Colin's posts

Zeke just sighed again.

"Welp." he said.

"Time to do this the hard way." he told her.

He then used his mana to forcefully open the door, and stepped inside.

"Special Unit 3! Anyone home!?" he called in.

"...be ready for anything, Erika." he whispered.

Zeke knocked again, and received no answer.

"Erika!" he called to the female.

"See anything!?" he asked.

"Or sense anything!?" he asked further.

Inside, Erika didn't see much. It looked like a place like any other home. A little mess, a little dust, but she noticed that there seemed to be a lot of animal-related things in the house.

Newspaper clippings of articles about lost animals, some books about foster care, lots of literature on the subject.

Seemed like whoever lived here was one that fostered and rehabilitated animals.

The man just sighed, and shook his head.

"Besides, this is just meant to be investigative." he told her.

"So it's nothing intensive or stressful. Relatively speaking." he assured her further.

"And I know you're capable of stuff like this." he went on, before pausing.

"...I scouted you, after all." he added with a smirk.

"......." Leo was silent, before smiling.

"Thank you, Syraene." he told her.

With that, they parted ways, and he made his way back to Nakia.

"...sorry." he apolgised.

"Guess some emergency work needs to be done." he told her.

"...however, I've been promised a one-to-two month uninterrupted back after this." he added.

"....yeah..." Leo said quietly.

"I can only think of a handful of creatures and/or individuals that can just make an Order member disappear like that." he commented, looking at the list.

"....hm." he mumbled.

"Well, I have some serious backtracking to do." he then told her.

"I need to tell Nakia that I need to go, and I have no idea when I'll be back." he went on, pausing for a moment, and sighing heavily.

"Seems the moments of peace we get as a collective are short." he commented offhandedly.

".........long walk." Ryker responded.

"Anyway, get inside." he told him.

"NOW." he said.

"You need to see Aly." he went on. "As her fiancee, you need to show her you're doing all right, and as your live-in nurse, she needs to see you're NOT doing all right." he continued.

"So go on, before you die of flu." he added with a wry chuckle.

Leo approached the ethereal scroll, and nodded.

"Right." he said.

"Thank you." he told her.

"I'll commit this information to memory, and then start trying to piece things together with this plane." he went on, before shaking his head again.

"...I can't believe she's gone..." he then mumbled.

"Something like this... it... it can only mean horrible things." he lamented quietly.

Leo seemed to be stunned silent for a moment.

"Ah..." he stammered.

"Yes, of course." he replied.

"I'll do whatever I can to try and find any clues regarding her disappearance." he told her further.

"Hm." he then mumbled, as he thought for a moment.

"I'll need to know when it was first noticed that she disappeared, and who all is on her list, as far as dream maintenance is concerned." he continued.

"Once I have those, I'll be able to scour this plane, so to speak."

Shortly after she entered his bedroom, he joined her.

"...all right, Syraene." he said.

"What's going on?" he asked her.

"I know you wouldn't bother me at this point unless it was serious." he continued. "And I know your expressions and the subtle changes in them." he went on.

"And right now you have an expression that says something is SERIOUSLY wrong."

The one that could sense her suddenly stopped and looked around.

"......" he was silent, before looking at the woman he'd been talking to.

"Sorry..." he apologised.

"But... we're not alone anymore." he informed her.

"And I get the feeling that something can't wait." he went on, shaking his head slightly.

Peter was silent, before nodding.

"Yes, Miss Syraene." he replied.

She could tell that he wasn't going to like withholding information from the others, but she could see he knew why it was necessary at the moment.

A mass panic was NOT what they needed.

With that, he just excused himself quietly, and left her office.

"....." Peter was silent, before nodding.

"All right." he replied.

"What... what should -I- do?" he then asked.

"Like... people are going to ask me questions because they know I went to talk to you about this. They're going to want information." he continued.

"But if her beacon isn't responding, that's not good, to understate it." he went on.

"What should I say?"

Peter's expression sank.

Hard.

"No..." he whispered.

"No, that... that can't be..." he said in a hushed tone.

The worst appeared to have happened. An Order member was gone. Wiped from existence. And that was something that VERY few individuals and/or creatures could do. And Syraene knew when Chronos was going to 'prune' the ranks in advance, so right away he could be crossed off the suspect list.

However, she figured she would ask him, anyway.

Regardless, that didn't change the fact that there was a very worrisome situation on their hands right now.

"What... what now...?" Peter asked her.

"It's Cecelia!" Peter responded.

"She-she-she's-she's-" he then rapidly stuttered, as though he were stuck on 'repeat', before Syraene stopped him.

"Stop." she said. "Calm down. Take deep breaths. Organise your thoughts. THEN vocalise them." she told him.

Peter did as she said, and after a minute, looked at her.

"She's gone!" he said.

"Nobody can find her! Nobody can track her! She's... we think she's dead!" he revealed.

"Is her beacon still responding?" he asked, faint hope in his tone.