They are among us (PRS)

Regina was scraping with her fingernail on the table which started to lose its brown colour. She stopped, and looked out the window. People were walking by like nothing was going on, they were just going on with their lives. Of course they were unaware that something was after them, Regina doubted that the military was sharing any information with the civilians. Her eyes stopped when she saw two children. They were playing with a ball on a grass area across the street. They were kicking the ball between them, laughing as they did. One of them kicked the ball hard, and it flew onto the street. The child that was responsible for the kick ran right out in the middle of the street, not looking where she was going. She was almost run over by a bike, but she had only eyes for the ball. She picked it up and ran back to her friend and the play continued.
“Fearless” Regina muttered and shook her head with a grin. She had done the exact same thing the day before, although it had been a car present instead.

Regina shifted focused to the seat in front of her, which still was empty. It would probably take Eli some time to get the papers, depending on where this super secret Kehrseite military base was located. Regina used the time to re-braid her braid. Just as she was finished, she heard Eli’s voice. She watched him sit down in front of her.
“Well, it could be a tell that the military base is far away from here, or that you walk seriously slow” she said with a grin. She flexed her fingers and nodded towards the menus on the table.
“I guess you don’t need any food?” she said with a smile, leaning back in her seat. She scrutinised him closely, to see if there was any difference with him now than it had been before. Regina felt quite ridiculous, being so damn suspicious, but she couldn’t help it. If the circumstances had been different, they would have been trying to kill each other. Coincidence had made their paths cross, and something bigger than themselves were creating this coincidence. It was quite ironic that one thing that was trying to kill her made her cooperate with the other thing that was trying to kill her.

“We could go to business straight away. That sounded really weird to say. I feel like I should have been wearing a suit or something” she said with a laugh, gesticulating towards her bare arms.
“Not much of a business outfit, is it? But I guess you are more into the whole camouflage thing” she said, grinning. She shook her head.
“Why don’t you whip out those papers of yours so I can see exactly how you’re trying to scam me?” She said jokingly, grinning. They were both probably thinking that the other was scamming the other. Back and forth, back and forth, just like the children’s ball had gone before. There was only the question if one of them was going out in the streets, and if that was the case, who.

Elijah gave out a short chuckle. “I actually consider myself quite the fast walker,” he said sarcastically, even though he very well knew that he sometimes got lost in thoughts or otherwise descended to the pace of a sloth. Not today though, he thought, as he did in fact not linger anywhere too long on his mission to get here.

“And no thanks, I’m still stuffed,” he replied to the thought of ordering some more food. He did not want to see anything resembling food, especially Asian for a while, as he had overstuffed himself as usual. “And I would have to say that sitting here in a suit or in combat gear would raise more eyebrows than necessary,” he smirked. He gave her a quick examination and couldn’t help to notice the exposed scars on her body. He had his fair share of scars and bruises too, but mostly from training or his own clumsiness. He had never been wounded too badly in battle, thankfully, and were so fort saved from similar gnarly looking claw- or bitemarks.

Not to seem rude he moved his attention to his bag where he got out the thin binder on the table.
“Oh, and we got you this if needed,” he said and picked up the flip phone from his pocket that he placed on the table between them. “It’s a burner, basically a disposable phone. There are two numbers registered – the number to our dispatcher if you need to get a hold of anyone or report something, and then I added my number there on the way here,” he said. “They have most likely registered the phone number to our case, so if you’re calling in you don’t need any military codes per se,” he concluded before he turned to the binder that he opened up.

“Let’s see here,” he mumbled and passed over one of the contracts to Regina before scrutinizing his own version. It seemed pretty similar to the usual legal mumbo jumbo that they had in most of their contracts.
“Basically you help us regarding intel about Wesens and or the killings that are happening in exchange for a monthly salary as well as amnesty for you and one other person. Payments in cash. You can’t share what you might learn about us. Both can terminate when wanted or with immediate effect in case of a breach of contract,” Eli said with his thoughts on the piece of paper. “Oh, and this is important,” he exclaimed, pointing at the lower part of the page. “Your clearance code is LD-21, Lima Delta two one,” he said, lifting his gaze towards Regina. “Tell your sister that as well, but no one else. If you by any means would be attacked, surrounded, captured, mistaken for someone or whatever else you can think of, then shout that out as soon as you can. They will be forced to check it with the base, and you will be cleared. If it’s used by anyone else than you two, or any other misuse of code, then we have a violation on our hands,” he said, leaning back into the seat. He was used to being more of a happy-go-lucky guy, but as this was serious matters, he didn’t feel like cracking a smile. He had to make Regina understand the weight of misusing a clearance code. “Have them check it with either Sergeant Conner or Private Adler in cases of doubt,” he continued before reaching to his backpack again for a ballpoint pen. Mentioning himself in third person always made him feel weird, but having the base check up someone without named rank or surname would not go through as easily.

Regina noticed how Eli lingered slightly at her arms, probably looking at her scars. Not that she could blame him, they were quite visible to say the least.
Have a look, it’s your friends’ fault I have them, she thought for herself. Well, all of them except the claw marks on her back. That had been from a fight with an unusually fired up Blutbad. Not something Regina would recommend going up against, but she hadn’t had a choice that time. It had been a brutal fight, and Regina was surprised it hadn’t been worse scarring. The military had given her much more than that fight, and that kind of scared her. And now she was sitting across from one, cooperating. Regina wondered if Eli would know who Gideon was. He was the man responsible for splitting her family, and giving her the scars she had. Probably, they were probably sharing all kinds of stuff back at the military base. Who they had attacked, what damage they had inflicted and so on.

She looked surprised at the phone on the table. They were actually giving her a phone? Regina was about to take it when she hesitated. Was this a phone they could trace? Tracing calls were of course something they could do, but what if they could trace the phone? They could have done something to it before they handed it to her. She shook her head.
“If you need me to have a phone, I want to get it straight from the store, no middleman handling it” she said, leaning back.
“Either you give me some cash to get one, or go with me and get one later. Whichever is more convenient to you” she continued, looking between the phone and Eli. She smirked.
“The third option is of course that I accept this phone, but if I notice anything close to you following me or my friends, I’ll break the contract. Threatening my friends and family is not something I take lightly on” Regina said, raising an eyebrow. As she spoke, she subconsciously touched the two, round scars on her underarm. Her green eyes were firmly locked with Eli’s amber coloured.

She leaned back and nodded shortly to show him that she had understood what he had told her. She would have her own clearance number. That would come in handy, that was for sure. It was fairly easy to remember, too. Serena would also remember it, and Regina had to tell her the importance not to share it with anyone else. It didn’t really feel good to only get immunity for her and her sister, but it was an opportunity too good to not get. Regina picked up the contract. She read through it carefully. Her father had been a lawyer, and had always taught her to read through everything. It looked quite basic, and covered the most important things like not attacking each other and how the both of them could terminate the contract if they wished. It actually seemed as if they didn’t want to screw her over. Yet.

Elijah found a ballpoint pen in one of the folders of his backpack that he grabbed. A blue one, great! For a moment he was afraid that he had left without a pen, or that he would only have a sharpie or something else that was not suitable for signing a contract with. Then again, they were at a pub – he was sure that the bartenders had some kind or writing equipment if needed.

He spun he pen between his fingers as she suddenly spoke out about her hesitations about the phone. A slight frown grew again between his eyebrows. He could understand her suspicions, but she surely must understand that they had a steak in this too. If they wanted to have her dead or imprisoned, he would have returned with a whole squad of soldiers if needed. He knew exactly where they were going to meet, so giving her a device specifically just for tracking her every move would just be unnecessary. At least in his opinion. Besides, it was not like getting a phone from the store would stop their IT department from being able to trace it.

“It’s a disposable phone, so if you ever feel like not having it anymore, feel free to break it apart, toss it in water, stomp on it, get every aggression out on that tiny phone – that’s almost what they’re for,” he smiled before shrugging. “And I won’t lie – I’m pretty sure it can indeed be traced, just like any other phone you would get at a store,” he began before stopping the pen spinning. “But my guess is that if you call in and say you’re in danger without being able to mention your location, it would not be so bad to be traced.”

Eli placed the pen flat on the table and spun it around there instead. There was something with holding pens that gave you the instant need to make it spin. Or was it maybe only for Eli?
“Anyway,” he began, putting his hand on top on the pen so he would stop fidgeting with it. “You can always turn it off when you are not using it so that it stops communicating with cell towers. Then, if being traced, it will only show the location where it was last powered down, same thing if you destroy it.” He looked up at her again, giving a short reassuring smile. “I hope that would give you both some assurance and a way to contact us if needed, and us to contact you” he continued.
“…unless this is just some trick of you to get the newest smartphone?” he smirked, nodding towards the flip phone. “I agree that it is not the sexiest phone, but it’s a burner, not a fashion statement.”

Regina watched as Eli put down the pen.
“Sure, whatever. It won’t work most of the time anyway, there is no cell reception where I live” she said, picking up the phone. It was true, whenever she was in camp, the military wouldn’t be able to contact her. Not only didn’t camp have any reception, Regina would be damn sure to turn off the phone long before she crossed the invisible border. She was not going to be the one responsible to lead the military forces to their camp.
“But I wouldn’t have said no to an iPhone” she said, grinning. She spun the little phone around her hand and put it in the pocket of her jacket. She looked at the pen Eli offered her, and again she hesitated. She had read through the contract carefully, they couldn’t screw her over and it would provide protection for Serena. That was the important stuff. Nothing else really mattered.

Regina picked up the pen, clicking the top.
“Let’s make this official, then” she said, putting the tip of the pen on the piece of paper. She scribbled down her signature, and it somehow felt like she was signing a contract with the devil. She had to think from their perspective, too. They were also out to get information, and they were risking things, too. The only difference was that they could outnumber her very quickly. But if that happened, Regina just had to deal with it then. If Gideon would be present, the revenge would just be a bonus. She had imagined it so many times the past six months, a little bit too vivid to be honest. It was just in her nature; someone had hurt her family, and she had to hurt them back for it. At that time she wouldn’t care about anything related to some stupid contract, that was for sure.

Regina put down the pen on the table, leaning back in her seat. She looked at Eli, wondering what he was thinking. Maybe he was unsure about this, too. He was her age after all, quite young to have arrangements like this made. A question popped up.
“How did you even get into the military in the first place? What made you think that hunting us down would be a good career path for you?” she asked. She wasn’t saying it with any special tone in her voice, she was actually curious.
“No judging here” she said, holding up her hands with a grin, “Right now I know how it feels to do whatever you need to get your hands on some money”. She nodded towards the contract on the table.

No reception where she lived, did she live in a bunker somewhere? Then again, that could be a plausible explanation to it, but Elijah decided not to go any further by asking her about her living situation. She was already suspicious enough to barely take the burner phone, so him questioning her too much seemed like a bad idea.

As she signed her copy he leaned forward from his half-slouched posture. Here they go, actually signing a contract with a Wesen. He had not had time to ask too many details from his Sergeant, but he wouldn’t be surprised if they would keep this toned down even among the other troops. Some people would not take it easy knowing that they were cooperating with the enemy, especially those with personal vendettas against either mutants or Wesens. For Eli it felt more like a necessary evil type of situation? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer? He didn’t really know what to think to be truthful, but perhaps it was better going in with no judgement or expectations whatsoever.
He took her copy and the pen when she was finished and scribbled down his own signature on behalf of the SCU. He repeated the procedure for the other copy and slid it over to her side along with the pen.
“And a copy for you,” he said, placing the version with both signatures back into the thin binder before putting it safe and sound into his backpack. Losing it or spilling something on it would be just what was missing.

Her question made him lean back again against the seat. “How I got into the military?” he repeated, carefully scratching his neck. He let his gaze wander to one of the windows by the door where people occasionally passed on the street. He guessed some saw it as their greatest dream, others kind of stumbled into the path. For him it was maybe a weird mixture of everything.
“My mom and my sister… died, quite many years ago,” he started and stopped scratching his neck, but instead let his hand rest on the opposite shoulder. “Me and my dad moved to a small apartment, he stopped working, started drinking, and I didn’t really know what to do, you know.” Eli looked back at her and shrugged his shoulders. He reached for a napkin from the napkin holder on their table and started tearing small pieces of it, corner by corner. “At some point it just felt easier to take orders from others instead of taking my own decisions in life, one thing led to the other, and here I am, placed in the SCU,” he said with a slight smile, looking up at her shortly before letting his gaze fall back on the napkin. He wouldn't get into any details unless it felt needed, and the Grimm part he would leave out for sure. “It has never been a childhood dream of mine, so to say. But on a positive note, green suits me quite well,” he said jokingly with a quiet chuckle, continuing with tearing up the napkin into small pieces.

He suddenly looked at the menu on the table and let his amber gaze meet hers again. “Did you want anything by the way? I could perhaps get a coffee or something to drink.”

Regina picked up the copy of the contract and folded it. She put it in the pocket of her jacket together with the phone, and leaned back. He started talking, and Regina listened to his story. It wasn’t really surprising that it was a sad one, and she couldn’t help but wonder if a Wesen had been responsible for his mother and sister’s deaths. Some Wesen were brutal that way, and killed if needed to. Or just for fun, depending on which Wesen it was. Sure, Balam could also kill if needed, and Regina would lie if she said it wasn’t satisfactory to do so, but she was at least not killing just for the fun of it.
“I’m sorry to hear that” she said, and her tone was actually sincere. She was sorry to hear that. Regina had lost people, too, and knew the feeling. The empty hole in her heart that hadn’t been filled with something else. The nightmares, the stress and the memories of what had happened. It was terrible, and Regina didn’t really wish it on anyone.

She took a deep breath, looking at Eli. He war tearing the napkin apart. Obviously, telling this story had an impact on him. Not surprising either, and Regina was surprised that he actually had told her. Maybe it was him trying to connect with her, or just trying to have a small talk with the enemy. She shook her head to his question.
“I’m alright” she said, making dismissive gesture towards the menus. Her stomach rumbled quietly, telling her that what she had just said was wrong. But Regina had to wait for the cash payment she was going to get for this meeting, and she sure hoped it would be today. Not that she counted on it, but she could always hope.

“So, now that this is formal and signed, what can I do for you?” Regina said in a mock fancy voice, leaning her elbows on the table, interlacing her hands. She had a grin on her face, but one part of her was actually serious. What they were about to discuss was quite serious for the both of them. It was a threat that, if not contained, could end either side rather quickly. Regina had gotten the impression that Sean definitely not was the only victim, which meant that this threat either was moving quickly, or had been in existance for a while but unknown to the Wesen society. But the second Regina went down to Eric and the Wesen bar, the rumours would spread like wildfire, and the Wesen community would do everything in their power to end whatever threat they faced. That was one of the reasons Regina had agreed to a cooperation like this, if she could assure the Wesen community that she was the middleman, or woman, to gain information and somehow work together to eliminate the threat, the Wesen community would calm down and they wouldn’t lose more people due to stupid, emotional decisions. Not that Regina was the expert on those things, she was quite good with taking stupid decisions while under the influence of a strong emotion, unfortunately. But right now she had a rational mind, and was able to think clearly and focus on what was best for the Wesen community. Creating panic and stress was definitely not one of them.

Elijah reminded himself how she had snarked back at him when he had been sorry for her loss of a friend, and thought about jokingly doing the same, but let it pass instead. Now was not the time. It felt quite good to open up a bit, to get to know the other one. This cooperation would never work unless built on some kind of trust, and he at least had an easier time building up trust by getting to know the other person. Perhaps she felt the same way. It was in any case nice to get these tiny glances past her constant guard that she kept up.

He shot Regina a quick smile before looking over to the bar, trying to catch one of the waitresses’ attention. One of them noticed his gesture and made her way around the bar, and Eli quickly gathered together the small flakes of the napkin into a little pile. He placed the little pile to the side of the table so they wouldn’t be on the menus that he then handed to her as she arrived at their table.
“Can I get a black coffee, please,” he smiled at her and she took the menus with a nod, turning around to get back to the bar.

Eli straightened up again at his seat and turned his attention towards Regina.
“So, I think it’s easier to start with a little background information,” he said, resting his hands against the table in front of him. He threw some glances every now and then to see when the waitress would be back, in case he had to stop talking.
“There has been more of these killings happening the past months,” he began, “20 or so victims confirmed so far, scarcely. Both men, women, humans, and some Wesens.” He glanced to the side again and could see the waitress lifting a small plate with a cup of coffee from the bar, and he stopped briefly, waiting for her to carry it to their booth. He said a quick thank you as she placed in down on their table before she disappeared back towards the bar.

“Sean has not been the only one,” he said, grabbing the hot cup of coffee with both hands. “That also takes me back to my initial question at the mall,” he started before carefully lifting the cup to his lips. He took the tiniest sip not to burn his tongue too badly, and placed the cup back down afterwards. It was still a bit too hot to his taste, something he of course could have guessed from the extremely hot cup and the steaming liquid without even tasting.
“Wesen blood. The neck marks were a bit rougher on the Wesen casualties, which could be because they’re collecting a bit of the blood instead of, I don’t know – testing it? Ever heard of someone harvesting it, or if you can do anything with it?” Eli continued quietly, gaze resting at Regina.

20 victims, that was more than Regina had thought. This meant that whoever, or whatever, killed them, did this efficiently and knew what they were doing. Regina leaned back as Eli asked the same question had had before; if she knew of any Wesen harvesting blood for a living. She shook her head.
“No. I mean, some Wesen are hunted for their attributes. You’ve got your Willahara, whose left feet are rumoured to bring luck and fertility, which leads to some Wesen cutting them off. Glühenvolk are wanted for their beautiful and valuable skin, and et cetera. But I’ve never heard of a Wesen drinking or harvesting blood. Hexenbiests and Zauberbiests use blood in their potions, but they never use much and it’s usually never specified to a certain type of blood, they can use their own. And if it had been a Hexen- or Zauberbiest, it wouldn’t show like that either” she said, shrugging.
“I can’t speak for Kehrseite, though. I don’t know what you do with us after you capture us, but we’ve never seen anyone again after they’ve been captured. Maybe you’ve got someone in your surroundings that are experimenting a little too much?” she added, looking at Eli. Regina was very curious of what happened to the Wesen the military captured. There were rumours going around that they tortured, experimented on and killed their captives. Regina hoped it wasn’t true, but she couldn’t be sure. She had to assume the worst.

Now that she had started to establish contact with the military, she had an opportunity to understand what had happened to her mother. During the same struggle which had left her father dead, the military had taken Regina’s mother alive. Regina had chased them down, but they had disappeared before she could get to them. Since then, she had wondered what had happened to her mother, and if she was alive. Which was why she hoped the torture and experimenting parts weren’t true. But it wouldn’t surprise her what Kehrseite did to what they didn’t understand.

“I’ve tried to find out what some of the Wesen in my surroundings know, and I’ll try again soon. I was going to see if I could get information from another source, but I got jumped, and now I’m sitting here” she said, touching the bruised part of her face. It was still hurting, and it felt as if the bruising had moved closer to her eye. She really had to get it fixed. She wasn’t really blending in with it. Not that she blended in much now either, sitting with the military discussing potential threats.

”It is quite strange,” Eli mumbled as he listened to her talk about what parts of Wesen were indeed collected or treasured, which seemed to be everything except blood or so. Well, it would have been too easy. He started into his cup of coffee, as if the dark liquid was going to come with any answers. Unfortunately it was just coffee, not a magic 8-ball.

As it came for what they did with Wesens, he slightly shook his head with a frown. “I can’t really say what happens. We are not involved anymore after someone is taken in, mutant or Wesen, but I can ask and see if it’s anything that could be followed up,” he said and looked up from the cup of coffee. He doubted, as otherwise they would probably know it by now. They had rumours of people being registered with bloodwork for DNA and what powers they had, or what Wesen they were, but after that? Unclear. Could be imprisoned, perhaps tested on, maybe let go after making sure the person was not a threat anymore. He could honestly not say.
“If someone is indeed experimenting too much, it seems like the person is in need of new blood or test victims?” he asked, not really of her personally, but more out in the open. He pressed his lips together with another frown and cupped his hands around the warm cup of coffee. “Are the Wesens just unfortunate victims that were mistaken for humans, or were the humans mistaken for Wesens? Or neither? And those weird marks, are they just marking their trophies or are they for something else? It makes no sense,” he mumbled and took another careful sip of the steaming dark liquid.

After swallowing the hot coffee he slightly crooked his head and looked back at the green eyes on the other side of the table, one of them perhaps slightly more swollen due to the bruising. “The person that jumped you – do you think it was someone from the military?” he asked, crooking his head to the other side before letting his gaze fall down to the cup again.

“Did the person seem surprised that you gave back a real fight? I mean, I must admit, you guys can throw quite a punch to be honest,” he chuckled before getting back to his question. “What I mean is, did the person know what you are, or was he just someone trying to get any girl walking by?” he asked, lifting the cup to his lips at the same time. “By the way, this leads me to another question I’ve had – are you a Blutbad too?” he inquired, giving her a quick look before taking another sip, eyes on the coffee. He was quite sure she was not, as he had not seen glances of the typical wolf transformation when she was almost hit by a car, but then again, it all happened so quick that he couldn’t quite place his finger on what she was. Not that he had given it much thought before, but this seemed like a good time to sneak in the question.