The walk back to the office was silent, which Greyson was both glad and frightened of. If Lucinda wasn't with him right now, he would have bashed his head against the wall multiple times already. Why did he have to ask her that? Why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut? If the conversation about Deimos didn't make her angry, then he was certain that the last bit did.

Why did it even matter? Lucinda's eyes never sparked or lit up when she talked about Deimos, and she looked distant the entire time. But that was always how she looked like. Whether it was about Deimos, or Greyson, or even the things she enjoyed, light never reflected on the surface of her eyes.

He placed his hands on his bag's straps and gripped it tightly. He couldn't just resist giving her more problems, could he?

When the two of them reached the office again, Lucinda pushed the door open and let him inside. Greyson turned to her for a moment, and was relieved when she didn't look at him. Her face was still blank, not even showing a sliver of emotion as she went back to her desk.

Greyson turned to the other people in the office. As always, Viktor was checking his reflection in the mirror again, while Embers sat on Anthea's table and ate her food. Greyson wasn't sure if the tension in the air was from him and Lucinda, or if something happened while the two of them were away. Still, he pulled up a chair and sat in front of Ciel. He could return to his desk after eating. For now, he didn't have the courage to be near his mother after asking that question.

"You look great," Ciel said when Greyson reached for his food. "Did Director Simeon suck your soul or something?"

Greyson's ears drooped down as a frown formed on his face. "Look who's talking. The last time I saw you like that was during your final finals last year. Isn't it too soon for that?"

Ciel yawned and placed a hand on his face. Now that Greyson was looking at him properly, Ciel didn't look like how he did back then. If anything, he looked worse. His skin was paler, and there were bags under his eyes. His hair wasn't even brushed properly. It looked like he had fallen asleep halfway through trying to wax the spikes in place and just decided to roll with his current hair.

"Did you get any sleep last night?"

Ciel froze, and his pointy ears twitched downwards. However, he quickly responded with a nod. "Yup, yup. I- I was able to sleep last night. Hey, don't forget about your food, it's gonna go cold."

"Oh, speaking of which," Anthea said. "Did the two of you bump into anyone from the Intelligence Database?"

Greyson shook his head. "It was quiet back there. Everyone's probably busy with the extra workload Miss Sedah gave to all of us."

Azul hummed. "Shame. And here I thought I was finally going to have a valid reason to beat up someone from the Intelligence Database."

"You always have a valid reason, you know?" Anthea replied. "In fact, you had an extremely valid one earlier. I would have raced you and Lucinda to see which one of us could toss Simeon out of the window first."

"I would have done so if Sir Viktor didn't stop us. And speaking of which, will you cut that out?" He walked towards Viktor's table and snatched the mirror on the desk. "You're spending more time with your reflection than Ate Lucinda ever does. Don't tell me you've fallen in love with your reflection, too."

Viktor sighed as he stood up and met Azul's eyes. Greyson had to stifle a laugh from their height difference, though he heard Ciel chuckling. Azul was the tallest member of the Investigation Squad, and he was nearly a head taller than Viktor.

Without a warning, Viktor reached for the mirror in Azul's hands. Just before he could take it, Azul tossed the mirror to his other hand and raised his arm in the air.

"You know what?" Viktor sat back on his chair and crossed his arms. "I was planning to invite you to my wedding as my best man, but now you're uninvited. How dare you mistreat my reflection like that. He's the love of my life!"

"I'll shove this mirror in your face if you want to kiss yourself so bad," Azul spat back as he placed the mirror on Viktor's desk. "We already have Ate Lucinda as the feeling-pretty narcissist. We don't need another one."

Lucinda smiled and placed a hand on her face. "You think I'm pretty?"

"Pretty narcissistic, yeah."

Greyson would have chuckled at their interaction, but he immediately zeroed his focus on Lucinda's expression. Unsurprisingly, her eyes didn't gleam. How she could joke around others with that empty stare was beyond him.

He turned away from the others and focused on his food. The cafeteria curry wasn't as good as Lucinda's cooking, but it was still enough to lift some of the stress he had on his shoulders. The moment the spicy chicken and rice met his tongue, he felt his lips curl into a smile, and his ears flipped up and down. If every problem he had in his life could be solved with curry, then the world would have been a better place.

The rest of the lunch continued as usual. While he and Ciel had a chat on how his college work was going, the other four were having another argument on whether or not Viktor should give them authority to punch someone from the Intelligence Database. Greyson wasn't fond of violence, especially if it involved Azul. But he had to admit, it would be funny to see what Director Simeon would do if he saw Azul angry.

"I've been in the DUO for as long as I remember," Anthea said with a yawn, "and I always remember Simeon acting like he's better than everyone else. The only reason why he's director now is because he scared everyone to not disagree with him. But I doubt the others also like him as their director. No one likes a self-centered snob as their leader."

Azul chuckled. "Sounds like Ate Lucinda."

Lucinda closed her compact mirror and turned to him. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing, nothing. I just said that you're oh-so beautiful, Miss Saffirus."

"That's what I thought." She tossed her white hair behind her and hummed. "Though I do have to thank you, Azul. Us pretty people can't exist without ugly people such as yourself helping us shine."

"Of co—hey!"

"Alright." Viktor clapped his hands, making Greyson turn to him again. "Insulting Azul While Feeding Lucinda's Ego hours are over. Back to business. Now that the ID's not breathing down my neck anymore, we can go back to our usual style. Greyson, flash drive and Dayanna's laptop, please."

Greyson nodded. He jumped down from the chair and grabbed the laptop bag inside his desk drawers. Once he placed it on Viktor's table, he grabbed the flash drive in his bag and passed it to his superior as well.

"Thanks," Viktor said to him. "Did you find anything new while you were at it?"

He shook his head. "There's nothing different."

"Weird." Viktor cupped his chin and hummed. "Maybe it's with the laptop?"

"Not with that, either. The files' codes were still glitching when I placed them in my laptop." Greyson placed a hand on his arm and gripped his sleeve. "I'm sorry, Kuya Viktor. I'm probably making you think about something that's not even worth pointing out."

Viktor looked at him and blinked. Then, a soft chuckle left his lips as he placed a hand on Greyson's head and patted it. "You're not making me worry about nothing, kid. Dayanna's files glitching might be the clue that we need."

"But what if it's nothing?"

"I doubt that. Embers, don't bite that." Viktor stood up from his chair and grabbed Embers from his desk, then tugged away his pen from her jaws. "Dayanna's files glitching might be more connected to Demon than some cursed artifacts that have been in the DUO longer than Zeus has been leading the Underworld."

Viktor headed to the office computer and plugged in the flash drive. Just like the past five days, the large monitor showed the same files that Greyson copied. On the outside, everything looked perfectly normal. He wouldn't have guessed that there was something wrong with them if he didn't check their code.

What could it mean? Were her files hacked? Did Dayanna fiddle with their code to make them look like that?

"What are those files about?" Lucinda asked as she stood next to Viktor. "I know they're her reports and interviews, but what are the specifics?"

"Only two of those are directly related to the DUO," Azul replied. "The keyboard smashed one is a personal diary. The '1541' is a bit broad, but the November and December reports are about the murders. Everything from '1542' mentions the murders as well. Since the Underworld's the one behind all those, it's safe to assume that those are connected to them."

"Are those the only ones glitching?"

Greyson nodded. "I ran another scan last night, and I didn't find anything."

"You don't suppose that there's something related to Demon there, do you?" Anthea asked. "If the Underworld was willing to kill Dayanna just because of her reports, then that means she must have figured something out."

"Probably," Viktor replied with a shrug. "What are we missing?"

Viktor hummed as he cupped his chin and flicked his eyes downwards. Greyson placed his hands behind him, and he could only stare as his superior connected the dots in his head. Greyson felt his ears twitch down, but shook his head before his emotions could give him away. He wished he could understand what Viktor was thinking right now. Every time he stood like that, it meant he was in deep thought, and he wouldn't be moving until he managed to connect two and two together.

One of these days, Greyson wouldn't be admiring anymore. He would be just like him. Just like his coworkers.

After a while, Viktor's red eyes lit up and he turned to the computer. "I have an idea."

He typed something for a while. When he finished, Greyson's ears twitched at the sound of multiple notifications ringing in the office. He grabbed his phone from his bag and flipped it open. As expected, it was an email from the office computer.

"I'm going to make you all read," Viktor continued. "I want you all to take apart every bit of information in Dayanna's notes and see what you can find. Ciel, if you can squeeze in some time, I'd like you to help as well. As for the rest of you, chop-chop. We'll be here all day."

Behind him, Greyson heard Azul and Anthea groan in frustration. However, he only nodded as he headed back to his shared desk with Lucinda. The extra workload made his head ache, but he had no choice. Viktor chose to take the extra work. And as the Investigation Squad, they had to follow orders for the sake of everyone. Someone had to.

Once his laptop was open, he grabbed and turned on his notepad and started reading. He was almost halfway through the first document when he felt like stopping already. But after a quick cup of coffee, he shook his head and gripped his pen tighter. He was going to read all of these files and figure out what he needed to connect, or else he would shave both sides of his hair.

The rest of the office hours were quiet. On his left, the window showed the skies shifting from a vibrant blue afternoon, then to a deep orange and purple as the sun slowly set in the sky. Office hours were usually quiet, with the occasional keyboard and mouse clicks breaking the silence, but this one felt suffocating. Perhaps it was because he knew that this wasn't just another day of them stressing over a murder case. They also had the Underworld to worry about.

Greyson's hand froze in his spot, and he almost dropped his pen.

That was right... The reason that they were here was because Dayanna died. Someone he knew died. It had been five days ever since, but he never felt the impact. He never even attended her funeral. It never truly dawned on him that she was gone. He was never going to see her again.

Dayanna Linn was dead, and his father may or may not be the cause of that.

Greyson shook his head, and he turned to his notes once again. He furrowed his brows as he switched between his notepad and laptop, reading and double checking if what he wrote was right.

"Viktor."

Greyson lifted his head and turned to Anthea. Her eyes turned back and forth from her tablet and laptop, then to Viktor.

Viktor lifted his head from his computer. "Yeah?"

"What are the odds that Demon may not be a thing, but a person?" she asked as she crossed her arms. "Maybe Demon was someone from the Underworld currently hiding here in the DUO."

"I was thinking of that, too," Azul added. "And Dayanna mentioned the lab at the end of the city multiple times, so it's probably connected as well."

Greyson tilted his head to the side. "What is that place, anyway?"

"It used to be a place where scientists conducted experiments on people," Anthea said to him. "They thought that it was possible to pass a wielder's abilities to a non-wielder, but it was shut down because it violated the ethics of research. If I'm right and that Demon is a person hiding in the DUO, they could be someone the Underworld experimented on and is here for safety."

Viktor cupped his chin again and hummed. "That's a good thought. But if Demon was a person, I can assure you that we would have already known."

"And how are you sure about that?"

"It's probably because of what Zeus can wield," Lucinda replied. She placed a hand on her face, sliding her fingers from her cheek then to her chin. "If you remember what happened when the Underworld paid us a lovely visit, there were marks on their faces. I'm going to take a wild guess that whoever pledges their loyalty to Zeus gains that mark. And once they do, Zeus can control them."

"No, that's not—" Viktor's eyes widened as he turned to Lucinda. He stared at her for a while before adding, "Actually, that's not bad. It's also what I assumed. How'd you guess that?"

Lucinda shrugged. "That's how guesses work, genius."

Viktor waved his hand in the air, as if to brush the topic away. "If what we assume is correct and that Demon was also used to be experimented on, then that means the lab is worth checking out. Maybe we can find more clues there. If we're going to investigate it, we do it tonight."

"Tonight?" Greyson's ears flopped down once more. "Why?"

"We can't let Sedah, or anyone else in the DUO, know we're going there. They're going to hold us back, and I don't want them taking this from our hands. Besides, the sooner we finish this the better."

"The drive from the apartments to the end of the city is around one or two hours. Three if we're extra careful, and less than any of those if I go past the speed limit," Azul said. "If we are leaving tonight, it's best to do it before midnight."

Viktor nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Greyson opened his mouth, but clamped it shut and turned away. He didn't have any issues staying up. He wasn't used to it, but there were times when he had to do it. It was nothing coffee couldn't fix. What he worried about was the plan.

If what they assume about Demon was correct, then wouldn't that mean the Underworld was already expecting them there?

"Remember," Viktor continued. "This stays between us. No one outside of the Investigation Squad must know, and especially not Sedah."

Me: I'm going to cut down some of the interaction for the word count

Word count: Gotchu jumps from 2723 to 2802

Anyway this chapter was a slower pace compared to the other chapters. I tried to add dots, but it seems like witty banter said no and decided to take over instead. There is no plot, only witty banter. Demon is actually my word count. You all know the plot know. The book ends here. Thank you for reading Codename: DEMON.

Edit from future Ace: I don't know how. But after editing, I kid you not, we're back to 2723 words.