"What a day it has been..." Allen mumbled to himself. Carrying a bottle of wine, he was sitting on the terrace of the building Arnold was currently residing in, "I didn't know my brother was so famous. Haha."

The news of Arnold's wellbeing soon reached the others. Ever since then, there had been various meetings from friends, family and members from the council of Guardian Syndicate. Most of them knew about his position as a Section Chief but after hearing about his valour from the others, they formed a deep respect for him.

Allen had travelled back to LA with Nina, Talos and Alice. Although he didn't need to be there, he felt shitty because he left his brother to visit other bases in zone 4 and soon after that he was informed that Arnold was in a critical condition. Allen didn't know what happened with Arnold, but that didn't stop him from blaming himself.

While they were gone, the base was being taken care of by the automatons and the human soldiers. They were strictly prohibited to move out of the base, thus they only had one job- to protect the base. 

Allen was also one of the first people to visit Arnold. He wanted to inform him about the situation of there bases of zone 4 but upon seeing his condition, Allen decided to hold his horses. His 'blood brother' had almost died. Right now, Arnold needed to live a tension free life for a while. So he just went in and chatted like usual. This happened in the afternoon, almost six hours ago. Now the moon was keeping Allen company. 

For some reason, Allen was stressed. There was a reason as to why he was sitting on the terrace of the building. He needed to protect his brother.

Although everyone seemed happy to see Arnold well, Allen couldn't help but sense some kind of hostility hidden behind their smiles. He had always been quick to catch on to these things. 

'I need to find out who is so resentful that they would foolishly try and attack this fortress of a home.' Allen thought, sipping on his wine, "Friend, family, or foe. No one would even get close to him as long as I'm alive."

"Ohh... Then I'll just have to kill you first." Someone whispered but not loud enough for Allen to hear. 

The next moment, an arrow went hurtling towards his head. Allen sat there, still as a statue as the arrows sped towards him. Then at the last possible second, his hands moved in a blur. The half-empty bottle of wine got shattered into a dozen pieces. But managed to deflect the arrow, which crashed into the railing next to him. Being bonded with Arnold came with its perk. Heightened senses, higher evasion and strength etc. These were just a few to name them. 

While all this was happening, Allen had his back turned towards the assailant, "You can't even kill me. How do you think you're gotta kill him?'

He slowly turned around to face his opponent. He was honestly relieved to see someone so weak had attacked him. But he was sure, this person was just a pawn and not the main boss. He needed to be careful. 

"Just so you know, if you touch him, I'll kill you.' Allen warned the assailant in an eerily casual tone. 

The assailant soon emerged from the darkness. A weird mask covered the face but the robe couldn't hide the feminine body behind. Her emerald green robes and crossbow give an underwhelming feeling to Allen. That's right. Underwhelming. 

Allen barely felt threatened by his opponent's presence. Yet if she had managed to get past the defences of the Black Estate, she might be hiding something or someone from the inside might be helping her. There was only one way to know for sure though. He needed to capture her alive. 

Allen had his sword by his side. The assailant, however, had her crossbow ready. Within a moment, Allen quickly jumped sideways. The assailant rained arrows on him but it was too late, her target had grabbed his weapon. She stopped the barrage but continued to keep her eyes fixed on her target.

For a moment their eyes met. The next moment, the barrage continued. Allen deflected most of the arrows with the help of his sword but a few managed to scratch him here and there. At first, he thought the arrows might have been poisoned. He waited for something to happen. Nothing. 

'Good. I'm not poisoned. Well, that's what I'll like to believe. Either way, I'll get checked by Alice later, gotta deal with this idiot first.' Allen thought and then reached out to the communicator hidden in the back pocket of his jeans.

He had called Nina. She was head of security around here, and it was time to get back to work. An intruder in the black estate? She wouldn't believe it until she saw it herself. Now that it had been taken care of, he could focus back on his opponent who had seemingly run out of arrows to use. 

"Out of arrows or out of luck?" Allen smirked. Getting ready to strike. 

The assailant threw the crossbow aside, shrugging her shoulders, "I wasn't really fond of using it, to be honest."

To Allen's surprise, the woman took out a sword from her back. A blue sword, simmering in the radiance of the moon.

Allen let out a whistle and smiled, 'This is going to be interesting.'

He knew exactly what type of sword it was. There were only two of those in existence. Well, at least there were supposed to be two. One of which was in the possession of the Morrino family who had forged the swords and the other one with his biological father, Nathaniel Black, who had been given one when both the families agreed to repel the monsters once and for all from the surface of the Earth. 

It was no ordinary sword either. It was also called 'The sword of emission' and had the ability to teleport people over small distances. But this ability of the sword couldn't be used continuously. Whenever this ability was used, the sword lost its shininess, which could only be recovered by absorbing the moonlight and this absorption could take anywhere from 10 seconds to five minutes depending on the distance the user teleported to. The only downside of this ability was, that the sword must be allowed to recharge even if it had only lost a per cent of its shine. The teleportation skill could not be used until and unless it was back at 100%. 

Now Allen knew how she got inside the estate, but his mind was now clouded with a new set of questions. How the hell did she manage to get her hands on the sword? Did Morrino betrayed them or did Nathaniel lost the sword? 

'No matter what. I must capture this woman.'