Fated meeting

The interior of the warehouse was clean but eerily quiet. There were clear signs of recent activity, as evidenced by the numerous crates scattered haphazardly around the place. Their disarray suggesting a bustling environment that had just been vacated. The atmosphere held a sense of anticipation, as if the warehouse was merely pausing before the next wave of activity commenced.

"What is taking that fvckwad so long?! He's always snappy when it comes to these matters. But when it concerns the life of his brat he procrastinates?"

A well built man with a large frame was now pacing around the room like a politician who just got caught in a scandal, sweat dripped down his toned body like a stream of anxiety and impatience.

His eyes were fixed on a particular object in the room, a featureless, circular, green orb the size of his palm resting on a cushion which itself rested on one of the crates that had been fashioned into an impromptu table.

"Maybe he just doesn't have time for poor old you, tough..."

A snickering, girlish tone came from behind him mocking all of his efforts.

"Keep quiet little girl... I don't remember asking for your opinion"

Turning to the direction of the petulant child he's using as a bargaining chip the man coldly looked at her with contempt and ordered her to shut up.

The girl, Sophia Darwyn Bella Altenblum, the daughter of his most hated enemy. Although young, she had an almost ethereal grace to her indicative of an insightfulness that only ladies possess. Her bangs flowed like a river of silverish platinum down her shoulders draping on her chest and back like a curtain, her violet eyes were particularly attention grabbing like gems that shone in the night. Even with her legs and hands bound to the wooden chair she was sitting on her posture had a certain level of dignity and elegance to it as if her very body itself refused to cave in even in this dire situation that she's in.

"Yeah well I don't remember asking to be kidnapped but here we are"

Instead of fear, the ivory haired girl displayed a complete lack of fvcks to give and replied in a lackadaisical manner.

Although the attitude ticked the man off quite a bit causing a vein to pop on his forehead the man simply took a deep breath and said something with a calm tone instead of getting mad.

"Trust me girl the faster you zip it, the better this'll be for the both of us"

"Aww~ and here I thought we were beginning to get along. What's wrong? Don't like what you see? I suppose I am a bit young for your taste"

Instead of heeding his words the girl continued to sarcastically poke at him.

"Oh my...do you silver spoon brats EVER stop talking?!"

Beginning to lose his cool the man sharply stared at his hostage with a cold fury.

"Not unless we're sufficiently entertained, no"

Sophia continued her defiant almost jovial attempts at pissing him off.

"*Sigh*...should've used a gag, actually WHERE is the gag?!"

Not in the mood to take any more of this the man started looking around to find something to shut the girl up for good.

"Perish the thought love, without this lovely mouth I'm only worth as much as you"

Deriving an almost childlike glee from watching the man run around in frustration, Sophia chuckled again amusingly.

"GRYAHHH!"

*Crash!*

Having enough the man kicked down a wooden crate in anger.

"Oh, Astraea above! Are all of you rich bltches the same? Draping your walls with exquisite decor, buying a few books, and acting like you're filling the windows all to mask how you've got nothing in those charming little heads of yours?! Do you ever get tired of talking to people in hollow, pretentious rhetorics?!"

All of his pent up frustrations poured out as he regarded her with a low tone dripping with venomous contempt, despite his clear agitation he did not raise his voice even once, keeping it at a consistent tone.

"I'd take having a window to fill over having nothing worthwhile at all both inside and out wouldn't you say? At the very least I've never had to kidnap a child to prove I'm someone"

Mocking laughter draping her words, the nonchalant Sophia retorted.

"You-!"

The man stood in shock for a brief moment before he began angrily stomping towards the girl, his patience at it's limits, he made a point not to lay hands on her earlier just to make sure the negotiations went well but this was where he drew the line.

"N-!"

At the moment she was about to say something again the man's big hands grabbed her throat and started to lightly squeeze, even that was more than enough to both silence her and block her windpipe.

"I'm warning you brat! I need you alive to get this deal with your shltstain father, but being "alive" is a VERY broad category... for example, a person without arms or legs can be considered "alive" as long as they're breathing. So last chance, shut the fvck up!"

"Kh!...I...ack!...hrgghh..."

His big hands on her neck was much more than she could deal with, as a well of tears began to instinctively form on the edges of her eyes, a flicker of fear finally passed over her expression as despite her bravado she was ultimately a child.

"Boss!"

But before the situation could escalate further, a voice came into the room interrupting the situation from turning any more confrontational.

"Tch!"

Noticing his subordinate's presence the man let go of the girl's neck in order to not make things awkward.

"HAAH! hah...hah..."

With the man's hands off her throat the girl could finally breath again as she gasped for air like a person who just escaped drowning.

"Uhm boss? uh...I-"

"What is it?"

The man who just came into the room took one look at the scene with the knocked over crates and the girl in obvious physical distress and understandably started to get anxious.

"Uhm if I'm interrupting something I could come back late-"

He offered to come back later, an offer which was promptly denied by the bigger man.

"No it's fine just tell me what you came in here for"

Taking a deep breath the man told his subordinate to just spit it out.

"R-right! Kyras wanted to let you know that there's a suspicious person who just showed up in front of the warehouse and he's currently trying to catch them"

The underling gulped and took one more look at the girl who's still hyperventilating, trying to take as much air into her lungs as possible before he told the boss the message Kyras wanted to pass on.

"A suspicious person? What did they look like? One of the Marquee's men?"

The man immediately raised his guard and inquired, wondering if Oleg who he tasked with retrieving the girl had left some tracks.

"No I don't think so, they weren't bearing the Altenblum's coat of arms...and they looked kinda young so I don't think it's much cause for alarm, Kyras insisted that we take them in anyway"

The man relayed what happened earlier to his superior.

"I see...well Ky is a reliable one so I trust his judgement. Continue keeping watch and report to me of any developments. We FINALLY have a chance to get one over on that accursed Marquee I won't have ANYTHING ruin this for me do you understand?"

The boss ordered his men to stay sharp and keep their eyes peeled.

"Y-yes boss"

The man replied a bit nervously and bowed, took another glance at the distressed girl before slowly backing away carefully.

"Haah...these mooks I swear...where would they be without me?"

The man looked at the shrinking figure of his underling and muttered under his breath.

"..."

Sophia after finally managing to calm down the drums beating in her chest took another look

"Ok now where were we?"

The man ominously turned back towards his hostage.

"!"

This caused Sophia to jolt a bit as in spite of her attempts at acting calm and uncaring, there are just things that a child cannot mentally cope with, even one as odd as her.

(...)

But nevertheless she still looked at the man straight in the eyes refusing to show any amount of weakness or allow fear to rule over her.

(Screw this! I'm tired of always being exploited or ignored! My father's not coming anyway so what do I have to lose?! Forget being afraid! If I'm dying here I'll do it laughing in his face)

"Allow me to take a wild guess...we're at the part where you continue to assert your oh so righteous common born fury over the haughty highborn me? You know there's being predictable and then there's being a cliche wrapped in a shoddy jumpsuit"

The little princess continued snickering in labored breaths as she answered his question mockingly.

"You fvcki-!"

The man began to put his hands on Sophia's throat again, choking her.

"!!!"

Although she was undoubtedly terrified of the force pressing on her neck, the girl continued to defiantly maintain eye contact with the brute...

(Disappointing...in the end he was no different than Oleg, only a bit stronger)

Deep down, Sophia wondered if she was destined to always be stuck with people of this ilk for the rest of her life.

But at that moment as if answering her inner prayer...

*Crackle! BOOM!*

The sound of thunder ripped through the streets.

"What the?!"

This shocked the big man enough to temporarily make him release his hold on her neck, stammering backwards for a moment as the sound was BOOMING as if the lightning bolt had landed just next door.

(Mana! Someone just discharged Mana nearby, lightning magic obviously, are they fighting?...d-...d-did...did someone come for me?)

Sophia sensed that there was a burst of mana released just before the thunder sounded, although she would never admit it a small part of her wondered if her father actually did send someone to rescue her.

"Eh stupid thunder! Scared me half to death"

The man cursed the weather, unlike Sophia he did not realize that this thunder was not the product of the weather but a result of someone casting magic nearby.

"*Cough* *cough*...It's..."

Sophia muttered spitting out a bit of saliva as she tried to will her poor throat into speaking.

"What is it no-!"

*Pitter patter*

Before the man could figure out what the ivory haired girl was trying to say he could hear the sounds of someone's footsteps approaching them, they were running from the sound of things.

"BOSS! Bad news! Someone just fired a lightning spell into the streets! I don't know who did it but it looks like something Sora would cast!"

The underling from earlier came back in a rush reporting to his boss about what had just happened.

"What? Why would he use such a loud and flashy spell? The whole point of this operation is to be low key!"

The big man turned back and angrily inquired.

"Probably to notify the other groups boss! We should move! It's probably not safe here anymore"

"Tch! Fine get everyone you can and secure our escape route"

Being discovered so soon has definitely made this a lot more annoying but luckily they had already prepared an escape route as well as a second base before this just in case something like this happens and it did.

"Yeah sure thing boss!"

The man didn't question further as he scrambled to gather his men.

"God damn it! We weren't supposed to move to plan b this early!"

The boss' frustrations only grew with these new developments as he thought about their next move.

"No I need to remain calm, as long as we have the girl we have the advantage"

"!"

The bear like brute once again turned his eyes on the girl causing her to almost flinch.

*Shing!*

He unsheathed a dagger and began to walk towards her menacingly.

"H-!..."

This made her eyes waver a bit in their resolution but as if spurred on by something the girl tried to remain strong as much as possible at least outwardly.

"Don't move you brat or I'll bleed you dry I swear"

The man's dagger kissed Sophia's cheeks for a bit in an intimidation attempt before moving to cut her restraints open. Her hands still remained bound but the man knelt down to cut open the ropes tying up her legs.

*Rip*

"Ow! That hurts!"

After her legs had been untied Sophia could finally feel the blood rushing back into them making her feel VERY sore and even pained.

"Quiet! Get up! We don't have time for this"

But leaving her no time to get used to the feeling in her legs again the brute pulled her up and began pulling her along.

"Hmpf!"

Before she realized it something had been put over Sophia's mouth gagging her and preventing her from screaming, it was a thick piece of cloth of some kind.

"This oughta keep you quiet!"

The man said tying a knot on the gag behind Sophia's head.

"Ok now move! Try to run and you die"

The man shoved Sophia in the back telling her to move.

(Where are they going to take me?)

Before Sophia could wonder where she was going to be moved next...

"AUGH-!"

A man nearby screamed in pain before his screams were cut out abruptly, the voice sounded like the man who was reporting in earlier.

"What the?! What's going on over there?!"

The big man pulled Sophia back into his arms, putting a knife to her throat before screaming into the darkness, but nothing answered.

"!!"

This gave the girl another fright as you could never really get used to the feeling of something at your throat.

"Oy where's my men?! Who's there?! Reveal yourself! I have the girl!"

The man screamed again but like before only silence answered him.

"Fvck!" 

The man slowly backed away with Sophia still at his mercy before....

"What is Mrgh-!"

He felt someone's hands come out of nowhere and grab his own hands, one with the knife on the girl's neck and another hand covering his mouth.

He didn't even have the time to process before...

*Crunch!*

The hand on his mouth pulled hard, snapping his neck in one fluid motion, this all happened in almost an instant.

"Mmpf!"

Sophia felt the blade leave her neck and her body being released from the man's grasp, she stumbled forward falling on to the ground.

She had no idea what happened all she heard was the voice of the man behind her being cut off accompanied by a wet "crunch!" sound right after, before she was released from his grasp.

She turned around to see what had happened only to stumble upon a shocking sight.

The man who was tormenting her for the entire night was gone, there was no other way to describe it, he was just...GONE his body had entirely disappear from the vicinity with no indication of where it had gone.

And in his place...

""...""

Was a foreboding figure dressed in an all black outfit, a hood over his head and a black cloth covering his face leaving only his crimson red eyes that bore into her. His height was barely more than hers yet there was an aura about him that made him terrifying in an indescribable, almost alien way.

"GRHG!...mpmf!"

Sophia yelped unconsciously as she began to instinctively crawl away in absolute terror.

(What is that?! It's [color]...it's so clear!...where is the other man? Where did this guy even come from?! W-what did he do to the other man?)

Sophia had no idea what to make of this, but in her very bones she knew this person before her was dangerous much more so then all of the others she had encountered tonight.

His [colors] was a consistent, dry, ashen gray with a large mass of jet black at the center of his being, it was a greedy vacuous shade of black, swallowing any and all light that was unfortunate enough to come across it. Sophia had never seen such intense yet clear [colors] before, usually a person's [color] was never this clear and consistent, they were always so muddied with a million shades all at once. Whatever this person is that's standing in front of her, he was NOT normal.

""...""

*step*

"MMPHF!"

The man took one step towards Sophia causing her to crawl backwards more.

(He's bad news! I don't wanna die!)

Despite her earlier defiance coming face to face with such a mysterious being and seeing his [colors] had absolutely destroyed any semblance of defiance Sophia displayed earlier, EVERY drop of blood in her body turned cold at this person's approach as her very being rejected his presence and tried to retreat from it like a helpless hare running from a hungry hound.

Even without her ability to see people's [colors], it only took one look into those crimson eyes of this boy…and Sophia saw death.

""...""

The boy reached his hand out to her seemingly about to grab her head.

"!!!!"

(Astraea if you're listening...PLEASE don't let me die like this)

Sophia shut her eyes in an attempt to run away from reality, despite being genuinely sick of her life Sophia did not want to die as what kid would want their life to end this early?

*Hiss!* *splatter!*

The faint hiss of urine hitting the floor echoed in the silence, accompanied by the soft splatter of droplets, a stark testament to the overwhelming fear that had gripped her, she literally pissed herself out of fear.

"..."

But despite bracing for it no harm had come to Sophia...she waited for it to come but despite that nothing happened.

"Eek!"

Opening her eyes again she yelped as she saw those deadly crimson eyes again right in front of her boring into her soul, not even realizing that her gag had been taken off and his hand was on her cheeks, his hands were almost bitingly cold like that of a corpse, possessing little to no warmth at all.

""...Mouth""

In a deadpan, monotonous voice the boy uttered one single word.

"W-wha-?"

Sophia was speechless, too gripped by fear to respond.

""Open your mouth please""

The boy repeated himself in that same toneless voice again as he continued maintaining an uncomfortable eye contact with her.

"!!!"

Not knowing what he wanted but too scared to go against him Sophia immediately opened her mouth as he instructed.

The boy finally broke eye contract with her and looked at her gums instead with a critical eye, almost as if he was examining something

""Dental profile matches the description provided...no adverse effect to skin contact with the iron ring, pupil dilation doesn't display any of the telltale signs of recent polymorphism...ok you're not a mimic"

The boy examined everything carefully before pulling his hands away from Sophia leaving her flabbergasted.

(Iron ring? Den...dental p-pro...file? Mimic? What is he talking about?)

Sophia noticed that there was an iron ring on the hand that he just touched her with.

"W-what are yo-?"

She stuttered over her words as she asked.

""Are you injured in any way?"

The man asked in a cold, almost analytical way.

"Uh...ah- I-uh..."

Not knowing what to make of this situation she stumbled over her words.

""Hmm...speech impediment? Throat doesn't seem to be damaged majorly tho...psychological trauma maybe? Would explain the urination..."

The boy took on a contemplative look as he analyzed her from top to bottom.

"Huh? Ah!"

Sophia soon realized that she had wet herself out of fear and moved to cover her privates.

"W-wait...my hands"

That's when she realized that her hands were no longer bound either.

""Yup definitely lingering trauma...""

The boy made an almost clinical conclusion as he began to reach out for her again.

"Ah-!"

Although this situation was weird no matter how you looked at it, she had no idea what to think of it or this person in front of her.

*Pat pat*

But instead of anything harmful Sophia opened her eyes to the feeling of a hand gently patting her head and fixing her hair.

""Do not be alarmed...I am under strict orders to safeguard your wellbeing and return you home""

In a robotic manner the boy told her that she had nothing to be afraid of in the most professional voice possible as if he was reading off a script that he had recited over and over again.

"Huh?"

Was she saved? Is the main thought that crossed over Sophia's head.

""...""

The boy stared at her for a bit in uncomfortable silence as if checking for her reaction.

And before she could fully process this situation further.

""Hold on...have we...met somewhere before? You look familiar""

Suddenly his tone had a slight shift, unlike the earlier robotic-ness this tone sounded more..."human" for a lack of better words.

"W-what are you?"

There was a sense of recognition in his crimson eyes as if he had just found something nostalgic on her face after carefully looking at it.

(Amber and lavender? Is he feeling...nostalgic?)

Sophia took another look at his [colors] as a light shade of lavender and warm amber permeated that indifferent ashen gray surface.

Deep down both of them had this strange feeling...that this meeting was almost fated in a way, a sense of deja vu that neither of them could understand.

Next chapter, Callsign: Oblivion