AN: These are all meanwhiles that happen during Celia/Fox’s first session. In case you may wonder, that is…

Taiyou—“sun” in Japanese

Black haired, blue eyed Elias Grant wiped his forehead with his long uniform sleeve. Division uniforms had sleeves that went to the wrists and ankles. Comfortably fitting black boots covered the socked feet of the wearer, and an arm bracelet-like device called a guarder was firmly placed around part of the Special Member’s upper left arm. It was never usually hot, but working under the white lights and in front of a computer screen for the past two hours could get quite tiring. Not to mention mentally exhausting.

The seventeen-year-old with the Rank Name of Hare held his shoulders and neck in a shrugged position for a few minutes to lessen the tension building up in his muscles. He breathed a sigh when he let his arms relax for a few seconds before beginning to type again. He was idly sorting through some data when a name caught his attention.

‘Celia.’

Exactly how long he’d known her escaped him, but the name and her face and her mannerism, that he would never forget. He may have been young, very young, but he knew that she was special. A thought tainted with dark humor crossed his mind: she was very special. Special enough for Protectors of Earth to take her in. He shook the thought out of his mind and kept typing, trying to focus so he could get it done fast. The quicker he finished, the better for his fingers, wrists, arms, and mind. Eating didn’t take much thought or work, he mused.

Elias wondered if his sister, Karen, remembered Celia. The mint green haired girl was fun to be around when they played childhood games. She’d always been distant to those she was new around or just didn’t want to trust—which was a great deal of people—but she had opened up to them. Celia always considered Karen in their games when she was around. And though he thought his little sister could be a bit annoying, they always ended up having more fun than they imagined they would’ve. Yes, surely Karen did remember.

Muse dragging him back to Celia, Elias felt a sudden twinge of guilt. He hadn’t been able to stay with her until her very first session was over. It was better that way, he supposed, because she’d probably pester him for answers to forbidden questions. Sure, she wouldn’t be punished severely, but he was another case completely. Five years with POE told him enough about the consequences of his actions. That made the guilt fade away even more quickly than it had come.

Another thought sent shivers down his back. If muses were real and he had one bothering him right now, he would burn it to a crisp with his electrical powers. But that thought only reminded him of what his muse had brought him to think of. Then he remembered that that wasn’t what muses did and hurridly dismissed the idea of a little creature bringing in images and sounds from the past. But… weren’t muses big creatures? He rolled his eyes in spite of himself and continued his work, typing as fast as his fingers could go, desperate to get away from his thoughts.

But they persued him in his quest to process the data and sent another shiver through his body, this time making him pause to think for a few seconds. He remembered what Karen had told him a few months ago about POE.

-Karen looks up sadly.

“They did everything themselves.”-

His fingers pushing keys at a normal pace, he tried to read the data to clear his head.

-Karen looks down.

“Riley told me. She’s—”-

He shook his head to push away the thoughts and concentrate on these final bits of data. That wasn’t something he needed to worry about right now. It had been left in Riley’s very capable hands. If she needed help, Harmony would help. They had already been through that. There was no need for him to chase the subject any further. Not anything about the how, about the why.

Finally he was finished. After standing, he realized how strange he must have sounded, what with his sudden pauses and increases in typing speed. He stretched out and heard his vertebrae pop not loudly. Glancing back at the computer screen, he suddenly felt an unusual sensation in the whole of him. It was hard for him to understand. Incompleteness, maybe. Or failure. Remorse? Emptiness… or guilt? Grief, or sadness…

Elias walked to the door and stopped his hand from touching the panel to its right. He looked down at nothing as he let another lingering thought come to him.

‘I’m so sorry, Celia…’

*

“Done digesting, Bun?”

Karen sighed and leaned forward in her seat.

“Yeah, I guess,” she replied to the older boy. She pushed herself up and off her seat, then looked at the teal haired boy. His cherry red eyes were thoughtful. Karen reached out and gently touched his hand.

“Evan,” she whispered. “You okay?”

Evan smiled and chuckled a bit.

“Y’know, Kar, sometimes I wish you hadn’t told me,” he said.

“That’s what my brother said once or twice, but he always reasons that it’s best that he knows,” she continued.

Evan shrugged.

“Maybe. Now come on. I don’t want to have Aqua nagging at me.”

Karen giggled softly and nodded; the two walked down the hall and went inside one of the doors. A teal haired woman with an Azul uniform and a Division Leader belt and hazy lavender eyes smiled at them.

“Falcon, Bunny,” she said, sounding mildly surprised. “I would’ve expected tardiness from you.”

“Hey!” Evan protested.

“That’s so mean, Aqua!” Karen chimed in.

Aqua chuckled softly.

“Well, Falcon, your conduct has improved, so I apologize,” she accepted.

Evan smiled smugly and walked further into the room. Karen shook her head and smiled softly.

“Aren’t you going to apologize to me, too?” she prompted.

Aqua raised an eyebrow at her and playfully frowned as she shook her head.

“I don’t want him rubbing off on you, okay?” she whispered to the thirteen-year-old.

Karen nodded.

“I heard that!”

Aqua sighed at Evan’s comment, and Karen sweatdropped. The young girl shook her head, her waist length braid moving with her head, and followed after Azul Division Leader Aqua.

‘Her real name is Sarille Kotare, and she’s from Novus Japan…’

Sadness clouded Bunny’s eyes.

‘And she’s one of the nice ones… because… because she doesn’t know.’

*

“Blatant ignorance! Be silent and do as you’re told!”

“Y-Yes, ma’am…”

Naomi combed her fingers through her short silver hair. She sometimes hated the way she felt when she was angry, but being angry only made her want to be more angry. The emotion she knew could be so horrible was often empowering and made her feel like what she was doing was just. And if it wasn’t, she would be even more angry and make her inferiors feel just that—inferior. Afterwards, though, it would nag at her. When she was on lower levels of anger, she would feel the guilt, but when she rose to rage… Everyone knew to stay out of her way.

Her inferiors knew, however, that she truly believed what she did was just. Then again, they were all just as ignorant as she.

Holding back the urge to sigh loudly, Naomi turned and left the room. She walked half way down the hall and then stopped, making her hands fists at her sides.

‘Why? Why won’t they work as they’re supposed to? It’s nothing they can’t handle! They’ve all been tested, and they’ve all been assigned to where they will be most capable. So why!?’

Hands came upon her stiff shoulders. They tightened and released their hold on her rhythmically, but she only closed her hands more, until she could graphically feel her knuckles on her tight skin.

“You needn’t worry so much.”

The calm male voice did what his hands had failed to do. Before he had spoken, he’d let his hands hold her shoulders lightly. Now she finally let her shoulders fall, her head hang, and her grip on air fade with a sigh.

“Yes I do…”

She heard him step closer, until he spoke almost directly into her ear.

“No, you don’t,” he repeated.

She turned her head to look at him and instantly spotted his apple green eyes. Some of his dark blue bangs went past his eyebrows, and the rest was in a very stylish mess, as she would think of it. It wasn’t a mess, but it wasn’t something all too formal. A stylish mess was the name that fit it best.

“I do—”

Her eyes widened slightly as his index finger went to her lips.

“Naomi, stubborn Naomi, you’re not the only one working for her.”

“I know that, Taiyou,” she said, stressing his Rank Name. “But it feels like it. So I do my best. It will not be my fault if everything goes wrong.”

He released her and nodded.

“You’re right. It won’t be your fault. It hasn’t and will not be your fault.”

She’d turned completely and now faced him. She responded to his lopsided grin with a small smile and shake of the head. There was silence for a few moments.

“I have things to do now,” she finally said. “We can talk later.”

He nodded; she nodded. He watched her walk away for a while before walking off himself.

‘It won’t be your fault, Naomi, because it will be mine.’

*

AN: Bleah… I’ve been so busy lately… Pardon the extreme tardiness of this chapter. I was debating on whether to just copy the one I have posted or to write a completely different one. I opted for the latter. ^^; If I can make this longer than 15 chapters I’ll be very happy and grateful. ^^