptly closes the binder off with a loud bang. Markian pulls down the cloth from his face.
"What the hell are you on and what do you want from us?" YuNing asks desperately, finally being able to breathe freely.
Markian weighs him with a look from his head to his toes, unimpressed expression on his face. In the speed of light, he slaps YuNing across the face, which causes YuNing's jaw to dislocates. YuNing screams in pain, but he's grabbed by his chin by Markian, his eyes flying all over his face, orange orbs staring right through his soul.
"I see," he examines YuNing's jaw, "you were never told were you?" he releases his hold onto YuNing's face and walks up to the two men left with him in the room. He starts talking in a language YuNing doesn't understand, no, none of them understand, and it sounds awfully unfamiliar it puzzles YuNing. It's almost like.. like animals echoes. YuNing plays back what was just said now, half fairy and a full mermaid? That's it, that guy is a menace crack head fucking with them.
He doesn't 't get to think and dwell on it for too long, because a second later, the man spins around, light on his feet and claps his hands. "Kris, you know what to do." He throws over his shoulder as he turns around, one of the men following him out, and the other stays put, YuNing guesses, is Kris.
Kris walks up to QinYu first, untangling the knot keeping him intact to the wooden pill, throwing him over the floor with his hands tied behind his back. He goes up to NianZu, Liling and XiangHua to do the same with them, pushing them all to the ground next to each other. Kris pulls out his gun and loads it. Panic rises along with bile and vomit up YuNing's throat. ZiYan is shouting and squirming in his place trying to stop the man. Time seems to stop when they hear the first shot, both men as stiff as a wooden door, unable to move anymore.
Drip
Drop
Bang.
The second shot isn't as loud as the first one from the white noise that fogged out their minds, but the third shot is loud enough to make them flinch, and the fourth shot landing in Liling's skull, blowing it off. Struck with fear and horror, YuNing watches his friends bodies shiver as they relinquishes it's hold off the last thread keeping them warm with life. At some point, YuNing's vision goes blurry, he can partially hear ZiYan screaming on his right side, but he can't breathe anymore, his lungs refusing to function. And so he flakes out.
*