They are among us (PRS)

“Come on, we have to go. We can’t bury him now” Regina said, as she partially woged. Her eyes turned amber, and she heard the sounds of someone sneaking around. She retracted her woge.
“I don’t care, I won’t take him in there” Vega snapped and Regina sighed. She couldn’t leave a grief-stricken and angry Blutbad in the woods. Especially not when they weren’t alone. She just hoped it would be a bypassing Kehrseite and not a full army squad.

Regina suddenly stood up quickly, and turned around. Four Kehrseite had walked up towards them. Instinctively, Regina took a position where she put her left leg behind the right, ready to fight. She glanced at Vega, who had returned to grieve over Sean’s body. Regina scrutinised the Kehrseite. They had weapons, but they were holstered. She looked at the faces of them, and saw one she recognised. Elijah. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again.

Now, Vega had noticed that they has company. She stood up quickly, her face turned to wrath.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Vega” Regina said quietly, and luckily, it seemed as if Vega listened to her. Regina turned to the Kehrseite.
“What gives us the honour to have company here in the forest?” she asked, as if she didn’t know. They had heard them howl, and gotten here quicker than Regina had anticipated.
“We found him here, he’s a friend of ours” Regina said, and Vega snorted.
“Friend? Try fiancé” she said, rubbing her left ring finger, where a ring was placed. Regina didn’t need to woge to smell the anger and fear in the air, Vega was about to explode.

“If Sean died by your hands, I swear to God I’ll get my revenge” Vega said, and Regina inhaled. So much for not doing anything stupid.
“We don’t know how he died, there are no marks on him except on his neck” Regina continued, hoping that the Kehrseite would see past what Vega was saying. She was in grief after all, and even Kehrseite in grief said stupid stuff.

Elijah’s squad hear the voices coming straight ahead and hurried their steps forward to reach up to the perimeter scouts. Well there they assembled a line and turned off their flashlights not to let the found persons be blinded by the light.

Eli took a curious look once there, and seeing Regina amongst the other person as well as the body on the ground did not surprise him as he thought it would. She seemed to appear wherever he went.
They all listened carefully to them speak. Eli couldn’t help but to categorize the other person besides Regina as a potential threat, something he guessed they all did at the moment.
Their sergeant, being the one with the highest rank among them, stood quiet for a few seconds, assessing the situation. He then turned to the perimeter scouts, nodding to their leader. “Take a patrol around the area, see if there are any other casualties or others around,” he said firmly before they responded with confirmations and spread slowly around in a trained matter.

Elijah and his two team members stood next to their sergeant, awaiting further instructions. He couldn’t help trying to catch Regina’s gaze, sort of a reassurance that nothing bad would happen. That is, as long as her friend could contain herself and her anger.
“I assure you, this was not our doing,” their squad leader said, now turned towards the two women again. He crossed his arms in front of him, exhaling slowly.
“Is the casualty a human or a Wesen?” he asked, already half guessing the answer. His eyes lingered firmly on Regina, hoping she would steer the discussion from their part as she had her feelings together, something that was much preferred in this situation. He did not prefer any escalations. “If he indeed died of unknown circumstances, we would like to take a look as well and ask you some questions,” he continued. Apparently their mission had changed from intel to a potential homicide.

Honestly, Regina thought they would just arrest them there and then. I mean, they were obviously not human, and Regina had heard and seen so much violence from the army’s part. I mean, they were hunting and killing Wesen and mutants because they were different. However this squad seemed to have a different approach, they were actually trying to pick up a conversation. Unfortunately, Regina had a very angry and grieving Blutbad next to her who didn’t think clearly.
“This “casualty” has a name. His name is Sean and this is a murder. He’s not a bloody Kehrseite, and thank God for that” Vega said. As she spoke, she woged. Not only did she woge fully, she also woged the very uncommon way; so that everyone could see, even Kehrseite that weren’t Grimms. Vega stared right into the squad leaders eyes and focused only on him. Regina saw that some of the Kehrseite couldn’t keep their surprise off their faces. Not only did they actually see a Wesen woge, a Blutbad was one of the more scary Wesen.

Regina put a hand on Vega’s shoulder as the Blutbad retracted her woge. Well, her secret was out now, that was for sure. She threw a glance at Elijah to see his reaction before she turned to Vega.
“Calm down, please. I’ll take care of it” Regina said, and Vega shook her head.
“I won’t let them touch him” she said, turning to the Kehrseite.
“Ask how many bloody questions you want, but you don’t get to touch him” she said, standing her ground. Regina couldn’t help but be proud of her friend. Not many of them would have the balls to stand up to armed Kehrseite like that.

Regina turned to the army squad. She wasn’t very happy to face them either, but at least she kept her calm.
“What questions do you have in mind? And I think that the distance we’ve got right now is enough” she said, gesticulating to the grass between them. She was quite sure that there were other army people around them, and it could get really ugly if they were ambushed. But then again, they were facing two of the more vicious kinds of Wesen, especially considering Vega’s state of mind at the moment.
“As you may understand, we’re in grief right now, we don’t want any trouble” she continued, gesticulating towards Sean. Vega snorted.
“As if they would hesitate a second to kill us. They wouldn’t be very brave if they hadn’t those weapons but met us in close combat” she said and grinned. Regina shook her head. She turned towards the army squad.
“Questions, but keep the distance. Deal?”

Elijah felt his two team members tense up as she other Wesen woged right there in front of him, and even he as a Grimm couldn’t help to look at her eyes wide open. Thankfully for him, they had been so quiet that the Wesen did not think of giving them a look, otherwise he would have easily been exposed. Lyra that stood to his left threw Eli a quick shocked glance before stiffing up her stance, eyes now fastened at the more aggressive Wesen.
Eli looked at their sergeant who seemed relatively calm on the outside. He couldn’t be more thankful that they did not have someone else leading them today that would easily have bolted for weapons as soon as the true Wesen nature came out in the woman. Or then he knew something more than them.

The sergeant exhaled slowly as he let his gaze wander from the aggressive Wesen back to the other one.
“Right now I am willing to overlook your presence here, registered or not,” he said with emphasize on the last words, lifting an eyebrow. “But don’t test my patience.” Eli threw a half-surprised look at their sergeant, not quite expecting those words to come out.
“It also requires some answers,” he continued, lifting his right hand in front of him as reassurance as he slowly reached into a front pocket of the vest, carefully picking out his military device. Eli and the others kept a stern gaze on the Wesens in case they would try something stupid. They were not holding any weapons as their rifle was secured on their backs, but it would not take long to be armed and ready.

The sergeant showed the device in front of him to assure it was not a weapon. He then opened up the little screen it had and took some seconds finding the right file.
“Does the marks on his neck look something like this?” their leader asked firmly, holding up the device in front of him for them to see. Eli could only catch a small glimpse of the screen before he turned it the other way, but it seemed to be a zoomed in picture of a victim with small triangular shaped puncture wounds on the neck. That was nothing they had gotten any information about, so clearly he was reaching into something more classified.
“Is there any Wesen with these puncture-like abilities that we do not know of?” he continued with a very firm facial expression, keeping his look steady to see any changes in their behaviour.

Regina arched an eyebrow as the sergeant assured them that his patience wasn’t to be tested. She also didn’t like the way he said the word registered. The reason they were hiding was because of their registration, it wasn’t just getting their name down on a piece of paper. The army was ruthless to Wesen and mutants, and it was quite ironic how easy the sergeant made it sound with the word registered. Vega was now pacing behind her, and Regina could smell her irritation and restlessness. However, at the moment, Regina focused on the sergeant since Vega was keeping herself busy, which meant that she kept her mouth shut for at least a moment.

As the sergeant started to fiddle around in his pocket, Regina felt her muscles tense. She had no idea what he was looking for, it could be a weapon. She flexed her fingers and was ready for anything. She assessed the situation; she could easy and quickly take out the two on the left before the Kehrseite even could pick up their weapons. However, when they had their weapons in hand, it was much harder. She had to use all her skills to use them against each other. Not that this was needed, because now the sergeant had pulled out something. He held it up as a sign that it wasn’t a weapon. Regina didn’t relax just yet, and just listened to what he said. She sure didn’t like his voice one bit.

“Yes” she said simply, answering his questions about the puncture marks. It seemed like Sean wasn’t the first one to have this happened to him. She heard how Vega stopped pacing, and she was now facing the sergeant, listening. But, thankfully, she still kept quiet.
“And no”, Regina continued, shaking her head slightly.
“There are no Wesen leaving that kind of mark. Plus, there is no chance that a Wesen killed Sean. Not even Köningschlange would do this, they’re not stupid enough to kill other Wesen in times like these” Regina said, looking at the sergeant. It was true that some Wesen were naturally hunters and some preys. It was just the circle of life; some hunted, like Balam or Blutbaden. Others were hunted, like Bauerschwein and Seelenguter. Some of the more dangerous Wesen could even kill each other because of differencies, but not now. Not when the whole of the Wesen community were in danger of getting extinct.

Their sergeant nodded as she spoke and listened through before looking back at his device. After a couple of clicks he reached it up to his face, gaze fastened on the two Wesens. “Unit Delta Whisky three three six, Bravo two. Male Blutbad victim with visible triangular marks on posterior neck,” he said, sending out a report to base. “No visible signs or struggle, in line with previous findings. Nonviolent finding,” he continued before placing it back into his front pocket of the vest.
Eli noted that he did not in fact report the presence of the two young Wesens. At least not yet. He had mentioned overlooking the fact, but it sure was slightly off protocol. Either this new finding was more important, and building that trust to communicate and get any sort of intel with someone seen as the enemy regarding these weird killings was assessed higher than their initial mission.

“You may or may not be involved with mutants as well, living together or otherwise cooperating,” he continued, crossing his arms in front of him. “To be frank, the details do not make much of a difference here.” He exhaled again, pausing for a second. “Do you have any knowledge of mutants targeting humans and Wesens? Or have you seen anything like this before? Even rumours are of interest.”

The others next to Eli were switching the weight from one leg to the other, looking from their squad leader to the Wesen women. This was a very different situation than before as they stood in front of two very clear Wesens, one an identified Blutbad and one unknown, and were not even asked to get their weapon ready or in any other way prepare to protect themselves in case of an attack. Thankfully the patrol scouts were still searching the area around and would most likely find any hidden Wesens ready to ambush, but then again, this did not seem like any kind of normal surprise attack. Maybe that’s what made it more suspicious. All they could do was listen to orders of their higher rank, especially now that he seemed to know more than they did.
Eli looked over at Regina. If he had only known they would see each other so much within a single day from the car incident to now, he would not have believed it.

Regina watched as the sergeant reported what was going on. She noticed how he didn’t mention the presence of herself and Vega. He had said that it wasn’t a problem for now. Maybe the death of Sean was much bigger than they had initially thought. It seemed as if this had happened before, and that the army didn’t know what was causing it. Regina couldn’t think of a Wesen or mutant that would be able to do such a kill, leaving almost no marks. She glanced down at Sean’s body again. It was as if she started to understand what had happened. She would never see him again. He wouldn’t be smiling as she walked through the invisible border with food, he wouldn’t tell the joke about the Blutbad, Balam and Kehrseite walking into a bar, and he wouldn’t be sitting in the watch tower ever again. He was gone, and something they didn’t understand was responsible for it.

Regina looked at the sergeant as he spoke, asking more question. They kept their part of the deal; they weren’t moving forward or touching their weapons.
“No, I haven’t heard of something like this before. I have a hard time thinking that mutants would attack Wesen. We’re different species, sure, but we’re all risking extinction”, she said, gesticulating towards the army.
“So they wouldn’t kill us off” she finished.
“And I’ve met my fair share of mutants, I’ve never heard of someone capable of doing such a…. clean kill” Regina continued and looked down at Sean’s marks.

Regina threw Eli a glance. It felt like it had been ages ago they had a drink at the bar, but it wasn’t even an hour ago. And now they stood here, him with weapons ready to kill her if he got the order. She wondered if she would be able to kill him. Probably. She had killed before, but she hadn’t really killed someone that she had talked to before. Regina looked at the sergeant again, trying not to think about killing Eli just yet.

Suddenly, Vega spoke up.
“So, what?” she said, taking a step forward so she stood in line with Regina.
“Sean’s been killed by something unknown? I thought you had everything written down in your little devices, considering you want to wipe us all off this Earth as soon as possible” she said, flexing her fingers.
“Are you done with the questions? I’d like to bury my fiancé while he’s still got some dignity left”.

It was quite dark, but thankfully the moonlight helped a lot. It had also been a while since they turned off their flashlights, and their eyes were already quite used to the night vision by now. Their helmets were equipped with night vision goggles if needed, but Eli preferred to work without them or any other accessories meant to be worn on the face. They felt quite restricting after a while.

Their sergeant listened carefully to Regina, registering her words before nodding once as a reply. It was hard to determine what damages or attacks where because of mutant abilities and what was not. Wesen involvement was in that sense a bit easier to determine as they could be grouped together, when mutant powers on the other hand did not follow any certain patter at all. Taking that into consideration meant that mutant involvement was not written off in any way yet.

As the aggressive Blutbad woman suddenly spoke up again, Eli felt his teammates tense up again, ready if needed.
“This is something that apparently does not look too closely at origin or breed,” their sergeant began, looking down at the dead Blutbad on the ground. “I strongly point out not to seek any vengeance for him or other potential casualties on us, since I want to repeat again – this was not our doing.” He lifted his gaze again from one of the Wesen women to the other. “You could even say that we have a common interest in finding answers to this mystery.”

Their sergeant threw one of his usual firm looks at the three of them as to see if there was anything anyone had to add. If the two others were in any way as lost regarding this matter as Eli was, he was sure that there was very little any of them could add to the discussion. He then looked back at the Wesens, broadened his stance with half a footstep and crossed his hands behind his back.
“We will respect your grieving,” he said with a stern voice while he backed one step, “as we assume you will respect our retreat.” Turning one’s back against two Wesens could easily otherwise be seen as suicide, which was probably why he was asking affirmation to their agreement.

”whether or not I seek revenge, it’s none of your business. You’ve killed enough of my family and friends, I always have someone to seek revenge for” Vega snorted, and Regina sighed. It was true though, and not only for Vega. Regina had lost friends and family, too.

It was quite unsettling that the army didn’t know what had caused Sean’s death. Regina nodded and put her hands up in the air, meaning that she wouldn’t do anything when the army turned their back towards them.
“I’ll get the shovel” Vega muttered and walked around the squad to get to the invisible border. Regina was close to thank the Kehrseite for leaving them alone when they were grieving, but she didn’t. Why would she thank them anyway? For not killing them? It was their fault they ended up in this situation from the beginning.

When the Kehrseite had left, Vega came back. They went into the forest and Vega dug the grave. Together, they carried Sean’s body and put it in the hole. Regina helped Vega to bury him, and they used the shovel to make the ground smooth.
“I’ll get the stones. Can you call on the others?” Vega asked, and Regina nodded. She woged, and looked up in the sky. She howled one extended howl. To a Kehrseite, the howl sounded the same as the one before. But for Canid Wesen, there was a difference. The howl called for a funeral. When Vega came back with the stones, they heard it. Steps coming through the forest. Ten Wesen came through, walking in formation, two and two. They were all woged, and looked shocked and sad. Four Blutbaden, two Cyotls, three Fuchsbau and one Balam. Serena.
“Is it true?” She whispered as they came up to them. Regina nodded, taking her hand.

Vega placed the rocks on the grave, putting them on each other. She took a deep breath, and gave the others a look. She reached in her pocket and grabbed a watch. She placed it on top of the rocks, and picked up a rock. She took another deep breath before smashing the watch with the rock, giving Sean the time for his final rest. Vega looked up in the sky and howled once for grief. The others did the same, and Regina felt the tears swell up in her eyes. Vega was crying again, and shook her head before she turned her back towards them, running through the forest. It was time for the hunting of grief, something the closest to the dead Canid Wesen did. He or she hunted and killed one, either animal, other Wesen or Kehrseite. Regina had only had to do a hunting of grief once.

The group of Wesen retracted their woge, scattered, walking back to the invisible border.
“I need a minute” Regina said and walked in the other direction. Serena didn’t even say anything about it, she knew that Regina needed to do something. Her secret was out, there was really no need to hide anymore. Well, of course there was, but not right now.

Regina walked up to the nearest tree, and formed a fist with her right hand. She felt her nails bury themselves in the palm of her hand, and she smashed the fist on the trunk of the tree. She did it four times, the pain shooting up to her brain with each punch. Her knuckles started to bleed, but she didn’t care. The pain replaced the feeling of grief for just a moment.

After not seeing any resistance their squad leader turned towards them, pointing to where they came from.
“Flashlights out, we fall back to our pick-up point,” he said. “Yes, sir,” they chimed in before turning around and walking back the way they came. Eli threw a quick glance back towards Regina and her friend, but she was already too busy with other things to answer his gaze. He felt like miming a sorry to her, or somehow make sure to show that he was indeed sorry for her loss. However, he was seen as the enemy, and now she also knew that he knew her secret. Perhaps it wouldn’t be the best idea at all.

“Patrol, this is sergeant Conner. We’re falling back, you’re approved for retreat,” their sergeant said to their patrol scouts that had joined them earlier. After receiving their roger, he placed his device back and lead them back to where their car was waiting.

Finally back at base their sergeant came in as Eli and the others were getting their gear off. “Great work today,” he said and lifted in his own rifle in the last empty spot in the locker before locking it behind him. “You might have some questions, but we will have a larger briefing at 10.00 hours tomorrow. Get some sleep before that,” he said, turning around to face them.
“Yes, sergeant,” Eli and the others replied one by one. Elijah hanged his light helmet into his locker followed by the vest and a neat pile of folded military clothes. Lyra stood a couple meters away and tried to open the braids from her dark shoulder length hair and slowly shook her head at Eli. “Man, seeing a Wesen in full animal mode… Do you get used to it?” she said, throwing him a look before looking back at one of the mirrors in the room, untangling the hair that she had had braided under her helmet.

Eli shrugged and gave her a slight smile back. “Hard to say. It still shocks me a bit each time I would say. Especially when it comes when least expected,” he mentioned and packed up his backpack. Lyra responded in a big yawn before she finally got the last pin out of her hair and exclaimed in success. She threw on her jacket in a tired, outdrawn emotion and locked her locker door at the same time as Eli.
Elijah looked over at her and Samuel, who was either busy looking at something on his phone or just too tired to talk. “Heading downtown? We could share a cab, I at least don’t have the energy to walk” Eli asked and was met with a yes from Lyra and a slight nod from Sam. It had sure been a long day.