They are among us (PRS)

Regina nodded.
“I suggest that we go to wherever your secret club is, you get your people to find any patients with matching wounds. I’ll give as much DNA as I can when not woged, and we’ll see if you have him in your system. Going around to different hospitals, hoping I’ll smell him seems a bit pointless. As I said, I will need to be in full woge and even then, it will be hard due to the amount of people in a hospital and all their cleanliness” she said, scratching her neck.
“Plus, since you’re so damn reluctant to me woging, I guess it also falls apart due to that” she added, grinning. She understood why he was hesitant to it, though. She had her weapons ready to go within seconds, and that was probably what made him skittish about it.
“Which I don’t really get. I’m actually pretty while woged. It’s not that I am a Siegbarste or Hexenbiest” she said jokingly with a little laugh.
“Although I wouldn’t say no to be a Hexenbeist, their powers are incredible” she added, shaking her head with a little smile. She looked at him, wondering how much he actually knew about her world. Was the military accurate in their research, or did they just label all Wesen as horrible? Probably the latter, unfortunately. Regina wondered if the two kinds would be able to live together in some sort of harmony, if the Kehrseite just decided to get to know the Wesen community. Assuming the Wesen community would allow it, of course. Although it would be a problem with those Wesen that still thought the “old days” were the best, the day when Wesen hunted Kehrseite for fun and for food.

Regina stepped out of the pub, looking up at the sun.
“Which way? Or do you want to blindfold me so I don’t see where I’m going?” she said, turning towards Eli. She said it as a joke, but it wouldn’t surprise her if that was what Eli wanted. She wasn’t allowed in the buildings, or that was at least what his boss had said. Maybe that had changed now that she might be carrying her attacker’s DNA in her mouth. It really sounded disgusting in Regina’s ears. However, she still hoped that she hadn’t washed it all away at the mall’s toilet, and that if they managed to get something, that the man would be in whatever system the military used to find people. Which also was quite unnerving to Regina that such a system existed, and that she now was going to give them her DNA. What didn’t you do to keep the ones you loved safe?

Secret club? Elijah laughed shortly to her comment. Yes, their super cool secret club. To be honest, that’s was almost a decent description. Without your super-secret club badge, you are not allowed into the premises or could wear their club gear.

Eli couldn’t help but to listen with curiosity to her rambling about Wesens. Hexenbiest was a known term for him from before, but something he was yet to meet in person. Not that he minded at all to be honest, they did not seem like anything he would like to be up against. Siegbarste however was something that he had not heard of before. He smiled as he followed her through the pub out the doors. This would be a great way to learn about Wesens for sure. His top aspiration would of course be to find another Grimm, something he had not been able to do nor had the army any possibility to match him with another one, not that he even knew how many Grimms they even had in their rank, if there even was anyone else known. It would however be great to find someone in his situation to share tips with, for example how to deal with Wesens who see you as their personal boogeyman when all he had to do to provoke them was to exist. The Reinigen from before crossed his mind again, and he pressed his lips together. Oh yeah, he had forgotten about him for now. He had to probably find him at some point. Luckily he had not been of the aggressive kind.

Outside in the sun he pulled out a pair of sunglasses from his jacket pocket. They were some cheap wayfarer duplicates with mirrored glasses that he had found in a store. Eli had the thought that they could shield him from detection if a woged Wesens looked into his eyes, but how well this defense actually worked was still unknown to him.
“I need to call this in,” he said as he fished up his phone from his pocket and started dialing. “I could most likely not walk up with you just like that, even blindfolded. I don’t want to unintentionally unleash some kind of mayhem,” he chuckled as he took a couple of steps to the side, phone now up to his ear. Not that the distance probably mattered – her super hearing had been proven once before.

Eli shortly explained the situation in the call after identifying himself, how they needed access to the lab and a short briefing to the forensic department so they could check with the hospitals. He could also drop of the contract at the same time, always a plus.
“So,” he began after dialing out, “they’ll send a car to get us and we’ll get in through the garage, just to be on the safe side. The windows might be tinted, or then you’ll get a blindfold,” he said with a smirk. “They won’t make a big fuss about it at location, so please act cool as well. There are weapons around because, well, it’s our base,” he shrugged and put the phone back into his pocket, “but you have amnesty, they are aware of that.”

Regina watched him dial his phone, and waited for him to finish his conversation. She held up her hands.
“I always keep my cool, haven’t you noticed?” she said with a grin. Not that it was true, there were times when Regina had gone into a full on rage where she almost lost herself, but most of the times she actually tried to keep her cool. It was much easier to take rational decisions then. Plus, it almost always irritated her opponent more when she kept her calm.
“I won’t do anything unless I’m provoked. If I am, your friends have broken our deal and disrespected my amnesty, which means that I’ll bring out my weapons, too” she said, with a serious tone in her voice. She was more scared than she dared to admit to herself, going willingly to a base filled with Kehrseite who would love to see her head separated from her body. She had no chance if they all would turn against her, weapon in hand. But hopefully they wouldn’t care that she was there. She was there to help them, after all. Regina actually had quite the knowledge they most likely needed. It seemed as if they didn’t know very much of different Wesen and their abilities. Not that Regina would tell them very much, who in their right mind would tell their enemies about their own weaknesses?

“I do hope it’s a limousine, I’m picturing it as they do it in movies” she said jokingly with a laugh.
“You know, dark voices, a dark room with only one lamp present, shining in my face and all” she added, shaking her head. Joking around was really her way of not showing her true emotions. Her brain was set on fight mode, and was looking for anything that moved out of the ordinary to be sure that she was going to counter any attack quickly and efficient. It would probably go on overdrive inside of the military base, and she would have to concentrate a lot to be able to do what she was there for and look for potential threat. She was going to be exhausted tonight, she had already prepared for that. She just tried to tell herself that this wasn’t a ploy from Eli’s side, and that they were actually setting their differences aside to work together to protect their respective parties from whatever threat was making a move towards them. They were doing this for the good of their communities, not to find a way to get to one another.

Eli turned his head down to give her a glance from over his glasses before a smirk spread on his lips. He leaned his head back and turned it towards the warming sun and closed his eyes. He preferred not to get blinded, even when wearing sunglasses.
“They will respect the contract. If there’s one thing we’re good at, it’s following orders,” he said with his face to the sun. It was warming his face nicely in this otherwise chilly autumn weather. “We’re quite useless at other stuff,” he joked, smiling into the sun. It did cross his mind if anyone could try to pull some funny business while they were there, but it seemed highly unlikely. Their current non-violent statement still stood and was given from higher up, and he doubted that anyone would go against those kinds of orders. Their contract gave her even thicker protection as she carried a personal amnesty on top of the non-violence stance that stood. As long as she could keep her feelings in check and not get cocky or threatening, no one should show her any kind of hostility. It was still a strange situation, bringing in a known Wesen to their base.

He placed his hands in his pockets to keep them warm before looking back at Regina.
“No matter how many times I ask, I’ve never gotten a limousine,” he stated. “If they send one now, I will be pissed off at the special treatment you’re getting,” he laughed. He seriously doubted that they had a limousine. It would be super cool, but quite unpractical. Imagine a chase or some off-rode action in a limousine – yeah, their street cred would be gone in a blink, as would the enemy.

The thought did humor him though. A limousine opening its doors and combat-geared troops spilling out of it. Yeah, not really how it was in reality. Their SUVs were however quite nice to be honest.
“How old is your sister?” Eli asked as he turned his head again towards the warming sun. They had to wait for a while, so why not make some small talk during the wait.

Regina smiled.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind some special treatment” she said with a laugh.
“Although I could see why you would be pissed” she added and looked up in the sky. The sun warmed her face, even though it was a quite chilly autumn day. Regina herself preferred summer, everything just felt so much easier then. But there was something with these crisp autumn days as well, the air was fresh and just the right amount of cold so you wouldn’t freeze too much while waiting outside. Regina had somehow thought the car would show up basically a minute after Eli had placed the call, but this was real life, not some movie.

She turned her attention towards him as he asked about her sister. So, they were getting personal now. Well, Eli had just shared with her the fate of his family, the least Regina could do was to tell him Serena’s age.
“She’s twelve” Regina said, smiling.
“My parents’ had me at a very young age, so they decided to wait a while to have a second child. Although age difference isn’t really an issue here, we’re very close” Regina added and looked at Eli. She wanted to ask about his sister, but didn’t. Regina herself knew how hard it was to bring up those closest to you that weren’t around anymore.
“And this amnesty couldn’t have come in a better time – she woged for the first time a couple a weeks ago, she has trouble keeping it contained” she added, not sure why. Why was she sharing her and her sister’s life to a stranger? A Kehrseite nevertheless. But somehow this small talk put her mind on other things than the nervousness of where they were going and how it would go down. It wouldn’t hurt anyone that Regina spoke of her sister.

“She’s a lot like me, I haven’t decided if that’s good or bad yet” Regina said and shook her head with a smile. The Balam in Serena made her very protective of Regina, just like Regina was of her. However, Serena had started to understand that it was Regina’s job to protect her, considering that Regina was the older one of them. But it didn’t stop Serena from worrying, and sometimes even do stupid things to find out where and what Regina was up to. It wasn’t easy and they were still adjusting to their new life, and Serena usually got very restless back at camp. She was used to being able to walk around and hang out with friends in a way she wasn’t able to now. But this amnesty would definitely make it easier. Now they could go out and do things like they had been doing before. Regina had already decided to take Serena out to her favourite restaurant for dinner, since she now was getting paid for her consulting. Why not treat them to something nice for a change? Both of them were rather tired on the food that Regina bought combined with stole. They never knew if it would be any good, and usually it wasn’t since Regina didn’t want to take too much food in case of getting caught. But now it seemed like times were changing to their favour.

Elijah listened to her speak as he closed his eyes, enjoying the warm sensation of the sun’s rays on his cheeks.
“Twelve, eh?” he said with a smile. “Soon you’ll have a rowdy teenager on your hands,” he chuckled, thinking back to his own teenage years. He had been an early teen when he was suddenly left alone with his dad, and the years to follow would be quite an unruly time for him. His dad was too focused to drown himself under a growing load of blame to even acknowledge what was left of his family. The few times they would talk was just an option for him to mention everything he had done wrong, and soon Eli avoided their talks all together. It was just easier that way.
Growing up as a teenage Wesen, living life from the outskirts of normal society, can’t be an easy task either, that was for sure. It felt good that this contract they had did at least bring some sort of normality into Regina and her sister’s lives.

Eli’s thoughts went back to his own sister. He had mentioned her and his mother’s deaths to Regina but had left out quite a lot of details in the process. How, for example, his sister had been the culprit to the whole ordeal, so to say, but it felt strange to jump into those kinds of facts with a stranger. Oh, how he had loathed his sister for years after that day. Their parents had done the best they could, thinking that turning in a mutant family member was the only way they could care for both their as well as her own safety, but it’s easy to look back in hindsight and see what could have been done better. He did not know all the details and probably never will, but when the two workers came to get his sister and his mom had tried to explain to her what was happening, she flipped. She had such a fiery temper, literally, that it even scared Eli when they played as kids, and during that day she managed to burn everything down. His sister was probably drained out from the torment and was taken away, but nothing was salvageable to the point that no bodies could be made out from the rest of the ashes. What had happened to his sister after that was unknown, but it was easier to think of her as gone. The early mutant captivity and tests were, as he had heard later in life, quite unconventional back in the day, and casualties might have been more of a rule than exception.

After having revisited these thoughts a few years ago, he was more uncertain how to feel towards his sister’s behavior. He couldn’t project the same kind of hatred towards her as he had as a young boy. To be honest, he was quite sure that in a similar setting as hers, he could have very well behaved in the exact same way.

Eli shrugged slightly and opened his eyes behind the shades he was wearing. He turned towards Regina as he took his right hand out of his pocket and lifted the sunglasses slightly from their position, glancing at her with his amber gaze.
“If she’s anything like you then I’m sure she’ll be more than fine. You seem tough,” he said with a grin. “Especially with that black eye,” he continued before placing his shades back to their position. He did mean it – sporting that look did give her more of a menacing appearance, someone he wouldn’t want to deal with first handedly.