"YOU LOST HER!?"

"Perhaps you should lower your to-"

"Oh, don’t you dare tell me to lower my tone"

Zaria retorted though she really did try to calm down

"How could you lose her? How do you lose a person?!"

She asked, trying her best not to panic

"You forget to cherish them?"

A holographic image of Theia popped out of his watch with a shit eating grin and said

"Ignore her"

Zen said, covering the watch with his hand.

This was some sort of reward he’d earned at some point but hadn’t been utilized until this morning. He had no idea how she’d downloaded herself from his consciousness to a piece of hardware but it wouldn’t be the strangest thing she’s done.

The only reason she’d decided to start doing this was because she’d seen Nina with Ava and thought this would help even the odds, though it wasn’t clear how and Zen was pretty sure she was just jealous and tired of not being seen.

At least this way if he spoke to her in public he wouldn’t be seen as crazy, though at this point it probably wouldn’t help either. The entire school already knew he wasn’t all there mentally. The rapid emotional changes, screaming randomly and talking what sounded like gibberish to himself hadn’t exactly helped with his image.

Fortunately image was something he couldn’t care less about.

"We wouldn’t exactly say we lost her. She just got up from where we left her and walked away and now we don’t know where to find her"

Unamused

"Zyro, tell Zen to get right back here in front of me. I’m not done with him"

"Yes ma’am"

Almost immediately his eye turned black again

"Don’t you run from me"

"I wasn’t running. My mom’s ghost and the spirit of the vampire wanted to speak with me"

"..."

"They’ve been acting weird since last night"

"What... happened last night?"

"He got a kiiisss"

He sighed covering the watch again

"Ignore her"

At this point Zaria was totally lost

"What?"

"I tried to kill someone and ended up with bombs inside me"

"Somehow, that’s the one thing you’ve said that makes the most sense. Wait,you did what, and got what?!"

She asked, trying to connect the dots between what he and Theia had said

"And I thought my night was weird"

"That’s not important. Jade is still missing "

"Do you have any idea where she went?"

"The only place she might go is her father’s, it’s the only place that she told me she feels close to, other than with you. I’d actually assume d she went to you"

"Well clearly she didn’t, and she isn’t picking up calls or replying to texts so are we going to have to go to her place?"

"Possibly... though if she is there, there’s nothing to worry about "

"Yeah but what about her dad. What happens if she goes nuclear again and he ends up...you know... splat!"

She said, slamming her fist into her palm as a demonstration

"..."

Though personally, Zen didn’t really care for John, he had to think about Jade and how killing her own father might affect her. He was about to say something when he suddenly got a message on his watch

"Hmm? Is that from her?"

Zaria asked hopefully but Theia popped out of the watch, hands folded

"Don’t get excited, it’s a summon. You’ve got about negative five minutes to get to Mr principal’s office, appearantly it’s urgent "

Zaria sighed and Zen looked up at her

"Whatever you choose to do, you’ll have to do it without me. This might take all day"

He said before turning to leave

"Right, bye....Wait,I forgot to tell you...aaannd he’s already gone "

She sighed

"Damnit!"

She’d planned on telling him earlier but he’d spoken first and she’d forgotten all about her news. Luckily she was in a different class so the two hadn’t interacted during morning classes and breakfast too , which meant he didn’t know SHE was back.

"Guess I’ll have to tell him later...if he doesn’t find out some other way first.

She sighed and kept walking, suddenly remembering someone else who she hadn’t been able to reach all morning.

"Sable"

She said, suddenly remembering the last time she holed up in her dorm and turning to head there instead.

A quick detour wouldn’t hurt, right?

A few minutes later she was at the door, slowly she brought up her hand and knocked three times .

There was nothing but silence for a while before she suddenly got a text.

It was from Sable and it was the code to the door

"That’s odd. How did she..."

She decided not to question it and put in the code before opening it.

She walked in, noticing all the lights were off and the windows were closed, leaving the room dark, though she could still see. In fact the lack of illumination revealed a faint glow in her eyes that was just a bit too low to be easily noticable outside the darkness.

"Sable?"

She asked, looking at the lump in the bed

"Why is it so dark in here?"

"Because I prefer it that way"

The lump replied

"How... did you know it was me outside"

"...I almost didn’t recognize you. That smell on you is still fresh. What is that? It’s so... thick"

Smell? No one had said anything about a smell

"Forget it. I recognized you because I know you"

The lump replied mysteriously

"That’s an odd thing to say"

Zaria said, stepping closer

"Are you okay? You didn’t come to class"

"A bit depressed and disillusioned, nothing new"

"Yikes"

’Everyone I know really does have issues ’

"What’s wrong?"

She asked, moving closer and sitting at the edge of the bed

"I don’t know. It’s about a thing that only makes sense because it’s connected to another thing that I can’t tell you because I don’t know how you’ll react"

"Oh... well there’s a lot of that going on. I have one of those things too"

The lump finally turned around to look at her though it was still covered under a thick blanket

"Really?"

"Yeah, and it’s pretty serious"

"... I’m scared"

"I promise i won’t -"

"No. Of myself"

"..."

"You ever feel like something just doesn’t feel right?... like inside you?"

"I... might know the feeling. And I also might know that cutting off contact from the outside world doesn’t help"

"..."

"And trust me, you’ve missed a lot in just one morning"

"Like what?"

Zaria sighed

"Well,for starters,my last roommate is back"

"Celia? Gary’s ex?"

Zaria nodded

"Well, how are the others taking it?"

"Eh... Diane’s not impressed"

*Chuckle*

"I bet Jade’s already panicking. Oh yeah,I didn’t even ask. Has she woken up?"

"Weeeeellll...."

"What’s wrong?"

"Jade’s...kinda missing "

Sable finally emerged from her depression cocoon

"What?"

"Uh-huh. She sort of just left without telling anyone and isn’t responding to attempts to contact her"

"Huh...I really did miss much "

"You wanna help me find her?"

Zaria asked

"You need some sunlight and I need a partner so what do you say?"

Sable cringed slightly but nodded

"Let’s do it, but never do that again?"

"Do what?"

But Sable didn’t reply, getting up and heading for the bathroom to freshen up 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Do what?!"

**************

Zen looked down at his watch at Theia who was dancing along the surface

"You’re rather excited "

"Hehehe"

"I don’t understand though. What’s the difference? As far as I can tell you’re more limited in this form and more people can see you"

"Exactly!"

Zen didn’t bother asking for an explanation

"Huh! Wait, what if this meeting has to do with Ava again. You don’t think she told anyone "

"... Doubtful "

"Right... but what if she can sense the machines in you and can use them as proof of who you are"

"She’s always had proof. She just doesn’t care enough to use it"

Theia slowed down

"That is... true"

Zen didn’t reply and just kept walking

"So what do you think this is about?"

"The dean had already given Tim permission to call upon me at any time for any given task, perhaps this is one of them "

"Ooh mission. Exciting... unless he tells us to wash his car or something like that "

They finally reached his office and opened the door

"Ah, you’re here"

Tim said as Zen’s figure appeared in the doorway

"Yes"

Zen froze for half a second as his eyes looked up and he noticed the final person in the room. His mind immediately started running as fast as it could, taking in the sight, processing possibilities and creating contingencies.

On the outside, his eyes didn’t even go to her, staying on his reason for being here

"Can I ask why I’m here?"

"I assume you’re familiar with this student?"

Tim said, gesturing to her

"You assume correctly"

"Good,then this should be easy. She’s been absent for a considerable amount of time for certain reasons and I’d like you to help her catch up"

"Shouldn’t that job be taken care of by the class representative?"

"She recommended you, and I happened to agree with her"

(He wanted to give Zen extra work)

"Can I ask why she’s been absent?"

"That’s above your clearance level,cadet"

Pulling out rank again. What a tyrant

"Any other questions?"

Zen decided to ask the obvious one

"Can i refuse?"

"What do you think?"

Of course not

"And why would you want to? After all you’re close friends, right?"

Zen didn’t bother answering that

"Then I humbly accept"

All this time he hadn’t even looked in her direction, but he could still tell something wasn’t right.

"Oh and,you have to take her into a dungeon as well. An official request on the SAMF"

Zen knew what that was. It was a forum on the academy where students and even teachers could post and accept "missions" involving almost anything. It’s full name was the sentinel academy mission forum.

With so many dungeons surrounding the academy they had to find some use for them, and then some way to maximize utility. Consumerism at it’s finest

Funny enough it had started out as something students had created and had become popular among them. Only later had the school legitimized it and integrated it into the system.

The problem was, Zen had never even opened the forum much less created an account or accepted a mission, unless... one of the other two had, but even if they did, they’d never have accepted a mission from her.

"I-"

"You’re the only first year with mostly unrestricted access to the dungeons and you’re going to be helping her anyway. Two birds one stone"

He forgot to mention the final reason. Zen’s face pissed him off.

"Right... of course, and me not being on the forum?"

"I have no idea what you’re talking about"

"Of course. Oh, and one final question. What is the measure of my success at these tasks?"

Tim smiled triumphantly

"She’ll report personally to me once it’s all done"

Well that made things so much easier for him

"Perfect"

Zen said heading for the door with her in tow.

Opening the door, he turned around and before leaving

"Oh, and before I forget, please tell gramps I can’t wait to see him again "

The door slammed shut after that, leaving the previously smug Tim looking like someone had just pissed in his mouth