Edited by: Waning_Crescents

Night had fallen over Colst. The gentle spring breeze glided through the almost empty streets and the bright moon hung majestically above the sky, illuminating the body of a man lying on the ground. Strands of his raven hair dangled in his face as he slowly opened his eyes. He blinked a few times before he propped his hands on the ground, raising his body up into a sitting position.

“Where am I?” Sigal put one hand on his forehead, his head throbbing. It took him a few seconds to remember what had unfolded and his eyes widened. How long was I out?

He rummaged through his pockets in search of his phone. “Dammit, where is it?” In a mix of panic and anger it took him a minute to find the device, but when he did, he immediately stared at the display.

[No new messages]

In the next second he scrolled through his contacts, stopped at Cal’s name, and clicked on it.

‘The number you dialed can’t be reached at the moment. Please—'

Sigal clenched one hand to a fist, slamming it with all his might into the ground which caused some dirt to scatter. Blood trickled down from his knuckles as he retracted his hand. I will find you Cal. Just wait for me.

He scrambled to his feet and darted out of the construction site while he dialed Vince's number.

Not even a second later Vince picked up. The man was a night owl after all, always working late. Not just once did one of his subordinates find him slumped with his arms on his desk with his head resting on them, snoring. Out of worry, everyone chipped in to buy him a couch for his office in hope that this would help to break his habit.

“Sigal?” Vince asked, baffled. His subordinate usually never called at this hour unless the situation demanded it.

“Vince, Cal is in deep trouble.”

Vince knitted his brows. “Explain.”

While Sigal filled him in on everything that transpired, he hurried back to the Conciliator headquarters. Even though the drug, which knocked him out, left its aftereffects —light dizziness with a pulsating head—his fury and concern prevailed.

After Sigal recounted the key-points, Vince’s voice turned more serious. “I understand. So, his half-brother took him and said he will send you Cal’s location later to pick him up?” Vince paused for a moment. “That doesn’t sound right. It makes no sense.”

Sigal fell into silence for a moment as Axis's voice echoed in his mind.

‘When you wake up, all will be over.’

He took the phone away from his ear and glanced at the display once more. Then why isn’t there any message yet?

“Something is definitely off here,” Sigal eventually said, “But we have to find Cal no matter what.”

“Of course, that goes without saying. I will contact Section 1 and see if they can locate his phone.”

“No need.” Sigal opened the door to the Conciliators headquarters. “I am already here. I will go myself.”

Vince noticed the strain in Sigal’s voice and wanted to tell him to rest up, but under these circumstances he knew that his subordinate wouldn’t listen, so instead he said, “Alright. I will brief the corps division on the situation and have them on stand-by.”

“Thank you.” Sigal ended the call, rushed to Kristian and Alicia’s office and entered.

Alicia, who just browsed through data on her computer, peeked through her glasses around the monitor, glancing at the door. “Sigal? What brings you here at this hour?”

“We have an emergency!”

“Can’t that wait until tomorrow?” Kristian yawned as he woke up from the loud thud as Sigal slammed the door open. “We are still in the middle of another urgent matter.”

“We?” Alicia raised an eyebrow. “One of us is doing the work and the other keeps falling asleep.”

“I can’t help it. We have been going through the same documents over and over again for hours and haven’t found anything yet. I am not a robot like ya.”

“What was that?”

Sigal walked over to Kristian’s desk and slammed his hand on it. “No, this cannot wait. We must find Cal.”

As if refilled with new energy, Kristian’s sleepiness faded in an instant, leaning forward in his chair. “What do ya mean we must find Cal? What happened?”

“No time to explain everything right now. Can you locate his phone?”

Kristian nodded. He turned to his computer, letting his finger do their magic. “What’s that?” Kristian knitted his brows as he stared at the monitor.

“What is it?” Sigal walked around the desk and stopped behind him.

“There is no signal.” Kristian typed the command again. “How is that possible?”

“Same here.” Alicia called over. “This shouldn’t happen. We installed a special software that lets us track our phones at all times.” She folded her arms in front of her chest.

“What does that mean?” Sigal asked.

“The only time this can happen is if he is either stuck in a dead zone or…”

“If someone intentionally interrupts the signal,” Kristian finished Alicia’s sentence.

“Is there a way to get around that?”

“No.” Kristian turned around in his chair, looking at Sigal. “Care to tell what exactly happened?”

Sigal leaned against the wall, not eager to tell the whole story a second time. This only cost valuable time, time he would lose to save Cal from the clutches of an insane man. However, in order to get them to understand the urgency of the matter, he had no other choice, so he quickly recounted the important parts.

“What?” Kristian jumped off his chair. “Are ya serious?”

“Yeah.” Sigal’s eyes darkened. “We must find him and that better sooner than later. Who knows what this lunatic already did to him.”

“Fuck!” Kristian cursed, clenching his fists in anger. Cal was always like a little brother to him after all. Hearing that he had been taken away by a lunatic who claimed to be his half-brother shocked him a great deal.

“This Axis guy. Are you certain he is his half-brother?” Alicia looked over to Sigal.

“Yeah, that’s what Cal said,” Sigal answered.

“I see…” Alicia grabbed her chin, lost in thought for a moment. “We will have to research deeper into that matter later, but for now our top priority is to find Cal.”

She paused a moment, before she continued, “you said that Axis was also connected with the Lester case? And the guy from Shuri Town was there as well, right?”

Sigal nodded.

“Let’s start there then.” Her gaze shifted to her partner. “Kristian, let’s see if we can find anything.”

“Yeah.” He hurriedly sat back in his chair. “Maybe we can at least narrow down the radius for our search.”

Sigal grabbed a chair from the other side of the desk, pushed it beside Kristian and sat down. Then he took his phone out, staring at the screen once more.

[No new messages]

With a loud thud he roughly placed the phone on the desk, while his eyes wandered to Kristian’s monitor. “We have to hurry!”

“I know,” Kristian replied with a serious expression while his fingers danced in quick motion over the keyboard.

To Sigal it appeared as if an eternity had passed with every ticking minute, and he grew more and more agitated. But it was not only him, even Kristian and Alicia were tense the whole time while they did their utmost to find an estimated radius to start from without aimlessly wandering around Colst in search for their colleague and friend.

Sigal tapped on his phone screen, looking at the time. “It’s been almost two hours. Can you still not narrow it down?” Sigal raised his voice.

Kristian shook his head. “Not quite. With all the information we have, considering all the people involved, that would leave us with a large radius. Furthermore, all those places are ones we have been to before during the case. Even if it is said that a criminal always returns to the crime scene, this actually only applies to a small number. I hardly doubt that these people can be counted as one from those categories.”

Sigal narrowed his eyes as he glanced at the map on the screen. “But we also can’t rule it out, can we?”

“No, but this is more blindly looking around without a real lead,” Alicia answered.

Sigal rose from his chair. “Then I will check them out.”

“Ya can’t check them all by yarself. That will take way too long” Kristian glanced at him. “Aside from that, this is also way too dangerous. We don’t know what they are planning or how good they are in predicting our movements.”

“It doesn’t matter. I will find him and—” Right as he was about to grab his phone from the desk, it vibrated; causing him to choke back the rest of his words. He snatched the phone and unlocked the screen.

[1 New Message]

He clicked on the message and furrowed his brows as he read through it.

[Dear Mr. Crawford, I apologize for the delay. Everything took longer than expected, but now it’s done. I will lend you my property for the time being. He is eagerly awaiting your arrival.]

At the end of the text Axis pinged a location where he left Cal.

“Is it them?” Kristian asked in a hurry.

“Yeah. He sent a location.”

“The signal is back!” Alicia stared at the screen with a serious expression before she read the address out loud.

“It’s the same.” Sigal let his phone slide back into his pocket as he walked around the desk. “Contact Vince for me. Aside from the corps division, make sure to send an ambulance there as well."

“What are you going to do?” Kristian asked.

“I’ll go on ahead.”

Kristian wanted to object but at the same time he knew there was no way to stop this stubborn comrade of his. “Sigal…” He gazed at him with a serious expression.

Sigal nodded in tacit understanding. “I will bring him back.” Then he headed out.

***

When Sigal arrived at his destination, he stepped out of the car and glanced ahead. The location Axis sent him led him to Shuri Town. The worst area, probably, to enter as soon as night settled in. If Shuri Town was considered dangerous during the day, then when darkness fell over the city, this area transformed as well.

However, he had no time to spare and couldn’t care less about any of that. In his current mental state, anyone who would cross his path, in an unpleasant way, would feel his wrath to its full extent. Without any exaggeration, right now the most dangerous individual in this area was most likely this investigator.

Sigal’s fiery red eyes shimmered dangerously in the moonlight as he dashed through the streets. To his surprise, no one lingered around, no people waited in the shadows and no shady deals took place. The streets were empty as if someone cleared his way, giving him a grand entrance.

He clicked his tongue, but also didn’t give this any more thought because in the next moment he reached his destination. The address led him to an old parking garage which grew obsolete over the years. The slight crevices on the surface proved that also this construction lacked proper maintenance. Nonetheless, it was one of the more preserved buildings in this area.

Sigal grabbed after the holster of his gun and took the weapon out of it while he entered the garage. Unexpectedly, inside shone a dim light as if welcoming him into the devil's den. Sigal narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing his surroundings. Beside the unusual light, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so he pressed on.

Every step he took sent a faint echo throughout the building, yet Sigal even quickened his pace while he scanned every corner for Cal.

Where are you? He gnashed his teeth as he reached the last floor of the parking garage.

All the way at the end of this floor, Sigal spotted a person with white hair half-laid to one side. “Cal!”

Cal didn’t react to his call, he just laid there unmoving.

Sigal rushed over, stopped beside him and knelt down, carefully moving him before lifting him up a bit. His eyes widened as he stared at Cal’s half-open eyes. The color in his eyes had paled; as if life had gotten drained out of his ice-blue irises.

No…he can’t be… He searched for Cal’s pulse with trembling hands. At first glance anyone would think this young man had died and all that remained was his lifeless body.

Sigal pressed his fingers gently at the soft hollow area beside his Adam’s apple and let out a breath of relief as he felt it pounding against his fingers. Thank god!

As the first shock lifted, his gaze fell on Cal’s bare chest. Several wounds marked his body, stretching from his chest to his abdomen, the blood smeared all over it. Among these fresh cuts, Sigal also noticed scars which must have been from injuries inflicted a long time ago.

His eyelids flickered in shock. That’s why…He gritted his teeth as his eyes wandered back to Cal’s face, whose eyes still were half-open as if he stared into empty space.

“Cal, hey.” Sigal moved his right hand and softly patted Cal’s right cheek. “It’s over, I am here. You are safe now.”

While these words would have made an effect before, now they seemed to fall on deaf ears.

“Please…say something…” Sigal’s voice cracked as he pulled him gently into his arms, embracing him. “I’m sorry…This is all my fault…I am so sorry, please…forgive me.”

For I won’t ever forgive myself.

The next moment, sounds of footsteps filled the air, drawing closer and closer. In a blink of an eye, Sigal raised his right arm, pointing his gun up while he held Cal firmly with his other arm. He narrowed his eyes, a dangerous aura emanating from him, ready to tear anyone apart who dared to draw any closer.

Out of the shadows stepped a man with short brown hair, a gun aimed in front of him. Behind him followed several men clad in the same uniform.

As Sigal’s gaze fell upon the head of the group he relaxed, lowered his gun and put it away before he carefully picked Cal up. “Lucien, is the ambulance here yet?”

“They should arrive in around a minute.” Lucien’s eyes swept for a brief second over Cal. “Go ahead, we will take care of things here.”

Sigal nodded, rushing all the way up and out of this parking garage.

JenLeifire

Here a little goody what my awesome editor Waning_Crescents put together =D
(We do not own any of the pictures used in these collages)