Sincan had failed to save a man. He’d dedicated himself to seeing to it that people could and would be safe, but he’d failed tonight. Titanis might have tried consoling him after, but it didn’t make Sincan feel any better. Am I going to have to do that someday?

He flexed his hands and went through the front entrance of his hotel. Titanis had listened to him and chosen to not pursue it any further for the day, so it gave Sincan time to rest. He wondered if it was also time for him to adjust, considering his reaction.

What he found waiting at the entrance for him was an eccentric man again. The same man, in fact, who had asked him those questions at the party. Sincan’s suspicions grew, but he tried to not let it show. He was thoroughly annoyed for the night, so he decided to ignore him and go back to his room.

“Oi, you’re that Sincan guy every man’s been talking about, aren’t you?” he said from the reception desk. Sincan inwardly sighed.

“Yeah, we’ve met tonight, remember?” he said, turning to face the man.

“Weird thing to meet up here. How’re you doing?”

“Fine,” he lied.

“And what about that giant flying man of yours. Haven’t seen ‘em around the whole day,” he said, moving towards Sincan.

“Is that why you’re here? Sorry, but I’m not in the mood to show Okshender off,” Sincan replied, turning around.

“Ah, nah, just wanted to ask if it’s a giant suit or something else. Wonder how you get it to move around on its own.”

“Not a suit, he’s a person.”

“Never met a living thing with metal for skin, mind explaining that?” he bothered.

“I don’t know the mechanics behind it, okay! He’s completely mechanical as far as I know!” Sincan said, almost shouting.

“Uh huh. Living thing, completely metal, sure. Well, next time you’re free, I’d like to check him out.”

“Fine,” Sincan said, having had enough of the conversation for the night. He walked to the elevator and entered, leaving as the man waved him goodbye from outside.

He almost collapsed onto his bed, feeling the exhaustion taking hold of him. Okshender arrived after a while, which Sincan knew since the Gear prodded him with questions through their link.

How was the investigation, young Sincan?

Not the best, Okshender. I… I got a man killed. Sincan spilled his heart out to Okshender. The knight was always there to guide him when guidance was needed, after all.

I’ll have to kill sooner or later, Okshender. I just don’t know if I can anymore.

I’ve had to kill, Sincan. Those memories, they helped me remember when I had to. It doesn’t make me morally corrupt to have done so. It won’t make you, either, as long as you know when and where to wield that force.

That’s the problem isn’t it. My judgement always needs correcting from someone else. If I hadn’t had Firil and the others with me, I don’t think I would know what to do in that desert. And now I don’t have them with me, I’m afraid of the fact that it might happen again.

You’ll learn in due time, young Sincan.

I don’t think I can, Sincan kept that thought to himself, not allowing Okshender to hear it. He turned over in his bed and went to sleep soon after. His thoughts were still a mess.

****

Titanis arrived at the station early the next morning. He’d have to wait for Sincan to get there before he could ready up and investigate that station, so he was a bit restless. He busied himself with all the work he had to do as a chief, directing his officers this way and that to make sure that they were tending to their aspects of the case perfectly.

He’d received all the compiled evidence from the scene. Nothing major was revealed as the criminals ran away as quickly as they came. He did get some profiles, including a man with a vial of sand around his neck. A sandheart, he figured. It was a Valkarian memento they used for certain traditions.

He also got a profile on a woman, but decided to read it later. He was tired from the morning work, and Sincan had still not arrived, so he decided to go outside for a break. That proved useless, considering that there was some girl annoying an officer right in front of him. She had light blue eyes and brunette hair and was wearing common clothes, not suited to any special occasion.

“This is a serious crime! Don’t act so nonchalant, you stupid man!” she screamed in his face and Titanis felt sorry for him.

“Ma’am, you need to slow down,” the officer replied, clearly annoyed with her.

“No, you don’t understand! Come!” she talked over him and grabbed his hand, dragging him outside. Titanis ignored them and grabbed something for himself from the pantry. He chewed on a bar and opened the door back to his office. He picked up that profile and read through it again. Brown hair, blue eyes…. Damnit.

He ran out of his office immediately. He scanned the room to see if any one of them had returned, but they hadn’t. He left through the front door to the station, searching around every corner and asking anyone around if they had seen an officer and a short woman.

They pointed in several directions, but Titanis couldn’t find them. She must have left already, blasts. He went back into the station and called several officers to come to him. He walked into his own office and focused his eyes immediately at the figure of the same short woman near his computer, plugging something into it.

She flashed a smile at him and Titanis unholstered his gun, but not before she jumped out of the window. Titanis fired a shot but missed, causing a commotion inside the station. He hopped over the window and landed on broken glass.

He chased her as fast as he could, but his body couldn’t keep up with hers. Must have some strong Wheels for that. He tried giving chase as best as he could, but she kept slipping further and further away. He slammed into a corner as he was not fast enough to turn. Grunting, Titanis ran and ran until he popped out into the open on a crowded street. He flicked his eyes everywhere but couldn’t see her in midst of the people.

He realized what he looked like, carrying a gun out in the open and breathing heavily, so he decided to holster his weapon again. He looked back and noticed that some officers were running after him.

“Chief, what are you doing?”

“There’s been a compromise of information, Chareys. Get a technician here to check what exactly she did to my computer. She was fast, write that down in the report too,” he said quickly, almost growling it out.

“Noted, sir,” Chareys replied, taking a deep breath. Titanis returned to his office and annoyingly, he couldn’t access the records for anything. Furthermore, it was deleting records as well, causing more issues to compile.

Worse yet, Sincan came into the station with Fenis in tow.

****

Sincan awoke to knocks at his front door the next day. He groggily got up from his bed, forgetting that he was supposed to go somewhere with Titanis today. He then opened the door to face Fenis again.

“Morning, Sincan, I hope you’ve being doing well?”

“Uh, yeah, sure have.”

“Alumn wanted to apologize for what had happened last night and invite you to a dinner for today.”

“You didn’t need to be here in person to say that, Fenis.”

“But it’s the courteous thing to do, Sincan!” he replied.

“Alright, alright… actually,” Sincan started to say, “I’ve a few things to ask you. Let me get prepared first.”

“Okay?” Fenis replied and backed off from the door. Once Sincan was ready, he walked out and confronted him.

“So, Fenis, I heard some things yesterday that don’t shine too well on you,” Sincan started. Fenis, for his part, didn’t seem to react to anything he said.

“Such as? You should really stay away from gossip, Sincan,” Fenis replied.

“Oh, sure, I’ll try. But raw facts aren’t something that can be disproven so easily. Tell me, Fenis, what were you in charge of in regards to the party?”

“Security.”

“The same security that failed to do anything to stop Alfis and his gang, you mean.”

“I think you’re assigning maliciousness to something that can be easily attributed to incompetence instead, Sincan,” he dragged the last part out.

“That’s something I agree with. But I also heard you’ve been seen around Rightford street.”

“That was personal business.”

“In an abandoned station?”

Fenis shifted his stance uncomfortably. “Did Alumn set you up to this? Is that why he asked me of all people to invite you?”

“No, he didn’t,” Sincan replied.

“You can tell me if he did, Sincan. The old coot never really did accept me. Did you know I was supposed to become the head of the family?”

“Really?”

“It’s true. He took it from me. Something about not being experienced enough to handle the position. I’m assuming now he’s finally grown sick of me and wants to have me removed fully.”

“It wasn’t Alumn. I swear I’m not working under him.”

“You still have to believe me, Sincan,” Fenis pleaded. “That man appears to be much more kind on the surface than he is in reality. Tell me, would a just person steal from a child?” Fenis looked concerned and desperate as he asked. Sincan felt wrong accusing him like this, but it had to be done for the sake of the investigation.

“I’m sorry, Fenis. But I need you to come with me to be interrogated.”

Fenis scoffed and looked away. “Of course I have to.” Surprisingly, he didn’t put up a fight against Sincan, instead complying with his wishes and accompanying him.

****

They set Fenis up in a cell before they had more evidence to convict him of anything. “Wouldn’t want him running off somewhere when we had the goods to take him in right here,” said Titanis.

Sincan was still angry that the man was being treated like a criminal already, but he couldn’t do much to change that. Sincan apologized to Fenis before moving to the side and talking with Titanis.

“Look, I know I’m the one who brought him in, but that was mostly because I wanted to let him go freely through you.”

“Which was the right thing to do,” Titanis finished for Sincan. “Now you and me are going to Rightford street and if we don’t find anything, I’ll ask my men to let Fenis go.”

“Tsk, fine.”

“The other pieces of evidence are damning enough, Sincan, but I’m willing to believe you if we find something to pin on Alumn. Besides,” he massaged his temples. “I’ve enough problems to deal with at the moment.”

“Like the computer?”

“Yes. Alfis risked the imprisonment of one of his men and got away with it. He knows we’re after him, so we need to be quick about this.”

“Alright,” said Sincan. They turned backwards to look at Fenis one more time, sitting quietly in his cell.

“I swear, we’ll let you leave as fast as we can, Fenis. The police will make your stay here as pleasant as possible.”

Fenis didn’t respond or even look at Sincan, so they left quietly.

“Oh, it surely will be pleasant…” he muttered.