Two days ago.

When people looked at the man simply known as Prince, many things came to mind. Giant, strong, daring, fierce, royal. They all described him perfectly, on the surface at least. It was one of the two reasons he chose to be called Prince instead of his birth name. The other was because... well, the name no longer existed. Obsolete, faded away as time passed. A lot of the things he grew up knowing were no longer in existence. It was the reason he didn't socialise, not because the immortal feared change but because what the world had turned (and is turning) into was too nauseating to observe, talk more of live in it.

Not all of it was bad though. Like the steaming cup of coffee in his hand and the suit and tie he was wearing, those were good. He liked those. Sure, the latter was discovered more than three hundred years ago but that was less than half his age. It still felt new to him. And as for the suit... He'd worn many versions and adaptations. This was by far the best.

Right now, he was wearing a black classic fit suit matching his thick beard and blond hair and black shoes. Call it overdressed, but Prince liked dressing this way. He was never caught unawares dressed in an informal attire. And truth be told, in his line of work, being caught unawares was the norm.

“My change,” the nearly seven feet tall mindman said to the much shorter man at the counter who was busy texting rather than attending to his customer. That he disliked, hated even. The rectangular device that kept his attention from what was actually important. Looking at the shop which was mostly empty, it wasn't really difficult to blame the man as the cause.

I could stop your heart right now, would your phone matter then? It took every ounce of will he had in him not to do what he felt like right now. Killing wasn't necessary (especially in a coffee shop), but even most humans would agree that were some persons who shouldn't be existing.

But instead of ending the life of the man who was still staring at his phone, Prince spoke again. His deep voice louder than the last time he spoke. “My change.”

“Oh sorry man. My girlfriend—”

Prince gave him a hard stare and the man kept quiet. Now clear that Prince didn't give a damn about the reason and just wanted his change, the man obliged and hurriedly gave it to him.

Prince stared for at him while before walking out of the shop.

He pitied everyone these days, bothered he would do something stupid. Most people, powered and non powered he met thought he was this reckless killing machine. But he wasn't. In fact, he was the opposite.

Right now, he did feel like killing recklessly. As he walked away, he could feel his anger boiling. He didn't want to kill someone who wasn't the cause of his anger. Despite being powerful, Prince never killed without reason. But these days he felt like. The M'gen he fought, that was the cause of his anger. For five hundred years he'd served The Dark Pillars without failing and now on his most important mission, he had disappointed them. All because of a bloody M'gen trying to play hero.

Embedded in his anger was fear. Fear of being captured and tortured. The Dark Pillars always killed their mindmen agents who failed any mission. Sometimes, those missions were not top priority or code red and yet they were eliminated. That's what terrified him. Not only was this mission important to the Pillar who sent him, but the assurance of his race remaining as apex predator hinged on the very success of the mission. Five hundred years of impeccable service not withstanding, he was done for. The question now was a matter of when.

He walked out of the shop and moved further down the street. It was dark and stormy outside despite being nine in the morning. It was partly his fault. His Chaytan being that of Hovsebanek, Prince tended to make things gloomy when he was unsettled. Despite it, people still moved around. It was like a usual day, everyone going about their businesses, it was noisy and slightly crowded as well. A little too much for nine o'clock but this was Redstone. No city could be busier. For a mindman, noisy meant more unwanted thoughts which by now he could keep out of his head but he'd rather put the energy to better use which was using it to protect himself. Instead, the mindman got off the streets and into an alley.

He hadn't gotten that far when he heard an unfamiliar voice behind him. “Tough day ain't it?”

He turned around sharply looking for the source of the voice. Where they here already? They couldn't be stupid enough to expect him to willingly accept eternal imprisonment and torture. No, he was going to fight. Prince dropped his nearly finished coffee and began gathering his energy.

“So paranoid,” the voice spoke again. “I get it though, you should be incarcerated for your failure. But being a maverick son of a bitch that you are, you're gonna try fighting aren't ya.”

He soon found where the voice was coming from. A black cat sitting on top of a garbage can. Seeing the fierce bright yellow eyes and the intimidating aura it exuded, he recognized who it was immediately. “Reed?” Prince asked startled.

“You failed,” the cat stated instead of answering the question, his voice more serious now. He didn't have to answer it anyways. Prince knew who it was. If the features of the talking cat weren't a dead give away, the harsh language was. Prince hated foul words and no one else was bold enough to speak to him like that.

“Yes I did,” Prince replied flatly. “I failed to capture the mindman.”

The cat bent its head to sideways looking at him curiously. Sounding slightly amused, it spoke again. “And you think I'm here to capture you?”

“You're the butcher of The Dark Pillars are you not, what else would you be here for?”

“And If I were, what powers do you think you possess to stop me,” the cat replied mockingly. Which was true. The man called Reed wasn't an immortal yet but he had a position: the Dark Pillars' personal killer. He was the one they sent out to kill powerful mindmen of rival organisations and cults. The powers that came with the position took him above the level Prince was on now. The odds were against him if he tried fighting.

Before he could reply, the cat continued. “You're right, you should be imprisoned but you're not going to be. After much deliberation, The Pillars came to an agreement to let you try again.”

Prince was sincerely surprised. He was confused even. For what reason would they spare him? It wasn't because they liked him. That much was certain. The Pillars never showed emotions. Despite his confusion, he nodded.

“And you can't fail this time. There are other cults out there looking for her. The energy she displayed on the night of her awakening lit Redstone City up like a Christmas tree. Luckily, we have the upper hand.”

Letting his words hang for a moment, the cat then announced. “You know her identity.”

Prince scoffed at that. “I don't see how that's an advantage, she has seen my face as well. People tend to never forget what their attempted killers look like. Trying again won't be subtle, which is what the pillars want.”

“Then it's a good thing we mindmen can be anybody and hide from anyone.”

Now it was clear why they didn't punish him. They wanted him to use phantom form. The worst of all mindmen abilities, effective but so painful that Prince believed it never was really worth it. Even though he could have hidden himself from most mindmen with it, it never crossed his mind to use. He hadn't used it in centuries and it would be hellish when next he did. The Pillars knew that, he was sure of it, for what other reason would they have requested he used it? He had to do it nonetheless. It was this or captivity.

Swallowing hard, Prince spoke. “I accept.”

What followed was an odd sound which could pass as laughter from the mind controlled cat. “Don't be naive Prince. This isn't like other missions.”

“What makes you think you think you can refuse?”

■

“I suppose you know what I want to talk about,” he spoke.

“I was dozing in class and that's bad for my academics,” the girl replied.

No, because you're my target and I see this as a perfect opportunity to capture you.

In all his life, the Prince had never felt this weak or minute. The frail body of the man he was possessing wasn't helping matters. And there were the clothes; black baggy suit trousers that seemed to belong to the early years of the twentieth century, a lime colored long sleeved shirt and worn out shoes. The clothes Prince had worn on this body were the best it had in his opinion and yet it looked stupid.

Nothing about this body was helping matters.

Okay, it was helping in a way. Prince wasn't enduring the unbearable torture he was expected to from fusing his entire being into an another body. It really wasn't difficult to subdue him, his will hardly put up a fight. Helpful or not, it only showed how weak and useless Mr Clive Randall was.

They don't make men like they used to.

Instead of saying anything to reveal his identity, Prince simply nodded then spoke. “You're a tough kid Anna, I've seen you go through hard times but almost getting killed beats all of them. I don't think tough is what you need right now. I heard Winston is seeing doctors to evaluate his mental health. I think you should too, and maybe take a break? Be with family, take a vacation, I don't know, whatever works. All I know is staying away from people, hiding in corners isn't going to help.”

Due to Mr Randall's feelings of admiration for the girl, he didn't have to pretend. Prince spoke every word from the man's heart. Hopefully, the words would help convince her to stay away from school. Capturing her would be a lot easier if she took a leave from school or went on vacation. They'd notice her disappearance a lot later.

“I wasn't hiding, like anything here is scary enough to make me hide. I'm a freaking mindman now...”

Great. Just great. She wasn't going to do it. She had to make things difficult.

She nodded and stood up.

“I'll do that,” Anna replied but deep down, she knew she wasn't going to do anything.

Why lie, he thought angrily. If he hadn't been close enough to hear that now she'd have completely misled him.

Thankfully, his anger wasn't displayed on the face of the body he was possessing. “Good, we would talk about grades later. Right now you should focus on getting back on track.”

“Okay,” she replied. Another lie. She must do this a lot.

He touched her shoulder gently and walked away.

Now that she had ruined his initial plans, he had to go with plan B which of course was the most complicated of the plans he'd thought out. He walked out of the classroom after Anna moved away far enough. Phantom form made one pretty much invisible to most mindmen but Anna wasn't a normal kind of mindman. If she was he wouldn't have to go through all this in the first place.

Speaking of places, he should be heading to the principal's office. After all, her indirect assent to his plan was needed otherwise there would be nothing subtle about plan B.

The hall was fairly large and quite long with matching colours of yellow and red alternating beautifully on the walls and lockers while the floors were a slightly dark coffee brown. Almost at the center of the hall were staircases leading to the first of the two floors above him. Behind the case was another hallway formed by the walls and lockers. If Randall's memory was right, it lead to the cafeteria and the gym.

There were two things he had to do. First, was report back to Reed. He was pretty sure The Pillars hadn't instructed that and it was just Reed being well... Reed. A sadistic, oppressive mindman. Second, was setting his plans in motion.

The hall was filled with students moving. It was quiet but actually quite noisy for a mindman. It didn't bother him though. What did bother him was getting to the principal's office. He'd been in the school before when he made his first attempt at capturing Anna but he never intended to be here a second time so he hadn't paid attention. He was relying mostly on Randall's memory and even that was foggy.

I shouldn't have killed him.

Luckily he didn't have to worry about it much as he soon found a door with the words "Principal's Office" written on it. He hurriedly got to the office door and knocked, then opened the door.

It opened to reveal a dark skinned woman sitting behind a desk. The middle aged woman was wearing a beautiful turtleneck gown that matched her small stature.

The office was quite large with two chairs in front of the woman and one large window which was slightly open behind her and awards decorating the walls of the office.

“Oh good afternoon Mr Randall,” she said raising her head.

“Good afternoon ma'am. Actually I'd like to discuss something. It's related to the tenth graders.”

She gestured to the chair, “please, have a seat.”

As he sat, he replied. “Maybe this seems inappropriate given the current state of the city but I was thinking of an excursion to the city's old missile launch site.”

She took off her glasses and for the first time a serious look crossed her face. “Mr Randall I don't think—”

And the woman went silent. She made a mistake of looking directly into his eyes. If there were in the dark she probably would have noticed his slightly glowing eyes the moment he got into the room. Slowly, her faced loosened.

“Mr Randall,” she restarted. “I don't think it's a bad idea at all.”

For the first time since he possessed Clive Randall, Prince smiled through the man's face. “Thank you Mrs Henson.”

“I knew you wouldn't.”