Bad dream
May 8, 2021, 23:59
Beijing, china
Mogra safehouse
LiQin finds her in the kitchen at the stroke of midnight, drinking green tea and checking something on her laptop.
She's beautiful that way, with the blue light illuminating her face and highlighting her seven moles forming a moon on her cheek bone. LiQin asks himself if she ever considered modelling instead and living a normal life with Jean, probably would have already had a kid or two. But it wouldn't be Evdokia if she chose the easy route.
"Evdokia." he calls out, but she doesn't spare him an answer or her attention. He takes a long breath and carries on nevertheless, "listen I was wrong, I know I fucked up real time when I left. It was a selfish move of me, but can you blame me?"
"Yes. Yes I can. You knew what was going to happen when you left." She sighs heavily and she looks tired, eyes not leaving the screen.
"I swear, I never thought that they'd go this far." LiQin says.
"you did. To some extent, you definitely did." Evdokia murmurs.
"But-"
"Nothing can be done about it now. There's no use of passing around the blame like a hot potato. Go sleep." Evdokia pushes out, sipping the last few droplets in her glass mug.
He wonders how many times does she suppress her thoughts and emotions that way for the sake of remaining sane and not setting the world on fire.
"You know you can talk to me about it." LiQin says.
"Talk to you about it?" She chuckles darkly, "talk about what you menace? How your sparkly ass chose yourself over a family that chose you over themselves and their safety?"
"You were never my family. I only have one family that actually accepted me for who I am."
"Oh, did they now?" that's it, that sets her on fucking fire, "She never knew who you truly were. Last I know you left her die because you couldn't bare choosing her over your own safety." Evdokia snaps shut her laptop and gets up to get out of the room, but when she's about to be out of the room, she finds before her a dumbstruck YuNing standing by the kitchen door.
"Dad, what is she talking about?" YuNing asks under his breath, almost inaudibly.
In YuNing's papers, the parents history showed how AiLin, the mother in the family died from cancer just a couple of months ago. Evdokia can't imagine this was an easy experience for either of the men, but knowing LiQin's magic abilities, he could have saved his alleged love of his life. But he chose not to. Because it would put him in hot waters.
"Evdokia, who did you mean by her? " YuNing resolves to asking her when LiQin doesn't answer and just stands there with a fallen face.
"You mother. AiLin." She says, simply, unapologetically. She's done with LiQin's bullshit.
"You could have saved her?" YuNing seethes through his teeth.
"Yes. He could have. He's the best wizard we've ever known." Evdokia answers for LiQin.
YuNing punches LiQin.
Evdokia would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy seeing it. Or if this didn't partly turn her on.
"How could you- why- how could you ever leave her die?" YuNing flinches through tears of anger and agony.
LiQin is knocked down on the floor and his hand is on his cheek. He looks miserable and weak like that. Good. Evdokia thinks. Maybe they were after all his weak point.
"ANSWER ME! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE HER?!" YuNing screams at the top of his lungs, his voice coming out horse and broken.
"I had no guarantee it would work, alright? Yes. Yes, I could have saved her. But do you have any idea what the hell of a mess the follow up of that would have been like?" LiQin snaps back as he gets up off the floor.
Evdokia doesn't realise this comedic yet tragic sitcom now has the whole house watching until she feels a pair of familiar hands planted on her shoulders.
"You could have tried. You could have fucking tried!" YuNing punches him this time in the ribs. And LiQin doesn't stop him.
"You said she was everything to you. What else are lying about now? Am I even your fucking son? Because I sure don't feel like you give a batshit about me."
"Ningning-" LiQin eyes are wide and he looks in pain, mentally before physically.
"Don't you fucking dare call me that. This is reserved to mum." YuNing spits out.
"YuNing I swear I would have- if it didn't mean I was putting you both in danger I would have. Cross my heart and hope to die I promise you I would have cured her. You know my love extent to AiLin. You know." LiQin is crying, and Evdokia thinks its the very first time she has ever seen him show such raw sadness and sorrow, it leaves her breathless.
"You could have asked the CPA for protection. You knew well about us." Robin chimes in, and walking up to LiQin.
Evdokia agrees. The CPA does have a special protocol for those of humans that get exposed to magic. Evdokia thinks if it was Jean she would have saved him with all she could, and she believes the reason Robin is the one stepping up right now is because he would do that same with Reema.
"How would I know you wouldn't kill her and harvest her organs like they do to most humans." LiQin grits his teeth.
"You're not wrong. There's a bad branch in the CPA but most of the directors get filtered all the time and are always under investigations. You could have saved her. You could have resolved to the CPA but you didn't because-" Mizuki says in a single breath.
"Because you didn't want anyone to know you were still alive." Evdokia finishes for Mizuki.
It all makes sense now. Evdokia thinks she has been mad at the wrong person now that she thinks about it. It was never Ivar Edgar or the Onis. Perhaps it was the very person she prayed for his peacefulness along with all her other family members, and it makes her sick to the stomach.
"Stay away from me." YuNing stumbles out of the kitchen, shoulder brushing Evdokia's on his way out of the door.
Evdokia decides its only fair for her to help him out. Shut down his raging mind. She has, after all, stormed his mind with her own demons for months now.
*
Evdokia lights a cigarette when she sees him leaning on the balcony ledge. She offers him a pack and he accepts, and she lights it with hers.
They stay silent for a while until Evdokia is done with her cigarette. She puts it out but keeps it between her fingers.
"You asked me why you saw me everywhere around you." She starts.
"And you never answered why."
Evdokia smiles, eyes fixated on the single moon in the sky. She has always felt human's sky is so bland without the thousands of moons sparkling along with the stars.
She pushes herself off the railway and offers out her hand, YuNing gladly takes it. Evdokia pulls up his black hoodie sleeves. She trails the tips of her fingers over his forearm skin and it makes YuNing shiver.
Evdokia mumbles something and lines of neon blue and purple start appearing on his arm, slowly forming a beautiful illustration as they slide across his skin and connect.
Evdokia lets go of YuNing's arm and works on folding her own sweatshirt sleeves. And there it lies the same set of lines forming on her forearm as well. They're as clear as the day, and maybe jow YuNing's wonders about why she only has one arm tattooed is now being answered as something so much more mesmerising draws itself on her arm.
"This is...beautiful. " YuNing doe eyes are as wide as they can get, the light of the lines reflecting into his eyes and making him look like he has stars in his eyes. Evdokia smiles at him.
"This is our connection to each other. Mentally and physically. " she says.
"What does that mean?" YuNing asks.
"We're soul mates." She moves her eyes off their arms that are hung side by side, an identical design mirrored on both forearms.
"I'm sorry, we're what?" YuNing blinks.
Evdokia laughs at him and says it again, and she's still met with the same star struck expression on YuNing's face.
"That's..dope." YuNing breathes out, and Evdokia scrunches her nose in amusement.
"It's magical, yes."
"How did you- do you just go around saying this spell until one shows up the same as yours?" YuNing genuinely asks and Evdokia chuckles harder.
"No, silly. I have royal blood, I can see everyone's without a spell." Evdokia explains.
"So that's why." He whispers to himself, suddenly remembering the way she was staring down at his arm at the back of the bar. He feels ecstatic, which is wrong, definitely wrong given the argument he was just having a few minutes ago. But it also feels right, because he knew it was far from love at first sight when his eyes met hers for the first time.
He's about to express it when he suddenly remembers Jean.
"What about Jean?" he asks bluntly.
Evdokia raises a questioning eyebrow at that, "what about him?"
"You're together." He eyes the ring hugging her finger.
"Oh. Oh. Nah, just because we're soulmates doesn't mean we're- how do I say this? Doomed to be romantically together." She says.
Well shit.
"I see." He says, with a heavy heart.
He thinks for a while before asking his next questing as she pulls down her sleeve and goes back to propping her chin on the ledge.
"Why isn't it Jean?" he mumbles, but she hears him loud and clear.
"You don't exactly get to ask destiny why. Soulmates don't have to be lovers, they could even be siblings, connected physically to see into each other's minds, feel their pain when they're hurt, it doesn't happen until they meet actually." She say with her index up like a miss know it all.
"Only royalties can see them." She smileys sweetly at him.
"And the nightmares.." YuNing starts.
"Yes, the started after we met, right? They're real memories, if you're wondering, but not all of them, some are just...how do I put this into words," she asks herself more than a him.
"regret's projection?"
Evdokia snaps her fingers and points at him like he stole the words from her mouth.
"Does that answer all your questions?"
"Well not really...but for now, I'm now less scared of those dreams, maybe I could know more about you through them."
"oh well aren't you sweet." She sigh, "no better way to figure out more about a girl other than through her traumatic tragedy of life."
YuNing chuckles softly, and Evdokia feels like he's cute, in a cute puppy way.
"Tell me something about you then." YuNing shuffles to get closer to her, and she doesn't mind it.
"like what?"
"like...what was your dream job growing up, like your passion?" he asks.
"Aaah that was a long time ago, but-"
"Why do you always talk like you've surpassed a hundred years." YuNing asks.
"Shut up, I've been through a lot." She has a silly little smile playing on her lips, "I was the youngest of my siblings, we were up for the throne, but both me and Felony, my late middle brother, wanted to join the forces and focus on our martial arts skills more than anything else." She says as a tear drops falling down from her eyes, and its a lovely memory, in the best possible ways.
"I'm sorry about your brother." YuNing whispers.
"Eh, water under the bridge." She waves her hand in ease, " what about you? Have you always wanted to become a musician?"
YuNing clears his voice and straightens his back, "No, not really. It was kind of a late high-school obsession."
"So what did you wish to be as a child?"
"well," he clears his throat again, "I wasn't one of those overly ambitious kids who wished to become an astronaut or whatever. I was much better than that, I wanted to become my favourite anime character that I put their picture under my pillow at night, hoping I'd become them when I wake up."
Evdokia barks out a laugh, and YuNing thinks he could get used to it's ring in his ears.
"having fun?" they both jump in their places when they hear the new voice.
It's Mizuki, leaning onto the balcony entrance with his arms folded and all.
"Party popper." Evdokia pouts.
"Get up and go get some rest, I've already received the files of the mission, we got a lot of shit to do tomorrow. "
Evdokia sighs heavily and moves anyways, followed by YuNing. She heads to the girls room ahead of them both, closing the door behind her.
"How do you feel about her being your soulmate?" Mizuki sks, offering YuNing a cigarette as he lights one for himself, which he rejects.
"You know about it?"
"Just heard you both talking."
"You were eavesdropping.."
"I'd say more like making sure she isn't lying to you about anything just to freak you out for fun." Mizuki chuckles, cold smoke exhaling out of his mouth. "get to bed kid, you'll need it."
YuNing follows him up to his own room, huddled up in his bed and all, and when he dreams about Evdokia's hellhole of memories, he isn't as scared as he used to be, but he's more sympathetic about it from now on.
*
May 9, 2021, 08:02
Beijing, china
Mogra safehouse
Everyone in the house is getting ready for leaving and putting traces of the men and women in the basement around the house in case the FBI didn't believe Evdokia's lie and came back snooping for information.
Valodya is on his laptop working on a case they were sent this morning from the CPA. Its another human trafficking case, however, the criminals this time are Morpheuses, a rare race yet when they're put together they always form the weirdest and definitely the most devilicious cults they could ever come up with.
Valodya got to give it to them, they get better and smarter with their choice of victims every time.
As disturbing this case seems to be, Valodya has seen far worse happening to people, so its just another fascinating case to him.
He asks Ira to pass him his tea cup from where its sitting on the coffee table. Ira and Dodo currently making YuNing watch supernatural movies just to correct the cultural bullshit that went into those movies compared to the reality of their late life.
Valodya finds the compound that has the hostages in less than thirty minutes, tea cup long forgotten after he found a lead in the tracking.
He unplugs the laptop from the electric socket, walking up the stairs to Evdokia and Reema's room.
He finds Reema and Evdokia rehearsing what Evdokia is supposed to tell the main general in the FBI when asked why she didn't tell the rest of her team to join her as she attacked this safehouse alone and saved the two boys.
"What's up?" Evdokia stops spinning in her chair and puts the papers down onto her lap.
"I found the hostages location." Valodya says.
"Oh, that was quick." She gets up to see for herself on his laptop as he flips the screen her way.
"interesting, it's quite exposed, isn't it?" she squints her eyes at the red dot on the screen.
"It is. I had to recheck it like five times to make sure it's the right one."
"Cool, send it to our group." She says as she turns around but Valodya holds her back by her arm. Evdokia smiles at him and hums questionably.
"Are you okay? You know you can deflect at any given moment and we'll be there to back you up, right?" Valodya whispers.
"I know. I've studied this enough. It's going to work out. Don't worry." She pats his hand and he lets go of her, murmuring 'I trust you' before nodding and leaving the room.
*
May 9, 2021, 10:47
Beijing, china
The FBI main building
YuNing and ZiYan are respectfully anxious when they reach the FBI building.
She thinks no amount of hours of rehearsing what they have to say when being bombarded with questions by the general.
"If you're asked something we haven't already discussed, don't answer. And please, don't look at me." Evdokia says when they're in the elevator on her way to the conference room.
They meet with Evdokia's team halfway through the elevator ride, and Evdokia is thankful that none of them asked any questions, other than YingTai asking the boys if they're alright, which was sweet of him.
The elevator rings and Evdokia takes a final long breath before stepping out of the ride, the rest of the men and women trailing behind her.
ShunYuan opens the door for Evdokia and the rest as they walks inside and salute the general.
"Good morning, captain. " the general takes off his glasses and salutes the team back, his eyes not leaving the two boys.
Using magic, it was quite easy to leave traces of torture over ZiYan and YuNing, that, plus the wounds that already haven't healed.
"So..ZiYan and YuNing. " General QiuYue clears his throat, looking through the report Evdokia has asked KeLei to write last night.
He raises his eyebrows halfway through the report and looks back up in shock at Evdokia.
"Two kids only?!" General QiuYue exhales.
"Yes, unfortunately, by the time I got to them, the other were long dead." Evdokia says.
"Allow me. The morgue doctors said they were dead two weeks before you found them." JinZhu steps up and hands the morgue report.
General QiuYue looks through it before humming, "I see. KeLei, you deliver the news to the families, you're the best at it."
"Yes, sir." KeLei says back.
"well, that sounds like another human trafficking case, nothing new her-" Evdokia is about to let out a sigh if relief when the general stops mid sentence and stares at the final case report. He looks back up at Evdokia in surprise.
"You solved the case on your own." General QiuYue express in awe.
"Well, I wouldn't have if it wasn't for YuNing's father contacting me." Evdokia exhales.
"elaborate. " he puts down the files and intertwines his fingers before him as he leans onto the table.
"Wang LiQin, he was sent a message from the kidnappers with the boys and girls location. He contacted me after two days of receiving it. We were good friends in the past, I believe it was fate that lead me to be on this case. " Evdokia fake smiles, but she thinks it went right under the general's nose.
"And why wouldn't you share it with your team?" he leans back into his chair.
"I couldn't risk it. Neither my team's safety nor the boys and girls. I didn't know how verified the location was-"
"So you thought going into the colony on your own was a good idea?" he measures her with an unamused look, because yes, it's not that weird of an Evdokia move given her history.
"Yes?" she shrugs at him cheekily, "one person dying is better than six, don't you think?"
"You're not wrong." The general mumbles, "where is LiQin by the way?"
"He'd have came along but he had a lot of work to get done now that he hasn't been working for the past two weeks." Evdokia says.
"What does he do?"
"psychiatrist. "
"And the kidnappers? Where are they?"
"I left them in the house they were found in. A crew of officers and investigators are currently on their way to pick them up."
"I see. Well, good job captain, be more careful next time. You're dismissed. " the general stands up and organises all the paper with each other before handing them to Evdokia. She notices that his fingers are covered with cheese dust.
They all salute him one last time before leaving the room, a huge weight lifted off Evdokia's shoulders.
She's got to admit, if It was anyone other than the laziest general in the facility that was reviewing this case, they'd be stuck in that room for the entire week.
As they walk back into the elevator, ZiYan lets out a loud sigh, and honestly, Evdokia feels for him.
"Are my parents here?" ZiYan asks.
"Yes, your family should be waiting along with the other families." YingTai answers, a hand on ZiYan's shoulder in courtesy for his lost friends.
"KeLei, be careful with the families, they can get wild sometimes." Evdokia warns right before leaving the elevator to go to her office to organise her business.
"Heard." He says in a stern voice, but his arm reaches out for hers when she's one step out of the door. Evdokia looks at him questionably, and KeLei looks behind him before accompanying her and YuNing out of the elevator. Evdokia remembers to wave goodbye to ZiYan before the door shuts and the lift leaves.
KeLei takes Evdokia to the side and he looks like he haven't slept in a while, Evdokia realises.
"You look like shit." Evdokia smiles at him.
"I was worried sick about you." KeLei says.
"oh."
"Yeah, " he chuckles, "but I guess you got it as always. Sorry for doubting you for a second."
"no offence taken, I get it, I'd be too if the roles were reversed." Evdokia pats his shoulder.
KeLei nods with a tired smile on his face. He looks over at YuNing.
"This kid need a psychiatrist evaluation. The torturing must have been terrible." His voice is pained, and Evdokia feels guilty about it.
"Yeah, I was planning on sending a psychiatrist to both him and ZiYan." Evdokia hums.
"You always think ahead of the rest, eh?"
"What can I say? I'm that good." She shoves at him and he shoves her back before they both bid goodbye and each go their way.
Evdokia takes YuNing by the hand and guides him to her office.
*
May 9, 2021, 10:47
Beijing, china
The CPA east department
The drive to the CPA is painfully silent, everyone in the car trying their best not to meet each other's eyes in the mirrors of the car.
Ira is driving while Evdokia is in passenger seat, YuNing and LiQin at the back of the car.
Evdokia hands LiQin a bottle of a potion Valodya cooked up, and he sniffs it, knowing exactly what's it's purpose solely from the stench, and he downs it on one go. It's a shapeshifting potion and it has Mizuki's DNA. Even if Evdokia doesn't exactly agree with LiQin hiding, she's still some what a decent person and allows him to choose his rights, and so she respects his decision and goes along with it.
She delivers YuNing to her office while Ira takes LiQin to the teams department, because yes, YuNing would probably beat LiQin black and blue if they were kept alone in a room after his latest discovery.
Evdokia locks the door on her way out of the office, heading towards general Rati's office because he's the one evaluating this case. And it's a good thing, because general Rati is almost like a god father to her in this agency.
*
Evdokia stares around her, as the general goes through the files the team has uploaded on the system regarding the case, excluding LiQin from all the information.
The general finishes reading the report and stands up from his chair. He turns around to look through the office's glassed walls that look out onto the training hall.
"You're hiding something from me." The general stands there, with his back facing Evdokia.
"Sir..."
"Drop the courtesies, Eve. What is happening? It took you two weeks to find a couple of boys? And you lost every pawn that could have told us who's behind that crime at first then couldn't get a word out of the rest of them before the FBI taking them away? This isn't the Evdokia I know."
Evdokia sighs heavily, she knew nothing could go past him.
"We found him." she rests her shoulders on her palms, pressing them firmly onto the general's desk, her head is low and eyes are staring at a pen left unopen on the desk.
Rati takes in her form. She's exhausted, he could tell that much the moment she walked through that door.
He turns around and walks up to her, facing her, neck bent uncomfortably to look into her eyes.
"And how do you feel about it? About him?" He goes to say, but is interrupted by Evdokia hugging him tightly. He holds her back, as he feels a weight lift with every inhale and exhales she takes in and out.
"if I'm being honest, I don't know if I should keep it from you or not, I don't know. I don't fucking know anything. " she murmurs into his chest. He might be aroundtwo hundred years old, quite old for a fire elf, but he's still built like an Iron elf in his fourties.
"You have had pent up longing towards him all these years, but he's also a father figure, I understand that." Rati hums into the hug.
"he's innocent, and having his life wasted in jail wasn't right to begin with but-" Evdokia tries to convince herself more than him.
"But?"
Evdokia sighs and wonders for a second.
Rati hums as he plants his palm flat between her shoulder blades.
He has seen Evdokia in a lot of different states, and this confused Evdokia isn't that far from her normal self.
He lets out a breath, his father instincts kicking in.
"I know one thing, Eve. You should follow your heart, whatever that is, your heart is the purest I've ever encountered, and I do believe that with all I am, my dear child."
Evdokia pulls away from the hug and looks through his eyes, and they're as clear as the day, and she believes him, because he believes in her.
*
Robin, Ira and Mizuki are already put when Evdokia and the rest of the team arrive. They plan out the raid, making sure none of the hostages would get hurt or carried away while they're attacking, circling every entrance and exit with apparent explosives.
"Robin and Valodya on the right wing, Mizuki, shapeshift and fight on the left outside since the hostages are humans, Jean and Ira shooting from the roof windows. I'll take care of the main entrance." Evdokia gives her orders and they all nod, going right up to their positions.
When they notice the traffickers work is getting slow paced, they attack.
Jean and Ira are the first to shoot, making sure they kill them on the first try, if they seemed to be pawns. Five men stride at Evdokia, and she's all ready to take them all in one swipe of her sword and gun. There's a woman flying across the room and coming at her. Evdokia spins her sword and dodges the bullets one after another. A man punches her in her ribs, possibly breaking one or two. She jumps up onto him with both of her thighs around his neck, flipping him over to the other end of the rocky wall.
Robin sees him flying over to his side and his quick to avoid the body with a clean move. He's wrestling a man to the ground, getting him rid of his weapons as he punches him in the face repeatedly.
Valodya has his gun up, eyes as sharp as an eagle, shooting the men down one by one. A woman gets too close to him and kicks his gun off. He grabs his dagger and stabs her in her left thigh, earning him a scream on her behalf. He pulls the dagger as quick he implanted it, in order to make her bleed out and go to sleep. He hears a body falling behind him and he looks over his shoulder to see a sword in the middle of a man's spine, thrown by Ira. Valodya nods at him thankfully and grabs his gun again and carries on with his shooting.
Valodya notices the hostages being scared for their lives and he stands before them, making sure to protect them from any bullets or any of the men and women who try to take them away and sneak outside, realising that in the heat of the moment they won't even notice the planted bombs and will blow up to pieces right away on their way out.
Its all going according to plan until Valodya hears Mizuki's fox screech. He can't leave his position so he orders Jean to back him up, only that Jean doesn't answer him, and Valodya looks up to find Jean splayed on the glass roof, blood dripping off the window. Valodya realises they're fucked, real bad. He pulls out what seems like a small weapon but opens up to become a Gatling gun which he starts shooting none stop with, custom made bullets that can get through any creature's skin. He hits at least six that fall dead, others taking cover, and that's when Valodya sees him across the room, the same haunting red eyes, the eyes of a scared child that doesn't know how they got there, the eyes of Thomas Edgar, Thomas fucking Edgar.
When Valodya looks behind him, his heart drops down to hell and comes back up, his breathe stopping for a good twenty seconds. The hostages are all dead, the twelve human hostages are dead, but not by a bullet or a sharp object, but more with a spell.
Valodya looks back up to catch on the fact that Evdokia is also down, a dagger implanted in her side, as she leans downwards, trying to stay upright with her sword balancing her onto her feet.
He doesn't care about the fact that he might be going against more than double a dozen of incredibly savage creatures at this point ,turning into a phoenix and taking the men and women out one after another, moving the speed of light, biting chunks off their heads and shoulders that leaves them dead.
Valodya sees half of them as they run away, and he was so close to them when they use a transporting spell, but he misses them, and his phoenix screams in rage.
He shifts back to his real form, running to his team mates sides, casting a healing spell after another, Evdokia and Jean having really bad wounds that a simple spell can only numb the pain and stop the bleeding. Robin is quick to talk Mizuki's fox to turn back to his person form so they can treat the wounds but he keeps whining in pain, and so Robin runs to the SV to bring the first aid kit and get to his work onto the bloody scene on his body.
It takes them a good thirty minutes to gather around, taking in the mess that they have caused.
They scan the room, only to fine a single man alive. Robin manages to wake him up with salt crystals and the man is sure isn't frightened when he's conscious.
"listen here, I ask, you answer, got it? If you don't, I'll-" Evdokia is about to recite to him the torturing devices she's ready to use on him when he interrupts her.
"No need to, I work for Thomas Edgar, although I'm sure you already recognised his face among the men now."
"What?" Evdokia doesn't know if she's petrified or surprised by this information.
"I saw him, yes." Valodya chimes in.
"What does he want?" she growls at him.
"LiQin's head, of course."
"It has been two centuries for goodness sake, there's no way you still need a fairy's head off his body to call the war off, if it's even still going on." Evdokia throws her hands in the air in disbelief, and honestly, she doesn't get it.
"You wouldn't get it you shiny looking bitch." He mumbles under his breathe.
"excuse me?" she turns and looks at him.
"Yeah, you would never get it." He holds his chin up high in a challenging gesture, "You've always been above us, we've always been below creatures for you, you treat us like we're parasites. You think that war was flared just by LiQin's escape? You truly are a fool of a spoilt brat."
"We never, we would never treat anyone less than u-"
"Save it sparkles, if it wasn't for your father suggesting our side dropping the charges and carry on with our lives he wouldn't be under the dirt right now. We're always the ones to give in aren't we? Because we're fucking less than you, we're below you. You'll always be privileged while we have to take the barest minimum of rights by our fucking weapons and arms. We have to prove we're worthy too like you all on the bright side of our realm. You guys don't give a shit about us do you? You never did, never wi-"
Evdokia doesn't have it with his shit and slaughters his head off his neck before he's done, splashing blood all over them all like a fountain. She's breathing heavily, she realises.
She didn't like what she was hearing, and she only realises that she proved his point by killing him on the spot simply because she didn't like what she was hearing.
*
Evdokia is keeping her body up right and stretched all by the hand that is griping the table. She thinks director Jackie is screaming how could you get a dozen of humans dead in one mission or something along those lines. Evdokia can't help but think about Jean and Mizuki who are in the surgery room as they speak, not to mention that she should be under the knife with how deep the cut in her pelvis is but she needs to hear this earful first before she is allowed to treat her injuries, comes with being the leader of a squad.
"I've already told you, we were sabotaged by another forces, possibly the ones from the last mission." Evdokia goes on with it again, almost snapping at the woman.
"And why exactly should we believe that? Do you have proof? Or can we just assume you fucked up and didn't prepare well for the raid?" director Ayman interferes, "You've never failed a mission like this before, there's a lot on the line here, not to mention they were all humans. You and your team are in big trouble young lady. "
Evdokia takes a long deep inhale, trying to keep her lightheaded brain working because she's very professional when it comes to her work, and very protective when it comes to her team.
"leave my team out of this, if you want to have a go at me, go for it, but my team were just following my orders." She states, chin held high and sharp, ready to pull out her dagger and stab whoever thinks about hurting one of her found family members.
General George sighs heavily, the hair of his beard moving a little by the gesture. "you fucked up, big time, Evdokia. And I believe you know it and feel it more than any of us might put it into words. Reflect on it, figure out if there were in fact outsiders involved in the case, but of course, you and your team's well bei-"
The rest of his words become white noise as he speaks. Evdokia's brain gears are running at a million miles in an hour speed when it clicks with her. They weren't just sabotaging them on a silly little mission to get them fucked up at work, they were buying themselves time to-
She lets go of the table and practically falls onto her face but Valodya Is quick to grab her before she hits the floor. She grips his arm and whispers the office now in his ears and she believes he has came to the same conclusion as hers at that moment.
Instead of helping her walk he swings her in his arms and carries her bridal style, running up and down the stairs that lead to her office. The door is locked and not even the keys or cards can open it. Valodya uses a banned breaking spell and it works on unlocking the door, only that it was too late when they are into the room.
They find the office an utter mess to say the least. Papers and files flying everywhere, the furniture thrown and torn apart all over the room, Evdokia noticing the claw marks on the couch. Wang LiQin and YuNing are nowhere to be found.
*