I showed the guard my badge and, of course, he had to do a double take. Levi waved goodbye as he went out into the arena where they took him to pick out his weapon.

I, on the other hand, headed back to the seats. I plumped down next to Theo and watched the people down below rearrange the field. Nothing big, they just put the rocks in different places so no one had the chance of memorizing the field before the fight.

"So," Theo said, I turned to see him looking at me, "how do you think Levi's going to do?"

I looked back at the arena to see Levi marching over to his place of the war left side of the arena, by the chain link fence. In his hands, he held the staff he usually used during practice.

"He'll be fine," I replied. "Actually, he might be a bit shocked to notice that he's much better than the rest. Well, probably. I haven't fought the other teams, so I'm not to sure about it. Why am I having such a hard time saying this? All of you are way better than when we first fought."

"Really?" Mercy said from the row of seats above us. "I haven't noticed."

Bryce spoke up from besides her, this time. "Yeah, you keep kicking our asses whenever we fight."

"And we still fight just as long against each other," Mila added.

"That's because you're growing together," I answered. "And I just keep fighting more seriously every time I go up against you, so of course you wouldn't notice any difference. But-look, has Levi fought this guy before?"

I motioned to the guy at the opposite side of the ring. He held a single thin sword in his left hand. Swords seemed to be a popular choice to all of the trainees.

"Yeah," Mila answered, "they fought each other durning the final examine last year. It's the test we take to get into this place."

I nodded. "When he comes back, try asking him if there are any differences compared to last year."

The whistle sounded as the fight started. Knowing that he was the type of person to go into immediate offense, he was alreay joggin towards the other side of the arena. He stuck to the rocks, like I'd told him just as he went out into the field. He ran in a zigzag pattern.

Sword Guy was on offense too, searching for Levi, though he wasn't as well trained in field work. I'd specifically taught Levi that it's best to stay covered. Glad to see my teachings weren't completely wasted.

Levi found Sword Guy first. He went straight into attack mode. Approaching silently from behind, he thrust his staff into the others back, landing a direct blow to his lower back, right below the ribs, to the left of the spine.

Having been on the other end of that blow, though from a bullet and a dagger instead, I knew it really hurt. Don't worry, those weren't in the same days. They both hurt just as much. Strangely enough, however, they were in the exact same spot.

Back to the fight, Sword Guy went running, using his free right hand to hold onto the spot of the hit. Yeah, that'd defiantly leave a mark. Levi, on the other hand, was chasing after him, a grin spread across him face. Like an animal on the hunt, I thought, feeling my own Cheshire smile spreading.

When Sword Guy knew that running was pointless, he turned to face Levi. His attack plan was smart, really. He stopped at a random time, spinning around with his sword drawn and pointed at Levi. Levi, however, reacted fast. His staff came up to protect his head from any injury. At the same time, he pushed out, moving Sword Guy away.

While Sword Guy was catching his balance, Levi's body had already adjusted for the next attack. He ran up to the guy, all while pulling his staff from behind him, like a javelin, and spearing him in the gut. With a grunt, Sword Guy hit the ground. He was down for the count.

"Nice job, Levi!" I screeched above the rest of the crowd. I got a few looks but you know what, screw them. I'm gonna be proud when my student wins his first match and they're all just gonna deal with it.

The others joined in with me, yelling their congrats above the crowd. Of course, that only earned us more glares. My own glares, however, shut up everyone who wanted to complain. I could be scary when I wanted to.

A hand landed on my shoulder, catching my attention. I turned to my right to see two guards looking down at me. One of them, to my joy, was Officer Two, aka Good Cop. You know what, let's call him that from now on. His kindness had moved him up from Officer Two to Good Cop.

"Shadow?" The other guard asked. He'd now be Officer Three.

I nodded. Behind me, the others were all watching theses guys closely, thought with much less concern that I was giving them.

"Could you come with us for a minute?" Officer Three asked.

"Can I ask why?" Theo said from behind me.

"There's someone who'd like to speak with her at the moment. Alone." That last word was pointed with bitter intent, at Theo.

"As her supervisor, I'm supposed to be with her at all times."

"Well, you've been outranked. Any more complaints and we'll-"

"You'll what?" I asked, crossing my arms. "I'll kick your ass if you do anything to him."

"Best to go with them," Mercy said silently to me. "You don't want to get into any real trouble."

Grumbling under my breath, I followed the two guards up to the highest row in the stadium. When we reached the back wall, Officer Three pulled out a set of keys to unlock a door that wasn't very hidden anymore.

I was escorted in by Good Cop while Officer Three closed and locked the door.

I was now inside a hall I'd never seen before. It had white walls and wooden floors. Down the center of the hall was a royally red carpet with golden embroidery. Good Cop motioned for me to follow him, and I did so but with a new level of caution. While he walked in front of me, Officer Three walked behind me, forcing me to match their pace, which I didn't like at all.

"So," I said, trying to calm myself down, "where're we headed? Seems all official like."

"You don't need to know," Officer Three, who was slowly turning into Bad Cop Two, replied in a venomous tone.

"You know what? I like him way more than you or Bad Cop," I said, glancing back to look at Officer Three while pointing at Good Cop. "I mean, come on. Just because all of you are special government officials doesn't give you any right to be complete ahh holes. I mean, look at me. I'm a murderer for god sake and I'm still nicer than you."

I think I kind of shocked him into silence there, cause he didn't say much else. Good Cop, on the other hand, was clearly trying to hold in his laughter.

Now that I looked at him, Good Cop seemed to be in his early thirties, maybe late twenties. He was around the same age as Ravi. His hair was a dark brown color, slicked back in a meat fashion. He had that five o'clock shadow, and deep eyes. His voice was deep and he had barely noticeable wrinkles spread through his features. If I had to give his personality a name, I'd say he was the dad type.

I was snapped back to reality when we reached a door.

Good Cop motioned for me to stop while he went up to knock on the door. He waited for a second for an okay I couldn't hear and then went to open the door. Officer Three was now kinder when asking me to step inside. I did so without any complaints.

Inside the room, no it was an office, was a desk with papers neatly arranged on top of it. In the far corner of the room, was a black leather couch with a small library facing it. In the leather couch, sat a man I didn't recognize, though I only saw the back of his head.

That wasn't important. What I was more distracted by was the floor. What I would've expected to be a light wood, was complete glass. Below me, I could see both halves of the arena. Two fights were going on, with no one I recognized fighting in them.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

I looked up to see a face that had horrified me in my past few nightmares. Light brown hair, almost red, with a cleanly shaved chin. Bright brown eyes that followed me like a hawks. Worst of all, that smile that I wanted so badly to believe, even though I knew it was fake.

"Sir," Officer Three and Good Cop said, giving a curt bow. They avoided all eye contact like good little pawns.

Kaiser Worick, is what they called. He was the hot shot leader of Lament, even though he's only been Kaiser for seventeen years. Yeah, he was the leader of this entire city, something like the President of Lament. Which also made him the leader of the Seventh Sword.

"Your dismissed," the man said to the two guards. With another bow, they left, leaving me alone with this monstrous man.

I watched as he took large strides over to his desk and then smoothly sat down behind it. He sat in that formal way, with his fingers intertwined and his elbows resting on the desk. If he was a normal person, I would've told him that it was bad etiquette, just to piss him off. This wasn't a normal person.

"Shadow, I presume?" His voice was slightly higher than I thought it would be. That voice would've lulled anyone into a sense of kindness. Not me. I'd used that very same tone voice when I talked to my prey for the first time.

I nodded, still a bit tense on the inside, though doing an amazing job of hiding it.

"There's no need to be so tense," shit, "I just wanted to meet you."

I nodded again, thinking what would happen if I could kill him right now. The city would fall into chaos, even more so than if I was to reveal the Seventh Sword. But I couldn't do that, not yet. I wasn't ready to take control of a city, I needed more time to prepare for any of that. For now, I'll avoid murder and stick to formalities.

"How've you been fitting in?"

"Fine, strangely enough."

"Is it that strange?"

"Well, I wouldn't call a criminal who's known in many cities training a bunch of future officers normal."

Was that too informal? Did I slip up? Normally, being formal and polite was one of my many disguises, but I was so nervous that my perfect personality was slipping.

He simply laughed it off and replied. "I see what you mean. Though it seemed to work out okay. Judging by Squadron Five's last match, it seemed to be more than okay."

"Oh, you saw that?"

"Yes. I can see that you're a good influence on them, if you want to talk about strange."

I laughed a bit at this. "Well, you're one of the few who's seen it, then. From the chatter I hear going around in the cafeteria, I'm not seen as such a 'good influence' by the others."

"So I've heard. That doesn't seem to bother you, though."

"Not in the least bit."

"Then I suppose it's not a problem."

He looked down, and I followed his gaze. At the moment, the right half of the arena had a girl with a sword fighting a guy with a sword. Both of them seemed pretty evenly matched.

"When I received Theo's idea about welcoming you as a Superior Officer, I admit I was on the fence about it." I looked back up to see him watching me with half lidded eyes and the exact smile that haunted my nightmares. "It seems that all my fears were misplaced. If I asked you, what would you say about welcoming another criminal?"

"I'd say wait. It takes a great team to bring someone like me out from the death trap that I used to be. If you accidentally bagged someone who's a bit less stable than me, you might get a lot of people killed."

"Is that so? And what would you say the perfect combination would be?"

"Well, a stupid flirt to always lift the mood. Someone way to stuborn, but with a good side. A pest who's always willing to fight with you. Someone stupidly nice and innocent. And someone who's stupidly nice, but has a scary side, who's not afraid to put you back in your place if he needs to, or who's there to pick you up when you fall."

"Oh? And how do you figure all this?"

I gave him my best, most innocent Mila smile. "I learned from expariance."

He returned my smile with one that made me shake with fear.

"Thank you for your time."

On cue, the doors opened as Officer Three and Good Cop came in. As we prepared to leave, the Kaiser asked me one final question.

"Shadow," I hated it when he said my name, "I've had reports of someone breaking into the information room. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Thank whatever gods were out there that I wasn't facing him. All I had to do was glance back and say, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

I was dismissed after that. I didn't bother making useless banter, but instead tried to calm my shaking hands. I was escorted all the way back to my seat, where the others asked me questions that I didn't answer. I watched my hands, begging them to calm.

Another hand slid over and rested on both of mine. I looked up to see Theo giving me a sympathetic smile, thought I doubted he knew what had happened.

I realized that I'd forgotten to add one more thing to the last person on my list.

A shoulder to lean on.