Debt

Jacquez was right. There were daemon in the city. Why the guy hadn't dealt with it himself was a wonder. Like he didn't care. Blake grunted. Talk about attitude. The building was used to store steel pipes before they were shipped elsewhere. Thankfully, most of the guys had left already and the few that had stayed gladly listened to him to leave.

That left him alone to deal with the daemon. Two of them.

Blake always wondered why the came the way they did. So deformed and not symmetric like humans. Ah well, it was not his job to question. Drawing out his dagger, Blake jumped down on one of the daemon's back, stabbing it in the head over and over again. The daemon cried in agony, trying to pry him of his back. The second one charged at him, roaring at him. Blake jumped back onto the wall behind him and propelled himself at the daemon, ready to strike.

A third daemon emerged from behind the row of pipes, slamming Blake against the wall. Blake grunted as he got up to his feet. Two two daemon approached him, their claws ready. Blake smiled.

"Bring it on then."

"This was a terrible idea, Ives." Ricardo said.

"Yeah, it's almost midnight. He could be dead, you know." Zhao added.

"If he's dead, then he's weak. And we don't need the weak on our team, do we?"

"No. But still..." Ricardo looked at Jacques for a while shaking his head. Once Ives had made up his mind, there was no turning back from it.

"Two minutes left," Zhao said, "We better start going to look for the guy."

"I agree... "

"Wait." Ives said, his eyes still on the door. The room was silent for a while. Then the door squeaked open. Blake Summers walked into the room, limping on one leg, stopping right in front of Ives, much to the shock of Zhao and Ricardo. He raised his right hand, revealing three daemon cores. Then he crushed them to pieces. Blake grit his teeth as he fell back into the arms of Zhao Fan, falling unconscious.

Ives smiled. "Yeah. He's in."

"Oh you don't say, huh." Ricardo barked in annoyance.

"Still no sign of the target," the shield agent said on his coms. "What now, Vander?"

"Continue the search." Vander said, "We can't go back without at least a clue."

"But, sir, these are daemon, we should let the Inquisitors handle it." Another shield agent said, "That's what they do best after all."

"Agreed sir."

"Orders are orders, Bernard. Quit whining and continue searching.

" Yes sir. " The two shield agents said. Vander continued to move through the mucky waters of the sewer. It was just a quick routine check but it seemed like the special daemon hadn't passed through this area. Ironic, since this was the farthest away from where it had entered from.

"Um... sir?"

"What Ronny?"

"There's something you've got see. There are cannisters here with more daemon."

"What? How many? "

"Three..."

"Stay there, I'll be right with you. Bernard get to my location. "

No response. Vander made a right turn, tracking both Bernard and Ronny. Bernard was close, but he wasn't responding.

"Bernard, respond."

Still no response.

"BERNARD?!"

Vander stopped dead in the water, looking at the bloody remains of Bernard. He puked.

He looked up at the tracker to see that Ronny was gone. "Ronny, do you copy."

No response.

"Dammit!"

Vander slowly walked backwards, unaware of the figure that was looming over him...

"Again." Martha said to Sarah, who grunted again. Closing her eyes, she began to channel her licht energy through her body, from the very strand of hair to the tip of her toes.

"Again."

She was getting tired of this. She had been doing this since yesterday. Brandon and Rachel had already left, not even saying goodbye. Blake was gone already, or was abducted by Ricardo, as she had seen the poor guy being dragged away. Leaving her to continue her training with Martha Hill.

"Again."

Martha was much stricter than Kyler in her opinion. She was barely even looking at her, her eyes buried in the pile of papers she was working on-loads of records of daemon executed of which Diego had refused to take care of.

Come to think of it, she barely knew Martha. She had been born in this very mansion and grew up with her sister and Shino, a much older kid by then. Martha walked in one day, with an angry expression on her face, then the daemon incident hit and then she was rescued by her. And that was the most she remembered.

"Again."

"Come-on !" Sarah stood up in anger, "What did I do wrong, huh."

"You're so lost in your thoughts that you can't even tell, huh?"

Sarah muttered under her breath.

"Your licht energy is breaking up, the more you lose concentration. It's like you're not even here to begin with."

"S... sor..."

The doors burst open, revealing three shield agents. Sarah turned, confused. The three shield agents shoved her out of the way, as if she was a nuisance

"Hey!" Martha bellowed, her voice filled with anger and malice, something that shook even Sarah, "Have the courtesy to treat my recruits with respect.

"We have orders." one of them said.

"Orders. Orders to shove people around? Or orders to barge in the office of a prime Inquisitor?"

"Well he's not here." A voice said, belonging to Special officer of the Shield.

"Shasha." Martha spat out in disgust.

"Hey girl, how's it been?"

"What the hell do you want?"

"What? Can't I just have a friendly chat with my dear Martha Dark."

Dark? Sarah was confused. Martha's surname was Hill. Not Dark. Why was...

The truth dawned on her from deep within her imaginations. That angered expression she'd seen years ago, it had been because of this exact reason.

"Martha of the fallen Great Family of Dark," Shasha said, "Colonel Elizabeth Lionharte says you have a debt to pay. "