The story so far: 

---- Aija is a Volunteer at the Pristine School at Innermost. She works along with Zuri and Ze, who are her friends. Aija has run into the possible kidnapper. Zuri visits her family at Apper town. Zuri meets a girl – Nala – at her father's shop. Nala talks to her despite being rude at first. Zuri likes Nala. Ze visits his family on the weekend. Ze practices his powers in his room. His mother, Diya, catches him doing it. She isn't happy with it – she scolds him and asks him not to do it anymore. They fight, Ze is upset.

---- Ze meets up with Zuri and Aija for dinner. He has fun and gets drunk.

---- Zuri requests for flavored water, Ze offers to bring some from the dispenser in the basement of the building. He is hazy, drunk. When he doesn't find flavored water in their building he goes to a different building.

---- He feels a sharp pain at the back of his head and falls unconscious.

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****4.3 - Aija****

**Warning: blood, death, violence**

Ze was gone for quite some time. 

Aija looked at her AIVIO Scroll, now shrunken in size, on her wrist. He had been gone for nearly twenty minutes. It shouldn't take that long to get the water from downstairs.

She looked at Zuri, who was half asleep on the couch.

"Call Ze," she whispered into the Scroll.

It rang for a minute, but Ze didn't answer the call. She called once more, but again, there was no response from him.

Aija stood up and stretched. Zuri had had two bottles of the blue drink and also finished off whatever Aija had left from hers. Now she was asleep on her couch. Aija covered Zuri with a blanket and stepped out. She went to the basement of Zuri's Apartment building and found no sign of Ze. She looked around, but he didn't seem to be there.

Where could he have gone to? She thought.

"Ze!" she called out. It echoed through the empty basement.

Maybe he went out for air?

Aija went out of the building and looked around. It was a clear night; all seemed calm. She called out for him again. No response.

Could he have gone home? She thought. But why would he?

Aija started to worry. What if he was kidnapped? The old man had gone missing and surely that spy/kidnapper whom she had seen from her class knew where she lived. Maybe he knew where Ze and Zuri lived too. Should she have given a complaint to the Secures about that man? She wondered if she had made a mistake by not telling anyone about him. What if Ze went missing now? She would be partly responsible for it for not informing the Secures or at least the School's Principal.

She looked around, considering what to do. To her left was Block B and to her right was Block D. She wondered if he had gone into one of them. She decided to try Block B, so she walked over to the building and went into the basement. The lights were out, and it was cool. As she walked towards the dispenser, she heard footsteps somewhere close by.

"Ze?" she asked aloud.

No one answered.

"Ze, please.... I don't like such jokes." She said, hoping it would draw some response.

It was silent except for a murmur of footsteps. Aija panicked. What if he was indeed in trouble?

She walked towards the dispenser, slowly making her way through the dark. She gasped and nearly screamed as she spotted a young boy sitting in the dark beside the dispenser. The lights inside the machine were off too. She went closer to him. He seemed about twelve or thirteen years old, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. He looked terrified; he was shivering too.

"Hi," she whispered, keeping her voice gentle, making her way towards the frightened boy. "Are you hurt?"

The boy spoke between sobs, "They're trying to take me."

Aija kneeled next to him, "Who?"

"I don't know." the boy whispered. "I ran all the way here. I didn't know where to go. I pressed the alarm button, but nothing's working."

Aren't there drones? She wondered. Someone should be checking images or the live feed at the Security room.

The boy was shivering, so she held him tightly.

"Don't worry, I'm here," she whispered, thinking of Ze. Was he in trouble too?

"They are strong." the boy said.

"Did you see their faces?"

He nodded. "I saw two men."

Aija tried to assess the situation. Where could the men be? Could she take the boy and run out? They sat in silence for a few moments. Then she said, "Let's go out. There must be drones outside. Someone will spot us."

"I'm scared," he whispered.

"It's alright. I'm here. What's your name?"

"Rez..."

"Okay, Rez. Now hold my hand. Let's get out of here."

Aija took the boy's hand in hers and stood. Rez followed. She escorted him out into the open ground; it seemed empty.

"Is someone at your home?"

"No." Rez shook his head. "My mom's at the hospital for her night shift."

"Let's go to my place then," she said, pulling him towards Block C to Zuri's place. It was closer than her building.

The boy nodded, looking around, holding onto her tightly.

"Well, there you are." came a husky voice from behind them.

They turned to see a young man standing behind them. Where had he come from? No one was there a moment ago.

Aija could see that he looked rather young despite his thick stubble.

"It's him..." the boy whimpered, fresh tears streaming down his brown cheeks.

Aija pulled the boy behind her and stood straighter.

The man smiled. He was pretty tall and lithe, and he held two blades in his hands. His black hair seemed to be tied up in a bun.

She took a few steps back pushing Rez with her.

The man had a menacing vibe about him, and Aija's heart rammed against her chest as he sauntered across the lawn towards them.

"You think you can protect him?" the man asked her, seemingly amused by the thought. There was something melodic about the way he spoke.

Aija looked up into the sky. The drones were nowhere to be seen. She had counted four of them once. Not even one of them was to be seen. Neither was another person. The place was deserted. But, of course, that was to be expected. It was beyond two in the morning.

Aija and the boy gasped as the lighting around the buildings went off, plunging them into near darkness, save for the sliver of the moon.

"When I say run, you run," she whispered to Rez, who was holding on to her arm.

"That won't work." the man said so softly, Aija wondered if she had imagined it. But, she had seen his lips move. Had he heard her whisper?

The man advanced towards them, and she slowly moved backward. This man wasn't the one she had met before; Rez had told her he had seen two men - which meant there was one more somewhere around. And, there was a possibility that the man was the spy/kidnapper she had met before. Maybe they worked together.

The man was taking long steps towards them, and Aija whispered "Run" to Rez, as the man reached them. Just as Rez took off, Aija flung herself at the man and caught hold of him. If only she could hold onto him until Rez had run off to a safer distance. But, her strength was no match to his. The man threw her off himself in one swift move and ran towards Rez. Aija fell to the ground scrapping her knees.

"Rez run!" she yelled, getting up, still dazed from being thrown to the ground.

Aija righted herself and ran to the boy, but it was too late. The man caught Rez easily and pulled him to the ground; Rez's muffled scream reached her.

"Rez!" Aija shouted, running towards them.

She had expected the man to pull Rez up and drag him away with him. 

What she hadn't expected was for the man to plunge one of his blades into Rez's chest; into his heart.

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