Being Left in the Dark

"So when were you going to tell me about Sanctuary being taken out?" Rolando and Trezlan were in the cargo bay of a ship Trezlan had "borrowed". They were going through boxes looking for something that Trezlan said was dangerous but Rolando suspected was more expensive and something Trezlan wanted. This was his life now being a basic thief with his dad, he was just more aware of the illegal acts than when he was a child.

"Never does never work for you?" Trezlan had also upped the honesty about being dishonest. It was comforting if only infuriating. Rolando found out several lies he had been told were flat out wrong, but Trezlan wanted the younger Lorentino to believe them if only to keep him "safe".

"I liked it better when you lied, now you are just flat out telling me you like for me not to know my life is in danger." Rolando found a crate of what appeared to be statues which appeared to be what his father was looking for.

"At least you can work while you yap. And what happened at sanctuary wasn't related to you, I looked into it, just a wacko military unit within your former organization that has decided magical people should be exterminated."

"I uhh what how did you even we've been searching dirty bullshit for days..."

"Well one of us actually pays attention to things. I was alerted to this group a while ago, and when they finally attacked I got another notice. See don't you feel better you didn't know?"

"No? This is terrible I have to do something." Rolando wanted to leave the hold but his father grabbed hold of him.

"You don't and you won't. You aren't exactly welcome back home Rolando and this is not your issue, the people you care about are dead, which welcome to my life over the last hundreds of years, but still, you're going to help me and that will be the end of this." Rolando wanted to protest, but just then Trezlan said some thing on the statues and they came to life, changing from being little statues that were wonky, into huge creatures that almost blocked the cargo bay.

"What did you do father?"

"These are our friends, they are going to help us, aren't you boys?" Rolando rolled his eyes, his life had gotten so much worse since he'd reconnected with his father. Just like he knew it would.

Seeing Is Too Late

There were bodies everywhere. Brubaker could just look in horror at the carnage at sanctuary. He was too late. He knew that from when he first arrived and could see the doors had been blown off. He had hoped he was halfway through the attack and people were able to be saved, but this was not the case. Everyone was dead. Magical and normal alike had been senselessly murdered. Brubaker had saved himself with the sight but no one else. He hit his knees among the carnage and just wept. That's where the Imperial Guard found him moments later. The young lieutenant who had responded to the calls for assistance didn't even know how to respond to the violence and destruction he saw.

"General?" The lieutenant brushed Brubakers hand and that set off another vision, this was of the young lieutenant being killed which happened half a second after Brubaker saw it. He saw the men in the black jackets had returned killing the first responders.

"General its so nice to see you." Brubaker didn't know at the time he'd just run into Colonel Keith, but he sensed that things had gotten worse for him even without the sight showing him the horrors that awaited. It was a curse the sight, and he was thankful when the shackles locked on and the visions were cut off, temporarily blinding him to what was coming.

I See Blood

Brubaker worried for a moment that the visions wouldn't come back. That he had been too long from seeing and now his sight was gone. But shortly after that initial panic'd thought the sight was on full blast. He saw everything, and everyone. It was confusing at first, decades had gone by and so his ability to parse the sight was limited at first. Too many images, too many outcomes. It was hard to see beyond the immediate area and everyones petty shitty futures. Someone about to die, someone about to have their heart broken, someone who should have decided to avoid the seafood vendor. It was the kind of maddening thing that drove Brubaker to block the sight in the first place.

Eventually things cleared, the vision settled on Sanctuary and what Brubaker saw did not instill confidence. There was blood, people screaming, and some kind of attack going on. He wanted to shut it off, but he couldn't. So he got to watch as his people were gunned down. At first he couldn't see who was doing it, just the black jackets, and then in a moment of clarity he could see Therod. She was leading the attack. He shut his eyes and fought back against the sight and it faded, but not all together the memory remained in the back of his mind like a bad dream he couldn't forget.

Brubaker had to act fast, his visions of the future weren't always correct, but they couldn't always be stopped either. He tried to contact someone at sanctuary, but no one was answering and so he had to move. Things had gotten out of hand. but there had to be a way to stop it, the vision couldn't be the reality he was going to live in, he was destined to not see this be reality even if it meant disclosing he had visions in the first place.

Substance 4 Doesn't Exist

Substance 4 was a myth. Or at least that's what the Imperial military claimed. It was one of those spook stories told among magical and anti magical alike. A mythical blue fluid that could lock away or free someones inherent magical ability. Why it was called substance 4, was up for debate. Some say there were three previous trials, or the 4 meant the compounds within. The legends here and there though put the substance firmly in the made up realm. Most people when you talk about it, laugh off the idea of the substance and ask if you're with the Imperial Military attempting to shake them down. That part was all part of the counter intelligence behind the real substance 4.

The imperial military in conjunction with a bunch of now long dead magical users had created the substance as a final solution to the dangerously magical. Something that could be injected that would suppress abilities until another solution was applied. How the substance came about is still shrouded in mystery to anyone in the Imperial military. That it just works was all that was important. It was hard to find, and harder to keep, since the idea of it falling in the wrong hands lead to self destruct devices and impossible personal codes.

Brubaker had only come by his substance 4 by dishonest means. The end result of his sight, knowing exactly where to find it before someone else knew where it was. His final vision finally letting him off the visions. He had hid the substance as a special shaving cream for years, no one in the imperial military ever clued in that he had one of their best kept secrets just hiding out in his toiletries. No one even knew Brubaker had magical ability, so complete was the substance 4 masking.

But now he'd been pushed into a corner, he knew something bad was going to happen, it wasn't sight, but it was a gut feeling, and he knew if he didn't see people would get hurt more than normal. And so he filled the vial with substance 4 and injected in his arm. He was in a shitty run down hotel in the poorer part of town, the kind of place that didn't ask questions or take names. He only had a bed and a barely functioning toilet. He felt like a drug user, and in a way he was. Except his drug of choice was the future, and like an addict he had just gotten back on the sauce.

Who In the What? Why?

Who was Colonel Keith? Brubaker was going insane trying to find this out. Ever since Therod seemingly walked off without even a word to anyone the only explanation he could get was Keith. It was maddening. Brubaker was a general, he ran a sanctuary, he should not have been running into smoke and mirrors bullshit looking up a colonel who most people were having trouble even remembering. Brubaker had spent all morning running down all his contacts to find out anything about this Keith guy and was coming up short.

For all Brubaker could discover was the man was named Keith and he was a Colonel. He may or may not wear a black jacket and he apparently has a nice smile. That was all anyone at sanctuary remembered about the man. What he wanted with Therod was probably not good, nor was his ability to escape all kind of surveillance or security. He literally just walked in and walked out, and no one knew differently.

It was enough to have Brubaker leave sanctuary all together and connect to his own investigative roots. Which meant tapping into magic again, which unlocked all kinds of bad things for the general, but it was all he had left, and so he told his secretary he was going on a bit of a vacation. Packed his bag, with a couple vials of substance 4 and left. He also made sure to bring a small arsenal with him, because he just knew that this Colonel Keith was bad news and sooner or later it'd come to bullets over words. He didn't even need the sight to see that coming.

Not Everyone Plays By the Same Rules

"Magic is evil, you know this, I know this, everyone knows this, but we all pretend regular people who can spew fire or suck the life out of others are normal, and that's bullshit they aren't." The Colonel had let Therod put on her uniform and gather her things before they left. Brubaker was no where to be found, but Therod figured Keith had worked it out with him or she wouldn't be allowed to leave as easily as she did. They were now in another facility that appeared abandoned, but like a lot of the dark sites of the Empire was just hiding that it was a real place. Something Therod found out during the Bio war, a lot of bases were off the books, to keep the Emperor in the dark about a lot of awful shit.

"Isn't sanctuary to protect the magical?"

"No its the emperors stupidity thinking if he placates the bastards they'll not murder our people, history has proven this wrong time and time again and yet he and his family keep trying." Keith stopped and put his hand on a scanner. The wall opened up and a new hub of activity was revealed behind it, everyone wore the black Jackets that Keith did. They all seemed to have a task or something to be doing, and so they paid the Keith and Therod no mind.

"So your group kills them?"

"We identify threats and eliminate them before they can become worse. Like say Lieutenant Lorentino, next time he emerges we'll make sure to deal with him, I hope this isn't an issue for you."

"I think it would be the man saved my life."

"Only to put it more in danger by the bio threat, and his connection to his father means he's as evil as they come, don't you see Therod, these people are evil creatures not good natured humans! But you'll see that soon enough." He waved at a person behind her and she felt a needle insert into her neck. She tried to fight the drug, but it was a very high dose sedative and she collapsed.

"Welcome to your reeducation Sergeant Therod." The voice droned overhead, and Therod felt she probably made a mistake coming with the Colonel.

Black Jackets, Bad News

The man in the jacket was a Colonel, Therod could see that at least. He was the tall lean sort they put on recruiting posters. Keith was all he went by, Therod didn't know if it was his first or last name, just he was Colonel Keith. When he introduced himself to Therod he was polite, with a disarming smile.

"Sergeant Ruth Therod correct?" She was working out again, training for the purpose of nothing, in her mind. She felt a burning embarassment for the casual nature of her dress, just a sports bra and gym shorts, so much for modesty.

"Correct Colonel." Her eye flashed his record, it was mostly unremarkable, she was surprised he had attained the rank of Colonel, and that he wore the jacket, most RIG military never worse unapproved apparel and the big heavy leather jacket was not standard issue anywhere.

"Keith, you can call me Keith, I'm sure you've seen my record, what you haven't seen is what's not there Sergeant what's between the lines as it were." He had a confident way of talking, the kind of voice and diction that made you want to follow anywhere.

"And what Keith is not in the record?"

"What I do for our emperor Sergeant." The one thing Therod could see that wasn't readily apparent with Keith is the intensity of hatred in his eyes. It was hidden behind the smile and the voice, but it was there clear as day to Therod, she saw it in the same way she saw her own eyes in the mirror.

"And what would that be?" Therod did not know Keith very well, but she already could see he was a man that was difficult to deal with.

"Kill some magical people, and I invite you to join me." She should have said no, on its face his proposal was ludicrous, but Therod was worried about her career and what she'd be doing, so she did the stupid thing and said yes and everything that followed was mostly the result of this one bad decision, almost like she was infected by being near a Lorentino and her decision making ability was hampered.