Colin's posts

Nate snapped to attention and gave her a salute.

"Yes, Ma'am!" he responded.

To anyone else, that would have been seen as sarcasm. But not to her. She knew that when Nate did that, it meant that he was taking things seriously, and that she could trust him.

It was just a quirk of his.

Ilias was silent, before sighing.

"I'm going to speak with Alicja." he told them.

"...assuming she has time."

Ilias looked closer at the item, before taking it in his hand.

"....hmmm." he mumbled, concentrating.

"It's not just you." he said.

"There IS mana in this." he told her. "Strong mana, too." he added.

"I have no idea WHAT it is, but I know it's mana." he went on.

"You think it's connected?" Nate asked.

"Most assuredly." Ilias replied.

Ilias looked over towards where she gestured, and sighed.

"I'm not surprised." he said.

That was when Nate returned with a tiny glass specimen bottle. And it in looked to be a tiny pearl or bead... that looked to be unnaturally dark.

"This." the medic said to Angela.

"I remember hearing that the room had been cleaned, so I decided to... well... investigate the remnants of what they had disposed of." he told her.

"...sifted through the trash." Ilias translated.

"..........yes." Nate mumbled after a pause.

"I noticed this was there, and carefully extracted it from the garbage, making sure to wear protective gloves and such, and placed it in this bottle." he then told Angela further.

"Agent King obviously doesn't wear or have anything like this, and I don't think any of the staff here wear beaded jewelry, aside from earrings. But this is clearly not an earring." he added.

Nate seemed a little jumpy, but that was because an angry Angela was a scary Angela. And when one was scared of the head medic, then they knew that even the slightest thing could push her over the edge.

"I... I..." he stammered, before pausing.

"...wait." he said.

"Wait, there WAS." he realised.

"Hold on!' he exclaimed, before rushing off deeper into the wing. Ilias was silent as he saw this, and then approached Angela.

"I..." he stammered.

"Now Agent King is gone?" he asked her.

"........" Ilias was silent for a moment.

He was about to consider saying something, when Angela spoke to the one that had responded.

It was low... it was dark... it was ominous. She told them to get out of her sight, and that she had better not see them again for the rest of the day.

He gulped audibly as the one slunk away quickly, before sighing.

"Great." he muttered.

"Now we have even less to worth with for Erica's disappearance." he said.

Ilias could only nod in response, and Angela was off with Robyn.

When she was gone, he sat against the wall and stared into the distance.

Erica had disappeared. Liv was missing. The Unit was still under siege, people's souls were being disconnected from their bodies.

He then gritted his teeth, before slamming his fist into the wall beside him in a backswing.

"DAMN IT!" he yelled, tears of frustration streaming down his cheeks.

"Why are we being punished like this!?" he demanded of no-one in particular... and because nobody was around, he received silence as an answer.

".....what?" Ilias asked, in a barely audible tone.

"M-missing." he stammered.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. This couldn't be real. Liv, a sweet and innocent child (though not a child anymore), missing.

"...I see." he said.

"I... I'm sorry to hear that." was all he managed to get out.

He had no idea what else to say here. He couldn't believe it. It seemed everything was crashing down around them, and he didn't even want to imagine how stressful this was for Angela.

"...." Ilias was silent for a moment, before nodding.

"Okay." he responded.

"I'll try. I've been managing so far." he told her.

But now he had several things on his mind... 2 being more notably prominent. The biggest one being that, with Robyn out of commission... what the hell were they to do NOW? All the alchemists in the building were down.

The second one was less pressing, by comparison, but it concerned him. So he spoke up about it.

"Personal?" he asked.

"I hope it's nothing TOO serious..." he commented, trailing off at the end, concern in his tone.

The demon just shrugged.

"Jealous? No." he replied.

"He just doesn't want you to get hurt. And this Raiju is new, so he has inherent wariness towards them." he said further.

"But give it time. THAT should go away." he assured Eke.

"Bye!" he finished, as Ryker came back.

"...ow." he muttered, rubbing the side of his head.

Ilias nodded in response.

"All right." he replied.

"...do you want me to help carry her to the medical wing?" he asked. "I'm not medically trained or anything, but I promise I'll be as careful as I can possibly be with her." he went on.

"...also, sorry..." he apologised.

"I can tell you're... stressed... to massively understate it." he commented.

"And this probably isn't helping." he sighed.

Ilias looked over towards Angela, before telling the one on the phone that they were there. He finished what he was saying, and hung up, before looking back to Angela and sighing heavily.

"Well, I was looking for her." he said.

"Wanted to discuss Agent Callamachi's notes." he went on.

"And... well, I turned the corner and saw her laying in a heap on the floor." he said further. "I raced over and called to her, but she was silent. When I was close enough and checked her over, she was dead silent, and the shoulder of her top was missing... with her actual shoulder cracked badly, and bleeding..." he mumbled.

"When I moved her, she winced slightly. So she's unconscious, but it doesn't seem to be from what's running rampant in the Unit currently." he then added.

"...for whatever that may be worth."

"Oh no..." Ilias whispered, a mixture of panic and relief swelling up within him.

He then looked around, before taking his cell phone out and calling the medical wing.

"Help!" he said to the one that answered, giving his location.

"Agent Gemini is down. She's injured and bleeding." he went on.

"Send someone quickly." he added.

He then looked at Robyn, and bit his lip.

"Hang in there, Robyn..."

Ilias nodded in response.

"Yeah, her and Kiah are pretty much equals on that." he agreed.

"And I am NOT a good alchemist." he stressed. "I've been told I'm a brilliant chemist... by Kiah, herself, and Aedan, too... but when it comes to actually getting into the elegant mixing of mana into it? Naw. I can't do that." he told her. "So as far as an alchemist goes, I'm entry level. I can do VERY simple shit, but that's it." he said further.

"Regardless, enough of my prattling on. I need to find Robyn." he finished.

With that, they parted ways, and he left the medical wing, in search of Gemini. He figured the first stop would be the dorm she was staying in temporarily... but he actually didn't get that far.

He turned down a corridor to get to there, but stopped in his tracks when he saw the woman he was looking for... collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"...no!" he exclaimed, racing over.

'No, no, no, not Robyn now, TOO!' he panickily pleaded internally, as he reached the downed agent and started to check her over.

"Gemini? Robyn?" he addressed her, trying his best to keep his composure.

"....hm." Ilias mumbled.

"It really is." he said.

"I... maybe I should look for her." he said further. "Or call her." he went on.

"Try and get ahold of her and at least share this information." he reasoned.

"Of those still here... and still unaffected by this... she's probably the one to go to now for alchemical stuff." he continued.

"She's second only to Aedan, I believe."