Word Count: 1,211

        Cardi and Aline both exited Aline's hotel door and traveled down the hall to the elevator then got in and headed for the first floor. As the bell rung for their floor, Cardi stopped her before she left the elevator.

    "They more than likely are already here, we just have to wait till they go upstairs. So I want you to look carefully, I know you know what you're looking for and I have no idea." Aline nodded and looked out of the elevator. She did know what she was looking for: short, black hair, blue eyes, and the "power" emblem on their navy blue vests.

      Just as the elevator door was closing she saw two men walk into the door, faces stern and a bright blue light flashing on the shoulder of their vests. They were definitely Minka's men, and whatever shoulder the blue light was flashing on, was what shoulder they had their chip in. If they had a chip on their right side, it signified that they had strength. If they had it on their left side, it meant they had knowledge.  One of the men had a chip on the right and the other on the left. The best pair you could create.

    "There's two of them. They just walked into the front door. One strength and one knowledge. They'll more than likely check the back door before heading upstairs. We can make it out the front door much faster without waiting." Cardi looked puzzled at Aline's quick inference, wondering if he could trust her, after all she was still getting used to being human and not a robot. After a few seconds he nodded and Aline pushed the elevator door to open, they had already made it to the second floor before Cardi had made a decision.

    Aline stepped out and put her hood over her face, Cardi did the same. It looked like he would be the one following her for a while instead of the opposite. She looked at both sides of the hallway and headed left, Cardi could tell she was taking the back staircase. He followed close to her as she opened the staircase door. It was deathly silent there, an uneasy fog settled over Aline, but she continued on. She turned off the lights to the stairwell, as there was a switch to do so on every floor. She tiptoed down the stairs, Cardi's footsteps right behind her.

They made it to the bottom floor, that being the basement. Aline took them that far, as her senses told her to. It would be safer down there at the moment then staying on the first floor while Minka's men were there. The elevator didn't go down to the basement, Aline didn't even know it existed before she came this far down on the stairs. It was dark in the basement as they both stepped out of the small light coming from the door to the stairwell.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here."

Minka.

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"You're senses don't work as well as they used to, do they? Or else you would've known I was here, after all Officials always knew where I was because they were connected to me. Their chips are connected to my brain. But anyway, we might as well get this over with." His footsteps made their way to Aline and Cardi, but still stopped many feet away.

"Stay back for the love of god or you're going to meet your fate tonight," Aline growled out of gritted teeth.

"Now, now. Neither of you should be feisty, you knew you'd die one day... today just happens to be the day you both die. Together. As lovers? As friends? As enemies? Did you ever sit down and think about what you guys meant to each other? Did you ever stop to think, 'Hey, I love this man', or 'Hey, I love this woman'?" Minka stopped for a second to let that sink in.

"Of course you don't, neither of you have real feelings. You never will, because of me. And that's my goal, to stop all people from having emotions. Emotions KILL people, why can't you understand that? Aline, surely you know. You're sadness almost caused you to shoot yourself, your emotions almost killed you. And Cardi! Oh, Cardi... I still remember the day I found you laying half dead in the streets. Just because you got in a fight with a bad guy and all because he "hurt" your feelings. What a bad excuse for almost losing your life... And then! Then, I created a masterpiece out of both of you... but what did you do? You disobeyed me, you went against what I had set out for you. You became dead, you became part of the race that means nothing to me. And if you mean nothing to me, I'll have no problem killing you!" With that Minka ran towards where Aline and Cardi would be, close to the door... but little did he know, they were gone. He had been so rapped up in his speech, he had missed them going out the basement door and out into the darkened night. They left him standing in the basement of a smaller building in the vast city of Neo-Ocionic-City, and they were never to be seen by him or his men for quite a long time.

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           Aline slowed to a stop as Cardi and her stepped into decayed grass. To Aline it was they had suddenly stepped into a different world. Compared to Neo-Ocionic City, this place lived on a different planet... a completely different dimension. The city in front of them was a sorry excuse for life. Everything was dead... darkened and black. Buildings were decaying, falling apart at their seams. The sky wasn't bright, dark clouds hovered over each building, it seemed like a fairytale.... and it wasn't a good one.

      Aline looked around, looking behind her at the sad looking, but lighted path they had come down going out of Neo-Ocionic-City, and then she looked in front of her. The clouds hug low, no way any light could flutter through. The buildings were black, there was no regular, bright, shiny metal that was left, it had all turned black. No windows were left in anything, and the roads were practically nonexistent as they had crumbled to nothing over time. Rain started falling from the sky, falling from the heavens and it seemed like they no longer cared about this city. On the ground, no plants grew, the trees were all dead and decrepit... no leaves could be seen. What was left of the grass was black, though dark soil patches took over most of the land.

"Well... this is not what I expected." Cardi's soft whisper made Aline get shivers. This place reminded her of her home... the one she left in desperation and pain and walked right into another hell.

    "I have to agree with that statement." She sighed back and started walking on the crumbling path to the city.

   "Aline?"

    "Hmm?"

    "What happened to you? What made you leave your hometown?" Aline looked back at Cardi and sighed again.

    "My family... my family happened."

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~KennyandEmo~