Welcome to Gaia! ::

===========================GENESIS

When Edward Autry, Sergeant (j.g.), materialized in the waiting room of the Fleet's Gaian headquarters, he was already in motion. "--itch!" One foot came down on the carpeting, the sudden disorienting change causing Autry to wobble and wave his arms. Comical, if one was willing to risk laughing. No one was around to see as he righted himself and froze with his arms sticking out. Had he just bent one leg he would have been a perfect imitation of a flamingo.

After a moment spent glancing about the empty room, to assuage his pride and take stock of his surroundings, Autry straightened and tugged at his collar. In accordance with Fleet standards it was closed up to the top. Now that he was free of Central and any possible reprimand he loosened the top two fastenings. Probably they were watching him now. Without a superior officer present, there was no protocol crime.

He started towards the empty receptionist desk. Sometimes he knew Communications had a cloaked secretary there, but not today. He was a Security officer and he could see through the level-two cloaks employed by most other divisions. That was part of the reason he'd chosen Security for his primary. Security offered a level of control over others, an edge in the Fleet. Security gave him the ocular enhancements necessary to detect level-two cloaks. They were invisible to the eye, but nestled just below the outer membrane of his eyes, one in each. Unlike most enhancements offered in the Fleet, the ability to detect cloaks was not granted by nanites. The ocular implants were cyber, in the event they ever needed to be taken out.

Autry ran his fingers across the faux wood surface of the desk and up the side of the plastic bins used to sort the mail. They were empty. From the materials, Autry knew the offices were mostly a recreational cover for the personnel who used them, a way of escaping the Fleet for a few hours, hell, of escaping the multiverse controlled by the Three. The thought gave Autry a thrill of power. Since joining the Fleet, he had visited dozens of dimensions, all of them within the multiverse perpetuated by the Praetes. This was his first taste of the outside world in half a year. Here, anything could happen.

Perhaps not anything. There would be no sudden cessation of gravity, no random alien invasions, no immediate psychic destruction at the hands of a Nazi-created supersoldier. But it was outside the predictive powers of the Praetes. Things could happen that would be outside of their control.

There was a tick in the base of Autry's head, a figment of a sound in his mind. It was the nanites alerting him to imminent dimensional transfer in his vicinity. With an annoyed voice he announced, "Area secure." He turned and sat on the desk, crossing his arms. When his convoy arrived, he wanted them to see him in control of the area.

There was a faint shimmer in the air, the visual precursor of transfer, and then a man in a heavy dark blue suit tailored to the heft of his figure materialized into the room. Unlike Autry, he was not moving forward, and the few atoms of air between his shoes and the carpet were not enough to even register in his mind. For him, it was as if he had been standing still and the world had seamlessly changed around him.

He was not still, though, for Inquisitor William Gunn was almost constantly in motion. Immediately upon transfer he was reaching up to tug at his tie compulsively, adjusting it against the collar of his shirt as he cleared his throat.

He was not alone. Drifting in the air, Inquisitor Geiseric du Pont looked at least as annoyed as Autry did. His insectile wings twitched once at the change in temperature and pressure. They both noticed it, but du Pont more than Gunn. He was by his very nature a creature of the air, attenuated to such details.

"Sergeant Autry," said Gunn. He was tall, in his mid forties with short blonde hair turned silver in places and dull grey eyes. He was large but not overly so, just enough to hint that he was an immovable combination of fat and muscle, a slab of stone dressed in a fine suit. His eyes wandered around the room as he spoke.

Autry hated him, more on principle than anything else. Then again, Autry hated nearly everyone, so his hatred was hardly damning. "Captain," he said, avoiding the use of the title Inquisitor. "Lieutenant du Pont." He did the feien the courtesy of inclining his head.

Gunn stopped fiddling with his tie long enough to point towards Autry's chest. "Your jacket, it's undone at the top."

Any other situation and Autry would have given a rebellious, "So?" but he was in the Fleet now, and in Security to boot. Such insubordination was not tolerated in his division. He refastened his jacket without the need of a direct order and hated himself for it.

Du Pont was silent, contemplating the room. He pinched his lower lip between his teeth. When Gunn turned to him he was focused elsewhere.

"See anything unusual?"

Du Pont looked down at his partner. The only unusual thing might have been a bit of steady eye contact in return. Instead Gunn was already looking down at the floor, the chairs, the one-way window, anywhere but Geiseric's face. "The only thing unusual is how usual this place is," said du Pont. "Manufactured."

"Yes, it's-- totally devoid of human touch. Sterile." Gunn's head jerked in approval.

"Kind of like the Fleet," derided Autry.

"No, this isn't like that," replied Gunn quickly. "This is predictable."

Autry just rolled his eyes and banged his foot against the side of the desk. Somehow he had the idea that these intellectual goons from Investigative Services could sit here and analyze this room's design and layout for hours. Autry had completed his assessment in less than a minute: no hostile activity. No evidence of any crime. Boring decoration. In all honesty he did agree that the tastelessness of the room was unusual for the Fleet, but he would never deign to admit such a thing and risk agreeing with a superior.

Gunn's hands moved with apparent nervousness. First they went behind his back, then he moved them frontwards and began fiddling with his shirt cuff. He wore expensive cufflinks. Rounded gold squares with dark blue ribbed stone. They matched the dark blue color of his tie and the gold of his tie clip. Somehow Autry got the idea Gunn probably laid all of his clothes out in advance the week before and debated the cufflinks for an hour.

"So," Autry said, impatient, "are we just going to stand here or was there a reason for this trip?"

Gunn reached into his coat and tugged out a carefully folded sheet of paper. Autry might have imagined Gunn spending hours getting those creases just right but he recognized Fleet autofold when he saw it. The paper had a sort of shimmery metallic quality to it thanks to the nanofilaments in the pulp. If that wasn't a blatant misuse of nanotech, Autry didn't know what would be. Miniature machines programmed solely to fold up a sheet of paper?

When Gunn tugged on the corner of the sheet it unfurled to reveal the Security insignia. "These are your new orders."

Autry reached out and snatched the paper from Gunn. Words formed on the page in response to his ident nanos. He let out a nasal sigh. "You're ******** joking."

The epithet drew both inquisitors' attentions. "Watch your--" du Pont started.

"There's something I have to tell you," said Gunn, and when a superior spoke, everyone else quieted. It was not immediately obvious who Gunn was addressing. He turned towards du Pont slightly. The feien frowned dubiously. Gunn cleared his throat. "Effective after the end of this investigation, I'll be leaving."

Du Pont's brow furrowed questioningly, a demand for explanation he would never voice against his commander.

Gunn answered without prompting. "It's... the same as before. I'm not sure when I'll be back. I'm leaving you in charge of IS and Autry will be your partner." Gunn's aversion to eye contact looked guilty.

Though they had only been partnered a few short months, Geiseric du Pont understood how his partner worked. He looked disdainfully at Autry. "I won't pretend I'm surprised."

"Adomital?" Gunn said, voice practically a squeak.

"You left your coat on the chair when you went for coffee."

At that, Gunn relaxed. "That's good. Very good."

"I learned from the best," smirked du Pont.

Autry's annoyed voice interrupted. The black-clad Security officer was crumpling his orders into a wad of paper with little success, the nanofilaments unfurling and trying to straighten the paper back out. "If you two are done with your mating ritual?"

"Quite. And yourself and Manchester?" quipped du ******** you," came the growled reply as Autry finally gave up on crumpling and attempted to rend the paper in two.

"Alright, give that here," said Gunn, stretching his hand out. Autry relinquished the sheet with great reluctance. In Gunn's hands it flattened back into its original shape, barely creased, and promptly refolded. Satisfied, Gunn pocketed the paper. "I may not be the active inquisitor for this case but I'll be overseeing it. So until this case is over the two of you are still under my command." Clearly, he aimed that at Autry.

"Yes, sir," said Autry sullenly, bouncing his foot against the desk. "Where do you want to start?"

At the noise of a door opening in the hall, Autry's head turned. "I believe I can be of service," came a voice. Dr. M appeared in the hallway. "Inquisitors, I've been expecting you."

"Doctor," said Gunn, quickly crossing over and extended a hand. "Good to see you again. You know my partner, Geiseric."

"Good day, doctor," said du Pont, inclining his head.

"Good to see you again as well," grinned M, shaking Gunn's hand. His spectacled face turned towards the receptionist desk. "And Mr. Autry."

"Sergeant Autry," came the growled correction. M ignored it. He brought his other hand out from behind his back and revealed a stack of papers.

"This is the data on the missing feien. You'll note most of it dates from just before our operation began. Unfortunately our nanocoverage was only minimal then. There's a great deal missing. I'm afraid I can't be of more help. I've configured devices to track the locations of currently active feien in our network. Your best bet is to try and interrogate them."

"Interview," said Gunn softly, taking the papers and rifling through them.

"Yes, well, we each have our own methods." Dr. M's grin was more than a little unsettling to all three visitors.

"The devices?" said du Pont.

Dr. M bobbed his head and reached into his pocket. "Certainly." He withdrew what looked like a set of three keychains looped together. Two were the size of car alarm controllers, the third was the same design but scaled down considerably. Dr. M held one of the devices up and pressed a button on the side. A holographic display appeared in the air. "These will locate and identify tracked feien in your area. They can also be configured to home in on the signal of an individual." He pressed a button and the display changed, indicating direction and distance. "Security is standard; they're operable only by coded personnel. Breaking physical contact deactivates the device. I've taken the liberty of coding all three to work for any of you. You can also add codes if necessary."

"Who else can use them?" demanded Autry.

"Myself, of course, and Pavel. But he won't need yours, he has his own."

Gunn took the devices in his other hand and examined them. "Thank you, doctor. That was very generous." He handed one of the larger chains to Autry and then the smaller to du Pont. Autry immediately powered his.

All three of them were present on the display as dots with letters attached. Dr. M was not.

"I thought it would be useful if you could track each other," explained M.

"But not you," pointed out Autry.

Dr. M rocked on his heels. "Of course not. Why would you need to track me?"

Whatever line of reasoning Autry was intending to follow, he was immediately distracted by the appearance of new dots. "Incoming."

"Yes," said Dr. M. "The local feien are frequent guests. Inquisitor Gunn, if I may speak with you in private?"

Gunn nodded. "Greet the guests," he said to du Pont and followed M down the hall and into his office.

"Freaks," muttered Autry, keeping his eyes on the display.

"Your superiors," said du Pont threateningly. "Even if they're not present."

With a sniff, Autry ignored the threat and broke contact with the device. The display vanished. "Let's get this party started." He clipped the device to his wristwatch and let it fall hidden into his jacket cuff. In the air nearby, du Pont silently studied the entrance and wondered what to expect.

After a moment, both realized that their intended targets were not immediately arriving. Cursing under his breath, Autry slipped the device back out of his sleeve and popped up the display again. One look was all he and du Pont needed. They immediately headed for the window looking out onto the street.

"What are they doing?" asked Autry increduously.

"They seem to be confused as to the location of the shop," noted du Pont. He looked over at the feien entrance set into the window and flew down to it. The feien outside would be unable to see Autry and du Pont through the window, so the only thing to be done was to point them in the right direction.

Not a particularly good start to the investigation, but it was something. Du Pont opened the entryway and stepped out onto the ledge.

"WHEEE!!" Tahki squealed loudly, flying about in the group of flowers on the ground. She hadn't expected things to have changed this much, and it seemed more fun to her.

Ares could only look on in disbelief, wondering where the feien shop could have possibly gone. They'd been gone for over a year, and now that they decided it would be a good time to visit, it had completely vanished? Where were the other feien? Had everyone else disappeared as well? What of all the friends they'd made in the past...?

"This... can't be right," she sighed, her red eyes searching the area for any indication that maybe they had come to the wrong place. "It can't be just... gone."

Tahki attempted to land on one of the flowers she'd been circling around, her large wings stretched out to help herself ease down. However, she underestimated her weight as she stopped her flight spell and sent the makeshift seat crumbling to the ground, crushed underneath her small body.

"Oof!" The bi-colored feien sat up quickly and shook her head a little bit, blinking a couple of times as she looked around for a bigger flower. She WOULD be a butterfly!

Ares lifted a hand to her forehead, resting a finger gently against her temple as she could already feel a headache forming. That girl... She was more of a child than Raylan was.

She turned, prepared to leave at any moment, but stopped as she felt a bit of a familiar presense. It wasn't strong like most beings she felt nearby, a faint source of magic coming from a distance. Could that be another feien? Her three eyes proceeded to search the area, looking for any indication of a small creature like herself. At first, she couldn't see anything, but after taking another look around, she noticed something small and colorful by a window across the street.

"Tahki, I think we're in the wrong place," she said, looking over her shoulder a little bit before facing forward again. She began to fly across the street, wanting to inspect the window. "Come with me."

Tahki stopped flying for a moment, wondering where Ares was going. She didn't pick up all of what the older feien had said, just something about leaving. She was having so much fun, though! Why did they have to go across the street?

"Hm?" Her eyes caught sight of something colorful by a window on the building the time feien was heading toward. "Heeey... what's that?!"

The cold feien grinned as she flew very quickly across the street and right up to the window in question, noticing first the multi-colored cloth before the feien who was wearing it.

"Pretty!!" she giggled, lifting a hand, wanting to touch the red part of the material.

Content that he had attracted their attention, du Pont ducked back inside to rejoin Autry. They watched in mutual tight-lipped silence as the unfamiliar feien drew near.

Again, Ruya was alone and out of the confines of the Manor. There were endless possiblities out in the world, but she preferred comfort over excitement. There was something to be said for the known and the routine. And so it was that she rounded a corner just in time to see two feien winging their way over to the Feien HQ.

From a distance they didn't appear to be anyone she had yet encountered, but that wasn't surprising. She didn't know many feien at all. After her encounter with Burgundia, she was a bit wary about approaching them - but did anyway.

She glided along until she got close to the one by the window and then cleared her throat before saying, "Hello."

Tahki frowned as the cloth disappeared through the window, her large bi-colored wings sagging down a little bit. It ran away! Did she scare it someho--

Her long ears twitched slightly as her thoughts were interrupted by a small voice, her yellow eyes looking down at the child that had approached her. The girl's hair and coloring reminded her a little bit of Merri and Ares...

"Oh!" Tahki remembered this little one, but was a little confused as to why she was still little. "Ruya!"

The excited feien wrapped her arms tightly around the other, giggling happily. "Wow! I haven't seen you in a long time! Ares will be so happy to see you! Too bad Merri didn't come, I'm sure he misses you too. How have you been? Where have you been? Oh my gosh it's been so long since I've seen you I can't believe you haven't grown up yet or did something happen? It's been a long time! How have you been? Did you miss me? Do you remember who I am? Ares is going to be so happy to see you this is so great!!"

"Tahki, I can hear you from a mile away," the much calmer feien sighed, finally reaching the window. Ares landed on the ledge, wondering what had gotten into her to go off like that.

She was quiet as she realized who it was, hoping Tahki hadn't scared the poor dear. Ruya? Why was she so small...?

A little stiff, Ruya colored with embarassment. When she could finally get a word in edgewise, she explained herself apologetically.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize we knew eachother. I, well, I was a bloom again and I don't remember anything that happened previously."

She looked over at Ares nervously. Somehow meeting people she knew was even more upsetting than meeting people who were mean to her.

Ares closed her eyes for a moment, not sure what to say upon hearing that information. Ruya was reborn somehow... Of course she wouldn't remember anything. At least it wasn't... because they had been gone for so long. Opening her three eyes again, she smiled slightly.

"My name is Ares, and her name is Tahki," she said softly, allowing her wings to drop down over her shoulders, much like a cape. "What's your name?"

Tahki blinked a few times, setting Ruya down finally as she tried to figure out why Ares didn't seem more upset by this. She was her daughter, and she forgot about everybody! ...If Ares could accept it, then so could she.

Maybe.

Her attention turned back to the window as she finally stepped into the room, looking around for the cloth again.

Of course, what Tahki found was not so much the cloth-collared feien as his comparatively large human companion, who was standing directly in front of the feien entrance with arms crossed and a frown. He let out a small harrumph.

Aha, there the cloth was, hovering in the air above the shoulder of the human, hands behind his back and a frown to match his partner's.

The cloth spoke first. "I am Inquisitor du Pont, this is Sergeant Autry. Your designation?"

"My name is Ruya and it's a pleasure to meet you. Again, I suppose." She smiled at Ares, as Tahki released her and seemed to be drawn away by something interesting inside the HQ. "I apologize for not knowing you both. It is a bit odd to feel like the feien I meet could already know me - without my knowledge. But I imagine it is also odd to greet a friend and find them without any memory for you."

Tahki blinked a few times at the man, a little put off by his apparent bad attitude. He and Merri would probably get along well as grumpy twins. Oh! The cloth spoke!! Wait... it was attached to someone, that's why it kept moving. Lifting herself into the air again, she flew up to the feien by the grumpy man's shoulder.

"Inqu-huh? Designation?" she said with a frown, not really understanding. "I'm not going anywhere. What's an... Inq... Inky.... Iiiiinnnnquuu.... What is a do Pond? Artery? Is he a VEIN??? I don't see any blood, though. Where did you get that pretty cloth? Ooo, your hair kinda looks like Ares'! Almost the same color and all wavy! Your eyes are pretty! Where did you come from? I've never seen you before. Are you bonded to someone? Do you come here a lot? Where is here? Is this the new feien headquarters? Does everyone meet here now instead of over there?"

"It's all right," she said, lying a little bit. "There will be differences on both ends. However, if they were really your friends in the past, then they'll learn to accept you again, even if you don't know who they are."

Her tail flicked a little bit as she took a few steps into the building, looking back to Ruya after a moment. "Do you come here a lot? It's been a very long time since I've been to headquarters, and things seem to have changed a bit."

Ruya followed Ares into the HQ, thinking how very wise and calm this feien seemed. Two qualities she admired greatly.

"I don't," she said, looking up at the human inside with mild surprise. "I've really only been here once that I know of and recently. I live with a feien, Sunil, who says that things have changed quite a bit in her lifetime. It is difficult to know when she is being serious, however."

Du Pont's eyes widened and he instinctively darted back in the air. One thing could be said for him: he was a fast feien. "I'm Inquisitor du Pont!" he said, quite clearly and a little bit too loudly.

Beside him, Autry raised an eyebrow in both amusement and derision. A good part of the amusement was from seeing du Pont caught off-guard.

Autry raised a hand into the air between du Pont and Tahki. "What say you start by identifying yourself," he said, the faintest hint of an Australian drawl creeping into his voice.

Ares' brow furrowed slightly at the mention of her old friend, but only for a moment. Of course, how could she forget... Ruya had had a little trouble with Sunil when she was still young, and she was a little worried about the fact that her daughter had to live with the only feien she almost considered to be an enemy.

"Sunil..." she whispered, her wings adjusting themselves on her shoulders. "How is she? I hope she isn't giving you trouble."

Tahki frowned again, crossing her arms across her chest and hunching over a little bit. He ran away! What a meanie. She wasn't going to hurt him.

"You talk too proper," she said with a pout, realizing they spoke in a similar fashion that Xiao usually did. "I'm Tahki! What's your names?"

Autry rolled his eyes and looked at du Pont. "Up to you, inquisitor. If you think you're going to get anything out of this one, go right ahead." He turned on his heel to face the entrance again and looked down at the new arrivals. "Doc wasn't lying. And you lot are?"

Du Pont frowned deeply and drifted back towards Autry's shoulder, still keeping a wary eye on Tahki. "We may yet need to speak with you later," he said ominously. Inwardly, he hoped not. Sincerely.

"Sunil is fine, to the best of my knowledge. She is irritating, but not really trouble. She does seem to find it amusing to try and tell me stories about my previous life, but I generally just ignore her and she goes away."

Ruya pushed some hair behind her ear and then crossed her arms as they continued on.

"She is a juvenile again," she noted, thinking that might be of interest to Ares. "I don't believe she suffers from memory loss, but it would be difficult to tell. We don't spend much time together. You seem to have known us both, did we ever get along?"

Ruya doubted such a thing, but they were bonded to the same person and had apparently been so previously as well.

Why would they need to speak with her later? Hm, they were boring. And mean. Boring and mean weren't a good combination. Floating back down to the window, she once again landed on the ledge, plopping down into a sit and crossing her legs. The room felt like some sort of office... What was there to do?

Ares couldn't help but laugh quietly, though it was short lived as she heard the question.

"Hm... From my understanding, the two of you could barely tolerate each other, and it simply amazed me that neither of you tried to kill the other," she explained, thinking back to the few conversations she'd had with Ruya. "I think you tried to get along with her, but she just wouldn't have it. I'm afraid I don't know completely what happened, as I wasn't able to see you very often..."

She decided to stop there as she finally looked up toward the man standing nearby, taking notice that he seemed to ask them a question.

"My name is Ares," the time feien stated simply, her wings twitching a little bit on her shoulders. "What... exactly do you intend on trying to get out of us? And please explain to me what an inquisitor is. I'm afraid I don't know a lot about military things, and given the uniform you're wearing, I'd say that's where you're from."

"Who said we were trying anything out on you?" asked Autry, immediately suspicious. He eyed the feien warily. "I'm the security guard, he's the inquisitor." Autry jabbed his thumb at du Pont, knwoing the feien's location without even having to look.

"We're investigating several disappearances," said du Point levelly, looking to Ruya. "You are?"

That seemed to jive with what Ruya already knew, so she didn't think too much about it. Instead she concentrated on the man asking them for information.

"I believe he is probably from the Fleet," Ruya said, mostly to Ares. "They seem to have some sort of authority over most of the feien on Gaia."

She saw no reason not to identify herself to this individual, although she didn't recognize him.

"I'm Ruya. I believe you may be here in response to a request I made."

"Ah, Ruya, it's good to meet you," said du Pont, not sounding joyous in the slightest. "I'm Inquisitor Geiseric du Pont, this is Sergeant Autry. We're the representatives from Investigative Services. My partner is with us as well." Du Pont hesitated just a moment, realizing that his statement was no longer correct since Gunn was now his former partner, but there was no need for these feien to understand that.

"Yeah, we're lookin' for some missing feien," said Autry. "Any of you have any information?"

"I do," Ruya said, but looking regretful, "I'm afraid I didn't bring the files with me. They didn't seem like the kind of thing I should carry around with me."

"I surely can't imagine what ya'll do to them if they don't," said a new voice from from the doorway; it was a feien that Ruya had met before - white-haired Burgundia, voice bitter and cool, landing on the reception desk and pulling her red shawl around her shoulders as she eyeballed Geiseric and Autry. "More standover tactics, like the good Doctor? She won't be able to tell him anythin' I can't, y'know. They're mostly gone, and mostly because they hate the Fleet."

"And the original source of the information is, as she just said, Ms. Burgundia." Ruya said, voice cool. She wasn't sure what to expect from the bitter sounding feien this time around. "She makes me rather superfluous."

"Gone?" echoed du Pont. "Gone where exactly? If you could favor us with any locations or addresses..."

"Can't say I blame them," muttered Autry, loudly enough that every feien could hear.

...This was rather confusing. Missing feien? The Fleet? Now there was an authority over the feien?

"Perhaps... I've been gone a bit too long. Can someone explain to me what's happened?" she asked, looking between Ruya, du Pont, and Autry.

"Bunch of you little flying--" In a rare show of diplomacy, Autry stopped himself short of calling the feien "little flying faggots," which was how he usually addressed them back in the Fleet. "--people have gone missing. We're aiming to locate where they went. This isn't a Fleet dem, though, so I can't see why they'd skip town."

Burgundia made an elegant curtsey to Ares, though it seemed wholly perfunctory; her eyes were mainly on Ruya and Autry. They were possibly the most unlikely detective team in all the land. "This is a Western-inspired democracy, sir. Some who were born'n raised here shy away from a military organisation; we ain't all Fleet-bred, for one thing. "

They simply disappeared? Or were the feien just hiding?

"Maybe they were afraid of changes that might have been made," she said calmly, peering toward the feien that had appeared on the desk, bowing her head for a moment in response to her gesture. "I don't know anything about the Fleet, however, so I can't imagine why feien would just... 'skip town', as you say."

Du Pont considered that. "Whatever the case is, as per the inquiry request, we're seeking information on any of them. As they are all Fleet citizens regardless of their objections, we have a right to confirm their whereabouts."

"Would it be possible to observe your methods?" Ruya asked. "As you go about gathering information, I mean."

She had no doubt they'd say no, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

"In my review that Ms. Ruya prob'ly so kindly collated for me, you'll see the information that was collected and my endin' recommendations," said Dee blandly, keeping a straight face at Ares' suggestion. "I'm surely glad that Fleet's now takin' an interest in its citizens, I really am. I'd love to observe your methods, too," she said, after a pause. "I'm deeply interested."

Du Pont looked to Autry. "I don't see why not."

Autry shrugged in reply. "I don't care. So long as they're not official guard duty. You understand that? If you want to come with us, I'm not responsible for your protection and safety." He had a slight sneer on his face as he made this pronouncement.

Ruya flushed, but resisted the urge to shoot Burgundia a dirty look. She had no doubt she would only end up looking ridiculous if she reacted to the other feien.

Her annoyance at Burgundia leaked into her voice as she snapped at Autry. "I certainly don't need your protection."

In the hallway, Inquisitor Gunn briefly appeared, exiting Dr. M's office and entering the bathroom opposite. Both doors clicked shut behind him, the bathroom audibly locking.

"You really don't," Burgundia agreed calmly with Ruya. "We'll be responsible for whatever happens to our own selves."

Du Pont looked over at Gunn's hasty room switch, wondering what precisely his boss was up to and frowning at the man's absence. This was a valuable chance to gather information, and Gunn had all the papers.

Ares stayed quiet as she watched Burgundia and Ruya, wondering about the tension between the two of them. She turned to see what Tahki was up to, but noticed she'd long since moved from the window and had gone back to playing with the flowers outside. Well, so long as she was happy...

"If it's all right, I would like to join them. I've been gone for a long time, and I'm interested in finding out what happened to the feien I used to know," she said, looking toward Autry and du Pont.

"Huh, yeah," said du Pont, thoroughly distracted as he stared expectantly at the hallway, waiting for Gunn to resurface.

Autry scratched at his neck, tugging at the collar of his jacket. "So long as you ladies all understand that if we get into any trouble, I don't care if you're ladies and I don't care if you're small and need protecting. I won't do it." Chivalry was not only dead, it was hacked into small pieces and incinerated to destroy all evidence.

"It's not like we normally wander through life relying on the kindness of perfect strangers to keep us alive," Ruya said, feeling like this man was going on a bit much about their safetly. "Or are you expecting some sort of specific difficulty? If so, it might assist all of us if you were to let us in on it."

"Excuse me," Dee said coolly. "I am a damn well full grown woman; I don't need any big man to protect me, thank you kindly for not offerin'. Two adult feien are more than enough to take care of their damn selves and the juvenile, whatever we encounter."

Finally Gunn emerged out into the hallway, fully composed and ready for action. The feien papers were in his hand. He quickly assessed the group of feien. "I see you've got a gathering going. If you could all join me in here? All of you, please." He crossed the hallway to Hamada's office and opened the door, waving them inside.

Du Pont looked at Gunn, trying it guess the man's motives, but nothing came to mind. Gunn was always a strange customer. Du Pont dubiously glanced at the Gaian feien.

"Inside," repeated Gunn, waving the papers back and forth with some impatience.

Though suspicious as ever since her encounter with M, Burgundia daintily tied her shawl around her waist and followed where Gunn beckoned. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Autry gave a shrug and walked over to the office, supposing this was an order and not about to be the one who failed to follow it.

Ruya followed the others into the office, feeling a bit like a sheep being herded into a pen.

Fixing Gunn with a loaded glare, du Pont trailed the other feien into the office where Autry was beelining for one of the human-size chairs.

Ares followed behind everyone, a bit wary of what was happening.

Gunn closed the door behind the whole group and moved towards Hamada's desk where he took up a seat on one corner. "Alright. I'm Inquisitor Gunn, I'll need all of your names if you please." He laid the papers on his knee and removed a pen from his coat pocket.

"We've already given our names to these two," Ruya pointed to Autry and Du Pont. "But I'm Ruya."

"Ruya, you made the inquiry," said Gunn, noting something down. His scrawl was illegible to anyone else.

Autry suddenly sat straight up in his chair, hearing the faint buzz of incoming extradimensional traffic. He started to stand, but Gunn jabbed a hand at him to sit back down. "That would be Lily. She'll be joining us in a minute." Gunn shifted his gaze to Ares and Burgundia. Curiously, he was looking in their direction but not actually at them, avoiding at all costs making eye contact with anyone.

"Burgundia Lukas-Hein," Dee said mildly. "I made my first inquiries to Dr. M."

She waited for her turn to speak before stating calmly, "Ares."

"Ares?" repeated Gunn, lifting his chin suddenly.

"What?" said du Pont instantly, recognizing Gunn's behavior as indicating he had found a clue.

Gunn looked down at the papers and thumbed through them, pulling one out. "You live with three other feien? Their names are... Tahki, Raylan, and Merrimack?" He managed to mispronounce both Tahki and Raylan.

"My goodness," Burgundia said, not sounding too surprised in any way whatsoever. "I investigated you, and now you're here. How odd."

Ares was a bit surprised that the man knew of herself and her bondmates. She looked to Burgundia for a moment, not quite understanding.

"Yes... yes, I live with them. Merri is one of my children, and Raylan is one of Tahki's," she explained, looking back to Gunn. "Why was I being investigated? Were we reported missing?"

Gunn ignored Burgundia's interruption, possibly because it added nothing to his investigation, and similarly ignored Ares' question. He pulled four papers out of the stack and passed them over to Autry. "They're all in good status and health?" Gunn asked Ares.

From over Autry's shoulder, du Pont read the names on the papers: Ares, Tahki, Merrimack, Raylan. He exchanged a look with Autry.

"Well, yes... of course," she said a bit reluctantly, not liking being in the dark. "We're all perfectly fine."

"That still leaves another dozen or so feien unaccounted for," Gunn informed the room.

The office door opened and anyone who had previously met Emperial and actually remembered would have recognized the girl that entered as having the same face and eyes and similar glasses: a perfect double. "Lily," said Gunn, not looking up. "Did you take care of the filing?"

The girl, clad in brown vest and skirt and ridiculously frilly off-white shirt, nodded her head. "Yes. I'm, ah, g-gonna check in now. With, um, the-the office here."

"You do that," said Gunn, and held up the first of the remaining papers. Lily slipped back outside, leaving the door ajar behind her. "Does anyone here have any information on a feien called Skylark?"

"Nothing whatsoever," said Burgundia, investigating her nails: if she had been Casca, she would have recognized the other woman immediately.

Gunn began to rattle off names. "Ursa, Hari, Aric... Ryuusei" (which he mispronounced, of course), "Gekisho, Yasha, Luca, Tosten, Calico... No? Yes? Any of them?"

Ruya shuffled a foot absently. She was pretty much completely useless, having no idea whether she had previously met any of these feien.

Du Pont sat back in the air with rolled eyes and a frown. If these girls expected any sort of daring shootouts or witness interrogations, they were probably going to be very disappointed by Gunn's low-key method of investigation, which when there was no crime scene involved mostly asking questions and listening for answers that did not fit. Du Pont suspected they would not find many aberrant responses from these Gaian feien.

Below him, Autry drummed his fingers against the papers he held in boredom. No one was going to be more disappointed by the simple nature of this investigation than him, since he basically lived for shootouts and threatening interrogations. If only he had been around when Burgundia spoke to Dr. M. His mind wandered back to the Fleet. He wondered what Manchester was doing, and if he was going to come home to a tank of dead fish.

Ares' heart sank with every name she heard listed off.

"I... I knew some of them," she said quietly, looking toward the floor. Gekisho, Yasha, Luca, Tosten, and Calico."

"Can you tell me when and where you last saw them?" asked Gunn, extracting the applicable papers and brandishing his pen.

"I haven't seen or heard from anyone since well over a year ago," she admitted. "The last one of them I saw was Tosten in 2004."

Gunn mouthed the year and furrowed his brow. This was not going to be a fun investigation, not by any means. The trail was too old. Why had these feien waited so long to report this? "Do you remember where? Did he mention that he was going somewhere? Any details may be important."

Ares was quiet for a long moment, remembering going back to visit Tosten only to find Nekota's home completely empty. Not even a feather could be found.

"He didn't tell me anything. I had no idea he'd left until I tried to go and see him," she said, sighing lightly. "Forgive me, I don't seem to be of much help."

"Wait. I do recall Ursa." Burgundia's brow had furrowed in an effort to remember. "I surely did never meet her; but my brother told me stories about her. He knew her well enough. She was, ... she was an Ancient, wasn't she?"

"We'll have to speak to your brother, then," said Gunn with mild interest. He truly seemed to have no interest whatsoever in answering anyone's questions.

"He died a while back," Burgundia said tonelessly. "You had better speak to Cousin Silva about Ursa, in my understandin'."

"Unfortunate," came Gunn's response. He flipped past a page and directed his attention back to Ares. "You may remember something later after you've had time to sleep on it."

Suddenly, Gunn's brow furrowed further and he lurched forward and grabbed the papers on Ares and her bondmates back from Autry. "How about these four? Arturo, Div, Gaius, Nero?" He looked far enough in Ares' direction that he could make out her response without staring at her directly.

Ares' three eyes widened slightly. She hadn't even thought about checking their house to see if anybody would be home when she returned. She'd simply assumed everyone would be there.

"They're... missing too?" she said a bit sadly. Things were just getting worse. "I haven't seen them since around the time I saw Tosten."

Gunn's nose and eyes scrunched up, another signal du Pont was familiar with. "Did you go somewhere, Miss Ares?" he queried.

Ruya felt bad for Ares, coming back only to find many of the people she knew were gone. She was starting to wonder if having no memory really wasn't so bad.

Autry was starting to wonder if he should just try and skip this whole assignment and complain about being transferred to Investigative Services, a section he had no business being placed with in his opinion. This was boring, and why anyone cared what happened to these annoying little winged people was a complete mystery to him. He would rather be stuck on corridor patrol.

And as soon as that thought occurred to him, Autry retracted it. No, this was better than patrol duty. Better than having his memory wiped every time there was a minor security hiccup or a visitor he wasn't supposed to know about in case he was captured. Still. He sank back in the chair and stared at the white plaster ceiling.

"Yes," she started, furrowing her brow a little bit. She didn't like how Gunn's face scrunched up the way it did. "We moved away for about a year, living with another form of my guardian's. We finally came back about a month ago. Many of the feien you're asking about have been gone long before I left, however."

Gunn nodded and made more notes. "If you remember anything, any detail at all about the habits and behavior, or friends, or lifestyle of the feien in question that might connect to their whereabouts -- even quirks you think have no connection -- I want you to tell me."

"Actually," said du Pont, "Misses Ares and Ruya and Burgundia asked to accompany us on our investigation. I said they could."

Gunn flinched. "All of them?" he said in a small voice.

"All of them," groaned Autry, "but I made it clear I'm not guarding any of them and they're not getting any Fleet protection for any reason."

There were the beginnings of objections to that since it had been made variously clear that the girls did not feel they required any protection, but it was cut short by Gunn.

"All right, inquisitor," Gunn said to du Pont, "it's your investigation. Do you have a next move?"

Du Pont considered. "We should go find the feien Burgundia mentioned, Silva. It's our only lead at the moment. Ares can brief us on any of the habits and associates of the feien she has previously had contact with on the way. Burgundia, I assume you can take us to this Silva?"

Burgundia smiled rather mirthlessly. "I can. I can't guarantee that he'll co-operate, but cordiality will go a long way in gettin' Cousin Silva to answer any questions you might have for him. I'd suggest meeting somewhere neutral, though."

"What would a neutral location be?" asked Geiseric, curiosity piqued.

"Anywhere that isn't feien HQ or his house, I imagine." Burgundia raised a mildly disdainful eyebrow at Geiseric. "Obviously."

Geiseric squinted at that, unconsciously having picked up some of his mentor's habits. "Autry, you accompany Burgundia and obtain a location for this meeting, then inform Inquisitor Gunn and I as to the place. We will meet you there."

"Hold up," said Autry, leaning forward in his chair. "I'm supposed to be accompanying you. Security detail."

Du Pont shook his head. "No, now you're an investigator. Gunn and I will need to review Ares' statements and you will report to us as to whatever situation Silva presents. Ruya, you are welcome to accompany myself, Inquisitor Gunn, and Ares."

Ruya nodded, moving closer to Ares. That was fine with her.

Du Pont floated expectantly in the air a moment. "You have your orders. Move."

Autry made a face as if he might spit, but he was indoors and refrained. "Come on," he said to Burgundia, rising from his chair. "Take me to this Silva guy."

Gunn tapped the papers he held against the table to straighten them. "Let's go over the feien one by one," he said to Ares.

"As you wish," said Dee, privately noting that there was no chance in hell she would ever lead any Fleet operative directly to Silva's house - and to Ruby. "Let's be off."

====================================EXODUS