The First Age

Before Asha could answer, there was some commotion at the door. Emily looked up to see a scene taking place. A man had a gun to a woman's head. Another man and a woman with red hair stood in front of the pair. The woman caught her attention, something drawing Emily to her light a moth to a flame. It was similar to what she felt around her sisters and it was the same feeling she had gotten around Chelsea at U of I.

Emily pushed it away, her desire to help those in trouble taking precedence. "He can't hurt her,"
Emily whispered. The words reached through her block and she felt the sweetness of her magic flowing through her as she sent air to grab the weapon and pull it away for the woman. She stopped as the man next to the red haired woman approached approached the man. In his position, she might injured him.

The men spoke, one without a gun calming the other man down. Eventually the man handed over the weapon and Emily breathed a sigh of relief as she let go of her magic.

Then the gunman clutched at his chest. He appeared to be having a heart attack. "Can someone call for an ambulance?"
The man said.

"I got it."
Emily said as she pulled out her Wallet. The design was sleek and new. It was a prototype to be released to the public later next year.

She called emergency services and reported the heart attack. When asked what her name was she responded, "Emily Shale
and then cursed her self inwardly for doing so. If there was press in the room, they would start bugging her. She should have done so anonymously. The call finished and they gave her an ETA of 3 minutes.

"They'll be here in about three minutes."


The man's shock told her that the man didn't make it though.


Edited by Emily Shale, Sep 16 2014, 10:06 AM.

Bas killed the man. Ayden couldn't tell for sure, but she was pretty sure he'd done what she'd done to the Atharim hunter - stopped his heart. But he was cruel, but it was believable. He made it look like a real heart attack to those around him. She smiled.

When Boris finally lay on the ground Ayden saw Bas turn and wink at her. Ayden couldn't help but laugh. He was casual about the whole thing. He even called for an ambulance. How gentlemanly of him. Ayden wondered what Connor would think. She hadn't cared whether the man had lived or died. He'd threatened her life, and that of her friends. Bas didn't count, but what would Connor think of her completely disregard for the man's life. She wondered if he'd ever really come to terms with what she did.

Sasha had clung to her the moment she'd been free. But as soon as Bas was free, Sasha was wrapping her arms around her savior. Ayden rolled her eyes.

The woman who had called the ambulance, there was something familiar about her. Ayden couldn't quite place it. Something she should know about her, but Ayden didn't know her. Which was a good thing. If Ayden had known her, she wasn't likely to be sitting there still. At least not from before, now she wasn't so sure she'd ever have many friends. Ayden could fake it being overly friendly was easy, it was all acting, but they'd soon see through it. Sasha was a real friend though. She was probably the only one, and she'd protect her even from a buy like Sebastian if she had to.

Ayden leaned in to Bas' ear, and whispered. "You hurt Sasha, and you'll wish you died like he did."
She kissed his cheek and patted Sasha's back. "Thank you for saving my friend."
Ayden turned to the women at the table, the one who'd called the ambulance. "You are a far braver soul than I am to give your name when thugs are involved. Thankfully his friends weren't here."
It was meant as a cautionary tale to the woman.

Fear was pervasive. It snuck under her skin before she ever realised what was going on; quickening her pulse, chilling her skin. Her heart jack-hammered. She couldn't breathe. In almost the same instant, caught by surprise, she lost Emily as an anchor. Where once was the warmth of normal human emotion, a void sucked everything dry. Left her lost. The silence was terrifying, or maybe that was the fear leaking in from those around her, colouring up all her own judgements. There was a lot of alarm, all swarming in reaction to the gun and the girl. And bright amongst it burned one violent fire of hatred, white hot.

For a moment anyway.

The man with the gun - who had had the gun, up until seconds ago - his patterns shifted, and Asha shifted with it. Burning aggression, anger, revenge - it all faltered. Pain, panic, fear. Asha's stomach churned; she placed a hand to an ache in her chest, tugged her eyes away - not that it really helped any. She tried to pull back, find someone else to focus on, but she was surrounded by silence, and his pain was the strongest thing in the room. Pulsating. One heart-beat at a time. It obscured everything else, mere sparks to that blazing bonfire. And amidst the terror fear, more fear, raging fear, his eyes on the barren man who helped him to the floor.

Asha knew when he was dead. He winked out, as silent as the voids around her, but not before that single moment of truth, when fear became pure certainty. Clarity of death; pain so bright one moment, then black nothingness the next. She felt that moment like an eternity, collapsing her face into her hands. Tears smeared her cheeks, physical reaction rather than true empathy. But she was shaken. Uncertain of what exactly she'd witnessed, and still in the throes of its emotional vice. Her hands trembled when she brushed her hands over her face, trying to gather what remained of her composure together. She didn't think she could stand but she wanted to leave. Badly.

People were clapping and relief rained like balm. The girl, radiating reassurance and lust, had thrown her arms around the man. Who was still empty. Another woman stood at the edge of their table, taking to Emily. Collectively speaking, the happy ending washed one emotion clean with another, but not for Asha. She shrugged her coat back onto her shoulders, though didn't stand. The liquid dark of her gaze took in the empty voids. Cautious. Mistrust was written plain on her expression, not that she intended it to be; wide-eyed, a little fearful, whether her own or remnant she couldn't tell.


Edited by Asha, Sep 16 2014, 04:28 PM.

The red haired woman came and spoke to her.

"You are a far braver soul than I am to give your name when thugs are involved. Thankfully his friends weren't here."


Emily hadn't even thought of that. Her focus had been on helping. Even though the man had wanted to kill the girl, she didn't want him to die either. She hadn't thought of the fact that she may have put her own life in danger.

"They asked me for my name - the emergency workers. I just wasn't thinking...excuse me..."
Emily caught Asha in the side of her vision and turned to face her.

The other woman was clearly upset. She had put her coat on. The poor girl must have been shaken by what had happened. Emily felt compassion for her. The situation had been scary, but it was over. Emily wanted to help her.

Emily looked at Asha, took a deep breath and spoke. "Are you ok?"
Emily placed her hand reassuringly on Asha's and gave her an encouraging smile. "It will be okay."


Emily had dealt with this with her sisters - recently too. It was important for her to be stable, so she kept herself calm and met her gaze. "It will be okay"
she repeated.

Sasha threw her arms around him and he staggered back for a moment under her enthusiasm. A grin had been about to split his face. This was a pretty alright day after all. Took care of some business, took out another rival, and now had his arms around a pretty girl. Oh yeah, he was definitely gonna hit that tonight. Looks like Boris and pals hadn't messed things up for him after all.

He gave Ayden a knowing look. She knew exactly what he was thinking. Finally, Sasha calmed enough to at least let him breath. Good thing too, cuz it was getting pretty comfortable feeling her against him. His interest was gonna show in a moment and they were surrounded by people. And he did have to maintain the image that this had been a terrible accident.

And yeah, Ayden did know what he was thinking. She slid right up to him and leaned in to whisper "You hurt Sasha, and you'll wish you died like he did."
An insolent grin nearly split his face before he wrestled it into submission. But inside he laughed. He didn't plan on hurting Sasha. But she was a big girl. He wouldn't play games with her, but he wasn't setting himself on a hook either. It was what it was. And what it was going going to be very nice indeed.

And then Ayden leaned in and kissed him, thanking him for saving her friend, playing along with his story. Now that was an interesting chick. Usually he expected girls to be all emotional and weepy when someone died. Shocked or whatever. Not her, though. A hard one. He reassessed her. Well, maybe he'd be a little more careful with Sasha. No sense in pissing two girls off, not when he'd worked so hard today. Plus, her fiance or whatever had a connection he wanted. Yeah, stay on her good side.

Talk about the weepy though. Next to the tasty piece who'd called the ambulance- another time he'd'a spent his time chatting her up, that's for sure.- was a hot little brunette who looked all kinds of tore up. Broke his heart to see that. He never liked seeing a girl cry- at least not from anything he did. Made him feel all protector-like. The playful feeling left him.

He stepped closer to them- he was still with Sasha and Ayden after all, but it seemed their groups had merged so hopefully he didn't look too much like a tool- and gave her a sad but reassuring smile and said, "I'm sorry."
And he kinda meant it. Kind of.


Edited by Sebastian, Sep 16 2014, 06:01 PM.

Asha's hand snapped back reflexively at the touch - too much, too much, too much. The comfort, though well-intentioned, pushed her head back under, and she struggled against the current, warring with too much extreme and conflicting emotion. Her body couldn't house the turmoil. She'd break. A little distance, though, a little distance and the reassurance had more impact. She let it soothe her at the edges, grateful. Her skull ached. But the ghost of foreign emotion began to fade. She felt bad for snatching away from the contact, but there wasn't much she could do - not to explain, or to erase the rudeness. Eventually her lips tipped into a small, grim smile. A small measure of appreciation. "Yeah. I'm okay. Thanks."
And for a second, that was true.

The guy detached himself from his girlfriend, joined the redhead - she noticed from her peripheral vision rather than the senses she had learned to rely on, because he was still painfully absent. He smiled at her; a consoling smile, but without the feeling to back it up she only found it disturbing. Asha jerked back the moment he drew close; she didn't trust the silence, and she certainly didn't want to be near it. Her hand caught the edge of her cup, the china tinkled and black liquid gushed across the tabletop. Not scalding any longer, just hot. She barely noticed as it spread and dripped off the edges of the table. She was on her feet, to get away from him or the burning liquid, either way the chair was now between them. "Sorry for what?"

Ayden dropped her gift, there was no longer any danger, at least not while Bas pretended to be a good upstanding citizen. The whole scene made Ayden wonder why she had chosen to do this to be normal. To live a normal life. She loved Connor, she did, she'd do anything for him, but she missed her job, missed the freedom, the characters, missed playing the part. Now she was just Ayden, soon to be Missus Connor Kent. As much as she loved him, and wanted to marry him, Ayden was very afraid of what she was about to become. If things were different, if she weren't engaged to Connor. There might be something there with Bas. But there wasn't a sole on this earth who was going to understand her problems. Assassins don't become housewives...

Crash. Ayden was pulled from her thoughts. The other woman stood, coffee spilling all over the table. It was instinct, Ayden grabbed for the napkins and started corralling it. There were no waitress' here, and the table was likely to remain sticky for some time. Ayden sighed. "Sorry for what?"
, the girl asked.

Ayden stepped between Bas and the woman. "He's sorry the man's death upset you."
Ayden looked back at Bas and Sasha, they'd probably leave soon anyway, the way Sasha hung all over him. "Why don't I get us all some more coffee and you two join us at our slightly dryer table?"
Why was she getting in the middle of things, Connor was definitely rubbing off on her.

The brunette jerked back as he came closer, what looked like fear in her eyes, and her drink spilled. She jumped to her feet but her eyes were on him, not on the liquid fanning across the table.

He tilted his head quizzically, question in his eyes. His lips compressed sadly. Why was she afraid of him? The only one here who knew the truth was Ayden. All the energy and cockiness left him and was replaced by stillness. Well, that and the roaring and seething cauldron of power he held in his grip. With it, the tension on her face was clear, as were her words.

Sorry? Why was he sorry? He wasn't sure. He wasn't sorry for killing Boris. Not really. That was just part of the game. You play the game and you take what you get. If the man hadn't used Sasha as a hostage- had just snuck up on him- then he'd be the one laying on the ground, nice big hole in the middle of his head. Hell, Boris coulda done that on the street while he was walking. Just the game of life and his turn came up to lose. Rolled and came up a loser.

He was sorry because she took it hard. And now because she was afraid of him. He didn't get it. He let the power go and it drained from him. Now more than ever, that feeling remained. Course the room got blander too. Guess that was to be expected. You're already coming down from situation high. And then he lets go of the power for another drop. In any case, it was what it was.

Ayden rushed in- she really was pretty cool. Quick little head on her, that was for sure.- and brushed over the situation. Blondie and Brunette would join the three of them or not. Sasha was at his side clutching at him and it felt a bit smothering. He was sure they'd have fun later but at this moment he was a bit tired of the attention. He looked at the brunette and smiled weakly, shrugging too, and then stepped over to his own table and sat down.

The rest didn't last though. The ambulance arrived and began packing up old Boris. A police officer came too and took statements. Bas didn't sweat the cop. He'd met plenty, of course, and as long as he didn't do anything suspicious, they wouldn't look at him twice.

Which he was totally wrong about. The tattoos on his neck identifying his old gang made sure of that. In fact they took him outside to question him. Boris had a record and so did he. And their....'friendships' were also noted. And the statements had made it clear that Boris had been after him.

But they also absolved him of any guilt as they all agreed Bas had talked him down even as he had an unexpected heart attack. That made him smile a bit. That was pretty funny, actually, the way people were all talking him up like he was the hero. He could tell the cop was frustrated but there wasn't really a whole hell of a lot he could do. Hell, there was even video of the thing.

So it was a pretty easy 20 minutes of grilling before he was able to go back inside and sit down at the table. By then, he felt better, more normal. He'd have to be careful with things, though. Bad idea to release the power after coming down from a rush. Made it worse.

Once he sat down, he looked at the girls with a smirk. "They wanted to give me a medal. I had to talk 'em out of it."
A grin.

Emily stood up, she was slightly surprised when Asha had pulled her hand away, but she understood. Asha was scared and at least after awhile admitted she was okay. Emily believed her until the man approached and she stood, tipping some of her coffee on the table. Emily's instincts told her that she was afraid of him. It was the way she stood and kept the chair between them.

Emily didn't understand why she would be afraid of him. Beneath the rough exterior, he seemed to be a good man. The girl he saved had been attached to him at the hip pretty much the whole time and Emily felt a stab of envy. The simple touch that everyone seemed to take for granted that she had been denied because of her own fears. She knew it was an overreaction, but men touching her reminded her of Bryce - and the night he hit her because she wasn't ready for their relationship to go to that level. It didn't help that the man was kind of cute.

She took Asha's reaction to be one of tension caused by the situation. She thought Asha would be alright after given some time to calm down. Her instincts wanted her to do something, but she was unaware of what besides letting the feelings run their course, but Emily would be there for Asha if she needed her. They hadn't known each other for long, but Emily enjoyed her company.

The feeling that Emily had felt from the woman with red hair began to diminish and the woman invited them to join their group for coffee. As the feeling diminished, Emily thought of Chelsea. She had felt that when Chelsea had used her magic. Emily turned to face the woman and blinked before answering.

"I...I'm okay with that. If she's okay."
She turned back towards Asha. "Another cup of coffee might help."

As soon as the redhead stepped in and answered the question, she realised how dumb it must have sounded. It was the void behind the man's words that had prompted her. Without any sense of sentiment behind them, they'd been worthless. Questionable. She felt a blush creep up her neck, leaned forward to support herself a little on the back of the chair as the woman sighed and began mop up the mess. As if to compound her embarrassment, normal feeling filtered back in from those who had been hidden, and with it the panic faded. Emily's concern washed around her in a gentle tide, and she pulled it around herself, guiltily drawing reassurance from that quiet concern. Enough to straighten, brush the hair from her face, offer a poor smile. "God. That was really clumsy of me."


There was no point trying to explain, and she felt awkward for the outburst. The woman's offer hung in the air as the man was herded off by the arrival of ambulance crew and a police officer. It would be a good time to leave, and she did consider it, until Emily spoke up and the kindness sunk under her skin. Wandering the streets would be no worse than staying here, not now things had calmed. In the absence of siphoned fear her own emotions had room to flourish. A seed of curiosity took its place. Emily left the decision with her, and she tipped her shoulders in a wondering shrug, but broke into a slow smile. The warmth was genuine, if a little reticent while her mood stabilised. "Thanks. I'm Asha."
That, to the flame-haired woman and her companion.

As they moved to swap tables, she caught Emily with a soft touch on the arm, mouthed the words thank you before they sat. Even if it wasn't entirely clear what the gratitude was for, she thought the woman would probably understand on some level. Her lips quirked into a somewhat more dry smile. Now that her world had returned to its normal parameters, she felt more herself. A little shaken, a little drained, but no longer afraid. "So that was some welcome to Moscow."